Political Geography: - CIAO Search Results

54801. Monitoring the Dynamics of Democratization in Korea: The Korea Democracy Barometer Surveys

Author:: Doh Chull Shin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The past decade has witnessed a growth in major efforts to study mass reactions to democratic regime change on a global scale. Since 1991 Professor Richard Rose, of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, has been conducting the New Democracies Barometer surveys and the New Russia and Baltic Barometer surveys to compare the mass experience of democratization in post-Communist countries. Since 1995 Dr. Mata Lagos, of Market Opinion Research International in Santiago, Chile, has been conducting the Latinobarometro surveys on an annual basis to trace and compare the levels and sources of popular support for democracy and democratic reforms in 15 Latin American countries along with Spain. Most recently, in1999, Professor Michael Bratton of Michigan State University in the United States and Robert Mattes of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa launched the Afrobarometer to map mass attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil society in a dozen African countries.
Political Geography:: Africa, Russia, United States, Latin America, Spain, Korea, and Scotland

54802. Korea-United States Industrial Alliance

Author:: Youn-Suk Kim
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: Historically, Korea has been under the influence of its ambitious neighbors, China, Japan and Russia, which causes Korea's intense concern for its long-term independence. Through the budding signs of North-South Korea unification, Korea perceives that long-term peace and security derive from having a close diplomatic and economic relationship with the United States as the most crucial ingredient. Thus President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea and his counterpart of the North, Kim Jong II, at the June meeting emphasized the continued presence of United States troops in the Korean peninsula for stability and peace in East Asia even after the unification. In association with the United States economy, the unified Korea could play a major role as a regional balancer, giving stability to a new order in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Japan, China, Korea, and Northeast Asia

54803. Economic Voting in Korean Elections after Democratization

Author:: Hyeon-Woo Lee
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: Many factors influence the electoral results. One of them in the western countries is the economic condition. Whether they are personal or national economic conditions, the importance of economic factors in elections cannot be ignored. This paper focuses on economic voting and investigates whether economic voting worked in the Korean elections after 1987. It is generally accepted that Korean democratization was achieved in 1987. Before that year, democratization was the prevailing issue in elections because many Koreans still thought that the government was an authoritarian regime. Though the opposition parties insisted political democracy as first priority and urgent task required for Korea to accomplish, the ruling parties emphasized efficient and fast economic development led by ruling elites.
Political Geography:: Korea

54804. The Global Community of Overseas Koreans: The Chinese Koreans and the Korean Americans A Vision for the Future

Author:: Chong-Wook Chung
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: I feel deeply honored to be invited to this annual meeting of the International Council on Korean Studies and to deliver a keynote speech on overseas Koreans. I would like to express my profound gratitude to Professor I lpyong Kim, President of the Council, and others who worked so hard to make this timely and important annual meeting a success. Before I start, let me make some preliminary remarks. First, I do not believe I can speak on behalf of the government of Korea. I left the government two years ago to return to the academic community. Second, I do not consider myself, either as a scholar or as a former government official, an expert on the subject of overseas Koreans. The best claim I can make in this connection is the fact that while I was serving as the senior secretary for national security and foreign policy for the President for two years in 1993 and 1994, my responsibilities included the affairs of overseas Koreans.
Political Geography:: China, America, and Korea

54805. Offering Behavior of Korean Presbyterian Church Members: A Comparative Analysis with African American and Hispanic Groups

Author:: Kwang Chung Kim and Shin Kim
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: A church as an organization is a normative and an ideological institution. In America, it is a voluntary organization as well. Just like any other similar organization, a church needs a financial resource for its operation and goal achievement. Without it, a church is not able to operate or survive. Thus, developing and maintaining a system of financial resource acquisition and allocation is the indispensable prerequisite for a church. As a voluntary association, a church's financial resource is heavily derived from voluntary donations of its members. Although church members can confer their financial support to their church in various ways, the major portion of a church's financial resource comes from its members' regular offerings at worship services. This study is the first attempt to analyze empirically the regular offerings of Korean Presbyterian church members in a comparison with those of African American and Hispanic Presbyterians.
Political Geography:: Africa, America, and Korea

54806. An Analysis of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Variations in Types of Voluntary Associations in the Korean American Community

Author:: Eui Hang Shin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: Knoke asserts that "a minimal definition of a voluntary association is a formally organized named group, most of whose members are not financially recompensed for their participation." As Sills notes, all non-state, common-purpose organizations with voluntary memberships may be considered voluntary associations - organizations whose existence is dependent upon freedom of association. A review of the literature, however, reveals that substantial variations exist in the definition of voluntary associations. For example, previous studies of voluntary associations differ with regard to the inclusion or exclusion of such organizations as labor unions, churches, business and trade associations, political parties, professional societies, and philanthropic groups. There is, nevertheless, a consensus that "the voluntary association is a nonprofit, non-government, private group which an individual joins by choice," and that voluntary associations are "sparetime, participatory associations" to which people belong without pay. Voluntary associations have offices filled through established procedures, periodic scheduled meetings, qualifying criteria for membership, and some formalized division of labor, although organizations do not necessarily exhibit all of these characteristics to the same degree.
Political Geography:: America and Korea

54807. Book Reviews: Myoung Chung Wilson, Korean Government Publications: An Introductory Guide.

Author:: Ilpyong J. Kim
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: South Korea today has the eleventh largest economy in the world. Although recent setbacks placed a temporary brake on several decades of surging economic development, these obstacles have now been largely overcome. The Republic of Korea is proving once again that it has one of the most vibrant economies among advanced industrial countries. These gains have been accompanied by corollary advances in medicine, transportation, urban planning and agriculture, to name but a few areas of noteworthy development. In 1987 the country moved away from its authoritarian past and instituted a working democratic system. In short, the pace of change in the economy, in politics and in social life generally has been spectacular. It is entirely appropriate, therefore, that Korean achievements, as documented in a wide range of government publications, should now be made accessible, in English, to scholars, policy makers and the interested public. Korean Government Publications: An Introductory Guide is the first comprehensive English-language guide to this wealth of information, much of it published in both Korean and English. It is especially timely because of the recent upsurge in the number of government publications and because the mistrust of documents published under authoritarian regimes has dissipated with the advent of genuine democracy.
Political Geography:: South Korea and Korea

54808. Anti-Globalization Movements at the Cross-Roads

Author:: Raimo Väyrynen
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:: Although it appears to be growing in strength and numbers, the anti-globalization protest movement is now at a cross-roads. The core of the anti-globalization movement, which is rooted in social justice and human rights, has been unable to control violent fringe groups. Furthermore, international economic agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF have been surprisingly responsive, expanding and accelerating their policies on debt relief and strengthening their focus on the mitigation of poverty. The protest movement thus faces the challenge of developing new instrumental goals for the next phase.
Topic:: Globalization, Human Rights, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Washington

54809. The European Union's New Crisis Management Capability

Author:: Raimo Väyrynen
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:: To the surprise of most observers, the European Union is moving quickly toward the establishment of its own crisis management capability. In its June 1999 meeting in Cologne the European Council concluded that the Union must have "the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military force, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO." The Council pledged to develop an effective EU-led military crisis management capacity in which all EU members, both NATO and non-allied countries, would participate on an equal footing. The new force will perform the so-called Petersberg tasks: humanitarian and rescue operations, peacekeeping, and the use of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.
Topic:: Security, NATO, and International Organization
Political Geography:: Europe

54810. Preventing a Nuclear Arms Race in South Asia

Author:: David Cortright and Samina Ahmed
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:: The United States must unequivocally demand that India and Pakistan join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as non-nuclear weapon states. The United States should retain punitive sanctions which target Indian and Pakistani institutions and policymakers responsible for their nuclear weapons programs. Targeted incentives should be provided that seek to diminish internal support for nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan. The United States should fulfill its obligation under Article VI of the NPT to achieve global nuclear disarmament.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:: United States and South Asia

54811. New Answers To Old Questions: Explaining The Slow Adoption Of Ring Spinning In Lancashire, 1880-1913

Author:: Timothy Leunig
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: This paper re-examines theories previously advanced to explain Lancashire's slow adoption of ring spinning. New cost estimates show that although additional transport costs and technical complementarities between certain types of machine reduced ring adoption rates, these supply side constraints were not dominant. Instead what mattered most were demand side factors. Lancashire produced far more fine yarns than other countries and that yarn was better spun on mules. Furthermore, Lancashire had a sizeable export yarn trade, a market again more suited to mule spinning. Low ring adoption rates were a positive response to demand patterns dominated by high quality goods.
Topic:: Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

54812. The 'Labour Question' in Nineteenth Century Brazil: Railways, Export Agriculture and Labour Scarcity

Author:: Lucia Lamounier
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: This paper examines changing patterns of labour relations in nineteenth-century Brazil associated with the building of railways and expansion of export agriculture. It addresses the 1850s-1880s period, decades when the `labour question' became a pressing issue for contemporaries. The extinction of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1850 posed the problem of finding alternative supplies of labour at a time of increasing agro-export production. In 1852 effective action to start the building of railways was taken. As part of efforts to improve conditions in the sugar and coffee sectors, several concessions were approved. From the middle of the century through to the 1870s, the expansion of coffee cultivation and railway construction were closely inter-related phenomena in the southern provinces of Brazil and shaped the debate about labour. The 1870s was a key decade. First, these years witnessed a `railway mania' - a great fever of building new lines and branches in various regions of the country, especially in the new coffee districts. Second, concern about the labour question intensified with the approval in 1871 of the Rio Branco Law which provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves. From then until 1888, when slavery was finally abolished, several policies were implemented trying to solve the problem of labour supply and to set new patterns of labour relations. This involved the arrival of thousands of immigrants in the 1880s, imported with government aid, to support the near-continuous expansion of coffee cultivation.
Topic:: Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Brazil and South America

54813. Distribution Dynamics: Stratification, Polarization and Convergence Among OECD Economies, 1870-1992

Author:: Philip Epstein
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: Since the 1980s the debate about economic convergence has dominated empirical work about the dynamics of growth. Economic historians have been attracted, in particular, by stories of club convergence. However, the analytical foundations of most of the work in this area have rested on linear, or more usually log-linear, regression analysis. Thus, the results tend to be dependent on a conditional average in which time is the dominant player. This is surprising as space, and issues of distribution, have long been important to both theorists and historians. A notable exception to the 'regression school' has been the work on distribution dynamics pioneered in a series of papers by Danny Quah (1993, 1996, 1997). He believes that only by considering the issues of growth and distribution simultaneously can we understand their underlying dynamics. He has argued, for example, that there is no simple causal relationship between the concepts of β-convergence and σ- convergence and that similar stories of global (or club) convergence may be driven by very different stories of individual economy mobility. This is an approach that should appeal to economic historians (both because it can encompass a rich diversity of individual economy experience and because it emphasises that same diversity). We hope to illustrate this by considering the experience of some of the leading OECD economies since 1870 within an explicit distribution dynamics framework.
Topic:: Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

54814. Competition and Innovation in 1950's Britain

Author:: Stephen Broadberry and Nicholas Crafts
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: We find little support for the Schumpeterian hypothesis of a positive relationship between market power and innovation in 1950's Britain even though many economists and policymakers accepted it at the time. Price-fixing agreements were very widespread prior to the 1956 Restrictive Practices Act and they seem to have had adverse effects on costs and productivity. Competition policy appears to have been much too lenient but the productivity problems of British industry at this time are best viewed as arising largely from the difficulties of reaping the benefits of innovation rather than from a failure to innovate per se.
Topic:: Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Britain and United Kingdom

54815. From Economic Convergence to Convergence in Affluence? Income Growth, Household Expenditure and the Rise of Mass Consumption in Britain and West Germany, 1950-1974

Author:: Peter Kramper
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: The “Golden Age” of post-war European economic growth has witnessed extraordinary changes not only in the economic, but also in the social and cultural outlook of Western European societies. Eric Hobsbawm's statement that “[h]istorians of the twentieth century in the third millennium will probably see the century's major impact on history as the one made by and in this astonishing period” is perhaps a little bit too enthusiastic; but it shows that the “Great Boom” has come to be regarded as a key period on the road to the present-day Western world. It has transformed the countries of the West and has at the same time made them more similar to each other. No matter what European societies were in 1950 by 1973, they were all, in Galbraith's famous.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: Britain and Europe

54816. Market Integration in the North and Baltic Seas, 1500-1800

Author:: David Jacks
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: Ever since the time of Adam Smith, the attribution to foreign trade of the ability to affect the wholesale transformation of the productive powers of an economy has remained a very powerful concept in both economics and economic history. At the heart of this interpretation is the observation that improvements in productivity are generated by the expansion of trade through the spreading of fixed costs and an increasing international division of labour.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

54817. Development History

Author:: N.F.R. Crafts
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: This paper discusses some aspects of the changing relationship between the study of economic history and development economics. Forty years ago the subjects seemed to be quite closely linked in the sense that senior figures straddled both areas, the development history of the advanced countries was frequently studied with a view to deriving lessons for development policy and economic historians made big generalizations as to what these were. In the 1990s, things appear to have been very different. There is much less overlap between the fields of development and history, historians have largely retreated from the brash claims of the early postwar generation and less- developed countries have their own well-documented recent history from which to draw lessons. This state of affairs is clearly reflected in the most recent edition of Meier (1995) where the historical perspective on development is still derived largely from Gerschenkron and Rostow.
Topic:: Development, Economics, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

54818. Altruism and Imperialism: The Western Religious and Cultural Missionary Enterprise in the Middle East

Author:: Eleanor Doumato, Andrew Porter, Samir Khalaf, Reeva Simon, Elizabeth Thompson, Carolyn Goffman, Hans-Lukas Kieser, Jeremy Salt, Ruth Kark, Paul Sedra, Michael Zirinsky, Mahmoud Haddad, Linda Herrera, and Eleanor H. Tejirian
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Middle East Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:: The Western missionary enterprise in the Middle East, while in theory altruistic, has generally been considered part and parcel of Western imperialism and colonialism as it evolved in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, deconstruction of this enterprise reveals that it was by no means monolithic, nor was it necessarily directly related to or supportive of Western imperial ambitions. This project, of which a conference at the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, in August 2000 is a part, seeks to examine all aspects of the Western missionary enterprise in the Middle East, focusing on its political and social impact on the region as well as on its entanglement with the political and social currents of the Western countries from which it came. Furthermore, the premise of the project is that the missionary enterprise was also the forerunner of the activities of Western nongovernmental organizations in the region, setting the agenda and establishing the categories of these activities in areas including human rights, education, and economic development.
Topic:: Economics, Human Rights, Non-Governmental Organization, and Religion
Political Geography:: Middle East

54819. Institutional Challenges and Opportunities in Environmentally Sound Trade Expansion: A Review of the Global State of Affairs

Author:: Aaron Cosbey
Publication Date:: 04-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: This paper surveys some of the key trade-sustainable development issues likely to be addressed in the coming years at the multilateral level that may have implications for the Americas. The study looks further to opportunities and threats at the domestic level and recommends a number of ways in which sustainable development might be advanced, striving to achieve environmental improvement and improved development prospects North and South. Whether in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), or other similar forums, these are the types of solutions that will pass the acid test of political acceptability.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: America

54820. Moving Beyond Privatization in Latin America: The Government/Business Relationship

Author:: Robert Grosse
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The outcomes of regulatory policies and regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico since 1990 in the telecommunications, electric power, and banking sectors are explored in this paper. How should governments regulate these oligopolistic industries, once ownership of the sectors has been passed to private hands? How can governments manage these relationships successfully and see that the greatest benefits accrue to the country? What institutional structures can best handle the problems that arise in these situations? The paper addresses these questions and concludes that, while privatizations in these sectors have been predominantly positive in the 1990s, there is still considerable room for more competition.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: Latin America, Central America, and Mexico

54821. Making Sense of Environmental Security

Author:: Frank McNeil
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The concept of environmental security—even after more than two decades of discussion—has no widely agreed-upon formulation. However, in the metaphor used by environmentalists, environmental security can be a “canary in the mine,” signaling conflicts within nations and across borders. While environmental insults may foster violence, conflicts short of war also impose high costs, wreaking damage to economies, to societal stability, to the effectiveness of political institutions, and to international cooperation. Recent examples of such conflicts and their costs can be seen in locales as diverse as the Western Hemisphere and Southeast Asia (for example, in Guatemala, the Philippines, Colombia, Indonesia, and Nicaragua's maritime and riparian disputes with Honduras and Costa Rica).
Topic:: Security, Development, Environment, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Central America and Caribbean

54822. Transnational Organized Crime: The Caribbean Context

Author:: Anthony T. Bryan
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: Were it not for the illegitimate character of their actions, transnational criminals could be lauded as pioneers and visionaries in the age of globalization. They have adopted facilitative and exacting measures to remain competitive, fashioned an enviable organizational culture of efficiency and accountability, and maximized the opportunities provided by globalization. They have been able to innovate, expand, and flourish in a furiously changing international scenario and have done so while being relatively cloaked, so that there is an aura of mystery and ambiguity about their operations.
Topic:: Security, Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:: Caribbean

54823. An Essay on Child Labor in Sub-Saharan Africa—A bargaining approach

Author:: Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The separation of children from their families have a large number of social and economic aspects. At least the economic aspects are under-researched. At the point of transition of leaving their families somehow the children have to be considered as separate decisionmakers. This is the perspective I adopt in this essay. The question raised is whether poverty, changes in social norms or external shocks to the family system such as the AIDS epidemic, lead the children to prematurely fend for themselves in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Topic:: Economics, Human Rights, and Poverty
Political Geography:: Africa

54824. Security, integration and identity change

Author:: Pernille Rieker
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: In this working paper Pernille Rieker attempts to contribute to a better understanding of both how the EU functions as a security system and what kind of impact the integration process has on national security identities. While security has always been the main reason behind the integration process, security and integration have usually been studied separately. Integration specialists have given more attention to economy than to security, and security experts have studied traditional security institutions and overlooked the EU. Rieker attempts to combine these two theoretical traditions by drawing on a combination of recent work on security communities and international socialisation. While the development in the Nordic countries will be used as brief examples in the final part of the paper, a more detailed analysis of these countries' security identities will follow in a forthcoming study.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government

54825. Globalisation and industrial location: The impact of trade policy when geography matters

Author:: Arne Melchior
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The paper shows how industrial location and welfare depends on “most-favoured nation” (MFN) versus distance-related trade barriers, using a monopolistic competition model with regions located along a “Hotelling” line or on a square plain. Manufacturing production will cluster close to the periphery if transport costs are relatively high, but in central areas if MFN barriers are relatively high. The peripheries will be at a disadvantage, which increases when trade barriers are reduced. When countries or trading blocs are formed, a core-periphery pattern emerges within each of them. While lower transport costs create more centralisation within countries, lower MFN barriers between countries have the opposite effect.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance

54826. Patterns of Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in Africa—A simple test of the new trade theory with multinationals

Author:: Lars C. Svindal and Leo A. Grünfeld
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: In this study, we present an empirical survey of the patterns of trade and FDI in Africa based on a sample of 28 countries and their transactions with the OECD countries. These patterns are used to test whether the predictions of the new trade theory with multinationals as described by Markusen and Venables (1995,1998) fit the development in Africa. The theory states that multinational production will gradually outgrow trade as countries converge in terms of income, yet our econometric study gives only week evidence supporting such a pattern. Alternative explanations are also investigated,and it is shown that trade barriers, geographical distance, income per capita and access to ocean explain much of the variation in trade and FDI in Africa.
Topic:: International Relations, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:: Africa

54827. Foreign Ownership, R, and Technology Sourcing

Author:: Leo A. Grünfeld
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: This paper explores the relationship between domestic R and the inflow of foreign capital through foreign direct investment and foreign ownership. The idea that firms invest in a foreign country in order to more easily absorb the knowledge and technology of foreign firms is tested empirically using a unique firm level data set covering foreign ownership and R for all Norwegian firms over the period 1990 to 1996. The study gives no clear evidence supporting the existence of such a motive behind foreign ownership. On the other hand, the econometric study indicates that foreign investors may try to exploit their technological advantages in the Norwegian market. The results also show that the degree of foreign ownership is more volatile when firms are highly R intensive. We hypothesize that this is due to the fact that large R investments often result in large losses as well as gains to the firms.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology

54828. The Right Role for the IMF in Development

Author:: Nancy Birdsall, John W. Sewell, and Kevin Morrison
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: Horst Köhler faces immense challenges as the new Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But no challenge is more crucial than making sure the IMF plays the right role in developing countries. Too often, it is not playing that role now. The IMF's activities in the developing world have grown radically. Today, much of its work goes beyond macroeconomic issues and crisis prevention and management, into deeper structural issues. And as a major provider of long-term development finance, it is significantly involved in efforts to reduce poverty. But the IMF lacks expertise in the wide-ranging policy and institutional complexities of development and poverty reduction. Its expertise lies in macroeconomic policy and restoring stability amid financial crises. Macroeconomics is the same for poor and rich countries alike, as IMF First Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer has said. But much of what the IMF is involved in now is not macroeconomics. The Fund should focus on: short-term liquidity lending to all countries hit by macroeconomic crises; advising through policy dialogue; and collecting, assessing, and distributing information on countries with regard to macroeconomic policy and financial markets. While poor countries need access to the Fund's short-term lending and macroeconomic advice, the IMF should leave long-term development lending to the World Bank and to other lenders and donors expert in poverty reduction.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and International Monetary Fund
Political Geography:: United States

54829. Reviewing U.S.-Nigeria Relations: New Links to Reinforce Democracy

Author:: Princeton Lyman and Linda Cotton
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: Emerging from 15 years of military rule, the Republic of Nigeria is struggling to build a stable, peaceful democratic nation from its 200 ethnic groups divided among 36 states. In May 1999, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo was elected President-a repeat performance of his earlier role as catalyst for democratic change. In 1979, Obasanjo presided over the only transition to civilian rule until now. His democratic instincts won him three years in jail under former President Sani Abacha's brutally repressive military regime.
Topic:: Environment, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, and Nigeria

54830. Misplaced Charity Undermines Kosovo's Self-Reliance

Author:: Iain Guest
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Overseas Development Council
Abstract:: For ten years, the international community has sent large, expensive missions to rebuild war-torn societies-without considering their impact on local civil society. At a time when civil society is seen as a pillar of development, this is an alarming omission.
Topic:: NATO, Environment, Humanitarian Aid, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Kosovo

54831. International — Organic Pollutants

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Delegates from 122 countries recently concluded an international agreement restricting the use of persistent organic pollutants. The agreement marks an important step towards eliminating the use of highly toxic and long-lived chemicals that do not break down easily in the environment. However, the significance of the accord extends well beyond its subject area: negotiators managed to find compromises on several issues that have bedevilled other international environmental agreements.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Environment, and International Cooperation

54832. CIAO: Eastern Europe/EU — Transition Traps

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: There has been a large differential in foreign direct investment receipts between the front-runners in the Central European applicant countries and laggards. The accession process itself has exacerbated this bifurcation, raising questions over EU policy towards the applicants and the implications for the region's long-term stability. Accession prospects appear to induce virtuous cycles for the front-runners while potentially trapping the laggards. Moreover, the latter are faced with difficult choices between long-term EU conditionality and more immediate transition imperatives, which are not always compatible
Topic:: Emerging Markets, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe

54833. CIAO: Romania — Far-Right Ascendant

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Leftist Ion Iliescu and far-right leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor will contest the second round of the presidential election on December 10. Tudor has a real chance of defeating Iliescu. He came a strong second in the first round, owing to disgust with the outgoing coalition, a popular anti-corruption platform and a shift away from extremist rhetoric. The PRM is an unpredictable, potentially destructive force with links to the Ceausescu era and dubious security circles and, now, the ability to obstruct reforms in parliament. Iliescu's weak credentials on reform and minority questions may hinder his attempts to form a common front against Tudor.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe and Romania

54834. CIAO: United States — 'Plan Colombia'

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Congressional criticism of 'Plan Colombia's' military component, and the advent of a new administration in Washington, are likely to lead to a strategic review of US policy. The outcome may be a policy that is less military focused, more regionally oriented, and based on closer cooperation with other aid donors. It has become increasingly clear that Plan Colombia can only be implemented if the EU and its member states are prepared to increase their financial contribution. This will give the Europeans considerable leverage, and they are likely to use it to insist on a less militarised approach. However, even with a change in policy emphasis, the prospects of success will remain poor.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, Washington, and Colombia

54835. CIAO: Middle East — Arafat's Ambitions

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Israel this week launched missile attacks against Palestinian security targets in Gaza in retaliation for the bombing of a school bus carrying settlers. Tel Aviv and Washington have blamed Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat for the current crisis, saying he could reduce the violence. In fact, the uprising is a spontaneous revolt against the terms of the Oslo peace process. Far from being undermined by the crisis, Arafat is using it to maximise his political and diplomatic position in the event that negotiations resume. The crisis marks a decisive shift in the Palestinians' conditions for peace with Israel.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Security, Diplomacy, Ethnic Conflict, Peace Studies, and Politics
Political Geography:: Washington, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Gaza

54836. CIAO: Ghana — Vulnerable Economy

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Government spending is increasing in the run-up to general elections next month and attempts to liberalise the cocoa trade appear half-hearted. The effectiveness of liberal economic reforms will be constrained as long as Ghana remains vulnerable to fluctuations in the prices of a narrow range of exports. Moreover, anti-corruption measures will lose their bite if they are seen to be directed in part against the government's opponents.
Topic:: Economics, Government, Politics, and Reform
Political Geography:: Africa and Ghana

54837. CIAO: International — Organic Pollutants

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Delegates from 122 countries recently concluded an international agreement restricting the use of persistent organic pollutants. The agreement marks an important step towards eliminating the use of highly toxic and long-lived chemicals that do not break down easily in the environment. However, the significance of the accord extends well beyond its subject area: negotiators managed to find compromises on several issues that have bedevilled other international environmental agreements.
Topic:: Security and Environment
Political Geography:: Russia

54838. CIAO: China — Market Manipulation

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: A leaked Shanghai Stock Exchange report has detailed the extent of trading irregularities within China's domestic equity markets. In the primary market, a series of companies have falsified records on profits, assets and even entire businesses in order to publicly issue and list shares. In the secondary markets, insider trading, the spreading of false information, coordinated stock purchases, price ramping and sales of stocks by large institutional investors are common practice. The extent of trading irregularities reflects the government's preference for market growth over regulatory standardisation. This approach is undermining the CSRC's credibility. Unless regulatory practices are tightened, institutional investors will not have the maturing effect on markets and stabilising impact on prices the government seeks.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Markets
Political Geography:: China

54839. CIAO: US/China — Trade Relations

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji this month held talks in Beijing to discuss China's accession to the WTO. Beyond opening up commercial opportunities to US firms, the award of permanent normal trade relations status to China, and its prospective accession to the WTO, should in theory add predictability to the bilateral trade relationship.
Topic:: International Relations, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Beijing

54840. CIAO: Canada — Pre-Election Budget

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Finance Minister Paul Martin announced new tax reductions in his annual economic statement this week. The mini-budget is part of the Liberal government's preparations for a general election that is expected to be called later this week. In order to secure another majority in the House of Commons, the federal Liberals will need to maintain their popularity in Ontario and increase their support in Atlantic Canada. If the Liberals fail to regain their majority, they will probably rely on the support of New Democratic legislators. If this happens, the new government would place less emphasis on tax cuts and debt reduction, and more stress on spending, than would otherwise have been the case.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Canada

54841. Iran — Investor Inhibitions

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: This week, the Majlis approved a government bill authorising immediate use of the 2000-01 budget surplus. The windfall surplus, largely the result of increased oil revenues, should amount to 6-10 billion dollars by the end of the fiscal year in March. It will certainly transform Iran's external finances, but its impact on the domestic economy will be less immediate, and it will do little to ease investor concerns. Khatami's efforts to attract greater foreign investment depend on reform of the judiciary and other key changes to the regulatory climate. In the meantime, continuing political turmoil will deter all but those investors prepared to take a long-term view of Iran's economic potential.
Topic:: Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:: Iran and Middle East

54842. Mexico — Overheating Arguments

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The recommendation reflects a conflict between the bank and the finance ministry over whether or not the economy is overheating. Increasingly, the conflict is being fought in public circles after months of low-key clashes. The uncharacteristic rift between the monetary and fiscal authorities is likely to widen over the final two months of the Zedillo administration, as signs of overheating continue to accumulate. While pressure for a substantial fiscal adjustment is likely to be irresistible when Fox takes over on December 1, concerns are growing regarding his capacity to execute such a policy.
Topic:: Economics, Government, Political Economy, and Politics
Political Geography:: North America and Mexico

54843. Nigeria — Rapacious Corruption

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Corruption deters foreign lending and investment. Except in the oil and gas sector, Nigeria's economic advantages are not sufficiently countervailing. The national reputation for corruption encourages further abuse since no one's reputation suffers through acting dishonesty. Despite reforming efforts, grand corruption is likely to persist because of the continuing large flows through official hands of unearned income from natural resources.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Africa and Nigeria

54844. European Union — Sanctions against Austria lifted

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The decision last week to lift political sanctions against Austria came as a relief to both Vienna and most of the fourteen EU member states participating in the action. Imposed in protest at the inclusion in government of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), the sanctions had rapidly became a source of difficulty and embarrassment. Crucially, nobody had been clear about what the precise aims were, or in what circumstances the sanctions would be suspended: there was no exit strategy for either side.
Topic:: Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: Europe, Austria, and Vienna

54845. South Africa — Mbeki Leadership

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Although the transition from Nelson Mandela's to Thabo Mbeki's presidency has been marked by continued political stability and conservative economic management, Mbeki's political judgement is increasingly being questioned in several key policy areas. Unless Mbeki succeeds in allaying concerns about his leadership, the stability of South Africa's present political arrangements will be undermined.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Africa and South Africa

54846. International — Capital Flight

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Not all capital outflows from developing countries should be characterised as capital flight; some are simply the analogues of outward FDI and portfolio diversification in the more advanced economies. Nonetheless, a substantial proportion is classic flight capital, linked to tax evasion or criminal activity, and transferred abroad via misinvoicing and complex financial transactions. Capital flight leads to a significant loss of investment in the most affluent developing countries, and a crippling one in the poorest. However, staunching the flow is likely to prove extremely difficult. It will require greater economic stability and institutional certainty in the source countries, and more rigorous tax enforcement and cooperation in the destination states.
Topic:: Economics, Emerging Markets, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Third World

54847. Russia — Gore Strategy

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Vice-President Al Gore officially accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's National Convention in Los Angeles on August 17. A continued deficit in the polls forced Gore to use the convention as a platform to consolidate his base vote. He also sought to differentiate himself from the Clinton presidency, despite the fact that he has adopted similar positions to the outgoing administration on many key issues. If Gore is to win in November, he must convince voters that the current expansion, and the benign political climate that it has fostered, would be imperilled by a Bush presidency.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: Russia and United States

54848. United States — High-Tech Exports

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The White House has loosened export restrictions in a number of high-technology sectors, setting a trend which is likely to be followed by the next administration. Tight export controls on high-tech products have become an expensive luxury that the United States can no longer afford. The liberalisation of remaining controls is therefore set to continue, whatever the partisan composition of the next Congress and the next administration.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

54849. Russia — Intelligence Influence

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The recent increase in arrests on espionage charges and expansion of activity by Russia's security and intelligence agencies appears to be signalling a reversion to aggressive Cold War tactics. They are seeking to increase their political influence and appear to be testing the limits of the 'civilised' intelligence competition which has evolved in the last decade. While Moscow has the means and apparent will to intensify intelligence competition, its clumsy and outdated methods threaten the country's commercial interests and could harm broader foreign policy goals.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, and Cold War
Political Geography:: Russia

54850. United States — Bush Presidency

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: An analysis of Texas Governor George Bush's record as a modest tax cutter and education policy activist suggests that these issues would probably shape his policy preferences if he were elected president. A Bush White House would probably settle for smaller tax cuts than those the governor is currently proposing. It would also be likely to focus on achieving a series of moderately conservative education and crime reforms.
Topic:: Government, Politics, and Reform
Political Geography:: United States

54851. Lebanon — Border Deployment Doubts

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 07-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: United Nations peacekeeping forces are expected to deploy to the Lebanese-Israeli international border soon. Considerable diplomatic efforts have been required to win 'acceptance' of the border by Beirut and Tel Aviv, and thereby enable UN deployment to the area from which Israel withdrew nearly two months ago. The United Nations is likely to find it even more difficult to implement the other terms of its mandate.
Topic:: Security and United Nations
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, and Lebanon

54852. International -- World Economic Propects

Publication Date:: 07-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Official attention has shifted from the need to avert recession towards the problems of managing growth. There is some evidence that higher interest rates have begun to slow the expansion to a more sustainable pace in the Anglo-Saxon economies, but it remains unclear whether the principal central banks have done enough to bring demand growth back into line with sustainable increases in supply. The markets expect any further tightening to be limited, but the current position of the monetary authorities should probably be characterised as a pause in the tightening cycle, rather than the peak.
Topic:: Economics and Markets

54853. Mexico — Post-Election Challenges

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 07-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: In the initial burst of euphoria that has accompanied the end of virtual one-party rule in Mexico, the magnitude of the challenge facing the incoming government is in danger of being overlooked. For those concerned with furthering democracy, it is enough that former Coca-Cola executive Vicente Fox will become the country's first president from outside the Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) in more than seven decades. Investors, who sent the peso and the Mexico City bourse soaring after Sunday's election, are just happy that a clear winner emerged and that the feared collapse of governability has apparently been avoided.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: North America and Mexico

54854. United States - Senate Prospects

Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: This year's Senate elections will be only modestly affected by the outcome of the presidential election. The Republicans currently hold a 55-45 seat advantage in the chamber, a margin that will be extremely difficult for the Democrats to overturn this November. The Democrats will therefore hope to gain three or four seats; a surge which would enable the party to launch a strong challenge to the Senate Republicans in 2002. Although more Republicans are seeking re-election this year, the Democrats are defending four of the five seats in which the incumbent senator is retiring (so-called 'open seats').
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: United States and New York

54855. United States — Economic Propects

Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The US economy is experiencing its longest-ever recorded period of sustained growth. The current expansion, which began in March 1991, is the longest of the 32 which have been registered by the Bureau of Economic Analysis since 1854 and is now in its tenth year and 110th month. Moreover, since 1995, real GDP has grown at an average annual rate of more than 4.25% -- a rate not experienced since the 1960s. The expansion is consistent with the changing pattern of business cycles, insofar as the average length of economic expansions has nearly doubled from about 2.5 years during 1900-53 to about 5 years in the second half of the century (while the average length of contractions has fallen to less than twelve months). However, even allowing for this transformation, the current expansion seems to be exceptional, both for its duration and its strength. The coincidence of a long and inflation-free expansion with the boom in information and communication technologies (ICT) has sparked a debate about their interdependence.
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States

54856. United States — Presidential Race

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: With the presidential primary season having ended this week, the race for the White House now heads for the party conventions. Since effectively securing the Republican nomination, Texas Governor George Bush has regained his poll lead over the de facto Democratic nominee, Vice-President Al Gore. If Bush retains a clear poll lead by the convention season, the current signs of apprehension amongst Democratic leaders will become more apparent. If Gore can more closely identify himself with the economy's exceptionally strong performance, he is perfectly capable of staging a full recovery and securing victory in November.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: United States and China

54857. International — WTO Reform

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: WTO members are unlikely to reach agreement on radical changes, at least in the short term. At most they may conclude an accord which reaffirms both the principle of consensus and the need for Green Room meetings, and which gives the director-general a role (possibly informal) in ensuring that efficiency is balanced by other considerations. However, an agreement on institutional changes will have little impact on prospects for launching a new trade round. Such prospects will continue to depend on whether members can develop an agenda that all believe will serve their national interests.
Topic:: International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:: United States

54858. OECD — Inflation Prospects

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Inflation has begun to accelerate throughout the OECD-area, mainly as a result of higher oil prices. The increase comes from a low base and official forecasts suggest that the price outlook is generally benign. However, a further tightening of monetary policy in order to contain inflation at these low levels is now probably the most important threat to asset market valuations and the continued expansion of the global economy. Product market liberalisation, globalisation and the advent of the internet have brought real and lasting changes in pricing behaviour that will not disappear with a global upturn. These trends have been reinforced by improvements in the operation, credibility and effectiveness of national monetary policies. Nevertheless, historical experience suggests that inflationary pressures could accelerate rapidly as the major economies enter their first period of coincident growth since 1988-90. The result is likely to be tighter monetary policy rather than permanently higher inflation and long-term interest rates.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States and Canada

54859. Northern Ireland — Ulster Prospects

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The political outlook in Northern Ireland has, at least in the short term, been transformed by the political document released by the British and Irish governments and the subsequent statement issued by the IRA. This involves the exchange of a detailed timetable towards the implementation of the Good Friday agreement — including reform of police and security arrangements in the province — for a commitment from the IRA that at least part of their weaponry can be subject to external inspection. This bargain is likely to be enough to permit devolution to be restored shortly. The Northern Ireland peace process has been at an impasse since the British government suspended the operation of devolved institutions on February 11. It did so because the IRA had offered no clear indication as to how it might initiate the process of arms decommissioning — a situation that left Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister David Trimble extremely exposed in his own party. The narrow margin by which Trimble was re-elected leader by the Ulster Unionist Council in March, and that body's further insistence that the proposed reform of Northern Ireland's police force — the Royal Ulster Constabulary — be diluted before devaluation was restored, appeared to plunge the peace process into a state of permafrost.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, and North Ireland

54860. Peru -- Flawed democracy

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Immediately following the first round, US pressure was influential in eliciting the delayed official announcement that Fujimori had failed to secure outright victory, and that he would have to contest a run-off against leading opposition contender Alejandro Toledo. However, from Toledo's point of view, the US pressure is likely to yield only limited benefits. While it may persuade Fujimori to ensure that the organisation of the second round is unimpeachable, or at least not too openly corrupt, it will not of itself end Fujimori's regime. On the contrary, it is likely to boost the Fujimori campaign by allowing the incumbent to appeal to strong nationalist sentiments in the Peruvian electorate.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States and South America

54861. International: Techno-Stock Troubles

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The current bubble in 'technology stocks' has led to official concern about over-enthusiasm by investors and the banking consequences of a sudden price collapse. The first signs of the long awaited shift emerged last week, as investors shifted from fashionable technology, media and telecoms (TMT) stock back into traditional 'old economy' blue chips. Capital flooding in from Europe and Japan to the United States has been attracted to booming markets led mostly by these stocks. The rest of the market (misleadingly known as the 'old economy') has risen comparatively little.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and Europe

54862. United States -- Elian Endgame?

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Attorney General Janet Reno yesterday ordered the Miami-based extended family of Elian Gonzalez to hand him over to his Cuban father. Reno's actions are expected to bring an end to the custody drama surrounding Elian, who was brought to the United States after coastguards found him floating in the Atlantic Ocean after a failed attempt to escape from Cuba with his mother. Although superficially a dispute between the United States and Cuba, argument about the case has centred upon the demands of the Cuban-American community in Florida, a section of the electorate of sufficient importance to oblige Vice-President Al Gore to make his most public break with the administration in which he serves.
Topic:: International Relations and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Washington, and Cuba

54863. International -- Problematic Piracy

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: A recent meeting of Asian countries on how to combat increasingly violent pirates in the region follows landmark prosecutions of those involve, but years of half-hearted action by coastal states. The International Chamber of Commerce has already called on ASEAN trade bloc nations to join China and Japan in signing the 1988 UN Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (the Rome convention). It would allow pirates caught in seas beyond national maritime jurisdictions to be prosecuted as international criminals. However, 14 of the 16 countries at the Japanese-sponsored talks in Singapore last March have yet to sign. Findings will be presented to a high-level international conference between regional maritime security agencies and government shipping bodies in Tokyo this month.
Topic:: Security, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Japan, China, Asia, and Singapore

54864. Northern Ireland: Impasse

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The Ulster Unionist Council re-elected David Trimble as its leader on Saturday but by an unexpectedly narrow majority of 57% to 43%. The party also voted to retain the name and insignia of the Royal Ulster Constabulary — the predominantly Protestant police force in the province — a precondition, along with an IRA commitment to decommissioning, a precondition for restructuring an all-party executive that was suspended two months ago. These are impractical terms for negotiations. The Good Friday agreement is now functionally defunct.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Government, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Europe and Ireland

54865. United States - Election Politics

Author:: Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George Bush officially secured the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations respectively yesterday. Both candidates have won the nominations exceptionally speedily and the ensuing presidential campaign promises to be one of the longest ever. Providing that the economy continues to perform strongly, Gore should be considered the modest favourite to win November's ballot.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: United States

54866. Asia Pacific -- Reform Politics

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: While the region has now emerged from recession, economic reforms remain incomplete and politically contentious. There is a risk that complacency and intransigence will weaken the momentum behind reforms before their full benefits can be felt. For countries not immediately enveloped by it, the East Asian crisis laid bare the risks associated with postponing economic reform without necessarily producing change.
Topic:: Economics, Political Economy, and Politics
Political Geography:: East Asia

54867. Northern Ireland--Cooperation Ceasefire

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The IRA announced last night that it was suspending all cooperation with the International Commission on Decommissioning and withdrawing all proposals that it had previously placed before it. Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, and Bertie Ahern, his Irish counterpart, will meet today amid a crisis atmosphere. While there is no immediate prospect of an outright return to violence by the IRA, the Good Friday agreement, if not the peace process itself, is at risk.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, and North Ireland

54868. Colombia -- Peace Process

Author:: first last
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The recent advances in the peace process have brought the possibility of a peace settlement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia closer. International mediation and support will be key for the successful completion of the process and the implementation of any peace agreements. The United States has expressed its interest in supporting peace, but considerations will continue to be dominated by anti-drugs and security issues. European cooperation will also be important. Despite the progress made so far, the pacification of the country remains a distant goal.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and South America

54869. External versus domestic Vs Coastal versus Interior

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: China's relatively rapid growth cannot mask the fundamental problems the economy faces. The government will be forced to continue to apply stimulus to the economy, but the sustainability of this approach is limited. The positive impact of eventual WTO membership will take time to be felt, while accession–related reforms and increased foreign competition will prove disruptive. The country has a limited time in which to prepare.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: China

54870. East Europe—Bullish Markets

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Gone are the days when the large investment banks defined their global reach in terms of the emerging markets of Eastern Europe. Indeed, the emerging markets label is fading away in favour of new 'global' buzzwords. However, just one year on from the emerging market crisis that threatened the bull of the world financial market, is this rethinking of the emerging markets premature?
Topic:: Economics and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe

54871. Russia—Duma Dust-up

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Russia's new State Duma ended its first day's work in an uproar on January 18. An unlikely alliance of pro-Communist and pro-Kremlin parties was in control of the chamber's agenda, while an equally improbable alliance of smaller factions vowed not to participate in the running of the chamber until their demands for a greater say were met. This unpromising start presents acting President Vladimir Putin with both a short-term boost and a fresh political challenge. It also highlights one of Boris Yeltsin's more surprising political legacies.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: Russia, Europe, and Asia

54872. United Kingdom—Euro Issues

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: The formal position of the United Kingdom government that it favours entry into the European single currency 'in principle', but subject to five economic tests and popular sanction in a referendum, masks increasingly deep splits among senior ministers as to what exactly this formula means in terms of practical timing. A profound disagreement between the treasury and the foreign office, personified and led by their respective politicians, exists and is likely to intensify both in the run-up to the next UK election and throughout the next parliamentary term.
Topic:: Government, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and Europe

54873. United States—Primary Politics

Author:: Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxford Analytica
Abstract:: Later this month, the US presidential primary season will commence. The opening contests—the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary—provide the best opportunities for either former Democratic senator Bill Bradley or Republican Senator John McCain and Republican Steve Forbes to prevent the present front-runners, Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George Bush, from securing the Democratic and Republican nominations respectively. If Gore or Bush win clear victories in both these early polls, they will be extremely difficult to defeat in later contests. Both of the leading candidates are currently encountering more difficulties in New Hampshire than in Iowa.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: United States

54874. When Needs are Rights: An Overview of UN Efforts to Integrate Human Rights in Humanitarian Action

Author:: Karen Kenny
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:: Integration of human rights throughout the United Nations system is, and always has been, a legal imperative flowing from the UN Charter. More recently, how- ever, it has also become stated policy of the organization and its component parts. The commitment to integration expressed by the Secretary-General in his reform program of July 1997 builds on the directions in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, to which 171 states agreed in 1993.
Topic:: Human Rights, International Organization, and United Nations

54875. The Problems of Preparedness: Challenges Facing the U.S. Domestic Preparedness Program

Author:: Richard A. Falkenrath
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: The U.S. government is now actively engaged in preparing the nation for highly destructive acts of terrorism, especially those involving chemical and biological weapons. This effort involves multiple federal agencies and a wide variety of programs. Collectively known as the “U.S. domestic preparedness program,” these programs are a very recent innovation in American governance. The budget of federal weapons of mass destruction (WMD) preparedness programs has grown from effectively zero in 1995 to approximately $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2000. 1 This made the U.S. domestic preparedness program one of the fastest growing federal programs of the late 1990s.
Topic:: Environment and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

54876. Analytic Models and Policy Prescription: Understanding Recent Innovation in U.S. Counterterrorism

Author:: Richard A. Falkenrath
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: The threat of terrorism has received enormous attention in the last decade. Anxieties ran particularly high at the turn of the millennium, which fortunately passed without a major terrorist incident. Virtually all states expend some resources to combat terrorism. The policies, programs, and operations that governments undertake to meet this challenge are known collectively as counterterrorism. Although this term is only a few decades old, the practice of counterterrorism is as old as terrorism itself. Like terrorism, counterterrorism is easily recognized, even if its boundaries are somewhat imprecise.
Topic:: Environment and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

54877. Responding to the Threat of Agroterrorism: Specific Recommendations for the United States Department of Agriculture

Author:: Anne Kohnen
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: The threat of biological weapons (BW) is usually associated with terrible outbreaks of human illness. Receiving substantially less attention from the media, however, is the fact that BW can also be used against agricultural targets as strategic economic weapons. Agriculture accounts for about 13 percent of the United States' annual gross domestic product. 1996 U.S. cash receipts for livestock, poultry, and crops totaled more than $200 billion. An attack on agriculture could have enormous economic consequences.
Topic:: Environment and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

54878. Moving Beyond Kyoto

Author:: Warwick J. McKibbin
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: In November 2000, just after the presidential elections in the United States, negotiators will meet in The Hague at the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By then, it will have been almost three years since the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change at COP3, which was held in Kyoto in December 1997. Intense negotiations over the intervening period have focused on how to implement the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been signed by 84 countries but not ratified by any of the key countries, and ratification does not appear to be imminent, especially in the United States, where the Senate has registered its strong opposition.
Topic:: Environment and International Cooperation
Political Geography:: United States

54879. Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China

Author:: Nicholas R. Lardy
Publication Date:: 05-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: In what has been described as its most important vote this year, the U.S. Congress will soon decide whether to provide permanent normal trade relations to China. A vote is required because, after 14 years of negotiations, China is poised to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO). Assuming China concludes its bilateral negotiations with the European Union by June or July, entry is likely before the end of the year. The cornerstone principle of the World Trade Organization is that members provide each other unconditional Most Favored Nation trade status, now called Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) in U.S. trade law. Current U.S. law precludes granting PNTR to China; as a result President Clinton has asked Congress to amend the law. A negative vote would have no bearing on China's entry into the World Trade Organization, but it would mean that U.S. companies would not benefit from the most important commitments China has made to become a member. Gaining the full range of benefits is particularly important in light of the large and growing deficit the United States faces in its trade with China (Figure 1). A positive vote would give U.S. companies the same advantages that would accrue to companies from Europe, Japan, and all other WTO member states when China enters the World Trade Organization. It would also provide an important boost to China's leadership, that is taking significant economic and political risks in order to meet the demands of the international community for substantial additional economic reforms as a condition for its WTO membership. A positive vote would strengthen bilateral economic relations more generally. That may help place a floor on the broader bilateral relationship, which continues to face critical challenges on security issues, stemming largely from tensions between China and Taiwan, and on human rights issues.
Topic:: International Relations and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, China, Europe, and Asia

54880. Human Capital and the Quality of Growth

Author:: Nancy Birdsall
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: T. W. SCHULTZ was ahead of his time, at least among economists. The earliest postwar models of development emphasized accumulation of physical capital, and saw spending on health and education as a drain on the accumulation of "productive" assets. But eventually, the newer classical growth models incorporated formally Schultz's insight, and related work on accounting for growth by Hollis Chenery and colleagues at the World Bank pointed to the contribution of more skilled workers with more human capital to increased productivity and growth. The more recent endogenous growth models are even more emphatic. Sustainable growth in these models is the result in part of positive externalities generated by education, an important form of human capital. In these models, the new ideas and new technologies that are critical to high sustained growth rely fundamentally on high levels of human capital.
Topic:: Economics, Education, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: India

54881. Intervention in Internal Conflicts: Legal and Political Conundrums

Author:: Chantal de Jonge Oudaraat
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: THE KOSOVO CRISIS in 1999 and the Sierra Leone hostage debacle in 2000 have reignited a recurring debate in international policy circles over humanitarian intervention. This debate focuses on the legal, political, and operational conundrums of coercive actions for humanitarian purposes. I believe that this debate over intervention will only intensify in the future. Indeed, internal conflicts, even if their numbers go down, are hard to ignore in a globalizing world.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, Politics, and United Nations
Political Geography:: United States

54882. Privatization and the Distribution of Assets in Brazil

Author:: Roberto Macedo
Publication Date:: 07-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: This paper focuses on the Brazilian privatization program undertaken in the 1990s, one of the largest in the world, as a result of which over US$71 billion worth of equity capital and US$17 billion of debt owed by the former state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were transferred to private owners, both at the federal and state levels.
Topic:: Development, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, and Latin America

54883. The Next Wave: Urgently Needed New Steps to Control Warheads and Fissile Material

Author:: Matthew Bunn
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Nothing could be more central to U.S. and world security than ensuring that nuclear warheads and their essential ingredients—plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU)—do not fall into the hands of terrorists or proliferating states. If plutonium and HEU become regularly available on a nuclear black market, nothing else we do to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons will succeed. Similarly, unless stockpiles of nuclear warheads and fissile materials can be secured, monitored, and verifiably reduced, it will be impossible to achieve deep, transparent, and irreversible reductions in nuclear arms. Measures to control warheads and fissile materials, therefore, are central to the entire global effort to reduce nuclear arms and stem their spread. The tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and hundreds of tons of plutonium and HEU that remain in the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles represent a deadly legacy of the Cold War, and managing them securely must be a top U.S. security policy priority.
Topic:: Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

54884. Natural Resources, Human Capital, and Growth

Author:: Nancy Birdsall, Thomas Pinckney, and Richard Sabot
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: In this paper, we present evidence that among developing countries, those that are resource-abundant invest less in education. We then discuss the economic processes behind this evidence. We describe a virtuous circle in which rising private returns to human capital and other assets lead to increased work effort and higher rates of private investment immediately, including among the poor, and generate higher productivity and lower inequality in the future. With resource abundance, however, governments are tempted to move away from the policies that generate this virtuous circle. Dutch Disease and related effects tend to lower the rate of return to the agricultural and human capital investments available to the poor. Resource rents accumulate in the hands of the government, and/or a small number of businessmen, further reducing incentives to invest. Staple-trap effects lead to the subsidization of capital, thereby taxing labor. The labor market in the resulting capital-intensive economy offers little benefit for moderate levels of education. The government may try to assuage the poor by directing some proportion of resource rents to populist programs that create new fiscal burdens but that do not enhance productivity. In short, resource abundance tends to break the virtuous circle linking education, growth and inequality in several places: the choice of development strategy, the level of inequality, the lack of incentives for investment in education, and the creation of a welfare state. We illustrate this breakdown by contrasting the cases of Korea and Brazil, and, since resource abundance need not be destiny, we conclude with policy lessons for resource-abundant developing economies.
Topic:: Economics, Education, Emerging Markets, Government, Political Economy, and Third World
Political Geography:: Brazil and Korea

54885. Democracy Assistance and NGO Strategies in Post-Communist Societies

Author:: Sarah E. Mendelson and John K. Glenn
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Since the end of the Cold War, Eastern Europe and Eurasia have been host to a virtual army of Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs)-from the United States, Britain, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe-all working on various aspects of institutional development, such as helping to establish competitive political parties and elections, independent media, and civic advocacy groups, as well as trying to reduce ethnic conflict. Little is known-although much good and bad is believed-about the impact of this assistance, carried out on a transnational level in cooperation with local political and social activists. This study, based at Columbia University, was designed to address this gap.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, International Organization, and Politics
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia

54886. Naturalization in the Wake of Anti-Immigrant Legislation: Dominicans in New York City

Author:: Audrey Singer and Greta Gilbertson
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: The motives of immigrants who seek to naturalize in the United States are a source of current controversy. Recent events, such as the passage in 1996 of anti-immigrant laws, appear to have increased the benefits of becoming a U.S. citizen and the costs of remaining a legal permanent resident. Critics of recent policies have argued that the laws pushed immigrants to naturalize in order to retain social welfare benefits, thus cheapening the value of U.S. citizenship. Most of the debate on this issue, however, is based on rhetoric rather than observation. The extant literature provides little insight into how these recent developments influence immigrants' propensity to naturalize through shaping their perceptions of citizenship. How immigrants understand and view the costs and benefits of U.S. citizenship are important, because they are likely to be the most proximate determinants of naturalization decisions (Alvarez 1987; Yang 1994).
Topic:: Government and Migration
Political Geography:: United States and New York

54887. The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society

Author:: P.J. Simmons and Ann M. Florini
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: IN LATE 1999, tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Seattle in one of the most visible manifestations of civil society in recent decades. They had gathered to show their opposition to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the broader forces of economic integration that it represents. The WTO, which was meeting to set an agenda for a proposed new round of global trade negotiations, found it- self under scrutiny as never before. For several days, television news shows around the world displayed protesters being gassed and arrested by the hundreds. Although media reports portrayed the protesters as a combination of American labor unionists who wanted to protect their jobs at the expense of Third World workers and hippies left over from the 1960s, in fact the protesters represented a broad and to some degree transnational coalition of concerns. They objected not only to the WTO's ability to override domestic environmental legislation but also to the very nature of the processes by which governments and corporations are fostering economic integration.
Topic:: Civil Society, Democratization, Human Welfare, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:: America

54888. The Great Game, Round 2: Washington's Misguided Support for the Baku-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline

Author:: Stanley Kober
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: One of the top foreign policy priorities of the Clinton administration during the last few years has been strong support for building a pipeline to transport oil from Baku, Azerbaijan, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The administration has argued that this pipeline, bypassing other routes going through Russia and Iran, would be the best way for the economically struggling countries of Central Asia to get their energy exports to market, thereby underpinning their newly won independence. Washington also stresses the supposed benefit of having the pipeline run through the territory of a NATO ally, Turkey.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, NATO, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, Washington, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Baku

54889. Constitutional Problems with Enforcing the Biological Weapons Convention

Author:: Ronald D. Rotunda
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The 1972 Biological Toxins and Weapons Convention—often called the Biological Weapons Convention, or BWC—requires the signatories to renounce the development, employment, transfer, acquisition, production, and possession of all biological weapons listed in the convention.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Diplomacy, International Law, and Terrorism

54890. From the Sea: National Missile Defense Is Neither Cheap Nor Easy

Author:: Charles V. Peña
Publication Date:: 06-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Sea-based missile defense is being advocated as an alternative to the Clinton administration's limited land-based national missile defense (NMD), which is in the early stages of testing. Proponents of sea-based NMD (which is only a concept, not a program) argue that such a system can be deployed more quickly and will be less expensive than the Clinton administration's land-based system. Some argue that the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) system—which is being designed to provide midcourse intercept capability against slower, shorter-range theater ballistic missiles—can be upgraded to attack longrange intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in their boost phase (when under powered flight at the beginning of their trajectories). Interestingly enough, advocates of sea-based NMD include not only traditional supporters of missile defense but also people who were previously opposed to missile defense.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Politics, and Terrorism

54891. Korean Détente: A Threat to Washington's Anachronistic Military Presence?

Author:: Doug Bandow
Publication Date:: 08-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The recent summit meeting between South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il raises the prospect that the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula may at last be coming to an end. Although the latest effort at détente could ultimately abort as did similar initiatives in the 1970s and early 1990s, North Korea's dire economic straits probably leave the Stalinist state little choice this time but to open itself to the outside world and seek trade and investment from its prosperous, democratic South Korean rival.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Washington, Israel, Asia, South Korea, Latin America, and Korean Peninsula

54892. Arrogance of Power Reborn: The Imperial Presidency and Foreign Policy in the Clinton Years

Author:: Gene Healy
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: In his classic 1973 book The Imperial Presidency, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. warned that the American political system was threatened by “a conception of presidential power so spacious and peremptory as to imply a radical transformation of the traditional polity.” America's rise to global dominance and Cold War leadership, Schlesinger explained, had dangerously concentrated power in the presidency, transforming the Framers' energetic but constitutionally constrained chief executive into a sort of elected emperor with virtually unchecked authority in the international arena.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: United States and America

54893. Reclaiming Our Schools: Increasing Parental Control of Education through the Universal Education Credit

Author:: Darcy Ann Olsen and Matthew J. Brouillette
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Demand for alternatives to state-run schools has swelled over the past decade, as witnessed by rising poll numbers favoring increased choice and by the creation of new charter schools, voucher programs, education tax credits, homeschools, and private scholarship funds. Despite mounting demand, however, such alternatives reach relatively few students. Charters and vouchers, for instance, serve only 2 percent of school children nationwide.
Topic:: Education
Political Geography:: United States

54894. Are We Prepared for Terrorism Using Weapons of Mass Destruction? Government's Half Measures

Author:: Eric R. Taylor
Publication Date:: 12-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act on domestic preparedness for terrorism using weapons of mass destruction. That law directs various departments and agencies of the federal government to make available to state and local governments training and equipment to respond to acts of terrorism involving the use of radiological, biological, and chemical weapons. The program—costing tens of billions of dollars per year—seeks to train local law enforcement, fire, medical, and other emergency response personnel to deal with such an attack against the American public.
Topic:: Security, National Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

54895. "Edupreneurs": A Survey of For-Profit Education

Author:: Carrie Lips
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Education companies, or “edupreneurs,” are entering the education marketplace in droves with creative, cost efficient products and services for students of all ages. This rapidly expanding industry, which constitutes approximately 10 percent of the $740 billion education market, demonstrates that private enterprises, even when competing against a monopolistic system, can deliver a wide range of affordable high-quality educational services. This study provides a glimpse of the products, services, and innovations that a fully competitive marketplace could generate if the government's stranglehold on education were loosened.
Topic:: Education
Political Geography:: United States

54896. Microsoft's Appealing Case

Author:: Alan Reynolds and Robert A. Levy
Publication Date:: 11-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's final judgment in the Microsoft case indicates that he has fallen hook, line, and sinker for the government's flawed arguments. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is unlikely to be so accommodating. The Justice Department's case will crumble as a result of procedural errors, flawed fact-finding, wrongheaded legal conclusions, and Jackson's preposterous plan to break up the software company most directly responsible for America's high-tech revolution.
Topic:: Government, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States and America

54897. A Foreign Policy Report Card on the Clinton-Gore Administration

Author:: Jonathan G. Clarke
Publication Date:: 10-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The foreign policy record of the Clinton-Gore administration deserves a less than stellar grade. At the end of the Cold War, there was an extraordinary opportunity to build a new relationship with a democratic Russia; restructure U.S. security policy in both Europe and East Asia to reduce America's burdens and risk exposure; and revisit intractable Cold War–era problems, such as the frosty relations with Cuba, Vietnam, and North Korea. The administration's performance must be judged within the context of such an unprecedented opportunity for constructive change.
Topic:: International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, China, Europe, Israel, East Asia, Asia, North Korea, and Vietnam

54898. India as a World Power: Changing Washington's Myopic Policy

Author:: Victor M. Gobarev
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: American interest in and concerns about India rose sharply after that country carried out underground nuclear tests in May 1998. Clinton administration officials belatedly acknowledged that developing a good working relationship with India should be one of America's top foreign policy priorities. President Clinton's visit to South Asia in March 2000 was an important symbolic step.
Topic:: International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: United States, America, South Asia, Washington, and India

54899. From the Sea: National Missile Defense Is Neither Cheap Nor Easy

Author:: Charles V. Peña
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Sea-based missile defense is being advocated as an alternative to the Clinton administration\'s limited land-based national missile defense (NMD), which is in the early stages of testing. Proponents of sea-based NMD (which is only a concept, not a program) argue that such a system can be deployed more quickly and will be less expensive than the Clinton administration\'s land-based system. Some argue that the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) system—which is being designed to provide midcourse intercept capability against slower, shorter-range theater ballistic missiles—can be upgraded to attack longrange intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in their boost phase (when under powered flight at the beginning of their trajectories). Interestingly enough, advocates of sea-based NMD include not only traditional supporters of missile defense but also people who were previously opposed to missile defense.
Topic:: Defense Policy
Political Geography:: United States

54900. Constitutional Problems with Enforcing the Biological Weapons Convention

Author:: Ronald D. Rotunda
Publication Date:: 09-2000
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The 1972 Biological Toxins and Weapons Convention—often called the Biological Weapons Convention, or BWC—requires the signatories to renounce the development, employment, transfer, acquisition, production, and possession of all biological weapons listed in the convention.
Topic:: Arms Control and Proliferation and Government
Political Geography:: United States

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS