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32. The Affordable Care Act: Affording Two-Generation Approaches Health
- Author:
- Alan Weil, Shayla Regmi, and Carrie Hanlon
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- The Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010, represents the largest transformation of American health policy in more than a generation. The law redefines how health insurance functions, significantly expands health insurance coverage, and accelerates changes already underway in how health care services are organized and delivered to patients. This transformation creates new opportunities for improving the health and well-being of vulnerable children and their parents. Ascend at the Aspen Institute promotes a two-generation approach to creating opportunity for vulnerable families. In Ascend's two-generation framework, health is an element of family and child well-being in its own right and a supportive factor in achieving the educational, economic, and social assets families need to thrive. This paper describes the changes in health care effected by the ACA and explores the unfinished business of developing a health care system that supports two-generation approaches.
- Topic:
- Health, Human Welfare, Privatization, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- America
33. Targeted Killing of Terrorists
- Author:
- Nicholas Rostow
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The struggle against terrorism—more specifically, the effort to prevent terrorist attacks—has raised difficult legal and policy issues including so-called targeted killing, or the killing of specific individuals because of their involvement in terrorist organizations and operations. As we shall see, this form of targeted killing involves domestic and international legal authorities and policy and prudential issues. A substantial number of countries confronting what they consider to be terrorist attacks and threats engage in targeted killings. Each has to resolve questions about authorities and prudence because, while terrorists are always criminals, they also may be lawful military targets. The dual character of terrorists leads to the conclusion that, as a matter of policy, a state should weigh the totality of the circumstances and conclude that no other action is reasonable to prevent a terrorist attack before engaging in the targeted killing. Careful analysis in advance may preempt problems later.
- Topic:
- International Law, Terrorism, and Counterinsurgency
- Political Geography:
- America
34. Remaking American Power
- Author:
- Trevor Houser, Shashank Mohan, Sarah O. Ladislaw, Michelle Melton, John Larsen, and Whitney Ketchum
- Publication Date:
- 11-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- On June 2, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its draft Clean Power Plan (CPP), a proposed rule to regulate carbon dioxide from the nation's existing power generation facilities. As the central pillar of the Obama administration's strategy for addressing climate change, the draft rule's release was both highly anticipated and contentious.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Government, and Natural Resources
- Political Geography:
- America
35. Underestimating Risk in the Surveillance Debate
- Author:
- James Andrew Lewis
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- Americans are reluctant to accept terrorism is part of their daily lives, but attacks have been planned or attempted against American targets (usually airliners or urban areas) almost every year since 9/11. Europe faces even greater risk, given the thousands of EU citizens who will return hardened and radicalized from fighting in Syria and Iraq.
- Topic:
- Intelligence, Terrorism, Counterinsurgency, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, America, Europe, and Syria
36. America in Southeast Asia before the 'Pivot': The 'Battle of Quallah Battoo' in 1832
- Author:
- Farish A. Noor
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Abstract:
- Today, there is much talk about the 'American pivot' back to Southeast Asia, and the role that America continues to play in terms of the geo-strategic relations between the countries in the region. That America has been a player in Southeast Asian affairs is well-known, as America's presence in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam has been well documented since the Cold War. However, there has been less scholarship devoted to America's role in Southeast Asia prior to the 20th century, lending the impression that the United States is a latecomer as far as Southeast Asian affairs is concerned.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Southeast Asia
37. Balancing Without Containment: An American Strategy for Managing China
- Author:
- Ashley J. Tellis
- Publication Date:
- 01-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- China is poised to become a major strategic rival to the United States. Whether or not Beijing intends to challenge Washington's primacy, its economic boom and growing national ambitions make competition inevitable. And as China rises, American power will diminish in relative terms, threatening the foundations of the U.S.-backed global order that has engendered unprecedented prosperity worldwide. To avoid this costly outcome, Washington needs a novel strategy to balance China without containing it.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Economics, and Military Strategy
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, America, Washington, and Asia
38. Trade policy issues in the Wider Europe – that led to war and not yet to peace
- Author:
- Michael Emerson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- This paper looks at the trade policy landscape of the EU and the wider Europe, with a focus on issues arising from the signature on 27 June 2014 of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) between the EU and three East European countries (Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), and actual or prospective issues relating to the customs union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan (BRK), and the Eurasian Economic Union whose founding treaty was signed on 29 May 2014. While the contrived collision between these projects has tragically induced Russia to break all the established international security norms by waging war against Ukraine, the present paper deals essentially with trade policy issues. The huge expansion of intercontinental free trade area negotiations currently underway, in which the EU is an active participant alongside much of the Americas and Asia, stands in contrast with Russia's choice to restrict itself to the Eurasian Economic Union, which is only a marginal extension of its own economy. Alone among the major economies in the world, Russia does not seek to integrate economically with any major economic bloc, which should be a matter of serious concern for Moscow. Within the wider Europe, the EU's DCFTAs with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are a major new development, but Russia now threatens trade sanctions against Ukraine in particular, the economic case for which seems unfounded and whose unilateral application would also impair the customs union. The Belarus-Russia-Kazakhstan customs union itself poses several issues of compatibility with the rules of the WTO, which in turn are viewed by the EU as an impediment to discussing possible free trade scenarios with the customs union, although currently there are far more fundamental political impediments to any consideration of such ideas. Nonetheless this paper looks at various long-term scenarios, if only as a reminder that there could be much better alternatives to the present context of conflict around Ukraine.
- Topic:
- Economics and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Russia, America, Europe, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Asia, and Georgia
39. A People of War or Peace? Americans' Attitudes Towards the Use of Military Force Abroad in Terrorist and Conflict Situations
- Author:
- Emanuel Boussios
- Publication Date:
- 05-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
- Abstract:
- This exploratory research presents the results of a March 2011survey of a random sample of 217 adults on their attitudes towards the use of force as a foreign policy alternative. This research note examines the social characteristics of those people who are more or less likely to support intervening in hypothetical foreign conflicts in situations in which the United States' national interests may or may not be at stake. The research reported here was aimed at answering several questions including: are there some demographic groups who are more likely to support intervening in foreign conflicts even when U.S. national interests are not necessarily at stake? I find that dispositional preferences interact with opinion about the geopolitical situation to determine whether military force is an acceptable option. The survey incorporates various foreign pol icy and terrorist scenarios. Findings include the following: I support the findings of others in that Democrats, liberals, and women are less likely to support military force as a foreign policy option. Using multivariate regression analysis it was also found that certain respondent dispositions, such as "value placed on human life," were more likely to constrain policy preferences. I also find conflicting support for the casualty hypothesis. In general the more casualties mentioned in a scenario the les s likely Americans are to support the use of force, with a notable exception here among "hawks". I also find this is true for civilian casualties.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Politics, and Military Strategy
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
40. Neoliberalism without Neoliberals Evidence from the Rise of 401(k) Retirement Plans
- Author:
- Michael A. McCarthy
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- This paper considers the rise of defined-contribution (DC) pensions – such as 401(k) plans – in order to contribute to the debate about neoliberalism. It challenges the generalizability of two common accounts: the weak state intervention thesis, which argues that neoliberal policy change is driven by state retreat and deregulation, and the state-managed transition thesis, which argues that neoliberal policies are both enacted and managed through new regulations. In contrast, this paper argues that the development of the employer-based pension system between 1970 and 1995 is an instance of “neoliberalism without neoliberals.” A battery of regulations was passed between 1974 and the late 1980s that were intended to make the traditional system of defined- benefit (DB) pensioning more secure. However, this legislation triggered a business shift to 401(k)s. The legislation worked in such a counterintuitive way because of three factors related to changes in “the balance of class forces” in American society: (1) new laws increased costs for firms, with small businesses being hit the heaviest, (2) employment in the manufacturing sector, labor's traditional stronghold, declined as a share of total employment, and (3) because unions were unable or unwilling to unionize emergent sectors of the economy, new businesses in them were not compelled to negotiate DB plans. In such a context, growing regulatory costs pushed many firms to adopt DC pensions for their employees. The outcome was a major policy shift, considered by many to be a defining feature of the neoliberal era.
- Topic:
- Development
- Political Geography:
- America