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2. A People of War or Peace? Americans' Attitudes Towards the Use of Military Force Abroad in Terrorist and Conflict Situations
- Author:
- Emanuel Boussios
- Publication Date:
- 05-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
- Abstract:
- This exploratory research presents the results of a March 2011survey of a random sample of 217 adults on their attitudes towards the use of force as a foreign policy alternative. This research note examines the social characteristics of those people who are more or less likely to support intervening in hypothetical foreign conflicts in situations in which the United States' national interests may or may not be at stake. The research reported here was aimed at answering several questions including: are there some demographic groups who are more likely to support intervening in foreign conflicts even when U.S. national interests are not necessarily at stake? I find that dispositional preferences interact with opinion about the geopolitical situation to determine whether military force is an acceptable option. The survey incorporates various foreign pol icy and terrorist scenarios. Findings include the following: I support the findings of others in that Democrats, liberals, and women are less likely to support military force as a foreign policy option. Using multivariate regression analysis it was also found that certain respondent dispositions, such as "value placed on human life," were more likely to constrain policy preferences. I also find conflicting support for the casualty hypothesis. In general the more casualties mentioned in a scenario the les s likely Americans are to support the use of force, with a notable exception here among "hawks". I also find this is true for civilian casualties.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Politics, and Military Strategy
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
3. The Case for Gridlock
- Author:
- Marcus E. Ethridge
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the wake of the 2010 elections, President Obama declared that voters did not give a mandate to gridlock. His statement reflects over a century of Progressive hostility to the inefficient and slow system of government created by the American Framers. Convinced that the government created by the Constitution frustrates their goals, Progressives have long sought ways around its checks and balances. Perhaps the most important of their methods is delegating power to administrative agencies, an arrangement that greatly transformed U.S. government during and after the New Deal. For generations, Progressives have supported the false premise that administrative action in the hands of experts will realize the public interest more effectively than the constitutional system and its multiple vetoes over policy changes. The political effect of empowering the administrative state has been quite different: it fosters policies that reflect the interests of those with well organized power. A large and growing body of evidence makes it clear that the public interest is most secure when governmental institutions are inefficient decisionmakers. An arrangement that brings diverse interests into a complex, sluggish decisionmaking process is generally unattractive to special interests. Gridlock also neutralizes some political benefits that producer groups and other well-heeled interests inherently enjoy. By fostering gridlock, the U.S. Constitution increases the likelihood that policies will reflect broad, unorganized interests instead of the interests of narrow, organized groups.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, Politics, Power Politics, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
4. Delivering on US Climate Finance Commitments
- Author:
- Trevor Houser and Jason Selfe
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- At the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010, the United States joined other developed countries in pledging to mobilize $100 billion in public and private sector funding to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a warmer world. With a challenging US fiscal outlook and the failure of cap-and-trade legislation in the US Congress, America's ability to meet this pledge is increasingly in doubt. This paper identifies, quantifies, and assesses the politics of a range of potential US sources of climate finance. It finds that raising new public funds for climate finance will be extremely challenging in the current fiscal environment and that many of the politically attractive alternatives are not realistically available absent a domestic cap-and-trade program or other regime for pricing carbon. Washington's best hope is to use limited public funds to leverage private sector investment through bilateral credit agencies and multilateral development banks.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Economics, Energy Policy, Politics, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, Washington, and United Nations
5. How Did the 2008 Economic Crisis Affect: Social and Political Solidarity in Europe?
- Author:
- Jennifer L. Hochschild
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- One possible outcome of the economic crash of 2008 was that the majority or mainstream members of a society would direct their anger and fear against the minority or marginal members of their society. Commentators on television or the radio would claim, "it's all the fault of the immigrants!" or "if we didn't hand over so much of our tax dollars to the poor, the economy would not have deteriorated so much," or "social benefits to African Americans [or German Turks] have distorted the housing market." Citizens would come to believe these assertions, politicians would echo them – and the upshot would be not only a deteriorating national and international economy but also increased hostility and fear among racial, ethnic, or nationality groups in a country. Social solidarity would decline, perhaps irrevocably.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, Politics, Social Stratification, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Africa, America, Europe, and Germany
6. Parsing Iran's 'Momentous' Internal Drama
- Author:
- Karim Sadjadpour
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Karim Sadjadpour, a leading Iranian analyst who worked for four years in Iran for the International Crisis Group, says that given the "unprecedented" scale of protests in Iran over the presidential election results, "it's very difficult to see how the status quo ante could prevail no matter what happens." However, he believes the United States should continue trying to stay out of the political infighting in Iran. "This is extremely delicate and the situation is so dynamic," Sadjadpour says. "We clearly have to be on the right side of history here, but if we try to insert ourselves into the momentous internal Iranian drama that's unfolding we may unwittingly undermine those whom we're trying to strengthen."
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Islam, Politics, and Insurgency
- Political Geography:
- America and Iran
7. Georgia and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
- Author:
- Jonathan Wheatley
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- Abstract:
- Georgia is a multilingual and multi-ethnic society. A large number of minority languages are spoken in Georgia, including Abkhazian, Ossetian, Azeri, Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Kurmanji (Kurdish), Chechen (Kist), Ottoman Turkish, Pontic Greek, Syriac, Avar, Tsova-Tush and Udi. In addition, four distinct languages are spoken by the majority Georgian population -- Georgian, Megrelian, Svan and Laz -- although these are basically vernacular languages that are not normally written. According to Article 8 of the Georgian constitution, the official state language is Georgian, and in Abkhazia, also Abkhazian. Most minority languages are spoken only in certain regions of the country.
- Topic:
- Politics, Multiculturalism, and Minorities
- Political Geography:
- Russia, America, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, and Syria
8. Internal Enforcement: The Political Economy of Immigration
- Author:
- Keith D. Malone
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the past several years, Americans have become more aware and more vocal regarding the number of illegal aliens who have taken up residence in the United States. While this issue—and a resolution of this issue—is still being debated, many have questioned why current enforcement efforts are so lax. The focus of this paper is on the government agency responsible for the enforcement of our immigration laws, and in particular how the actions of this agency are influenced by political interests. This paper fills a gap in the literature-to-date by examining the enforcement of immigration laws within the interior of the nation. While other studies put border enforcement efforts in a political framework, this analysis is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to place interior enforcement within the interest-group theory of government framework. Our findings indicate that pressure groups shape the pattern of enforcement that emerges. Despite polls that indicate a majority of Americans favoring stricter enforcement, government enforcement agencies charged with this responsibility apparently succumb to the wishes of those that matter most politically.
- Topic:
- Government, Political Economy, Politics, Immigration, and Law Enforcement
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
9. Candidate Issue Index: Trade
- Author:
- Lael Brainard
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Compiled by Brookings Institution experts, this chart is part of a series of issue indices to be published during the 2008 Presidential election cycle. The policy issues included in this series were chosen by Brookings staff and represent the most critical topics facing America's next President. Available voting records and statements vary based on time in office. For candidates who have not been a Member of Congress, public statements are noted when available.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
10. The Future of Red, Blue and Purple America
- Author:
- Ruy Teixeira
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Political polarization in the United States has a number of causes, ranging from media hype to gerrymandering to hyper- ideological elites to cultural “sorting” between the parties. But there is another key contributor that is frequently overlooked: demographic and geographic changes in the electorate that have altered the sizes of different population groups and even shifted their political orientations over time. These changes have helped produce the current deadlock between coalitions of roughly equal size and opposed outlooks. But these same changes—since they will continue to alter group sizes and political orientations in the future—could also provide the impetus for unlocking this polarization and policy gridlock in the future.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
11. Why Warner-Lieberman Failed and How to Get America's Working Families behind the Next Cap-and-Trade Bill
- Author:
- David Wheeler
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Among partisans of greenhouse gas emissions regulation, the Senate's failure to pass the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill is often attributed to rampant denial, fueled by diehard political conservatism, energy-company propaganda, and government suppression of evidence on global warming. If so, the solution to the problem is electoral change, exposure of the propaganda, and public education. However, public concern is already so widespread that even leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have acknowledged the need for action. In this paper, I consider two additional forces that have stymied carbon emissions regulation in developing countries. The first is the perception that costly carbon regulation promoted by the rich will inflict an unjust burden on the poor. The second is hostility to taxation of critical fossil-fuel resources that were developed long before climate risk was identified. My econometric analysis suggests that these same forces have significantly affected senators' votes on Warner-Lieberman. By implication, Congress is not likely to approve cap-and-trade legislation unless Americans with below-median incomes are compensated for expected losses. My analysis supports recent proposals for direct distribution of emissions permit auction revenues to American families on an equal per-capita basis.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, Government, Markets, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- America
12. What Is Political about Jurisprudence? Courts, Politics and Political Science in Europe and the United States
- Author:
- Britta Rehder
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Research Papers Archive
- Abstract:
- This paper reflects on the literature on courts and politics in Europe and the United States. US-American Political Science has dealt for over fifty years with the role of courts and judges as political actors, whereas this perspective has only recently emerged in Europe. The debates differ not only with regard to the number of articles written, but also with regard to their content. This paper discusses the different research perspectives that are being pursued on both sides of the Atlantic. While a major part of the US-American literature investigates the politics of judicial action and the politicization of the legal system, research on European courts confines itself to analyzing the effects of judicial action, often describing them in terms of juridification. Based on a review of the existing literature, this paper suggests that European scholars ought to take crucial assumptions of the US-American research tradition more seriously.
- Topic:
- Development and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Europe
13. Political Islam in Egypt
- Author:
- Emad El-Din Shahin
- Publication Date:
- 05-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- Drawing on results from a survey among members of the Muslim Brothers and the Wasat Party, Emad El- Din Shahin, Professor at the American University in Cairo and Harvard University, looks at changes in Egyptian political Islam and examines the views of mainstream Islamists of the European Union polices and initiatives in the Mediterranean. The discussion focuses on the Muslim Brothers, the country's main opposition force, and the Wasat Party, as purporting to represent an evolving Islamic centrist orientation. Despite their seemingly different orientations, the commonalities between the two groups regarding their views of the EU far outweigh their differences. Their shared Islamic frame of reference and a perceived inconsistency of EU policies in the region largely explain this similarity.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Islam, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- America, Middle East, Egypt, and Cairo
14. ¡Bárbaros en Delfos! Geopolitical knowledge and International Relations before the 21st Century
- Author:
- Filibi López and Mariano Ferrero
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this article is to examine the connection between knowledge and power as well as scientific knowledge and politics. We use a sociology of knowledge perspective that provides a framework for the social and geopolitical situated nature of social science researchers and their academic communities. We will make sense of how the evolution of International Relations' (IR) knowledge production is tightly linked to the development of the international political context. From this point of view, American post-war hegemony came hand in hand with the Realist monopoly of the IR discipline. By the same token, the ongoing decentering process of academic spaces and theoretical approaches expresses the new world political landscape after the Pax Americana/Cold War era.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Civil Society, Politics, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- America
15. Remembering George Kennan: Lessons for Today?
- Author:
- Melvyn Leffler
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Kennan's thinking and policy prescriptions evolved quickly from the time he wrote the “Long Telegram” in February 1946 until the time he delivered the Walgreen Lectures at the University of Chicago in 1950. His initial emphasis was on the assessment of the Soviet threat. With new documents from the Soviet archives, we can see that the “Long Telegram” and the “Mr. X” article contained both brilliant insights and glaring omissions. After he was appointed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall to head the newly formed Policy Planning Staff, Kennan's thinking evolved from a focus on threat assessment to an emphasis on interests. Believing that the Soviet threat was political and ideological, and not military, Kennan stressed the importance of reconstructing Western Europe and rebuilding western Germany and Japan. The key task was to prevent the Kremlin from gaining a preponderance of power in Eurasia. Kennan always believed that containment was a prelude to rollback and that the Soviet Union could be maneuvered back to its prewar borders. Eventually, the behavior of the Kremlin would mellow and its attitudes toward international relations would change. The United States needed to negotiate from strength, but the object of strength was, in fact, to negotiate—and compromise. It was important for the United States to avoid overweening commitments. American insecurity stemmed from a mistaken emphasis on legalism and moralism. The United States could not transform the world and should not seek to do so. Goals needed to be modest, linked to interests, and pursued systematically. Kennan would have nothing but disdain for a policy based on notions of a “democratic peace.” But the empirical evidence of social scientists cannot be ignored. Should the pursuit of democracy no longer be seen as a value, but conceived of as an interest?
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Japan, America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, Soviet Union, Germany, and Chicago
16. Opinión pública y política exterior en México
- Author:
- Guadalupe Gonzalez (ed), Susan Minushikin (ed), and Robert Y. Shapiro (ed)
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
- Abstract:
- The 2004 Mexico and the World survey, conducted by Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) and Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales (COMEXI), is the first-ever comprehensive study of Mexican public and leadership opinion on international affairs. The study is designed to measure general attitudes and values concerning Mexico's relationship with the world rather than opinions on specific foreign policies or issues. This year's survey was conducted in cooperation with The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations' (CCFR) 2004 study of American public and leadership opinion on foreign policy, a periodic survey conducted since 1974.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Civil Society, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- America, Central America, Mexico, and Chicago
17. CATO Institute: Uncompetitive Elections and the American Political System
- Author:
- Dennis Polhill and Patrick Basham
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- American representative government suffers from the handicap of a largely uncompetitive political system. American politics has fewer and fewer competitive elections. In arguing that political competition matters a great deal, this paper traces the increasing trend toward uncompetitiveness and details the role and nature of incumbency advantage in fostering an uncompetitive political system.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Political Economy, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
18. CATO Institute: Treating Doctors as Drug Dealers: The DEA's War on Prescription Painkillers
- Author:
- Ronald T. Libby
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The medical field of treating chronic pain is still in its infancy. It was only in the late 1980s that leading physicians trained in treating the chronic pain of terminally ill cancer patients began to recommend that the "opioid therapy" (treatment involving narcotics related to opium) used on their patients also be used for patients suffering from nonterminal conditions. The new therapies proved successful, and prescription pain medications saw a huge leap in sales throughout the 1990s. But opioid therapy has always been controversial. The habit-forming nature of some prescription pain medications made many physicians, medical boards, and law enforcement officials wary of their use in treating acute pain in nonterminal patients. Consequently, many physicians and pain specialists have shied away from opioid treatment, causing millions of Americans to suffer from chronic pain even as therapies were available to treat it.
- Topic:
- Crime, Human Welfare, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
19. Insurgency: Modern Warfare Evolves into a Fourth Generation
- Author:
- Thomas X. Hammes
- Publication Date:
- 01-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat in Iraq. While most Americans rejoiced at this announcement, students of history understood that it simply meant the easy part was over. In the following months, peace did not break out, and the troops did not come home. In fact, Iraqi insurgents have struck back hard. Instead of peace, each day Americans read about the death of another soldier, the detonation of deadly car bombs, the assassination of civilians, and Iraqi unrest.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Politics, and War
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, America, and Middle East
20. Constitution Writing and Conflict Resolution
- Author:
- Jennifer Widner
- Publication Date:
- 08-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Over 1975-2003 nearly 200 new constitutions were drawn up in countries at risk of conflict, as part of peace processes and the adoption of multiparty political systems. The process of writing constitutions is considered to be very important to the chances of sustaining peace, and The Commonwealth and the US Institute for Peace have developed good practice guidelines in this area. These emphasize consultation, openness to diverse points of view and representative ratification procedures. But assessing the impact of constitution-writing processes on violence is methodologically difficult, since there are many channels of influence in the relationship. This paper reports on preliminary findings from an ongoing research project into the effects of processes in constitution-writing. Regression analysis is used to control for important contextual features such as differences in income levels and ethnic diversity across countries. A key finding is that differences in the degree of participation in the drafting of constitutions has no major effect on post-ratification levels of violence in some parts of the world, such as Europe, but does make a difference in Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific together.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Peace Studies, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, America, and Europe