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18601. Political Science, International Relations, and AIDs in Africa

Author:
Catherine Boone and Jake Batsell
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
Political Science as an academic discipline has been slow to grapple with the enormous implications of the AIDS crisis for society, politics, and economy in much of the developing world. This paper argues that political scientists do, in fact, have much to offer the struggle to understand and respond to the AIDS crisis. It also argues that research in this area could contribute to theory-building in areas of traditional concern to political science. There is a rich array of research agendas linking AIDS and politics that are worthy of systematic attention. We sketch out five of these as they relate to Africa. They have to do with explaining variations in state response to the pandemic; the relationship between African governments and NGOs; the AIDS challenge to neo-liberalism; AIDS and North-South tensions; and connections between AIDS and international security issues. The discussion is intended to be suggestive; it is intended to provoke and encourage research and scholarly debate on these issues.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

18602. Caminando por la Historia Intelectual de Seymour Martin Lipset

Author:
Jesús Velasco
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This essay analyzes the life and work of one of the most distinguished American sociologists of the twentieth century, Seymour Martin Lipset. The essay evaluates two fundamental themes in Lipset's work, his analysis of democracy and anti-democracy and his thoughts on American exceptionalism. The paper concludes with some lessons derived from Lipset's work and life for Mexico and Mexican academics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Education
Political Geography:
America

18603. Sobre Contagios y Remedios: La Heterodoxia Económica del New Deal, La Políca Exterior de Roosevelt y su Impacto sobre la Administracón Cerdenista

Author:
Joge Schiavon
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The article explores the Mexico-United States bilateral relation during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lazaro Cardenas, in order to better understand how U.S. domestic and foreign policies influence the management of its relation with Mexico, which in turn can facilitate or not the implementation of public policies in the Mexican system. The principal hypothesis is that the New Deal modified the American liberal conception of state intervention in economic and social issues inside the United States, and that this permitted Cardenas' economic heterodoxy, both in political and ideological terms. Evidence is provided to support two points. First, the changes in U.S. foreign policy that resulted from the enactment of the Good Neighbor Policy invested the Cardenas administration with greater autonomy in economics issues. Second, the new economic ideas derived from the New Deal facilitated and justified increased state intervention of Cardenas' government in the economy, using fiscal policy and direct sate participation in economic areas defined as strategic. In sum, this article demonstrates that Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policies generated a permissive environment for the enactment of the most important public policies during the administration of Cardenas, supporting the idea that U.S. internal and international actions directly affect the possibilities of policy implementation in Mexico.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Mexico

18604. The Bush Administration and the Future of Transatlantic Relations

Author:
Peter Trubowitz
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This paper, the first of a planned two-part analysis, examines the institutions of paramilitarism, death squads, and warlords in Latin America, with a focus on the case-studies of Mexico and Peru. It begins with an overview of the small comparative literature on paramilitary movements and death squads around the world, seeking to define and clarify the terminology. The literature on "warlordism" is then reviewed, and the similarities and distinctions between paramilitaries and warlords are considered. Lastly, I examine two case-studies that have not, as yet, received extended attention in the comparative literature: Mexico and Colombia. The paper concludes by summarizing the findings and charting a course for future investigations.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Colombia, Latin America, and Mexico

18605. Technology Parks - Concept and Organization

Author:
Rado Petkov, Rick Petree, and Eugene Spiro
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
This study presents a conceptual and organizational framework for establishing a pilot technology park and incubator in Bulgaria. Such a park might initially focus on the telecommunication and information technology (IT) sector (including software development), where the country displays strong, albeit under-utilized, technical talent. The park might encompass an export-oriented IT service firm and an incubator that will nurture hi-tech companies and help them commercialize innovative ideas and technologies. The study presents the experience of leading technology parks and incubators in the U.S., Israel, India and elsewhere and draws upon an on-going project of the Institute for EastWest Studies to establish a technology incubator in Budapest. The purpose of the paper is to identify the existing models of technology parks and to suggest organizational, legal and management solutions that can be applied in Bulgaria.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria

18606. Banking and Finance Assistance

Author:
Eugene Spiro
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The Banking and Finance Assistance Centre (BFAC) of the East West Institute is an independent, international centre whose mission is to provide assistance to financial sector leaders in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU). BFAC was established in 1992 by the East West Institute in response to the need expressed by bank executives and finance officials in CEE for a centre to provide impartial, professional, technical advice and assistance in the course of designing and implementing reform initiatives. Supported, among others, by the EWI network and in particular the United States Agency for International Development, BFAC's projects also cover capital markets and pension reform and small- and medium-sized enterprise development.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Eastern Europe

18607. Globalization and Democracy

Author:
Michael Hardt
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
The discourse of globalization has become dominant in recent years in an extraordinarily wide variety of contexts, equally on the left and on the right – from journalism to public policy discussions, from business strategy to labor organizing, and within the university across the social sciences and humanities. It is something like the discourse on postmodernism that blossomed about a decade earlier but seems to me even more extensive. This paper is an attempt to sort out some of the political positions taken within the discourse on globalization to help clarify the stakes in the globalization debates and the political consequences of the various theoretical and empirical claims. My assumption, in fact, is that political positions or desires dictate to a large extent the various analytical characterizations of globalization. What I will attempt, then, is to construct a typology of positions on globalization using the question of democracy as the first line of division. In other words, I will first divide theories in two groups: those who claim that globalization fosters democracy and those who maintain that globalization hinders or obstructs democracy. I will further divide these positions into arguments on the right and those on the left because this is a context in which I believe there remain very clear divisions between right and left, and it would be incoherent to group them together.
Topic:
Globalization, International Political Economy, and Political Economy

18608. Governing Global Finance: Financial derivatives, liberal states and transformative capacity

Author:
William D. Coleman
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
Global finance is simultaneously one of the most globalized and one of the most esoteric sectors in the world economy. Within global finance, perhaps no activity is more esoteric and more difficult to understand than the buying and selling of derivatives. Their names are familiar perhaps – futures, options, forwards, swaps – but their nature is obscure. Simply put, derivatives are financial instruments that are used to hedge risk. If a Canadian corporation knows that it will want to buy 50 million US dollars on foreign exchange markets in three months time, it can arrange a fixed price for that purchase using a financial contract called a derivative. In doing so, it lowers the risk of the price of the currency changing drastically before it purchases the amounts it needs.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States and Canada

18609. Humanitarian Action: The Conflict Connection

Author:
S. Neil MacFarlane
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
This monograph considers the impact of humanitarian action on recent armed conflicts. The proposition that humanitarian initiatives fuel conflict has been an important element of the critique of international responses to war-related need, constituting indeed a fundamental challenge to the humanitarian imperative. Concern about exacerbating conflict through humanitarian action may also reduce the flow of resources from donors to aid agencies. But the connection can also be positive. The view that humanitarian action can and should be designed to promote peace has influenced the programs of agencies operating in complex emergencies.
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, and International Organization

18610. Targeted Financial Sanctions: A Manual for Design and Implementation

Author:
Thomas J. Biersteker, Sue Eckert, Natalie Reid, and Peter Romaniuk
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
In recent years, the concept and strategy of targeted sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, have been receiving increased attention. Practitioners and analysts generally agree that better targeting of such measures on the individuals responsible for the policies condemned by the international community, and the elites who benefit from and support them, would increase the effectiveness of sanctions, while minimizing the negative impact on the civilian population. The considerable interest in the development of targeted sanctions regimes has focused primarily on financial sanctions, travel and aviation bans, and embargoes on specific commodities such as arms or diamonds.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United Nations

18611. The Model of Ethnic Democracy

Author:
Sammy Smooha
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The classical model of the liberal-democratic nation-state is on the decline in the West as a result of globalization, regionalization, multiculturalism, the institutionalization of universal minority rights and the rise of minority ethnonationalism. While western countries are decoupling the nation-state and slowly shifting toward multicultural democracy, some other countries are consolidating an alternative form of a democratic state that is identified with and subservient to a single ethnic nation. This type of political regime, "ethnic democracy," combines the extension of civil and political rights for all permanent residents with an institutionalized ethnic ascendancy of the majority group. The core ethnic nation controls the state and uses it to further its national interests and to grant its members a favored status. The non-core groups are accorded individual and collective rights and allowed to conduct a struggle for change, but treated as second-class citizens and placed under control.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

18612. The Effectiveness of the Exercise of Jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court: The Issue of Complementarity

Author:
Sammy Smooha and Susan Hannah Farbstein
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The prevalence of collective violence and the agony of mass atrocity may prove to be the twentieth century's most distressing and enduring legacies. From Germany to Uganda, from Cambodia to Sierra Leone, from the Former Yugoslavia to Rwanda, the past hundred years are replete with examples of terrifying violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed against diverse groups of people. Limited attempts to unveil the truth about past horrors, to hold individuals responsible, and to deter future offenses have repeatedly proven inadequate. A dearth of satisfactory moral and legal responses to these crimes often left victims suffering without any sense of reconciliation, while perpetrators routinely enjoyed impunity rather than facing justice.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Uganda, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Germany, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda

18613. The Situation of Minorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Towards an Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Author:
Matthias KÖNIG
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
On 11 May 2001 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) acceded to the Council of Europe's FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES (FRAMEWORK CONVENTION hereinafter). The new government in Belgrade, in power since the democratic revolution in October 2000, has thereby declared its political intention to improve the situation of minorities by revising its legislation in accordance with the normative standards of the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION. By identifying general patterns of minority treatment in both legal standard-setting and factual practice in the FRY over the past decade, this study contributes to an analysis of primary concerns to be considered in the implementation of the FRAMEWORK CONVENTION.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Ethnic Conflict, International Law, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia

18614. ECMI Civil Society Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Role of Annex 8 in Bridging Communities, Promoting Reconciliation, and Developing a Unique Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Valery Perry
Publication Date:
12-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
On Saturday, 15 December 2001, over 30 people gathered in Sarajevo to discuss the policy development and challenges of implementation related to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP). The participants came from a broad range of relevant backgrounds, including the museum, culture, preservation, history, archaeology, architecture, civil society, and academic, governmental, and diplomatic fields. While full representation of the relevant government officials from the Federation of BiH (FbiH), Republika Srpska (RS), and Brcko District was expected, on the day before the workshop the representatives from the RS cancelled, and the representatives from Brcko failed to appear the day of the meeting.
Topic:
Civil Society, International Law, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

18615. ECMI Civil Society Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Workshop on Media Issues Working Session on Media Issues

Author:
Valery Perry
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The ECMI Civil Society Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina aims to assist local actors in assuming responsibility for democratic governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are being involved, with the assistance of international experts, in a process of reviewing existing policy on practical issues of concern to all communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and of developing specific policy recommendations to further governance and civil society development within the framework set out by the Dayton Peace Accords (DPA).
Topic:
Civil Society, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

18616. Kosovo/a Standing Technical Working Group: 5th and 6th Session Economic Development and Reconstruction

Author:
Robert Curis and Camille Monteux
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The Standing Technical Working Group was established in March 2001 to address important issues of public policy in Kosovo/a at a technical level. It is composed of experts from Kosovo/a NGOs, from the parties and other civil society representatives. Its membership is fully interethnic and it prides itself on being able to conduct substantive debates about Kosovo/a in an interethnic way. In addition to reviewing technical aspects of policy, the group also formulates proposals and critical questions in relation to them. It then seeks to engage the international and Kosovo/a authorities on these issues. As the 5th and 6th session of the group were devoted to one common theme, it was found convenient to present the proceedings in one report.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe

18617. Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro, Workshop 1: Education and Curriculum Development

Author:
Florian Bieber
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The ECMI project “Montenegro Negotiation and Capacity Building” was launched with the aim to establish a Track II informal negotiation process providing a forum for interethnic dialogue between the Serbian and Montenegrin communities, which includes minority communities from the Sandzak border region. Through a series of workshops, the project aims to help promote dialogue, identify issues of common concern and assist in delivering concrete benefits as well as building confidence between the communities involved. By focusing the debate on the concrete needs of these communities, the project seeks to facilitate thinking about future interethnic relations in a less charged atmosphere, irrespective of the deeper political questions on the future constitutional arrangements of the two republics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

18618. Kosovo/a Standing Technical Working Group, Fourth Meeting: Review of Activities

Author:
Graham Holliday and Camille Monteux
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
After a preliminary sketch of the overall aims of the project and the objective of the weekend's deliberations, the fourth meeting of the STWG was formally declared open. The first session was chaired by Dr Gylnaze Syla, who had also chaired an earlier plenary meeting of the Group and convened the Steering Committees on Health. The first session sought to re-examine questions pertaining to civil registration in Kosovo/a and, specifically, to address issue areas that had been highlighted by the Group in its constitutive session in March (identity documentation; registration of births, deaths and marriages; and vehicle registration).
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

18619. Smart Sanctions: Restructuring UN Policy in Iraq

Author:
David Cortright, Alistair Millar, and George A. Lopez
Publication Date:
04-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:
This study proposes a narrowly defined and tightly implemented set of smart sanctions focusing on weapons and military-related goods, as an alternative to the current faltering comprehensive sanctions regime. Such a modernized sanctions regime would need to be sustainable over the long term via the support of key UN Security Council members and frontline states. It would remain in effect until such time as Iraq complies fully with the relevant Security Council resolutions and fulfills its disarmament obligations.
Topic:
Security, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

18620. Fourth Freedom Forum Cosponsors Conference on Averting Nuclear Anarchy

Author:
Joseph Rotblat
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:
On March 31 the Fourth Freedom Forum joined with the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Lawyers Alliance for World Security, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to sponsor a one-day conference at the University of Notre Dame on the crisis in nu;clear arms control and the need for greater efforts to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons. The conference featured a keynote address by Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Joseph Rotblat. Other speakers included Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.; former ambassador Thomas Graham, MIT research fellow Lisbeth Gronlund, former assistant secretary; of Defense Sarah Sewall, and Forum president David Cortright. Remarks of some of the speakers follow.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
United States

18621. Terrorism: Threat and Responses

Author:
Jean-Louis Bruguière
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
Along with the highly developed forms of organized crime, can terrorism be ranked in the category of the tough challenges which the world has to face? This question is worth asking, as too often the perception of that threat is a faint one.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Europe

18622. The European Union as a Security Actor in the Mediterranean

Author:
Fred Tanner and Joanna Schemm
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
The publication of the proceedings of the GCSP workshop on the European Union and the Mediterranean is timely in more ways than one. First of all, the sudden emergence of European Security and Defence Policy from 1999 onwards has generated the need to examine the security and defence dimension of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. The partnership was obviously not established in connection with ESDP in mind – if only because ESDP did not exist yet at the time of the launching of the Barcelona process – but the Barcelona process clearly has security and defence implications and ESDP necessarily has a Mediterranean dimension. Secondly, and more tentatively, the ESDP is likely to increase its focus on the Mediterranean as the wars of succession in the former Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia are progressively brought to a close. Not unnaturally, the conflicts which have worked their way down the length of post-Tito Yugoslavia from Slovenia in June 1991 to Macedonia ten years later, have been the foremost security and defence concern of the members of the European Union. These wars have not yet played themselves out, as events in Macedonia demonstrate; nor is it likely that European forces deployed in Bosnia and Kosovo will be withdrawn anytime soon. By the time the ESDP Rapid Reaction Force is ready in 2003, the European strategic spotlight may well have shifted from the Balkan doorstep to the broader Mediterranean arena. Thirdly, a number of substantial material changes are due to occur within the European Union during the next two to four years. At the military end of the spectrum, we have the 2003 goal for the Rapid Reaction Force, for which a strategic rationale will need to be found above and beyond the important but exceedingly vague statement that it is supposed to fulfil the Petersberg tasks, “including the most demanding” to use official European Council language. In institutional terms, the EU is preparing itself for the rendez-vous of 2004, which may or may not be a constitutional convention. Given the widely recognised need to give greater clarity and accountability to the EU's institutions – and this is a requirement which appears to be shared by Europhiles and Euroskeptics alike – chances are that this will not simply be an inter-governmental conference of the sort which led to the Amsterdam and Nice treaties. And then, of course, we have enlargement, which in EU terms will not only mesh in with the institutional debate, but which will also broaden the cast of players involved in the Euro-Med process. This applies even more to NATO enlargement: with something akin to a “Big Bang” beginning to take shape as NATO's current members prepare for the 2002 Prague Summit, countries such as Romania and Bulgaria will give a greater “Southern” tilt to the Alliance, before joining the European Union at a subsequent stage.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

18623. Macroeconomic Policy and Sustainability

Author:
Jonathan Harris
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
The trend in mainstream economic thought about macroeconomic policy has been towards minimalism. In the optimistic Keynesian phase of the 1960's, it was assumed that both fiscal and monetary policy were effective tools for macroeconomic management. But the influence of monetarist and New Classical critiques has led to a gradual erosion of theoretical support for activist government policy. First fiscal policy fell by the wayside, perceived as too slow and possibly counterproductive in its impacts. Then New Classical and rational expectations critiques suggested that even monetary policy was ineffective. Thus the role of government policy has been reduced to a cautious effort not to make things worse -- in effect a return to an economics of laissez- faire.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance

18624. Dirt is in the Eye of the Beholder: The World Bank Air Pollution Intensities for Mexico

Author:
Kevin Gallagher, Francisco Aguayo, and Ana González
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
This paper identifies a number of errors and inconsistencies in a series of air pollution intensities for Mexico that were recently created by the World Bank. Because these data are being used to conduct public policy analysis and advice for Mexico and countries at similar levels of development, knowledge of the limits of these data is of utmost importance. In addition to identifying the problems with these data, this paper makes a series of adjustments to offer a corrected dataset. These newly corrected data are available on the World Bank's New Ideas in Pollution Regulation (NIPR) web page.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Mexico

18625. Agriculture in a Global Perspective

Author:
Jonathan Harris
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
In the twenty-first century, it is evident that world agricultural systems will have to supply sufficient food for a population somewhere between 7.5 and 12 billion. Projections for world agriculture in the first half of the twenty-first century very widely, largely depending on assumptions about yield growth. An investigation of the patterns of yield growth for major cereal crops offers evidence that the pattern is logistic, implying that an upper limit to yields is being approached. This pattern is consistent with ecological limits on soil fertility, water availability, and nutrient uptake. It is also evident that current agricultural production is imposing serious strains on ecosystems, with widespread soil degradation, water overdraft and pollution, and ecological impacts such as loss of biodiversity and the proliferation of resistant pest species.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Economics, and Environment

18626. Community Control in a Global Economy: Lessons from Mexico's Economic Integration Process

Author:
Eliza Waters and Tim Wise
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
The North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to promise economic growth for Mexico and improved living conditions for its people. While the Mexican economy has recovered significantly from its post-NAFTA collapse, there is mounting evidence that many of the pre-NAFTA warnings of worsening poverty and deteriorating environmental conditions were true, if exaggerated. However one interprets the statistics, there is little doubt that the economic integration process, which began a full decade before NAFTA took effect, has created a significant restructuring of the Mexican economy, with some of the country's most vulnerable residents facing the harshest conditions.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
North America

18627. Civil Economy and Civilized Economics: Essentials for Sustainable Development

Author:
Neva Goodwin
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
This essay will consider the relevance of the social sciences - especially economics - to the foundations of sustainable development. Looming environmental crises have served as a prime motivating force for reevaluating fundamental principles. In particular, the concept of sustainability, carrying with it clear requirements for values, goals and ethics, has begun to reshape economics. The broadest conception of sustainability is found if we understand sustainable development to mean Socially And Environmentally Just And Sustainable development - "SAEJAS development".
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy

18628. Postcommunism as a Historical Episode of State-Building: A Reversed Tillyan Perspective

Author:
Venelin I. Ganev
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This analytical essay offers a historical-sociological interpretation of a widely discussed and yet under-analyzed phenomenon that transpired in the former Soviet world after the collapse of communist regimes: the “weakness of the state.” After a critical survey of currently dominant approaches to this problem—approaches that conjure up the ideological commitment of global and local “neo-liberal” elites—I present an alternative explanation of the crisis of state capacity in postcommunism. The analytical matrix proposed in the essay—I call it “reversed Tillyan perspective”—rests on two general presuppositions: first, that the process of reconfiguring state structures in postcommunism is shaped by the distinct structural legacy of state socialism, and, second, that this legacy may be best comprehended if we approach it with the analytical tools provided by the historical sociology of state formation, and in particular Charles Tilly's work on state building in Western Europe. In the final section of the essay, I explore the broader implication of the analysis of postcommunist “state weakness” for the study of state structures in the modern worlds.
Topic:
Democratization
Political Geography:
Europe

18629. Nongovernmental Terrorism in Latin America: Re-examining Old Assumptions

Author:
Andreas Feldmann and Maiju Perälä
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
For years nongovernmental terrorism in Latin America was considered to be an epiphenomenon of the Cold War, and consequently explained in terms of that war. The persistence of terrorism throughout the region in the 1990s not only has indicated that many of our assumptions concerning the causes of terrorism were misleading, but also has lead scholars to reexamine the phenomenon of nongovernmental political violence. This paper investigates the validity of a number of hypotheses recently explored in the literature by applying a pooled time series cross section regression analysis to data from seventeen Latin American countries between 1980 and 1995. Findings indicate that nongovernmental terrorist acts in Latin America are more likely to occur in countries characterized by widespread state human rights violations. Likewise, evidence is found that nongovernmental terrorism in the region tends to be more prevalent in countries characterized by electoral and associational liberties than by restrictive dictatorships. Association between economic performance or structural economic conditions and the incidence of terrorism is not substantiated by the findings.
Topic:
Cold War, Democratization, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

18630. Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: The Argentine Justicialista Party In Comparative Perspective

Author:
Steven Levitsky
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This article seeks to explain the success or failure of Latin American labor-based parties in adapting to the contemporary challenges of economic liberalization and working class decline. It focuses on party organization, and specifically, on informal and under-institutionalized organizational forms. The article's central claim is that under-institutionalized organizational structures may facilitate party adaptation in a context of environmental crisis. Thus, mass populist parties, which lack the bureaucratic constraints that tend to inhibit change in better institutionalized labor-based parties, may possess a distinctive advantage in the neoliberal period. Although these parties' deep roots in society provide them with relative electoral stability, other populist legacies, such as fluid internal structures, non-bureaucratic hierarchies, and centralized leaderships, yield a high degree of strategic flexibility. The article applies this argument to the case of the Argentine Justicialista Party (PJ), a mass populist party that adapted with striking success in the 1980s and 1990s. In the coalitional realm, the poorly institutionalized nature of the PJ's party-union linkage allowed reformers to easily dismantle traditional mechanisms of labor participation, which contributed to the PJ's rapid transformation from a labor-dominated party into a patronage-based party. In the programmatic realm, the PJ's non-bureaucratic hierarchy and under-institutionalized leadership bodies provided President Carlos Menem with substantial room for maneuver in carrying out a neoliberal strategy that, while at odds with Peronism's traditional program, was critical to the party's survival as a major political force.
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

18631. The Taxing Task of Taxing Transnationals

Author:
Thomas A. Gresik
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Financial and real investment flexibility, tax competition, and superior economic information by transnationals both creates a rationale for corporate income taxation and limits the effectiveness of such taxation. While these factors have led to a variety of transnational tax policies, such as deferral, double taxation, apportionment, and trade rules, very few of these institutional features have been integrated into tax competition and agency models. This paper shows how the integration of investment flexibility, tax competition, and agency issues is crucial to our understanding of corporate tax policies.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance

18632. Privateering and National Defense: Naval Warfare for Private Profit

Author:
Larry J. Sechrest
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
Hans-Hermann Hoppe has argued that “the idea of collective security is a myth that provides no justification for the modern state” and “all security is and must be private” (1999, 27). Furthermore, Hoppe makes it abundantly clear that when referring to security he means protection against not only the small-scale depredations of the common criminal but also the massive aggressions perpetrated by nation-states. The claim that all legitimate defense functions can and must be privately supplied flies in the face of certain economic doctrines that are almost universally accepted. Almost all economists declare that there are some goods or services which will be provided in suboptimal quantities--or not provided at all--by private, profit-seeking firms. These “public goods” allegedly bring benefits to all in the society, whether or not any given individual bears his or her fair share of their cost. This “free riding” by some persons diminishes the profit incentive motivating private suppliers. Therefore, to make sure that such highly-valued goods are provided, the government serves as the principal, or often the only, supplier and taxes all the citizens in order to finance the production and distribution of the good.
Topic:
Government, Industrial Policy, and National Security

18633. Constitutional Causes for Technological Leadership: Why Europe?

Author:
Jurgen G. Backhaus
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
In a paper circulated towards the end of 1997 under the title Why Europe?, Gordon Tullock poses a simple question and provides a tentative, yet provocative answer. The question is why the technological take off took place in Europe and in the 19th century when well into the 18th century other areas of the world, and notably China, looked much better poised for technological and scholarly leadership than Europe. His tentative answer turns on the constitutional composition of the landscape of political entities in Europe. This essay tries to provide some further underpinnings to aspects of Gordon Tullock's preliminary answer.
Topic:
Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
China and Europe

18634. Nation of Origin Bias and the Enforcement of Immigration Laws by the Immigration and Naturalization Service

Author:
Jim F. Couch, Brett King, William H. Wells, and Peter M. Williams
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is charged with the task of administering citizenship requests, providing for the proper documentation of temporary foreign workers, and apprehending illegal aliens. The apprehension of illegals, the most controversial duty of the INS, has placed the agency squarely in the headlines. The recent raid to seize Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives brought opprobrium upon the agency. The action, which involved 131 INS agents – some heavily armed – resulted in calls of discrimination from Miami's Cuban community. This paper examines the inconsistent enforcement patterns of the INS and attempts to determine what factors may account for INS activity. We conjecture that the agency is influenced by political pressure and may practice discrimination against certain illegals.
Topic:
Government and Migration
Political Geography:
United States and Cuba

18635. Improving Upon Nature: Creating Competitive Advantage in Ceramic Tile Clusters in Italy, Spain, and Brazil

Author:
Jorg Meyer-Stamer, Silene Seibel, and Claudio Maggi
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
This paper shows how using a combination of a cluster and a global value chain approach helps to assess local competitive strategies and upgrading possibilities. The global ceramic tile industry is dominated by two industrial clusters, Sassuolo in Italy and Castellón in Spain, which are not only dominating tile production in their respective countries and in Europe but are also the global technology leaders and the leading exporters. The Italian tile manufacturers are closely linked with capital goods manufacturers, the Spanish with producers of glazing materials. The equipment and materials producers drive technical change and innovation in tile design, whereas the tile manufacturers try to establish a competitive advantage in particular by innovating in downstream activities: training tilers, establishing diversified brands for different sales channels, and going into direct sales. Analyzing the value chain, from inputs and capital goods to final sales, offers new insights into scope and alternatives of local upgrading. It also helps to reassess the competitiveness of tile clusters in the developing world. This is done for Brazil's leading cluster which is located in Santa Catarina. Tile firms there can benefit from the fierce rivalry among Italian capital goods producers and among Spanish producers of glazing materials, as well as the rivalry between Italy and Spain. They are technology followers. However, having to deal with a volatile and very competitive market, they are innovative in downstream activities, experimenting with concepts which are not yet used by Italian or Spanish manufacturers.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Europe, Brazil, Spain, and Italy

18636. Between Dialogue and Partnership: What North-South Relationship Across the Mediterranean?

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In the post-September 11th evolution a new transatlantic dimension is emerging based in the struggle against terrorism in a global perspective. Terrorism is identified as today's central threat to international security and co-operation.
Topic:
Security, International Cooperation, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

18637. Human Rights and Regional Co-Operation in the Caucasus: The Role of Georgia

Author:
Ettore Greco and Marco Gestri
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The first session of the seminar focused on “Georgia and the European System for the Protection of Human Rights”. Analysis of the topics to be discussed within this framework was preceded by some introductory remarks by Ambassador Maurizio Moreno, Department of Political Affairs of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Moreno gave a concise but stimulating overview of the political context in which Georgia's international relations must be considered. First, he emphasised the clear will of the majority of the Georgian people and of Georgian institutions to strengthen ties with European and Euro-Atlantic organisations. Then he drew the attention of the Georgian participants to the fact that there is a firm determination on the part of the European Union and its member states to consider Georgia a full member of the European family of nations; this has been proven, in particular, by Georgia's accession to the Council of Europe.
Topic:
Human Rights and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Georgia

18638. A Mediterranean Economic Policy from Europe at the Enlargement Cross-Roads

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Admittedly, the results of the EU's economic policy towards the Mediterranean are to some extent disappointing. What do we have to do? Do all we need is to modify and improve such policy? Or do we have to bring in some more substantive changes? Is the policy disappointing in itself or because of the way it is implemented? Furthermore, we are aware that these questions come up in conjunction with the advancement of the EU enlargement to Eastern European countries. Thus, a further question is what is the impact of the enlargement on EU economic co-operation with the Mediterranean. According to EU's own decisions, there must be a link between enlargement and Euro-Med Partnership: that is a fair balance between enlargement towards the East and co-operation towards the South. Is indeed that balance there? or there is a polarisation towards the East which demands for corrections?
Topic:
Economics, International Cooperation, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe

18639. Saudi-Italian Relations During the Reign of King Fahd

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In the hundred years that have elapsed since the birth of Saudi Arabia many important developments and changes have affected both this country and Italy. Still, whereas Saudi Arabia has progressed with remarkable political stability, Italy has suffered numerous shocks: the crisis and fall, after World War I, of the nationalist elites which had made Italy an independent and united country in the 19th century; the fall of the Fascist regime and the Savoy monarchy at the end of World War II; the emergence, during the Cold War, of a Western democracy run by the classes which the nationalist elite had excluded from the process of independence; today, after the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Catholic and communist parties that dominated the Cold War domestic stage and the painful attempt to establish a less ideologically-based, more market-oriented and liberal-minded democracy in the country.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe, Arabia, Saudi Arabia, and Italy

18640. Early Warning and Conflict Prevention: Limits and Opportunities in Today's EMP

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
This paper presents some remarks on early warning (EW) and conflict prevention (CP) within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP). This remarks are preceded by an evaluation of the present EMP's political status and capabilities.
Topic:
Security, Diplomacy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

18641. Sharing New Concepts of Security in the EMP

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In November 2000, after five year of talks between the representatives of the participating countries, at the ministerial conference in Marseilles the Euro-Med Partnership (EMP) failed to adopt the Euro-Med Charter on Peace and Stability, i.e. the statement tasked to provide a common ground to Euro-Med co-operation.
Topic:
Security, Diplomacy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Middle East

18642. Think Tanks as a Cooperative Factor in NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
This paper discusses the perspective of setting up a network of think tanks (NTTs) dealing with international relations and security in the framework of official regional security organizations (RSOs). The paper refers, in particular, to the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue (NMD). In 1997 and 1999, the task of promoting the establishment of a non-governmental network of institutes in the NMD framework was suggested in the Reports prepared by Rand for the Italian and, then, the Spanish Ministry of Defense. The same task was then included by the Mediterranean Cooperation Group (MCG) in its agenda. The first section considers the NTTs' role in shaping public foreign and security policy in general terms. The second section analyses the characters of the NMD as an RSO. The third section argues which kind of NTTs fits with the NMD and which tasks they can pursue.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Foreign Policy, NATO, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
Europe

18643. Western-Mediterranean Security Relations: Issues and Challenges

Author:
Carlo Masala
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Speaking about issues and challenges of Western-Mediterranean security relations means, first of all, reflecting about the achievements of the Western-Mediterranean policy in the past. A realistic look at Western-Mediterranean security relations in the past decade contributes to a realistic outlook for the future of this relationships.
Topic:
Security, NATO, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, and North Africa

18644. Relations Between Italy and Libya

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Relations between Italy and Libya have oscillated over time, though broadly in tune with trends in international relations with this country. Despite oscillations, however, relations have never ceased to be important for both Italy and Libya.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Europe, Libya, North Africa, and Italy

18645. Water As a Factor of Conflict Challenges Around the Mediterranean Basin

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The southern shore of the Mediterranean region is an area with very high population growth. National economies haven't - but for Israel - the strength and vitality of northern-shore states. On the southern shore the state has generally a pervasive role in the society. Inefficient state-owned industries and subsidised agriculture give way to products that are scarcely competitive on the world market. Weak southern Mediterranean economies, that could somehow get along with a stable population, risk the failure in trying to keep pace with the ongoing population boom and with globalisation. For this reason, on the southern shore of the Mediterranean resource disputes have emerged, especially since the seventies, as an area of contentions between states. The latter more and more is perceived as a dangerous and hardly manageable issue.
Topic:
Security and Environment
Political Geography:
Middle East and Arabia

18646. Europe and North Africa

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In the European geopolitical perspective, North Africa does not make much sense. Rather, European relations focuses on the Maghreb, the Arab Occident, which traditionally includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Egypt, although part to North Africa, belongs geopolitically to another framework, i.e. the Mashreq, the Arab Orient.
Topic:
International Relations and Security
Political Geography:
Europe, Algeria, Arab Countries, North Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia

18647. Assessing Scholarly Communication in the Developing World: It Takes More Than Bytes

Author:
David Block
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
STUDIES of scholarly communication in Western Europe and North America describe a world in crisis. (Borgman, 2000.) By the early 1990s, the cost of print journals had reached a level that discouraged their purchase by even the richest institutions, and digital editions of these works, a feature of the next decade, raised the ante higher still. Copyright, the legally-enforced ownership of ideas in some fixed form, has become more contentious in a digital realm, which potentially makes unauthorized usage as simple as "copy and paste." And, finally, while archiving scholarly publications has been difficult in the medium of acidic paper, it has become even more problematic in electronic form where the data themselves, the media that hold them and the computer programs that make them intelligible are all subject to decay or obsolescence. This triumvirate—spiraling information costs, control of information and its preservation for succeeding generations—constitutes the developed world's central focus for research and planning in scholarly communication. (Atkinson, 2000. NINCH).
Topic:
Development, Education, International Cooperation, Science and Technology, and Third World
Political Geography:
North America and Western Europe

18648. Strategic Challenges for the Bush Administration

Author:
Stephen J. Flanagan
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
As the Bush administration settles into office, the United States confronts an international environment marked by growing volatility and rapid change. What security challenges will the new administration face, and what strategies are available for managing these challenges? To answer these questions, leading policy specialists in the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University recently prepared a series of assessments for the Department of Defense. These perspectives are presented in this occasional paper. Together with the Institute's previously published Report of the National Defense University Quadrennial Defense Review 2001 Working Group, these assessments offer a broad menu of security policy choices.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and International Law
Political Geography:
United States

18649. A Turning Point for Turkey

Author:
Aleksandar D. Jovovic
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:
The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy hosted the fall 2001 meetings of the Schlesinger Working Group on the topic of Turkey. Our selection of Turkey is a reflection of the daunting choices and challenges that face this country, as well as its inherent importance. Turkey is at a crossroads not only due to its strategic geographic location, but also because of the key internal economic, social and political problems it must resolve. It faces difficult dilemmas on the question of Cyprus, its relations with Greece, and its cooperation with Israel. It has been forced to accept open-ended delays on EU membership, and it may have to yield some influence on the issue of European defense. Turkey walks a fine line between firm support for the Iraqi containment scheme and tacit admission of its dependence on the resulting smuggling business. On the home front, its tendency to ban pro-Islamist parties and its treatment of the Kurdish question may be unsustainable, while serious structural problems and rigidities in the economic system threaten to derail the impressive economic gains of past decades. And finally, the political system itself, rife with corruption and sustained by a bloated bureaucracy and entrenched party politics, is under growing strain.
Topic:
Security, NATO, and Religion
Political Geography:
Iraq, Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, Asia, and Cyprus

18650. Russia's Southern Neighbors

Author:
Aleksandar D. Jovovic
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:
The Institute for the study of Diplomacy hosted the spring 2001 meetings of the Schlesinger Working Group on the topic of Russian foreign policy towards its neighbors in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The potential for further conflict along Russia's periphery is real. Russia (experiencing an economic upswing and more assertive political leadership) is mired in a series of border problems as well as unresolved internal security challenges in Chechnya and continues to be a central actor in the entire Caucasus region. The civil war in Afghanistan continues to export Islamic extremism to Russia's important Central Asian neighbors. If a dramatic security downturn took shape in any of these borderlands, it would test the competence, political will, and strategic common sense of Putin and his team. Russia's government has already demonstrated its willingness to charge headlong into an internal conflict, and Putin's initial popularity has soared as a result. To provide a starting point for the discussion, the working group examined the following issues: External political and security challenges facing Russia in the near to medium term. Russia's interests and willingness to remain engaged in developments along its frontier. Prospects for strategic surprises and unanticipated events along Russia's southern border. Implications of Russia's behavior and region- al developments on US interests and capabilities.
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and Chechnya