Publication Year: within 10 Years and within 5 Years

17651. Feminist Foresight in Statelessness Century-Old Citizenship Equality Campaigns

Author:: Deirdre Brennan
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: It may have appeared to many working in the statelessness sector, or those campaigning against gender discriminatory nationality laws, that until the launch of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights in 2014, efforts to eradicate such laws were largely only coordinated on a national level. This article, however, uncovers a hidden period in statelessness history: the citizenship equality campaigns of the early 1900s. Through an exploration of these campaigns, their vibrant tactics and eccentric characters, this article provides a feminist revisionist history of statelessness activism and academia that aims to adjust dominant narratives in contemporary statelessness literature.
Topic:: Citizenship, Feminism, Equality, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17652. ‘Rainbow Statelessness’ — Between Sexual Citizenship and Legal Theory Exploring the Statelessness–LGBTIQ+ Nexus

Author:: Thomas McGee
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: This article responds to the literature gap within both discourses on ‘sexual citizenship’ and statelessness studies on the nexus between statelessness and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (‘SOGIESC’). It explores the intersectional experiences of stateless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer plus (‘LGBTIQ+’) individuals as well as circumstances in which discrimination on SOGIESC grounds can cause statelessness for LGBTIQ+ persons or their children. In addition to rare reports of arbitrary deprivation of citizenship from LGBTIQ+ persons, the non-recognition of post-transition statuses and intersex realities may lead to situations of statelessness. Finally, complex legislation and administrative practices around assisted reproductive technology — and especially international commercial surrogacy — can leave children born within ‘rainbow families’ at particular risk of statelessness. In arguing that a global nexus does indeed exist between SOGIESC and statelessness, this article calls for further empirical research in order to provide greater nuance and context-specific understandings of the intersectional experiences and causes of statelessness for LGBTIQ+ individuals around the world.
Topic:: Citizenship, LGBT+, Sexuality, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17653. Statelessness Determination Procedures Towards a Bespoke Procedure for Nigeria

Author:: Solomon Oseghale Momoh, Hanneke Van Eijken, and Cedric Ryngaert
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: Statelessness is a phenomenon that affects every region and almost every country of the world. However, not very many states have mechanisms in place to identify and prevent it, and protect stateless persons. This article ascertains international norms and best practices regarding the establishment and operation of a Statelessness Determination Procedure (‘SDP’), and to apply these to a future SDP in Nigeria. The requirements for an SDP are drawn from conventions, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees instruments and state practice. In proposing an SDP for Nigeria, in this contribution we strive for the most extensive protection for stateless persons, while taking the particular legal and institutional framework of Nigeria into account. We conclude that Nigeria, and in fact any state, may want to devote particular attention to standards relating to the legality and ‘bindingness’ of the proposed SDP, to procedural access and to procedural guarantees.
Topic:: Governance, Norms, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Africa and Nigeria

17654. Identifying the ‘Outsider’ An Assessment of Foreigner Tribunals in the Indian State of Assam

Author:: Talha Abdul Rahman
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: The State of Assam in the Union of India has a peculiar history of the movement of people from across India’s international borders into Assam. There is no credible way to arrive at specific numbers. Arrival of people in Assam has become a point that has been abused by those in power to utilise local sentiments regarding the dilution of ‘Assamese culture’. This article briefly discusses the timelines leading up to the preparation of the Assam’s National Register of Citizens that presently excludes approximately 1.9 million residents. The citizenship status of those excluded is to be determined by Foreigners Tribunals (‘FT’) functioning under the Foreigners Act, 1946 — a post-Second World War and pre-Constitution legislation whose validity is also in doubt. This article examines the Foreigners Act, 1946, as well as the constitution and performance of the FTs with reference to the yardsticks of the rule of law and constitutional values. Towards this end, the article analyses the law discernible from the judgments of the Indian Courts as well as some judgments of the Assam High Court and the FTs. It concludes by stating that the framework of adjudication by FTs is not able to keep up with the promise of effective adjudication under the Constitution of India. It calls for an urgent need for academic scrutiny of all aspects of the citizenship verification process in India.
Topic:: Migration, Identity, Tribunal, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: India and Asia

17655. Symposium Introduction Identifying a Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue between Statelessness and Slavery

Author:: Alice Eckstein
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: Researchers working on slavery or statelessness will know there are overlaps in condition and population between stateless persons and those living in conditions of slavery, as well as common problems in carrying forth work focused on these communities. These overlaps are easy enough to identify, and the dangers presented by one status to fall into the other are similarly apparent. A stateless person is likely to experience restricted access to financial services, education, healthcare and legal services, as well as limitations on regular movement across borders. These restrictions create vulnerability to exploitative labour practices, including slavery. Those people who are living in slavery, or who have exited slavery, may have moved across borders or lost documentation as part of their exploitation. They risk their ‘citizen’ identity and the state’s protections, and may thus be exposed to the risk of becoming stateless. Listing similarities and common or overlapping risk factors aside, what knowledge and practices can be shared among scholars working on these two separate violations of human rights? Where and how can researchers identify similar challenges and resources, as well as collaborate on a common research agenda? This symposium brings together researchers and scholars working in various ways on responses to slavery to offer their perspectives on challenges and paths forward that may resonate with those engaged in understanding statelessness. These range from the challenge of effective measurement, to tracking legislation, to the activation of local communities and the lived experiences of survivors. Working as Programme Manager on Modern Slavery, I hoped in coordinating this symposium to identify areas where slavery researchers can consider their own work and present it here to the statelessness research community. I was fortunate in engaging contributors who have richly engaged with these questions.
Topic:: Health, Law, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17656. Lessons Learned from Modern Slavery Addressing Shared Challenges in Measurement for Statelessness Researchers

Author:: Davina P. Durgana
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: Modern slavery and statelessness research efforts present an opportunity for a collaborative and shared research agenda. This discussion focuses on the importance of measurement for both modern slavery and statelessness research, a proposed shared research agenda for statelessness and modern slavery in the Americas, and challenges statelessness researchers face that can be addressed by best practices from the modern slavery field. This discussion is informed by the work of Walk Free — made possible by the Minderoo Foundation — a leader in the modern slavery space and producer of the Global Slavery Index ( ‘GSI’).1 The GSI is the world’s most comprehensive study on the prevalence of modern slavery and enables us to refine our thinking on how to better respond to this crime, and how to prevent modern slavery in the future.2 Effective measurement of modern slavery is the cornerstone of evidence-based policy making in our field and can have a similarly powerful impact on statelessness research. This symposium on the challenges, solutions and best practices of measurement in modern slavery — and how it can inform statelessness research — is a critical opportunity to ensure that all stakeholders feel empowered to interpret and use our collective findings.
Topic:: Governance, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17657. A ‘Place’ for Stateless People? Connecting Place-Based Research with Statelessness

Author:: Alison Gardner and Phil Northall
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: This symposium contribution presents something of a paradox: what can techniques that are designed to address policy and practice in a particular space offer to researching the issue of statelessness? Statelessness, after all, is often characterised as a condition of legal and sometimes physical limbo. Connections between statelessness and forms of contemporary slavery also tend to focus on the ramifications of movement. For example, the trafficking of people across borders results in many people losing evidence and benefits of citizenship, at least temporarily. In cases where people are exploited by members of their own family or by organised gangs operating within their own community, the ability to return to their home nation may be severely compromised. As a foreign national in the United Kingdom, being without a ‘conclusive grounds’ decision in regard to your claim of modern slavery can be detrimental to your case for asylum,1 leaving you effectively stateless.However, if we want to address the challenges faced by individuals in respect to statelessness, it is also valuable to understand the personal, local, cultural, legislative and structural context in which those issues occur. Place-based approaches provide a framework for this synthesis. The British Academy describes place-based policy-making as ‘aligning the design and resourcing of policy at the most appropriate scale of place, in order to develop meaningful solutions, which improve people's lives’.2 The optimal size and scope of any place-based initiative can vary, but relate to the nature of the problem and to resources, institutions, assets and communities that contribute to improving outcomes. Place-based research, policy-making and activism are often developed in response to complex social problems with the aim of achieving transformation.3This approach may be targeted at specific population groups or communities, or concentrate on a particular issue in a given location. ‘Place’ may also be thought of not just as a material concept, but also as the product of social relations, networks and the integration of global and local influences. It is constructed through time, and contested through power relations, creating an arena for debate, conflict and co-production.4Much antislavery activity in the UK is now delivered by local place-based partnerships, which bring together statutory and non-statutory stakeholders across a defined area to offer a wide spectrum of prevention activity, awareness raising and survivor support. While the approach to modern slavery in the UK has been dominated by a criminal justice framing at the national level, partnerships at the local level enable a more nuanced response, which can incorporate attention to the wider ‘social determinants’ of modern slavery including societal drivers for exploitation, legislative and structural barriers to assistance, and community and corporate responsibilities in response to the problem. Place-based responses also offer a forum to engage a wider cross-section of voices — including those directly affected by exploitation — towards identifying solutions and assets that can help individuals and communities to flourish. We can illustrate this in more depth through considering a case study of the development of place-based antislavery action and research in Nottinghamshire, a county in the Midlands of the UK.
Topic:: Governance, Identity, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17658. Critical Allies On Contemporary Enslavement and Statelessness

Author:: Jane Anna Gordon
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: When I began reading about and researching contemporary enslavement some twenty years ago, I did so primarily as a political theorist rooted in Africana Studies, a field animated, among other core problems, by grappling with how the African diaspora has resisted institutions of racialised slavery and colonisation. I had always gravitated toward the Marxist camps of Black Studies, which rooted analyses of colonialism in those of racial capitalism, and to those that coalesced around the framework of Global Southern feminisms, which insisted that one could not understand race and class separately from gender. I was therefore very surprised to learn that many of my most valued colleagues were profoundly sceptical of — if they did not outright reject — work on contemporary enslavement or ‘modern slavery’.1Similarly, while none of my colleagues whose work is rooted in Indigenous thought and politics would diminish the significance of what is at stake in documented instances of statelessness, nor the value of the complex and difficult labour of counteracting it, few saw such efforts as immediately relevant to the political issues that they prioritise. If we step back to consider both contemporary enslavement and statelessness through a more capacious lens, we can see why neither should be understood as the siloed purview of human rights or international law — why they are instead directly pertinent to scholars motivated by the many legacies and continued challenges of racialised enslavement and settler colonialism.
Topic:: Diaspora, Capitalism, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Africa and Global South

17659. Tracking the Implementation Gap Empirically Assessing the Translation of International Antislavery Commitments in Domestic Legislation Globally

Author:: Katarina Schwarz and Jean Allain
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:: Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:: The prohibition against slavery in international law is unique in several significant ways. First, it has been recognised by the International Court of Justice as a jus cogens norm carrying obligations erga omnes.1 That is to say, it is a norm of international law binding on all states, from which no derogation is permissible and violation of which attracts the legal interest of the international community as a whole entailing an obligation to cooperate to bring such a breach to an end.2Second, it represents the first universal effort enshrined in international law to influence the domestic legislation of all states on a normative question.3 Third, it is often seen as the first global human rights movement and the root of international human rights law, centring the concept of individual human dignity within the traditionally statist constructs of international law.4 And finally, given its importance at the international level, it is often presumed that its prohibition at the domestic level is already complete everywhere
Topic:: International Law, Slavery, Courts, Justice, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17660. Canada and the European Union: A New Transatlantic Alliance

Author:: Robert Hage
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI)
Abstract:: Jean Monnet’s early Canadian experiences are seen as the basis for his inspiration to unite Europe. Successive Canadian governments have tried to ensure lasting links with the European Union. Both sides have now achieved this against the background of President Trump’s rejection of multilateralism and the world-wide pandemic.
Topic:: Treaties and Agreements, European Union, Alliance, and Transatlantic Relations
Political Geography:: Europe, Canada, and North America

17661. European-Israeli Military Relations during Israel’s Regional Conflicts (2006-2016)

Author:: Mohammed Abu Saada and Yildirim Turan
Publication Date:: 12-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Institution:: Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:: The study aims to answer the question of the nature of European-Israeli military relations during the time of four conflicts in the Middle East region; one with the Lebanese Hezbollah, and three in the Gaza Strip. In this view, we divided the study into three principal parts. The first part focuses on European-Israeli military relations by addressing three phases. The first phase from 1949 to 1967, i.e. from the establishment of the State of Israel to the Six-Day War; the second phase from 1967 to 1993, i.e. the period that preceded the peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Oslo Accord; and the third phase from 1993 to 2006, which addresses the period preceding the Israeli war on Lebanon. The second part examines the justifications for the military relations between Europe and Israel through a review of Israeli and European concerns that stimulate the existence of military relations between them. The third part addresses the areas of armament and military exercises between EU countries and Israel from 2006 to 2016. The study concludes by providing several findings, most prominently, that European-Israeli military relations were not seriously affected during Israel’s regional conflicts in the period of 2006-2016.
Topic:: Conflict, Hezbollah, Military, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:: Europe, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon

17662. Reassessing the Reasons of Democracy Deficit in the Middle East through the Role of Islam

Author:: Ibrahim Karatas
Publication Date:: 12-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Institution:: Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:: There has been a large number of challenges to undemocratic regimes in the Middle East by their populations due to the denial of their participation in decision-making processes. Among many factors, Islamic faith and ruling are regarded to have more role in political conflicts than others. Particularly, the idea that Islam and democracy are not compatible with each other has prevailed and led to the neglect of other reasons in debates. This study analyzes the reasons for democracy deficit in the region such as the environment of mistrust abetting governments to abandon basic human and political rights, hydrocarbon revenues that make regimes independent from populations, the prevalent role of tribalism in government structures which is inherent to traditional Middle Eastern politics, the lack of civil society and the effect of Islam. The study asserts that the role of Islam is unfairly exaggerated since it does not offer a certain political system. Besides, such approaches also underestimate the strong damages other reasons cause. By analyzing the impact of Islam on governance, its use as a tool by political and anti-political Islamists as well as its compliance with democracy, this research aims to reveal to what extent Islam can be attributed to the democracy deficit of the region.
Topic:: Islam, Politics, Authoritarianism, and Sharia
Political Geography:: Middle East and Arab Countries

17663. Tailor-made laws in the Western Balkans

Author:: Gjergji Vurmo
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This CEPS Policy Insight takes a lively rhetorical approach to showing how state capture in the Western Balkans has been ignored since the launch of the region’s EU accession process, despite the many examples highlighted by civil society and independent media. It argues that while the EU first acknowledged the clear signs of state capture in an official document in 2016, Western Balkan political elites had already built powerful networks of corrupt interests around them. Not only that, they had already reached the highest point of state capture – tailor-made laws.
Topic:: Corruption, Law, European Union, and State Capture
Political Geography:: Europe and Balkans

17664. Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020

Author:: Michael Emerson, Steven Blockmans, Denis Cenusa, Tamara Kovziridze, and Veronika Movchan
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: With the bold title EasternPartnership policy beyond 2020: Reinforcing Resilience – an Eastern Partnershipthat delivers for all, the recent EU Joint Communication offers a broad array of policy orientations but little operational specificity, find the authors of this commentary. Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – each with EU Association Agreements, requested a ‘quadrilogue’ with the EU to deal with matters of common concern to them but not the other EaP states. The fact that this request was not granted is a glaring omission from the Communication, but one that could still be corrected at the EaP summit on June 18th. The summit should also agree the policy direction of the EU and the Eastern partner states beyond 2020, and include the many transnational issues worthy of quadrilateral consultations. Among these issues is how the revision of major EU policies, such as those on energy, climate and competition, may affect the associated states.
Topic:: Climate Change, Partnerships, Transnational Actors, Resilience, Energy, and Competition
Political Geography:: Europe, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia

17665. 100 Ideas for Upgrading the Association Agreements and DCFTAs with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine

Author:: Michael Emerson and Steven Blockmans
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: There are now many ideas in circulation to enhance the Association Agreements (AA), which include the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTA), stimulated in part by the ‘Structured Consultation’ on the future of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiated by the Commission in 2019. All three AA states made detailed submissions; the present note seeks to incorporate these and other ideas into the makings of a possible initiative to upgrade the agreements and give them renewed and politically significant momentum.
Topic:: Treaties and Agreements, Partnerships, Free Trade, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:: Europe, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia

17666. The Berlin Pulse 2020 Special Edition: German Foreign Policy in Times of COVID-19

Author:: Pascal Lamy, Feng Zhongping, and Karen Donfried
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Körber-Stiftung
Abstract:: “Uncertainty is the only certainty” – these words are credited to the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, who died in the wake of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year AD 79 which buried the city of Pompeii under volcanic ash. Whether or not the corona pandemic will be remembered 2,000 years from now, the virus reminds us of Pliny’s words: We may not yet know how SARS-CoV-2 will affect our societies, but affect them it will. Given this momentous event, like other organizations, we at Körber-Stiftung have had to respond with flexibility and a willingness to do things a little differently – one of the results is this special issue, juxtaposing German public opinion with international perspectives on the policy choices facing Berlin. This pandemic is occurring at a time of profound political change. Experts and policy-makers have pointed out for the better part of two decades now that whatever happens in China is likely to affect us. The absence of US leadership, a divided Europe, the increasing prevalence of international mistrust – like a focal lens, the coronavirus has shown us in all too much detail how these dynamics might play out over the next few decades. Germany has long struggled to adapt to these new realities. Germans have been told that their country will need to take on “more responsibility”, and that we will need to “take our fate into our own hands”. One example of how Berlin has tried to do so is through a renewed emphasis on multilateralism as a pillar of its foreign policy, not least by crafting the Alliance for Multilateralism. But how do these dynamics, and the spotlight they have cast on Berlin’s role in international affairs, square with public opinion? To answer this question remains the mission and idea of The Berlin Pulse.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Public Opinion, Multilateralism, Crisis Management, Transparency, COVID-19, Disinformation, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, China, Europe, and Germany

17667. The Berlin Pulse 2020/21 (full issue)

Author:: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Paolo Gentiloni, Peter Altmaier, and H.R. McMaster
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Körber-Stiftung
Abstract:: In last year’s edition, we called 2020 an ‘eventful year’ with Germany’s presidency of the European Council and the US presidential election. But no one would have thought that a pandemic might be added to the list of major events affecting German foreign policy and political priorities around the globe. One year – and a COVID-19 special edition of The Berlin Pulse in between – later, international policy-making is slowly adjusting to the new level of uncertainty the pandemic brought into our lives. Despite these uncertain times, German public opinion on involvement or restraint in international crises remains solid as a rock: 44 percent of respondents say that Germany should get more strongly involved while 49 percent still prefer restraint. Since Körber-Stiftung posed this question for the first time in 2014, the public’s perspective has barely changed. In spite of this continuity, the present issue is also full of surprises and novelties. The idea of The Berlin Pulse is to identify potential gaps between German public opinion and expectations of international policy-makers. In 2020, another gap becomes an eye-catcher – the one between German and US public perceptions of the transatlantic partnership. A wide majority of US respondents considers Germany as a partner when tackling issues, such as protecting human rights and democracy (75 percent) or the environment (76 percent). By contrast, German respondents hardly reciprocate this feeling. With the US presidential election just behind us, an increasing US-Chinese rivalry in which Europe risks becoming – as Pauline Neville-Jones puts it – ‘the pig in the middle’ and crises beyond COVID-19 on the horizon, the present issue dedicates one chapter to each of these three developments to which German foreign policy needs to respond.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, NATO, Public Opinion, European Union, Multilateralism, Trade, Transatlantic Relations, and WTO
Political Geography:: Russia, China, Europe, India, Germany, Syria, and United States of America

17668. Critical infrastructure in the shaping of national security

Author:: Ewa Żaboklicka
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:: War Studies University
Abstract:: Critical infrastructure plays a key role in ensuring the national security of a state, due to important functions thereof in military, economic, and public administration sectors. The destruction, damage, failure or other deprivation of critical infrastructure of its operational capabilities constitutes a direct threat to the structural and personal security of the state. The research methods and techniques implemented in the research process itself primarily hinge on critical analysis of acts of law and organisational and competence-related documents, subject-matter literature, synthesis and inference in order to reach the formulated objectives based on efficiency criteria. The main findings indicate that critical infrastructure is perceived as a set of systems which exerts a substantial impact on the security of the state and, obviously, its inhabitants. The results advocate for a reflection that critical infrastructure embraces a number of facilities which appear to be remarkably diverse. They are buildings, structures, installations, equipment and services which, integrally, form cohesive systems which allow the proper functioning of a given state. It is the state whose role is just to supervise and coordinate, whereas the operators of critical infrastructure are the ones who are to protect it. The overall findings of this paper present the notion that safeguarding critical infrastructure is a task of crucial importance to the national security of a state and, therefore, it would be worth reconsidering the intensification of rules which apply to the infrastructure of national security and its efficient functioning.
Topic:: Security, National Security, Infrastructure, and Crisis Management
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17669. An easy target? Types of attack on oil tankers by state actors

Author:: Maciej Hacaga
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:: War Studies University
Abstract:: There was a huge reaction to the attacks that took place in the Gulf of Oman in May and June 2019 but, in fact, attacks on oil tankers are a century old problem. Oil tankers appear to be easy targets because of their size and cargo. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effectiveness of different types of attack on oil tankers that have been undertaken since widespread use of oil began. A comparative case-study approach was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of attack on oil tankers over the long-term, namely the last century. It briefly reviews the destructiveness of three anti-tanker campaigns during the two World Wars. They are subsequently compared with two post-1945 sets of attacks in the Persian Gulf region – the Tanker War of the 1980s and the 2019 attacks. The scale of damages inflicted by attacks on oil tankers is varied. The experience of both World Wars shows their effectiveness. However, post-1945 events do not provide confirmatory evidence. The main difference is the scale of hostile activities. It is not the characteristics of tankers that make them easy targets but political conditions (war/peace state of international system) that enable the application of weapons and tactics that bring about a different scale of destruction.
Topic:: Security, Oil, International Security, History, Maritime, Economic Security, and Energy
Political Geography:: Persian Gulf

17670. GOVSATCOM makes the EU stronger on security and defence

Author:: Rafał Borek, Kaja Hopej, and Paweł Chodosiewicz
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:: War Studies University
Abstract:: In the era of cyber threats and incidents related to the issue, secure communication for applications in critical circumstances responds to the growing need in Europe, where the use of commercial services is becoming insufficient. One solution that fulfils security needs is to provide accessible and reliable services based on space segment resources that are government controlled. The aim of the paper is to investigate Governmental Satellite Communication (Govsatcom), which is the first such large initiative to strengthen and increase the security and defence of the community of European countries. Furthermore, the paper discusses some implications related to the demand for this type of satellite communication and describes the engagement of the main involved institutions i.e. the European Space Agency, European Defence Agency, and European Commission, especially elaborating the PACIS projects running under ESA umbrella, which are one of the main preparatory actions for the IV EU Space Programme. Considerations about future relations between related parties and Poland’s possible engagement and the kind of benefits it would deliver are also considered. The paper leads to a conclusion that the future EU space programme creates a proper environment for cooperation between community members and delivers an opportunity to use safe and secure satellite communication for members who cannot afford to have their own capabilities.
Topic:: National Security, International Security, Communications, European Union, and Satellite
Political Geography:: Europe

17671. Components of defence strategies in society’s information environment: a case study based on the grounded theory

Author:: Erja Birgitta Mustonen-Ollila, Martti Lehto, and Jukka Heikkonen
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:: War Studies University
Abstract:: The goal of this study is to explore the components of defence strategies faced by society in its information environment, and how these strategies are inter-related. This qualitative in-depth case study applied past research and empirical evidence to identify the components of defence strategies in a society’s information environment. The data collected was analysed using the Grounded Theory approach and a conceptual framework with the components of defence strategies and the relationships between these components was developed using the Grounded Theory. This study shows that the goal of politically and militarily hostile actors is to weaken society’s information environment, and that their operations are coordinated and carried out over a long time period. The data validates past studies and reveals relationships between the components of defence strategies. These relationships increase confidence in the validity of these components and their relationships, and expand the emerging theory. First, the data and findings showed 16 inter-connected components of defence strategies. Second, they showed that the political, military, societal, power, and personal goals of the hostile actors carrying out cyber operations and cyber attacks are to weaken society’s information environment. Third, they revealed that cyber operations and cyber attacks against networks, information and infrastructures are coordinated operations, carried out over a long time period. Finally, it was revealed that the actors defending society’s information environment must rapidly change their own components of defence strategies and use the newest tools and methods for these components in networks, infrastructures and social media.
Topic:: Security, Oil, Maritime, and Energy
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17672. Near-Earth Objects (NEO) and other current space threats

Author:: Radosław Bielawski
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:: War Studies University
Abstract:: The subject of the study are space threats – Near-Earth Objects (NEO) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA). The research methods employed in this article included the classic theoretical methods used in security sciences and a practical method – a quantitative study of social media. At present, space threat studies aim to resolve the terminological confusion related to NEOs, to determine current and potentially hazardous space objects and estimate the potential threats from them. The research is also expected to come up with two methods for estimating NEO threats, the Palermo and Torino scales. The practical result is to evaluate the public mood regarding NEO threats. Studies have shown that certain active space objects are capable of reaching the Earth’s surface and colliding with human-made in-space objects and devices, such as communication satellites. Should this happen, it could cause substantial social damage and destabilise state security, particularly if elements of critical infrastructure of the state were to be affected. Continuous monitoring of NEOs may play a central role in the provision of security. Furthermore, the public should be kept abreast of the threats.
Topic:: Security, Space, Non-Traditional Threats, and Near Earth Object (NEO)
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17673. When the Water Runs Dry: What is to be done with the 1.5 million settlers in the deserts of southwest Afghanistan when their livelihoods fail?

Author:: David Mansfield
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:: It was following the fall of the Taliban regime that people began to encroach upon the deserts of south west Afghanistan and claim it as their own. After an initial investment in shallow wells that ran dry, increasing numbers of settlers began to use percussion drills to sink wells into the ground up to 130 metres in depth. Then, with affordable diesel generators and waterpumps imported from Pakistan and China these farmers transformed what was once rocky desert soil into productive agricultural land.
Topic:: Agriculture, Water, Rural, and Land
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Middle East, and Asia

17674. COVID-19 Effects on US Higher Education Campuses, Report 2: From Emergency Response to Planning for Future Student Mobility

Author:: Mirka Martel
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:: The Institute of International Education (IIE) is studying the effects of COVID‐19 (coronavirus) on global student mobility on U.S. higher education campuses. Our aim in this series is to provide more information about the effects that COVID‐19 has had on international student mobility, and the measures U.S. higher education institutions are taking regarding international students currently on campus and those abroad, international students interested in studying in the United States, and U.S. students planning to study abroad. The second survey opened April 16, 2020, and specifically focuses on the effects of COVID‐19 on U.S. higher education institutions’ emergency response and planning for future student mobility. While we continue to monitor the ongoing situation, this report examines campus life, international students both already on campus and those who could not come for the spring semester, and U.S students studying abroad. It also looks ahead to summer and fall 2020 and the recruitment of international students, as well as student interest in future study abroad.
Topic:: Crisis Management, Mobility, Higher Education, Survey, COVID-19, and Study Abroad
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

17675. COVID-19 Effects on US Higher Education Campuses, Report 3: New Realities for Global Student Mobility in Summer and Fall 2020

Author:: Mirka Martel
Publication Date:: 07-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:: The Institute of International Education (IIE) is studying the effects of COVID‐19 (coronavirus) on global student mobility on U.S. higher education campuses. Our aim in this series is to provide more information about the effects that COVID‐19 has had on international student mobility, and the measures U.S. higher education institutions are taking regarding international students currently on campus and those abroad, international students interested in studying in the United States, and U.S. students planning to study abroad. The third survey opened July 9, 2020, and specifically focuses on college and university COVID-19 planning for the summer and fall 2020 semesters. As the final report of the COVID-19 Snapshot Survey Series, this report examines impact on inbound and outbound options for student exchange, such as shifts in the academic calendar and potential deferment to a future semester, as well as the future outlook for U.S. study abroad programs.
Topic:: Education, Mobility, Higher Education, Survey, COVID-19, and Study Abroad
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

17676. Studying for the Future: International Secondary Students in the United States

Author:: Leah Mason and Natalya Andrejko
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:: Trends in international secondary student mobility highlight a potential recruitment pipeline to U.S. higher education institutions. This paper will provide an overview of international secondary student enrollment trends in the United States. It will then describe a case study of the AIFS Foundation Academic Year in America (AYA) program. The case study highlights the results of an alumni survey, including student motivations for participating in AYA, the skills and attributes students gained while on the program, and their academic and professional trajectories post‐program. Finally, it will bring together information presented in these first two sections to discuss possible implications for higher education.
Topic:: Education, Mobility, Higher Education, and Study Abroad
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

17677. Fall 2020 International Student Enrollment Snapshot

Author:: Julie Baer and Mirka Martel
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:: The Fall 2020 International Student Enrollment Snapshot presents current international student enrollment patterns based on data from over 700 U.S. higher education institutions. The report focuses on international students studying in person or online (in the U.S. or from abroad) at U.S. higher education institutions in Fall 2020. The findings reflect how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the U.S. higher education sector and global student mobility to the United States. The report, conducted by IIE and nine partner higher education associations, is released jointly with and complements Open Doors 2020, which provides a comprehensive view of international student trends from the previous year (2019/20). Open Doors 2021, to be released in November 2021, will survey more than 2,900 institutions to provide a full picture of 2020/21 international student enrollment.
Topic:: Education, Higher Education, COVID-19, and Study Abroad
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

17678. Internationalizing the Campus at Home: Campus Globalization in the Context ofCOVID-19

Author:: Alice Rogers
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:: When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, nearly every US student on a study abroad program was abruptly called home, and 93% of planned study abroad programs for the summer were cancelled, as were 64% of undergraduate Fall semester programs. In the process, most campus leaders responsible for international programs and strategy sought to fill the curricular gaps by turning to “internationalization at home” programs which would enable students to at least have intercultural experiences and exposure through special outreach and encounters with nearby Immigrant communities and/or distance learning seminars with counterparts in countries where institutional partnerships and faculty research collaborations would make possible seminar discussions and focused conversations on current issues and topics. This report highlights several key forms of “internationalization at home” and how they have been historically implemented at universities, and it discusses how these initiatives have contributed to campus globalization in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Topic:: Globalization, Higher Education, COVID-19, and Study Abroad
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

17679. Ecological Threat Register: Understanding ecological threats, resilience and peace

Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:: This is the inaugural edition of the Ecological Threat Register (ETR), which covers 157 independent states and territories. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the ETR measures ecological threats that countries are currently facing and provides projections to 2050. The ETR is unique in that it combines measures of resilience with the most comprehensive ecological data available to shed light on the countries least likely to cope with extreme ecological shocks, now and into the future. The ETR includes: population growth, water stress, food insecurity, droughts, floods, cyclones and rising temperature and sea levels. In addition, the report uses IEP’s Positive Peace framework to identify areas where resilience is unlikely to be strong enough to adapt or cope with these future shocks. The ETR clusters threats into two major domains: resource scarcity and natural disasters. The resource scarcity domain includes food insecurity, water scarcity and high population growth. The natural disaster domain measures the threat of floods, droughts, cyclones, sea level rise and rising temperatures.
Topic:: Climate Change, Economics, Environment, Global Security, Peace, and Ecology
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17680. Global Terrorism Index 2020: Measuring the impact of terrorism

Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:: The GTI report is produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and other sources. Data for the GTD is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland. The GTD contains over 170,000 terrorist incidents for the period 1970 to 2019. In 2019, deaths from terrorism fell for the fifth consecutive year, after peaking in 2014. The total number of deaths fell by 15.5 per cent to 13,826. The fall in deaths was mirrored by a reduction in the impact of terrorism, with 103 countries recording an improvement on their GTI score, compared to 35 that recorded a deterioration. The full GTI score takes into account not only deaths, but also incidents, injuries, and property damage from terrorism, over a five-year period. The largest fall in the impact of terrorism occurred in Afghanistan, which recorded 1,654 fewer deaths from terrorism in 2018, a 22.4 per cent decrease from the prior year. However, Afghanistan remains the country most impacted by terrorism, after overtaking Iraq in 2018.
Topic:: Political Violence, Economics, Terrorism, Counter-terrorism, and Peace
Political Geography:: Afghanistan and Global Focus

17681. Positive Peace Report 2020: Analysing the factors that sustain peace

Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:: Peace is the prerequisite for the survival of humanity in the 21st century. Without peace, it will not be possible to achieve the levels of trust, cooperation and inclusiveness necessary to solve these challenges, let alone empower international institutions and organisations necessary to address them. In the past, peace may have been the domain of the altruistic but in the current century it is clearly in everyone’s self-interest. Without an understanding of the factors that create and sustain peaceful societies, it will not be possible to develop the programmes, create the policies or understand the resources required to build peaceful and resilient societies. Positive Peace provides a framework to understand and address the many complex challenges the world faces. Positive Peace is transformational in that it is a cross-cutting facilitator of progress, making it easier for businesses to sell, entrepreneurs and scientists to innovate, individuals to produce and governments to effectively regulate. In addition to the absence of violence, Positive Peace is also associated with many other social characteristics that are considered desirable, including stronger economic outcomes, higher resilience, better measures of wellbeing, higher levels of inclusiveness and more sustainable environmental performance.
Topic:: Economics, International Cooperation, Peace Studies, Peacekeeping, and Peace
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17682. Building a Social Security Architecture for Informal Workers in India, Finally!

Author:: Santosh Mehrotra
Publication Date:: 07-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:: Social protection and social security have very limited coverage in India. This reality has not changed since independence, one of greatest failures of the development strategy India adopted in the early fifties. The labour force is predominantly unorganized. As much as 91 per cent of the labour force are in informal employment, i.e. without any social insurance we estimated from the NSO’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (2017-18) (Mehrotra and Parida, 2019). This is barely down 2 percentage points from 93% in 2011-12 (NSO’s 68th Round). In fact, regardless of the growth rate of GDP, this high share of informality in the workforce had not changed until 2012, and when it fell recently, it did so by merely 2 points. The rest 9 per cent of the workforce has varying levels of social security in the form of provident fund, paid leave, medical insurance and other benefits.
Topic:: Labor Issues, Social Policy, Social Security, Welfare, and Informal Economy
Political Geography:: India

17683. Did Employment Rise or Fall in India between 2011 and 2017? Estimating Absolute Changes in the Workforce

Author:: Amit Basole and Paaritosh Nath
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:: The recently released data from the 2017-2018 Periodic Labour Force Survey have created a controversy regarding the quantity of employment generated in the past few years in India. Estimates ranging from an absolute increase of 23 million to an absolute decline of 15.5 million have been published. In this paper we show that some of the variation in estimates can be explained by the way in which populations are projected based on Census 2011 data. We estimate the change in employment using the cohort-component method of population projection. We show that for men total employment rose but the increase fell far short of the increase in working age population. For women, employment fell. The decline is concentrated among women engaged in part-time or occasional work in agriculture and construction.
Topic:: Economics, Labor Issues, Employment, and Workforce
Political Geography:: India

17684. Income Distribution and Effective Demand in the Indian Economy

Author:: Zico Dasgupta
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:: Does there exist a trade-off between labour’s income share and output growth rate? Or does a reduction in wage share in itself reduces the output growth rate? These questions have returned to the centre stage in the midst of India’s present crisis as the government sought the dilution and suspension of labour laws as a counter-cyclical policy instrument. In the absence of any other stimulus or countervailing factors, the impact of such a policy would hinge on the relationship between income distribution and effective demand. This paper attempts to lay bare this relationship for the Indian economy through an empirical analysis of India’s macro data and a theoretical model on the basis of regression results.
Topic:: Economics, Labor Issues, Employment, and Demand
Political Geography:: India

17685. Economic Transition, Dualism, and Informality in India: Nature and Patterns of Household-level Transitions

Author:: Surbhi Kesar
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:: We examine the Indian economy during a peak period of high growth between 2005-2012 to analyze nature and patterns of household-level transitions across the different sectors of the economy and to relate these transitions to the broader process of structural change. We use a pan-India household-level panel data to categorize households according to their primary income sources into seven sectors characterized by varying degrees of formality/informality and various production structures and labour processes. We find that even this this relatively brief period, there has been a very large volume of transitions of households across these sectors. However, despite such volumes of transitions, the overall economic structure, and its segmentations, has continued to be reproduced, along with a regeneration of ‘traditional’ informal spaces that were often expected to dissolve over time with high economic growth. To ascertain the nature of these transitions – ‘favorable’ or ‘unfavorable’ – in terms of economic well-being of households, we employ a counterfactual analysis. We find that a majority of the transitions in the economy during the period of analysis have been ‘unfavourable’ in nature, with large proportion of households transitioning to sectors that are not ‘optimal’ locations for them, given their socio-economic characteristics. Further, using a multinomial logit regression framework, we find that the likelihood and nature of these transitions significantly vary with household characteristics, some of which, like social caste, are structurally given and cannot be optimally chosen by households. This dynamic process of reproducing a rather stagnant structure, along with substantial ‘unfavourable’ transitions towards ‘traditional’ informal economic spaces that are continuously reshuffled and reconstituted, provide insights into the complexity of India’s development trajectory that is often glossed over in the literature.
Topic:: Economics, Labor Issues, Employment, Economic Growth, and Economic Development
Political Geography:: India

17686. Mechanisms of Surplus Appropriation in the Informal Sector: A Case Study of Tribal Migrants in Ahmedabad’s Construction Industry

Author:: Rahul De
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:: This paper is based on fieldwork I had undertaken regarding tribal migrant workers in the construction sector, in Ahmedabad in May-July 2018, coordinated by Aajevika Bureau(AB). I had undertaken this fieldwork to assess the work of AB and advise them about strategies to collectivize migrant labour groups. While interacting with a particular social group (Bhil tribals from South West Rajasthan) who work in the construction sector, I struggled to capture the specificity of their experience through the concept of informal labour. This paper is an attempt to characterize the specificity of their social experience, while also, reframing the concept of informal labour. I use the concept of labour process (Michael Burawoy: Manufacturing Consent) to argue that there is not a binary or one-dimensional power relationship between informal labour and owner/state/capital, but instead, the process of surplus appropriation occurs at multiple nodes through different agents. In this paper, I have identified multiple modes of surplus extraction which are embedded as institutions or social norms in the labour process. Further, I argue that there is a close link between the status of tribal workers as marginalized within society, and their status as displaced and marginalized in their living areas and workplace. This difference translates into identity based discrimination faced in the city, as well as, structural exclusion from the governance apparatus faced as migrants. Therefore, tribal migrant workers do not earn enough to subsist and are highly dependent on early child birth, non-remunerated services of their family and the social security net provided by their village community. This paper concludes that primitive accumulation, fragmenting land ownership and indebtedness creates a supply of tribal migrants, who have no other recourse to employment and are forced to work in the deplorable conditions found in the construction sector. Tribal migrant workers in the informal sector are an important population to target for social policies, because they are more vulnerable than other social identities. This paper hopes to contribute to the framing of interventions and policies that civil society organizations and state authorities can implement to improve the terms of employment and working conditions of informal labour.
Topic:: Economics, Labor Issues, Employment, and Migrant Workers
Political Geography:: India

17687. Improving Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons From COVID-19

Author:: Thomas J. Bollyky and Stewart M. Patrick
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: The United States and the world were caught unprepared by the COVID-19 pandemic despite decades of warnings of the threat of global pandemics and years of international planning. The failure to adequately fund and execute these plans has exacted a heavy human and economic price. Hundreds of thousands of lives have already been lost, and the global economy is in the midst of a painful contraction. The crisis—the greatest international public health emergency in more than a century—is not over. It is not too early, however, to begin distilling lessons from this painful experience so that the United States and the world are better positioned to cope with potential future waves of the current pandemic and to avoid disaster when the next one strikes, which it surely will. This CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report seeks to do just that, framing pandemic disease as a stark threat to global and national security that neither the United States nor the world can afford to ignore again. It argues that future pandemic threats are inevitable and possibly imminent; policymakers should prepare for them and identify what has gone wrong in the U.S. and multilateral response. One of the most important lessons of this pandemic is that preparation and early execution are essential for detecting, containing, and rapidly responding to and mitigating the spread of potentially dangerous emerging infectious diseases. As harmful as this coronavirus has been, a novel influenza could be even worse, transmitting even more easily, killing millions more people, and doing even more damage to societies and economies alike. This Task Force proposes a robust strategy consisting of critical institutional reforms and policy innovations to help the United States and the world perform better. Although there is no substitute for effective political leadership, The recommendations proposed here would if implemented place the nation and the world on a firmer footing to confront humanity’s next microbial foe. The Task Force presents its findings grouped into three sections: the inevitability of pandemics and the logic of preparedness; an assessment of the global response to COVID-19, including the performance of the World Health Organization (WHO), multilateral forums, and the main international legal agreement governing pandemic disease; and the performance of the United States, while also drawing lessons from other countries, including several whose outcomes contrast favorably with the U.S. experience.
Topic:: International Cooperation, World Health Organization, Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Global Health
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17688. Global Trade Cooperation after COVID-19: What is the WTO's Future?

Author:: Peter Draper
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:: International trade cooperation has been under growing strains since at least the turn of the twenty-first century. Forces promoting global trade integration were in the ascendancy for most of the first decade. They were anchored on com- plex production specialisation mediated through cross-border value chains, underpinned by con- sumer demand for a variety of cost-effective prod- ucts, and cemented through regional and bilateral trade agreements. However, since 2008, succes- sive shocks unleashed cumulative disintegrative forces that counter-balanced and now threaten to overwhelm the forces of integration. These com- prise rising nationalism, associated desires for sovereignty, growing concerns over uneven distri- bution of the benefits of economic globalisation, shifting international power balances and associ- ated security concerns. These disintegrative forces threaten to unravel the World Trade Organization (WTO). COVID-19 mostly accelerates this trajec- tory, rendering WTO reform and restoration to its central role at the apex of the global trading sys- tem increasingly challenging. But all is not lost, as the forces of global trade integration have not dissipated and every crisis also presents reform opportunities.
Topic:: International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17689. Tech Power to the People! Democratising Cutting-edge Technologies to Serve Society

Author:: Renata Avila Pinto
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:: Governments all over the world are adopting cutting-edge technologies to experiment with quicker, cheaper and more efficient delivery of services traditionally provided by human beings. From citizen security to allocation of social ben- efits, technologies are being deployed at a rapid pace, the aim being to serve people better, reduce costs and enhance accountability. The results are mixed. In some cases, the technologies exclude entire groups of the population, thereby exacer- bating race, gender or economic inequalities. In other cases, technology is used to surveil specific groups or communities, eroding their right to pri- vacy. And there are no clear remedies to mitigate the harm done by machines or to increase the accountability of those deploying the systems. However, when designing tech interventions, universal human rights, democratic rules and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should shape the initiatives of the public sector. An important prerequisite is a higher degree of autonomy from big tech companies. Further- more, participatory design and testing in collabo- ration with the communities the technologies are intended to serve are needed, not only to avoid harm but to increase effectiveness and quality.
Topic:: Development, Science and Technology, Governance, Inequality, and Sustainability
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17690. Recommendations for Electoral Reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Author:: Typhaine Roblot, Manuel Wally, Rushdi Nackerdien, Kimberly Riddle, and Adele Ravida
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Abstract:: The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) 2018-19 elections were followed by the country’s first peaceful and democratic transfer of executive power. However, the elections – particularly their results management – were widely criticized. While voters appear to have ultimately accepted the results, lingering uncertainty could depress future voter turnout and undermine the current government’s authority. This post-electoral period offers an unprecedented opportunity to initiate broad electoral reforms to shore up the credibility of future elections. A white paper from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) analyzes the DRC context and finds that the government or Parliament could initiate the reform process. IFES then highlights comparative examples of electoral reform from Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire and presents considerations and recommendations for the DRC. Given that truly inclusive, sustainable and holistic electoral reform could take years to complete, the process should begin now to ensure more credible, transparent elections in 2023 and beyond.
Topic:: Reform, Elections, Transparency, Transition, and Rigged Elections
Political Geography:: Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo

17691. OFES COVID-19 Brefing Series: Preventing Government Corruption in Crises

Author:: Erica Shenin
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Abstract:: Preventing Government Corruption in Crises, the fifth paper in the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) COVID-19 Briefing Series, looks closely at this question and offers guidance for democracy and governance practitioners, policymakers and supporters. Corruption undermines the efficiency and efficacy of government, which, in the short term, can derail the response to a public emergency. It also drives distrust in democratic institutions, including legislatures, executive agencies and courts. As a result, corruption by bad actors in public office – whether for personal or political gain – has the potential to damage the credibility and integrity of governments long after the immediate crisis has passed. The long-term ill effects of political corruption must not be ignored, given the potential for state capture and the entrenchment of incumbent regimes. This risk is especially concerning as many elections have been postponed and modified as a result of the health crisis, subverting the ultimate accountability measure for governments. The unprecedented volume of funds being deployed to address the COVID-19 crisis and bolster economies creates new opportunities for exploitation and undermining of accountability mechanisms in several key areas.
Topic:: Corruption, Elections, Democracy, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17692. IFES COVID-19 Briefing Series: Preserving Independent and Accountable Institutions

Author:: Erica Shenin
Publication Date:: 09-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Abstract:: Preserving Independent and Accountable Institutions, the final paper in the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) COVID-19 Briefing Series, looks closely at this question and offers guidance for independent institutions as well as legislatures, executive agencies, special task forces and the international community. While their role is not always acknowledged directly, independent institutions that undergird the democratic process — anti-corruption agencies, human rights institutions, supreme audit institutions and election management bodies, among others — have important roles to play in responding to all of the challenges presented in this series. When functioning properly, they can ensure safe, secure and trustworthy elections; bolster government transparency and information integrity; protect political rights; provide checks on government; and ensure the continuation of democratic processes during a crisis. When they lack the independence, resources or accountability mechanisms to be effective, they may be unable to play this essential role, now or over the longer term of crisis recovery. While these independent institutions usually operate in complex and often politicized environments, by design, they have faced unique challenges during the pandemic that impact their autonomy and accountability.
Topic:: Corruption, Elections, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17693. Vote by Mail: International Practice during COVID-19

Author:: Erica Shenin, Staffan Darnolf, and Katherine Ellena
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic has reinvigorated debate around alternative voting methods. A growing number of democracies successfully operate distance voting, in which ballots are delivered to voters’ home and voters then return ballots by mail or in person. The most effective administrations have scaled up operations over several electoral cycles, incrementally calibrating and perfecting capacity and safeguards. However, COVID-19 has suddenly increased demand for this complex election service. Election authorities, voters and politicians should therefore be cognizant of the risks and rewards associated with rapidly scaling up distance voting. Vote by Mail: International Practice During COVID-19, a new paper from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), compares practices across Europe, Asia, Oceania and different U.S. states. It then provides recommendations for legislators and election administrators – in the U.S. and globally – to address challenges related to distance voting.
Topic:: Elections, Voting, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17694. IFES Helps Shape UN's International Anti-corruption Agenda

Author:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Abstract:: The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in June 2021 is a milestone event that will reflect on progress made under the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) since its inception. Most importantly, at the end of this session, the General Assembly has committed to producing an action-oriented political declaration to shape the international anti-corruption agenda for the coming years. “This event … has the potential to pave the way for strengthened global anti-corruption efforts and co-ordination between organisations active in the field of anti-corruption in the years to come.” – Secretariat of the Group of States Against Corruption The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an accredited observer to the Conference of the States Parties to UNCAC and welcomes the opportunity to inform this agenda based on three decades of experience supporting effective and accountable governing institutions in more than 145 countries. IFES believes that global commitment and cooperation on anti-corruption has become even more imperative as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has undermined existing transparency and accountability mechanisms globally and increased the risks of corrupt behavior. As part of our contribution to preparations for UNGASS 2021 and the development of a draft political declaration, IFES has recommended that the General Assembly include the following six priority areas in the agenda: Increasing transparency and accountability in political finance Addressing election-related corrupt practices Strengthening anti-corruption authorities and other independent institutions Strengthening judicial ethics and independence Leveraging civil society to bolster oversight and implementation Bolstering the UN Convention Against Corruption review process
Topic:: Corruption, International Cooperation, United Nations, Elections, Democracy, and Rigged Elections
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17695. Parliamentary Oversight of Constitutional Bodies in the Maldives

Author:: Alexandra Brown, Erica Shein, and Katherine Ellena
Publication Date:: 12-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Abstract:: After decades of power centralized in the executive, the Maldives’ 2008 Constitution introduced separation of powers and created “independent institutions to monitor the three branches of power and safeguard human rights.” The Election Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and other independent institutions must have sufficient autonomy to operate effectively and carry out their mandates without susceptibility to undue influence. However, they are not immune from corruption, poor leadership or partisan behavior, and still require oversight to ensure accountability. Finding the correct balance between accountability and autonomy can be challenging, but it is essential to ensure that the institutions appropriately fulfill their mandates. In response to a request from Parliament, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) conducted an extensive literature review, analyzed comparative practices and consulted stakeholders to develop a set of recommendations for effective parliamentary oversight of independent institutions. The resulting paper, Parliamentary Oversight of Constitutional Bodies in the Maldives, explores how parliamentary tools and mechanisms can be effectively tailored to provide the appropriate level of oversight. The paper has recommendations and lessons that are broadly applicable outside the Maldivian context, and helped inspire the development of IFES’ Autonomy and Accountability Framework. Because constitutional bodies have a unique role to play in bolstering good governance, any improvement to their performance will improve the quality of democracy as a whole and help prevent corruption, improve service delivery and increase transparency and rule of law. IFES’ Autonomy and Accountability Framework helps countries achieve this in practice.
Topic:: Elections, Democracy, Constitution, Transparency, Autonomy, and Parliamentarism
Political Geography:: South Asia, Asia, and Maldives

17696. Is the Most Unproductive Firm the Foundation of the Most Efficient Economy? Penrosian Learning Confronts the Neoclassical Fallacy

Author:: William Lazonick
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:: Edith Penrose’s 1959 book The Theory of the Growth of the Firm [TGF] provides intellectual foundations for a theory of innovative enterprise, which is essential to any attempt to explain productivity growth, employment opportunity, and income distribution. Properly understood, Penrose’s theory of the firm is also an antidote to the deception that is foundational to neoclassical economics: The theory, taught by PhD economists to millions upon millions of college students for over seven decades, that the most unproductive firm is the foundation of the most efficient economy. The dissemination of this “neoclassical fallacy” to a mass audience of college students began with Paul A. Samuelson’s textbook, Economics: An Introductory Analysis, first published in 1948. Over the decades, the neoclassical fallacy has persisted through 18 revisions of Samuelson, Economics and in its countless “economics principles” clones. This essay challenges the intellectual hegemony of neoclassical economics by exposing the illogic of its foundational assumptions about how a modern economy functions and performs. The neoclassical fallacy gained popularity in the 1950s, during which decade Samuelson revised Economics three times. Meanwhile, Penrose derived the logic of organizational learning that she lays out in TGF from the facts of firm growth, absorbing what was known in the 1950s about the large corporations that had come to dominate the U.S. economy. Also, during that decade, the knowledge base on the growth of firms on which economists could subsequently draw was undergoing an intellectual revolution, led by the business historian, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. He was engaged in the first stage of a career that would span more than a half century, during which Chandler documented and analyzed the centrality to U.S economic development of what he would come to call “the managerial revolution in American business.” In combination, the works of Penrose and Chandler form intellectual foundations for my own work on the Theory of Innovative Enterprise—an endeavor that has enabled me, as an economist, to recognize not only the profound importance of organizational learning for economic theory but also the illogic of the neoclassical theory of the firm for our understanding of the central institution of a modern economy, the business corporation. In this essay, I argue that the key characteristic of the innovative enterprise is fixed-cost investment in the productive capabilities of the company’s employees to engage in organizational learning. The purpose of this investment in organizational learning is to develop a higher-quality product than was previously available. When successful, the development of the higher-quality product enables the firm to capture a large extent of the market, transforming high fixed cost into low unit cost. The result is sustainable competitive advantage that enables the growth of the firm, contributing to the growth of the economy as a whole. I argue that to get beyond the neoclassical fallacy, economists have to stop relying on constrained-optimization methodology. Rather, they need to be trained in a “historical transformation” methodology that integrates history and theory. It is a methodology in which theory serves as both a distillation of what we have learned from the study of history and a guide to what we need to learn about reality as the “present as history” unfolds.
Topic:: Economics, Political Economy, Macroeconomics, and Neoclassical Economics
Political Geography:: United States

17697. Payment vs. Funding: The Law of Reflux for Today

Author:: Perry Mehrling
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:: The analytical tension in post-Keynesian thought between the theory of endogenous (credit) money and the theory of liquidity preference, brought to our attention by Dow and Dow (1989), can be viewed through the lens of the money view (Mehrling 2013) as a particular case of the balance between the elasticity of payment and the discipline of funding. Further, updating Fullarton’s 1844 “law of reflux” for the modern condition of financial globalization and market- based credit, the same money view lens offers a critical entry point into Tobin’s fateful 1963 intervention “Commercial Banks as Creators of ‘Money’” which established post-war orthodoxy, and also to the challenge offered by so-called Modern Money Theory.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, Monetary Policy, Economic Theory, Macroeconomics, Keynes, and Credit
Political Geography:: United States

17698. Modeling Myths: On the Need for Dynamic Realism in DICE and other Equilibrium Models of Global Climate Mitigation

Author:: Claudia Wieners and Michael Grubb
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:: We analyze and critique how optimizing Integrated Assessment Models, and specifically the widely-used DICE model, represent abatement costs. Many such models assume temporal independence –abatement costs in one period are not affected by prior abatement. We contrast this with three dimensions of dynamic realism in emitting systems: inertia, induced innovation, and path dependence. We extend the DICE model with a stylized representation of such dynamic factors. By adding a transitional cost component, we characterize the resulting system in terms of its capacity to adapt in path-dependent ways, and the transitional costs of accelerating abatement. We formalize a resulting metric of the pliability of the system, and the characteristic timescales of adjustment. With the resulting DICE-PACE model, we show that in a system with high pliability, the optimal strategy involves much higher initial investment in abatement, sustained at roughly constant levels for some decades, which generates an approximately linear abatement path and emissions declining steadily to zero. This contrasts sharply with the traditional formulation. Characteristic transition timescales of 20-40 years result in an optimum path which stabilizes global temperatures around a degree below the traditional DICE behavior; with otherwise modest assumptions, a pliable system can generate optimal scenarios within the goals of the Paris Agreement, with far lower long run combined costs of abatement and climate damages. We conclude that representing dynamic realism in such models is as important as – and far more empirically tractable than – continued debate about the monetization of climate damages and ‘social cost of carbon’.
Topic:: Climate Change, Economics, Paris Agreement, and Models
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17699. Who’s Responsible Here? Establishing Legal Responsibility in the Fissured Workplace

Author:: Tanya Goldman and David Weil
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:: The nature of work is changing, with workers enduring increasingly precarious working conditions without any safety net. In response, this Article proposes a new “Concentric Circle framework” which would improve workers’ access to civil, labor, and employment rights. Many businesses, including app-based platforms, have restructured toward “fissured workplace” business models. They treat workers like employees (specifying behaviors and closely monitoring outcomes) but they classify workers as independent contractors (engaging them at an arms-length and cutting them off from rights and benefits tied to employment). These arrangements confound legal classifications of “employment” and expose deficiencies with existing workplace protections, which are based on “employment relationships.” As a result, a growing number of workers lack both bargaining power and critical workpalce rights and benefits. We propose a Concentric Circle framework to better govern workers’ rights in the modern era. At the core, we maintain that certain rights and protections should not be tethered to an employment relationship, but to work itself. Thus, the right to be compensated for work and paid a minimum wage; freedom from discrimination and retaliation; access to a safe working environment, and the right to associate and engage in concerted activity should belong to all workers, not just employees. Second, as a middle circle, we argue for a rebuttable presumption of employment to address those rights that remain exclusive to employees (and not independent contractors), and we propose an updated legal test of employment. Finally, at the outer ring of the framework, we suggest policies that could enhance workers’ access to benefits that promote worker mobility and social welfare. Other scholarship has focused exclusively on either independent contractors or employees, or it has proposed a new category of worker altogether. We contend that this comprehensive framework better assigns rights, responsibilities, and protections in the modern workplace than do current legal doctrines or alternative proposals.
Topic:: Economics, Labor Issues, Law, Legal Theory, Civil Rights, Legal Sector, and Workforce
Political Geography:: Global Focus

17700. Private Equity Buyouts in Healthcare: Who Wins, Who Loses?

Author:: Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:: Private equity firms have become major players in the healthcare industry. How has this happened and what are the results? What is private equity’s ‘value proposition’ to the industry and to the American people -- at a time when healthcare is under constant pressure to cut costs and prices? How can PE firms use their classic leveraged buyout model to ‘save healthcare’ while delivering ‘outsized returns’ to investors? In this paper, we bring together a wide range of sources and empirical evidence to answer these questions. Given the complexity of the sector, we focus on four segments where private equity firms have been particularly active: hospitals, outpatient care (urgent care and ambulatory surgery centers), physician staffing and emergency room services (surprise medical billing), and revenue cycle management (medical debt collecting). In each of these segments, private equity has taken the lead in consolidating small providers, loading them with debt, and rolling them up into large powerhouses with substantial market power before exiting with handsome returns.
Topic:: Economics, Privatization, Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, and Private Equity
Political Geography:: United States

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS