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2. South Koreans see Improved Security, Confident in US Security Guarantee
- Author:
- Dina Smeltz
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Chicago Council on Global Affairs
- Abstract:
- Over the past 12 months, there have been more discussions between South Korean, US, and North Korean officials about Pyongyang’s potential denuclearization than at any time since the Six-Party Talks in 2006 and 2007. Exactly where those discussions are headed is unclear. But in South Korea, the public generally sees an improvement in the South Korean security situation according to a just-completed Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey. As a result, support for South Korea developing its own nuclear weapon appears to have waned, though a slight majority remains in favor. Despite what seems to be a slight sense of relief, the South Korean public is skeptical that either Moon or Trump can convince Kim Jong Un to fully denuclearize
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
3. Dealing with the Offshore Economy
- Author:
- Alan Riley
- Publication Date:
- 04-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Given that offshore tax havens are largely located in small, independent states or self-governing territories, it could be assumed that they have little connection to OECD states and major financial centers such as London and New York. This is not the case. The so-called tax havens are in fact part of a much larger network of financial and corporate services that depends on lawyers, accountants, and bankers located in major Western cities. Only one part of the havens’ business actually involves providing lower tax rates to individual foreign account holders
- Topic:
- International Affairs and Global Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
4. Democracy: The Keystone of our Society
- Author:
- You Young Kim
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- Hearing my grandfather state, "I'm forever grateful to Kim Il-sung," baffled me. His words of gratitude to the first supreme leader and the eternal president of North Korea did not match his heartbreaking tale of defecting to the South during the Korean War. Recalling his stories of hiding in the mountains and his relatives trapped in the isolated dictatorial communist state, I couldn't fathom being grateful for a man who pushed my grandfather to make such a difficult choice when he was only a few years older than I am now.
- Topic:
- International Affairs and Democracy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
5. UNCLOS 1982, The Mediterranean area and EU’s Southern Rim
- Author:
- ELIAMEP
- Publication Date:
- 04-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, December. 10, 1982, (“UNCLOS”) lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
6. Daesh: The archetype of hybrid terrorist organizations
- Author:
- Triandafyllos KARATRANTOS
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- The rise and evolution of Daesh (al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī l-ʻIrāq wa-sh-Shām) marked a new and very interesting debate about the labeling of violent groups that are not traditional terrorist organizations and they are also acting with different roles and using alternate tactics and modus operandi, such as insurgency, within civil and regional conflicts. Furthermore, the establishment of the so called “Caliphate” includes a new parameter in the scientific debate, the quasi state dimension. Daesh is a modern archetype of this vivid scientific debate, but the difficulties in labeling, especially in cases were terrorist groups are taking part in civil conflicts, is not new. Labeling is not only a matter of “name and blame”, is important in order to design an effective and holistic counter terrorism strategy. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the different approaches about labeling nontraditional terrorist groups and to present the terrorist activity of Daesh.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7. Working Paper: The Multi-Domain Battle as an emerging Operational philosophy in the 21st century. A review of the role of Commander. The Cross-Domain standpoint
- Author:
- Nikolaos PAOUNIS
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- War is a socio-historic phenomenon, that is constantly developing and changes form rapidly, due to the immense development of military technology (accomplishments in industrial defense), which goes along with military inventiveness. In parallel, a need arises to shift the rules of war conduct (e.g. law in military conflicts), that is to say attempts have been made to normalize situations, which from the outset were unregulated. Man is a subject of war, who possesses consistent physical and intellectual features, is integrated in a relatively steady geographical and social environment and therefore some common characteristics are observed in the perception of war.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8. Working Paper: The ‘Two and a half wars’ theory and the Mavi Vatan naval exercise: Strategic Culture and the new phase of Turkish strategy
- Author:
- ELIAMEP
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- Every time that Turkey acts in new ways abroad, various terms re-emerge in public discourse such as Pax Ottomana, Pax Turkana, Neo-Ottomanism, Pan-Turkism, Pan-Islamism and, recently, the notion of a “Blue Homeland”. But what is the heart of the matter? As many have already noted, the “Blue Homeland” doctrine is not new in Turkish strategic thought. In the midst of the Turkish naval drills, many remembered the Turkish doctrine of two and a half wars and associated it with the drills. This paper, by Zenonas Tziarras, looks at the reasons why this perception is somewhat simplistic as the Turkish approach has gone way beyond the narrow doctrine of two and a half wars and expanded towards other directions.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
9. Working Paper on the Chinese Investments in Gwadar and Piraeus
- Author:
- George Tzogopoulos
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- Working Paper by Dr. George N. Tzogopoulos, Director of EU-China Programs at the Center International de Formation Européenne (CIFE), Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA), Fellow and Lecturer at the Democritus University of Thrace, on the importance of the Chinese investments in Gwadar and Piraeus. Rolling out the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) China is largely investing in foreign countries’ ports that can function as transshipment hubs. Trade is boosted and new economic corridors are being opened. In that regard, the ports of Gwadar in Pakistan and Piraeus in Greece offer relatively similar opportunities for Chinese state-owned enterprises. A comparison of Chinese investments in the two ports demonstrate that similarities do exist indeed. However, differences are also evident and are principally linked to the dissimilar scope and scale of the investments in Gwadar and Piraeus, the national context of Pakistan and Greece respectively as well as the different type of their relations to China. On the whole, the Belt and Road Initiative can arguably foster closer economic collaboration between Islamabad and Athens and subsequently between Islamabad and Brussels in trade and foreign direct investments in a period during which Brussels has already launched the EU-Asia connectivity strategy and seeks to obtain tangible results.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
10. Working paper on the impact of the monetary policy of the ECB on credit provision of European economies through the mortgage credit channel
- Author:
- Vangelis ARVANITIS
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- The monetary authority, which in the case of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is the European Central Bank (ECB), has among other things, the obligation to determine the monetary policy, aiming to influence basic parameters of the economy like the level of prices. In this paper the author tries to identify the impact of the monetary policy of the ECB on credit provision of European economies through the mortgage credit channel, including during the period of the crisis. More specifically, we employ data for the loans of commercial banks to households for housing purposes after a contractionary monetary policy by the monetary authority (increase of the main interest rate). Given that the mortgage channel has not been adequately studied during the crisis period for EU member states, this paper will contribute towards covering this gap in the literature.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
11. Frontex & NATO: A New Partnership in the Making
- Author:
- Antonia-Maria SARANTAKI
- Publication Date:
- 02-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- A new working paper by ELIAMEP explores the operational cooperation between Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard agency, and NATO. Since 2016, these two disparate actors have started to cooperate in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea after NATO’s involvement in countering irregular migration. The working paper, based on data collected through semi-structured interviews with Frontex and NATO staff as well as document review and analysis, seeks to analyse the cooperation of these two institutions by assessing their mandate, the reasons for their establishment, their operations and their organisational enhancements. It focuses on their role in addressing a non-traditional security challenge, namely irregular migration, which provided the basis for joining efforts and initiating their operational cooperation. The latter raises serious concerns about the future of both institutions and the adopted EU strategy to cope with the issue of migration. All these define a new EU-NATO security partnership that has the potential to reshape the content of the transatlantic cooperation.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
12. Working Paper on Information Centric War and Cyber-security
- Author:
- Nikolaos PAOUNIS
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- Following the thematic publications on the evolution of the war, after the so-called “Revolution in Military Affairs”, a new policy paper published by ELIAMEP analyses the Information Centric War and Cyber-security. Cyberattack is a new form of warfare, while its development is parallel to that of technological progress and its subsequent sociopolitical effects on humankind. Furthermore, cyberattacks raise once again issues of Ethics and whether provisions of international law should be applied. Estonia is the first victim of a massive cyberattacks, while, even though Turkey considers the issue at hand important, it makes use of the abovementioned form of warfare.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
13. ELIAMEP’s policy paper on military service and defence
- Author:
- Thanos Dokos
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- ELIAMEP published a new policy paper by defence analyst Manos Iliadis and Director General of ELIAMEP Dr. Thanos Dokos on “Military Service and Defence”.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
14. Una estrategia de Seguridad Pública para proteger a la ciudadanía
- Author:
- COMEXI
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI)
- Abstract:
- El Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales, COMEXI, es una Asociación Civil sin fines de lucro dedicada al estudio, análisis y diálogo sobre las relaciones internacionales. Su objetivo es generar propuestas que contribuyan a la toma de decisiones y que incidan—de manera estratégica— en la definición e implementación de las políticas públicas que afectan a México. También busca contribuir efectivamente en el posicionamiento e impacto de México en el mundo. La riqueza de COMEXI radica en el talento de su membresía, la cual está integrada por más de 600 asociados expertos en diferentes sectores y disciplinas (académicos, empresarios, funcionarios públicos, diplomáticos y líderes de opinión). También contamos con la participación de embajadas, organismos internacionales, y centros de investigación dedicados al estudio de la vida política, social, y económica del país
- Topic:
- International Organization and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
15. España en la Segunda Guerra Mundial
- Author:
- Antonio Marquina
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
- Abstract:
- España en la Segunda Guerra Mundial
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
16. Rusia en la Sociedad Internacional
- Author:
- Javier Morales
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
- Abstract:
- Rusia en la Sociedad Internacional
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
17. El camino hacia el Este
- Author:
- UNIDAD
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
- Abstract:
- El camino hacia el Este
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
18. How Human Subjects Research Rules Mislead You and Your University, and What to Do About it 1
- Author:
- Gary King and Melissa Sands
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Universities require faculty and students planning research involving human subjects to pass formal certification tests and then submit research plans for prior approval. Those who diligently take the tests may better understand certain important legal requirements but, at the same time, are often misled into thinking they can apply these rules to their own work which, in fact, they are not permitted to do. They will also be missing many other legal requirements not mentioned in their training but which govern their behaviors. Finally, the training leaves them likely to completely misunderstand the essentially political situation they find themselves in. The resulting risks to their universities, collaborators, and careers may be catastrophic, in addition to contributing to the more common ordinary frustrations of researchers with the system. To avoid these problems, faculty and students conducting research about and for the public need to understand that they are public figures, to whom different rules apply, ones that political scientists have long studied. University administrators (and faculty in their part-time roles as administrators) need to reorient their perspectives as well. University research compliance bureaucracies have grown, in well-meaning but sometimes unproductive ways that are not required by federal laws or guidelines. We offer advice to faculty and students for how to deal with the system as it exists now, and suggestions for changes in university research compliance bureaucracies, that should benefit faculty, students, staff, university budgets, and our research subjects.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
19. From trade diplomacy to economic warfare: the international economic policy of the Trump Administration
- Author:
- Richard Higgott
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- This paper is an analysis of the discursive practices of the international economic policy of the Administration of President Donald Trump, writ large. Within this conceptual context it offers an empirical case study of the US-China relationship across the spectrum, from tariff conflict through to the growing struggle for control of the 21st century high-technology industries. The argument is that the Trump Administration utilises the discursive practices of what some scholars call ‘securitisation’ (Buzan et al., 1998) through to what might more appropriately be described as a discourse of ‘economic warfare’. The paper is in four parts. Part 1 provides a brief discussion of the changing historical and international context of the study. Part 2 provides a conceptual discussion of the discursive practices of securitisation, economic statecraft and economic warfare on the one hand and the theory of international trade captured in the idea of the rise and fall of mercantilism and its re-emergence in the international economic agenda of the Trump Administration on the other. Part 3 looks at these concepts as they pertain to current US international economic policy. Part 4 concentrates on US policy towards China particularly. The paper concludes with some reflections on the success or otherwise of contemporary US policy
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
20. The bundle of sticks: a stronger European defence to face global challenges
- Author:
- Pedro Serrano de Haro
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- After an overview of external challenges, this paper will describe some of the main initiatives developed by the EU in the field of security and defence during the last three years and how this has led to a stronger engagement with key international partners. It will conclude with some reflections regarding the value of the EU as a platform for cooperation to face global challenges and on strategic autonomy.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
21. The 1981 coup d’état and trial in Spain: possible lessons for Turkey
- Author:
- Charles Powell
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- This paper briefly analyses the attempted coup d’état carried out in Spain in February 1981 and the trial that was held in its aftermath, with a view to extracting possible lessons that might prove useful to those currently engaged in post-coup justice in Turkey.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
22. Legislating for a low carbon and climate resilient transition: learning from international experiences
- Author:
- Alina Averchenkova
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- The objective of this working paper is to inform policy experts, legislators and decisionmakers on the recent trends in climate change policy-making around the world and to draw lessons learnt from the experiences with designing and implementing climate change legislation. The study in particular aims to contribute to the current debate in Spain on a draft climate change and energy transition law, as well as aid other countries currently working on climate legislation.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
23. Poland in Europe: disappointment or merely hiccup?
- Author:
- Piotr Maciej Kaczyński
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- What is Poland’s position in the EU in the context of the political and economic developments under the Law and Justice government? Since 2015 the one-party government in Poland has engaged in a policy of a radical change. A set of various reforms have been implemented, some of them highly controversial, such as the reform process in the judiciary. The judicial reforms –or ‘take over’– put the Warsaw government on a collision course with the EU institutions over the rule of law. This paper analyses three aspects of the Polish-EU relationship: (1) the state of the rule of law; (2) the economic challenges; and (3) the political position of Poland among EU member states
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
24. Creating a digital roadmap for a circular economy
- Author:
- Johan Bjerkem
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- The climate crisis, environmental disasters, a lack of competitiveness, falling behind in the digital race… The EU faces multiple challenges that it will need to address if it is to ensure long-term sustainable prosperity for European citizens. At the same time, there are two ongoing transitions – the creation of a circular economy and the digital transformation – that could provide the means to address these challenges, if they are managed well. As the EU and national policymakers are making significant efforts to promote a circular economy on the one hand and a digital economy on the other, Annika Hedberg and Stefan Šipka, together with Johan Bjerkem, argue that it is time to align the agendas as a means to achieve greater sustainability and competitiveness. This publication:
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
25. EPIM Policy Update July 2019
- Author:
- Katharina Bamberg
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- This edition’s special focus examines the results of the European Parliament Elections and what they mean for the reform process of the Common European Asylum System. Other key highlights of this Policy Update include an analysis of the ongoing criminalisation of Search and Rescue activities in the Mediterranean, the situation at the eastern border of the EU, developments on the Visa Code and Returns Directive, and a closer look from the European Summit of Refugees and Migrants
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
26. Paris-proofing the next Multiannual Financial Framework
- Author:
- Marco Guili
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- A carbon-neutral future, as envisioned by the European Commission in its recent communication A Clean Planet for All, will require unprecedented changes to the EU’s economy and society. The Multiannual Financial Framework for the 2021-2027 cycle, which is currently under negotiation, has an important role to play: overall, the EU budget supports regional development and research in areas that are critical to achieving climate goals, including transport, energy and agriculture. In this Discussion Paper, Marco Giuli draws lessons from the current EU budget cycle and investigates how it has hampered, and even undermined climate efforts, including continued support for practices that contribute to global warming. He also takes a closer look at the European Commission’s 2018 MFF proposal and concludes that, although several innovations concerning climate spending were introduced, there’s still a considerable risk that the new MFF will turn into a missed opportunity.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
27. The EU's Scottish question
- Author:
- Fabian Zuleeg
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- One of the unintended consequences of the Brexit vote almost three years ago has been the re-opening of the question of the UK’s territorial integrity. Most of the focus has, naturally, been on Northern Ireland, given the historical context and the challenge a hard border would constitute for the peace protest. Less attention has been paid to the situation in Scotland, even though it voted strongly against leaving the EU: 62% of Scottish voters voted remain, while only 38% voted to leave - a higher remain vote than in Northern Ireland. If anything, this sentiment has become stronger, with polls suggesting that two-thirds of Scottish voters now support remaining in the EU.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
28. Citizens expect: Lessons from the European Citizens' Consultations
- Author:
- Paul Butcher
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- The European Citizens’ Consultations (ECCs) were supposed to bring citizens into the decision-making process and inform the European Council’s discussions about the future of the EU at the recent Sibiu Summit. In practice, any outcome from the ECCs has been largely absent, and it is unclear if they have been taken on board at all. This is despite the events providing a wealth of information on European citizens’ priorities, proposals, and demands. Paul Butcher and Corina Stratulat identify the main lesson of the 2018 ECCs – that without any clear definition of their objectives, it is impossible to adequately assess or respond to them. The authors go on to argue that any future repeat of the process must clearly define the scope and purpose of the exercise in advance. As the EU enters a new politico-institutional cycle, the immediate priority is to ensure that the ECCs and other forms of citizens’ involvement in decision-making appear prominently on the agenda of the new Commission and subsequent European Council summits.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
29. Ensuring a post-Brexit level playing field
- Author:
- David Baldock
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- The European Council’s guidelines for the Brexit negotiations, published one month after it received the Article 50 notification from the United Kingdom, state that “any free trade agreement […] must ensure a level playing field, notably in terms of competition and state aid, and in this regard encompass safeguards against unfair competitive advantages through, inter alia, tax, social, environmental and regulatory measures and practices
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
30. The EU’s governance of Brexit and its impact on the negotiations
- Author:
- Johannas Greubel
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- The three years after the Brexit referendum were marked by intense preparations for the UK’s departure, including withdrawal negotiations that eventually led to the conclusion of a Withdrawal Agreement and a political declaration, and the European Council agreeing to extend the withdrawal period until 31 October 2019 at the latest. Yet, even after the UK’s departure from the EU, negotiations between the EU and the UK are far from over. Indeed, it is only after the UK's withdrawal that negotiations on the future relations will begin. It is pertinent to examine how the EU governed the negotiation process internally, in order to draw conclusions for the future. Johannes Greubel argues that throughout the negotiations, the EU managed to set up an inter-institutional governance system that not only ensured unity but also the full support of all institutions for the negotiations' outcome, and strengthened the Union’s negotiation position. This governance constitutes a complex system of interaction that can be described as a model file of inter-institutional and -member state cooperation and diplomacy.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
31. Mainstreaming innovation funding in the EU budget
- Author:
- Eulalia Rubio
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- This study for the European Parliament provides a comprehensive assessment of how the EU budget supports innovation in the current programming period and analyses the approach to innovation financing in the Commission´s MFF 2021-2027 proposals. The findings provide the basis on which to draw recommendations to maximize the use of EU innovation funding in the coming MFF. In particular, the study
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
32. Brexit: Losing control
- Author:
- Andrew Duff
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Policy Centre (EPC)
- Abstract:
- Andrew Duff argues that neither the EU nor the UK is now fully in control. Both are being badly destabilised by Brexit. An accidental no deal is a live possibility. Unless the British have made real progress towards the exit by the time of the next EUCO in June, attitudes will harden — including those of Angela Merkel. Talks between pro-European Tory ministers and the Labour frontbench have a 30% chance of success. If they fail, both leaders are expected to commit to more indicative votes in the Commons, this time rather more ‘meaningful’. Mr Corbyn may want to delay his agreement until after the UK has been obliged by the EUCO to fight a mock election to the European Parliament. But the June EUCO is the next important deadline if British MEPs are to be stopped from taking their seats.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
33. Under Pressure: Russian Energy Cooperation with Japan and South Korea since Western Sanctions
- Author:
- Maria Shagina
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- This report will examine Russian-Japanese and Russian-South Korean energy cooperation. Neither Japan nor the Republic of Korea imposed energy sanctions on the Russian Federation, and both U.S. allies continue to expand their energy deals despite Western sanctions
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
34. Russia in Venezuela: Geopolitical Boon or Economic Misadventure?
- Author:
- Max Hess
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- In December 2018, the Russian Federation sent two Tupolov-160 supersonic bombers around the world to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. On January 23, 2019, the U.S. and a series of Latin American countries recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
35. China’s Black Sea Ambitions
- Author:
- Yevgen Sautin
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- The People’s Republic of China is actively engaging Black Sea littoral states through various initiatives to open new markets for Chinese goods, facilitate the acquisition of valuable or strategic local industries, and offer loans for large development projects
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
36. The Sources of Post-Soviet Conduct
- Author:
- William Spiegelberger
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- The Russian Federation’s recently provocative foreign policy results in part from structural weakness in the Russian domestic regime, a quasi-feudal system that requires certain actions abroad to maintain itself in power at home.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
37. Beneficial Ownership: The Global State of Play
- Author:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Beneficial owners are defined as those who are the natural persons who ultimately own/control a customer and/or the natural persons on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted. It also includes those persons who exercise ultimate control over a legal person or arrangement. The availability of this information is a key requirement of international tax transparency and the fight against financial crime.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
38. A deteriorating security environment in Europe
- Author:
- Thomas Wilkins
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Japan Institute Of International Affairs (JIIA)
- Abstract:
- The October 2018 Warsaw Security Forum (WSF) gathered government, military, and think tank personnel from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and beyond (including a delegation from Japan) in one of Europe’s most prominent Track 1.5 dialogues to focus upon the deteriorating regional and global security environment. Just as the emphasis of their Asian counterparts has been on revisionist challenges to the regional security order in the Indo-Pacific, the WSF focused upon the aggressive behavior of the Russian Federation (Russia) toward its neighbours in CEE and its so-called “near abroad”. As the host country celebrating 100 years of independence, Poland, along with its CEE counterparts in NATO/EU, are countries that are acutely aware of the dangers presented by Russian actions and know that, as history has taught them, their sovereignty cannot be taken for granted. A disintegration of the liberal world order, international law, and the Transatlantic relationship, would leave small, and even medium-sized, states at the potential mercy of more powerful and aggressive neighbours
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
39. A Comparative Study of the Kashmir Conflict Coverage in Pakistani and Indian Press
- Author:
- Ayesha Saddiqa and Farish Ullah Yousafzai
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The paper compares the coverage of J&K conflict in the Pakistani and Indian English press. The objective of the study is to figure out the differences in the coverage of Kashmir conflict by the Indian and Pakistani press along with determining the prominence of war or peace frames in the coverage. Content Analysis was carried out of the news stories published on the international and national pages of English daily The Nation and Dawn from Pakistani press and English daily The Hindu and Times of India from the Indian press. The results revealed that war framing was recorded as the most dominant coverage pattern with respect to Kashmir conflict. War frames were more dominant in the Indian press coverage as compared to the Pakistani press and the differences in the coverage of the press of the two countries are significant.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
40. The US War on Terror in Afghanistan and its Impact on FATA in Pakistan
- Author:
- Fazal Wahid
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The US counterattack on Afghanistan in October 2001 changed in the overall security structure of the region. The Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters escaped the US bombing of the Tora Bora in Afghanistan and crossed into the FATA region of Pakistan. Pakistan’s military operations against these militants in the FATA provided a boost to the latter’s cause and almost the entire FATA experienced a sort of Talibanization. The US war in Afghanistan had its spillover effect in FATA. Terrorist activities unleashed in the entire Pakistan and turmoil in Afghanistan added fuel to this situation. FATA’s special constitutional status hwas addeding to the woes of Pakistan and subsequently FATA was merged with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). This paper analyzes the impact of the US war in Afghanistan on the FATA region of Pakistan.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
41. Bureaucratic Efficiency as Determinant of Trade Openness in SAARC Countries
- Author:
- Rabia Saghir
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The study explores how bureaucratic efficiency aeffects international trade in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Llanka. A composite indicator of government effectiveness is used to measure bureaucratic efficiency and the model is estimated by using the SYS-GMM. It is well recognized that bureaucratic efficiency is vital to the enhancement of trade, whereas the result shows that a negative relationship exists between bureaucratic efficiency and trade openness. Similarly, encouraging links exists between government size and international trade as the government provides different services to enhance the trade inat the international market
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
42. A Comparative and Narrative Analysis: Executive Leader as Team Builder at the University Level
- Author:
- Uzma Syeda Gilani
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- This study aims to compare and narrate the difference in the role of team building, through self-assessed inventory by VC (Executive Leader), observation sheet filled in by co-workers as well as the narrated view of executive leaders regarding team-building of the newly established University of the region. A concurrent triangulation mixed-method design was followed. Vice-Chancellors of all Public universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan constitute the population of the study. According to the design, the same sampling technique was used. Four ViceChancellors of newly established Universities and five observers among their co-workers of each VC were taken as respondents of the study. There were significant differences among the self-assessed views of VCs regarding team building and views of their coworkers and narrative views of executive leaders at newly established universities. For team leadership, egalitarian style, knowledge of emotional intelligence and target-oriented communication are recommended.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
43. Corporate Purpose in Play: The Role of ESG Investing
- Author:
- John Gerard Ruggie
- Publication Date:
- 08-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- On August 19, 2019, the U.S. Business Roundtable (BR), comprising the CEOs of more than 200 of America’s largest corporations, issued a new mission statement on “the purpose of a corporation” (BR, 2019a). The press release noted that each periodic update on principles of corporate governance since 1997 had endorsed the principle of maximizing shareholder value. In contrast, the new statement commits signatory CEOs “to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders” (BR, 2019b). “[Milton] Friedman must be turning in his grave,” a Fortune magazine article declared (Murray, 2019)
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
44. Bound to Happen: Explanation Bias in Historical Analysis
- Author:
- Richard Zeckhauser
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper argues that historical analysis, necessarily written with hindsight, often underestimates the uncertainties of the past. We call this tendency explanation bias. This bias leads individuals – including professional historians – to imply greater certainty in causal analyses than the evidence justifies. Their analyses will treat what is plausible to be probable. We offer a few intuitions about why explanation bias exists, its relation to other well-established psychological biases, what it leads to, and how it might be combatted. Appreciating the depth of uncertainty and ignorance in our world is critical for accurately understanding, interpreting, and drawing from the past to illuminate the present and the near future
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
45. Targeted Debt Relief and the Origins of Financial Distress: Experimental Evidence from Distressed Credit Card Borrowers
- Author:
- Will Dobbie
- Publication Date:
- 08-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- We study the drivers of financial distress using a large-scale field experiment that offered randomly selected borrowers a combination of (i) immediate payment reductions to target short- run liquidity constraints and (ii) delayed interest write-downs to target long-run debt constraints. We identify the separate e?ects of the payment reductions and interest write-downs using both the experiment and cross-sectional variation in treatment intensity. We find that the interest write-downs significantly improved both financial and labor market outcomes, despite not taking effect for three to five years. In sharp contrast, there were no positive e?ects of the more immediate payment reductions. These results run counter to the widespread view that financial distress is largely the result of short-run constraints.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
46. The Intergenerational Effects of Parental Incarceration
- Author:
- Will Dobbie
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- We estimate the causal effects of parental incarceration on children’s short- and long-run outcomes using administrative data from Sweden. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in parental incarceration from the random assignment of criminal defendants to judges with different incarceration tendencies. We find that the incarceration of a parent in childhood leads to a significant increase in teen crime and significant decreases in educational attainment and adult employment. The effects are concentrated among children from the most disadvantaged families, where criminal convictions increase by 10 percentage points, high school graduation decreases by 25 percentage points, and employment at age 25 decreases by 29 percentage points. In contrast, there are no detectable effects among children from more advantaged families. These results suggest that the incarceration of parents with young children may significantly increase the intergenerational persistence of poverty and criminal behavior, even in affluent countries with extensive social safety nets.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy, International Affairs, and Prisons/Penal Systems
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
47. Measuring Bias in Consumer Lending
- Author:
- Will Dobbie
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper tests for bias in consumer lending using administrative data from a high-cost lender in the United Kingdom. We motivate our analysis using a new principal-agent model of bias, which predicts that profits should be higher for the most illiquid loan applicants at the margin if loan examiners are biased. We identify the profitability of marginal applicants using the quasi-random assignment of loan examiners. Consistent with our model, we find significant bias against immigrant and older applicants when using the firm’s preferred measure of long-run profits, but not when using the short-run measure used to evaluate examiner performance. Keywords: Discrimination, Consumer Credit
- Topic:
- Debt, International Political Economy, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
48. Using Behavioral Insights to Improve Truancy Notifications
- Author:
- Todd Rogers
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Many states mandate districts or schools notify parents when students have missed multiple unexcused days of school. We report a randomized experiment (N = 131,312) evaluating the impact of sending parents truancy notifications modified to target behavioral barriers that can hinder effective parental engagement. Modified truancy notifications that used simplified language, emphasized parental efficacy, and highlighted the negative incremental effects of missing school reduced absences by 0.07 days compared to the standard, legalistic, and punitively-worded notification—an estimated 40% improvement. This work illustrates how behavioral insights and randomized experiments can be used to improve administrative communications in education.
- Topic:
- International Relations and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
49. The Medium-Run and Scale-Up Effects of Performance-Based Financing
- Author:
- Diana Ngo and Sebastian Bauhoff
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Rwanda’s performance-based incentives were effective for some indicators, but unconditional financing also induced improvements. The incentive effects persisted in the mediumrun and as the program was scaled-up. Additionally, the analysis demonstrates how observational research methods and secondary data can generate new insights on existing evaluations
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
50. The Peace Process: Will the Taliban give up its Insurgency in Afghanistan?
- Author:
- Ifran Yar
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on International Policy (CIP)
- Abstract:
- In the wake of the incipient peace process in Afghanistan, new hopes have emerged and an aura of optimism has spread across the country. After the first successful meeting with the Taliban, US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met recently with the insurgents to discuss the peace talks in Qatar. This comes after Russia, reasserting its influence in the region, hosted a landmark international conference aimed at spurring the peace efforts in its restive neighborhood. The meeting was attended by the Taliban and its adversaries and concluded without any formal breakthrough. Since 2010, many efforts have been made to broker a peace deal with the Taliban but to no avail. Will this peace process convince the Taliban to give up its insurgency?
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
51. Inauspicious Incident: Erdoğan’s Evolving Relationship with Turkey’s Military
- Author:
- Ben Tannenbaum
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on International Policy (CIP)
- Abstract:
- Turkey’s military has historically played an outsized role in the country’s politics. Since assuming power in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have worked to limit the military’s political influence, a process that has damaged Turkish civil society. The military overthrew the previous AKP government in 1997, and Erdoğan sought to avoid a similar fate. However, after the first decade of Erdoğan’s rule, political loyalties shifted. His chief ally against the military, Fethullah Gülen, became Erdoğan’s principal rival. The drama escalated in 2016 when Gülen allegedly cultivated a cohort of military officers in an attempted coup against Erdoğan. Since thwarting the coup, Erdoğan has successfully re-escalated his quest to constrain the military’s domestic political role. Nevertheless, despite this political feuding, Erdoğan and the Turkish military do hold some common interests on foreign policy. Their overlapping goals have provided some basis for cooperation between Erdoğan and his military. Erdoğan has scored political gains from his relationship with the military, instituting policies that have harmed Turkey’s economy and threatened its democracy.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
52. Trump isn’t NATO’s Only Problem
- Author:
- Basel Ammane
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on International Policy (CIP)
- Abstract:
- During the last NATO Summit in Brussels in July, the first since the onset of the Trump presidency, observers were carefully watching in anticipation of any indicators about the state of commitment by the US to the alliance. Trump’s antics, such as the insults he levelled at Germany, the impudent demands he made, and the thinly-veiled threat he issued unsurprisingly dominated media coverage. This served as a reminder that the alliance and its members need to work vigorously to safeguard US commitment given that this president’s preoccupation with prodding allies into increasing military spending, though echoed by previous administrations, is much more forceful and borders on the nakedly belligerent. To make matters worse, a skeptical view of alliances that sees them through a transactional prism and portrays them as burdens seems to be a consistent view that President Trump has held for years. This further demonstrates that the risk of a declining US commitment to the alliance is real. But a shaky commitment by a US president is hardly the only source of problems for today’s NATO.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
53. Limited Justice for Syria on the Horizon
- Author:
- Basel Ammane
- Publication Date:
- 08-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on International Policy (CIP)
- Abstract:
- The recent attacks in Eastern Ghouta in which a swath of land housing a population of 400,000 was surrounded, shelled incessantly and later invaded have refocused the world’s attention on the events in Syria.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
54. Better Blending: Making the Case for Transparency and Accountability in Blended Finance
- Author:
- Transparency International
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- As available resources for official development assistance have come under strain in the past ten years, blended finance has been hailed as a means to finance development in low- and middle-income countries. Governments and international organisations are increasingly advocating the use of blended finance to fill the “financing gap” between current commitments and target levels of investment needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Little consideration has been given to potential corruption risks in blended finance mechanisms. As a result, integrity issues in blended finance projects are understudied and poorly appreciated by many development practitioners, investors and regulators. As blended finance becomes an increasingly common instrument in development assistance, a richer understanding of the cause and impact of corrupt practices in this form of development finance is essential.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
55. Model Monitoring Agreement
- Author:
- Transparency International
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- One of the oldest weapons in Transparency International’s anti-corruption arsenal is the Integrity Pact, designed specifically to tackle corruption in public procurement – one of the biggest areas of corruption risk for governments.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
56. Social Audit in 20 Steps
- Author:
- Transparency International
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- Social audit is a powerful social accountability tool. It has led to the conviction of public officials for violating the right to information law in Guatemala, a 50 per cent reduction in the costs of public construction works in Peru, and cancelling an illegal education fee in Ghana. Social audit scrutinises public officials’ decisions and/or actions, looking for administrative or financial irregularities. It seeks to uncover discrepancies by comparing public documents, processes or services with how they should be. It can take many names and forms, ranging from social audits in Guatemala and anti-corruption brigades in Peru, to social auditing clubs in Ghana. This report extracts lessons from the social audits implemented by Acción Ciudadana in Guatemala, Proética in Peru and Ghana Integrity Initiative in Ghana. The report examines the social audit outcome reports and other records shared by the three Transparency International chapters, and includes an extensive review of the wider literature on social audits. Based on these experiences, the report outlines 20 key steps to implement an effective social audit.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
57. State Capacity, Democracy and Public Good Production: The case of Child Mortality
- Author:
- Marina Nistotskaya and Michelle D'Arcy
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- The institutional literature on development has emphasized the need to check abuse of power, but overlooked whether the state has power in the first place. Bridging the state capacity and collective action literatures, we argue that since public goods critical for development, such as public health provision, constitute collective action problems (CAPs), and solving CAPs in groups the size of countries requires state high infrastructural power that makes individual behaviour observable/legible, so that it can be monitored and compliance enforced. It is only when democracy is institutionalized within such a state that it can have a positive effect on public goods provision. We test this argument using a novel measure of accumulated infrastructural power – the age, extent and quality of cadastral records – for over 1,000 years for 155 countries. Our analysis shows that this variable has an independent positive effect on infant and child mortality, and it also conditions the effect of democracy. This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 339571) and the Swedish Research Council (grant agreement D0112101). The authors thank Robert Ellisa for excellent research assistance.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
58. Public Bureaucracy and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Russia’s Regions
- Author:
- Anna Khakhunova and Marina Nistotskaya
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- New Public Management (NPM) reforms have been adopted worldwide since the mid-1970s to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. The basic premise of NPM reforms is that market orientation and management focus in the public sector will enhance effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery (Christensen and Lægreid 2010). Although NPM reforms have existed for a quarter century, we still have limited understanding of whether NPM reforms fulfill their expectations. Most importantly, very few empirical studies have been conducted that actually assess the impact of NPM reforms on performance (Alonso, Clifton, and Díaz-Fuentes 2015, Dahlström, Nistotskaya, and Tyrberg 2016, Hammerschmid and Van de Walle 2011). This study helps fill this gap by examining the effect of different NPM-type reforms on municipal performance. In particular, we assess the impact of NPM reforms on three dimensions of municipal performance – gender equity, efficiency and effectiveness – by using a data set of 810 city-level Japanese municipalities. Findings show that municipalities’ overall effort to create NPM reforms is not associated with gender equity and effectiveness in revenue expansion. However, findings suggest that municipalities with a higher commitment to various NPM- type reforms are likely to operate with lower administrative overhead costs. Results also suggest that municipalities’ efforts supporting individual reform, including outsourcing and municipal assets and debt management reform, are associated with higher efficiency in overhead costs and increased revenues from selling municipal assets. This study tests the impacts of NPM-type reforms on municipal performance in an understudied Asian developed setting.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
59. The electoral consequences of institutional failure: A comparative study of audits, rulers, and voters in Swedish municipalities
- Author:
- Sofia B. Vera
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- The literature studying citizen responses to exposed political corruption is rapidly growing. While some studies explore how information credibility and group identities can reduce the electoral impact of the exposure of corruption, this article addresses different mechanisms for weak electoral accountability for corruption: public works provision and corruption prevalence. It uses a vignette experiment embedded in a national survey in Peru to isolate the causal effect of political corruption on electoral support. The results suggest that even types of corruption with side benefits would be harshly punished when attributed to incompetent politicians. They also indicate that while voters punish corruption more leniently when a candidate is competent, they respond negatively to corruption regardless of the prevalence of corruption, which casts doubt on the idea that voters in highly corrupt environments are tolerant of corruption
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
60. Moving Beyond Categorial Measures of Gender in Corruption Research
- Author:
- Lena Wängnerud
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- There are a growing number of studies with the ambition to present causal reasoning linking the presence of women in political organizations to reductions in levels of corruption. The theoretical mechanisms proposed are however seldom directly tested, instead scholars tend to use designs where a large number of control variables are introduced in order to “rule out” rivalry hypotheses. These designs leave us with a number of loose ends that needs to be more carefully dealt with. The aim of this paper is to introduce a new and comparatively simple way of measuring degrees of femininity and masculinity and discuss whether this approach could add to the understanding of gender effects found in research on corruption. The analysis show that femininity is linked to pro-social values and the suggestion is for future research to focus more on indirect effects on corruption from the inclusion of women in political organizations. Exposure-based theories highlight mechanisms such as changed group norms that may pave the ground for an increased focus on the public good. The data used draws on a large-scale survey among Swedish citizens in 2013.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
61. Marketization and the Quality of Residential Elderly Care in Sweden
- Author:
- Rasmus Broms, Carl Dahlström, and Marina Nistotskaya
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- Against a backdrop of increased levels of marketization of welfare services in OECD countries, this article aims to shed light on the separate effects of private ownership and competition on service quality. Using residential elderly care in Sweden as our case, we leverage unique panel data of ownership and competition against a set of indicators, pertaining to the structure, process and outcome dimensions of care quality. The main finding of our analyses is that competition does surprisingly little for quality: private entrepreneurs perform neither better nor worse under stiff competition and the quality of care is approximately the same in those nursing homes that are exposed to competition from private actors as in those that are not.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
62. Women's Empowerment and Foreign Aid Effectiveness.
- Author:
- Gabriella R. Montinola and Sarah Prince
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- The longstanding debate on whether foreign aid promotes development suggests that aid’s efficacy depends on conditions in recipient states. Advocates of gender equality argue that empowering women is desirable not only in its own right but also as a means to other sought-after outcomes. We bring together these issues and argue that women’s empowerment in aid-receiving countries should enhance the effect of foreign aid on child development outcomes. We find support for this argument in analyses of up to 107 developing countries from 1986-2010. Our results indicate that aid is associated with greater reductions in infant mortality where women are more empowered. Furthermore, we find that among the different dimensions of empowerment—political, economic and social—political participation has the strongest and most consistent mediating effect on foreign aid. Our work has implications for research on aid effectiveness, the consequences of gender equality, and the politics of presence
- Topic:
- Gender Issues and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
63. Exploring shades of corruption tolerance: three lessons from Iceland and Sweden.
- Author:
- Gissur Ólafur Erlingsson and Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- The longstanding debate on whether foreign aid promotes development suggests that aid’s efficacy depends on conditions in recipient states. Advocates of gender equality argue that empowering women is desirable not only in its own right but also as a means to other sought-after outcomes. We bring together these issues and argue that women’s empowerment in aid-receiving countries should enhance the effect of foreign aid on child development outcomes. We find support for this argument in analyses of up to 107 developing countries from 1986-2010. Our results indicate that aid is associated with greater reductions in infant mortality where women are more empowered. Furthermore, we find that among the different dimensions of empowerment—political, economic and social—political participation has the strongest and most consistent mediating effect on foreign aid. Our work has implications for research on aid effectiveness, the consequences of gender equality, and the politics of presence
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
64. Trust, Values, and Quality of Government: Exploring Interactions Between Individual and Contextual Level Determinants of Environmental Tax Suppor
- Author:
- Dragana Davidovic
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- Environmental taxes are argued to be the key to more effective environmental protection in developing countries. This paper investigates whether such taxes have the necessary public support to be successfully implemented in different contexts, including countries outside the Western and European spheres. Applying a multilevel analysis approach, using data from the World Values Survey and International Social Survey Programme, interaction effects between values, political and social trust, and perceived quality of government (QoG) are explored. It is hypothesized that if people lack trust in public authorities to implement green taxes in an efficient, fair and uncorrupt manner, they will be less likely to support such taxes despite their strong pro-environmental values or trust in other people. The results show that people holding green values are more likely to support environmental taxes if they live in countries with high levels of QoG. Moreover, the effect of social trust on support for green taxes appears to be contingent on individual-level political trust rather than the quality of government institutions. These interactions need further exploration since they vary across countries and datasets. While support for environmental taxes is found to be relatively high in some developing countries, public aversion towards higher taxes for environmental protection is still relatively high internationally.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
65. Why Support International Redistribution? Corruption and Public Support for Aid in the Eurozone.
- Author:
- Monika Bauhr and Nicholas Charron
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- What factors explain public support for international redistribution? While the European Union has sent billions of taxpayers’ money to over indebted euro countries in an attempt to avoid an economic collapse, these transfers have encountered fierce resistance among both donor and recipient constituents. However, we know surprisingly little about why citizens support or oppose redistribution within the EU. This paper suggests that domestic levels of corruption and institutional quality may be one of the most important explanations for the great variation in public support for financial assistance and aid. Using recent European Elections Survey data merged with data on regional level quality of government, we show that the effects of institutional quality are consistently stronger than macro-economic factors, including economic development, inequality or levels of public debt. We find strong evidence that citizens’ in low corrupt contexts are more likely to support financial assistance to fellow member states. The results have implications for future challenges in securing public support for EU economic integration as well as for our understanding of how and why corruption undermines society’s collective action capacity
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
66. Germany and the V4: renewed cooperation opportunities in the new political context
- Author:
- Kamil Frymark
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Europeum Institute for European Policy
- Abstract:
- Germany’s collaboration with Central European countries, and especially the Visegrad Group (V4) is often perceived through the prism of political differences that have arisen from divergent visions of the future EU migration policy and debates on the rule of law. Simultaneously, new opportunities to deepen the already existing cooperation may appear due to the turmoil in Germany’s domestic politics as well as the international environment..
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
67. Regional Cooperation on Democratization and Conflict Management in Africa
- Author:
- Gilbert Khadiagala
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- While the African Union (AU) is leading overarching efforts to establish continent-wide norms for acceptable political conduct, regional institutions are also contributing substantially to democratization and peacebuilding in their neighborhoods. Bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been actively managing conflicts and preventing movement toward authoritarianism. However, country-level commitment to democratic governance remains uneven and inconsistent. Addressing the region’s security and governance challenges calls for further integration and cooperation, which will require significant resources and new notions of sovereignty with responsibility.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
68. European Security: From Managing Adversity to a New Equilibrium
- Author:
- Dmitri V. Trenin
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- A security community embracing all of Europe would only be possible if Russia were included. This, however, is unlikely. The new confrontation between Russia and the West, the Hybrid War, is systemic and will continue for many years
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
69. EU scenarios for 2027
- Author:
- Antonio Estella
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- In 2008 I published a paper on ‘EU scenarios for 2017’ (Estella, 2008). It was written over the course of 2007, discussed in different economic, legal and political circuits, and finally published by the Elcano Royal Institute a year later. The report was motivated by the discussion on the future of the EU that started that year with the establishment by the European Council of 14 December 2007 of the so-called ‘González’ reflection group. The group, chaired by the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González, started work at the beginning of 2008 and delivered its final report in 2010 (European Council, 2010). The aim of my 2008 report was to try to ascertain where the EU would be in 2017, and why it would be there.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
70. Partnering for democracy: protecting the democratic order in post-Brexit Europe
- Author:
- Pablo José Castillo Ortiz
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Elcano Royal Institute
- Abstract:
- The EU has been a key actor in the democratisation of the European continent and in the protection of the culture of human rights in Europe. To do so, the EU has used strategies and tools such as linkage action vis-a-vis third countries, democratic conditionality for accession to the Union and other forms of leverage, functional cooperation with third countries, the creation of the rule-of-law mechanism and the enactment of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
71. Rebuilding Iraq’s Public Works Infrastructure Following the Defeat of ISIS
- Author:
- Frank R. Gunter
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- This report studies the challenges of rebuilding Iraq’s public works infrastructure following the “perfect storm” of the ISIS insurgency and low oil prices. The major challenge is that the Government of Iraq’s estimate of $88 billion severely understates total
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
72. The Resiliency of Turkey-Russia Relations
- Author:
- Selim Koru
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- The Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation are at odds over multiple issues, not least the Syrian Civil War, where they back warring proxies. Yet the two countries have bounced back from crises and are quickly deepening
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
73. Debt and Discontent: The Collapse of the Putin Consensus?
- Author:
- Christopher Jarmas
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- For the vast majority of Russians, the vlast’—regime—they encounter is neither the Kremlin nor the Duma. It is considerably more local: regional governors, mayors, municipal bureaucrats, local ministry representatives, and their proxies
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
74. Intelligence Studies: The New Academic Discipline in Security Studies
- Author:
- Shady Abdelwhab
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Future for Advanced Research and Studies (FARAS)
- Abstract:
- Intelligence studies is considered a sub-sub-level of international relations, falling under security or strategic studies. It is considered an example of realist policies in action, as intelligence is one of the activities that states undertake to protect and further their strategic interests as defined by a notion of national security. That is why most universities that deliver intelligence courses links intelligence with security in their title
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
75. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Pakistan: An Assessment of the Support of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (2000-2016)
- Author:
- Huma Ikhlaq
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- An effective Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is considered as one of the building blocks for the health of a populace. Unfortunately, this sector in Pakistan is quite fragile, and the intensity of fragility varies from one unit of the state to the other. However, for the development of WASH in Pakistan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) are providing assistance in project preparation and implementation. This paper outlines the causes of the poor condition of WASH sector in Pakistan. Moreover, it evaluates the interventions of the ADB and the WB in the country from 2000-20016. It is also pondered over whether or not these interventions have brought betterment in WASH sector in different provinces of Pakistan. More importantly, the paper also highlights loopholes in the developmental strategies of ADB and WB and suggests few possible strategies for the development of the WASH sector.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
76. Responsibility Sharing for Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants in Need of Protection
- Author:
- CMS
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Migration Studies of New York
- Abstract:
- The 2017 International Migration Policy Report is the first in an expected series of annual reports on international migration policy and refugee protection by the global network of think tanks or study centers founded by the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles – Scalabrinians. These institutions are members of the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN). The Scalabrini migration study centers consist of the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) in the United States, the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) in the Philippines, the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA) in South Africa, the Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (CEMLA) in Argentina, the Centro de Estudios Migratorios (CEM) in Brazil, the Centre d’Information et d’Études sur les Migrations Internationales (CIEMI) in France, and the Centro Studi Emigrazione Roma (CSER) in Italy. The purpose of these reports will be to focus on pressing global migration and refugee protection challenges in all parts of the world and to offer policy suggestions to address them.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
77. What Makes Experts Reliable?
- Author:
- Kyle L Marquardt
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- Many datasets use experts to code latent quantities of interest. However, scholars have not explored either the factors affecting expert reliability or the degree to which these factors influence estimates of latent concepts. Here we systematically analyze potential correlates of expert reliability using six randomly selected variables from a cross-national panel dataset, V-Dem v8. The V-Dem project includes a diverse group of over 3,000 experts and uses an IRT model to incorporate variation in both expert reliability and scale perception into its data aggregation process. In the process, the IRT model produces an estimate of expert reliability, which affects the relative contribution of an expert to the model. We examine a variety of factors that could correlate with reliability, and find little evidence of theoretically-untenable bias due to expert characteristics. On the other hand, there is evidence that attentive and condent experts who have a basic contextual knowledge of the concept of democracy are more reliable.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
78. How to Make Causal Inferences with Time-Series Cross-Sectional Data under Selection on Observables
- Author:
- Matthew Blackwell and Adam Glynn
- Publication Date:
- 05-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- Repeated measurements of the same countries, people, or groups over time are vital to many fields of political science. These measurements, sometimes called time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) data, allow researchers to estimate a broad set of causal quantities, including contemporaneous and lagged treatment effects. Unfortunately, popular methods for TSCS data can only produce valid inferences for lagged effects under very strong assumptions. In this paper, we use potential outcomes to define causal quantities of interest in this settings and clarify how standard models like the autoregressive distributed lag model can produce biased estimates of these quantities due to post-treatment conditioning. We then describe two estimation strategies that avoid these post-treatment biases—inverse probability weighting and structural nested mean models—and show via simulations that they can outperform standard approaches in small sample settings. We illustrate these methods in a study of how welfare spending affects terrorism.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
79. Self-Censorship in Authoritarian States: Response bias in measures of popular support in China
- Author:
- Daniel Robinson and Marcus Tannenberg
- Publication Date:
- 04-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- The study of popular support for authoritarian regimes, and the comparative study of political attitudes, has long relied on the assumption that survey respondents provide truthful answers on surveys. However, when measuring regime support in closed political systems there is a distinct risk that individuals are less than forthright due to fear that their opinions may be made known to the public or the authorities. In order to test this assumption, we conducted a novel web-based survey in China in which we included four list experiments of commonly used items in the comparative literature on regime support. We find systematic bias for all four measures as a result of selfcensorship; substantially more individuals state that they support the regime with direct questioning than do when presented with our anonymous, indirect list experiments. The level of self-censorship, which ranges from 16 to 22 percentage points, is considerably higher than previously thought. Selfcensorship is further most prevalent among the wealthy, urban, female and younger respondents. These findings indicate that prior studies that have found high levels of support for the Chinese regime using these particular measures likely overestimate the true level of support. Further, crossnational studies which compare popular support across regime type may be systematically biased if responses are not subject to the same level of falsification across regime types.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
80. Introducing the Historical Varieties of Democracy Dataset: Political Institutions in the Long 19th Century
- Author:
- Carl Henrik Knutsen
- Publication Date:
- 04-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- The Historical Varieties of Democracy Dataset (Historical V-Dem) is a new dataset containing about 260 indicators, both factual and evaluative, describing various aspects of political regimes and state institutions. The dataset covers 91 polities globally – including most large, sovereign states, as well as some semi-sovereign entities and large colonies – from 1789 to 1920 for many cases. The majority of the indicators are also included in the Varieties of Democracy dataset, which covers the period from 1900 to the present – and together these two datasets cover the bulk of “modern history”. Historical V-Dem also includes several new indicators, covering features that are pertinent for 19thcentury polities. We describe the data, the process of coding, and the different strategies employed in Historical V-Dem to cope with issues of reliability and validity and ensure inter-temporal- and cross-country comparability. To illustrate the potential uses of the dataset we provide a descriptive account of patterns of democratization in the “long 19th century.” Finally, we perform an empirical investigation of how inter-state war relates to subsequent democratization.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
81. Reassessing the Democratic Peace: A Novel Test Based on the Varieties of Democracy Data
- Author:
- Håvard Hegre, Michael Bernhard, and Jan Teorell
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- The democratic peace is one of the most robust findings in international relations. Yet it suffers from two important limitations. First, even those who fully embrace the democratic peace have difficulty precisely identifying which facet of democracy drives the result. Second, the vast majority of studies have relied on a single measure of democracy – the Polity index. This paper reassesses interstate conflict on several new measures of democracy and their disaggregated components from the Varieties of Democracy project in a global sample of 173 countries from 1900–2010 (www.v-dem.net). We theorize three distinct mechanisms of constraint that may explain why some countries do not engage in military conflict with each other: formal vertical (e.g. elections), informal vertical (e.g. civil society activism), and horizontal accountability (e.g. interbranch constraint on the executive). We find that the formal vertical channels of accountability provided by elections are not as crucial as horizontal constraint and the informal vertical accountability provided by a strong civil society.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
82. On Revolutions
- Author:
- Armand M Leroi et al
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- Sometimes the normal course of events is disrupted by a particularly swift and profound change. Historians have often referred to such changes as "revolutions" and, though they have identied many of them, they have rarely supported their claims with statistical evidence. Here we present a method to identify revolutions based on a measure of the multivariate rate of change called Foote Novelty. We dene revolutions as those periods of time when the value of this measure, F, can, by a non-parametric test, be shown to be signicantly greater than the background rate. Our method also identies conservative periods when the rate of change is unusually low. Importantly, our method permits searching for revolutions over any time scale that the data permit. We apply it to several quantitative data sets that capture long-term political, social and cultural changes and, in some of them, identify revolutions, both well known and not. Our method is a general one that can be applied to any phenomenon captured by multivariate time series data of sufficient quality.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
83. The Role of Local Governance in Sustaining Peace
- Author:
- Alain Tschudin and Albert Trithart
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- While the importance of good governance to sustaining peace is widely recognized, the focus tends to be on national governance. This overlooks the crucial role of local governance actors, particularly when the central government is fragmented or lacks broad legitimacy. These actors include not only formal institutions like municipal governments but also a mix of other actors that could range from traditional chieftaincies to community-based organizations to religious institutions.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
84. Israel's Policy toward the Far-Right Party in Austria, Summary of a Knesset Meeting.
- Author:
- Mitvim
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
- Abstract:
- Israel's Policy toward the Far-Right Party in Austria, Summary of a Knesset Meeting.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
85. The Collapse of Israel's Foreign Service, Summary of a Knesset Conference
- Author:
- Mitvim
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
- Abstract:
- The Collapse of Israel's Foreign Service, Summary of a Knesset Conference, February 2018
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
86. The Crisis in Israel-Jordan Relations, Summary of a Knesset Conference
- Author:
- Mitvim
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
- Abstract:
- The Crisis in Israel-Jordan Relations, Summary of a Knesset Conference, January 2018
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
87. Multilateral peace operations and the challenges of organized crime
- Author:
- Jaïr van der Lijn
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
- Abstract:
- Multilateral peace operations are increasingly confronting a set of interrelated and mutually reinforcing security challenges that are relatively new to them, that do not respect borders, and that have causes and effects which cut right across the international security, peacebuilding and development agendas. As a result, the New Geopolitics of Peace Operations III: Non‑Traditional Security Challenges initiative seeks to enhance understanding about peace operations and non-traditional security challenges such as terrorism and violent extremism, irregular migration, piracy, organized crime and environmental degradation. As a part of this initiative, this SIPRI Background Paper explores the ‘non-traditional’ security challenges that organized crime presents to multilateral peace operations.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
88. Deputy Secretary of State Sullivan: U.S. to Lead on Humanitarian Issues
- Author:
- USIP
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- The United States remains committed to its role as a global leader on humanitarian issues and will continue seeking to avert crises that spawn the need for humanitarian aid, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
89. A Fresh Examination of the Proliferation Dangers of Light Water Reactors
- Author:
- Victor Gilinsky
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
- Abstract:
- Even before the ink was dry on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in l968, officials in the U.S. State Policy Planning staff had privately warned their superiors that non-weapons member states to the treaty could come within weeks of acquiring a nuclear arsenal by amassing nuclear weapons useable fuels claiming that these were intended for peaceful purposes. The advice was quietly filed away. Six years later, with India’s “peaceful” nuclear explosion, the warning seemed more salient. Still, even after a series of studies pointing out the military risks associated with proliferating civilian nuclear technology, most policy makers believed that the danger was speculative and still, at worst, many years away.
- Topic:
- Arms Control and Proliferation and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
90. The Inflated Yet Unsolvable North Korean Nuclear Threat
- Author:
- Boyan Boyanov
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- After Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test on the 5th of January 2016 and declared it a successful experiment with a hydrogen bomb, the international community resumed its appeals for finding a definitive solution to the issue with North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. What impresses is the routine of the international response following the North Korean habitual act of defying the nuclear nonproliferation system: diplomatic condemnation mostly coming from the United States, South Korea, Japan, and, in a far more restrained manner – from China. When Pyongyang launched a satellite in space two days later, Seoul responded by shutting down the Kaesong industrial complex – a mutually beneficial industrial zone where South Korean companies employ North Korean labor1 . Even this seemingly harsh action does not constitute a precedent. At that time it was not very demanding to foretell the execution of consequential U.S. – South Korea military drills to display the U.S. resolution to be constantly involved in whatever is happening on the Korean Peninsula and to dismay the latest great leader of the North. Indications appear to suggest that China, completely in terms with its traditional business-asusual foreign policy, would not apply overwhelmingly dutifully the up-to-date UNSC sanctions imposed on Pyongyang2 . Then, after months of expected scolding from abroad, Pyongyang remained true to its own behavioral logic and conducted a fifth nuclear test on September 9 2016, the repercussions of which are yet to unfold
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
91. The Razumkov Center Newsletter
- Author:
- Razumkov Center
- Publication Date:
- 02-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Razumkov Centre
- Abstract:
- In 2016, Razumkov Centre has improved its position in the Global Go To Think Tank Index Report annually presented by the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania (USA) since 2006. It is the only representative from Ukraine in nomination «Top Think Tanks Worldwide».
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
92. The Effect of House Prices on Household Borrowing: A New Approach
- Author:
- James Cloyne
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
- Abstract:
- We investigate the effect of house prices on household borrowing using administrative mortgage data from the UK and a new empirical approach. The data contain household-level information on house prices and borrowing in a panel of homeowners, who refinance at regular and quasi-exogenous intervals. The data and setting allow us to develop an empirical approach that exploits house price variation coming from idiosyncratic and exogenous timing of refinance events around the Great Recession. We present two main results. First, there is a clear and robust effect of house prices on borrowing, but the responsiveness is smaller than recent US estimates. Second, the effect of house prices on borrowing can be explained largely by collateral effects. We study the collateral channel in two ways: through a multivariate and non-parametric heterogeneity analysis of proxies for collateral and wealth effects, and through a test that exploits interest rate notches that depend on housing collateral.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
93. G7 Economic Cooperation in the Trump Era
- Author:
- C. Fred Bergsten, Edwin M. Truman, and Jeromin Zettelmeyer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- This paper examines how G7 cooperation can be maintained in the Trump era. Its working assumption is that the US administration will remain open to international cooperation in principle and yet be constrained by Trump’s economic nationalism and specific campaign promises, such as reducing trade imbalances. The main finding is that useful areas for G7 macroeconomic, trade and financial cooperation continue to exist even after taking US constraints into account. At the same time, other G7 leaders need to be prepared to proceed on their own if attempts to convince the US administration that G7 economic cooperation is in the interests of all members fail. Paper presented at the international conference on “Major Challenges for Global Macroeconomic Stability. The Role of the G7”, organized in Rome on 27-28 March 2017 by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Bank of Italy.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, International Security, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
94. A Proposal for G7/G20 Policy Coordination to Strengthen Global Productivity and Output Growth
- Author:
- Malcolm D. Knight
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- This paper is premised on the fact that the most important macroeconomic policy issue confronting global leaders at this time is the need to restore, modernize and expand the international network of basic infrastructure that underpins global economic activity. This would help foster stronger long-term productivity growth and per capita output. This paper first outlines key policy elements that are needed within each country to design and implement a successful National Infrastructure Investment Programme (NIIP). It then describes how these NIIPs could be integrated into an Internationally Coordinated Infrastructure Investment Programme (iCIIP), and the complementary roles that the G7 and G20 summit leaders could play in carrying out this vast programme of infrastructure renewal and expansion. The G7, as a tightly knit group of advanced countries, can be instrumental in giving a clear impetus to key elements of the iCIIP strategy. The G20 instead is the appropriate body to set the course of modernization and expansion of a renewed, internationally-integrated network of basic productive infrastructure, and to guide the iCIIP as it is implemented over the next decade.
- Topic:
- International Relations, International Cooperation, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
95. Germany Prioritizes the Long-term Goal of Sustainability over the Short-term Goal of Revitalizing the World Economy
- Author:
- Rolf Langhammer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- While Germany continues to defend an open trading system it is not prepared to play a proactive role in pushing for liberalization of global trade. Preventing further disintegration in Europe has a higher priority for the German government than further integration in the world economy. Such priority does not only match with widespread skepticism in the German electorate on the gains from globalization. It also complies with an implicit understanding in the government that further globalization should be subject to stricter public surveillance. On nancial stability, German authorities emphasize the need to minimize the role of taxpayers in future bail-outs and giving regulators the power to force troubled banks to restructure or liquidate. Germany is also keen for the imposition of a nancial transactions tax at the global level. On macroeconomic policy, the increased reliance on domestic demand to spur growth in Germany will contribute towards global rebalancing. Given its scal space, boosting Germany’s public investment could be part of a collective e ort to address global demand weakness while addressing long-term growth challenges through structural reforms.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
96. The G7’s Task for Restoring Growth and Stability
- Author:
- Stephen Pickford and Paola Subacchi
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- Most G7 countries are facing political and economic uncertainties, and long-standing structural problems.The short-term outlook is reasonably positive, but longer term prospects are more challenging. These challenges have underlying economic causes stretching back many years, fostered by low productivity growth, stagnating real incomes and living standards, rising inequality and technological change. G7 countries should address short-term weaknesses, reduce political and policy uncertainties, and tackle these longer-term problems as well. Acting together to address these challenges will be more effective: (1) short-term and medium-term measures to boost growth should focus on fiscal actions (including infrastructure spending), normalizing monetary policy, completing financial regulatory reforms, and structural policies; (2) tackling policy uncertainties requires international consensus on consistent policies, starting with greater certainty over the direction of trade policy and over the Brexit negotiations. Sending positive signals on trade cooperation will be difficult, but the G7 could make progress on some specific issues such as a code of practice against competitive exchange rate devaluations; (3) an agenda to emphasize fairness could include: fair trading arrangements, implications of financial regulation for fairness and agreement on international corporate taxation to ensure companies pay their fair share of taxes.
- Topic:
- International Relations, International Security, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
97. The Accountability Sequence: From De-jure to De-facto Constraints on Governments
- Author:
- Valeriya Mechkova, Anna Lührmann, and Staffan I. Lindberg
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- Accountability is one of the cornerstones of good governance. Establishing accountable governments is a top priority on the international development agenda. Yet, scholars and democracy practitioners know little about how accountability mechanisms develop and thus can be supported by international and national actors. The present study tackles the questions of how, and in what sequence accountability sub-types develop. We consider not only vertical (elections and political parties) and horizontal accountability (legislature, judiciary and other oversight bodies), but also diagonal accountability (civil society and media) in both their de-jure and the de-facto dimensions. By utilizing novel sequencing methods, we study their sequential relationships in 173 countries from 1900 to the present with data from the new V-Dem dataset. Considering the long-term dimensions of institution building, this study indicates that most aspects of de-facto vertical accountability precede other forms of accountability. Effective institutions of horizontal accountability – such as vigorous parliaments and independent high courts – evolve rather late in the sequence and build on progress in many other areas.
- Topic:
- International Affairs and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
98. Eroding Regimes: What, Where, and When?
- Author:
- Michael Coppedge
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- The political world lately seems to be filled with unexpected erosions of democracy. What is the most useful way to describe these phenomena? Do they all belong to a common syndrome? Certainly there are different degrees of erosion, but are there also different types? How common are such erosions in the world today? Is this a new phenomenon, or are there close parallels with events in the past? If we detect early warning signs of erosion, how concerned should we be that it will continue and culminate in the breakdown of democracy? This paper argues that there are two distinct erosion paths. First, there is a classic path of growing repression of speech, media, assembly, and civil liberties, combined with deteriorating political discourse. The second path involves the concentration of power in the executive at the expense of the courts and the legislature, similar to what Guillermo O’Donnell called “delegative democracy,” which entails the erosion of horizontal accountability. Venezuela emerges as the most extreme and most fully articulated instance of erosion along this second path
- Topic:
- International Affairs and Regime Change
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
99. Gender Diversity on High Courts
- Author:
- Nancy et al Arrington
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- ncreasing the diversity of political institutions is believed to improve the quality of political discourse and, subsequently, the quality of political outcomes. Moreover, the presence of diverse officials in positions of power signals the openness and fairness of political institutions. These benets of diversity should be particularly acute in the judiciary, where judges are tasked with the symbolically and substantively powerful duty of interpreting and defending constitutional values. Extant scholarship suggests that well-designed appointment process can promote diversity without explicitly gendered goals, much less quotas. If correct, these proposals raise the possibility of promoting greater diversity without having to resolve politically charged debates about quotas. Yet, scholars disagree about the effects of particular design choices. Worse, estimating causal effects of institutions in observational data is particularly difficult. We develop a research design linked to the empirical implications of existing theoretical arguments to evaluate the effect of institutional change on the gender diversity of peak courts cross-nationally. Speciffically, we consider the effect of an increase (or a decrease) in the number of actors involved in the appointment process. We find mixed results for any existing claim about the role of appointment institutions play in increasing diversity. Yet we also find that any institutional change seems to cause an increase in the gender diversity of peak courts.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
100. Multiple Measurements, Elusive Agreement, and Unstable Outcomes in the Study of Regime Change
- Author:
- Hans Lueders and Ellen Lust
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- This comprehensive analysis of regime change indicators reveals that problems of conceptualization and measurement are major reasons why current research fails to draw compelling conclusions that foster cumulative knowledge. The paper first argues that even though the literature discusses the conceptualization of regime types at length, there is little attention to defining regime change. Furthermore, quantitative studies of regime change largely elide conceptual and measurement challenges. Second, although indicators of regime type are highly correlated, agreement between indicators of regime change is extremely low. Third, focal points such as elections and coups drive agreement among these indicators, suggesting that such measures often reflect notable events instead of regime change per se. Finally, a robustness check of nine articles on regime change published in top journals demonstrates that findings are often not robust to alternative indicators, implying that indicator choice influences the results of quantitative studies.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus