Since two weeks I’m now back at the desk … and sadly writing a dissertation is not a journey, time is limited, there is a lot to read out there ans somehow you need to get everything sorted.

Thus far I want to give an update about the current state of my dissertation. I’m done with my theoretical framework and the introduction, I still need to introduce the GMS more in detail which will be part of this afternoons work.

The introduction is mainly based on a historical review of the regions past, whereas the theoretical framework really takes a look at theoratical approaches. Therefore I introduce the main IR theories and give some information about cooperation and integration, before I describe the concept of a ‘Security Community’. The literature I’ve used therefore is all mentioned in the posts before, and even for the section where I explain leadership I only have to add on major source I haven’t blogged about yet.

Leadership is a very intersting topic, and especially regional leadership. There is not too much out there about the topic or put it that way, it is very hidden. Most intersting about leadership is from my perspective the termonolgy, because the line between hegemonic leader, leadership, co-operative hegemon are very thin. I’ve came up with an intersting setting, starting off with the benefits for a state or a group of states to be lead, this is followed by definition of terms where I hopefully succeded in giving the ‘traditional terms’ a modern twist before I finally end up to explain why it is beneficial for a leader to be part of a instituionalised setup.

Thus far, I’m at the point where I finished my ‘Theoretical Framework’, which should point to the fact, that I would like to analyse the process. And thereby also considerate to which extend leadership has an impact on the development of the GMS Region and the relationship among the member states.

Destradi, S. (2008). Empire, Hegemony, and Leadership: Developing a Research Framework for the Study of Regional Powers. GIGA Working Papers, No. 79.