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1. Mastering the Digital Age: Understanding Artificial Intelligence and Regulation

Author:
Olivia J. Erdelyi
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In recent years, news about a mysterious new technology referred to as artificial intelligence (AI) has been everywhere. Even for the most tech-averse individuals, it is virtually impossible to remain oblivious to AI’s existence. While there is positive news establishing a craving for it, blunders and scandals are not far behind, invoking the wrath of the public and calls for reigning in the ac- tors, mostly perceived to be tech companies, that endanger democratic rights. 1 Leveraging the benefits provided by modern information and communication technologies, people rush to take part in the public discourse of the hour, forming strong opinions before understanding the topic. While eye-catching headlines and impassioned debates continue to spread online, few understand the concept of AI. This scenario presents a problem, as mastering the digital age requires some AI literacy.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Regulation, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. It’s All About the Benjamins: Why Banknotes Look As They Do, and Why You Should Care

Author:
Jacques E.C. Hymans
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In his classic treatise The Philosophy of Money, sociologist Georg Simmel asserts that money is “colorless” and “abstract,” a “system of numbers” that relentlessly promotes the rationalization and depersonalization of modern life.1 Simmel might be right about money, but banknotes are a different story. The banknotes of the world contain many colorful images of human beings, animals, landscapes, and other eye-catching features. What are the purposes of banknote iconography? What kinds of images best achieve those purposes? Does the art of the banknote still matter in the digital age? The answers to these questions also speak to broader issues, including the bases of social trust, the content of collective identities, and the power of visual politics. Some people think of physical cash as a relic of the old days of brick-and- mortar retail. It is true that credit and debit cards and digital means of payment are on the rise. Even the Monopoly board game no longer comes with its famous colorful paper money; instead, a voice-activated electronic “banker” processes players’ transactions and keeps track of their balances.2 Yet reports of the death of the banknote are highly exaggerated. Between 1990 and 2020 the value of cash in circulation soared worldwide from about $1 trillion to $7 trillion, and the annual rate of increase has been accelerating over time.3 The coronavirus pandemic that erupted in early 2020 caused a further spike in cash demand all over the world.4 A comprehensive study of 140 currencies found that the value of cash in circulation in 137 of those currencies rose in 2020 over the previous year while it declined in only three.5 The value of U.S. currency in circulation shot up by 16 percent during 2020, double the average increase of the previous 10 years.6 As of the end of June 2023, it stood at $2.3 trillion, or to be more precise, $2,342,265,000,000—almost 10 percent of U.S. GDP.7 In short, banknotes remain greatly in demand almost everywhere; and wherever there are banknotes, there is banknote iconography.
Topic:
Economy, Currency, and Iconography
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. How Poster Art of the “Long 1960s” Fueled International Solidarity

Author:
Lincoln Cushing
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
With internet and cell phone connectivity enabling instant worldwide dissemination of information, many individuals presume that communication between international social justice activists during the twentieth century was tedious, insular, and ineffective. Yet analysis of the vast output of published graphics from that period reveals a different story, one of dynamic interchange and cross-national support.
Topic:
Cold War, History, Arts, Culture, Solidarity, and Internationalism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. The Future of the Digital Asset Space

Author:
Christian Catalini and Nicholas Sanzi
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Christian Catalini is founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, and Research Scientist at MIT. He is also the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Lightspark. Previously, he was a co-creator of Diem (formerly Libra), Chief Economist of the Diem Association, and Head Economist of Meta FinTech. While a Professor at MIT, Christian designed the MIT Digital Currency Research Study. In 2018, Christian was appointed as a Faculty Research Fellow in the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He holds a PhD from the University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management), and MSc (summa cum laude) in Economics and Management of New Technologies from Bocconi University, Milan.
Topic:
Economics, Cryptocurrencies, Interview, Digital Currency, and Stablecoins
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. A Wall of Separation Between Money and State: Policy and Philosophy for the Era of Cryptocurrency

Author:
Max Raskin and Richard A. Epstein
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Throughout history, there have been two fundamental and interrelated debates over the creation and use of money.1 The first debate is whether money should be created by the market or the state.2 When money is created by private markets, individual currencies oper- ate in competition with each other, such that the value of any given currency is measured by its relative strength against the others. In contrast, under a system where the government has a monopoly over the supply of money, the sound- ness of the currency is ensured, if at all, by a set of institutional constraints to prevent its debasement. A second debate arises between those who believe that money should be a tool used by policymakers to achieve certain political, economic, and social ends and those who believe that money should be a neutral unit of measurement, like inches or kilograms.3 Today, central banks are tasked with mandates to achieve full employment, plug budget deficits, and spur real economic growth. The institutional challenge for governments is to decide how to balance these goals with the need for price stability. Discretion by central bankers with respect to these tradeoffs is intended to allow public officials to operate the system for the public benefit. By the same token, government discretion in the management of money creates the possibility of major failures—such as runaway inflation—if that discretion is misused.
Topic:
Finance, Economy, Central Bank, Currency, Cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America

6. Inequality Can Only Be Fixed By Structural Economic Reform

Author:
Graeme Maxton
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Inequality is like a slippery eel: it is easy to see but very hard to grasp. It has endured for centuries and has worsened recently.1 As a result of climate change, it is likely to become more of a problem in the future, bringing the risk of widespread instability. Although inequality has been a problem for a very long time, economists, social scientists, and political thinkers have failed to devise any lasting solutions. This is because the responses so far have been tepid-hearted, torn between three competing ideas.
Topic:
Reform, Inequality, and Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Competition between Democracy and Autocracy: The Defining Challenge of the 21st Century

Author:
Derek Mitchell
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Ambassador Derek Mitchell is the president of the National Democratic In- stitute. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar from 2012 –2016, following a long and distinuguished career in and outside the government.
Topic:
International Affairs, Democracy, Strategic Competition, and Autocracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. The Need and Hope for Arms Control

Author:
Michael Krepon
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
An Interview with Nick Madoff and Luka Willett
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Interview, and Denuclearization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. On Nuclear Politics and Financial Crime

Author:
Togzhan Kassenova
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Dr. Togzhan Kassenova is a Washington, DC-based senior fellow with the Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft (PISCES) at the Center for Policy Research, SUNY-Albany and a nonresident fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is an expert on nuclear politics, WMD nonproliferation, strategic trade controls, sanctions imple- mentation, and financial crime prevention. She currently works on issues related to proliferation financing controls, exploring ways to minimize access of proliferators to the global financial system. Kassenova holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the Univer- sity of Leeds and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). From 2011 to 2015 Kassenova served on the UN secretary general’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. Kassenova is the author of Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb (forthcoming, Stanford University Press, 2022).
Topic:
Nuclear Weapons, Politics, Nonproliferation, and Interview
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10. Coups D’état in the Covid-19 Era

Author:
John J. Chin
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In the years preceding the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, many observers were cheerily optimistic about the decline of coups d’état in the twenty-first century. As late as early 2019, for example, Axios declared confidently that coups—or illegal seizures of power by military or government actors—“are becoming a thing of the past.”1 In early 2022, the same journalist and outlet reported that “coups are making a comeback.”2 Between those three years (January 2019–January 2022), 13 coup attempts occurred, 10 of which succeeded. By contrast, in the three years beforehand (January 2016–January 2019), there had only been five coup attempts, two of which were successful. In other words, the number of coup attempts more than doubled, and the number of successful coups quintupled, according to my updated Colpus dataset of coup types.3 What accounts for the apparent coup comeback? Is the pandemic itself to blame? In this article, I draw on my newly updated Colpus dataset of coup types, documenting all coups through February 2022, to survey the history of recent coups. I first show that after several decades in decline, coups started to make their comeback before the pandemic. I then survey the potential causes of “covid coups” and the factors for why recent coups have been overwhelmingly concentrated in Africa. I conclude by reflecting on the legacy of “covid coups.”
Topic:
Coup, COVID-19, and Instability
Political Geography:
Africa and Global Focus

11. The New Global Context for Development: The Unravelling of Progress in the LDCs

Author:
J. Brian Atwood
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Development professionals follow a few overriding admonitions. Two important ones are “do no harm” and “understand the local context.” A third traditional injunction has recently gained even more relevance: “Think globally and act locally.” Yet today, there is a growing need to “think globally and act globally.” Bilateral and multilateral donor agencies like USAID and the World Bank have appropriately focused their work at the national and subnational levels. Local ownership is still a valid principle of development. However, transna- tional issues and the global economic outlook are now overwhelming local development progress. Particularly in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), climate-related disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the consequences of the war in Ukraine are quickly erasing development gains and exposing global inequality even more dramatically.
Topic:
Development, Foreign Aid, Inequality, Economy, and USAID
Political Geography:
Global Focus

12. Cleaning Up Dirty Industries: Strategies for a Greener Future

Author:
Deborah Gordon
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Deborah Gordon is Senior Principal in the Climate Intelligence Program at RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute). She also serves as Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. She formerly served as Director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is the author of several books, including No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warm- ing World, Oxford University Press, 2021. After beginning her career with Chevron, Gordon managed an energy and environmental consulting practice, taught at the Yale School of the Environment, and directed the Energy Policy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Pollution, Industry, and Future
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. Environmental Security in the Anthropocene

Author:
Simon Dalby
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Simon Dalby is a Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, where he teaches in the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. He is author of Anthropocene Geopolitics (University of Ottawa Press 2020) and Rethinking Environmental Security (Edward Elgar 2022).
Topic:
Security, Environment, Politics, and Anthropocene
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. Transparency and the Internet: Facebook’s Global Reach

Author:
Frances Haugen, Caroline Allen, and Kamran King
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Frances Haugen specializes in algorithmic product management, having worked on ranking algo- rithms at Google, Pinterest, Yelp, and Facebook. In 2019, she was recruited to Facebook to be the lead Product Manager on the Civic Misinformation team, and later also worked on counter-espionage. In 2021, Haugen disclosed tens of thousands of Facebook’s internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Wall Street Journal. Haugen is an advocate for accountability and transparency in social media.
Topic:
Internet, Transparency, Interview, and Facebook
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Reification of Data: the Right to be Forgotten, Data Ownership, Network Usage Fee, and Data Sovereignty

Author:
Kyung-Sin Park
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
A regression is taking place around the world: the reification of data. Data is a relationship between sentient beings and the objects sensed, knowledge of the world external to the consciousness of that being. Transfer of data is speech. Collection of data is learning. Thus, a restriction on the transfer of data is a restriction on speech or the freedom of speech.1 A restriction on the collection of data becomes a restriction on learning or the freedom to learn. Data—origi- nally, a configuration of the consciousness perceiving external objects—is being rei3ed, that is, treated as if it is a tangible thing. Increasingly, data is deemed to be a possession by people reflected in it or those producing it and subject to delivery fees for transfer. Data is deemed capable of being “owned by data subjects,” “owned by data producers,” or charged fees for delivery.2
Topic:
Science and Technology, Networks, Data, Digital Sovereignty, and Right to be Forgotten
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. Remaking the Future of the Internet

Author:
James Lewis
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
A rule of thumb in Hollywood is when you have no new ideas for a 1lm, remake an old one. 5e United States is taking a similar approach to internet policy, with the well-intended “Declaration for the Future of the Internet” (hereafter referred to as “the Declaration”) reiterating themes from the dawn of the internet.1 5ere is a real opportunity for a new approach to internet policy that endorses democratic values and a reformed multistakeholder model, but the Declaration does not provide this opportunity because it ignores sovereignty and great power con6ict—the forces reshaping the internet. 5ere are 193 countries in the world. Only 60 endorsed the Declaration.2 If this had been an election, the United States would have lost. 5is outcome may partly re6ect a lack of diplomatic skill by the United States, but it also re6ects a paucity of ideas to address concerns in the developing world, which center around development, sovereignty, and the rule of law. Many nations would have welcomed a bold new vision for the internet that took their interests into account. 5ey did not get this vision from the Declaration.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Internet, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America

17. Inclusion and Environmental Protection in Space

Author:
Tony Milligan
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
A push for inclusion has been one of the most striking features of space programs in recent years, with a diverse range of agents going up to the Inter- national Space Station. NASA has been promoting the recognition of the early, but hidden, role of black scientists such as Katherine Johnson within its pro- grams of the 1960s (Johnson was celebrated in the 2016 7lm Hidden Figures).1 Beyond this, private sector activities are emerging with some built-in elements of inclusion. In 2021, Wally Funk fially could make it into space on a private sector Blue Origin suborbital flight, 60 years after being part of the privately trained female Mercury 13 group. These women were not part of the official NASA program, and they never made it into space, despite public criticism and the advantages of sending women in the cramped capsules given their generally smaller size. The women had what Margaret Weitekamp has referred to as “right stu:, wrong sex.”2
Topic:
Environment, Women, Space, Inclusion, and Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus

18. Islamophobia, Internationalism, and the Expanse Between

Author:
Khaled A. Beydoun
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
While delivering a lecture for the BBC, Edward Said maintained, “Speaking truth to power is no Panglossian idealism: it is carefully weighing the alterna- tives, picking the right one, and then intelligently representing it where it can do the most good and cause the right change.”1 This was 1993. A world not yet remade in the image of the war on terror and the new order it ushered in eight years later. Not even Said, the secular hu- manist whose Orientalism crystallized how the West mispresented Islam, could anticipate the coming urgency of his work and the weight of the words he spoke in London.2 Speaking at the doorstep of the imperial power that divided much of the world and entrenched the epistemological binary that oriented Islam as a civilizational other, Said’s spoken truth confronted power beyond domestic boundaries. He was a grassroots internationalist who challenged the violence wrought by transnational hegemonies, new and old. He saw beyond boundar- ies, political and existential, to link struggles and galvanize oppressed groups against hegemonic forces.
Topic:
Ideology, Islamophobia, Internationalism, and Edward Said
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. Securitization of Islam: The Lethal Combination of Threat and Identity Politics

Author:
Jocelyne Cesari
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The work of Samuel Huntington, first presented in a 1993 article in Foreign Affairs and subsequently elaborated upon in his 1996 book Clash of Civiliza- tions, has shaped the perception of the role of religion in general, and Islam in particular, in international conflicts.1 Huntington argued that Islam is uniquely incompatible with and antagonistic to the core values of the West, values which he defines as democracy and equality of individuals. Since Huntington first presented his work, much ink has been spilled by scholars attempting to invali- date his thesis. They show that civilizations are not homogenous or monolithic players in world politics with an inclination to “clash,” but rather that they consist of pluralistic, divergent, and convergent actors and of practices that are constantly evolving.2 Nonetheless, Huntington’s concept of the “Clash” has remained relevant in political discourse and in the media.
Topic:
Islam, Identity Politics, Securitization, and Threat Perception
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. Humanitarian Intervention and International Order: The Endless Wars Problem

Author:
Alex J. Bellamy
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Nowadays, few approve of humanitarian intervention, understood as the use of non-consensual force for the principal purpose of alleviating massive human suffering. Realists have always held that armed humanitarian crusades are an irrational, dangerous, and counterproductive extravagance likely to cause more problems than they solve, and at great expense.1 In a world full of autocracies and communities that define their values very differently from one another, re- alists argue, the forceful pursuit of “liberal hegemony” is likely to produce only “a perpetual state of war.”2 Critical thinkers have always suspected that a thinly veiled Western liberal imperialism lay behind what some described as the “new military humanism.”3 Its confidence in Western perfidiousness was briefly shaken by revelations of its misplaced faith in the Khmer Rouge and Slobodan Milošević but restored with gusto by the false pretexts for war with Iraq in 2003. English School pluralists value international order over individual rights;4 legal positivists lament the illegality of humanitarian intervention;5 post-colonial scholars, states, and other critical writers believe humanitarian intervention is the thin end of a neo-imperial wedge to erode hard-won self-determination and sovereignty;6 pacifists complain that humanitarian war is still, after all, war, and highlight the tragic irony of taking lives in order to save lives.7 More recently, Samuel Moyn situated humanitarian intervention within a broader politics by which “endless war” has been normalized as humane at the expense of war prevention.8 So intense is global antipathy that prominent advocates of the “responsibility to protect,” like Gareth Evans, carefully distinguish the principle they champion from humanitarian intervention. Samantha Power, meanwhile, was chastened by a painful experience in Libya into doubting whether humanitarian goals could be achieved by military force.9
Topic:
Human Rights, War, Humanitarian Intervention, and International Order
Political Geography:
Global Focus

21. Armed Conflict and the Protection of Populations: The Debate over Humanitarian Intervention, Using Armed Force, and the Idea of Sovereignty

Author:
James Turner Johnson
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
This paper examines the development of the idea of humanitarian in- tervention and its implications for state sovereignty. It begins with a moral discussion of intervention from the rediscovery of the just war theory in the 1960s and 1970s, extends through public debates about intervention to protect fundamental human rights during armed conflicts over succeed- ing decades, and includes the production of the global commitment of the “Responsibility to Protect” and its treatment in the Outcome document of the 2005 UN World Summit. The article notes that two competing ideas of sovereignty have been recurrent themes in humanitarian intervention debates. One idea, expressed in Article 2 of the UN Charter, defines sovereignty in terms of the inviolability of state territory. The other, surfacing in human rights law and in moral debates in the public sphere, defines sovereignty in terms of the responsibility of states and the world order to protect funda- mental human rights domestically and internationally. This paper identifies the deep historical roots of both conceptions and their mutual, but different, connections to the idea of natural law, as well as their different implications regarding the roles of states, regional organizations, and the UN. It concludes by noting that while the 2005 Summit reaffirmed the former conception of sovereignty, it also acknowledged the latter as a domestic obligation of states, though one in which the international community also has an interest.
Topic:
Sovereignty, Humanitarian Intervention, Armed Conflict, and Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus

22. The Uyghur Genocide and International Policy Response

Author:
Omer Kanat
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghurs has gone from a relatively obscure issue in the international press to a central one. It has become the subject of discussion and policymaking in the halls of governments around the world and has gained widespread awareness among the general public. This is because Uyghurs are subject to some of the worst human rights abuses in the world; in many respects, their treatment meets the accepted definition of geno- cide. The fact that these abuses are being perpetrated in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a nation widely expected to have a major role in shaping the twenty-first century, has contributed to the urgency of the issue. The Uyghur community has welcomed the long overdue response from some governments. An increasing number of parliaments have condemned the Chinese government’s actions as genocide, and some are developing legislation aimed at addressing issues such as forced labor in the supply chain and transnational repression di- rected at Uyghurs living abroad. Although the Chinese government denounces these as attempts to meddle in their internal affairs, the repression of Uyghurs has a global dimension that requires a global response.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Genocide, Human Rights, and Uyghurs
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Global Focus

23. Moral Imperatives and Legal Realities: The Perennial Conundrum of Humanitarian Intervention

Author:
Chris O'Meara
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Article 1 of the UN Charter embodies a well-known tension that exists in international law. On the one hand, it sets out perhaps the most fundamental purpose of the UN: the maintenance of international peace and security. This principle underpins the operation of the post-World War II rules-based inter- national order. It is reflected in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political indepen- dence of any state.”1 Such prohibition, while routinely flouted by states, stands as an intransgressible rule of international law.2 On the other hand, Article 1 establishes what appears to be an equally foundational principle: promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Indeed, the burgeoning body of international human rights law that has arisen since the signing of the Charter has increasingly placed human rights and human security at the center of international concern.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Humanitarian Intervention, and International Humanitarian Law (IHL)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. Contemporary Challenges to Global Democracy

Author:
Erica Frantz
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Today’s democracies are under threat. According to the watchdog organiza- tion Freedom House, each year of the past decade has seen a decline in global democracy.1 Importantly, many of these declines have occurred in wealthier and more established democracies, which scholars have typically considered resistant to democratic backsliding. In some instances, these erosions have left democracies weakened, such as in India and the United States; however, in other instances, they have led to complete democratic collapse and the emergence of authoritarianism, such as in Turkey and Serbia.
Topic:
Governance, Democracy, Dictatorship, Political Crisis, and Autocracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

25. Frontiers and Borders: The Internet and the Amplification of Illiberalism

Author:
Edward Greenspon
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In March 1985, on winter break from graduate studies in Britain, I visited my first illiberal and non-democratic country. It was a fortuitous moment to be dropping in on the mothership of the alternative system, the Soviet Union, that had provided decades of dystopian fodder for the likes of Orwell, Solzhenitsyn, Koestler, and Kundera. Mikhail Gorbachev had been named General Secretary of the Communist Party two weeks earlier. His photo, with the famous red wine birthmark on his forehead, adorned the cover of the Time magazine I picked up at Heathrow airport. Although some of our reading material was confiscated on arrival, the Gorby cover slipped through. A couple of evenings in, a group of us gathered outside Leningrad’s Winter Palace, once the home of the czars and a key venue in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. We met three young Russians. It was my birthday. They invited us back to their apartment to listen to “underground” music, drink vodka, and talk.
Topic:
Internet, Borders, and Illiberalism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

26. Policing and Violence: The Less Visible Harms of Policing Practices

Author:
Cecilia Menjívar
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In recent years, pervasive physical violence perpetrated by police forces across the world has come to light. From São Paulo to Cape Town, from Hong Kong to every major U.S. city, the public has witnessed—mostly through media images—policing through the use of excessive force, such as beatings, assaults, false arrests, verbal abuse, and terrorization. These acts shock us and may even make us feel unsafe. However, they are not directed toward all groups equally. The experiences of Black people fighting for justice in the United States; poor residents protesting extreme social inequality in Ecuador and Chile; Muslims in India facing violence for their religious beliefs; women in Mexico City and Santiago protesting gender-based violence; and anti-government protesters in Hong Kong demonstrate a clear pattern: vulnerable groups who oppose the state or its policies, or who seek to redress past state violence, are the primary targets of police violence.
Topic:
Human Rights, Inequality, Violence, Police, and Police Brutality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

27. Bolstering Surveillance for a Pandemic

Author:
Jennifer Nuzzo
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the world’s vulnerabilities to pandemics, and the inadequacies of existing surveillance infrastructure and data to help us respond to them. At both the national and global level, insufficient abilities to rapidly identify and characterize the emergence of new pathogens; adequately diagnose and enumerate infected individuals; analyze trends in CO- VID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths; evaluate the impact of public health interventions; track essential supplies; and monitor COVID-19’s development have hindered global effectiveness in stopping its spread. Historically, the answers to these questions have been sought from human clinical and public health sources, such as patients’ diagnostic test results and demographic information. However, as COVID-19 has demonstrated, the human health data available are often insufficient, and the management and response to a complex pandemic also requires data from other sectors, such as businesses, news, and social media; animal health and environmental organizations; and defense, law enforcement, and intelligence. These challenges are not unique to the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely be encountered again in the future unless national governments and international agencies act to improve surveillance capabilities.
Topic:
National Security, Infrastructure, Surveillance, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

28. The Right to a Nationality: No Time to be Complacent

Author:
Erika Feller
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The right to a nationality is often taken for granted. Over the course of decades, UN member states have enshrined this right through fundamental instruments, notably the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet con- servative estimates hold that approximately 10 million people spread across every continent are denied a nationality.1 Some, but not all, are refugees. Collectively, these individuals are stateless—they lack any claim to a nationality recognized or assumed by any state. For many years, statelessness was a forgotten issue, relegated to the realm of state sovereignty prerogatives. Recently, states and the UN have begun to focus on the pressing nature of the problem. They have made progress in addressing statelessness as a global, collectively shared challenge. However, the UN target of eradicating statelessness by 2024, while a fine aspiration, continues to face significant hurdles. These obstacles include a serious dearth of informa- tion about the problem’s scope, discriminatory national legislation and policies that obstruct UN efforts, an ambiguous international legal framework, and the absence of solutions that are accessible to stateless individuals.
Topic:
Sovereignty, United Nations, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

29. The Future of Microfinance

Author:
Muhammad Yunus and Claire Heiden
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Muhammad Yunus is an economist and the founder of Grameen Bank, which provides microcredit to the impoverished without requiring collateral. Yunus and Grameen were awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2006.
Topic:
Poverty, Capitalism, Business, Interview, and Microfinance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

30. Financial Innovation for Energy Innovation

Author:
Ashby Monk and Soh Young In
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The move toward a global energy transition is underpinned by the collec- tive need to limit the most severe impacts of climate change as well as to foster more sustainable economic growth. Floating photovoltaic power stations on Chinese lakes, integrated carbon capture technology on large-scale power plants in Canada, and decentralized urban wind turbines on Singaporean rooftops are just a few examples of how radical innovations in clean energy technology are fueling the global energy transition.1 Bringing cutting-edge technology from the lab to the global energy market requires a supportive ecosystem. Innovation must be matched by market readiness to adopt disruptive technologies, local capacities to scale up new energy projects, energy policies with climate objectives, technological development, and sufficient and “aligned” investment capital. This article focuses specifically on the last requirement: the characteristics of investment capital needed to support clean energy innovation. Investors are key players in the future of energy, as they must drive innovation in the financial system to meet the scale of capital needed to transform the energy industry. Both a lack and misalignment of investment capital have hindered important technological leaps in sustainable energy.2 One such example is the severe financing shortage in commercializing novel clean energy technology. The most prominent financing issue associated with commercializing novel clean technology (cleantech) has been termed the “valley of death,” which refers to the pattern in which most early-stage cleantech is severely underfunded, resulting in innovation being abandoned before reaching full-sized deployment. There are many causes of this “valley of death,” but the common threads among them are the sheer number of financial risks in the energy industry and the inability to fully understand and manage these risks within the energy ecosystem.3
Topic:
Finance, Investment, Innovation, Energy, and Energy Transition
Political Geography:
Global Focus

31. The ICRC’s Changing Role in International Humanitarianism

Author:
Peter Maurer, David Del Terzo, and Caroline Allen
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Peter Maurer is the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This interview was conducted at the beginning of March, before the COVID-19 outbreak had reached pandemic levels. Since that time, the ICRC has been adapt- ing its operations to respond to the disease’s impacts in conflict-affected countries. President Maurer wrote about his concerns for vulnerable populations in an opinion column in The Guardian, published 27 March 2020.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid, Conflict, and ICRC
Political Geography:
Global Focus

32. World Oil Security on a Precipice

Author:
Charles F. Doran
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
By attacking a major Saudi oil facility at Abqaiq on 13 September 2019, Iran established a new norm regarding oil security. Now, no oil field, pipeline, refinery, supertanker, or port facility is free from internecine warfare between oil-producing (OPEC) governments. Ironically, in attempting to defend a coun- try from supply interruption, the United States risks worsening the magnitude and scope of that supply interruption rather than preventing its occurrence. In the era of highly accurate drones and missiles, the old oil field motto “all oil comes from a single barrel” has taken on a newly negative connotation. World oil stability rests on a precipice. Both exporters and importers suffer from supply interruption, although perhaps not equally, universally, or simultaneously. Supply interruption may benefit those who have oil to sell through resultant oil price increases if their own exports have not been interrupted. The same cannot be said for buyers who, unless they are energy speculators on the futures market, ardently want to prevent supply interruption and the virtually certain subsequent (though sometimes not lasting) increase in price.
Topic:
Security, Markets, Oil, and Energy
Political Geography:
Global Focus and Gulf Nations

33. Energy Futures: Oil and the Oil Industry

Author:
Richard A. Sears
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Abundant affordable energy has built the world in which we live today. Machines and the chemical energy that drives them have made it possible for a small percentage of the population to produce enough food for many of us to be scientists, engineers, artists, and authors. We are only able to pursue our diverse interests because available energy multiplies human effort many times over. With all the good that has come with access to energy resources extracted from the Earth, there is also an environmental price, which impacts our land, water, and air. My intent here is not to debate the merits of our current energy system; it is the reality in which we exist. Humans and human society have become de- pendent on energy in so many ways that we cannot simply undo what we have and flip overnight to alternatives that we believe preserve the benefits without the costs. The scale of our global energy use is enormous, and the infrastruc- ture we have built to deliver that energy and convert it to useful work has been developed over more than a century. It will realistically take several decades for energy alternatives to grow to replace the major sources of primary energy that we utilize today; similarly, it will take many decades to rebuild our energy infrastructure to efficiently utilize new sources of primary energy.1
Topic:
Climate Change, Oil, Renewable Energy, Industry, and Energy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

34. The Diffusion of Protest following the 2007-2008 Global Crash

Author:
Cristina Flesher Fominaya
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, hundreds of protests spread across the world. Remarkably, despite the diversity of polities, regimes, and socioeconomic status across countries, these protests share two core demands to a varying degree: greater, more meaningful, or “real” democracy; and greater economic justice. While these are two distinct demands, they cannot be sepa- rated from each other. Although initially (and understandably) the protests were interpreted in direct relation to the global economic crash, especially in those countries hit hardest by the crisis and austerity politics, it soon became clear that the protests also reflected a crisis of representative democracy. Financial crises provoke legitimation crises when elites are perceived as having caused and benefited from them. Activists in the global wave of protests following 2008 worked to channel the grievances relating to these crises and to transform the public’s interpretive frameworks of them by contesting dominant narratives about their causes and solutions. Protesters challenged the idea that economic crises were the result of abstract, global capitalist forces and instead placed the blame squarely on economic and political elites. In so doing, they argued that the origin of the crisis was political; austerity policies were not inevitable, but rather the result of collusion between financial and political elites who not only failed to protect citizens against the worst effect of the crisis but also forced them to assume the losses of private capital speculation. While in Europe these protests can best be characterized as pro-democracy and anti-austerity, other movements such as the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street might better be characterized as pro-democracy and economic justice. The protests revealed an interesting paradox: despite a strong decline in trust and satisfaction with representative politics and political parties, the belief in and support for democ- racy as a value and the demand for its regeneration were core characteristics of protester demands.
Topic:
History, Social Movement, Inequality, Protests, Global Financial Crisis, and Elites
Political Geography:
Global Focus

35. Taking Care of Business: Industrial Espionage and International Law

Author:
Russell Buchan
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The essence of espionage is the non-consensual collection of confidential information. Espionage takes different forms depending upon the identity of the perpetrator and the nature of the confidential information targeted. Political espionage describes the state-sponsored theft of confidential information, and its purpose is to shed light on the capabilities and intentions of other state and non- state actors. Economic espionage is also state-sponsored, and it involves states stealing trade secrets from companies located in foreign jurisdictions, usually with the intention of passing this information to domestic companies so that they possess a competitive advantage. In contrast, industrial espionage is perpetrated by non-state actors insofar as it entails companies stealing foreign competitors’ confidential information without the support or assistance of a state. Espionage usually implies a transboundary dimension to its operations, thereby raising the question of whether international law can be invoked to regulate this practice. In recent years, considerable academic attention has been dedicated to the status of political and economic espionage under international law.2 Less attention, however, has been directed toward the application of inter- national law to industrial espionage. While this omission is understandable given that international law is a state-based system, it is not inevitable: the activities of non-state actors fall within the purview of international law on the basis that they operate under the jurisdiction of the state.3 As such, international law imposes an obligation upon states to regulate the conduct of non-state actors within their jurisdictions or, to be exact, to streamline non-state actors’ conduct such that their activities do not contravene the rights of other states. The objective of this article is to examine whether and to what extent the obligation to prevent transboundary harm applies to those situations in which a company commits industrial espionage against a company located in a foreign jurisdiction.4
Topic:
International Law, Business, Espionage, and Industry
Political Geography:
Global Focus