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172. NEW TECH, NEW DEAL: Mining Policy Options in the Face of New Technology
- Author:
- Isabelle Ramdoo, Aaron Cosbey, Jeff Geipel, and Perrine Toledano
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Throughout the history of mining, technological innovation has played a vital role across all cycles of mining projects. The new wave of technological adoption is a combination of evolutionary and revolutionary technologies, with an increasing focus on the latter. An acceleration in investments in disruptive technologies in recent years has seen the large-scale mining sector finally catching up with a dynamic that has already advanced in many other sectors. The reasons for this shift include more difficult geology, declining ore deposits, the need to reverse a secular decline in productivity, the need to improve safety for mine workers, a need to manage environmental impacts, and—more recently—a reaction to pressures from the COVID-19 crisis.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Mining, Automation, and Machine Learning
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
173. The Digital Decide: How to Agree on WTO Rules for Digital Trade
- Author:
- James Bacchus
- Publication Date:
- 08-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- After more than 20 years of unsuccessful negotiations, WTO member countries may be able to agree on global digital trade rules if they look to the new Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) among Chile, New Zealand and Singapore as a model. As the first “digital only” trade agreement, the DEPA offers a modular approach that allows members to pick and choose which modules work best for them today while enabling them to adopt more legal commitments on digital trade in the future. As cross-border trade becomes increasingly digital, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the free movement of goods and services is essential to the global economy.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, and Digital Economy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
174. 2020 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention: Rapporteur's Report
- Author:
- Alex Vandermaas-Peeler
- Publication Date:
- 02-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Abstract:
- On June 10, 2020, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum brought together scholars, practitioners, and civil society representatives to discuss possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global risk of mass atrocities and efficacy of mass atrocity prevention. This seminar was the first in a series designed to stimulate new policy-relevant research and begin building a network of scholars and practitioners focused on global trends and their implications for mass atrocities and atrocity prevention. Future seminar series topics include the global distribution of power, new technologies, demographics, climate change, and resource competition, and norms and ideologies. This rapporteur’s report summarizes major observations raised during the workshop.
- Topic:
- Genocide, Risk, Atrocities, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Atrocity Prevention
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
175. The Future of Mass Atrocities and Atrocity Prevention: Report from the 2020 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention
- Author:
- Lawerence Woocher and Jonathan Strauss
- Publication Date:
- 02-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Abstract:
- This report compiles essays from several leading experts who participated in the seminar series. We asked them to reflect on one or more key themes and offer recommendations for research and/or policy initiatives that could help current and future leaders address mass atrocities. The collection of essays reflects the breadth and diversity of issues that are likely to affect mass atrocities and their prevention over the next decade. Reflecting on changes in the distribution of political power and weakening anti-atrocity norms, Scott Straus identifies four significant challenges for the atrocity prevention agenda. Dara Kay Cohen highlights an often-neglected factor--sex and gender inequalities-- and argues that it is likely to worsen over the next decade in ways that will exacerbate risks of mass atrocities. Roudabeh Kishi discusses how monitoring and early warning initiatives must adapt to changes in the information environment and the changing nature of atrocities. Dismas Nkunda focuses on how COVID-19 has affected civil society efforts to address mass atrocities. Finally, Jennifer Welsh discusses war crimes, “extreme atrocity,” and political barriers to effective prevention—three key issues for the prevention of mass atrocities over the coming decade.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Politics, War Crimes, Inequality, Norms, Atrocities, COVID-19, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
176. Solidarity in Isolation? Social Cohesion at a Time of Physical Distance
- Author:
- Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Aliyyah Ahad
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- In addition to its widespread public-health and economic impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged social cohesion in many countries by forcing changes in how people interact. Physical connection, the most human response to collective adversity, has been largely out of reach during long periods of lockdown, social distancing, and remote work and learning. The temporary closure of public spaces such as libraries and schools has also limited the spontaneous, casual encounters that can build bridges between disparate groups. This MPI Europe report explores ways to assess the pandemic’s effects on social capital and social infrastructure in Europe and North America. It also presents an initial analysis of how and where social cohesion is in peril and where it may actually be gaining strength, and highlights the importance of governments taking an inclusive approach and prioritizing social cohesion as societies move toward recovery. The authors identify three trends: Bridges between groups are weakening, even as new forms of connection may be strengthening bonds within existing networks. Immigrant integration programs have worked hard to move their offerings online, but digital tools may capture only a fraction of what in-person programming can and they may leave behind some people who most need assistance overcoming integration barriers, such as those with limited access to and familiarity with technology. A wide range of volunteering, mutual aid, and other grassroots forms of solidarity have emerged during the pandemic, but it remains to be seen which can make the switch from emergency response to longer-term engagement.
- Topic:
- Immigration, Citizenship, Integration, Social Cohesion, Social Capital, COVID-19, and Civic Engagement
- Political Geography:
- Europe, North America, and Global Focus
177. Future Scenarios for Global Mobility in the Shadow of Pandemic
- Author:
- Meghan Benton
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniable and wide-ranging impact on human mobility of all kinds—from travel for work or study to family reunification to refugee resettlement. More than 18 months since the first round of travel restrictions were introduced, it remains to be seen when and how fully these different forms of mobility will recover. This report explores possible scenarios for what international mobility could look like in two to three years as an exercise to help national governments and international organizations think through the potential impacts of different policy choices and approaches to pandemic management. It also identifies critical questions to address in the coming months and years, such as: What tools should be used in conjunction with vaccines to safely reopen travel, given concerns that the uneven vaccine rollout will deepen existing inequalities in access to mobility? And how can countries better coordinate health screening requirements to minimize unnecessary duplication and costs to travelers? Returning to the pre-pandemic status quo for travel and migration seems highly unlikely, and the structures that are being built now will shape mobility systems and responses to future disease outbreaks for years to come. A key priority, the author writes, should be to outgrow the current picture of fragmented, frequently shifting policies in favor of transparent, equitable, and risk-proportionate rules.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, Migration, Governance, Mobility, Public Health, COVID-19, and Travel
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
178. Sustainable carbon removal
- Author:
- David R. Morrow and Simon Nicholson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy, American University
- Abstract:
- Carbon removal, which involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and sequestering it, can help us meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The key question is not just how to make large-scale carbon removal operational, but how to make it sustainable. Sustainable practices balance environmental, social, and economic goals. Sustainable carbon removal balances those goals in order to meet the needs of the future without compromising the ability of current generations to meet their own needs. To operationalize this idea, we need to ask two questions: How should we measure the environmental, social, and economic impacts of carbon? How should we decide when carbon removal strikes the right balance between future and present needs? Analyzing carbon removal at different levels can illuminate environmental, social, and economic risks and opportunities. Levels of analysis range from broad technological categories, like reforestation, to specific projects, like Climeworks’ Orca direct air capture project in Iceland. Most analyses have focused on broad technological categories, but more fine-grained analyses are crucial for delivering actionable advice. Finding metrics for environmental, social, and economic impacts is vital for quantifying positive and negative impacts and comparing approaches. One possibility is to use the indicators for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are politically negotiated, internationally accepted metrics of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Determining which approaches are most sustainable requires balancing different positive and negative impacts that may not be easily comparable. There are several ways to do this, ranging from intuitive judgments to multicriteria decision analysis, although any decisions about which approaches are most sustainable are ultimately political decisions. In summary, to develop sustainable carbon removal, we need to identify sustainability metrics, such as the indicators behind the Sustainable Development Goals; apply those metrics at different levels of analysis; and develop strategies for determining which approaches strike the right balance between environmental, social, and economic goals.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, Sustainable Development Goals, and Carbon Emissions
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
179. Self-Determination and Sea-Level Rise
- Author:
- Barbara Buckinx, Matthew Edbrooke, and Rana Ibrahem
- Publication Date:
- 04-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
- Abstract:
- This report summarizes a workshop held jointly by the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University (LISD) and the Liechtenstein Mission to the United Nations, New York, between September and December 2020. The workshop and this report are products of LISD’s Project on Self-Determination, Environment, and Migration. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop was divided into four seminars, taking place via video teleconference and under the Chatham House Rule.
- Topic:
- Environment, Migration, Self Determination, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
180. Gender, Law, and Security: Selected Student Research from the Project on Gender and the Global Community, 2019-2020
- Author:
- Barbara Buckinx, Beth English, Jake Gutman, Seoyoung Hong, Mikaylah Ladue, Katrin Lewis, and Liza Paudel
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
- Abstract:
- Who is the ‘self’ in self-determination? Feminist scholars and activists have long noted that, when self-determination means primarily non-interference in the internal affairs of a governing body, practices and traditions through which men dominate women can flourish. In order to fully realize the promise of the concept of self-determination, it is therefore best understood in both collective and individual forms. Women across the world have long sought to influence and shape the nature of their own lives, with a gendered understanding of power and how hierarchies of power are not only created and maintained, and perpetuate inequalities, but also how they can potentially be reorganized and remade. In this spirit, the research agenda and related activities of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University’s Project on Gender in the Global Community (GGC) uses gender as a primary lens for analysis and starting point for broader dialogues about sustainable development, state building, economic and political participation, negotiation and mediation, peace, and security. The GGC Student Fellows Program, inaugurated during the 2017-18 academic year, has been an integral complement to this work. Building on student interest in the GGC project and modeled on the successful student fellows program organized as part of LISD’s Project on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations (PORDIR), a dedicated student cohort of Princeton students ranging from first-year undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates and postdocs, were selected through a competitive application process. Over the course of the 2019-20 fellowship year, GGC fellows pursued independent, academically rigorous research, a sampling of which is presented in this publication. In December 2019, they presented their projects alongside peers from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs during a joint student research day. The papers in this volume include the written output of this independent work, which represents a variety of disciplines and methodologies and reflect the range of work undertaken by GGC students throughout the year.
- Topic:
- Governance, Law, Self Determination, Influence, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus