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Despite their numerical importance and the role they are assigned in the promotion of the private sector, Tunisian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) fail to fulfill the requirements of banks in order to meet their financing needs. The estimation of the very first disequilibrium model applied to Tunisia is based on a panel data set of 1 275 Tunisian SMEs observed between 2001 and 2006. It shows that the demand for bank credit is not determined by « endogenous » factors such as the activity level and internal available resources of SMEs, but rather by « exogenous » factors such as the cost of financing and guarantees required by banks. The requirements of banks especially regarding real guarantees explain to a large extent the lack of bank lending as compared to the needs expressed, and results in an average share of 80 % - partially or totally - credit rationed SMEs.

Keywords: PME, Rationnement de crédit, Modèle de déséquilibre, Données de panel, Tunisie, SMEs, Credit rationing, Disequilibrium model, Panel data, Tunisia, PyMEs, Racionamiento del crédito, Modelo de desequilibrio, Datos de panel, Tunez

AbstractOne of the most important issues addressed in research on international business is why certain companies export more than others. A frequent explanation in the literature is the different perceptions that company directors and managers have of obstacles or barriers to exporting.In that respect, in the last 30 years, the literature on internationalisation has studied export barriers without establishing a common classification, and with no homogeneity in terms of the number or types of existing barriers and their relative importance, nor a uniform approach to identify the most important barriers, the different types of barriers, or a scale in which they could be included. Therefore, we consider that there is a gap in research on exporting and that it is necessary to establish a scale of exporting barriers that can be extrapolated to other studies of internationalisation.Therefore, this paper seeks to review the main theoretical and empirical studies on export barriers to propose an integrative classification of such barriers, and to perform an empirical comparison of their perception so that the classification can be universally accepted and used in future studies on exports.Using a population of 2,590 companies (478 responses) and structural equations, we confirmed the four proposed dimensions or factors of export barriers, namely, knowledge, resources, procedure and exogenous barriers. The conclusions of this study offer a number of academic implications and contributions.

Keywords: Exportation, Barrières, PME, Équations structurelles, Espagne

The overall recent development of Canadian foreign policy suggests that Canada has kept some elements of its foreign policy intact while substantially changing others. Particularly, in the area of security, Canada seems to have opted for a doctrine that expresses a certain level of scepticism towards what the multilateral order offers in terms of answers to the specific post-cold war challenges. This study is therefore aiming at understanding which institutional strategy Canada pursues in three different occasions : the elaboration of the anti-personnel landmines ban treaty, the resolution of the political crisis in Haiti, and the United Nations Security Council Reform. The analysis is typically a pattern matching that is based on an analytical grid established by Cooper. This framework allows to identify the nature and the scope of a given country's diplomatic action, Canada's and Australia's typical behaviours being considered as ideal-types. As it mil be possible to witness in each of the cases studied, Canada seems to favour a diplomatic action that breaks with its usual stance to defend innovative solutions, which seek to make use of modes of co-operation that go beyond the scope of already existing major international institutions. This tends to confirm that, notwithstanding a certain commitment towards principles that call for a routine form and a universal scope of action, Canada has recently tried to cast its foreign policy on new bases characterized by heroic and concentrated action. We therefore can conclude that, according to Cooper's parameters, Canada leans in fact towards a position closer to Australia's.

Decentralized states like Spain operate under conflicting pressures in the conduct of their international relations: centralizing pressures, on the one hand, imposed by the necessity of speaking with a single voice in order to forge a coherent international policy and decentralizing pressures, on the other, because globalization stimulates a qualitative and quantitative extension of the internal and international roles of subnational players, mainly through the international deployment of subnational paradiplomacy. This centralization of external affairs and the centrifugal forces introduced by globalization cause problems in this type of System, in which subnational entities have numerous fields of jurisdiction. This new phenomenon is not without its risks because it leads to disorder and conflict. In many countries, the development of paradiplomacy by the substate actors creates conflict with the central government : The impression is created that the federal and the substate authorities are condemned to fight a zero-sum struggle for access to the international system, the former seeking to prevent the latter from playing a role in the development of foreign policy and to limit all international action by them. However, the picture is not all negative and this is what makes the subject so interesting. Despite this general trend toward conflict, there are exceptions in which both orders of government work together. This is the case nowadays in Spain and Catalonia.

The dramatic increase of exchange crisis during the 1990s and the apparent instability ofthe international financial System provide food for plans about a new financial « architecture ». The States and the international institutions stayed in the background concerning the idea to conceive this architecture on the basis of constraining rules and, untilnow, supported neoliberal initiatives. This paper focuses on two questions : firstly, the purpose is to explicite the jactors explaining why the international financial System is ai the moment anarchie ; secondly, the purpose is to put in theoretical perspective the projects in discussion at present from a framework based upon the opposition between « global governance » and « international regime ». The analysis shows that the historical trends pushed the world economy in the way of market regulation and not in the way of an « international regime » in the financial domain. It is this conclusion which can be wrong, because the llth september 2001 tragic events might induce the States and the international institutions to take a new strategic position on the basis of international considerations and a better evaluation of the economic interests.

In 1972, in the Stockholm Declaration, the international community recognized that the apparent contradiction between environmental protection and the economic development of developing countries must be solved. Expressly formulated in 1992 in the Rio Declaration, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities became the central feature of the Kyoto Protocol, which the American Senate refused to ratify, alleging that it placed emerging nations in a privileged position. After a period of “arm wrestling” in the negotiations following the Kyoto Protocol, the Agreement of Copenhagen seems to undermine its legitimacy. Will such agreement enable the international community to face its responsibility to protect the climate in the common concern of humankind?

Keywords: responsabilités communes mais différenciées, changements climatiques, common but differentiated responsibilities, climate change

AbstractThe liberal international agenda promoted by the European Union is in crisis. Despite some progress, the still very young security and defence policies put in place by the European Union has failed to reach its objectives. Europe has a problem of strategic mindset, commitment and capabilities, all of which led to the implementation of an obsolete type of humanitarian interventions and operations. More broadly, ESDP suffers from recurrent illusions about soft power, mistaken beliefs about human security and flawed assessments of risks. The gap is dangerously wide between the political conditions that made ESDP operations possible and the strategic requirements that will make them successful. The credibility of the Union as a strategic actor is at stake.

Keywords: politique étrangère européenne, sécurité européenne, esdp, eu foreign policy, European security, esdp, liberal internationalism

AbstractMany models have been proposed to generalize China's economic reform, but the most popular “Beijing Consensus” model is not a proper description of China's development experience. It is more accurate to portray this experience as a “path” instead of a “model” or a “paradigm”. The Chinese Path of development can be seen as a gradual, experimental and simultaneous process of industrialization, marketization and globalization under the guidance of the market-preserving state, a process of economic liberalization without political liberalization. Industrialization is propelled by capital, labor and technology, marketization is implemented by the creation of a market outside of the plan, and globalization is achieved through a export-oriented strategy.

Keywords: Chine, réforme, économie, développement, voie, modèle, China, reform, economy, development, path, model

This article analyses Japan's trade policy for Asia. Japan's approach to trade is characterized by an innovative policy of bilateralism and minilateralism, based on legalism and free trade and advocating a regional division of labor. This analysis is based on a pragmatic theoretical framework that integrates the contributions of international law and international political economy to new liberalism. A key finding of this analysis is that Japan's trade policy is quite proactive compared to the reactive stance associated with that country. Japan exerts intense economic state preferences in its call for legalism and free trade to face the rising power of China. Japan's actions favor the hardening and the regionalization of the post-wto trade system.

Keywords: Japon, politique commerciale, nouveau libéralisme, légalisme, libre-échange, Japan, trade policy, new liberalism, legalism, free trade