世界貿易組織的成立以及自由貿易協定(Free Trade Agreement)的締結，促成了全球貿易的自由化以及國際產業供應鏈的重整。然而，伴隨國際貿易自由化而產生的國際財富分配不均，以及發展中國家未能因貿易自由化獲益的問題，亦導致發展中國家和已開發國家之齟齬日漸加深。開發中國家因此擔憂國際貿易的自由化不但無法幫助其實現脫貧的目標，更可能如國際政治經濟學依賴理論(dependency theory)所描述，導致發展中國家成為已開發國家經濟成長的墊腳石。 ..

The World Trade Organization and proliferating free trade agreements (FTAs) have contributed to the liberalization of global trade and the shift of the international supply chain. Nevertheless, trade liberalization has also led to the conflict between developing nations and developed nations and has increased the former’s concerns about the negative impact of trade on development. Premised on the dependency theory, developing nations contend that increasing free trade could worsen their dependency on the developed marke..

歐洲聯盟 2004 年 5 月以及 2007 年 1 月的東擴之舉係 1950 年代以來歐洲統合過程中重要的發展過程。這不僅是使得中東歐地區國家加入歐盟，更重要的意義在於將不同地區文化與結構透過改革的轉軌過程中融入了歐盟的價值。因此，在歐盟未來的主要擴大議程中也包含了土耳其、克羅埃西亞以及西巴爾半島地區國家。對於歐盟而言，加強並保障有關區域和平、穩定、 繁榮、民主、人權以及歐洲法治的理念價值是相當重要的。 對土耳其而言，與歐盟的關係已歷..

The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union in the year of 2004 and 2007 is one of the most significant developments in the process of European Integration since the 1950s. And with Turkey and the Western Balkan States, enlargement will continue to be one of the major issues on the political agendas. More recently, the EU has inspired tremendous reforms in Turkey, Croatia and the Western Balkans. It is vitally important for the EU to ensure a carefully managed enlargement process that extends peace, stability, prosperity, d..