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41. Designing Institutional Collaboration into Global Governance

Author:
C. Randall Henning
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Collaboration among international institutions is essential for high-quality governance in many areas of global policy, yet it is chronically undersupplied. Numerous opportunities for institutional collaboration are being missed and there are calls for deepening collaboration in discourse on global governance — in new areas of governance, such as digital privacy, content moderation and platforms; better-established areas, such as climate change and biodiversity; as well as long-established but nonetheless evolving areas, such as international finance, development and trade. There are several obstacles to collaboration, including key countries’ using some institutions to constrain others, a strategy of “complexity for control.” This policy brief suggests that in designing international institutions, states and other principals should draw from a tool kit of strategies and techniques for promoting collaboration, including introducing or developing formal and informal mechanisms, and harnessing the Group of Seven and the Group of Twenty to foster collaboration proactively. New institutions should be designed from the outset to collaborate with others in a dense institutional environment.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Privacy, Institutions, Innovation, and Collaboration
Political Geography:
Global Focus

42. Designing and Regulating Retail Digital Currencies

Author:
Steven L. Schwarcz
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Governments and multinational organizations are exploring the feasibility of developing “retail” digital currencies, sponsored by governmental central banks or privately issued, which consumers could use on a day-to-day basis as an alternative to cash. Central bank digital currencies could be either account-based or token-based. Privately issued digital currencies would likely be token-based. Private issuers are focusing on “stablecoins,” which are digital currencies backed by assets having intrinsic value. Retail digital currencies raise new regulatory issues in addition to those typically associated with money and payment systems. The most successful retail digital currencies are likely to be used not only domestically but also in cross-border transactions, which can be costly. They therefore should be designed, regulated and supervised to reduce these costs and, ideally, also to increase consumer accessibility — and thus to broaden financial inclusion.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Currency, Innovation, Cryptocurrencies, and Digital Currency
Political Geography:
Global Focus

43. Digital RMB: A Possible Way to Reassert Data Control in the Digital Economy

Author:
Alex He
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
As the first digital currency piloted by a major economy, China’s digital renminbi (RMB) has drawn worldwide attention. Many observers, however, have exaggerated the digital currency’s influence on RMB internationalization; others have focused on its potential replacement of the current third-party payment system, or the possibility that the digital RMB could be exploited to strengthen China’s authoritarian regime by way of monitoring everyday transactions conducted by Chinese citizens. However, these observations have missed the main point of the digital RMB as a key fintech innovation in the age of the digital economy. It could be an important tool in assisting China’s central bank to reassert control over big data in the financial system and to bring the rapidly growing power of Chinese fintech giants under control. Its issuance also acts as a pre-emptive measure that positions the People’s Bank of China to compete with other central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies.
Topic:
Governance, Digital Economy, Banking, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
China and Asia

44. he Canadian Election Template: Stronger Elections at Home, Stronger Canada Abroad

Author:
Brian Klaas and Aaron Shull
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
For the last four years, the world’s most powerful champion of democratization has been largely absent from the global stage. The United States is now poised to support a far more pro-democracy agenda, with greater insistence on free and fair elections as part of American foreign policy. Indeed, US President Joe Biden has redoubled efforts by hosting a global summit for democracy, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to partnering with the United States on supporting global democracy. Nonetheless, the current landscape is bleak. Freedom House’s metrics show 15 consecutive years of democratic decline. Unprecedented threats to elections across the world have emerged. Geopolitical adversaries have used hacking, disinformation campaigns and other information warfare attacks to destabilize democracies. Those threats rightly gained prominence after the 2016 US elections. However, while the focus shifted to international threats, domestic actors began to borrow Russian-style tactics, spreading false information and sowing doubt on election integrity. Too often, these campaigns achieve their goals — and democracy suffers.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Elections, Democracy, and Leadership
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

45. International Intellectual Property after the New NAFTA

Author:
Jeremy de Beer
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is the new high-water mark in international intellectual property (IP) law. CUSMA includes most of the Trans-Pacific Partnership provisions that were suspended in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, except for a few pharmaceutical-related provisions amended after signing. Canada will be required to make meaningful changes to domestic IP laws, including copyright term extension, criminal penalties for tampering with digital rights management information, restoration of patent terms to compensate for administrative and regulatory delays, broader and longer protection for undisclosed testing data and other data, new civil and criminal remedies for the misappropriation of trade secrets, and additional powers for customs officials to seize and destroy IP-infringing goods.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, Intellectual Property/Copyright, NAFTA, and USMCA
Political Geography:
United States, Canada, North America, and Mexico

46. Regional Financial Arrangements and the International Monetary Fund: Sustaining Coherence in Global Financial Governance

Author:
C. Randall Henning
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Cooperation and competition among regional financial arrangements (RFAs) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increasingly determine the effectiveness of the global financial safety net (GFSN), which many observers fear is becoming fragmented. Overlap among these crisis-fighting institutions has important benefits but also pitfalls, including with respect to competition, moral hazard, independence, institutional conflict, creditor seniority and non-transparency. The study reviews the RFAs in Latin America, East Asia and Europe to assess their relationships with the IMF and address these problems. Among other things, it concludes: institutional competition, while harmful in program conditionality, can be beneficial in economic analysis and surveillance; moral hazard depends critically on institutional governance and varies substantially from one regional arrangement to the next; secretariats should be independent in economic analysis, but lending programs should be decided by bodies with political responsibility; and conflicts among institutions are often resolved by key member states through informal mechanisms that should be protected and developed. Findings of other recent studies on the GFSN are critiqued. Architects of financial governance should maintain the IMF at the centre of the safety net but also develop regional arrangements as insurance against the possibility that any one institution could be immobilized in a crisis, thereby safeguarding both coherence and resilience of the institutional complex.
Topic:
Governance, Surveillance, Strategic Competition, and IMF
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, Asia, South America, Australia, North America, and Global Focus

47. Standards for Digital Cooperation

Author:
Michel Girard
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Global data standards are urgently needed to foster digital cooperation and manage global tech platforms. No global organization is currently mandated to coordinate the development, maintenance and use of technical standards covering data value chains and policy-oriented standards covering data governance. Precedents exist where standards development work is coordinated by international organizations in sectors of the economy operating across borders, from aviation and maritime shipping to meteorology, food production, public health and the management of the internet. This paper proposes the creation of a Data Standards Task Force (DSTF), which would be entrusted with a dual mandate: enabling the development of technical standards to create data value chains and being accountable for the development of data governance standards needed by regulators to properly frame the leading big tech platforms (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google). The ultimate objective of the DSTF would be to create the required architecture for a “single data zone” where data can circulate freely between participating jurisdictions.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Social Media, Data, Digital Cooperation, and Big Tech
Political Geography:
Global Focus

48. Competing in Artificial Intelligence Chips: China’s Challenge amid Technology War

Author:
Dieter Ernst
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
This special report assesses the challenges that China is facing in developing its artificial intelligence (AI) industry due to unprecedented US technology export restrictions. A central proposition is that China’s achievements in AI lack a robust foundation in leading-edge AI chips, and thus the country is vulnerable to externally imposed supply disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic has further decoupled China from international trade and technology flows. Success in AI requires mastery of data, algorithms and computing power, which, in turn, is determined by the performance of AI chips. Increasing computing power that is cost-effective and energy-saving is the indispensable third component of this magic AI triangle. Research on China’s AI strategy has emphasized China’s huge data sets as a primary advantage. It was assumed that China could always purchase the necessary AI chips from global semiconductor industry leaders. Until recently, AI applications run by leading-edge major Chinese technology firms were powered by foreign chips, mostly designed by a small group of top US semiconductor firms. The outbreak of the technology war, however, is disrupting China’s access to advanced AI chips from the United States. Drawing on field research conducted in 2019, this report contributes to the literature by addressing China’s arguably most immediate and difficult AI challenges. The report highlights China’s challenge of competing in AI, and contrasts America’s and China’s different AI development trajectories. Capabilities and challenges are assessed, both for the large players (Huawei, Alibaba and Baidu) and for a small group of AI chip “unicorns.” The report concludes with implications for China’s future AI chip development.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Science and Technology, Sanctions, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:
United States, China, Asia, and North America

49. Toward a Robust Architecture for the Regulation of Data and Digital Trade

Author:
Dan Ciuriak and Maria Piashkina
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The rapid digital transformation occurring worldwide poses significant challenges for policy makers working within a governance framework that evolved over centuries. Domestic policy space needs to be redefined for the digital age, and the interface with international trade governance recalibrated. In this paper, Dan Ciuriak and Maria Ptashkina organize the issues facing policy makers under the broad pillars of “economic value capture,” “sovereignty” in public choice and “national security,” and outline a conceptual framework with which policy makers can start to think about a coherent integration of the many reform efforts now under way, considering how policies adopted in these areas can be reconciled with commitments under a multilateral framework adapted for the digital age.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Reform, Digital Economy, Multilateralism, and Digitization
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, Asia, and North America

50. Data Is Dangerous: Comparing the Risks That the United States, Canada and Germany See in Data Troves

Author:
Susan Ariel Aaronson
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
From posting photos and videos to tracking physical activity, apps can do almost anything, but while they may seem like harmless fun, they may also pose a threat to personal data and national security. This paper compares the different responses of the United States, Canada and Germany to data risks posed by popular apps such as FaceApp, Facebook, Strava, TikTok and ToTok. These apps and many others store troves of personal data that can be hacked and misused, putting users (and the countries in which they live) at risk.
Topic:
Security, Digital Economy, Social Media, and Data
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Canada, Germany, and North America

51. Indigenous Reserve Lands in Canada Face High Flood Risk

Author:
Jason Thistlethwaite, Andrea Minano, Daniel Henstra, and Daniel Scott
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Nearly every year, Indigenous peoples in First Nations communities face property damage, disrupted livelihoods and the severe social and psychological burdens associated with evacuation due to flooding. Perhaps the most striking example is the recurrent flooding that afflicts the Kashechewan First Nation in Northern Ontario, whose residents have been forced to evacuate their homes every spring for 17 years. Although it’s known that Indigenous communities face a greater flood risk and experience more flood emergencies than the general Canadian population, the scope and magnitude of the current threat, and how it might evolve under climate change, has been little studied. This policy brief reports on research at the University of Waterloo that is assessing, quantifying and mapping the flood risk to Indigenous peoples living on reserve lands and includes policy recommendations to help with better understanding and reducing that risk.
Topic:
Climate Change, Natural Disasters, Indigenous, and Flood
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

52. New Directions in Mining Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

Author:
Sara Ghebremusse
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Despite Africa's wealth of natural resources, millions of its people live in extreme poverty. Effective mining governance can help Africa address this imbalance by achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 (to end poverty) and SDG 8 (to create sustainable economic growth and decent work for all). Reforms aimed at generating more revenue for national governments to address poverty and building new partnerships between public and private sectors to promote economic growth and boost employment can help achieve these goals.
Topic:
Poverty, United Nations, Natural Resources, Employment, Sustainable Development Goals, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Africa

53. Ensuring Respect for Indigenous Cultures: A Moral Rights Approach

Author:
Brigitte Vézina
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
From commercials to movies to fashion, Indigenous artworks have been misused in ways that are offensive to the artists who created them and disrespectful of the cultures that inspired them. Using Indigenous traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) without acknowledging their sources or providing financial compensation to the artists undermines the TCEs' traditional value and amounts to cultural theft. This paper looks at protecting TCEs using copyright's moral rights approach, which provides intellectual property protection based on acknowledgement, respect and integrity.
Topic:
Arts, Intellectual Property/Copyright, Culture, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

54. Cooperation in Trade in Services

Author:
Akshay Mathur and Purvaja Modak
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Over the past decade, there has been a shift in global trade from trade in goods to trade in services. Unlike goods, services are intangible and consumed by the user directly, without intermediate supervision. Thus, the only way to ensure the quality of a service is to enforce standards on the service provider. This is the responsibility of domestic sector-specific regulatory institutions established by the government. This paper examines the current state of services trade in India and Canada, considers India’s services trade with Canada and outlines a number of measures the countries could take to support services trade.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Services, and Trade Policy
Political Geography:
Canada, India, Asia, and North America

55. Fostering Growth in Digital Trade through Bilateral Cooperation in the Development of Trade Rules

Author:
Don Stephenson
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Like foreign policy, trade policy is the outward expression of domestic policy — both economic and social — and trade negotiations are to advance the national interest. Both India and Canada have important commercial interests in digital trade and both have counterbalancing social policy concerns, but they have important differences as well. Their equitable participation in digital trade must overcome an imbalanced competitive landscape through measures to facilitate access to technology and infrastructure, financing, and training in digital technology literacy and data-based business models. As yet, there is no international consensus on how trade rules should be adapted to foster digital trade. Consistent with the Track 1.5 Dialogue objectives, this paper calls on Canada and India to partner and lead in advancing the digital trade agenda. It recommends creating a bilateral process to identify common causes and areas for collaboration; convening a business-to-business conversation supported with research and analysis; and focusing on the impact of digital technology, looking at not only electronic commerce but also trade in traditional service sectors.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Digital Economy, and Trade Policy
Political Geography:
Canada, India, Asia, and North America

56. India-Canada Energy Cooperation

Author:
Amit Bhandari
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The energy sectors of India and Canada complement each other: India is a large and growing oil importer, while Canada is a large and growing exporter of oil and gas. However, as they invested in oil fields across the world, Indian oil companies have missed out on the Canada story. Investing in Canada’s oil sector can help India guard against the risk of spikes in oil prices and provide Canada with long-term demand security. In this paper, first presented as a backgrounder at Track 1.5 meetings in Mumbai, India, in November 2019, Gateway House outlines its findings on the feasibility of Indian investment in Canada’s petroleum sector, suggesting a path forward and best prospects for investment.
Topic:
Energy Policy, International Trade and Finance, Oil, Gas, and Investment
Political Geography:
Canada, India, Asia, and North America

57. Assessing Digitalization and Data Governance Issues in Africa

Author:
Adedeji Adeniran and Idris Ademuyiwa
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The growth of digitalization and digital technology adoption in Africa holds the key to strengthening and diversifying economies across the continent. Although these developments offer potentially life-changing benefits for consumers, businesses and governments, the inherent flaws in the digital market mean these benefits are not guaranteed. As most gains from the digital economy are largely concentrated in the United States and China, the digital divide may widen the gap between the Global North and the Global South.
Topic:
Economics, Governance, Digital Economy, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Africa and Global South

58. Sustainable Energy through Green Bonds in India

Author:
Olaf Weber and Vasundhara Saravade
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Emerging economies, such as India, will need significant international investment in climate action in order to transition toward a future that is low-carbon and climate-resilient. India needs fossil fuels at an affordable price and needs to protect itself against price fluctuations. It can meet these needs by investing in Canadian oil companies, given the country’s political stability and rule of law. As an emerging economy, India could attract greater foreign direct investment into its economy through green bonds, a climate finance debt instrument that addresses environmental and climate-related challenges. Not only are green bond issuances linearly increasing over the years, but they also seem to be driven by institutional pressure, provided in part by the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulation, as well as by the informal advocacy efforts of market stakeholders. These findings are consistent with institutional theory and contribute to it by introducing the regulatory perspective of the green bond market.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Green Technology, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
India and Asia

59. Environmental Provisions in CUSMA: A New Approach

Author:
Silvia Maciunas
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The environmental chapter in the newly ratified Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) builds on the environmental chapters of its predecessors: the North American Free Trade Agreement and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Although CUSMA contains greater environmental provisions in the form of pollution prevention, the control of toxic substances and illegal fishing, and the conservation of wild flora and fauna, it fails to address climate change, the most critical challenge of our time.
Topic:
Environment, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, NAFTA, and Trade Policy
Political Geography:
Canada, North America, Mexico, and United States of America

60. conomic Rents and the Contours of Conflict in the Data-driven Economy

Author:
Dan Ciuriak
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
In the era of continuous and steadily accelerating technological change that started with the Industrial Revolution, economies and societies were repeatedly transformed in ways that can be traced to ownership of the essential and scarce factor of production of the day and command of the economic rents that flowed to that factor. The digital transformation is now ushering in a new economic era, in which the economy is again being reordered by new technologies based on a new essential capital asset — data. Data generates massive rents, fuels the rise of superstar firms and generates powerful incentives for strategic trade and investment policy. The emergence of this new economy signals a new era of conflict, on new battlegrounds and with new tools or weapons, between new coalitions within and between countries. This paper describes the contours of the conflicts that are to be expected with the digital transformation as it realigns interests; compares these expectations with actual developments; and comments on the strategies of the main protagonists and the implications for the rules-based system of international commerce.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Commerce, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus