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AbstractInterconnection is important to attain several important EU climate and energy targets. Drawing on data from 56 stakeholder interviews, stakeholder event participation and document studies, this study enquires as to why electricity interconnection became a part of the EU's overarching climate and energy policy in 2014. The theoretical approaches liberal intergovernmentalism (LI) and the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) are tested complementarily. LI received support: member states, particularly Portugal and Spain, were essential for the outcome. These successfully played the veto card in the high‐level negotiations for the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework, leading to the first inclusion of concrete interconnection targets in it and interconnection becoming a European Commission priority. ACF received partial support: a 'green' long‐term, multi‐level advocacy coalition consisting of the renewables industry, environmental organisations and others promoted a binding target for electricity interconnection. This 'green' advocacy coalition was instrumental in aiding Portugal and Spain.

Social scientists typically examine social movements as grassroots phenomena, yet public leaders and elite actors also play important roles. This article examines their role in one contemporary social movement, American evangelicalism. Through semistructured interviews with 360 elite informants, as well as archival and ethnographic research, I explore the mechanisms through which leaders have sought to advance evangelicalism between 1976 and 2006. These public leaders founded organizations, formed networks, exercised convening power, and drew on formal and informal positions of authority to achieve movement goals. Results suggest that salient religious identity and cohesive networks have played important roles in shaping the goals and ambitions of leaders within the evangelical movement. Structural coincidence provided by governance structures at evangelical organizations, as well as evangelical programs directed toward elite constituents, have facilitated the formation of overlapping networks across social sectors. Institutional inertia and internal factions, however, have been countervailing forces. This empirical study demonstrates the persistence of institutional differentiation among America's leadership cohort, but it also points to a religious identity that can provide vital, cross-domain cohesion within the structure of elite power.

Contemporary understanding of technology, its place in society and connection to politics, had shaped together with concept of modernity itself. Starting point of this process is in the works of Francis Bacon, who was the first to establish firm relations between technology and science, as well as between knowledge and power. On the other hand, authors like Machiavelli, Hobbes and Spinoza establish modern political thought, bringing politics down to technology of power conquest or of functional organization of society. Enlightenment and positivism embrace legacy of both these lines of thought, and complement presumptions for self-reflection of modernity with faith in the power of reason, as well as emerging concept of both technological and social progress. ; Savremeno razumevanje tehnologije, njenog mesta u društvu i veze sa politikom uobličavalo se paralelno sa konceptom same modernosti. Početnu tačku ovog procesa čini delo Frensisa Bekona, koji je prvi uspostavio čvrste veze između tehnologije i nauke, ali i između znanja i moći. Sa druge strane, autori poput Makijavelija, Hobsa i Spinoze uspostavljaju savremeno promišljanje politike, svodeći je, u velikoj meri, na tehnologiju osvajanja vlasti ili uspostavljanja funkcionalne organizacije društva. Na zaostavštinu ove dve struje mišljenja oslanja se kasnija misao prosvetiteljstva i pozitivizma, koja zaokružuje pretpostavke za samorazumevanje modernog sveta verom u moć razuma i konstituisanjem koncepta progresa, shvaćenog kao pravolinijski tehnološki i društveni napredak.

The purpose of this article is to study interaction patterns within a steering group. Most large projects include a group of this kind whose task it is to steer towards set goals and provide the required resources. The origin of the research area lies in the observation that steering groups seem to have difficulties in living up to the expectations of project management and project participants, despite structured working methods such as regular meetings, distribution of responsibility and cooperation with different interested parties. By means of interviews and observations the article attempts to capture interaction patterns in a specific steering group. The study is anchored in theories of power with the purpose of supplying theoretical concepts and analytical tools. The most important conclusion is that the interaction patterns that emerged in the steering group rested on two foundations. The first one was that social relations in the steering group created power that was produced and manifested in different ways. The second one was that the exercise of power affected the action outcome, that is, the results of the actions and consequences for future actions. Another conclusion is that the exercising of the assignment presupposes four premises: the steering group member needs to have a positive approach to the project idea and the set goals, to have knowledge of the assignment, to have a position with the authority to make and carry out strategic decisions of the project, and be able to allocate time for active work and participation in meetings.

In Reluctant Crusaders, Colin Dueck examines patterns of change and continuity in American foreign policy strategy by looking at four major turning points: the periods following World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He shows how American cultural assumptions regarding liberal foreign policy goals, together with international pressures, have acted to push and pull U.S. policy in competing directions over time. The result is a book that combines an appreciation for the role of both power and culture in international affairs. The centerpiece of Dueck's book i