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53962. PolicyWatch #1435: Rebuilding U.S.-Libyan Relations Twenty Years after Lockerbie
- Author:
- Simon Henderson and Dana Moss
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- Nearly twenty years ago, on December 21, 1988, PanAm Flight 103 from London to New York exploded in midair over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board. Last weekend, according to an unconfirmed report in the International Herald Tribune, Musa Kusa, the Libyan intelligence chief widely believed to have planned the terror attack, visited Washington for talks with intelligence and military officials. The same week saw a telephone conversation between President Bush and Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, a meeting at the State Department between Qadhafi's eldest son Saif al-Islam and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the Senate confirmation of the first American ambassador to Libya in thirty-six years. This new chapter offers areas of cooperation, but the United States must proceed with caution.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Islam, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, Libya, and London
53963. Volume 1, Issue 12 - Full Issue
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- CTC Sentinel
- Institution:
- The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
- Abstract:
- More than one-third of the remaining 255 detainees at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay are Yemenis, representing the single largest national contingent. Since the detention facility opened in early 2002, Yemenis have consistently comprised a sizeable percentage of the population. Other countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, have successfully repatriated many of their nationals, but Yemen has been unable to convince the United States to release detainees into its custody. There is even widespread speculation in both the United States and Yemen that the Yemeni government does not actually want the detainees back and is content to let them remain in U.S. custody. The Yemeni government, however, maintains in private its stated, public goal to return the detainees to Yemen, charge those it has evidence against and release the rest. For the United States, this has been insufficient, and it has repeatedly sought assurances from the Yemeni government that it will set standardized restrictions before any individuals are released. Part of this hesitation stems from security concerns about what would happen to the detainees once they are returned to Yemen.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia
53964. Food Safety and Trade Liberalization in an Age of Globalization
- Author:
- Obijiofor Aginam and Christina Hansen
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Consumer trust of food producers and the governments that regulate them is in notable decline throughout the world, due to frequent and recurring instances of food contamination. Yet consumer trust is pivotal in order to sustain the increasingly globalized nature of food production, processing, and distribution in the international trading relations of states. With an increasing population, rapid urbanization and rise of the middle class, the demand for processed food is increasing significantly, and thus presents inherent risks for food safety and sustainability. The challenge of ensuring effective global food safety standards is inexorably linked to the progressive trade liberalization agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a globalized world, food-borne outbreaks, like air-borne infectious diseases, disregard the geopolitical boundaries of sovereign states. Food products grown in one part of the world, because of advancements in food production trends and burgeoning international trade between states, are now easily transported to other regions of the world. International trade norms and policies often focus predominantly on traded goods and services, especially “Northern” access to “Southern” markets. Founded on the free trade agenda of market access, and driven by the principles of “National Treatment” and “Most Favoured Nation”, the international trading system—with nation-states as the dominant actors—is asymmetrical in nature. Very often, the international trading system does not effectively address the many fundamental and pressing issues related to environmental degradation, pesticide use and chemical dependency common in modern agricultural practices.
- Topic:
- Security, Agriculture, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
53965. Between Bureaucracy and the People: A Political History of Informality
- Author:
- Keith Hart
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- I explore here the dialectic of formal and informal economy in the context of 'development' discourse over the last four decades. It would not be hard, in post-colonial Africa for example, to conceive of this dialectic as a war waged by the bureaucracy on the people, allowing informal economic practices to be portrayed as a kind of democratic resistance. Yet, however much we might endorse the political value of self-organized economic activities, there are tasks of large-scale co-ordination for which bureaucracy is well-suited; and the institution's origins were closely linked to aspirations for political equality, even if historical experience has undermined that expectation. So the task is not only to find practical ways of harnessing the complementary potential of bureaucracy and informality, but also to advance thinking about their dialectical movement.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Africa
53966. 'Cast the Net Wider': How a Vision of Global Halal Markets is Overcoming Network Envy
- Author:
- Johan Fischer
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- This paper explores Malaysia's bid to become the world leader in rapidly expanding halal (lawful or permitted) markets on a global scale. Over the last three decades, a powerful state nationalism has emerged, represented by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the dominant political party in Malaysia. The state has effectively certified standardised and bureaucratised Malaysian halal production, trade and consumption. Now, the vision is to export this model, and for that purpose the network as a strategic metaphor is being evoked to signify connectedness and prescriptions of organisation vis-à-vis more deep-rooted networks. Building on empirical material from research in Malaysia and Britain, I shall show how networks are understood and practised in a metaphorical sense.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Nationalism
- Political Geography:
- Britain, Malaysia, and Asia
53967. The Bush Administration's Legacy
- Author:
- Condoleezza Rice
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- What will be the legacy of the Bush administration? That is a question that will surely occupy historians for decades to come, and it will likely be the topic of many doctoral dissertations—some of which I imagine I will even supervise upon returning to Stanford on January 20, 2009. Still, we can say a few things about this question now.
53968. Striking Balance on National Defense
- Author:
- Mike Mullen
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- We have been raised in this country to believe that the defense of our vital national interests is largely the province of the Pentagon. National security, the theory goes, is for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force to figure out. And in the wake of World War II and throughout much of the Cold War, that was a pretty safe assumption.
53969. The World Institute for Nuclear Security
- Author:
- Sam Nunn
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- In the last 60 years, the world has developed many beneficial uses for nuclear energy—from generating electricity, to protecting water resources, to increasing crop yields and fighting diseases. But we all know that our continued ability to enjoy the beneficial uses of the atom depends on our corresponding ability to prevent the destructive use of the atom.
53970. The Global Food Crisis and Beyond
- Author:
- Jacques Diouf, Ph.D.
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- In recent weeks, the focus of international attention shifted from the plight of the poor and hungry to the financial and economic meltdown threatening the world's rich countries. But this should not divert the international community from the priority of resolving the continuing global food security crisis caused by soaring food prices in 2007- 2008. The situation remains profound and requires an immediate, comprehensive, coherent and coordinated global response.