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1442. TSG IntelBrief: Coalition Under Stress: Iran Won't be Excluded
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Soufan Group
- Abstract:
- As if sustaining an effective coalition against the anti-Islamic State coalition weren't complicated enough, increasingly open Iranian support for Syrian and Iraqi Kurds has the potential to further destabilize the situation Geopolitical machinations have excluded Iran from the international coalition but geographical realities will ensure the country has a significant role to play in the future of both Iraq and Syria Iran is seeking to leverage its support for the Kurds as a way to bolster its beleaguered ally in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, and increase Iranian influence in Kurdish regions at the expense of Turkey and the West Overt Iranian support for the Kurds-while reaffirming support for Assad-will further stress the coalition, inevitably increasing sectarian tensions among members already grumbling that Assad and not IS is the true enemy; all while the West remains focused on IS and how to avoid entanglement in Syria As a sign of Iran's surprising Kurdish influence, Turkish and Iranian officials met on October 9 to discuss the unfolding events in Kobani, remarkable in that neither country is a member of the coalition but both hold most of the cards to resolve the immediate crisis.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, International Affairs, and Counterinsurgency
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria
1443. Dr. Hans Blix: Non-Use of Armed Force in State Relations - an Evolving Norm
- Author:
- Hans Blix
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Columbia University World Leaders Forum
- Abstract:
- This World Leaders Forum program titled, Non-Use of Armed Force in State Relations - an Evolving Norm, features an address by Dr. Hans Blix, former Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
- Topic:
- Arms Control and Proliferation and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Arabia
1444. His Excellency Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Columbia University World Leaders Forum
- Abstract:
- This World Leaders Forum program features an address by His Excellency Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, International Trade and Finance, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Japan and East Asia
1445. South Korea and China: A Strategic Partnership in the Making
- Author:
- Mr Alain Guidetti
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
- Abstract:
- President Xi Jinping's July 2014 visit to Seoul indicates that the strategic partnership between China and the Republic of Korea is moving forward against a backdrop of growing power competition and instability in the region. Both Seoul and Beijing have strong interest in close cooperation: Beijing wants to prevent a full-fledged trilateral alliance between the US, Japan and South Korea aimed at containing China's rising power Seoul needs Chinese support in its efforts to reach out to Pyongyang and work towards future reunification.
- Topic:
- Security, International Cooperation, International Affairs, Bilateral Relations, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Beijing, Asia, and South Korea
1446. Table of Contents, Volume 28.2 (Summer 2014)
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- This issue features essays by Roger Berkowitz on "Drones and the Question of 'The Human'" and Alan Sussman on the philosophical foundations of human rights; a special centennial roundtable on "The Future of Human Rights," featuring Beth A. Simmons, Philip Alston, James W. Nickel, Jack Donnelly, and Andrew Gilmour; a review essay by Jens Bartelson on empire and sovereignty; and book reviews by Dale Jamieson, Tom Bailey, and Simon Cotton.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1447. Why Human Rights Are Called Human Rights
- Author:
- Alan Sussman
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- The title of this essay is rather ambitious and the space available is hardly sufficient to examine two words of almost limitless expanse—“human rights”—whether standing alone or in tandem. This requires that I begin with (and remained disciplined by) what a teacher of mine, Leo Strauss, called “low facts.” My low facts are these: We call ourselves humans because we have certain characteristics that define our nature. We are social and political animals, as Aristotle noted, and possess attributes not shared by other animals. The ancients noted this, of course, when they defined our principal behavioral and cognitive distinction from the rest of the natural world as the faculty of speech. The Greek word for this, logos, means much more than speech, as it connotes word and reason and, in the more common understanding, talking and writing, praising and criticizing, persuading and reading. While other animals communicate by making sounds of attraction or warning, leaving smells, and so on, none read newspapers, make speeches, publish their memoirs, or write poetry.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1448. "Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World"
- Author:
- Dale Jamieson
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- This is the inaugural volume in the Amnesty International Global Ethics Series, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah. John Broome, the author of this volume, is a trained economist, distinguished philosopher, and a lead author of the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. He is very well suited to fulfill the mandate of the series, which is to "broaden the set of issues taken up by the human rights community." It is thus surprising that the book does not discuss human rights (or rights at all), nor locate itself in relation to much of the relevant literature. Nevertheless, this is an excellent book, displaying the author's characteristic virtues of clarity, concision, precision, and intellectual honesty.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1449. "Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency"
- Author:
- Tom Bailey
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- In Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency , Lea Ypi proposes a novel approach to political theory in relation to the issue of global equality. She fiercely criticizes the tendency to abstract from the realities of political agency in "ideal" theorizing, since, she insists, such abstraction renders the conclusions drawn practically irrelevant and indeterminate. But she also refuses to treat current political practices and norms as given constraints in the manner of "nonideal" theorizing, on the grounds that the selection of relevant practices and norms is always morally loaded and their analysis inevitably conservative. Instead, Ypi proposes that theory begin with a specific political conflict, diagnose the failure of existing practices and norms to resolve it, and, in this light, develop better practices and norms. She calls this approach "dialectical" insofar as it considers political practices and norms to develop progressively in resolving emerging political problems, and "activist" or "avant-garde" in its responding and contributing to political change through appropriate political agents.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1450. "Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy"
- Author:
- Simon Cotton
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- We are all familiar with the claim that the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are unjust or otherwise objectionable. Yet this claim faces substantial hurdles in motivating corrective action. Most significantly, wealthy states face political pressures against moderating their bargaining positions. But this is not the only problem. First, there remains the suspicion that these rules are not, in fact, objectionable, or that they are only mildly so—perhaps "bad" but not "unjust." After all, no country is forced to be subject to them; the WTO is a voluntary institution. Second, we still have to determine what rules would be just. Is it really the job of the WTO to compensate for inherent inequalities between countries? In this book, the first philosophical work devoted exclusively to "fair trade," Aaron James seeks to combat the second of these challenges directly. In doing so, he also combats the first.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1451. Drones and the Question of "The Human"
- Author:
- Roger Berkowitz
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Domino's Pizza is testing "Domicopter" drones to deliver pizzas, which will compete with Taco Bell's "Tacocopter" drones. Not to be outdone, Amazon is working on an army of delivery drones that will cut out the postal service. In Denmark, farmers use drones to inspect fields for the appearance of harmful weeds, which reduces herbicide use as the drones directly apply pesticides only where it is needed. Environmentalists send drones into glacial caves or into deep waters, gathering data that would be too dangerous or expensive for human scientists to procure. Federal Express dreams of pilotless aerial and terrestrial drones that will transport goods more cheaply, reliably, and safely than vehicles operated by humans. Human rights activists deploy drones over conflict zones, intelligently searching for and documenting abuses for both rhetorical and legal purposes. Aid agencies send unmanned drones to villages deep in jungles or behind enemy lines, maneuvering hazardous terrain to bring food and supplies to endangered populations. Medical researchers are experimenting with injecting drone blood cells into humans that can mimic good cholesterol carriers or identify and neutralize cancerous cells. Parents in Vermont are using flying drones to accompany children to school, giving a whole new meaning to helicopter parenting. And Pilobolus, a New York dance company, has choreographed a dance in which drones and humans engage each other in the most human of acts: the creation of art.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Denmark
1452. The Future of the Human Rights Movement
- Author:
- Beth A. Simmons
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- The modern human rights movement is at a critical juncture in its history. It has been nearly seventy years since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and some of the oldest and most active human rights organizations have been operating around the world for about forty years. More than twenty years have passed since the end of the cold war, and the time when people spoke in triumphal terms of the global success of Western values is now a fading memory. International human rights are ensconced as firmly as ever in international law and institutions, but what about the future of the "human rights movement"?
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1453. Against a World Court for Human Rights
- Author:
- Philip Alston
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Too much of the debate about how respect for human rights can be advanced on a global basis currently revolves around crisis situations involving so-called mass atrocity crimes and the possibility of addressing abuse through the use of military force. This preoccupation, as understandable as it is, serves to mask much harder questions of how to deal with what might be termed silent and continuous atrocities, such as gross forms of gender or ethnic discrimination or systemic police violence, in ways that are achievable, effective, and sustainable. This more prosaic but ultimately more important quest is often left to, or perhaps expropriated by, international lawyers. Where the politician often finds solace in the deployment of military force, the international lawyer turns instinctively to the creation of a new mechanism of some sort. Those of modest inclination might opt for a committee or perhaps an inquiry procedure. The more ambitious, however, might advocate the establishment of a whole new court. And surely the most "visionary" of such proposals is one calling for the creation of a World Court of Human Rights. A version of this idea was put forward in the 1940s, but garnered no support. The idea has now been revived, in great detail, and with untrammeled ambition, under the auspices of an eminent group of international human rights law specialists.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1454. What Future for Human Rights?
- Author:
- James W. Nickel
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Like people born shortly after World War II, the international human rights movement recently had its sixty-fifth birthday. This could mean that retirement is at hand and that death will come in a few decades. After all, the formulations of human rights that activists, lawyers, and politicians use today mostly derive from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the world in 1948 was very different from our world today: the cold war was about to break out, communism was a strong and optimistic political force in an expansionist phase, and Western Europe was still recovering from the war. The struggle against entrenched racism and sexism had only just begun, decolonization was in its early stages, and Asia was still poor (Japan was under military reconstruction, and Mao's heavy-handed revolution in China was still in the future). Labor unions were strong in the industrialized world, and the movement of women into work outside the home and farm was in its early stages. Farming was less technological and usually on a smaller scale, the environmental movement had not yet flowered, and human-caused climate change was present but unrecognized. Personal computers and social networking were decades away, and Earth's human population was well under three billion.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Europe, Asia, and United Nations
1455. State Sovereignty and International Human Rights
- Author:
- Jack Donnelly
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- I am skeptical of our ability to predict, or even forecast, the future—of human rights or any other important social practice. Nonetheless, an understanding of the paths that have brought us to where we are today can facilitate thinking about the future. Thus, I approach the topic by examining the reshaping of international ideas and practices of state sovereignty and human rights since the end of World War II. I argue that in the initial decades after the war, international society constructed an absolutist conception of exclusive territorial jurisdiction that was fundamentally antagonistic to international human rights. At the same time, though, human rights were for the first time included among the fundamental norms of international society. And over the past two decades, dominant understandings of sovereignty have become less absolutist and more human rights–friendly, a trend that I suggest is likely to continue to develop, modestly, in the coming years.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
1456. The Future of Human Rights: A View from the United Nations
- Author:
- Andrew Gilmour
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Ever since the Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945, human rights have constituted one of its three pillars, along with peace and development. As noted in a dictum coined during the World Summit of 2005: "There can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and neither without respect for human rights." But while progress has been made in all three domains, it is with respect to human rights that the organization's performance has experienced some of its greatest shortcomings. Not coincidentally, the human rights pillar receives only a fraction of the resources enjoyed by the other two—a mere 3 percent of the general budget.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United Nations
1457. From Empire to Sovereignty — and Back?
- Author:
- Jens Bartelson
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Sovereignty apparently never ceases to attract scholarly attention. Long gone are the days when its meaning was uncontested and its essential attributes could be safely taken for granted by international theorists. During the past decades international relations scholars have increasingly emphasized the historical contingency of sovereignty and the mutability of its corresponding institutions and practices, yet these accounts have been limited to the changing meaning and function of sovereignty within the international system. This focus has served to reinforce some of the most persistent myths about the origin of sovereignty, and has obscured questions about the diffusion of sovereignty outside the European context.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Europe
1458. Croatia’s First Year of EU Membership : Have the Expectations been Fulfilled?
- Author:
- Višnja Samardžija
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO)
- Abstract:
- The first anniversary of Croatia’s membership in the European Union revealed the experiences of the first country from a new wave of EU enlargement which joined the Union in economically different circumstances and passed through a more demanding negotiation process. In contrast to the EU 2004/2007 enlargements, Croatia acceded to the EU as a single country and the accession did not cause stronger impact on the EU institutions or policies, due to the fact that Croatia is a small state with some 4.3 million citizens and some 56,600 square km land area.[1] One year of the EU membership is too short period for a thorough evaluation of its impacts. Still this initial experience could be considered as a lessons learned for the political elites, citizens and the countries of the Western Balkan region who might be next in line for EU accession. These are the main issues covered by this paper.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Croatia
1459. Fiji’s election and Australia: the terms of re-engagement
- Author:
- Jenny Hayward- Jones
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- The election will only be the first step in Fiji’s transition to democracy after eight years of Voreqe Bainimarama’s military rule. Australia should use its influence to assist the workings of the Fiji Parliament, the development of an unfettered civil society and media and an independent judiciary.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Australia and Fiji
1460. Afghanistan: transition to transformation, National and external stakeholder interests
- Author:
- Ian Dudgeon
- Publication Date:
- 02-2014
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- On 31 December 2014 Afghanistan will move from a UN-led period of ‘transition’ (2001- 2014) to an Afghan-led and owned ‘transformation decade’ (2015-2024). During transition, the UN has sought to rebuild the basic political, security, economic and societal institutions and infrastructure of Afghanistan, which were all but destroyed by the previous Taliban government, but are essential prerequisites for the restoration of Afghanistan as a functional nation. Transformation will seek to consolidate and build on the outcomes of transition and ensure that Afghanistan achieves the goal of being not only a functional nation, but also a stable and durable nation.
- Topic:
- International Relations and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan