Political Geography: United States / Topic:

7401. Panama Canal Transition: The Final Implementation

Author:: C. Richard Nelson, Jr. Gillespie, Brandon Grove Jr., and David E. McGiffert
Publication Date:: 07-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: The implications of the transfer of the Panama Canal go well beyond U.S. relations with Panama. This complex transition provides an important lesson for Latin America and the rest of the world on how countries of vastly different size and outlook can work together. The success of this 20 year process lies mainly in first identifying the primary common interest of the United States, Panama and the major canal users: access to an open, safe and efficient canal. Important but secondary concerns, including U.S. military access to facilities in Panama, were addressed during the process but never were allowed to displace the primary interest. By focusing on this clear, compelling key objective, both Panama and the United States were able to accommodate fundamental changes in the political, economic and security context, including several changes in administrations, tough negotiations and even a military confrontation.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Latin America

7402. Building an Asia-Pacific Security Community: The Role of Nuclear Weapons

Author:: C. Richard Nelson, James E. Goodby, Tomohisha Sakanaka, W. Neal Anderson, Tomohide Murai, and Shinichi Ogawa
Publication Date:: 05-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: The main challenge for Asia is to build a security community that transforms a legacy of military competition into security cooperation. This transformation will be difficult because of the high level of distrust among the states and considerable uncertainty about future relations. Asia lacks the kinds of developed, institutionalized multilateral security arrangements that contribute to transparency, confidence-building and long-term stability. Furthermore, a “ business as usual ” approach that focuses on managing bilateral relationships is unlikely to result in a security community. More attention needs to be devoted to multilateral security efforts. Without the reassurance of a network of cooperative arrangements, including verifiable arms limitations, potential adversaries may place their hopes in achieving unilateral military advantages. Such efforts could foster fears of regional domination and, in turn, a potential arms race that includes nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Topic:: Security and NATO
Political Geography:: United States, Israel, East Asia, and Asia

7403. An Appropriate Role for Nuclear Power in Meeting Global Energy Needs

Author:: Donald L. Guertin, Richard E. Balzhiser, Christian Gobert, William J. Dirks, Joy C. Dunkerley, and Stephen P. Pettibone
Publication Date:: 02-1999
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: Despite the recent global economic slowdown, the demand for energy services is bound to increase over the long term in order to provide improved living standards for growing populations, in particular in developing countries. In recognition of its unique characteristics, the demand for electricity will rise even faster than total energy. Several studies present scenarios that show a doubling of global installed capacity over the next twenty years.
Topic:: Energy Policy and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:: United States and Asia

7404. The Geopolitics of Energy Development in the Caspian Region: Regional Cooperation or Conflict?

Author:: Vadim Rubin
Publication Date:: 12-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
Abstract:: The Caspian Basin has emerged in recent years as a major focus of international affairs for a combination of political, economic, and geostrategic reasons. In the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union's dissolution in the early 1990s the region's newly independent states were overshadowed by Russia and attracted little Western and U.S. attention. But over the past several years this region has attracted growing attention from Western policymakers and scholars, as well as the media and the private sector. One of the main reasons for this new focus on the Caspian is its sizable energy reserves. In addition to its potential as a significant oil producer, however, it is also the Caspian's geostrategic location, its diverse mix of ethnic groups, and its unsettled intrastate and interstate conflicts that make it both an enticing and challenging region.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Democratization, Development, Energy Policy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Caspian Sea

7405. The Cox Committee Report: An Assessment

Author:: Michael M. May, Alastair Iain Johnston, W.K.H. Panofsky, Marco Di Capua, and Lewis R. Franklin
Publication Date:: 12-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
Abstract:: The Cox Commission of the U.S. Congress was established in June 1998 to investigate concerns over Chinese acquisition of sensitive U.S. missile and space technology in connection with the launching of U.S. civilian satellites using Chinese launchers on Chinese territory. The investigations were broadened in October 1998 to include alleged security problems and possible espionage at the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories. Some conclusions were released in January 1999 by the White House together with the administration's response. The full declassified (redacted) version of the report of the Cox Commission was released on May 25, 1999.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Asia

7406. The U.S. Military and Civil Infrastructure Protection: Restrictions and Discretion under the Posse Comitatus Act

Author:: Gregory D. Grove
Publication Date:: 11-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
Abstract:: This article sets out the constraints of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (the “Act”), which generally prohibits active enforcement of civilian laws by the military, and describes the discretion of the military commander to assist civilian law enforcement in protecting America's information infrastructure against computer—assisted attack. A primary purpose of this article is to help legal advisors to commanders and DoD civilian officials better understand the boundaries of command discretion so that commanders and officials can feel free to exercise proper command discretion to assist law enforcement according to military interests and their professional and personal ethics and ideals. Another primary purpose of the article is to appraise Congress of the Act, its prohibitions, and its application to assist in framing the policy debate about how to constrain or expand the discretion of commanders and other officials to most productively serve the American public.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: United States

7407. The Nonproliferation Regime under Siege

Author:: George Bunn
Publication Date:: 09-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
Abstract:: The nuclear nonproliferation regime was challenged in 1998 by nuclear-weapon tests in India and Pakistan, by medium-range missile tests in those countries and in Iran and North Korea, by Iraq's defiance of UN Security Council resolutions requiring it to complete its disclosure of efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and by the combination of “loose nukes” and economic collapse in Russia. Additional threats to the regime's vitality came in 1999 from the erosion of American relations with both China and Russia that resulted from NATO's 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia—with additional harm to relations with China resulting from U.S. accusations of Chinese nuclear espionage and Taiwan's announcement that it was a state separate from China despite its earlier acceptance of a U.S.-Chinese “one China” agreement. Major threats to the regime also came from the continued stalemate on arms-control treaties in the Russian Duma and the U.S. Senate, from a change in U.S. policy to favor building a national defense against missile attack, and from a Russian decision to develop a new generation of small tactical nuclear weapons for defense against conventional attack.
Topic:: International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, Economics, Government, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Russia, United States, China, Europe, Iran, South Asia, Middle East, Israel, East Asia, Asia, and Korea

7408. Commercialization of Russian Technology in Cooperation with American Companies

Author:: David Bernstein
Publication Date:: 06-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
Abstract:: The Soviet Union placed a high priority on science and technology and built a huge assembly of research institutes, educational programs, design bureaus, and production enterprises embodying some measure of science and/or technology. This assembly concentrated over—whelmingly on military applications. Approximately three—quarters of this complex was located in Russia, but essential elements of many programs were located in other republics. The nature, structure, size, and operation of this military—industrial complex (MIC) as well as its decline and change during the Gorbachev and post—Soviet periods of economic transition have been documented in the literature.
Topic:: Industrial Policy, International Cooperation, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Asia, and Soviet Union

7409. The Competitive Advantage of Hollywood Industry

Author:: Luc Veron
Publication Date:: 03-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
Abstract:: The author is very grateful for the support, both material and intellectual, which he received during his stay at the University of Southern California. He is particularly appreciative of the many conversations he had with colleagues at the School of International Relations, the Center for International Studies, the Marshall School of Business and the Department of Economics of USC as well as at UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research which greatly helped him to formulate the ideas presented here. Although the author is currently employed by the European Commission, the ideas expressed in this paper are purely personal and do not reflect the views of any institution.
Topic:: Globalization, Industrial Policy, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and California

7410. Hollywood and Europe: A Case of Trade in Cultural Industries, the 1993 GATT Dispute

Author:: Luc Veron
Publication Date:: 03-1999
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
Abstract:: The heated dispute that erupted at the end of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) negotiations between the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) on audio-visual services is fairly representative of the cultural argument in trade. Culture is often proclaimed to oppose full liberalisation of international exchanges of goods and services. In 1989, after the liberalisation of US film import in Korea, angry Koreans directors in some Seoul theatres showing US movies released poisonous snakes Japan traditionally opposed rice imports on the basis that it would endanger Japanese culture. The United States claimed that the "potato-potato-potato rhythm at idle and the staccato beat at cruising speeds" of a Harley-Davidson was part of the American culture with the obvious aim to ridicule any notion of culture, or more precisely of national culture. German director Wim Wenders replied to the latter by provocatively reminding that the essence of US national culture being trade the Americans have no sense of any possible contradiction between trade and culture. When, to justify the remarkable work of the Australian Film Commission, experts came up with a tentative definition of Australian culture, the simple evocation of Crocodile Dundee generated outrage, especially among the feminists. It is uneasy to find an acceptable and workable definition of national culture to analyse its impact on trade.
Topic:: Globalization, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, Europe, Germany, Australia, and Korea

7411. Disposing of Weapons-Grade Plutonium

Author:: Robert E. Ebel and John Taylor
Publication Date:: 03-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: This panel report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies considers an issue of critical importance to U.S. national security interests: Is the United States now pursuing a well-conceived and effective program of working with Russia to dispose of the vast amounts of separated plutonium that have become excess to the nuclear weapons needs of the two countries?
Topic:: Security, Energy Policy, Nuclear Weapons, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: Russia and United States

7412. The Role of the Private Sector in the Evolution of US Technology Policy

Author:: Judith Mariscal and John B. Horrigan
Publication Date:: 01-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: Technology policy in the United States has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past ten to twelve years, as the government has increasingly played an active role in the high-tech sector and as the sector itself has faced growing competition from foreign competitors. Truths (or apparent truths) which once were unquestioned—that the U.S. government should only intervene in technology for national security reasons, that entrepreneurial high-tech firms operate best as "lone rangers" in the marketplace—have been closely scrutinized. The result of such scrutiny is that government and industry have changed their perceptions about their roles in a world in which the economic and competitive environment shifts rapidly. Another outcome is that technology policy has taken on increasing importance in U.S. policy circles. We see in the Clinton Administration plans to promote the information superhighway, proposals to overhaul the way in which the telecommunications industry is regulated, support for government-industry research consortia, closer linkage of trade and technology policy, and in general a much closer industry government relationship with the high-tech sector.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

7413. Strategic Images: Perceptions of Russia in the USA and of America in Russia

Author:: Dag Hartelius and Natasha Randall
Publication Date:: 11-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: EastWest Institute
Abstract:: Over the last year we have witnessed a deteriorating climate in Russian-Western relations - or at least this has been the perception. The Russian financial crisis has accelerated the trend in Russia to blame the West - in particular the US - for their troubles. In America and Europe a new debate has been spawned on what kind of Russia we are now dealing with. Old truths, or old perceptions, are being questioned and relations are being reassessed.
Topic:: International Relations and Economics
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, America, Europe, and Asia

7414. How Will the European Union Meet the 21st Century

Author:: Pal Dunay
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The story of post-World War 2 European integration had started before integration theory gained popularity. One has to bear in mind, however, that the idea of European integration was launched with modest objectives in the 1950s. Except for some visionary statesmen, like Jean Monnet and some others, both the subject matters to be covered by integration and the geographical scope was limited. Six countries aimed at establishing a free trade zone and not much else was on their "plate" when they signed the Rome Treaty on 25 March 1957.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

7415. Muddling Through? A Strategic Checklist for the United States in the Post-Cold War World

Author:: John Lewis Gaddis
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The single most striking feature of the post-Cold War environment is the diffusion, not the disappearance, of threats. The half-century extending from 1941 to 1991 was, for the United States, one in which threats were both focused and obvious. From the time of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor until the final collapse of the Soviet Union exactly fifty years later, we knew who our enemies were, or at least might be. As a consequence, we abandoned the isolationism that had characterized most of our history in favor of an unaccustomed but - as it turned out - highly effective internationalism.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

7416. Prospects for Europe and the Atlantic Alliance at Century's End

Author:: William I. Hitchcock
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Ever since the end of the Cold War, analysts have engaged in long discussions about what sort of international order would replace it. Though these discussions have ranged widely in their assessments, they usually took as their starting point a common assumption: that the Cold War order and the basic structure of international relations it represented, was over and done for. From 1989 until about 1995, this assessment seemed accurate: the alliance was falling apart, war broke out in Europe, the western economies were in a tailspin, and the delicate architecture that bound Germany to the states of Western Europe seemed to be in jeopardy, overburdened by the arrival of a united, powerful Germany. Whatever order we had, it didn't seem like anything we had seen before.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

7417. Security Issues for Russia in the New International Context

Author:: Yuri Nazarkin
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The starting point for this paper is the National Security Blueprint of the Russian Federation approved by Presidential Decree No. 1300 dated 17 December 1997. As the Blueprint itself clarifies, it is "a political document reflecting the aggregate of officially accepted views regarding goals and state strategy in the sphere of ensuring the security of the individual, society and the state from external and internal threats of a political, economic, social, military, man-made (technogennyy), ecological, information or other nature, in the light of existing resources and potential." It is a conceptual document of a general nature which is intended to be the basis for the elaboration of specific programmes and organisational documents in the sphere of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

7418. Conflict Management and European Security: The Problem of Collective Solidarity

Author:: Fred Tanner
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The dynamics of European security has become considerably more difficult to comprehend in recent years. This is due primarily to two sets of developments. First an "amorphous threat-free post-Cold War security setting" has replaced the distinct Alliance-wide threat from the Soviet Union. Second, new risks and threats have increasingly affected European security from regions immediately adjoining Western Europe. Conflicts and notorious instability loom in the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Balkans and the Mediterranean region, including North Africa and the Middle East. As a consequence, security cooperation in Europe currently struggles to cope with these risks of non-military nature and ambiguous threat scenarios from the "out-of-area".
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

7419. New Security Challenge or Old? Russia's Catch—22

Author:: William C. Wohlforth
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The most important security threat Russia faces, and the main threat it poses to the rest of the world, is its own implosion. If traditional security has to do with the manipulation and managment of the use of military force by states, then Russia's major contemporary problems must be understood under the "new security" rubric. Because the world has never before had to deal with the breakdown of a nuclear superpower, the security challenges Russia presents are certainly novel. But if "new security" is supposed to encompass problems that are transnational in nature and challenge state-centric analysis, then it too does not capture today's Russian question. For at the root of Russia's security problems is the absence of an effective government. To be sure, all of these problems are made more complicated by globalization. Many of them would continue to pester world politics even if Moscow had a capable government. But the root of these problems and the reason they present such great potential dangers is the absence of a capable state in Russia.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

7420. Ideas, Culture and Political Analysis Workshop

Author:: Thomas Risse, Sarah Mendelson, Neil Fligstein, Jan Kubik, Jeffrey T. Checkel, Consuelo Cruz, Kathleen McNamara, Sheri Berman, Frank Dobbin, Mark Blyth, Ken Pollack, George Steinmetz, Daniel Philpott, Gideon Rose, Martha Finnemore, Kathryn Skikkink, Marie Gottschalk, John Kurt Jacobsen, and Anna Seleny
Publication Date:: 05-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Social Science Research Council
Abstract:: The last decade or so has witnessed a resurgence in scholarship employing ideational and cultural factors in the analysis of political life. This scholarship has addressed political phenomena across a variety of national and international settings, with studies of European politics being particularly well represented. For example, the work of scholars like Peter Hall (1993), Peter Katzenstein (1996), Ronald Inglehart (1997), Robert Putnam (1994) and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (1995) has improved our understandings of European polities, societies and economies. Yet despite a recent rise in interest, ideational and cultural explanations still meet with skepticism in many quarters of the discipline. Some scholars doubt whether non-material factors like ideas or culture have independent causal effects, and others, who accept that such factors might matter, despair of devising viable ways of analyzing their impact on political life.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Security, Democratization, Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Nationalism, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, France, and Latin America

7421. Emissions and Development in the United States: International Implications

Author:: Richard T. Carson and Donald R. McCubbin
Publication Date:: 01-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Abstract:: Concerns about the sustainability of resource use have no doubt been raised since civilization began. The most famous proponent of these concerns is Thomas Malthus (1976), who, in 1798, predicted that population growth would outstrip the ability of agriculture to supply food, and mass starvation would ensue. More recently, the widely read Limits to Growth report, by Meadows et al. (1974), presented a model of resource use and development that predicted humans would face unprecedented pollution and starvation, if current resource use patterns continued into the future. Of course, both reports' most dire predictions have not come true for several reasons. They failed to account for improvements in technology, the power of market prices to ration scarce resources, and the public's demand for environmental preservation when confronted with a perceived scarcity of environmental goods. Although the dire predictions failed to materialize, many believe that environmental quality will deteriorate as the world's economies grow, unless there are significant changes in human behavior. In this paper we make a modest attempt, using air pollution data, to examine the linkage between economic growth, human behavior, and environmental quality.
Topic:: Development, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:: United States

7422. Japan's Preference toward Bilateral Dispute Settlement Mechanisms with the United States

Author:: Young Jong Choi
Publication Date:: 03-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Studies Association
Abstract:: Japan's preference toward regional institutions has received a great attention in recent years in relation to the development of regional institutions in Asia (exclusively East Asia) and the Pacific (the broader Asia-Pacific region). Japan's policy toward Asia and the Pacific has often been characterized by "hegemonic defection" and Japan as a "reactive state". The former indicates the absence of Japan's leadership in regional institution building (Mack and Ravenhill 1995: 8). The latter portrays Japan as incapable of pursuing pro-active policies in regional affairs because of its consensus-oriented culture, historical legacy of colonialism, domestic political gridlock and most of all extreme dependence upon the U.S. security umbrella (Calder 1988; Hellmann 1988; Pyle 1992; Curtis 1993).
Topic:: Diplomacy
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, East Asia, and Asia

7423. U.S. Foreign Policy: Long Cycles — What Might They Mean for World Long Cycles?

Author:: Jack E. Holmes, Kevin Joldersma, and Aaron Keck
Publication Date:: 03-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Studies Association
Abstract:: The author has studied U.S. foreign policy long cycles for two decades and has an extensive database covering 1776-1990. A good deal of attention has been paid to U.S. foreign policy in the post-1945 setting where the U.S. is a world superpower. Now that the U.S. has been freed from the immediate demands of the Cold War, it is important to study American policy over the long run, especially the period before 1945. This paper uses conclusions from the author's previous work to raise issues which have implications for the study of world long cycles. Particular attention is given to consensus (societal/governmental) variables since the U.S. is one of the few countries with a long history under the same written constitution. The American experience indicates that the U.S. is inclined toward independent action as sometimes dictated by domestic considerations. While it is clear that the U.S. will act as a superpower in part due to the nature of the international system, it is important to consider some uniquely American features which also have an important impact on policy. The author's work includes two books on long-term American foreign policy trends. The first one, The Mood/Interest Theory of American Foreign Policy, was published in 1985. It presented a general theory regarding how and why introvert and extrovert foreign policy moods alternate every two decades. This theory, as well as the dates of the cycles, is based on the work of Frank L. Klingberg (1952). Klingberg elaborates on his cycles in later works (1983 and 1996). Since the 1985 work contained a good deal of theory, it was thought that a more empirical study of these trends would be in order. Toward this end, the author created over 150 variables which have been given annual values for at least 150 years. These variables were based on the work of other authors and compilations of data. The resulting work, Ambivalent America, which has been the basis for several convention papers and is nearing completion as a book, raises a second set of conclusions which supplement those of the first book. At the same time, several authors have investigated world long cycles and raised a number of important issues. Most of these authors emphasize the period since the start of major European influence on the world while others go back prior to that period. With the exceptions of works by Klingberg and this author, however, similar attention has not been given to American trends. Pollins and Schweller (1997) do explore some issues relating to interactions of American and world cycles. The author believes that a conceptual comparison of American long cycles with world long cycles will raise some important issues, and that is the purpose of this paper.
Topic:: International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Cold War
Political Geography:: United States

7424. International Capital Mobility and Monetary Politics in the U.S. Congress, 1960–1997

Author:: J. Lawrence Broz
Publication Date:: 10-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Prevailing approaches to the politics of monetary policy in the United States are based on closed economy assumptions, which is appropriate for analyzing the period before about 1980. However, the opening of U.S. and foreign financial markets since the early 1980s has had a profound effect on domestic monetary policy and domestic monetary politics. The major policy effect is that the transmission channels of monetary policy now include the exchange rate. The major political effect is that the exchange rate has become a focus of concern for well-organized industries in the traded goods sector and, by extension, for Congress. This paper presents statistical evidence showing that the forces driving congressional activity on monetary policy have changed dramatically with the international financial integration of the U.S. economy. Exchange rates, as opposed to interest rates, now largely determine congressional attentiveness to monetary policy and the Federal Reserve.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

7425. 100 Companies Receiving The Largest Dollar Volume Of Prime Contract Awards—Fiscal Year 1997

Publication Date:: 01-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: This report presents summary data on the 100 companies, and their subsidiaries, receiving the largest dollar volume of Department of Defense (DoD) prime contract awards during fiscal year (FY) 1997. Table 1 lists the 100 companies in alphabetical order and gives their associated rank. Table 2 identifies the parent companies in rank order, with their subsidiaries, and gives the total net value of awards for both the parent company and its subsidiaries. In many cases, the parent company receives no awards itself, but appears on the list because of its subsidiaries. Table 2 also shows what percentage of the total awards each company's awards represent, as well as the cumulative percentage represented by all companies. Table 3 lists the top 100 companies DoD-wide in rank order and breaks the totals into three categories of procurement: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT); Other Services and Construction; and Supplies and Equipment. Table 4 lists the top 50 companies for each of the Reporting Components in rank order, and by category of procurement.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7426. Procurement Trends: Department of Defense Procurement History

Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7427. Procurement Trends: Number of Department of Defense Prime Contractors by Type of Business

Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7428. Prime Contract Awards—Size Distribution: Fiscal Year 1997

Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: This report provides data on prime contract actions (PCAs) over $25,000 awarded by the Department of Defense (DoD) in fiscal year (FY) 1997. For reporting purposes, contracts have been distributed by dollar value into 11 different size categories. The tables provide information on the number of total actions, their net value, and their percentage of distribution, by size, and according to a variety of categories. The categories include Defense Component, type of contract involved, extent of competed procurements, kind of contract action taken, selected procurement programs, and labor standard statutes. Table 1 presents data by individual size category (e.g., $25,000 to $49,999, $50,000 to $99,999) while Tables 2 through 7 present data in cumulative categories (e.g., $25,000 or more; $50,000 or more). The information in Prime Contract Awards, Size Distribution, assists DoD management in projecting the workload that will be required by various proposed projects. For example, using data in this publication, DoD officials could determine that a proposal to review all contract actions of $500,000 or more in FY 1997 would require examining approximately 26,000 transactions, or 11.3 percent of the total transactions as shown in Table 2. These data can also be used to identify trends in DoD procurement, (e.g., to identify which of the various types of contracts were most frequently awarded, in terms of number of contract actions, during FY 1997).
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7429. Department of Defense Summary of Procurement Awards (Format Sum)

Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7430. U.S. Government Statistics: U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of December 17, 1998

Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services decreased to $14.2 billion in October, from $14.4 billion (revised) in September as exports increased more than imports.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7431. U.S. Government Statistics: U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services - As of November 18, 1998

Publication Date:: 11-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Nation's international deficit in goods and services decreased to $14.0 billion in September, from $15.9 billion (revised) in August as exports increased and imports decreased.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7432. Balance on Current Account - As of December 9, 1998

Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7433. Balance on Current Account - As of September 10, 1998

Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7434. U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: 1994 Benchmark Survey, Final Results

Publication Date:: 05-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The 1994 Benchmark Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad was conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to obtain complete and accurate data on U.S. direct investment abroad in 1994. Reporting in the survey was mandatory under the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7435. U.S. Government Statistics: R Expenditures as a Percent of GDP

Publication Date:: 10-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS) of the National Science Foundation publishes the biennial report, National Patterns of R Resources. This report describes and analyzes current patterns of research and development (R) in the United States, in relation to the historical record and the reported R levels of other industrialized countries. For years in which the full report is not produced, current, annual statistics on national and international R trends are released in data updates like this one.
Topic:: Economics and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

7436. Net Oil Imports - As of November 30, 1998

Publication Date:: 11-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and Energy Policy
Political Geography:: United States

7437. U.S. Multinational Companies Operations in 1996

Author:: Raymond J. Jr. Mataloni
Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The combined domestic and foreign operations of nonbank U.S. multinational companies (MNC's) continued to grow at a relatively fast pace in 1996. The growth in three key measures of MNC operations–gross product, employment, and capital expenditures — exceeded the average annual growth rate for 1989–95. According to preliminary estimates from the annual survey of U.S. direct investment abroad conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), worldwide gross product of U.S. MNC's (U.S. parents and majority–owned foreign affiliates combined) increased 7 percent, compared with a similar increase in 1995 and an average annual increase of 5 percent in 1989–95; employment increased 2 percent, compared with a 1–percent increase in 1995 and negligible growth in 1989–95; capital expenditures increased 5 percent, compared with a 7–percent increase in 1995 and an average annual increase of 4 percent in 1989–95.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7438. The International Investment Position of the United States in 1997

Author:: Russel B. Scholl
Publication Date:: 07-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The net international investment position of the United States—U.S. assets abroad less foreign assets in the United States—at yearend 1997 was a negative $1,223.6 billion with direct investment valued at the current cost of tangible assets, and it was a negative $1,322.5 billion with direct investment valued at the current market value of owners' equity (table A, chart 1). For both measures, the net positions were more negative in 1997 than they were in 1996.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7439. The Domestic Orientation of Production and Sales by U.S. Manufacturing Affiliates of Foreign Companies

Author:: William J. Zeile
Publication Date:: 04-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: Since the surge in foreign direct investment in the United States in the late 1980's, much attention has focused on the role of foreign-owned firms in the U.S. economy, particularly in manufacturing. A question that is frequently posed concerns the degree to which U.S. affiliates of foreign companies are integrated into the U.S. economy through their sourcing behavior and value-added activity. A related question is whether U.S. manufacturing affiliates in comparison with domestically owned firms are more oriented toward producing for the U.S. market or for their home-country and other foreign markets.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7440. Right Makes Might: Freedom and Power in the Information Age

Author:: David C. Gompert
Publication Date:: 05-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: China's emergence begs a fresh look at power in world affairs—more precisely, at how the spread of freedom and the integration of the global economy, due to the information revolution, are affecting the nature, concentration, and purpose of power. Perhaps such a look could improve the odds of responding wisely to China's rise.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Soviet Union

7441. Presidential Elections and the Rooting of Democracy

Author:: David I. Steinberg
Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: Since 1987 presidential elections have been the defining political moments in Korea. Although local elections may be more illustrative of the democratic process, for it is that level at which citizens are in intimate contact with their government and gauge its effectiveness, presidential elections command more attention because of the nature of Korean political culture. The Korean president has been half king, half chief executive. The cabinet has been his plaything, changeable at his whim; the legislature to date at most a modest thorn in his side. His phalanx of staff in the Blue House (the presidential residence) rarely questions his decisions. In his society he is far more powerful than the president of the United States is in his. There is no vice president in Korea.
Political Geography:: United States and Korea

7442. Reproductive Health: New Directions and New Technologies

Author:: Rodney W. Nichols, Susan U. Raymond, Margaret Catley-Carlson, Allan Rosenfield, and Michael E. Kafrissen
Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract:: Surely one of the oddest of all recent debates is well underway in the United States. At issue is whether, in the year 2000 the population of the nation should be counted nose-by-nose, on foot, by an phalanx of freshly minted, part-time, house visiting census-takers (who evidently missed 8.4 million residents the last time they tried in 1990) or whether a technique should be used that would employ statistical sampling methods to reach census conclusions. The majority of those most heatedly engaged in the public debate probably did not even like math in school; many would not be able to explain the likely accuracy of either method. But debate they do, in the time-honored tradition of policy making in democracies—largely because the coveted prize is not merely an accurate count of the number of individuals, but more importantly an advantageous decision on the number of voters in electoral districts.
Topic:: Government, Health, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

7443. Science, Technology, and the Law

Author:: Peter Huber, Susan Raymond, Rodney W. Nichols, Kenneth Dam, Kenneth R. Foster, George Ehrlich, Debra Miller, Alan Charles Raul, Ronald Bailey, and Alex Kozinski
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract:: As science and technology push the edges of understanding, innovation makes the once unimaginable merely quotidian. The flow—the torrent—of change inevitably meets the stock of laws and regulations that structure society. And, often, the legal system and the judiciary must cope with the resulting swirls, eddies, and, at times, whirlpools of ethical controversy and economic and societal choice.
Topic:: Economics, Government, International Law, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States, New York, and America

7444. Science and Technology for African Development: Partnerships in a Global Economy

Author:: Soodursun Jugessur, Susan U. Raymond, Stephen Chandiwana, Clive Shiff, Pieter J.D. Drenth, D. N. Tarpeh, Iba Kone, Jacques Gaillard, and Roland Waast
Publication Date:: 03-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract:: This paper examines the eureka factor in science based development and underscores the increasing concern that Africa lags behind in S due to political and social instability coupled by low investments in technologies. The paper emphasises that African science should come up with a decisive policy for investment in new style education and capacity building for S that is relevant to the African experience and addresses problems of real concern to the community. Science led development in Africa should reduce replication of foreign technologies and invest in social capital of its scientists and its R institutions for sustainable economic development. The aim of the paper is not to offer prescriptive solutions but to highlight areas which should stimulate debate in small working groups examining how Africa can learn from its own experience as well as that of other nations in developing an appropriate system of innovation for science led development.
Topic:: Economics, Education, Emerging Markets, Government, Industrial Policy, International Cooperation, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: Africa and United States

7445. Technology and Arms Control for Weapons of Mass Destruction

Author:: Richard Danzig, John D. Holum, Rodney W. Nichols, Susan U. Raymond, Joshua Lederberg, and Stephen S. Morse
Publication Date:: 01-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract:: Having lived through, and indeed taken a leadership part in, the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Noah Worcester in 1817, "You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war. Of my disposition to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself, the world has had proofs, and more, perhaps, than it has approved. I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lesson the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair."
Topic:: Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

7446. Free Trade in the Americas: Fulfilling the Promise of Miami and Santiago

Author:: Stephen Lander and Ambler Moss
Publication Date:: 04-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was the bold centerpiece of the Summit of the Americas held in Miami in December 1994, and the FTAA recently received further impetus at the Summit of the Americas II in Santiago, Chile. This Agenda Paper, comprises two essays, one an overview of the process by Ambler Moss, “Moving Toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas,” and the other a look forward by Stephen Lande, “Launching Negotiations and Concrete Progress by the Millennium,” which assesses the progress made to date in working toward the FTAA and particularly examines the subject of “business facilitation” or measures designed to enhancethe flows of trade even as the FTAA is being negotiated.
Topic:: International Cooperation and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Latin America

7447. Shoring Up Military Readiness

Author:: Michael E. OHanlon and Jerre Wilson
Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: Today's U.S. military is about one-third smaller and one-third less expensive than it was at the end of the Cold War. Even so, on a unit-by-unit basis it is as good as the U.S. armed forces of Ronald Reagan's presidency. It is far from hollow; its readiness to carry out a wide range of operations from warfighting to peacekeeping to deterrence remains quite good on the whole.
Topic:: Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: United States

7448. Does U.S. Intervention Overseas Breed Terrorism?: The Historical Record

Author:: Ivan Eland
Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: According to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, terrorism is the most important threat the United States and the world face as the 21st century begins. High-level U.S. officials have acknowledged that terrorists are now more likely to be able to obtain and use nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons than ever before.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

7449. Time to Terminate the ESF and the IMF

Author:: Anna J. Schwartz
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund are undemocratic institutions unaccountable for their actions. Their current functions have little to do with their original missions. The ESF is used by the executive branch to circumvent Congress in the provision of foreign aid. Its foreign exchange interventions have, in any event, always been wasteful and ineffective at controlling the relative price of the U.S. dollar. The IMF has also been used to provide massive bailouts in the cases of Mexico in 1995 and of Asian countries since 1997. Defenders of the IMF as an international lender of last resort are misinformed since the IMF does not and cannot serve that purpose. Both institutions should be abolished, not reformed, because they are not needed to resolve currency crises and they preclude superior solutions.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States, Asia, and Mexico

7450. America's Maligned and Misunderstood Trade Deficit

Author:: Daniel T. Griswold
Publication Date:: 04-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: America's annual trade deficit, already large by historical standards, could reach a new record in 1998, fueling protectionist sentiment in Congress. Political fallout from the trade deficit numbers could impede efforts to reduce barriers to trade in the United States and abroad. Contrary to popular conception, the trade deficit is not caused by unfair trade practices abroad or declining industrial competitiveness at home. Trade deficits reflect the flow of capital across international borders, flows that are determined by national rates of savings and investment. This renders trade policy an ineffective tool for reducing a nation's trade deficit.
Topic:: Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

7451. The Future of the Public Sector--The Challenges for Policy Research in a Changing Environment

Author:: George Galster
Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: As we approach the 21st century, the public seems increasingly disenchanted with the record of government, and less and less inclined to believe in the value of empirical analysis as a guide to action. Evidence of the loss of confidence in the public sector's ability to operate effectively and efficiently is found in opinion polls, falling rates of electoral participation, and the rising influence of "anti-government" politicians. In such an environment, it is useful to reflect on the historical role that applied social science has played in the public sector and the role it might play in the future.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States

7452. Immigrants in New York: Their Legal Status, Incomes, and Taxes

Author:: Jeffrey S. Passel and Rebecca L. Clark
Publication Date:: 04-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: This report provides essential demographic and economic information on legal immigrants residing in New York State and addresses significant shortcomings in the existing data for immigrants and in analyses of fiscal impacts of legal immigrants. It focuses on four major issues: the size of the legal immigrant populations; the characteristics of legal status groups, including both legal and undocumented populations; the incomes and taxes paid by immigrant populations and natives; and the economic adaptation of immigrants and their descendants.
Topic:: Government, International Law, and Migration
Political Geography:: United States and New York

7453. The Number and Cost of Immigrants on Medicaid: National and State Estimates

Author:: Leighton Ku and Bethany Kessler
Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: This work was conducted under Subtask 2.2.12 of HHS Contract HHS-100-94-1009. Many constructive comments were provided by staff of the Department of Health and Human Services, including Linda Sanches, David Nielsen, Penelope Pine and Bob Tomlinson. We gratefully acknowledge data and advice made available by Ron North and Roger Buchanan of the Health Care Financing Administration and Charles Scott of the Social Security Administration. Many colleagues at the Urban Institute offered useful advice or data, including Brian Bruen, Rebecca Clark, Teresa Coughlin, Linda Giannarelli, Jeff Passel, Karen Tumlin and Wendy Zimmerman. All opinions expressed are the authors' and should not be interpreted as opinions of the Urban Institute or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Topic:: Government and Migration
Political Geography:: United States

7454. Information Technology and Economic Development: An Introduction to the Research Issues

Author:: Matti Pohjola
Publication Date:: 11-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: There is substantial evidence that new information technologies are in many ways transforming the operations of modern economies. More than half of employees use a computer at work in the most advanced industrial countries. About 10 per cent of the value of all private investment in fixed non-residential capital is devoted to computers and peripheral equipment in the United States and some other economies. This share goes up to 25 per cent when investment in information processing equipment is included. Nevertheless, all spending on information technology, including hardware, software and services, does not amount to more than 3-4 per cent of nominal GDP in these countries. The share is, however, increasing rapidly, indicating that a steady state has not yet been reached.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

7455. Computers and Labour Markets: International Evidence

Author:: Francis Kramarz
Publication Date:: 10-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: The rapid diffusion of computers has widely changed the consequences of computer use on the labour market. While at the beginning of the eighties knowledge of computers was an obvious advantage in a career, this same knowledge is now so commonplace that the inability to use these tools is widely seen in many industries as a professional handicap. In relation to such drastic transformations, changes in the North American wage structure during the eighties in favour of the better educated have been interpreted by many analysts as evidence of skill-biased technical change. Evidence outside the US, and in particular in Europe, seems to support the idea that similar transformations affected most other labour markets.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

7456. Sierra Leone: Tracing The Genesis Of A Controversy

Author:: Abiodun Alao
Publication Date:: 06-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Prior to the recent controversy over the transfer of arms, little international attention was devoted to Sierra Leone. Even its civil war, which is at the root of the matter, did not attract any significant attention outside West Africa, despite the fact that it had claimed nearly 50,000 lives. Although its enormous diamond deposits have always attracted some interest, this has been limited to private companies and individual entrepreneurs. Many Sierra Leoneans believe that had there been sustained concern about the predicament of their country, the entire arms controversy might have been avoided. This briefing paper does not, however, attempt to delve into the complexities surrounding the sale of arms to Sierra Leone and deals only tangentially with the role of mercenaries that has been the subject of so much scrutiny. Rather, it traces the major events leading to the civil war that began in March 1991, bringing with it immense suffering for this impoverished nation. This is a tale of intrigue and power struggles that has involved most of the West African region, and has allowed unscrupulous actors from as far afield as South Africa, Britain and the United States to dabble in the affairs of this country. It is a salutary lesson in the lack of concern about the fate of small nations in the post-Cold War era.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Democratization, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States and South America

7457. Iraq Under Sanctions

Author:: Volker Perthes
Publication Date:: 02-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: In the early months of 1998, the outlook for relations between Iraq and the West looked distinctly bleak. The crisis over UN inspections of Iraq's potential to create weapons of mass destruction began in November 1997 with the Iraqi government's attempt to control the make-up of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspection teams on the grounds that the Anglo-American components of them were, in effect, spies came to a head in February 1998 when the United States and Britain insisted on full, unrestricted compliance with all UN sanctions under the threat of military action. Even though Iraq reluctantly acquiesced in Western demands, little thought appeared to be given in American and British planning to what the consequence of such action would be on Iraqis themselves and on Iraqi public opinion.
Topic:: Diplomacy, International Law, and United Nations
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, and Middle East

7458. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: December 1998

Publication Date:: 12-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Conference Board
Abstract:: The leading index increased 0.3 percent, the coincident index increased 0.3 percent, and the lagging index decreased 0.2 percent in December. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show a healthy economy: The leading indicators point to a continuation of the expansion, which has become the second longest on record. The coincident indicators show aggregate activity rising at a more moderate pace than GDP's rise of 5.6 percent (annualized) in the 4th quarter of 1998. There is no evidence of cyclical imbalances that would jeopardize the economy's stability.
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7459. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: November 1998

Publication Date:: 11-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Conference Board
Abstract:: The leading index increased 0.6 percent, the coincident index increased 0.2 percent, and the lagging index decreased 0.1 percent in November. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show a healthy economy with bright prospects in 1999. The coincident indicators point to GDP rising between 2.5 and 3 percent (annualized) in the 4th quarter of 1998. The leading indicators point to a continuation of the expansion through at least early 1999. The economy shows no evidence of cyclical imbalance.
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7460. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: October 1998

Publication Date:: 10-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Conference Board
Abstract:: The leading index increased 0.1 percent, the coincident index increased 0.1 percent, and the lagging index decreased 0.1 percent in October. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show a healthy economy. The coincident indicators show the 4th quarter of 1998 starting with a relatively slow pace of growth (compared to the coincident index's rise of rise 3.0 percent and GDP's rise of 3.7 percent, annualized, during the first 3 quarters of 1998. The leading indicators show no serious impediments to moderate, or even strong, economic growth in 1999. There is almost no evidence of cyclical imbalances that would jeopardize the economy's stability.
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7461. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: September 1998

Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Conference Board
Abstract:: Both the leading and coincident indexes held steady, while the lagging index fell 0.1 percent in September. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show a slowing, but still healthy economy. The coincident indicators suggest the expansion advanced in the 2 to 2.5 percent range in the 3rd quarter of 1998, compared with constant- dollar GDP showing a 3.3 percent increase (annualized). It is premature to predict a recession based on the leading indicators. The lagging indicators have moderated, giving less reason to worry that cyclical imbalances will soon jeopardize the economy's stability.lances could jeopardize the economy's stability.
Topic:: Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States

7462. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: August 1998

Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Conference Board
Abstract:: The leading index held steady, the coincident index increased 0.6 percent, and the lagging index increased 0.4 percent in August. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show a healthy economy. The coincident indicators point to GDP rising at a 2.5 to 3.0 percent pace (annualized) in the 3rd quarter of 1998. The leading indicators point to a continuation of the expansion through at least early 1999. The lagging indicators suggest a need to be concerned that cyclical imbalances could jeopardize the economy's stability in 1999.
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7463. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: June 1998

Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Conference Board
Abstract:: The leading index decreased 0.2 percent, the coincident index increased 0.1 percent, and the lagging index increased 0.6 percent in June. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show a moderating economy: The coincident indicators point to economic activity rising at faster pace than the latest GDP figures, but slower than the 4th quarter of 1997 and the 1st quarter of 1998. (The coincident index rose 3.1 percent while GDP rose 1.4 percent, annualized, in the 2nd quarter of 1998). A two-month decline in the leading indicators signals slower growth ahead and only a slight risk of a contraction. The lagging indicators show slight evidence of cyclical imbalances that could jeopardize the economyÕs stability.
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7464. Variation of Clinical Judgment in Cases of Hysterectomy in R.O.C, Japan, England, and the United States

Author:: Yumiko Nishimura, Naohiro Mitsutake, Michael McCullough, Barry Uphoff, Annie Woo, and Chang-Yao Hsieh
Publication Date:: 10-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: Hysterectomy is the most common non-pregnancy-related major surgery performed on women in the United States. Close to 600,000 women in the United States undergo the procedure each year, with annual costs exceeding $5 billion. By age 60, more than one- third of women in the United States have had a hysterectomy.
Topic:: Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Europe, Israel, East Asia, and England

7465. Japan's China Perceptions and its Policies in the Alliance with the United States

Author:: Hideo Sato
Publication Date:: 09-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: The People's Republic of China is now a major economic and military actor in the international relations of the Asia Pacific region, and thus we cannot afford to ignore China in reviewing the U.S.-Japan alliance. The Chinese economy has been growing rapidly over the past decade and a half, at an annual rate of about 10 percent, and it is expected to sustain a similar pattern of growth for the foreseeable future. Beijing's defense spending has also been increasing every year at a double-digit level for some time. Consequently, China's domestic and foreign policies will from now on significantly influence the course of international relations in this region, and perhaps elsewhere as well.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, China, Beijing, and Asia

7466. Chinese Military Modernization and Asian Security

Author:: Michael Swaine
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: I'll speak on the question of Chinese military defense modernization and its implications for the Asian security environment. I'll try to keep my remarks at a level where we can talk about broader issues and concepts, and the implications of all this for regional evolution in the security environment, U.S. security interests, U.S.-Japan relations, etc. I want to cover four different areas in my remarks.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and Asia

7467. The Origins and Evolution of the Korean-American Alliance: A Japanese Perspective

Author:: Koji Murata
Publication Date:: 08-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: This paper examines the importance of the Korean-American alliance for Japan from a historical perspective. The U.S.-Japan alliance is important for the security of South Korea because it provides logistic support for the U.S. activities on the Korean peninsula. This is obvious if we look into the reasons why the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation were revised in September 1997. At the same time, the U.S.-ROK alliance is also important for the security of Japan because it functions as a buffer or shield for Japan. Bounded on the north by China and Russia, and only thirty miles from the closest Japanese island, the Korean peninsula is the fulcrum where the major powers' interests in Asia converge. Tokyo is about one hour from Seoul by jet aircraft.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, Asia, Tokyo, Korea, and Island

7468. East Asian Urbanization: Patterns, Problems, and Prospects

Author:: Mike Douglass
Publication Date:: 07-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: Two interwoven processes—urbanization and globalization—circumscribe contemporary social, political, and economic transformations taking place in East Asia. While governments, businesses, and communities are caught up in one of the most intensive and condensed processes of urbanization in world history, the forces propelling much of the expansion of cities and urban networks now operate on an international plane. Urban- oriented investments in production for world markets, global intra-firm commodity trade within transnational corporate networks, and the hyper-circulation of finance capital are fundamental features of what has been summarized as the “local-global” context of development. Urbanization and globalization have become interdependent and mutually reinforcing: the shaping of urban form and the dominant activities within a given city reflect its mode of linkage with globalized circuits of capital; at the same time, these circuits require a structuring of the built environment to create the physical geography of international urban networks needed for real-time decisionmaking on a global scale.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States and Asia

7469. Benefits and Burdens: The Politically Dominated Economics of U.S. Alliances with Japan and Korea

Author:: Charles Wolf and Michele Zanini
Publication Date:: 04-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: Alliances are organizations between or among independent entities that concert to produce “collective goods” for the mutual benefit of alliance members. The statement applies whether the alliances are between or among countries, corporations, universities, research centers, or other institutions. Of course, the nature of the collective goods, as well as the membership in the collectivity, differs across these cases. That the goods (or benefits) are “collective” means that their availability to one alliance member (or their production by any member) implies their availability to the other members of the alliance.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Defense Policy, and Economics
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, Israel, East Asia, and Korea

7470. The Japan-America Security Alliance: Prospects for the Twenty-First Century

Author:: Daniel Okimoto
Publication Date:: 01-1998
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: By almost any criterion of success—be it cost–effectiveness, risk–reward ratio, multiplier effects, or sheer longevity, the Japan America Security Alliance (JASA) stands out as one of the most successful alliances in twentieth century history. For the United States, chief architect of a global network of military relationships, JASA is arguably the most important of its many bilateral alliances. In terms of historic impact, JASA is comparable to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a multilateral alliance that restructured the European security landscape in 1949. For nearly a half–century, JASA and NATO have functioned as the bedrock on which the Cold War security systems of Asia and Europe have been constructed.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, America, Europe, and Asia

7471. Third Party Arms Transfers: Requirements for the 21st Century

Author:: John D. Macomber and Charles McC. Mathias
Publication Date:: 10-1998
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: Can the United States collaborate with foreign nations in armaments development and production without jeopardizing US national security? This question - in light of America's global security obligations - demands a satisfactory answer. The economic and political advantages of greater international cooperation are significant. Benefits from cooperation include improved interoperability of weapons and equipment used by US allies and partners in operations with the United States, reduction in production costs, and preservation of a defense industrial base among US allies. Yet, considerations of national security are equally cogent.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, and Economics
Political Geography:: United States and America

7472. Coping with US - Mexican Interdependence: The NAFTA Response

Author:: Miquel Ángel Valverde
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: This paper examines the theoretical discussion on interdependence, and its use for analyzing US-Mexican economic relations. It combines interdependence's premises with other perspectives on the position of North American economies in the global marketplace, arguing that NAFTA is an institutional response to these developments.
Topic:: Economics, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, North America, and Mexico

7473. The Politics of NAFTA: Presidential use of Side Payments

Author:: Miquel Ángel Valverde
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: In June 1990, President George Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari announced their intention to begin negotiating a free trade agreement. Canada joined the negotiations the following August. The proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provoked an intense lobbying campaign in the US Congress, in what became a major political battle for its congressional approval. Some economic interests would win, others would lose with NAFTA. Congress members were worried about the loss of American low-skilled jobs and environmental issues. Regional interests were voiced loudly in the House of Representatives. A loose coalition of interest groups, including the AFL-CIO, public interest groups, and environmental organizations, coordinated opposition to the agreement. On the pro-NAFTA side was an ad hoc group of corporations, labeled USA-NAFTA, which included the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce. The Mexican government mounted an extensive lobbying campaign in favor of the trade pact. After intense congressional lobbying, President Bush obtained fast-track negotiating authority for NAFTA. Negotiations concluded in August 1992, and the following December, Presidents Bush and Salinas, as well as Canada's Prime Minister Mulroney, signed the pact, Presidential candidate Bill Clinton, under intense pressure from key constituencies of the Democratic Party, supported NAFTA "in principle," but only if complementary agreements on labor and environmental issues were included. Once in the office, Clinton negotiated these "side agreements" with Mexico and Canada, but still, strong opposition to NAFTA continued. In order to win congressional votes needed for the pact's approval, President Clinton engaged in a series of political compromises or "side-payments" with legislators, being able to form a congressional bipartisan coalition that allowed NAFTA passage.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Canada, North America, and Mexico

7474. Interest Groups in American Politics: Conceptual Elements and Key Literature

Author:: Miguel Angel Valverde
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: The objective of this paper is to discuss some concepts and review relevant literature on interest groups in the United States, in order to provide a broad guide to the study of the topic. It aims to explore the main questions raised by their presence in the political arena as well as suggest some themes for future research.
Topic:: International Relations, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States and America

7475. Assessing the Rules - Power Debate in Farm Trade: A Case Study of the Canadian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement

Author:: Imtiaz Hussain
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: Asking "How have trade disputes over agriculture been settled in North America?", this study examines 11 appeals made to binational panels established under Chapter 19 of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989. By disaggregating the process of dispute settlement into complaints, rulings, country responses, and overall settlement, it reassesses an old debate (whether dispute outcomes are influenced by collective rules or the pursuit of self-help) and sheds new light. Whereas extant studies make the argument, through a study of appeals to G.A.T.T., that collective rules temper the blind pursuit of self-help, this study makes the argument that self-help is equally important an explanation. Whereas the former focus on outcomes which are non-binding, this study focuses on outcomes which are binding. Implications are drawn, at a time when domestic interests, nationalistic sentiments, and supranational pursuits compete to influence policy outcomes at all levels, for agriculture, integration in North America, and dispute settlement at the multilateral level.
Topic:: Agriculture, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Canada, and North America

7476. Global Trends 2010

Publication Date:: 12-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:: In fall 1996, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) held a series of conferences at National Defense University to identify key global trends and their impact on major regions and countries of the globe. The exercise was designed to help describe and assess major features of the political world as they will appear in the year 2010.
Topic:: International Relations
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and South America

7477. Report on Applying Military and Security Assets

Author:: Robert Chamberlain, Alexandra Cousteau, and Nathan Ruff
Publication Date:: 04-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: With the end of the Cold War, the United States military and intelligence communities have been searching for new enemies and new roles. The demise of the Soviet Union presented an opportunity to revisit traditional conceptions of security and consider new missions such as heightened counter-terrorist activities and protection of US firms against economic espionage. In this project, special attention has been given to the importance of environmental change. The exploration of linkages between environmental change and security has developed into a complex debate focused on two fundamental and interrelated questions: Is environmental change a "traditional" security threat? In any case, what role is best played by the military and intelligence communities?
Topic:: Security and Environment
Political Geography:: United States

7478. 100 Companies Receiving The Largest Dollar Volume Of Prime Contract Awards—Fiscal Year 1996

Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: This report presents summary data on the 100 companies, and their subsidiaries, receiving the largest dollar volume of Department of Defense (DoD) prime contract awards during fiscal year (FY) 1996. Table 1 lists the 100 companies in alphabetical order and gives their associated rank. Table 2, identifies the parent companies in rank order, with their subsidiaries, and gives the total net value of awards for both the parent company and its subsidiaries. In many cases, the parent company receives no awards itself, but appears on the list because of its subsidiaries. Table 2 also shows what percentage of the total awards each company's awards represent, as well as the cumulative percentage represented by all companies. Table 3, lists the top 100 companies DoD-wide in rank order and breaks the totals into three categories of procurement: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT); Other Services and Construction; and Supplies and Equipment. Table 4, lists the top 50 companies for each of the Reporting Components in rank order, and by category of procurement.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7479. Assistance Trends: Department of Defense Assistance History

Publication Date:: 12-1997
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7480. Department of Defense Summary of Procurement Awards (Format Sum)

Publication Date:: 09-1997
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Defense Policy and Economics
Political Geography:: United States

7481. Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: Establishment Data for 1992

Publication Date:: 05-1997
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The data in this volume cover the operations of establishments of U.S. affiliates of foreign companies in 1992. A U.S. affiliate is a U.S. business enterprise that is owned 10 percent or more, directly or indirectly, by a foreign person. The volume is divided into two parts. The first covers all industries and presents data on the number, employment, payroll, and shipments or sales of the establishments of U.S. affiliates (hereinafter referred to as “foreign-owned establishments”); it includes data by detailed industry for nonmanufacturing and totals for manufacturing as a whole. The second part presents these data items by detailed industry within manufacturing as well as additional items for manufacturing establishments, including value added, total compensation of employees, employee benefits, hourly wage rates of production workers, and expenditures for new plant and equipment. In addition to data by industry, both parts present data by State and by country of owner. 2 The data for this volume were obtained from the Census Bureau's 1992 Economic Censuses and Standard Statistical Establishment List (SSEL). 3 They are the result of a project that links Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) enterprise, or company, data on foreign direct investment in the United States with Bureau of the Census establishment data for all U.S. businesses. 4 The project was authorized by the Foreign Direct Investment and International Financial Data Improvements Act of 1990. This volume updates data for foreign-owned manufacturing and nonmanufacturing establishments published in Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: Establishment Data for 1987 and data for foreign-owned manufacturing establishments for 1988–91 published in Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: Establishment Data for Manufacturing, in separate volumes for each year (see “Data Availability”). To aid comparisons of the data in this publication with those in the publications for earlier years, tables A and B provide cross-references between the table numbers used in this publication and those used in the publications for 1987–91. Analyses of the data from the link are available in three SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS articles: “Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: Establishment Data for 1987,” in the October 1992 issue of the SURVEY, gives an overview of the 1987 data and an analysis of the attributes of industries with substantial foreign direct investment activity; “Characteristics of Foreign-Owned U.S. Manufacturing Establishments,” (http://raven/ARTICLES/INTERNAT/FDINVEST/1994/0194iid.pdf) in the January 1994 SURVEY, presents a profile of foreign-owned manufacturing establishments using the 1990 data; and “Differences in Foreign-Owned U.S. Manufacturing Establishments by Country of Owner,” (http://raven/ARTICLES/INTERNAT/FDINVEST/1996/0396iid.pdf) in the March 1996 SURVEY, uses the 1991 data to examine whether industry-mix and operating characteristics of foreign-owned U.S. manufacturing establishments vary by country of owner. In addition, an article that will analyze the 1992 data from a regional perspective is planned. The establishment data from the link project complement BEA's enterprise data for U.S. affiliates. BEA's enterprise data are needed for analyzing the overall significance of, and trends in, direct investment and for compiling the U.S. international transactions accounts, the international investment position of the United States, and the U.S. national income and product accounts. The data on positions and transactions between U.S. affiliates and their foreign parents used in compiling the national and international accounts exist only at the enterprise level. Analyses of some topics, such as profits and taxes, are meaningful only at that level. Furthermore, balance sheets and income statements containing the critical, nonduplicative financial and operating data needed for examining these topics exist only at the enterprise level. The establishment data facilitate analyses of the activities and importance of foreign-owned U.S. companies in specific, detailed industries. Each establishment of an enterprise can be classified separately in the establishment data, while BEA's enterprise data classify the entire enterprise, however diversified, in one industry. Furthermore, the level of industry classification can be much more detailed for individual establishments than is appropriate for consolidated enterprises, whose operations may span many narrowly defined industries. As a result, foreign-owned establishments can be classified into over 800 industries, while BEA's foreign-owned enterprises can be classified into only 135 industries. The tables in each part of this volume are organized into three groups. The first group gives an overview of the data by industry, country, and State. The second group presents detailed industry tables for individual States. The third group presents detailed industry tables for selected major investor countries. Some of the tables in each part show totals for key items of all U.S. establishments and the share of the all-U.S. totals accounted for by foreign-owned establishments.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7482. U.S. Multinational Companies: Operations in 1995

Author:: Raymond J. Jr. Mataloni
Publication Date:: 10-1997
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The operations of nonbank U.S. multinational companies (MNC's)grew more rapidly in 1995 than they had grown, on average, since 1982—the year in which this annual series began. According to preliminary estimates from BEA's annual survey of U.S. direct investment abroad for 1995, worldwide gross product of U.S. MNC's (U.S. parents and majority-owned foreign affiliates combined) grew 6 percent, compared with an average annual increase of 4 percent in 1982–94; employment increased 1 percent, compared with negligible growth; and capital expenditures increased 8 percent, compared with a 2-percent increase (table 1).
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7483. The International Investment Position of the United States in 1996

Author:: Russel B. Scholl
Publication Date:: 07-1997
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
Abstract:: The net international investment position of the United States at yearend 1996 was -$870.5 billion with direct investment valued at the current cost of tangible assets, and it was -$831.3 billion with direct investment valued at the current stock-market value of owners' equity (table A, chart 1). For both measures, the value of foreign assets in the United States continued to exceed the value of U.S. assets abroad. However, for the direct investment component of the position valued on either basis, U.S. assets abroad continue to exceed foreign assets in the United States.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7484. Modern U.S. Civil-Military Relations: Wielding the Terrible Swift Sword

Author:: David E. Johnson
Publication Date:: 07-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: On November 30, 1995, Secretary of Defense William J. Perry testified before the House International Relations and National Security committees on the commitment of U.S. ground forces to the Former Yugoslavia. The commitment, crafted in Dayton, Ohio, had been avoided for some 4 years. Perry carefully discussed the mission, rules of engagement, and exit strategy for U.S. forces.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:: United States and Yugoslavia

7485. Turkey: Thwarted Ambition

Author:: Simon V. Mayall
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: At the end of the Cold War every country was forced to reexamine the fundamental assumptions that had formed their security policies for the last 45 years. Among the "victors" of the Cold War, few countries were faced with a more disparate set of new circumstances than Turkey. Unlike the United States and Western Europe, "victory" for Turkey had a very ambivalent quality. Almost overnight Turkey moved from being the buttressing flank of one strategic region, to the epicenter of a new one.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Cold War, International Law, Nuclear Weapons, and Religion
Political Geography:: United States and Turkey

7486. Changing U.S.-Korean Security Relations

Author:: Edward A. Olsen
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: United States-Korea security relations are experiencing a period of dynamic change that raises serious questions about the way that the relationship will evolve during the 21st Century. A number of well-known factors have provoked this phase. The end of the U.S.-Soviet cold war, North Korea's use of its nuclear card to engage the United States in a broader dialogue, South Korea's pursuit of diverse multilateral approaches to its security to shore up the U.S.-ROK alliance, and the emergence of Chinese and Japanese assertiveness in the regional balance of power, cumulatively have altered the context in which Washington and Seoul conduct their bilateral security relations. Both allies are struggling to come to grips with these new—and sometimes troubling—circumstances.
Political Geography:: United States, South Korea, and Korea

7487. The Viability of U.S. Security Strategy Toward the Korean Peninsula

Author:: William J. Taylor, Jr. and Abraham Kim
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The end of the cold war resulted in a mixed bag of challenges in the Northeast Asia region. The Soviet threat is gone, but the danger of regional instability is not. Lingering conflicts, old rivalries, and security challenges pose an uncertain future for the Asia-Pacific. The U.S. military presence still remains an important stabilizer in the region. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense, William Perry stated: "It is [the U.S. military] presence that the countries of the [Asia-Pacific] region consider a critical variable in the East Asia security equation.... [and] the most important factor in guaranteeing stability and peace."
Topic:: Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: United States, South Korea, and North Korea

7488. North Korea's Approaches to the United States and Japan

Author:: B.C. Koh
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: North Korea's approach to the United States is arguably one of the few success stories emanating from Pyongyang. While the story is still unfolding, what has transpired thus far has clearly benefited North Korea in both tangible and intangible ways. By contrast, North Korea's approach to Japan has produced but meager results thus far. Potentially, however, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) stands to profit immensely should its quest for diplomatic normalization with Japan bear fruit.
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and North Korea

7489. Chinese and U.S. Relations with South Korea: Compatibilities and Conflicts

Author:: Robert Sutter
Publication Date:: 01-1997
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: Chinese-American Rivalry in Korea—A New "Great Game"?There has been considerable discussion in Washington, Beijing and Seoul in recent years about an emerging competition between the United States and China for influence in the Korean peninsula in general and in South Korea in particular. Some in China have voiced concern over alleged U.S. efforts to hold back and "contain" China's rising power and influence in East Asia. They have been impressed by the recent "gains" in U.S. influence with North Korea. Indeed, from their perspectives, the North Koreans have moved away from their traditionally antagonistic stance toward the United States to a foreign policy approach that appears to give top priority to reaching an arrangement with Washington that would allow for the continued survival of the North Korean regime, or at least a so-called "soft landing" for the increasingly troubled government. A possible scenario contrary to these Chinese analysts interests would see the end of the North Korean regime and the reunification of the peninsula by South Korea under arrangements carried out under the guidance and overall influence of the United States, with the support of Japan. In the view of such Chinese officials, such an arrangement would confront China with a major security problem in a crucial area of Chinese concern for the foreseeable future, gready weakening China's ability to exert power and influence in Asian and world affairs. It would give Americans interested in "containing" China a much more advantageous strategic position in East Asia than they now possess.
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, America, East Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

7490. Health Challenges for the 21st Century

Author:: Joshua Lederberg, Margaret Hamburg, Stephen Morse, Philip R. Reilly, and Timothy Wirth
Publication Date:: 02-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract:: A crisis usually eliminates the time required to focus on the long-term: The urgent tends to drive out the important. Over the past several years, public policy perspectives on health care have often suffered from such myopia. In the United States, and in many other countries around the world, spiraling costs and shrinking budgets have focused health policy attention on perceived near-term crises over the allocation of (often public) resources. Because public resource allocation involves tax dollars, and because voters feel personally affected by changes in health services, the controversy enters the political arena. Moreover, politics itself is a very near-term business, with the ballot box and polling data providing its primary compass. In turn, this has added to the tendency to think of health care challenges in terms of immediate needs and to focus on the moment rather than on the consequences of today's changes in tomorrow's complex patterns.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States and America

7491. As Mexico Imploded: Action and Inaction in the United States

Author:: Sidney Weintraub
Publication Date:: 07-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: On December 20, 1994, Mexican financial and monetary authorities raised the band within which the peso was permitted to fluctuate by 15 percent. They expected a short-lived shock, some economic adjustment, and then back to business as usual with a modestly devalued peso. Mexico, after all, had a history of currency devaluations, particularly during the transitions from one administration to another. Beyond that, Mexico was not a world monetary powerhouse and what it did would not normally attract great or sustained international attention.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, Latin America, and Mexico

7492. Trading Places: The Caribbean Faces Europe and the Americas in the Twenty-first Century

Author:: Anthony T. Bryan
Publication Date:: 06-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: The challenges confronting the Caribbean with respect to trade with Europe and the Americas are essentially similar: the future of existing regimes of significant preferences, the need to plan for the long term without such preferences, and the development of a strategy to meet the transition. Unfortunately, the dialogue on these matters often has been characterized as a protocol for the Caribbean to “choose between friends.” Growth in the economies of the Caribbean will depend to a large extent on participation in or access to global trade arrangements. Ideally, a Caribbean strategy for participation should involve simultaneous access to as many pacts as possible. This paper is an overview of the legacy and the future of trade relations between the Caribbean and Europe, and between the Caribbean and the Americas, as these relationships constitute the Caribbean's most urgent global agenda.
Topic:: Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, America, Europe, and Caribbean

7493. Time to Reinvent APEC

Author:: Edward Lincoln and Kenneth Flamm
Publication Date:: 11-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, provides an opportunity for 18 countries with strong trade and investment ties to discuss a wide range of economic issues. APEC has scored two tangible achievements to date: a sweeping but vaguely worded 1994 pledge by its member states to open up to free trade and investment by 2010 and 2020, and a central role in the negotiation of the 1996 Information Technology Agreement (ITA). However, APEC is in danger of fading. When this year's summit begins on November 19, the United States must push for major reform of the APEC bargaining process if the organization is to have any chance of realizing its ambitious trade reform targets.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and Asia

7494. Globaphobia: The Wrong Debate Over Trade Policy

Author:: Robert Z. Lawrence and Robert E. Litan
Publication Date:: 10-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: The outcome of the fast-track debate that opened this month will determine whether the United States continues to lead the world toward a more open global economy or whether, for the first time since the end of World War II, it sends the opposite message.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Globalization, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

7495. The Dynamics of Industry Structure: The Chemical Industry in the US, Western Europe, and Japan in the 1980s

Author:: Ashish Arora and Alfonso Gambardella
Publication Date:: 03-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: This paper analyzes the evolution of the structure of the chemical industry in the US, Europe, and Japan. Differences in institutions, historical conditions, and resource endowments across the three regions reinforce differences in initial conditions. However, technological innovation, the internationalization of the industry, and the development and operation of markets, especially markets for technology, capital, raw materials, and corporate control, are powerful forces encouraging convergence. Convergence is less marked at the level of the firm than at the level of the industry, and is more marked between the industries of Western Europe and the United States.
Topic:: Globalization and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and Europe

7496. Landmines: Africa's Stake, Global Initiatives

Publication Date:: 04-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:: The momentum for a comprehensive global ban on anti-personnel landmines is growing rapidly, and 1997 is a particularly decisive year. Africa is the most heavily mined continent, and African governments and non-governmental landmine campaigns are taking an increasingly prominent role in the global effort. The South African and Mozambican governments both announced comprehensive bans in February 1997, just as the 4th International NGO Conference on Landmines was convening in Maputo, Mozambique. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is being urged to quickly declare Southern Africa a mine-free zone, and non-governmental campaigns are gathering steam in many other African countries.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:: Africa and United States

7497. Making Connections for Africa: Constituencies, Movements, Interest Groups, Coalitions, and Conventional Wisdoms

Author:: William Minter
Publication Date:: 03-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:: This paper was prepared by APIC Senior Research Fellow William Minter for the Constituency Builders' Dialogue organized by the Africa Policy Information Center, held at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia, over the weekend of January 10-12, 1997. The Dialogue was designed as an opportunity for a diverse group of activists from different sectors of Africa advocacy work in the United States to step back, reflect and engage in dialogue on the strategic directions for grassroots Africa constituency-building in the current period. The Dialogue was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and by ongoing support from the Ford Foundation.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, and New York

7498. Future Prospects for the U.S. Defense Budget and Their Implications for Our Asian Alliance Commitments

Author:: Andrew Krepinevich
Publication Date:: 08-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: This talk addresses two issues. First, given the level of American defense spending, are there enough resources available to sustain the U.S. presence in East Asia, over the long term, along the lines of the current commitment of approximately 100,000 troops? Second, even if there is adequate funding to maintain forward deployed troops, are these the kinds of investments we ought to be making, given the transformations we are seeing in the geopolitical environment and, I would argue, the military-technical environment? Will these investments, in other words, achieve American security objectives in East Asia over the next ten to twenty years?
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: United States, America, Israel, East Asia, and Asia

7499. U.S.-Japan Defense Guidelines: Toward a New Accommodation of Mutual Responsibility

Author:: Paul Giarra
Publication Date:: 06-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:: The conclusion of the Cold War has undercut presumptions about America's commitment to Asian security and the defense of Japan. The Cold War the need to contain the Soviet Union no longer exists as an inherent rationale and the organizing principle for an American national doctrine for overseas engagement. This is a major consequence of the end of the Cold War. The conclusion of the Cold War has undercut presumptions about America's commitment to Asian security and the defense of Japan. The Cold War the need to contain the Soviet Union no longer exists as an inherent rationale and the organizing principle for an American national doctrine for overseas engagement. This is a major consequence of the end of the Cold War.
Topic:: Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, America, Israel, East Asia, Asia, and Soviet Union

7500. Building China's Information Technology Industry

Author:: Stephen S. Cohen and Michael Borrus
Publication Date:: 11-1997
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:: At the October 29, 1997, summit meeting between President Jiang Zemin of the People's Republic of China ("China") and President Bill Clinton of the United States, President Jiang announced his government's commitment to join the Information Technology Agreement ("ITA") and thereby eliminate China's tariffs on semiconductors, computers and other information technology products. President Jiang also agreed that, in the context of the negotiations concerning China's accession to the World Trade Organization ("WTO"), China would make further substantial tariff reductions.
Topic:: Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States, China, and Asia

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS