Search

Begin New Search Content Type Research Paper

301. World Oil Security On A Precipice

Author:
Charles F. Doran
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
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 country 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:
Energy Policy, Environment, International Political Economy, Oil, OPEC, and Pipeline
Political Geography:
Saudi Arabia and Global Focus

302. Financial Innovation For Energy Innovation

Author:
Ashby Monk and Soh Young In
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The move toward a global energy transition is underpinned by the collective 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.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, International Trade and Finance, Finance, Innovation, and Renewable Energy
Political Geography:
China, Canada, and Global Focus

303. In The Era Of U.S. Energy Abundance: The Role Of The Caspian Region In U.S. Policy

Author:
Brenda Shaffer
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
For most of the last fifty years, international energy policy has been a major focus of U.S. foreign and national security policy. Washington has viewed ensuring the energy security of its allies—especially in Europe, Japan, and South Korea—as part of its own national security. In this approach to energy policy, the United States was unique and contrasted with most Western countries, which generally treated energy policy as part of their economic and/or environmental policies. Washington has engaged in international energy policy on the highest executive levels in the White House and established influential units within cabinet departments and agencies to promote international energy policies and to integrate them with U.S. national security and foreign policies. Within the Department of State, successive special ambassadors were appointed to promote various international and regional energy policies and, in 2011, a full Bureau of Energy Resources was established.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Energy Policy, Environment, Oil, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States, Caspian Sea, and Global Focus

304. The Geopolitical Consequences of Oil in Africa: The Case of Nigeria

Author:
Cyril Obi
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Oil endowment has been a significant factor in Africa’s history, politics, and development. The continent was positioned strategically following the global energy transition from coal to crude oil in the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries, which shaped the history of oil in Africa.1 Today, Africa’s oil reserves serve both as a supply of oil to the global market and as a node for the continued integration of the continent’s petro-economies into a volatile global oil market. However, the fortunes of Africa’s oil-producing states depend on a commodity whose price they do not determine, and they find themselves with limited options to collectively leverage their positions on the global stage.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Oil, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

305. Protecting Stateless Refugees In The United States

Author:
David Baluarte
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Miliyon is a stateless, failed asylum seeker residing in the United States. He initially sought refugee protection after he fled Ethiopia, where he had faced serious abuse because of his Eritrean ethnicity. Immigration authorities denied him asylum after concluding that the Ethiopian government’s deportation of his Eritrean father, the seizure of his family’s land and business, and the detention and torture of Miliyon himself constituted a property dispute not protected under U.S. refugee law. Miliyon fought this denial of protection over the next decade through various appeals processes but ultimately failed. At that point, he applied for a passport at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, D.C. and resigned himself to return home and face whatever fate awaited him. Consular officials, however, refused to issue him a passport. Despite never having set foot in Eritrea or having any other connection to the country, Miliyon was told that he was Eritrean, not Ethiopian. He was informed that he had no right to return to Ethiopia, his country of birth and the only place he had ever lived. This led the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to declare Miliyon stateless. As a victim of discriminatory denationalization, Miliyon tried to renew his application for refugee protection. Notwithstanding the fact that Miliyon had endured this persecutory treatment, U.S. authorities once again denied his claim.
Topic:
Refugee Issues, Immigrants, Deportation, Protected People, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Ethiopia

306. The Law’s Broken Promises to Stateless Persons

Author:
Jamie Liew
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Canada is the canary in the coal mine in terms of efforts to combat statelessness among Western democracies. One might assume that Canada would have a sophisticated system for addressing stateless persons—those without any citizen- ship whatsoever in any nation—since its reputation for welcoming refugees is unparalleled. In 1986, Canada won the Nansen Medal, the highest distinction bestowed by the United Nations for aiding refugees.1 Its inland refugee determination system is considered the gold standard all over the world. Furthermore, Canadians have a generous refugee sponsorship program, which allows groups of persons, not just the government, to sponsor overseas refugees. This system is not without its problems. One notable example is that some border crossers at the Canada-United States border are denied the right to a refugee hearing and are consequently in danger of being sent back—before their refugee claim is assessed—to places where they may face persecution and/or torture. Not- withstanding such shortcomings, Canada is a democracy; there are continual efforts to improve the refugee system through dialogue between the courts and the legislature, advocacy and education by lawyers, NGOs, and migrants themselves, and the hard work of civil servants working to improve the system.
Topic:
Migration, Refugee Issues, Democracy, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Noncitizens
Political Geography:
Canada

307. The Right To A Nationality: No Time To Be Complacent

Author:
Erika Feller
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
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 conservative 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:
Nationalism, Sovereignty, United Nations, Refugee Issues, Law, Citizenship, Nation-State, Legal Sector, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

308. On “Civil-Military Relations and Today’s Policy Environment”

Author:
George Fust
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
This commentary responds to Thomas N. Garner’s article “Civil-Military Relations and Today’s Policy Environment” published in the Winter 2018–19 issue of Parameters (vol. 48, no. 4).
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, Military Affairs, and Civil-Military Relations
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

309. The Utility of Civil-Military Relations for Intelligence Professionals

Author:
George Fust
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
This article seeks to help intelligence professionals better define an operating environment through the use of civil military relations theory.
Topic:
Intelligence, Military Strategy, Military Affairs, and Civil-Military Relations
Political Geography:
Global Focus

310. Treaty Termination and the Presidency: Using Custom to Solve Separation of Powers Disputes

Author:
Joseph M. Lapointe
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
The debate over whether the President, the Senate, or the Congress has primacy in treaty termination remains unsettled. Professor Curtis Bradley incorrectly argues that custom supports a presidential authority to terminate treaties independently. This paper argues that a fuller view of custom, combined with the Intent of the Framers and functional considerations, shows treaty termination is a shared executive-legislative power.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Politics, Treaties and Agreements, Leadership, and Federalism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

311. An Obituary for Austerity Narratives? An Experimental Analysis of Public Opinion Shifts and Class Dynamics during the Covid-19 Crisis

Author:
Emanuele Ferragina and Andrew Zola
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting the international political economy context unlike any event since World War II. As a consequence, the French government has, at least momentarily, reversed decades of fiscal consolidation policies sedimented around austerity narratives by instating a costly emergency furlough scheme for a third of the workforce. This crisis provides a natural setting to investigate the relations among an emerging “critical juncture” in political economy, public preferences, and the salience of austerity narratives. We collected panel data and administered two experiments to test if citizens’ viewpoints are sensitive to the trade-off between health and economics, still receptive to austerity narratives, and conditioned by socioeconomic status in supporting them. We find public viewpoints were highly swayable between health and economic concerns at the first peak of the epidemic outbreak in April 2020, but they were not influenced by the austerity narratives during the phase-out of the lockdown in June, with the exception of the upper class. Overall, public support is shifting in favor of increased social spending, and austerity might no longer inhabit the majority’s “common sense.” We conclude with further implications for the study of class and conflict in a post-pandemic world.
Topic:
Economics, Political Economy, Public Opinion, Class, Macroeconomics, and Austerity
Political Geography:
Europe and France

312. The Ambiguous Consensus on Fiscal Rules: How Ideational Ambiguity Has Facilitated Social Democratic Parties’ Support of Structural Deficit Rules in the Eurozone

Author:
Andreas Eisl
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
In recent years, all eurozone member states have introduced national fiscal rules, which put limits on public deficits and debt. Fiscal rules reduce the fiscal policy discretion of politicians and affect their capacity to use public budgets for macroeconomic steering and redistribution. While such institutional discretion constraints run against the traditional policy preferences of social democratic parties, it is puzzling why they supported national fiscal rule reforms during the European debt crisis. This paper argues that the concept of structural deficit rules, central to reform efforts across the eurozone, allowed for the formation of an ambiguous consensus between center-right and center-left parties. While conservative and liberal parties are generally supportive of institutional discretion constraints, structural deficit rules – in contrast to nominal deficit rules – allowed social democratic and other left-wing parties to link such rules with their broader policy preferences of Keynesian countercyclical policymaking and the protection of tax revenues across the economic cycle to ensure the state’s capacity for redistribution. Drawing on three country case studies (Germany, Austria, France), this paper shows how the concept of structural deficit rules facilitated – at least discursively – the support for discretion-constraining institutions among social democratic and other left-wing parties. In theoretical terms, this study also advances research on the role of ambiguity in political decision-making, (re-)conceptualizing three forms of ambiguity underlying ambiguous consensus: textual ambiguity, institutional ambiguity, and ideational ambiguity
Topic:
Economics, Macroeconomics, Fiscal Policy, Eurozone, Political Parties, Public Debt, and Fiscal Deficit
Political Geography:
France, Germany, and Austria

313. The Great Separation: Top Earner Segregation at Work in High-Income Countries

Author:
Olivier Godechot, Paula Apascaritei, István Boza, Lasse Folke Henriksen, and Are Skeie Hermansen
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
Analyzing linked employer-employee panel administrative databases, we study the evolving isolation of higher earners from other employees in eleven countries: Canada, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Spain, South Korea, and Sweden. We find in almost all countries a growing workplace isolation of top earners and dramatically declining exposure of top earners to bottom earners. We compare these trends to segregation based on occupational class, education, age, gender, and nativity, finding that the rise in top earner isolation is much more dramatic and general across countries. We find that residential segregation is also growing, although more slowly than segregation at work, with top earners and bottom earners increasingly living in different distinct municipalities. While work and residential segregation are correlated, statistical modeling suggests that the primary causal effect is from work to residential segregation. These findings open up a future research program on the causes and consequences of top earner segregation.
Topic:
Economics, Political Economy, Labor Issues, Income Inequality, Class, and Labor Market
Political Geography:
Europe

314. Growth Models and the Footprint of Transnational Capital

Author:
Patrick Kaczmarczyk
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
The definition of various growth models is the latest innovation of comparative capitalism (CC) research. Yet, the literature has its weaknesses in explaining the dynamics within and the interdependencies between different growth models. I argue that this weakness stems inter alia from an inadequate conceptualization of transnational corporations (TNCs). I provide empirical evidence on the footprint of international capital in the global economy and outline how including TNCs as a unit of analysis can help us to better understand economic outcomes. This leads to several implications for the growth models literature, which I conclude my argument with.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Global Political Economy, Economic Growth, Transnational Actors, Multinational Corporations, and Macroeconomics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

315. Primary Dealer Systems in the European Union

Author:
Jenny Preunkert
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
States require money to function and therefore every government has to continuously raise new funds. On the financial markets, governments cannot be sure that auctions of their debt will be sufficiently attractive to financial investors, which is why governments usually enter into cooperative agreements with selected banks. The best known and most widespread form of cooperation is the primary dealer system. Primary dealers are banks that agree to participate regularly in government debt auctions and to act as formalized market makers on government debt markets. The article analyzes European primary dealer systems and asks why banks are willing to participate in these systems. I will show that both domestic and foreign banks use their status as primary dealers to build long-term relationships with one or more European governments and to gain an advantage on the global stage. In Bourdieu’s terms, primary dealer banks use their financial capital to accumulate social and symbolic capital.
Topic:
Debt, Economics, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Financial Markets, Banks, and Macroeconomics
Political Geography:
Europe and European Union

316. Regional Development Performance in Council Areas of Scotland with the Highest Percentage of Gaelic Speakers

Author:
Craig Willis
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Research on Gaelic language in Scotland has increased substantially in recent decades, as has Scottish regional development programmes following devolution. However, the overlapping of these two aspects remains limited, particularly in the context of regional development data available on regions where Scottish Gaelic speakers mostly reside. This Research Paper uses the OECD Regional Wellbeing index as a framework to measure regional development in Scotland at the level of council area, comparing this with its percentage of Gaelic speakers. Equivalent data for eight of the eleven OECD topics is analysed and the focus is placed on the three council areas with significant Gaelic speaking populations – Argyll and Bute, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Highland. The results show that these three regions consistently perform average or good across the eight topics measured, in comparison to the national average in Scotland. This demonstrates that Gaelic language is not a hindrance to development and the three regions perform comparably to other remote council areas such as the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
Topic:
Development, Minorities, Language, Regionalism, and Identity
Political Geography:
Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, and Scotland

317. Economic Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Roma Communities in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine

Author:
Craig Willis
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
This Research Paper focuses on economic effects experienced by Roma communities in seven non-EU states during the COVID-19 pandemic and states’ consequent lockdown measures in the first half of 2020. Roma communities in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine, were all facing socio-economic exclusion and marginalisation before the pandemic and international organisations were warning very early on that Roma communities were at serious risk during the pandemic, including in the fields of employment or loss of income. This research paper uses primary data collected from a survey of 440 Roma individuals across the seven states in order to add empirical evidence to an under-researched area. The main findings include that almost 73% of them experienced a reduced income and the major reason for this was due to access to or demand for informal work was hindered by the lockdowns. Moreover, most Roma who needed to borrow money did so through private means (family and friends) rather than through official or state institutions.
Topic:
Economics, Minorities, Ethnicity, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Identity
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia

318. Inclusion in Crisis: The Case of Irish Travellers during the First Months of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Author:
Akofa Boglo
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Since the World Health Organisation characterised Covid-19 as a pandemic in early 2020 (WHO, 2020), the spread of the virus and efforts to control it have necessitated an ongoing restructuring of interactions between individuals, communities and entire societies. The pandemic has been an inconvenience for some and a disaster for others. Minority communities in particular have increasingly been shown to be disproportionately affected by the direct and indirect impact of the virus, which has highlighted and exacerbated existing inequalities. This paper aims to add to efforts to understand the impact of this multi-faceted crisis on societies and in particular minority communities through an assessment of the space between government and minority community responses in the Republic of Ireland. By considering how Traveller organisations have worked to protect the Traveller community, and the extent to which this effort was met and supported by the Government of Ireland’s ‘governance response’ during the first ‘wave’ of the pandemic, this case study aims to contribute to understandings of minority agency and inclusion in liberal democratic societies both during and outside of times of crisis, and hopes to show that moments of upheaval are not by necessity points of deterioration for minorities, but can carry the potential for more inclusive practices, processes and societies moving forward.
Topic:
Minorities, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, Identity, and Travel
Political Geography:
Europe and Ireland

319. Mapping, Measuring, and Managing Methane: The Critical Role of a Potent Climate Pollutant

Author:
Deborah Gordon and Frances Reuland
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
Earth's temperature is rising to dangerous levels. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly urgent. Although carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas, short-lived climate pollutants like methane are rapidly accelerating global warming in the near term. Methane emissions are on the rise. The global growth in oil and gas production and consumption is a prime driver. A new report released today by researchers at the Watson Institute identifies a multi-pronged approach for mapping and measuring methane and provides new tools to more effectively manage this super pollutant. Under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, authors Deborah Gordon, Watson Institute Senior Fellow, and Frances Reuland, former Brown University Researcher, assess the many ways that methane escapes from the oil and gas sector, both unintentionally and purposefully. Using a first-of-its-kind model under development, the Oil Climate Index + Gas, they estimate that oil operations are at greater risk for intentional venting and flaring of methane while gas operations pose a higher risk of inadvertent fugitive methane and accidental releases. The ability to focus detection and policymaking on the operators who bear direct emissions responsibility holds out the best prospects for methane reductions worldwide. While governments, NGOs, and companies continue to improve their methods to pinpoint and measure methane, difficulties remain. Overcoming these barriers requires: increased transparency and data collection; improved oversight through monitoring, reporting, and verification; regulations and binding agreements; research and development (R&D) and technology transfer; and financial incentives and penalties. In order to offer durable climate solutions, efforts to mitigate methane must be designed to withstand future political pressures.
Topic:
Climate Change, Science and Technology, Pollution, Fossil Fuels, and Methane
Political Geography:
Global Focus

320. State-led Responses to the Indian Energy Challenge: Infrastructure Expenditure, Central Public Sector Enterprises and Electrification

Author:
José Eduardo Cassiolato, Maria Gabriela von Bochkor Podcameni, Elisa Possas Gomes, and Manuel Gonzalo
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
BRICS Policy Center
Abstract:
In the 21st century, economic growth, increasing urbanization, demographic expansion, and advances in electrification as important drivers of energy demand have put significant pressure on the Indian energy landscape. Indeed, energy infrastructure problems are a major hindrance to India’s economic growth. The central objective of this paper is to present and analyze some of the main State-led policy efforts that have been put in place to address India’s energy challenge. In particular, we examine three main types of state-led energy policy in India: a) infrastructure expenditure, b) Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) investments and Research and Development (R&D) strategies, and c) electrification. Firstly, we present and examine current data on the role of the state in the development of India’s energy sector. Secondly, we provide a nuanced examination of the role of public-private relations in India’s energy sector, especially in contrast to the widespread advancement of the neoliberal agenda in the country recent years. We conclude that the Indian State has fostered an increasing participation of the private sector in infrastructure, especially in renewable energies in which PPPs type of procurement have been more relevant. CPSEs’ expenditure in R&D has been of main importance in oil as well as in power. However, most of them tend to adapt foreign technologies instead of balancing foreign technologies with domestic technological efforts. Therefore, a main contemporary challenge for the Indian CPSEs performing in the energy sector is to deepen their connections and interaction with the other Indian NSI actors. Through the electrification process, the State has created markets for the private sector. Finally, we recommend further energy-related questions to be addressed in future research projects.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, United Nations, Public Sector, Renewable Energy, Private Sector, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
India

321. The Helmand Food Zone: The Illusion of Success

Author:
David Mansfield
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This study documents how the Helmand Food Zone was developed, its origins and architects, as well as the different actors involved in the implementation and the subsequent challenges of delivery. Initially presented as a drug control project, the Helmand Food Zone came to be accredited for supporting stabilisation and governance in the Helmand province between 2008 and 2012. Driven by political demands rather than evidence, the program became a flagship in Helmand, and lauded as a success, despite evidence to the contrary. The study builds on in-depth fieldwork and high-resolution satellite imagery collected before, during and after the implementation of the Helmand Food Zone, as well as interviews with some of the main protagonists in the donor community. In total, 4,122 household interviews took place with farmers over an 11-year period in either all or some of the 28 research sites in Helmand province, in areas both north and south of the Boghra canal. The latest body of fieldwork was conducted in spring 2018 and consisted of 310 interviews in the same research sites, supplemented with a further 52 interviews with women who resided in former desert areas.
Topic:
Food, Governance, Women, and Drugs
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and South Asia

322. Nomad-settler conflict in Afghanistan today

Author:
Antonio Giustozzi
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
Conflict between nomads and settlers appeared repeatedly in the media in Afghanistan and elsewhere after 2001, but it has rarely been studied systematically. In order to fill this gap, AREU launched a three-pronged research project on Natural Resources Management (NRM) in December 2016 supported by the EU. The purpose of this paper is primarily to inform and update policymaking on matters related to nomad-settler conflict in Afghanistan, as well as to lay the foundations for future research efforts. It provides a first, and necessarily mapped, assessment of the conflict and of resolution efforts as they stood in 2017—2019. The study looks at the several drivers of nomad-settler conflict, including the opacity around the Pastures Law, the government weakness, or demographic pressure over a scarcer irrigated land. It then looks at past conflict resolution efforts and their limited impact, before formulating recommendations around hybrid solutions where the state would play only a limited role. It also discusses possible options for future, improved resolution efforts.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Governance, Conflict, Public Policy, Land, and Nomad
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and South Asia

323. Strengthening Climate Resilience through Integration of Climate Change, Women and Youth Issues in Uganda's Agriculture Sector: Analysis of Agriculture Related Policies and Programmes

Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
This report provides insights into building a gender sensitive climate smart agriculture while reducing the vulnerability of women, youth and refugees to the adversity impacted by climate change. It shows that successful mainstreaming of climate change in the agricultural sector and implementation of gender sensitive climate resilient agricultural policies, programmes and practices require strong and reliable climate information services and early warning systems, enhanced technical and institutional capacities, enabling legal framework, and strong monitoring and reporting mechanisms. A strong commitment to innovative climate financing and increasing budget allocation for climate change to the sectors especially Local Governments (LGs) is also essential.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Gender Issues, and Government
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

324. Contract Transparency in Uganda's Petroleum and Mining Sectors

Author:
Paul Bagabo, Onesmus Mugyenyi, Siragi Magara, and Paul Twebaze
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
This publication draws from the literature on contract transparency as well as interviews with key experts in Uganda's extractives sector. It concludes that while legal frameworks on transparency and disclosure provisions exist, they have not been effective in ensuring that citizens gain access to information on the details of the contracts; and the level of contract transparency and disclosure in the oil and gas sector is higher than in the mining sector. While information on mining licenses is provided on the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development website and the mining cadastre is publicly available, vital information on actual deposits and revenue sharing is not publicly available. Uganda is party to several transparency initiatives and publicly committed to joining the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Despite the membership to these initiatives, the level of transparency and disclosure of extractives contracts is still low. In order to ensure that contract transparency contributes to increased accountability in the sector, this publication makes several recommendations.
Topic:
Oil, Natural Resources, Democracy, and Citizenship
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

325. Does Financial Literacy Influence Use of Mobile Financial Services in Malawi? Evidence from Malawi Household Survey Data

Author:
Mirriam Muhome-Matita and Takondwa Chauma
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
Abstract:
Mobile financial services are gaining prominence and could be a possible avenue for fast-tracking financial inclusion in developing countries, including Malawi. However, adoption and usage of such services remains low among the Malawi population. This study investigates the influence of financial literacy on financial behaviour of individuals in Malawi, specifically use of mobile phone-based financial transactions. Descriptive and econometric analyses were conducted using cross-sectional data obtained from the Reserve Bank of Malawi. Findings reveal that the likelihood of using mobile financial services increases with increasing levels of financial literacy, type of employment and peri-urban residence. Furthermore, men are more likely to transact on mobile phones than females and that although income levels matter in the use of mobile financial transactions, the magnitude of effect is negligible. Results suggest opportunities for expanding access to financial services and products such as differentiation in financial literacy education by characteristics of population including gender of users. Informal settings do not preclude expansion of digital payments, and therefore financial product innovation and addressing rural resident’s constraints to access mobile financial services is crucial.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Labor Issues, Income Inequality, Labor Policies, and Banks
Political Geography:
Malawi

326. UK Research Aid: Tied, Opaque and Off-Topic?

Author:
G. Lee Robinson, Euan Ritchie, and Charles Kenny
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The UK has considerably increased the amount of aid it spends on research in recent years. This policy follows statements by DFID that research is among the best ways of spending aid. It also follows the UK legislating a commitment to spend 0.7 percent of GNI as foreign aid. In pursuing this target, the UK has decreased the proportion of bilateral aid spent through DFID and has channelled more through other departments. BEIS and the Department for Health and Social Care have been big recipients, and research accounts for much of their increased share of aid budgets. The information associated with the majority of this research aid is vague, raising questions about transparency. A large amount of the research is financed using an allocation mechanism that effectively ties it to UK institutions. There are also questions as to the poverty focus of some of the research conducted, given the explicit intention of the UK government to find existing activity to reclassify as ODA following the legislating of the 0.7 percent target. We suggest reporting reforms that will increase transparency and allow greater scrutiny of the way UK research aid is spent. We also call for the UK to live up to its reporting to the OECD that all British aid is untied.
Topic:
Health, Research, Academia, and Funding
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

327. Digital Technology and State Capacity in Kenya

Author:
Njuguna Ndung'u
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Following the launch of M-Pesa in 2007, Kenya has emerged as a global leader in the development of mobile money and in increasing rates of financial inclusion. This paper shows how M-Pesa’s success has led to a series of endogenous innovations that have shaped Kenya’s digital space, placing it ahead of other developing economies in the region in the deployment and use of digital technology. It also explains how the mobile financial services revolution enabled the government to implement its e-governance strategy to better provide a range of services and opportunities to beneficiaries of public programs, business, taxpayers and investors, as well as dynamizing the private sector. At the same time, even as it contributes to strengthening state capacity, the digital revolution makes new demands on the state, and the paper outlines several important challenges that Kenya will need to address in order to further consolidate its success. These include improving connectivity across the country, ensuring a fully interoperable mobile payments platform and implementing measures to strengthen consumer protection. Another important focus for the future is to transition to a fully digital identification (e-ID) system. The thrust of the paper is to provide inspiration and guidance for other countries to use Kenya’s achievements as an example.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Governance, Leadership, Innovation, Digital Policy, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

328. People-Driven Response: Power and Participation in Humanitarian Action

Author:
Jeremy Konyndyk and Rose Worden
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The notion that humanitarian response should center on the people it serves, rather than the aid agencies serving them, has been repeatedly codified in humanitarian commitments as far back as the early 1990s. Yet the mainstream humanitarian system has struggled to translate these commitments into practice: corresponding reform efforts have failed to systemically broaden accountability to and participation of aid recipients in response efforts. Major constraints have included misaligned incentive structures between donors and aid agencies, power imbalances between aid providers and aid recipients, and operational and political complexities arising at field level. To produce real systemic change, the aid system must move beyond technical and rhetorical approaches to accountability and begin reshaping the power and incentive structures that influence aid decision-making. This paper proposes a set of mutually reinforcing recommendations centered around three imperatives: enshrining the influence of aid recipients at all levels of aid decision-making; developing independent channels for soliciting the priorities and perspectives of crisis-affected people; and institutionalizing a set of enabling changes to humanitarian operational and personnel practices.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Institutionalism, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

329. Five Principles for Use of Aid in Subsidies to the Private Sector

Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
There is a significant and ongoing ramp-up in support for explicitly subsidized official development finance to the private sector around the world, but its role remains poorly defined. Lessons from the aid effectiveness literature as a whole and principles on effective use of aid suggest the need for approaches that do not merely finance the marginal private investment. Regarding experience of government intervention in markets, subsidies are only one of many options to incentivize the private sector, and bespoke subsidies provided by outside actors are rarely likely to be the most efficient form. This paper discusses where outside subsidy of the private sector may make sense and develops principles for the use of aid in subsidies based on that analysis. Subsidies should be allocated on the basis of necessity in meeting public policy goals; the norm for subsidy allocations should be competitive approaches or open offers; non-competitive subsidies should only support market making; subsidy levels should be capped; and subsidy levels should be transparent. Much of the content of these “new” principles is already implied or specified by the existing Multilateral Development Bank Principles to Support Sustainable Private Sector Operations, but they suggest that development finance institutions should not use their standard business model when using subsidies.
Topic:
Development, Privatization, Foreign Aid, Private Sector, and Subsidies
Political Geography:
Global Focus

330. Can the US Development Finance Corporation Compete?

Author:
Charles Kenny
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The new US International Development Finance Corporation (USDFC) will be considerably larger than its predecessor, and it will also be more focused on low and lower middle income countries. It will have new tools to deliver but face expanded competition. The major challenge to the DFC is not Chinese investment (which largely funds projects ill-suited to support from the DFC), but other development finance institutions, many of which are deploying increasing quantities of subsidized capital to attract project sponsors. It is not clear that there are sufficient suitable deals in the shrinking set of low and lower-middle income countries to absorb DFI development finance, and the USDFC could lose projects to subsidized finance from elsewhere if this turns out to be the case. Given that, it should be a priority for the United States to agree rules with other donors that prevent development finance institutions from competing on the basis of subsidy. The new DFC needs increased capacity to deliver deals: both the tools provided by the BUILD Act which are being constrained by the administration and the staff and budget to actively build a pipeline of projects. A considerably bolstered administrative budget may involve reducing –potentially to zero—the profitability OPIC traditionally enjoyed.
Topic:
Development, Governance, Finance, Institutions, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

331. Ecological Fiscal Transfers and Subnational Budgets: Did Forest-Based Fiscal Devolution Lead Indian States to Increase Forestry Expenditure?

Author:
Jonah Busch, Avani Kapur, and Anit Mukherjee
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Later this year, India’s 15th Finance Commission will review the formula used by its predecessor to determine how much central tax revenue will be devolved to each state for fiscal years 2020-21 through 2024-25. Currently, 7.5 percent of the fiscal devolution (an estimated $6.9-12 billion per year) is allocated in proportion to their forest area circa 2013. These “ecological fiscal transfers” (EFTs) provide Indian states with the incentive to increase their forestry budgets as an investment in increased future shares of central taxes. In this paper, we look at whether states are yet taking advantage of this opportunity. We find that states increased their forestry budgets by 19 percent in three years after the introduction of EFTs relative to three years prior. However, this increase is considerably less than the 42 percent overall budget increase over the same time period. We surmise that states are not yet certain that EFTs will continue in such a way that increases in forest cover will be rewarded with increases in revenue. We recommend that the 15th Finance Commission resolve this uncertainty for states by (i) keeping forests in the devolution formula, and (ii) updating the reference year (e.g. 2019). By doing so India’s EFTs can fulfill their potential as an innovative mechanism for incentivizing states to protect and restore forests, thereby mitigating climate change.
Topic:
Environment, Governance, Fiscal Policy, Ecology, and Forest
Political Geography:
India and Asia

332. Lending Terms for IFAD Projects

Author:
Scott Morris and Jessie Lu
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Donor support for agriculture development is not keeping pace with developing country demand or the need for finance implied by Sustainable Development Goal 2. In order to increase the overall volume of resources available for these needs, IFAD is pursuing a reform agenda that considers providing loans on harder terms to its client countries. This study assesses whether this hardening of lending terms will affect country demand for projects. Using the World Bank experience as a proxy, this paper examines whether graduation from the International Development Association to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development affects the sector portfolios of countries and the types of investment demands within agriculture through both statistical and qualitative country case study analysis. We find that as countries graduate, there is a relative shift away from “soft” sector investments and a different mix of investments within the agricultural sector. We argue that IFAD’s consideration of harder lending terms should also include consideration of how to respond to a different mix of country demand within the agricultural sector. Specifically, the fund should consider some scaling up of projects, increased emphasis on capital investments, and a greater emphasis on policy engagement with client countries.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Investment, Sustainability, and Banking
Political Geography:
Global Focus

333. Religion, Violence, and the State in Iraq

Author:
Marc Lynch and David Siddhartha Patel
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
Iraq was long neglected by Middle East political scientists, rarely treated as a comparative case for studies of democratization or social mobilization and generally viewed as an exceptional outlier case in studies of authoritarianism. Islamist movements in Iraq received little attention, despite the participation of a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party in government as well as the fascinating array of Shi‘i Islamist movements and parties that have competed in elections and governed the country since 2005. The neglect of Iraq had many causes. Prior to 2003, Saddam Hussein’s security state offered little access to researchers of any kind, while the intense violence and insecurity in the decade after his overthrow deterred most scholars who were not embedded with coalition authorities or the U.S. military. Political opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq may also have led scholars to avoid research which they thought might somehow vindicate the Bush administration’s calls for democratization through regime change. In recent years, however, the study of Iraq has undergone a quiet renaissance. Iraq has become comparatively safer and more open to academic research than in the past, while other Arab countries have become closed to researchers or less safe. New outrages since the 2011 Arab Uprisings, such as the debates over intervention in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, have perhaps eased the unique stigma surrounding the post-2003 Iraqi project, while a younger generation of scholars may be less shaped by the politics of that moment. The failed states and civil wars of the post-2011 period arguably have made Iraq “less unique,” with its experience now viewed as offering valuable comparative perspective. The opening of the Ba‘ath Party archives to researchers, while problematic in some ways, has created the possibility for genuinely unique archival study of the inner workings of an Arab autocracy. And a generation of young Iraqi scholars has emerged writing about their own country’s politics and society. This has led to a rethinking of the relationships among religion, violence, and the Iraqi state before and after 2003. How much control did the Ba‘th regime have over society immediately before the invasion, and what role did violence play in that control? In what ways did the regime’s Faith Campaign in the 1990s influence the post-invasion prominence of religious actors? Why did sectarian politics and violence become so pronounced soon after the invasion yet later ebb? Finally, what dynamics within Iraq are missed by looking at the country through a lens that prioritizes sectarianism? In April 2019, POMEPS and the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University brought together almost two dozen scholars to discuss these and other topics. The authors come from different disciplines – political science, history, sociology, and urban studies – and employ a range of methodologies and sources of data. All of the authors have conducted research either in Iraq or in the Ba‘th Party Records at the Hoover Institution or both. The 14 papers in POMEPS Studies 35: Religion, Violence, and the State in Iraq exemplify the ways in which scholars are using new perspectives, data, and sources to offer insights into religion, violence, and the state in Iraq’s past, present, and future.
Topic:
Democratization, Religion, War, Sectarianism, Islamic State, Ethnicity, State, and Violence
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

334. Youth Politics in the Middle East and North Africa

Author:
Sean Yom, Wael ak-Khatib, Begum Uzun, Matt Gordner, Giulia Cimini, Yousra Kadi, Dina El-Sharnouby, Sarah Fischer, Aziza Moneer, Curtis R. Ryan, Sara Ababneh, Yazan Doughan, Aydin Ozipek, Makiko Nambu, Sarah A. Tobin, Justin Gengler, and Sarah Anne Rennick
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
Youth political activism has been challenging Middle East and North African political systems frequently and forcefully over the last decade. This is not a new phenomenon, of course. Young people have historically stood at the forefront of popular uprisings and cultural movements. Demographic realities in the Middle East have increased the latent potential for disruptive youth activism. Nearly 60 percent of people in the region fall under the age of 30, half of whom are aged between 15 and 29, and in almost every country, unemployment for working-age youth exceeds the overall jobless rate. The failures of the 2011 Arab uprisings to achieve lasting democratic change revealed the limits of street protests, but the underlying problems remain profoundly unresolved. How are young people questioning, subverting, and transforming the boundaries of politics in the post-uprising Middle East and North Africa? In June 2019, the Project on Middle East Political Science convened a workshop on youth politics in Amman, Jordan, in cooperation with the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies. The workshop’s papers and deliberations sought to unpack the meaning of youth politics. What characterizes the latest wave of youth mobilization? How is youth activism, and youth politics, changing public attitudes and government policies? Can any generalizations be made about youthfulness, and the experience of being young and political, in the Middle East today? The essays contained in POMEPS Studies 36: Youth Politics in the Middle East and North Africa attempt to answer these questions. They come from scholars who, through intensive fieldwork in varying countries, study the origins and processes of activism among young people through diverse methodologies and orientations.
Topic:
Politics, Political Activism, Women, Youth, Protests, Sexual Violence, and Revolution
Political Geography:
Sudan, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, North Africa, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia

335. The Politics of Rentier States in the Gulf

Author:
Michael Herb, Marc Lynch, Makio Yamada, Jim Krane, Ishac Diwan, Steffen Hertog, Andrew Leber, Jessie Moritz, Karen E. Young, Justin Gengler, Michael Ewers, Bethany Shockley, Claire Beaugrand, Crystal A. Ennis, Calvert W. Jones, Benjamin Smith, David Waldner, and Khalid Abu-Ismail
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
More than two generations have passed since oil transformed the economies and societies of the Gulf monarchies. Gulf citizens enjoy opportunities unimaginable without oil wealth and have the security of a comprehensive welfare state. But how sustainable are the Gulf economies? Citizen populations continue to grow, oil reserves continue to fall, technological advances could lessen world demand for the Gulf’s oil, and price fluctuations make planning difficult. Most Gulf monarchies have made little progress in transitioning away from oil despite these widely-recognized incipient problems. Periods of lower oil prices are met with deficit spending until prices rise again, rather than serious economic restructuring. They have built economies with deep structural imbalances that make it more rather than less difficult to reduce their reliance on oil – and political orders which are deeply constituted by those imbalances and threatened by reform. The political economies shaped by oil wealth have been primarily studied in the political science literature through the concept of the rentier state, which suggests that the dominance of oil wealth has distinctive, largely unavoidable political, social, and economic effects. Rentier state theory developed to explain the difficulty of diversifying economies, the bloating and inefficiencies of state institutions, the absence of democracy, the power of national security states, and patriarchal political cultures. Among scholars whose work focuses on the Gulf, though, the theory of the rentier state appears more often as a foil than as a bedrock theoretical perspective. Does rentier state theory actually explain political outcomes and structures in the Gulf? The contributions and limitations of rentier state theory in the Gulf were the focus of a workshop convened by the Project on Middle East Political Science at the Elliott School of International Affairs in September 2018. The discussions among a diverse, interdisciplinary set of scholars revolved around the nature and extent of the coming challenges to Gulf economies, and the inadequacy of existing theories of the rentier state to account for the political implications. The papers presented in POMEPS Studies 33: The Politics of Rentier States in the Gulf range widely across countries, economic sectors, and political manifestations and bring anthropological and ethnographic perspectives into dialogue with economists and political scientists.
Topic:
Economics, Oil, Politics, Citizenship, Tax Systems, Labor Market, and Rentier State Theory
Political Geography:
Saudi Arabia and Gulf Nations

336. Shifting Global Politics and the Middle East

Author:
Marc Lynch and Amaney Jamal
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
What is the current structure of international relations, and how does this shape the politics of the Middle East? For decades, the answer was clear: international structure was unipolar, and American predominance shaped the alliance choices of both its allies and its adversaries. In recent years, this clarity has been overtaken by confusion. American primacy has perhaps declined, or at least shifted in its application, but no rival power has yet risen to take its place. How has this perceived change in global structure affected regional politics in the Middle East? In October 2018, POMEPS, Princeton University’s Bobst Center, and the American University of Beirut brought together nearly two dozen scholars from the United States, Europe and the Middle East at AUB to discuss the impact of shifting global structure on regional dynamics. This collection features sixteen essays ranging across diverse perspectives on the evolving relationship between the global and the regional. Taken together, they offer a fascinating window into the relationship between the global and the regional, and the implications for contemporary regional politics.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Diplomacy, Politics, Poverty, Power Politics, European Union, Partnerships, Inequality, Brexit, Arab Spring, Alliance, Conflict, Transatlantic Relations, Donald Trump, and Regional Power
Political Geography:
China, Europe, Middle East, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North America, United States of America, and Gulf Nations

337. Strong Organization, Weak Ideology: Muslim Brotherhood Trajectories in Egyptian Prisons Since 2013

Author:
Abdülrahman Ayyash
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
On 28 January 2011 – as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians demonstrated on the day dubbed the “Friday of Anger” – Muslim Brotherhood member, Sameh, was demonstrating with several thousand others in Mansoura in the Nile Delta (120 km north of Cairo). As demonstrators began to throw stones at the State Security Investigations building, Sameh stood in front of them shouting “peaceful”. He was hit in the chest by a stone meant to hit the building in one of the city's most prestigious neighbourhoods. Two years later, Sameh was arrested on an array of charges, including joining the Brotherhood and committing acts of violence against the state. A few months later, he told a friend waiting on death row that he considered the Muslim Brotherhood to be apostates and that he had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (Daesh) and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Sameh's case is not unique. According to several detainees – including current prisoners spoken to over the phone – there are ongoing changes among detainees who have spent most of their lives as Muslim Brotherhood members. Egyptian prisons host tens of thousands of political detainees – perhaps more than 60,000 according to Human Rights Watch.2 Arrests have mainly targeted members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. However, with increased armed attacks against the army and police, arrests have also targeted alleged supporters of Daesh, al-Qa’ida, and Islamists affiliated with smaller organizations. The Egyptian National Council for Human Rights documented prison overcrowding at a rate of at least 160%,3 forcing the authorities to build 20 new prisons since the military coup in the summer of 2013.4 Importantly, this has led to an increased exchange of influences and ideologies among detainees from diverse backgrounds. Detainees – those held after referral to the judiciary or sentencing – are often relocated during their detention, including frequent transfers to temporary detention centres during court hearings, or when brought before the Public Prosecution or for medical treatment. This further facilitates communication with different prison populations and discussion and exchange of ideas between detainees. This paper does not dwell upon traditional classifications imposed on Islamic movements in terms of moderate and extremist trends. Nor does it go into detail regarding the mechanisms of individual radicalization, though it does encourage further study. Instead, we focus on the developmental dynamics of Muslim Brotherhood youth and sympathizers in Egypt, especially those who were arrested during the breakup of sit-ins supporting former President Mohamed Morsi. Developmental dynamics refer to the conditions and contexts which Brotherhood members and sympathizers experience in prison. These inform broader understandings of issues including state and society relations, and social mobility through jihad as opposed to social mobility through the Brotherhood. This paper also discusses the ways in which the Muslim Brotherhood manages its members inside prison, and its attempts to maintain the Brotherhood's administrative and intellectual organization. It is based primarily on information collected during 10 rare phone interviews with current prisoners. It is also based on additional phone and face-to-face interviews with former prisoners inside and outside Egypt. The interviewees come from five different cities and have been in at least seven prisons, including Tora, Wadi al-Natroun, Mansoura and Gamasa; for security and technical reasons, it was not possible to expand the research cohort. The paper is also based on reviews of articles written by detainees, press reports, opinion pieces, and research papers dealing with the complex social phenomenon of the Muslim Brotherhood from different angles.
Topic:
Human Rights, Prisons/Penal Systems, Arab Spring, Protests, and Ideology
Political Geography:
Africa, North Africa, Egypt, and Mediterranean

338. Kashmir: A Case for Self-Determination

Author:
Hafsa Kanjwal
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
On 5 August 2019, the Indian government unilaterally changed the legal status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, undermining its own constitutional process and completely annexing a territory that remains disputed in the international arena. In a statement to the Indian parliament, the Indian Home Minister announced the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status enshrined in Article 370 of the Indian constitution, as well as the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories to be directly governed by the central government. Since then, the government has placed Indian-occupied Kashmir on lockdown. Despite restrictions on the movement of reporters and human rights observers and a clampdown on communication infrastructure (including the internet and some phone services), there have been reports of widespread human rights abuses including extrajudicial detentions (including of minors), torture, sexual violence, and lack of access to basic medical and healthcare services.
Topic:
Post Colonialism, Territorial Disputes, Self Determination, Colonialism, and Empire
Political Geography:
India, East Asia, and Kashmir

339. Toward A Drug-Free Society: The Singapore Approach

Author:
Ng Ser Song
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Illicit drug use exacts a high cost on abusers, their families, and ultimately society as a whole. Livelihoods are lost, relationships are destroyed, children suffer, and the wider community pays a hefty price through a resulting worsened crime situation. Singapore has hence adopted a harm-prevention approach to drugs, incorporating educational, legal, and rehabilitative measures. While we acknowledge that there is a variety of approaches to drug policy globally, our approach has worked well for our local context and enabled people here to live to their fullest potentials.
Topic:
Crime, Health, Law, Criminal Justice, and Drugs
Political Geography:
Singapore and Global Focus

340. Saving Secularism in India

Author:
Mani Shankar Aiyar
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Elected three times to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, and nominated by the President to Rajya Sabha, the upper house, for a further six years, Aiyar has served for 21 years in the Indian Parliament, been conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award (2006), and been a Cabinet Minister for five years (2004-09). He has authored seven books, including Confession of a Secular Fundamentalist, and edited the three volumes of Rajiv Gandhi’s India.
Topic:
Religion, Law, Democracy, Citizenship, Religious Law, and Secularism
Political Geography:
India

341. Kosovo 20 Years On: Implications For International Order

Author:
Edward Newman and Gëzim Visoka
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Kosovo’s small size belies the major impact it has had on the evolving international order: the norms and institutions that shape the behavior and practices of states and other international actors. In three controversial policy areas— humanitarian intervention, international peacebuilding, and international recognition—Kosovo has been the focus of events and debates with far-reaching and globally significant effects. This article will present and discuss these three subjects, and then conclude by considering how Kosovo’s future may continue to be tied to the shifting contours of international order in the context of renewed great power geopolitical rivalry.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, War, Humanitarian Intervention, and Military Intervention
Political Geography:
Kosovo and Yugoslavia

342. The Extraordinary Gamble: How the Yugoslav Tribunal’s Indictment of Slobodan Milošević During the Kosovo War Affected Peace Efforts

Author:
Jacqueline R. McAllister
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
On 24 May 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY or Yugoslav Tribunal) made history by becoming the first international court to indict a sitting head of state: Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević. Since Milošević’s rise to power roughly a decade before, forces either directly or indirectly under his control had unleashed a reign of terror first in Croatia, then in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally in Kosovo. Indicting Milošević was no small feat: he did everything in his power to cover his tracks. Moreover, in order to secure crucial evidence (e.g., intelligence and satellite imagery linking Serb forces to crime sites) and the support necessary to actually put Milošević on trial, the ICTY required the backing of Western powers, which—until the Kosovo War in 1999—viewed Milošević as a vital, yet unsavory guarantor of peace in the region. Reactions to the indictment were mixed. While the Yugoslav Tribunal’s supporters heralded the indictment as a legal triumph that brought Milošević to his knees, its critics emphasized that, at best, the indictment was irrelevant and, at worst, an extraordinary gamble that had the potential to thwart an end to hostilities.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, International Law, Humanitarian Intervention, and Ethnic Cleansing
Political Geography:
Europe, Yugoslavia, and Central Europe

343. Gender Based Violence In The Kosovo War

Author:
Atifete Jahjaga
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Our first question is about the ethnic cleansing that happened during the Kosovo Campaign. It is estimated that 20,000 Albanian men and women experienced sexual violence between 1998 and 2000. Many survivors of sexual violence have been hesitant to speak up, and there were also many mass killings that are only now being discovered. How, in a general sense, did you approach these issues as president given the lack of information, and how has the lack of information made the justice process more difficult?
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Law, Humanitarian Intervention, and Ethnic Cleansing
Political Geography:
Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Armenia

344. How We Succeeded In Kosovo

Author:
Wesley K. Clark
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The countries of Southeast Europe contain numerous ethnic groups that are united by shared geography but divided by language, history, and culture. These nations are located at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, and, for centuries, were subjected to Turkish invasion, Austro-Hungarian resistance, Russian Pan-Slavism, Venetian culture along the Adriatic coast, and the respective weights of Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Melding these groups into the state of Yugoslavia at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference proved only a temporary solution: with the death of Yugloslav President Josip Tito in 1980, the fractionating forces became dominant, and by 1991, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia were each struggling to secede or survive against a Serb-dominated Serbia-Montenegro.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, Humanitarian Intervention, and Military Intervention
Political Geography:
Europe, Asia, Kosovo, and Yugoslavia

345. Taking Care Of Business: Industrial Espionage And International Law

Author:
Russell Buchan
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
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.
Topic:
Globalization, International Law, Business, and Espionage
Political Geography:
Global Focus

346. On The Question Of Chinese Espionage

Author:
Nicholas Eftimiades
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Throughout recorded history, nations have employed spies to support foreign policy goals and military operations. However, such clandestine activities seldom become the subject of foreign policy themselves, and intelligence and related activities are rarely subject to public review. Yet in the People’s Republic of China, a massive “whole-of-society” approach to economic espionage is creating a new paradigm for how nations conduct, view, and address intelligence func- tions. In fact, a key element in the United States-China trade war is Washington’s insistence that Beijing cease stealing American intellectual property and trade secrets. China denies the claim, but hundreds of recently prosecuted espionage cases prove otherwise. These espionage activities are changing the global balance of power, impacting U.S. and foreign economies, and providing challenges to domestic and national security, as well as foreign policy formulation. Domesti- cally, they threaten economic security, the protection of critical infrastructure, and intellectual property rights.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, International Law, and Espionage
Political Geography:
United States and China

347. Spies, Election Meddling, And Disinformation: Past And Present

Author:
Calder Walton
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Spies, election meddling, disinformation, influence operations, data har- vesting: at present, it seems barely a moment passes without another intelligence scandal breaking on our news feeds. Following Russia’s “sweeping and systematic” attack on the 2016 U.S. presidential election—which was intended to support Moscow’s favored candidate, Donald J. Trump, and undermine his opponent, Hillary Clinton—the media frequently labeled the operation “unprecedented.” The social-media technologies that Russia deployed in its cyber-attack on the United States in 2016 were certainly new, but Russia’s strategy was far from unusual. In fact, the Kremlin has a long history of meddling in U.S. and other Western democratic elections and manufacturing disinformation to discredit and divide the West. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, has reconstituted and updated the KGB’s old Cold War playbook for the new digital age. This paper, an exercise of applied history, has two aims: first, to understand the history of Soviet disinformation, and second, to make sense of Western efforts to counter it during the Cold War. Doing so provides policy-relevant conclusions from history about countering disinformation produced by Russia and other authoritarian regimes today.
Topic:
Elections, Cybersecurity, Democracy, Election watch, and Espionage
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Soviet Union

348. American Espionage: Lessons From History

Author:
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
This essay is a historical inquiry into the issue of the intelligence community’s standing—its prestige and credibility in the eyes of the executive, Congress, the press, and the public. Its premise is that the intelligence community needs a high reputation for both competence and morality to serve the best interest of national security.
Topic:
Democracy, Domestic Politics, and Espionage
Political Geography:
United States

349. Egypt’s Consolidated Authoritarianism

Author:
Amr Hamzawy
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The current Egyptian political scene reveals an important paradox: since its ascendancy to power in 2013, the military-led authoritarian government has not faced significant challenges from civil society despite systematic hu- man rights abuses and continuous societal crises. Apart from limited protests by labor activists, student movements, and members of syndicates, Egyptians have mostly refrained from protesting, instead hoping that the government will improve their living conditions despite a rising poverty rate of 33 percent, an inflation rate between 11 and 12 percent, and unemployment at eight percent. This popular reluctance to challenge the authoritarian government has continued to shape Egypt’s reality since the collapse of the short-lived democratization process from 2011–2013.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Democracy, Rule of Law, Protests, and Dictatorship
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, North Africa, and Egypt

350. The Diffusion Of Protest Following The 2007–2008 Global Crash

Author:
Cristina Flesher Fominaya
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
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.
Topic:
Economics, Financial Crisis, Protests, and Global Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

351. What Can Protest Achieve?: The Case of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign

Author:
Carl Death
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Can protest really make a difference? Can social movements change any- thing? Do campaigns like those for fossil fuel divestment rapidly snowballing across campuses, cities, churches, and institutional investors in North America, Europe, and elsewhere have any real impact on global political economies of energy? This article argues that the answer to all of these questions is a qualified “yes.” The fossil fuel divestment campaign is a specific manifestation of environ- mental protest, which, since emerging in 2011, has changed some things and has the potential to change others more profoundly.1 Considering the case of the fossil fuel divestment campaign in detail can illuminate important insights about the role of protest in contemporary global politics. Protest movements can impact the world, as evidenced by both the fossil fuel divestment campaign and longer histories of other divestment movements that have contributed to significant struggles for structural change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Natural Resources, Protests, Global Warming, and Fossil Fuels
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

352. Examining The Rise Of Popular Protests: The People Power Movement In Uganda

Author:
David E. Kiwuwa
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The People Power Movement (PPM) in Uganda has its roots in the growing politics of discontent in Africa and across the world. On the continent, the growth of popular movements has been evident in countries like Zimbabwe, Sudan, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, and Tunisia to mention but a few. These public protests have increased notably in number with their most significant recent manifestation being the Arab Spring. An important aspect of these pro- tests is the central role played by youth movements such as Y’en Maarre (Fed Up) in Senegal, Balai Citoyen (The Civic Broom) in Burkina Faso, and La Lucha (The Struggle) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the past decade, mass uprisings in Africa have accounted for one in three of the nonviolent campaigns aiming to topple dictatorships around the world. With twenty-five new nonviolent mass movements, Africa has experienced almost twice as many as Asia, the next most active region with sixteen. What is common to all these movements is not only the active and public expression of discontent but also the existence of a long entrenched and increasingly indifferent ancien regime whose priority is political survival. In some ways, one could argue that emerging protests are largely a continuation of incomplete democratic struggles in authoritarian or semi-democratic regimes.
Topic:
Social Movement, Democracy, Domestic Politics, and Protests
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

353. The Promises And Perils Of Diaspora Mobilization Against Authoritarian Regimes

Author:
Dana Moss
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Transnational social movements play a critical role in the fight against authoritarianism, and a growing field of diaspora studies shows that exiles, émigrés, emigrants, and refugees are especially well positioned to undermine dictatorships from abroad. Given their cross-border ties, diasporas often mobilize against abuses taking place in their homelands, move aid to war zones and refugee camps, and fuel revolutionary social change. Exiles who gain the right to protest and lobby in their places of settlement can also become powerful players in international relations. Iraqi expatriate Ahmed Chalabi, who helped to justify the United States-led invasion of Iraq by fabricating evidence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, is just one example of how influential exiles can be when exacting revenge on the autocrats who abused them.
Topic:
Diaspora, Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Protests
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

354. The Politics Of Maps: Mapping The West Bank Barrier

Author:
Christine Leuenberger
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Maps and mapmaking have traditionally enjoyed the prestige of privileged and objective sources of knowledge. Within the geographic community and the public at large, it was assumed that the natural world was observable and could be rendered in pictorial form. Cartography is therefore not like psychoanalysis. It does not deal with internal phenomena hardly accessible to direct observation. Land and cityscapes do not need to be inferred or deduced. They are presumed to be susceptible to the scientific method in a most unproblematic fashion. Geographers, cartographers, historians of science, and science studies scholars, however, have increasingly questioned maps as objective representations. They have analyzed the social production of maps and maps’ link to society, culture, and geopolitics. They have found that mapmakers inevitably present a particular vantage point, one tied to certain social interests, values, and practices.
Topic:
Geopolitics, Occupation, Settler Colonialism, and Cartography
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and West Bank

355. Parag Khanna: Cartographic Conceptions For The Twenty-First Century

Author:
Parag Khanna
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Parag Khanna is a leading global strategic advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is the founder & managing partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. Parag’s newest book is The Future is Asian: Com- merce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019). He is author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also author of Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017) and co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED Magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Topic:
Geopolitics and Cartography
Political Geography:
India

356. The Modern Political Map of Our Ocean Planet

Author:
Coalter G. Lathrop
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
On land, the political map of the world has been relatively stable since the end of World War II: with some significant exceptions, most countries are, spatially, as they were in 1945 or shortly thereafter. Land borders are mostly set, and the major state-to-state territorial disputes that persist today are—again, with some notable exceptions—disputes over relatively small areas, mostly tiny insular features with negligible inherent value.
Topic:
International Relations, Geopolitics, Navy, Oceans and Seas, and Cartography
Political Geography:
Global Focus

357. Maps Of War And Peace: Rethinking Geography In International Affairs

Author:
Luis da Vinha
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In his memoirs of his final years as one of the United States’ most prominent foreign policy decision-makers, Henry Kissinger offers an anecdote involving President Nixon and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. As part of the celebration of the UN’s twenty-fifth anniversary, Ramgoolam was invited to dine with Nixon at the White House on 24 October 1970. The gathering nearly created a diplomatic faux pas due in large part to the admin- istration’s confusion regarding the geography of Africa. According to Kissinger, the national security staff mistook the country of Mauritius—U.S. ally and island nation located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar—for Mauritania, a northwestern African nation that had broken diplomatic relations with the United States in 1967 as a result of U.S. support for Israel during the Six-Day War.
Topic:
International Relations, War, Geopolitics, Peace, and Cartography
Political Geography:
United Nations and Global Focus

358. The Straw Men Reigniting An “International War On Drugs”: A Case For Multilateralism

Author:
Yury Fedotov
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In drug policy, the problems are never far from the headlines. From opioid overdoses and violence in the Americas to growing tramadol abuse in Africa and methamphetamine trade in Asia, drug threats to health, development, safety, and security are proliferating. Global opium and cocaine production have hit record levels. Drugs are killing people, and governments everywhere are struggling to respond.
Topic:
United Nations, War on Drugs, Narcotics Trafficking, Law Enforcement, and Drugs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

359. Toward The End Of The Global War On Drugs

Author:
Khalid Tinasti
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Evidence indicates that the “war on drugs” has failed to achieve its stated objectives of eliminating or reducing the production, consumption, and trafficking of illegal drugs. In 2016, an estimated 275 million people used drugs globally, and the value of the drug trade is estimated at between US$426 and $652 billion, an increase from 208 million drug users and $320 billion of market turnover a decade ago.1 Furthermore, the war on drugs has created major negative unintended consequences impacting global development objectives: mass incarceration, a thriving illegal drug market, the spread of infectious diseases, urban violence, and human rights violations. These unintended consequences prompted a global movement to address the problems created by drug control policies, based on evidence that while drug use is harmful, harm can be mitigated with the right mix of policies.
Topic:
Crime, War on Drugs, Narcotics Trafficking, and Rule of Law
Political Geography:
Global Focus

360. Paul D. Kenny: Populism And The War On Drugs In Southeast Asia

Author:
Paul D. Kenny
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Rodrigo Duterte promised in his campaign for the Philippine presidency that he would dump the corpses of the country’s drug dealers and addicts into Manilla Bay and “fatten all the fish there.” He boasted of pushing criminals out of helicopters. He promised death on the scale of Hitler. “God will weep if I become president,” he said.
Topic:
Crime, International Law, War on Drugs, and Narcotics Trafficking
Political Geography:
Philippines, Thailand, Southeast Asia, Laos, and Myanmar

361. Ethan Nadelmann: Paradigms For U.S. Drug Policy

Author:
Ethan Nadelmann
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Described by Rolling Stone as “the point man” for drug policy reform efforts and “the real drug czar,” Ethan Nadelmann has played a leading role in drug policy reform efforts in the United States and globally since the late 1980s. His advocacy began while teaching politics and public affairs at Princeton University (1987–1994). He founded the drug policy institute, The Lindesmith Center, and later the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), which he directed from 2000 until 2017. He also co-founded the Open Society Institute’s International Harm Reduction Development (IHRD) program.
Topic:
Crime, War on Drugs, Narcotics Trafficking, Domestic Politics, and Criminal Justice
Political Geography:
United States

362. Afghan Poppy Production for the World: Dynamics and Entanglements

Author:
Hermann Kreutzmann
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In 2017, global opium production peaked at more than 10,000 tons. Ninety percent of that opium originated in Afghanistan—a record production level for that country—making Afghanistan the world’s leading opium producer, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Afghanistan has been the world-market leader in opium production since the 1990s, surpassed historically only by the British Empire prior to the mid-nineteenth century Opium Wars.2 Coincidentally, the First Opium War took place at the same time as the Anglo-Afghan military encounters commenced. During the so-called “Great Game” between Russia and Great Britain for geopolitical domination in Central Asia, Afghanistan played a relatively negligible role as far as opium was concerned. At the time, it only supplied limited quantities from Badakhshan to Kashgar in Xinjiang. By contrast, Great Britain—a prosperous and powerful empire—represented the largest global dealer in opium.
Topic:
Narcotics Trafficking, Violence, and Drugs
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Asia

363. Leadership And Policy-Making: Lessons From The U.S. Government

Author:
Prudence Bushnell
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
On 6 April 1994, the airplane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Bu- rundi was shot out of the sky over Kigali, Rwanda. Within hours of the crash, Rwanda’s fragile power-sharing agreement negotiated in the 1993 Arusha Peace Accords became history. Fighting erupted in the streets among forces of the Hutu-dominated Rwandan interim government military and the largely Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Moderate members of the Hutu opposition and Tutsi political figures and citizens became the first targets for slaughter.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Geopolitics, and Leadership
Political Geography:
United States, Rwanda, and Burundi

364. Oral History And The Rwandan Genocide

Author:
Erin Jessee
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Erin Jessee is Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellow in History at the University of Glasgow. She has over a decade of experience conducting oral historical and ethnographic fieldwork in confict-afected settings, particularly in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Uganda. She is the author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: Te Politics of History, which was published in Palgrave Macmillan’s Studies in Oral History series in 2017. She has also published several articles in notable journals such as Memory Studies, Conflict and Society, History in Africa, Oral History Review, and Forensic Science International, among others.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Genocide, International Cooperation, International Law, Humanitarian Intervention, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Rwanda and Global Focus

365. Unsettled Memory: Genocide Memorial Sites In Rwanda

Author:
Amanda F. Grzyb
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In March 2012, the errant roots of a nearby tree broke through one of the mass graves at the top of the Bisesero memorial, a remote site in the western province where Rwandans have laid to rest approximately 50,000 victims of the 1994 genocide. With material support from district leaders, genocide survivors from the Twumba sector labored for weeks to remove approximately 10,000 bodies from the water-damaged tomb. They put the remains in large wooden coffins on the floor beneath thousands of skulls and bones stacked on the shelves of a corrugated metal shed where they had been awaiting incorporation into the unfinished memorial exhibit for more than a decade. Attempts to repair the tomb caused additional structural damage and eventually the remaining bodies also had to be removed, again by local survivors.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Ethnic Conflict, Genocide, Sectarian violence, Humanitarian Intervention, and Violence
Political Geography:
Africa and Rwanda

366. Lessons From A Life In Rwandan Politics

Author:
Theogene Rudasingwa
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Theogene Rudasingwa is former Ambassador of Rwanda to the United States. He previously held positions of secretary-general of the ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and chief of staff for President Paul Kagame. Dr. Rudasingwa is a graduate of Makerere University Medical School in Uganda and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the United States.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Genocide, International Affairs, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Africa and Rwanda

367. A Multicultural Nationalism?

Author:
Tariq Modood
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Today’s “new nationalism” marks merely the latest iteration of yesterday’s old nationalism. I refer here to the majoritarian nationalism that seems to be the rising or dominant politics in many parts of the world today—Russia, China, India, the United States, many Muslim-majority countries, and central and eastern Europe. Yet, what is genuinely new is the identity-based nationalism of the center-left—sometimes called “liberal nationalism” or “progressive patriotism”—that is appearing in Anglophone countries. In a recent study covering Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, South Africa, and Peru, Raymond Taras expresses the novelty of his empirical fndings as a move toward “nationhood.” He sees this as “enlarging the nation so that it consists of difer- ent integrated ethnic parts” and describes it as “a characteristically British way of viewing a political society.”2 I present here a view that falls into this category, which I shall call “multicultural nationalism.”3 I argue that multiculturalism is a mode of integration that does not just emphasize the centrality of minor- ity group identities, but rather proves incomplete without the re-making of national identity so that all citizens have a sense of belonging. In this respect, multiculturalist approaches to national belonging have some relation to liberal nationalism and majoritarian interculturalism, making not only individual rights but, also minority accommodation a feature of acceptable nationalism. Unlike cosmopolitanism, multiculturalist approaches are nationally-focused and not against immigration controls (subject to certain conditions).
Topic:
International Cooperation, Nationalism, Multiculturalism, Nation-State, and Secularism
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and China

368. Undercover Journalism In North Korea

Author:
Suki Kim
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Suki Kim is author of the New York Times bestseller Without You, Tere Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korean Elite. She is the only writer ever to have lived undercover in North Korea for immersive journalism. Her novel Te Interpreter was the winner of the PEN Open Book Award and a fnalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her nonfction has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and the New Republic, where she is a contributing editor. She has been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, Open Society, and New America fellowships, the American Academy in Berlin Prize, and was a Ferris Professor of journalism at Princeton University. Her TED Talk has drawn millions of viewers, and her essay on fear appears in Te Best American Essays 2018.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Journalism, and Repression
Political Geography:
North Korea

369. Environmental regulation in a transitional political system: delegation of regulation and perceived corruption in South Africa

Author:
Pedro Naso
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
I study the economic motivations behind a reduction in the discretionary power of environmental regulators, and the impact that such reduction has on perceived corruption in South Africa. I examine the transition from the Air Pollution Protection Act of 1965 to the Air Quality Act of 2005, a change from full to partial delegation of regulation. By constructing a principal-agent model, I argue that this transition might have occurred because of an increase in the dispersion of rent-seeking motivations of public agents. This happens because, from the principal’s perspective, the possible harm— loose pollution control and misappropriation of environmental fines— generated by corrupt agents is greater than the potential benefits brought by diligent agents. In my empirical analysis, I use diff-indiffs models for a two-period panel with 191 South African firms to show that the regulatory change decreased treated firms’ perceived corruption, but did not improve other institutional quality measures.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Environment, Regulation, and Pollution
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

370. Food security and land use in the 21st century: the return of Malthusianism

Author:
Timothy M. Swanson
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
The coming century is set to pose many important problems regarding population, food requirements and land use. In many ways, the problem facing us is a stark reminder of Malthus’ predictions regarding the importance of resource constraints in the face of population growth. Despite questions concerning the core of the problems to be solved, there is little issue concerning the manifestations of these problems. First, we are seeing the culmination of a long-term process of human population growth, which commenced in earnest about 250 years previously (about the time of Malthus) and escalated thereafter, continuing to this day. A global population that was only about a million individuals in 1750, escalated to about two billion individuals in 1950, and has since increased to approximately seven billion.
Topic:
Agriculture, Food, Population, Food Security, Land Rights, and Population Growth
Political Geography:
United Nations and Global Focus

371. Impacts of legal and regulatory institutions on economic development

Author:
Pedro Naso
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
Since the second half of the 20th century, with the contributions of Coase, Williamson and North, the economic literature has emphasised the role of institutions in explaining differences in economic performance. According to the most diffused view, countries with good institutions will invest more in physical and human capital, will use productive factors in a more efficient way, and will achieve greater income level. But what are good institutions? And how should governments implement them? Answers to these questions have proven to be difficult mainly because of two characteristics of institutions: (i) institutional functioning is complex: the way institutions affect economic agents’ incentives is dependent on these agents’ individual preferences and the way they interact, which are difficult to predict; and (ii) they are context specific – the same institution in different contexts might result in a different economic outcome.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Environment, Regulation, and Economic Policy
Political Geography:
Africa, South Africa, and Sierra Leone

372. Land grabs, big business and large-scale damages

Author:
Christophe Gironde
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
The history of the world is a story of lands conquered by violence. Today, money has replaced weapons. Lands are bought. In very large quantities. The current wave of land grabbing is a phenomenon of hard conquest and a dramatic one for local populations and the environment.
Topic:
Environment, Land Law, Violence, Money, Land Rights, and Land
Political Geography:
South Asia

373. Enabling NATO for 21st Century Operations: Fielding Agile, Responsive and Innovative Reserve Forces

Author:
Howard Coombs
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI)
Abstract:
Canada has built on the findings of the Netherlands’ report, Lessons Learned from Commitment of Reservists in Operations (LLRO), and provided an overview of NATO ability for the international deployment of reservists by specifically examining the pre-deployment phase of operations. Through both national questionnaires and research, Canada has collected, analyzed and communicated key observations and lessons from NATO NRFC member and partner nations to address the institutional support and structures required to set the conditions for the force generation and successful deployment of capable, multi-purpose, integrated reserve forces. This has resulted in a comparative analysis of the triad of military, family and employer support that enhances the deployment of NATO reservists prior to operations.
Topic:
Defense Policy, NATO, Military Affairs, and Alliance
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

374. Antinomies of Globalization in Contemporary African Migration: The nexus of Gender, Youth, Health, Remittances, Social Media, and Higher Education

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
Contemporary African migration continues unabated. It increasingly attracts media, state, expert, popular, and scholarly attention. The focus of most of the attention tends to respond to media reports of atrocities, tragedies, conundrums, xenophobic pronouncements and policy responses by powerful international actors, including decision makers in the most popular destinations of migrants. Today, the goings on in Europe, the United States of America (US), the countries of the European Union, the Gulf states, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Niger, and South Africa attract the most attention. Due to the catastrophic casualties and calamities experienced by migrants, the routes favored by migrants such as those through the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea, are also the subject of such focus. Youth migration and the health of African migrants are a big part of the story. Gender and migration is receiving more scholarly interest but not to the same extent as other aspects of migration.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Health, Migration, Social Media, and Youth
Political Geography:
Africa

375. Transcultural Memory and Social Media in the Context of Migration: A Case Study from South Africa

Author:
Sabine Marschall
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
Theoretically rooted in memory studies (notably the concept of "transcultural memory") and methodologically based on interviews with African migrants in South Africa, this paper explores the use of social media and Internet–based communication applications in the context of migration. Results indicate that participants use digital media platforms not only to exchange personal news, but also to engage in mnemonic practices. It is argued that conjuring up memories of home and fondly remembered episodes experienced with social groups deepens the sense of belonging for migrants in a context of alienation and isolation.
Topic:
Migration, Social Media, Memory, and Digital Culture
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

376. European Migrant Crisis: Health and Policy Implications

Author:
Adetayo Olorunlana
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
Over 65 million people are displaced worldwide. Some have migrated to Europe, seeking refuge from wars, conflict and natural disasters. Migration and refugee health have significant repercussions for European governments and the European Union (EU), which were somewhat unprepared to address such issues. The EU proposed Health 2020 as immediate measures to address the health needs of refugees and migrants. The initiative was adopted to improve health for all, and to reduce health inequalities through public policy. However, there are legal restrictions barring irregular migrants from accessing these services. In addition, health service policies for irregular migrants varies in the EU region. There is inadequate response to some diseases affecting migrants from African origin. Consequently, refugee and migrant health is neglected, producing an inequitable situation and unnecessary suffering for the migrants, as well as potential risk to population in their host country.
Topic:
Health, Migration, Population, Public Health, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and European Union

377. Exploring Short- and Long-Term Survival Mechanisms and Perception of Job Market by Zimbabwean Migrant Women in South Africa

Author:
Alice Ncube, Yonas T. Bahta, and Andries J. Jordaan
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
This article assesses the perception of the job market, initial, and long-term coping and adaptation mechanisms employed by Zimbabwe migrant women in South Africa using survey data and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. It concludes that women migrants perceived the job market as favorable. The demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and initial as well as long-term survival mechanisms of migrant women played significant roles in the coping and adaptation mechanisms. The study recommends that the government clarify policies on foreigners’ business ownership to avert conflicts.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Migration, Labor Issues, Women, Employment, Unemployment, and Job Creation
Political Geography:
South Africa and Zimbabwe

378. Outmigration from the Horn of Africa

Author:
Berhane Keleta
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The proliferation of sovereign states in the Horn of Africa has produced intra- and inter-state conflicts that have largely been induced by ethnic tensions. The conflicts resulted in the loss of millions of human lives, significant material damage, and forced people to leave their countries of origin to seek their fortune elsewhere, using a network of systems established between country of origin and destination. Some have been driven into desperation and they sought the services of human smugglers and traffickers. Geographical proximity to migration hotspots also encourages migration. This study explores immigration in the Horn of Africa countries from geographical, socio-political, and economic perspectives. The findings show mixed migration from the Horn of Africa of refugees, asylum seekers, smuggled, and trafficked persons. The last two categories are the largest number of undocumented migrants in the sub-region. They are relatively young, being primarily aged fourteen to forty. They are predominantly male, and have low educational attainment. One motivation for migration is to seek opportunities elsewhere that would facilitate ability to make remittances.
Topic:
Migration and Immigration
Political Geography:
Africa, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Horn of Africa

379. Challenges of States' Re-organisation: Case of Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh Any Lessons to be Learnt?

Author:
Sheela Bhide
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
Many political analysts are of the view that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh is one of the most controversial bifurcations of a State in recent history. After all, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were bifurcated in the year 2000. There were problems in those States also, but none of the acrimony and bitterness that was seen in Andhra Pradesh. What really went wrong in Andhra Pradesh? Could it have been done differently? Are there any lessons that can be learnt? This paper has been prepared by a civil servant who was directly involved in the process of bifurcation as the Chairperson of the Expert Committee for recommending the bifurcation of the State Public Sector Units. In the process, the Expert Committee members were exposed to aspects of the bifurcation of State Government assets and liabilities as well. The issues have been divided into three categories: political, legislative and administrative.
Topic:
Government, Politics, Legislation, and Nation-State
Political Geography:
India

380. Value-Based Education

Author:
Kishore Singh
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
There is widespread concern today with the ‘values crisis’. Moral and ethical values are sinking, and materialistic pursuits generated by the neo liberal economy are thriving. Mushrooming of privatisation in education, giving rise to the phenomenon of ‘edu-business’ in India, fosters this trend. This makes a mockery of India’s great traditions in education, her spiritual heritage and civilisational values in which gyaan or vidhya is not a commodity—a vyapaar and in which education has no lucrative purpose. Moreover, ‘edu-business’ is also an affront to the ideals embodied in our constitution. We seem to have lost all respect for our philosophical foundations and civilisational values where knowledge is free, and the head is held high. Use of digital devices also adds to the values crisis, as evidenced by fake degrees awarded by Internet-based learning, as well as the potentially harmful effects of various sites on the minds of children and adults. Many countries around the world are recognising the need and importance of overcoming the values crisis by promoting human values as a primary vocation of education. India, with its rich spiritual heritage and philosophical traditions, should be at the forefront in such initiatives. It is all the more imperative for India to play a pioneering role in value-based education since the thrust of India’s spiritual quest had been ‘universalist’, which makes it the heritage of the whole of humanity. Transformation of the education system in that spirit calls for radical measures. The challenging task is to evolve a new architecture for education in India, in which core human values derived from India’s philosophical legacy and spiritual heritage, as well as from ideals and principles enshrined in India’s constitution, permeate the entire education system. Value-based education is invaluable in mitigating and overcoming many woes that afflict our society.
Topic:
Education, Ethics, Neoliberalism, and Values
Political Geography:
India

381. Freedom & Sons Ltd.: The Enterprise of Free Speech in a Market of Control

Author:
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
As the title of this lecture suggests, it is about dissent, the right to dissent, the freedom to differ, to be able to say ‘I disagree; in fact I oppose…’. And to do so without fear. But no right comes without some difficulty. And sure enough, as I began working on this text, my late brother Professor Ramchandra Gandhi, Ramu as he was widely known, appeared in a hallucinated vision, to express dissent, strong disagreement, over the title of this lecture. He said to me in his inimitable mix of Hindi, Tamil and English: ‘Maine tumhare Mushirul Hasan lecture ka title “Freedom & Sons Ltd.” dekha hai… aur uska matlab samajh rahaa huun… lekin... Freedom & Sons Ltd… Sons…illai …illai….konchum politically incorrect…and not konchum, in fact romba incorrect, romba gender insensitive…. It may have passed muster some twenty or thirty years ago but not today…and certainly not in the IIC where Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s spirit is alive, where Durgabai Deshmukh peers over her husband’s shoulders to see that all is done right….The title obscures …in fact it nullifies the roles of India’s daughters…from Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and Begum Hazrat Mahal of Avadh to Madame Cama and Annie Besant, Kasturba Gandhi who died, don’t forget, in a Raj prison, and Maulana Azad’s wife Zuleikha Begum who died in Calcutta when he was in the Ahmednagar Fort Prison and would not seek parole…. And then, no less than any of these…the women who stood for freedom not from the white man’s domination but from that of our own male-controlled society, like Mirabai, who broke out of the court and palace to public spaces singing of Krishna, the great emancipator, and M. S. Subbulakshmi, who broke out of the Carnatic kutcheri’s strict repertory to sing Mirabai’s songs of Krishna…’.
Topic:
Freedom of Expression, Civil Rights, Freedom, Dissent, and Free Speech
Political Geography:
India

382. Friends, Heroes, Scientists, Women

Author:
Gagandeep Kang
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
Where are we today with regard to the role of women in science, technology, engineering, medicine (among other fields), women in leadership roles, and what are the challenges that lie ahead of us? In that context, it is very interesting to address both biology and sociology, and the reason we need to address the former is that explanations for why societies manifest in certain ways, or not, often hinge on our recourse to biology in various ways. As far as biology goes, humans are the consequence of hundreds of million years of evolution, from unicellular organisms to multiple kinds of multicellular organisms. There are a great number of animals with behaviour and nervous systems, and functions and physiology, which have many similarities with humans. Many animals run, many walk, many taste and smell in ways we do, and so on. Some animals fly, we do not. That brings us to sociology, and how our societies grew. Humans are distinct from other animals, in that, over evolutionary time, we chanced upon ways by which we could throw objects, and therefore make tools and engineer nature. We could speak and therefore communicate with each other and develop language.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Science and Technology, Women, Medicine, and Evolution
Political Geography:
India

383. The Most Indian of the Major French Poets: Charles Leconte De Lisle

Author:
Come Carpentier de Gourdon
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
Indian civilisation has, time and again, influenced French literary and artistic life in various ways, more particularly from the mid-17th century, when the travel accounts of Francois Bernier and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier achieved great popularity in an intellectual class exposed to the fine goods imported by the French East India Company (la compagnie des Indes), or bought by traders. These included Golkonda diamonds, carved ivory, muslin, indigo, cashmere shawls, printed cotton fabrics known as ‘Indiennes’ or ‘madras’ , ‘Coromandel’ screens and miniatures of the Mughal school. The first poems, fables, novels, comedies and operas on Indian themes appeared in Europe in the years that followed.
Topic:
Culture and Literature
Political Geography:
India and France

384. Judging The Judges: Need For Transparency and Accountability

Author:
Ajit Prakash Shah
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
One subject that has been rankling me greatly for the past several months, and, I am sure, many of you, too, is that of the accountability of judges. The immediate trigger for my selecting this subject was, of course, the allegations made by a former employee of the Supreme Court of India against the present Chief Justice of India (CJI), and the events that followed. Over the past few months, several people have expressed concerns about how the judiciary must deal with such cases, and the accountability mechanisms that exist to monitor the judiciary in its actions. The issue still remains unanswered, and the incidents that took place reveal the many weaknesses in the in-house mechanism that is employed for resolving such matters. Without passing judgement on the truth or falsity of the allegations, I must admit there are certain stark facts that stand out which demand consideration. A permanent employee of the Supreme Court of India was removed from her post on the flimsy allegation of availing casual leave for half-a-day, and protesting against her seating arrangement. Her relative was dismissed from the same service soon thereafter. She made allegations of sexual harassment against the CJI, in response to which an unusual hearing took place on a Saturday, without a petition having been moved. In what was termed as a ‘Matter of Great Public Importance Touching upon the Independence of the Judiciary’, the person holding the highest judicial office in the land sat as a judge on his own case. Three judges attended that hearing, but the order that emerged was surprisingly signed only by two of those three, with the Chief Justice choosing to abstain.
Topic:
Law, Supreme Court, Accountability, Judiciary, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
India

385. The Other's Shoes

Author:
Prabha Sridevan
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
This is a sharing of my journey as a lawyer and as a judge, and about the right to dignity. This right precedes the Constitution; it probably dates to when we became homo sapiens and expected to be treated with dignity. In our Preamble, ‘We the people’ solemnly resolved to secure to all citizens, Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Fraternity, which is the least understood term, assures the dignity of the individual. But first, let me tell you how I became a lawyer and about that journey. Was it easy becoming a lawyer, and then a judge? people ask me. It was, in a way, and therefore my experience is not the standard sample case for other women. I joined law college 13 years after my basic degree, my marriage and my children. It was only because my husband was a lawyer. After I got enrolled, I had no trouble finding an office, because I joined my husband’s firm. I learnt the work along the way, not really expecting to head the office. And the clients who came to our office did not really see me either—I was ‘invisible’. They headed straight to the male juniors. I can’t blame them, they probably thought that this lady is there for what is politely called ‘tax purposes’. Slowly, they accepted me, and realised I actually ‘worked’. This went on comfortably and I trundled along.
Topic:
Law, Memoir, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
India

386. Health Care in India

Author:
Preeti Sudan
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
Our topic today, is the journey of preventive and promotive health care from a government perspective. I must say at the outset that it was always the intention of the government to have a mix of promotive and preventive health care strategies closely integrated with curative care. However, it is the curative care aspects that are most visible and this is perhaps the reason for significant investments in setting up health care facilities. In addition, people’s vocal demands for curative care, which are legitimate, led us to emphasise the curative part of health care. So the focus was tilted in favour of care provision after people fell ill, and we became the Ministry of Managing Illness. But I am glad that since last year, we are now the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and I am fortunate that I am at this very place as this paradigm shift is happening in health care. I want to also say that I’m doubly blessed, because I also got to do Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and was able to take action on discriminatory practices against women and girls in our country So I had that satisfaction as well.
Topic:
Health, Health Care Policy, and Public Health
Political Geography:
India

387. World's Religions After September 11: Some Philosophical Reflections

Author:
Arvind Sharma
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
The reader’s first reaction to the title is likely to be one of scepticism, for although the events of September 11 are doubtless firmly etched in modern memory, and their connection to the world’s religions, or at least to one of them, is plain enough; to propose that these events could prompt philosophical reflections seems so far-fetched as to suggest an academic’s desperate search for a new topic – a push for novelty. Perhaps the clarification would palliate the reader somewhat that what we mean by philosophical reflections are considerations, which do not go all the way into pure philosophy but, nevertheless, embody reflections of a philosophical nature, inasmuch as their attempt is to place some of the issues raised by the events of September 11, specially in relation to world religions, in a broader perspective. The need for such reflection can hardly be questioned even here in India, now that we have had our own version of the 9/11, namely, the 26/11. I would like to focus on six such issues in what follows
Topic:
Religion, Philosophy, and 9/11
Political Geography:
India and Global Focus

388. Exploring the Mahama-NDC’s Defeat in the 2016 Election: Insights from Pre-election Surveys

Author:
Gilfred Asiamah, Kojo Asante, and E. Gyimah-Boadi
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ghana Center for Democratic Development
Abstract:
Ghana’s 2016 presidential elections was closely contested between Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (candidate for the opposition New Patriotic Party) and the incumbent President John Dramani Mahama (presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress). Akufo-Addo emerged as the winner of the election with 5,755,758 votes while his main competitor, Mahama, received 4,771,188 votes, translating into almost a million (984,570) vote difference. Similarly, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) won a decisive majority of the parliamentary seats (169 out of the 275). The National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) 106 seats represented a loss of 42 parliamentary seats it previously held. None of the minor political parties secured a parliamentary seat in the elections. The NDC’s electoral defeat surprised many party members and observers. Among other things, it marked the first time in the Fourth Republic that an incumbent government had lost the elections in the first round, and with such a huge margin. The incumbent president was rendered incapable of taking advantage of the constitutionally sanctioned opportunity to serve two terms. Moreover, the party had mounted a powerful election campaign with the advantage of incumbency which saw a lot of commissioning of projects close to the election period. At the same time, the opposition NPP had been struggling to maintain a united front, which was only resolved by changes to two key leadership positions but with worries of its electoral consequences. This is the backdrop against which an influential member of the NDC described the outcome of the elections as “very difficult and mysterious to understand.” The electoral defeat provoked an acrimonious debate within the party over what and who to blame for this inauspicious development.
Topic:
Elections, Political Parties, and Presidential Elections
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

389. Nuclear Power Pays: Assessing the Trends in Electric Power Generation Employment and Wages

Author:
Oxford Economics
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxford Economics
Abstract:
This report seeks to illustrate and articulate the US nuclear power industry as a driver of highly educated, high-skilled workers who earn premium wages. The nuclear power sector provides 20 percent of the electricity needs in the US, and it supports tens of thousands of well-paying jobs throughout the country. In 2017, the nuclear power generation industry employed nearly 48,400 workers in the US paying an average salary of $136,600. This exceeded average regional wages across the country and placed nuclear power as the highest paying industry in the electric power generation sector. With such high wages, it’s not surprising that skilled occupations account for nearly 86 percent of total jobs in the industry.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Labor Issues, Nuclear Power, and Employment
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

390. The Impact of Online Content on Portuguese Tourism

Author:
David Goodger
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxford Economics
Abstract:
The Portuguese tourism industry has benefitted from a greater embrace of online content, driving engagement with travellers and ultimately creating new jobs. This study explores the value of online content to the tourism economy in Portugal, building on prior analysis for Southern European destinations. The analysis quantifies the proportion of recent tourism growth which was generated by successfully embracing online platforms and with an improved focus on digital skills. Remaining growth opportunities are also estimated, including the potential for job creation, from increased investment in digital infrastructure and skills. This will help to meet higher tourism growth targets.
Topic:
Tourism, Digital Economy, Customer Service, and Consumerism
Political Geography:
Europe and Portugal

391. Towards a Political Economy of Monetary Dependency: The Case of the CFA Franc in West Africa

Author:
Kai Koddenbrock and Ndongo Samba Sylla
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the most neglected case of monetary dependency: the CFA franc. This currency arrangement was born in 1945, during the colonial era, but it still operates in the same ways more than 70 years later in fourteen countries in Africa, mostly former French colonies. Engaging with the seminal African scholarship by Joseph Pouemi on internal and external monetary repression and the emergent literature on “financial subordination,” we introduce the notion of the “chain of monetary dependency,” consisting of an external and an internal part. We argue that the CFA franc provides an extreme but paradigmatic example of this chain. The CFA franc is paradigmatic because of the very strong external repression of monetary and financial policy through US dollar and euro dependence. Internally, the CFA franc arrangement radicalizes the constraints imposed on all central bank policies and bank-firm relations in the Global South and makes it more difficult to pursue growth strategies geared towards the well-being of the broader population.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Monetary Policy, and Currency
Political Geography:
France

392. Structural Exchange Pays Off: Reciprocity in Boards and Executive Compensations in US Firms (1990–2015)

Author:
Olivier Godechot, Joanne Horton, and Yuval Millo
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
We study the influence of the corporate board network on executive pay for 3,395 US firms over the period from 1990 to 2015. Drawing on structural anthropology and social exchange theory, we identify three elementary structures through which the interlocking network captures an obvious form of objective reciprocity between executives from different firms: restricted exchange, when two executives sit on each other’s respective boards; delayed exchange, when y sits on the board of x after the end of x’s mandate on the board of y ; and generalized exchange, when x sits on the board of y, who sits on the board of z, who sits on the board of x. Our results suggest that these ties, although not very common, are more frequent than those calculated by chance. We also find that the three structures of reciprocity have a positive impact on executive pay, especially on bonuses and total cash. We use the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) as a natural experiment to confirm our first findings. The impact on pay disappears after 2004, once these types of exchanges are constrained. Although linked to executive pay, these structures are not tied to any indicator of firm performance. This leads us to interpret them as a rent extraction phenomenon.
Topic:
Economics, Political Economy, Income Inequality, Business, and Public Sector
Political Geography:
United States

393. Administrative-Territorial Reform through Municipal Amalgamation and the Protection of National Minorities: European Standards and a Few Examples

Author:
Ljubica Djordjevic
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to depict some basic considerations regarding the protection of national minorities in light of the creation of larger municipal units through amalgamation reforms. The paper provides an outline of the European standards for the change of municipal borders, both the general ones stipulated in the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the specific ones prescribed in the two European conventions striking for the protection of national minorities. The topic is further elaborated through the presentation of examples of four countries that performed some sort of ‘minority mainstreaming’ in the territorial reform. Albania, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands have been identified as interesting case-studies for two reasons. First, in all four cases, the question of the effects of municipal amalgamation on the protection of national minorities has been raised and addressed during the monitoring on the implementation of the two European ‘minority conventions’. Second, the four examples offer a variety of approaches towards (more or less successful) accommodation of the amalgamation reform for the sake of the protection of national minorities.
Topic:
Nationalism, Governance, Minorities, Reform, Local, Identity, Protected People, and Territory
Political Geography:
Europe

394. Does Regional Development Matter in Minority Politics? Regional Development in the Recent Electoral Activity of Three national Minorities

Author:
Sergiusz Bober
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The aim of the present Working Paper is to draw attention to the political activity of three national minorities (German in Denmark, Danish in Germany and German in Poland) concerning regional development. The analysis is focused upon electoral manifestos/political programmes produced by three political actors - that is the Schleswig Party (representing German minority in Denmark), the South Schleswig Voters´ Association (representing Danish and Frisian minorities in Germany) and the German Minority Electoral Committee (representing German minority in Poland’s Opole Voivodeship) - in connection with the recent regional and local elections held in the areas inhabited by the aforementioned minority groups. The conducted research leads to the following main conclusions: (1) regional development features prominently in the analysed documents; (2) each political actor offers nuanced conceptualizations of regional development; (3) influences of sustainable approaches to development are noticeable, as well as perceptions of development not limited to a narrowly defined economic output; (4) all actors are pragmatic when it comes to the potential political alliances necessary for the achievement of their regional development goals.
Topic:
Development, Politics, Minorities, Elections, and Regionalism
Political Geography:
Europe, Poland, Germany, and Denmark

395. National Minorities and Regional Development: A Comparative Overview of the Three Baltic States

Author:
Craig Willis
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
This Working Paper is a mapping exercise of the minority communities in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with regard to the regional development within the countries. Using census data combined with a series of regional development indicators from Eurostat and OECD Regional Well-Being, an overview of each of the countries’ regions at the NUTS Level 3 is provided, as well as a comparison across all three. This research finds, through a series of bivariate regression analyses, that within and across all three countries, there is no statistical linear relationship between the percentage of minority population in a region and multiple indicators of regional development – including GDP. Rather, the main dividing line is between capital city regions and the rest of the country/s. Yet, in peripheral regions, the regional development indicators show that regions with a large minority population are not necessarily any worse off than other peripheral regions which have a low minority population – particularly the case in Lithuania. This offers some evidence that a large minority population is not a hindrance to a region’s development. Nonetheless, the research provides an overview of the challenges in which many regions home to a large percentage of minorities possess, particularly in the areas with a high ethnically Russian population percentage. Thus, this Working Paper concludes by identifying patterns and outliers of regions in order for intensified and comparative further case study research at the micro level.
Topic:
Development, Nationalism, Minorities, Ethnicity, and Regionalism
Political Geography:
Europe and Baltic States

396. Words that Hurt (1): Normative and Institutional Considerations in the Regulation of Hate Speech in Europe

Author:
Kyriaki Topidi
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Europe is experiencing at present intense dilemmas in regulating hate speech and online harassment. Free speech exercise can be offensive and even contribute to a climate of prejudice and discrimination against minorities. Often, the media exacerbate the tendency by reporting negatively about minorities. The first working paper on this topic engages with the normative dimensions of the balance between the need to control and limit incitement to violence in reconciliation with the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Three distinct aspects of hate speech are covered: the first relates to the role of freedom of expression as a tool of inclusiveness. With the limits of liberal tolerance being unclear, just like the definition of hate speech itself, legal actors and systems are torn between criminalising the speaker’s motive alone or in conjunction with the effects of the speech. A survey of recent related European Court of Human Rights case-law demonstrates these ambiguities. The second aspect covered looks at the challenges of the regulation of the freedom of expression in the digital age, with emphasis of the online dimensions of the phenomenon from a legal perspective. The final aspect of the paper proposes an actor-based analysis of hate speech, as it emerges from the current regulatory frameworks applied. This section deals not only with the role of the State but also with that of equality bodies, political parties and private businesses in providing more efficient networks of protection of minorities from such violent expressions of hatred.
Topic:
Minorities, Discrimination, Hate Speech, Institutionalism, and Normalization
Political Geography:
Europe

397. Words that Hurt (2): National and International Perspectives on Hate Speech Regulation

Author:
Kyriaki Topidi
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Faced with a piecemeal approach to hate speech in Europe, leading to the reduced visibility of the phenomenon with often serious consequences, a variety of regional and international organisations have contributed legal documents and interpretative recommendations that attempt to guide states in their practice of combating hate speech. The present paper, following up on a previous one, will engage first with the international legal and regulatory framework of hate speech, placing emphasis on the European elements of the system in place. At a second stage, the paper will briefly survey twenty European national systems exposing the variety of regulatory patterns on the issue. Finally, the study will conclude with a list of common observations pertaining to the regulation of hate speech in the European continent, as they have emerged from the comparative analysis of the case-studies.
Topic:
Governance, Minorities, Regulation, Discrimination, Hate Speech, and Institutionalism
Political Geography:
Europe

398. Would an EU-wide Basic Income Compliment the aims of the Minority SafePack Initiative?

Author:
Craig Willis
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The broader goals of the Minority SafePack Initiative call for a pact between minorities and majorities in order to preserve, develop and promote the linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe in relation to the high number of national minorities inside the European Union. After a successful campaign and the collection of over 1,100,000 validated signatures, the Initiative is ready to be submitted to the EU Commission alongside concrete legislative proposals. This Working Paper examines how the EU-wide proposals for a basic income possibly fit theoretically with the Initiative, discussing basic income more generally as well as two proposals from Van Parijs and DiEM25. Developing four core areas as assessment criteria, the Working Paper finds that basic income theory overlaps significantly in terms of potential impact on the capacity for living in homeland, learning in mother tongue, preservation and development of identity and culture, and aiming for equality. However, these potentially diminish if the amount of a basic income is not enough to meet basic needs, as could be the case with the two proposals analysed – particularly when applied in the EU member states with a higher cost of living. Nonetheless, the differentiation between the Euro-dividend and the Universal Basic Dividend in terms of funding mechanism offers a significant factor which could change the normative understanding of a basic income – with the latter possibly better suiting the idea of a pact between different groups in society, in this case the majority and national minorities.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, Labor Issues, European Union, Income Inequality, and Universal Basic Income
Political Geography:
Europe

399. From Haifa to Ramallah (and Back): New/Old Palestinian Literary Topography

Author:
Amal Eqeiq
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This article explores border crossing and the Palestinian city as a literary metropolis—two major themes in the works of emerging Palestinian novelists in Israel. It looks at the “re-Palestinization” of urban space by writers who belong to a post-Oslo generation of Palestinian intellectuals that left villages and small towns in Israel to go and study, work, and live in the city. What distinguishes the literature of this generation is its negotiation of border crossing in a fragmented geography and its engagement with the city as a space of paradoxical encounter between a national imaginary and a settler-colonial reality. Based on a critical reading of their works, the article argues that Adania Shibli and Ibtisam Azem challenge colonial border discourse, exposing the ongoing Zionist erasure of the Palestinian city and creating a new topography for Palestinian literature. The article also traces the role of these writers in the “twinning” of Haifa and Ramallah starting in the late 1990s, and it examines how this literary and cultural “sisterhood” informs spatial resistance.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Palestine

400. Democracy Facing Global Challenges: V-DEM ANNUAL DEMOCRACY REPORT 2019

Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
Abstract:
This year’s Democracy Report shows that the trend of a third wave autocratization – the decline of democratic regime traits – continues and now affects 24 countries. When we weight levels of democracy by population size – because democracy is rule by the people and it matters how many of them are concerned – it emerges that almost one third of the world’s population live in countries undergoing autocratization. Yet democracy still prevails in a majority of countries in the world (99 countries, 55 percent). This section analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2018 and developments since 1972, with an emphasis on the last 10 years. Our analysis builds on the 2019 release of the V-Dem dataset.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Developing World, Democracy, and Populism
Political Geography:
United States, Turkey, Ukraine, India, and Brazil