Brussels School of International Studies

Background: Breeding pelagic seabirds feed over wide areas. Their diet and space use can therefore provide proxies for otherwise be difficult to observe environmental conditions but interpretation of these proxies requires knowledge of foraging range. Antarctic sea ice regulates global climate, but a paucity of data on its past extent causes uncertainty in climate reconstruction and prediction. Deposits of stomach oils, produced defensively by snow petrels Pagodroma nivea (near-obligate sea-ice foragers), reflect sea ice conditions, sometimes over tens of millennia, but spatial interpretation of these biological archives is hampered by lack of data on foraging range, and how this varies seasonally, among colonies and with sex. Methods: We tracked 34 and 60 snow petrels using light-based geolocators and GPS loggers, respectively to estimate foraging ranges at three colonies located 180-200 km inland in Dronning Maud Land. We tested whether foraging latitude is associated with ice edge latitude, estimated via satellite remote sensing. We then projected potential foraging ranges for all known colonies on the study area to reexamine assumptions made in paleoclimate studies. Results: During most breeding stages, and across breeding seasons, core home ranges were centred approximately 2 degrees south of the outer sea-ice edge and tracked this habitat as it receded during the spring melt. Females were approximately 7% lighter than males but foraged at similar distances and in similar areas. Foraging ranges differed little between colonies but substantially between breeding stages. For example, median range was ~1,400 km during the pre-laying exodus vs. ~550 km during brood-guard. Conclusions: Snow petrel stomach-oil deposits potentially integrate environmental conditions over greater and more seasonally variable areas than previously assumed, probably with a bias towards conditions in the outer Marginal Ice Zone during the early summer when stomach oil deposition due to nest competition is likely greatest. Projected potential home ranges of snow petrel colonies in the western Weddell Sea suggest that breeding is limited by access to foraging habitat, such as coastal polynyas. We hypothesise that as sea ice fluctuated over previous glacial-interglacial cycles, this also regulated breeding distribution across the region.

The article investigates why Georgian and Moldovan think-tanks have not emulated effective forms of advocacy in relations with the EU that their Ukrainian counterparts have established, namely a liaison office in Brussels. The reason is not the cost but rather the presence of alternative communication channels, high-level personal contacts and think-tanks’ focus on organizational survival. Better connectivity and new means of communication make the presence of a Brussels hub less crucial for regional think-tanks. Our research shows that there is often limited collaboration amongst think-tanks at the national level, which negatively affects opportunities for transnational advocacy of Eastern Partnership (EaP) think-tanks in relations with EU institutions. Eastern Partnership, European Union, think-tanks, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, transnational advocacy

There is a pressing need to develop processes to facilitate the organization of education responses in time-pressured emergency situations. As part of a joint Learning Passport (LP) partnership project with UNICEF, researchers along with curriculum and subject specialists at the University of Cambridge, UK, developed a curriculum framework that could be used as a resource for coordinating the actions of education specialists and practitioners in Education in Emergencies (EiE) situations. This article outlines the curriculum framework design approach they developed for the Maths and Science components of the LP framework. The article outlines a three-stage curriculum framework development model, which involves consideration of context, leading to descriptor generation, and attending to cohesion building elements.

Pour que les espaces publics soient à la fois accessibles et accueillants, il est essentiel d’y mettre à disposition des toilettes publiques de qualité. Cette nécessité concerne tout particulièrement les femmes ainsi que des groupes plus spécifiques, notamment les personnes âgées, les personnes souffrant d’un problème de santé ou handicapées, et les personnes sans domicile fixe. Malgré leur importance, les toilettes publiques sont souvent synonymes de saleté et de désagréments, et évoquent des espaces utilisés à des fins pour lesquelles ils n’ont pas été conçus : consommation de drogues, rencontres sexuelles ou abris de fortune, par exemple. Ainsi, les toilettes publiques témoignent de la complexité des espaces publics partagés. À Bruxelles en particulier, des entretiens ont été menés auprès des autorités et des organisations concernées, et des observations ont été effectuées sur le terrain afin d’étudier l’importance que revêtent les toilettes publiques pour les espaces publics. Dans cet article, il est question des nuisances liées aux toilettes publiques et des difficultés rencontrées pour remédier de manière efficace aux usages détournés qui en sont faits.

Pour que les espaces publics soient à la fois accessibles et accueillants, il est essentiel d’y mettre à disposition des toilettes publiques de qualité. Cette nécessité concerne tout particulièrement les femmes ainsi que des groupes plus spécifiques, notamment les personnes âgées, les personnes souffrant d’un problème de santé ou handicapées, et les personnes sans domicile fixe. Malgré leur importance, les toilettes publiques sont souvent synonymes de saleté et de désagréments, et évoquent des espaces utilisés à des fins pour lesquelles ils n’ont pas été conçus : consommation de drogues, rencontres sexuelles ou abris de fortune, par exemple. Ainsi, les toilettes publiques témoignent de la complexité des espaces publics partagés. À Bruxelles en particulier, des entretiens ont été menés auprès des autorités et des organisations concernées, et des observations ont été effectuées sur le terrain afin d’étudier l’importance que revêtent les toilettes publiques pour les espaces publics. Dans cet article, il est question des nuisances liées aux toilettes publiques et des difficultés rencontrées pour remédier de manière efficace aux usages détournés qui en sont faits.

ABSTRACT The literature on the October 2018 caravan from Central America to the US has offered different interpretations of the phenomenon. Some studies look at it as a strategy for mobility, others as an exodus, and others as a collective action. I synthesise these perspectives to advance the conceptualisation of the caravan to account for its main features. To do so, I perform a case study of the caravan based on a literature review and a secondary qualitative analysis. Drawing on the concept of Social Movements, this article first proposes the conceptualisation of the caravan as a social movement—understanding the different features of the caravan as axes of a social movement. Then, the article introduces the concept of ‘transnational social movements on the move’ to account for the innovations in the space and repertoires of contention and diffusion. The case study shows that the 2018 Caravan is a transnational social movement on the move composed of purposive migrants from different nationalities moving collectively across countries to challenge a system of authority at the local and international level using innovative repertoires of contention.

This article examines the Latvian documentary The Soviet Story (by Edvīns Šnore, 2008) as a militant Baltic memory project which seeks to establish the parity of East and West European experiences with totalitarian crimes in the pan-European memory narrative of twentiethcentury wars and genocide.The film offers a useful vantage point for investigating the interaction between memory politics and identity-building across the post-communist space and beyond.Claiming the inner similarity and moral equitability of Soviet communism and German National Socialism, The Soviet Story constitutes an epitome of the Historikerstreit in the Baltic fashion, debating the uniqueness of the Holocaust next to the crimes of communism.The so-called Holocaust template has been essential for the makers of the documentary in their insisting on the pan-European condemnation of totalitarian communist regimes in Europe, along with an invitation to critically review the role of the USSR in the Second World War.The Soviet Story is particularly critical about the Western discriminative standard of remembering the mass killings of Nazi Germany and the USSR, claiming such position's unsustainability on intellectual, moral, and political grounds.The article investigates The Soviet Story as an example of the cultural front in the Baltic-Russian "memory war" over remembering the Soviet legacy, reading the film's message in the context of the broader East European politics of seeking pan-European condemnation of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes.It further discusses the transnational efficacy of such mnemopolitical projects against the backdrop of intensified activity on the information operations front in the Baltic-Russian relations in recent years.

La Région de Bruxelles-Capitale comptait en 2017 20 700 points de vente de biens et de services, par lesquels transitent 87 % des dépenses effectuées par les Bruxellois. Ce commerce de détail offre environ 9 % de l’emploi régional. Cette note de synthèse fait le point des connaissances sur la distribution à Bruxelles, un secteur économique indispensable, mais complexe à appréhender du fait de sa diversité et traversé par de profondes évolutions de la consommation, de l’environnement urbain et de l’organisation interne du métier. Après avoir esquissé le cadre de l’analyse en définissant le commerce au travers de ses fonctions, de ses formes et de ses acteurs, les auteurs dressent plusieurs constats associés à des dynamiques majeures du secteur (transformation de l’offre, de la demande et évolution de la régulation publique, notamment). La troisième partie de la note répond à ces constats par l’identification d’enjeux clairs dont la prise en compte par le secteur, soutenu par les autorités publiques, pourrait réconcilier le commerce et l’espace urbain.

ABSTRACTThis article examines the Latvian documentary The Soviet Story (by Edvīns Šnore, 2008) as a militant Baltic memory project which seeks to establish the parity of East and West European experiences with totalitarian crimes in the pan-European memory narrative of twentieth-century wars and genocide. The film offers a useful vantage point for investigating the interaction between memory politics and identity-building across the post-communist space and beyond. Claiming the inner similarity and moral equitability of Soviet communism and German National Socialism, The Soviet Story constitutes an epitome of the Historikerstreit in the Baltic fashion, debating the uniqueness of the Holocaust next to the crimes of communism. The so-called Holocaust template has been essential for the makers of the documentary in their insisting on the pan-European condemnation of totalitarian communist regimes in Europe, along with an invitation to critically review the role of the USSR in the Second World War. The Soviet Story is particularly critical about the Western discriminative standard of remembering the mass killings of Nazi Germany and the USSR, claiming such position’s unsustainability on intellectual, moral, and political grounds. The article investigates The Soviet Story as an example of the cultural front in the Baltic-Russian “memory war” over remembering the Soviet legacy, reading the film’s message in the context of the broader East European politics of seeking pan-European condemnation of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes. It further discusses the transnational efficacy of such mnemopolitical projects against the backdrop of intensified activity on the information operations front in the Baltic-Russian relations in recent years.