Publication Year: - CIAO Search Results

39501. Continental Shelf Issue in Iran and Its Southern Neighbors

Author:: Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, Ali-Reza Niknejad, and RamtinSalarian
Publication Date:: 12-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:: The region of the Persian Gulf can be seen as a heartland under the geopolitical influence of which the Arab-Iranian relations are shaped. As one the world's primary and most significant source of fossil-energy exports, the Persian Gulf cobbles together the eight countries of the region in a geopolitical panorama, in which they enjoy similarities in economic and strategic life, as well as security concerns. As well, the challenges of maritime political geography seem to be quite dependent on an established set of standards and agreements in order to remain on solid grounds. Currently, these challenges manifest themselves in four major categories, with substantial geopolitical consequences between the Iranians and the Arabs of the region, and the complexity of their relationships. These include: Religious Controversies, which concern the sectarian geopolitics, propagated under Jordan-Israeli concoction of "Shiite Crescent", Territorial Contentions; with its major controversy over the naming of the Persian Gulf. This article examines the process of territorial conflicts, proceedings and eventually the settlements over the maritime areas of the Persian Gulf in the past five decades. The arrangement of the maritime political geography in the Persian Gulf is a fitting example of former disputes over the border and boundaries within the maritime regions of the world.
Topic:: Security and Economics
Political Geography:: Iran and Persia

39502. "The Lessons of 1914 for East Asia Today: Missing the Trees for the Forest"

Author:: Todd H. Hall and Jia Ian Chong
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: A century has passed since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo set in motion a chain of events that would eventually convulse Europe in war. Possibly no conflict has been the focus of more scholarly attention. The questions of how and why European states came to abandon peaceful coexistence for four years of armed hostilities—ending tens of millions of lives and several imperial dynasties—have captivated historians and international relations scholars alike.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and War
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, Middle East, and East Asia

39503. "Domestic Coalitions, Internationalization, and War: Then and Now"

Author:: Etel Solingen
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: The sources of World War I are numerous and widely studied. Some scholars have argued that they are underdetermining individually but overdetermining collectively. The purpose of this article is not to fuel the battle among theories claiming complete explanatory power, but rather to examine some lessons for contemporary international relations. Much of the recent commentary on the war's centenary evokes similarities between Germany in 1914 and China in 2014, and between globalization then and now. There are crucial differences on both accounts, however.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and War
Political Geography:: China and Germany

39504. "Better Now Than Later: The Paradox of 1914 as Everyone's Favored Year for War"

Author:: Jack Snyder
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: One reason why Europe went to war in 1914 is that all of the continental great powers judged it a favorable moment for a fight, and all were pessimistic about postponing the fight until later. On its face, this explanation constitutes a paradox. Still, each power had a superficially plausible reason for thinking this was true.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and War
Political Geography:: Europe

39505. "Dead Wrong? Battle Deaths, Military Medicine, and Exaggerated Reports of War's Demise"

Author:: Tanisha M. Fazel
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Several recent books argue that war is on the decline. In Winning the War on War, for example, Joshua Goldstein lauds the recent successes of the peacemaking community in countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast. In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker writes that not only war but violence in general has become much less common, as the civilizing forces of literacy and modern government have tempered our baser instincts and allowed our "better angels" to prevail.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and War
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, and East Asia

39506. "Delegitimizing al-Qaida: Defeating an 'Army Whose Men Love Death'"

Author:: Jerry Mark Long and Alex S. WIlner
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Al-Qaida has established a metanarrative that enables it to recruit militants and supporters. The United States and its allies can challenge its ability to do so by delegitimizing the ideological motivations that inform that metanarrative.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and War
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, and East Asia

39507. "Ethnofederalism: The Worst Form of Institutional Arrangement…?"

Author:: Liam Anderson
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Critics of ethnofederalism— a political system in which federal subunits reflect ethnic groups' territorial distribution—argue that it facilitates secession and state collapse. An examination of post-1945 ethnofederal states, however, shows that ethnofederalism has succeeded more often than not.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and War
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, and East Asia

39508. The existence and use of 'evil' in international politics

Author:: Anna Geis and Christopher Hobson
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: There is an extensive literature on acts, events and people in international politics that may be described as 'evil' , but much less work specifically focusing on how this idea operates and is used in an international context. This has begun to change recently, however, as a result of leading international figures–most notably George W. Bush–using the term prominently. This special issue seeks to further advance scholarship on these issues by moving beyond purely philosophical accounts on the nature of evil, and considering: how it has been used to frame the identities of actors in international relations (IR); whether it works to enable or preclude specific kinds of behaviour; and what role it plays as part of our moral and political vocabulary. This introduction provides a brief survey of the literature on evil in IR, and gives an overview of the contributions to the special issue.
Topic:: International Relations
Political Geography:: New York

39509. Systemic evil and the international political imagination

Author:: Patrick Hayden
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: In light of the persistence of discourses of atrocity in the post-Holocaust era, and with the resurgence of talk of evil that followed 11 September 2001, it is clear that the idea of evil still possesses a powerful hold upon the modern imagination. Yet, the inter-play of evil and the political imagination–in particular, how different images of evil have shaped the discourses and practices of international politics–remains neglected. This article suggests that evil is depicted through three contending images within international politics–evil as individualistic, as statist and as systemic–and their corresponding forms of collective imagination–the juridical, the humanitarian and the political. It argues further that the dominance of the juridical and, to a lesser extent, the humanitarian imagination obscures our ability to imagine and respond to political evils of structural or systemic violence. Drawing on the example of global poverty, this article contends that the ability to portray and critically judge systemic evils in international politics today depends upon enriching our narratives about indefensible atrocities and reimagining our shared political responsibilities for them.

39510. Beyond good and evil: Ethics in a world of complexity

Author:: David Chandler
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: This article seeks to analyse the shift away from the moral certainties of the Cold War epoch and of humanitarian interventions in the 1990s, to suggest that 'evil' plays a very different role in politics and international relations today. In current constructions of the world – as much more global, complex and non-linear – the past certainties of liberal internationalism appear to be a symptom of problematic moral hubris. Rather than the transcendental moral certainties of good and evil, globalization and complexity seem to suggest a more immanent perspective of emergent causality, eliciting a reflexive ethics of continual work on 'good' public modes of being. In which case, 'evil' is no longer considered to be an exception but becomes normalized as an ethical learning resource. The 2011 case of the mass killings by Norwegian Anders Breivik will be highlighted as an example of this process. This article suggests that this 'democratization' of evil is problematic in articulating evil as a revealed or emergent truth in the world that requires social and personal self-reflexivity, thereby suborning moral choice to onto-ethical necessity.
Topic:: International Relations and Cold War

39511. The good, the bad, and the ugly: Comparing the notions of 'rogue' and 'evil' in international politics

Author:: Anna Geis and Carmen Wunderlich
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: The identification and naming of an 'enemy' is an age-old element within foreign policy and (domestic) security policy discourses. It serves to stabilize speakers' benign conceptions of the self, to structure threat perceptions of 'the world outside' and to legitimate ultimately violent policy options. This article compares the notions of 'rogue' and 'evil' in order to analyse the political implications of such a use of derogative actor categories. The notion of 'rogue states' has played an important role in the security strategies of the US presidents Clinton and in particular George W. Bush and alludes to criminal law. 'Evil' has been a much older, religiously loaded concept and has been invoked in politics for describing the inconceivable, monstrous violence and destruction. While many liberal critics argue that one should abandon the metaphysical category of evil and dispose of the stigmatizing category of the 'rogue', this article concludes with the suggestion that a self-reflexive use of these categories can be instructive: It can make 'us' – the very modern secular liberals – think about ourselves, about responsibility and moral standards as well as about the fundamental ambivalence of our actions.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: United States

39512. Evilization in liberal discourse: From Kant's 'unjust enemy' to today's 'rogue state'

Author:: Harald Muller
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: Liberal discourse should have a hard time looking for 'evil' in international relations. Standing on the pillar of rationalism and humanitarianism, there seems to be little space for the morally and emotionally charged notion of evil to enter considerations. Yet, the liberal belief in the freedom of will implies that humans are capable of turning against the advice of reason and opt for evil behavior and underlying principles. This possibility is epitomized by Kant's construction of the 'evil enemy'. Since 'evil' appears sporadically in international relations, with Hitler's Germany as prototype, its existence in the real world of international relations cannot be ruled out a priori. Designating an 'other' as evil is thus a discursive possibility. The practice to turn this possibility into reality is conceptualized here as 'evilization' in analogy to 'securitization'. There is strong variance among liberal democracies in applying this practice, ranging from 'pacifism' to 'militancy', which often leads to dire consequences. Deriving the principles of fallibility and prudence from liberal reasoning, this article concludes with the proposition that 'liberal pacifism' is the preferable option in most conceivable circumstances, but that the possibility of confronting political evil is rare, but existing.
Topic:: International Relations and Politics
Political Geography:: Germany and Cameroon

39513. Appointing evil in international relations

Author:: Mona K. Sheikh
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: This article examines how evil has been conceptualised in the discipline of international relations and contributes to a body of critical literature that treats evil as a legitimacy bestowing label. By drawing on securitisation theory, it suggests developing a performative approach to evil as an alternative to descriptive and normative approaches. It is argued that such an approach would not only be valuable for understanding the effects of naming and grading evil, but also fulfils three additional functions. First, it facilitates a shift away from applying intention as the primary measure for determining matters of guilt and condemnation. Second, it challenges the privileged position of the powerful when appointing particular phenomena/adversaries as evil. Finally, it provides an analytical starting point for understanding conflict constellations where different parameters of legitimacy seem to clash. This last function requires particular sensitivity towards the audience and the cultural context of 'evilising' moves.
Topic:: International Relations

39514. Collective evil and individual pathology: The depoliticization of violence against Afghan civilians

Author:: Harmonie Toros and Luca Mavelli
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: This article explores how the violence against Afghan civilians carried out by the Taliban and US 'rogue' soldiers has been accounted for as the product of, respectively, collective evil and individual pathology. These two seemingly contending explanations, it is argued, are part of the same strategy of depoliticization, which aims to provide support and legitimacy for the US-led war in Afghanistan. The article discusses how the genealogy of the discourse of collective evil surrounding the Taliban can be traced to an Orientalist political theodicy, which frames the Taliban as 'children of a lesser God' – that is, as fanatical puppets at the mercy of a violent God – and how the discourse of individual pathology surrounding the unsanctioned violence of US soldiers is instrumental to exempt military and civilian leadership from collusion and responsibility. The article challenges this latter narrative of individual blame by discussing how killing, torture and desecration of bodies are at the heart of warfare. Hence, it is concluded, the language of collective evil and individual pathology are part of the same strategy of depoliticization, which aims to silence political contestation and conceal the dehumanizing aspect of war, its structural production of violence, and the complex and dispersed nature of responsibility.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, and Taliban

39515. Challenging 'evil': Continuity and change in the drug prohibition regime

Author:: Christopher Hobson
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is unique among UN conventions for the appearance of the term 'evil' in the document. Among all the possible wrongdoing and bad things that exist in the world, it is slightly counterintuitive that drugs are the only one to be labelled as 'evil' in international law. Adopting a 'conceptual politics' approach, the article will examine how drugs came to be identified in this manner, with a specific focus on the drafting of the 1961 Single Convention. The latter part of the article focuses on the contemporary relevance of this framing, considering how it contributes towards a much more restrictive environment in which serious change to the drug prohibition regime has proven to be a very difficult task. For those seeking reform it is not enough to demonstrate that the system does not work, they also must successfully challenge the idea of drugs as something evil and a threat to humanity. In concluding it is suggested that by returning to the Single Convention, one finds not only the language of 'evil', but also a more flexible position that allowed for revising the way drugs are dealt with. To bring about change in drugs prohibition regime, reformers will need to recover this more open and balanced approach to understanding drugs.
Topic:: Environment, International Law, Politics, and United Nations

39516. Conceptual relics, mutual assured evilness and the struggle over Israeli public commonsense

Author:: Piki Ish-Shalom
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: Iran's imminent rise to nuclear power status raises reasonable fears about the Middle East stability. Having examined the discursive exchange of Mutual Assured Evilness (MAE) by Iran and Israel, some political commentators and decision makers express doubts over the workability of nuclear stability. That is because they question whether these countries can overcome their mutual hatred and find the requisite instrumental rationality for nuclear stability. Their fears are exacerbated when they regard Iran as a religious country and hence supposedly incapable of rational behavior. However, the discourse of evil is not only indicative of hatred. Evil it seems is a conceptual relic encased in religious metaphysics. It is a datum that enables us to expose the religious layers that exist alongside secularism. Israel's hyperbolic use of the term evil resonates as strongly as it does because of the religious metaphysics that coexists with Israel's supposedly secular belief system. Therefore, in some ways, Israeli society may be closer to Iranian society than Israelis generally allow themselves to believe and all the while the two societies are locked in a dance of hatred and fear, fueled, among other things, by MAE.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: Iran, Middle East, and Israel

39517. After independence? The challenges and benefits of Scottish-UK defence cooperation

Author:: Colin Fleming
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: As Charles Tilly famously argued, 'War made the state, and the state made war'. This symbiosis between the state and its ability to wage war has long been synonymous with statehood itself, and what it means to be independent within the international state system. It is an idea that has underpinned realist accounts of international relations and remains widely accepted, despite changing norms and closer dependencies between states. Indeed, in the context of the Scottish independence debate Malcolm Chalmers has argued that: 'Having independent armed forces is at the heart of what it means to be a sovereign country.' This raises the question whether the Scottish government's favoured cooperative approach to defence would undermine Scotland's new-found sovereignty at the very time that it seeks its own independent voice in international affairs.
Topic:: NATO
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and Scotland

39518. Repairing NATO's motors

Author:: Mark Webber, Ellen Hallams, and Martin A. Smith
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: When NATO heads of state and government convene in Newport, Wales, in September 2014, it will be their first meeting in the UK since the London summit of July 1990. A quarter of a century ago, NATO was reborn. The London Declaration on a Transformed Alliance was NATO's keynote statement of renewed purpose, issued in 1990 as the Cold War was drawing to a close. In it we find the beginnings of the tasks which would come to define the alliance in the post- Cold War period, along with an appreciation of a fundamentally altered strategic landscape. Europe had 'entered a new, promising era', one in which it was thought the continent's tragic cycle of war and peace might well be over. The 2014 summit communiqué is unlikely to reflect such optimism, but what it surely needs to do is to recapture the spirit of enterprise that NATO has on occasion been able to articulate in demanding times.
Topic:: NATO and Cold War
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, and London

39519. The 'rhinofication' of South African security

Author:: Jasper Humphreys and M. L. R. Smith
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Counter-poaching operations in South Africa's so-called 'rhino wars' have seen increasing use of kinetic strategies and tactics. It can be argued that this follows the country's historical tendency to react to threats with confrontation in the first instance rather than negotiation, as leaders invoke images of 'backs-to-the-wall' isolation. During the apartheid period the National Party strongly promoted patriotism and self-sacrifice, portraying South Africa as facing 'total onslaught'; today, the rhetoric of 'rhino wars' is often framed in similar terms, not least because the person leading the rhinoceros counter-poaching campaign, Major General Johan Jooste (retired), was himself heavily involved in the 'apartheid wars' in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: South Africa

39520. Waging a war to save biodiversity: the rise of militarized conservation

Author:: Rosaleen Duffy
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Conserving biodiversity is a central environmental concern, and conservationists increasingly talk in terms of a 'war' to save species. International campaigns present a specific image: that parks agencies and conservation NGOs are engaged in a continual battle to protect wildlife from armies of highly organized criminal poachers who are financially motivated. The war to save biodiversity is presented as a legitimate war to save critically endangered species such as rhinos, tigers, gorillas and elephants. This is a significant shift in approach since the late 1990s, when community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and participatory techniques were at their peak. Since the early 2000s there has been a re-evaluation of a renewed interest in fortress conservation models to protect wildlife, including by military means. Yet, as Lunstrum notes, there is a dearth of research on 'green militarization', a process by which military approaches and values are increasingly embedded in conservation practice.
Topic:: War

39521. Environmental insecurity and fortress mentality

Author:: Rob White
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Shortages of food, water and non-renewable energy sources can trigger nefarious activities involving organized criminal networks, transnational corporations and governments at varying political levels. Illegal and excessive fishing, sidestep - ping of regulations on disposal of hazardous waste, water and land theft, fraudulent manipulation of alternative energy subsidies and policies, and transference of toxicity and contaminated products across national borders are driven by a variety of motivations and involve a wide range of actors. The consequences of such activities contribute to even more ruthless exploitation of rapidly vanishing natural resources, as well as the further diminution of air, soil and water quality, thereby exacerbating the competition among individuals, groups and nations for what is left.
Topic:: Government, Politics, and International Security

39522. Human conflict and ecosystem services: finding the environmental price of warfare

Author:: Robert A. Francis and Krishna Krishnamurthy
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Warfare is a uniquely human endeavour, and has been central to human culture and civilization for many thousands of years. Early forms of intergroup conflict were conducted by our hominid ancestors over one million years ago, while the development of larger-scale, organized conflict is recorded by early civilizations in Mesopotamia and China almost 5,000 years ago. The impetuses for warfare, being a complex mix of genetics, psychology, culture, politics, technology and resource availability, are unlikely to disappear in the future, as long as our species survives. Though the nature of warfare is changing, from its most devastating twentieth- century form of industrial 'total' warfare to the geographically and politically complex 'everywhere war' that is beginning to define conflict in the twenty-first century, violent conflict is certain to remain a defining part of the human story.
Political Geography:: China and Mesopotamia

39523. The roots to peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo: conservation as a platform for green development

Author:: Richard Milburn
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is endowed with a wealth of natural resources, and the presence of high-value minerals such as coltan and diamonds is well known. The country is also endowed with a wealth of biodiversity, although the value of this is often overlooked. The DRC ranks fifth in terms of the most biodiverse countries in the world; it is home to a plethora of endemic species of both flora and fauna and contains the second largest rainforest in the world, smaller only than the Amazon. This range of flora and fauna has suffered enormously from the effects of armed conflict in the country over the past two decades, and many wildlife populations have been decimated. In spite of destruction through conflict, key populations and ecosystems still remain and they are crucial for the country's development and the world's fight against climate change.
Political Geography:: Democratic Republic of the Congo

39524. The UN and the African Union in Mali and beyond: a shotgun wedding?

Author:: Thomas G. Weiss and Martin Welz
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: After the initial post-Cold War euphoria about the potential for the United Nations (UN) to maintain international peace and security, as imagined in its Charter, from the 1990s onwards subcontracting from the world organization to regional organizations has become essentially the standard operating procedure for major military peace operations. While UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was bullish in his 1992 An agenda for peace, the UN has by and large withdrawn from the peace enforcement business following debacles in Somalia and Rwanda—as Boutros-Ghali's 1995 Supplement to 'An agenda for peace' and the 2000 Brahimi Report recommended.
Topic:: Security and Cold War
Political Geography:: United Nations, Rwanda, and Somalia

39525. After Westgate: opportunities and challenges in the war against Al-Shabaab

Author:: Paul D. Williams
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: On 21 September 2013, fighters from the Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen (Movement of the Warrior Youth) attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 67 people and wounding over 200 others. According to Kenya's parliamentary inquiry into the attack, it was conducted by four gunmen (three Somali nationals and a Norwegian citizen of Somali origin), all of whom died in the subsequent four-day siege. The inquiry, by the Joint Committee on Administration and National Security and Defence and Foreign Relations, listed Westgate as the 28th terrorist attack in the country since Kenyan forces intervened in Somalia in October 2011. It concluded that a confluence of factors had left Kenya particularly vulnerable to such attacks: its porous border with Somalia; endemic corruption and poor levels of preparedness among its security officials; youth radicalization (with over 500 Kenyan youths recruited into Al-Shabaab), the proliferation of small arms and light weapons; and the influx of more than 600,000 Somali refugees into Kenya. Overall, the inquiry lamented that despite relevant general information about an impending terror attack on such a target, there had been a 'nationwide systemic failure' on the part of numerous government departments, confusion among government agencies in responding to the attack, and disgraceful looting of premises within the mall by some Kenyan soldiers and police.
Political Geography:: Kenya, Norway, Somalia, and Nairobi

39526. International development in transition

Author:: Sophie Harman and David Williams
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The project of international development is in a period of transition. The various dimensions of this transition are relatively clear, the outcome much less so. The first aim of this article is to outline and suggest some explanations for what we take to be the main dimensions of this transition. These are changes in development thinking, particularly with regard to the role of the state; changing donor priorities around 'big' and 'small' development; the changing donor landscape and a new age of choice for developing countries; and changing aid relationships that create greater autonomy for developing countries. We suggest that such changes are linked together in ways that are leading to some quite substantial shifts in the policies and practices of international development. The second aim of this article is to signal some of the important questions and debates that arise when we take notice of these shifts. First, there are explanatory questions related to how we capture the dynamics involved in these areas of change and their relations with one another. Second, there are questions about what the new demands will be for developing country governments and aid donors in this new environment. Third, and related, there are questions about what lessons we might draw from past experiences, in the sense that for some of the ideas and practices we see assuming a new significance in the contemporary period, there are at least parallels in the past. Finally, there are questions about the future trajectory of this transition, where it is taking us, and whether it will be sustained and amplified in the future.
Topic:: Development and Government

39527. A call for a new Japanese foreign policy: the dilemmas of a stakeholder state

Author:: Takashi Inoguchi
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The world was different in 2002 when Henry Kissinger published a book entitled Does America need a foreign policy?, and Le Monde came out in support of the United States after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 by proclaiming: 'We are all American.' In many ways, this was the high point of the American global era—the era of unipolar American power. In 2014 the world has moved on. The United States is still the leading global power with unique capabilities and responsibilities for global leadership. But other states—particularly in Asia and the non-western developing world—are on the rise. The world is more fragmented and decentralized. States are rising and falling. The terms of global governance are more contested and uncertain. This article addresses the foreign policy of Japan and the choices that Japan faces in this shifting global context.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, America, Asia, and North America

39528. Book Reviews

Author:: Chris Brown
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The vulnerable in international society is the latest in a series of books by Ian Clark exploring different aspects of international society, following Legitimacy in international society (OUP, 2005) and Hegemony in international society (OUP, 2011). The two earlier books—along with his co-authored Special responsibilities: global problems and American power (with Mlada Bukovansky, Robyn Eckersley, Christian Reus-Smit and Nicholas Wheeler; CUP, 2012)—are largely concerned with the ways in which international society reproduces itself and manages Great Power relations; The vulnerable in international society shifts the focus towards the other end of the food chain, towards those who are without power. The thesis is that the vulnerable are not simply ill served by international society, by definition insufficiently protected by it, but in a wider sense actually created by international society—the risks they face may sometimes be 'natural', but equally they may actually be a by-product of the way in which international society works. Just as international society confers legitimacy on its members, so it may also create vulnerability. The vulnerable are a socially crafted category and international society is involved in that crafting process, as well as being involved in measures taken to cope with the consequences of this process.
Political Geography:: America

39529. Iran and the P5+1: Getting to "Yes"

Publication Date:: 08-2014
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: International Crisis Group
Abstract:: That nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the UK, U.S. and Germany) were extended beyond the 20 July 2014 deadline was neither unexpected nor unwelcome. The parties ha d made enough headway to justify the extension, which was envisioned in the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) that was signed in November 2013 and came into force in January, but given the political and technical complexity, they remain far apart on fundamental issues. Unless they learn the lessons of the last six months and change their approach for the next four, they will lose the opportunity for a resolution not just by the new 24 November deadline but for the foreseeable future. Both sides need to retreat from maximalist positions, particularly on Iran's enrichment program. Tehran should postpone plans for industrial- scale enrichment and accept greater constraints on the number of its centrifuges in return for P5+1 flexibility on the qualitative growth of its enrichment capacity through research and development.
Topic:: Development, Diplomacy, Economics, Nuclear Weapons, and Nuclear Power
Political Geography:: Russia, China, Iran, Middle East, and France

39530. Fateful Elections? Investing in the Future of Europe; Masthead Changes; In this Issue

Author:: JHHW
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: In an earlier Editorial I speculated on the potential transformative effect that the 2014 elections to the European Parliament might have on the democratic fortunes of Europe. I spoke of promise and risk. So now the results are out. How should we evaluate them?

39531. Scientific Reason and the Discipline of International Law

Author:: Anne Orford
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: International law emerged as a professional academic specialization in a 19th century European context of wide-ranging public debates about the nature and cultural significance of science. Ever since, the status of international law as an academic discipline has been intimately connected with the capacity of international lawyers to demonstrate that our discipline is properly scientific. Yet the ideals of science upon which international lawyers have drawn in seeking to demonstrate the scientific nature of our work have not remained static. This article explores how those shifting ideals of science have shaped the concerns, questions, methods, and theories adopted by professional legal scholars in different times and places, including the 19th century Cambridge of Whewell, the 20th century Vienna of Kelsen, the post-war New Haven of McDougal and Lasswell, and the globally networked university of the 21st century. In returning to the historical debates out of which today's highly stylized versions of positivist and policy-oriented international law emerged, the article shows that while scholars of international law have shared a commitment to scientific values of rationality, progress, and objectivity, they have understood those commitments as requiring different forms of conduct, different means of producing knowledge, and different relations to the state.
Topic:: International Law
Political Geography:: Europe

39532. Social Capital in the Arbitration Market

Author:: Sergio Puig
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Scholars have often assessed and criticized the group of international arbitration professionals, some characterizing this group as a dense 'white, male' group. Faced with limited access and data, however, this critique has not been informed by a robust empirical component. Relying on all the appointments made in proceedings under ICSID between 1972 and February 2014, interviews with arbitration professionals, and an original database created for this project, this article is the first to assess the social structure of investor–state arbitrators. Using network analytics, a long-standing but recently popularized methodology for understanding social groups, the article maps the group of professionals by relying on formal appointments to tribunals. The subsequent analysis of this form of operationalizing the social group reveals who are the 'grand old men' (and formidable women) or 'power-brokers' that dominate the arbitration profession. The article argues, based on the evidence presented, that, among other factors, in addition to good timing and imperfect information, the structure of the process of appointment, and a risk averse culture, key arbitrators may benefit from heuristic biases, or the limited cognitive scope of lawyers making such appointments.

39533. How is Progress Constructed in International Legal Scholarship?

Author:: Tilmann Altwicker and Oliver Diggelman
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: There is a tendency in international legal discourse to tell the story of international law as a story of progress. 'Progress' is a concept which is tied to the process of secularization and Western 18th and 19th century philosophy. It still inspires the debate on international law – despite all setbacks in 'real history'. This article argues that progress narratives in the inter-national legal discourse are constructed by – more or less subtle – argumentative techniques. It highlights four such techniques – four 'bundles of arguments' – which play a key role: ascending periodization, proving increasing value-orientation of international law, detection of positive trends, and paradigm shift-talk. The article offers an explanation of why the pro-gress argument often succeeds in international legal discourse.
Topic:: International Law and Weapons of Mass Destruction

39534. Crafting the Nuclear Regime Complex (1950–1975): Dynamics of Harmonization of Opaque Treaty Rules

Author:: Gregoire Mallard
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: In recent years, international lawyers have increasingly debated the normative consequences of the 'fragmentation' of international law. More rarely have they studied empirically how tensions between overlapping systems of rules emerge, how conflicts are harmonized, and with what effects. This article explains such dynamics in the case of the nuclear non-proliferation regime (NPR) complex. Based on original archival fieldwork conducted in the private papers of American and European diplomats in the early Cold War, it shows how Western states solved the tensions that existed between contradictory commitments contracted in the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) Treaty and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1968 (NPT). To lessen the tensions between regional and global orders, the Euratom control rules were used as a source of inspiration for the new rules used to monitor compliance with the NPT at the global level. In retrospect, this outcome was puzzling, as the Euratom Treaty was not originally concerned with non-proliferation issues. That the knowledge of the original intentions behind Euratom was lost to the policymakers who negotiated the NPT thus had grave consequences in the future. This case shows the importance of studying the concrete knowledge of international legal rules that gets transmitted across generations of policymakers in order to understand how regime complexity evolves.
Topic:: Cold War
Political Geography:: Germany

39535. The Tower of Babel: Human Rights and the Paradox of Language

Author:: Moria Paz
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Key human rights instruments and leading scholars argue that minority language rights should be treated as human rights, both because language is constitutive of an individual's cultural identity and because linguistic pluralism increases diversity. These treaties and academics assign the value of linguistic pluralism in diversity. But, as this article demonstrates, major human rights courts and quasi-judicial institutions are not, in fact, prepared to force states to swallow the dramatic costs entailed by a true diversity-protecting regime. Outside narrow exceptions or a path dependent national-political compromise, these enforcement bodies continuously allow the state actively to incentivize assimilation into the dominant culture and language of the majority. The minority can still maintain its distinct language, but only at its own cost. The slippage between the promise of rights and their actual interpretation carries some important political and economic benefits, but the resulting legal outcome does not provide the robust protection of diversity to which lip service is paid. Importantly, the assimilationist nature of the jurisprudence is not indifferent to human rights. However, instead of advancing maximal linguistic diversity as a pre-eminent norm, the regime that is applied by judicial bodies supports a different set of human rights: those protecting linguistic minorities from discrimination, and promoting equal access of the group to market and political institutions. The result is a tension between two human rights values: pluralism and equality.
Topic:: Human Rights and Culture

39536. Petitioning the International: A 'Pre-history' of Self-determination

Author:: Arnulf Becker Lorca
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Conventionally, self-determination is understood to have evolved in a linear progression from a political principle during World War I into an international right after World War II. The history of the right to self-determination before 1945 is thus part of 'pre-history'. This article explores that 'pre-history' and finds the conventional linear narrative unconvincing. During the first three decades of the 20th century and in particular during the interwar period, non-Western lawyers, politicians, and activists articulated international law claims to support the demand for self-government. In this process, they appropriated and transformed the international law discourse. Removing the legal obstacles that prevented self-government beyond the West – that is, by eliminating the standard of civilization – interwar semi-peripherals made possible the emergence of a right to self-determination later, when the international political context changed after the second post-war reconstruction of international law.
Topic:: International Law and War

39537. Roaming Charges: Places of Social and Financial Crisis: Dublin 2014

Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: We deal in EJIL with the world we live in – often with its worst and most violent patholo-gies, often with its most promising signs of hope for a better world. But, inevitably, since our vehicle is scholarship, we reify this world. Roaming Charges is designed not just to offer a moment of aesthetic relief, but to remind us of the ultimate subject of our schol-arly reflections: we alternate between photos of places – the world we live in – and photos of people – who we are, the human condition. We eschew the direct programmatic photo-graph: people shot up; the ravages of pollution and all other manner of photojournalism. 'Roaming', 'Charges', and those irritating 'Roaming Charges' – was chosen because of the multiple and at times conflicting meanings, feelings and associations the words, jointly and severally, evoke and which we hope to capture in our choice of photo-graphs. As we roam around the world we aim for images which charge us: please and challenge, even irritate, at the same time. We seek photos which have some ambiguity, are edgy and relate in an indirect way, both to the current circumstance but also to that which is, like human dignity, permanent and enduring.
Topic:: Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: Dublin

39538. Conceptual Confusion and Methodological Deficiencies: Some Ways that Theories on Customary International Law Fail

Author:: Laszlo Blutman
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Andrew Guzman declares that customary international law is in trouble. I disagree. It is those who seek to explain it who are in trouble. Theoretical efforts are plagued with descriptive insufficiencies (for example, the formation of various customary norms takes place within a heterogeneous, opaque process that resists any general and meaningful description in specific cases), systemic uncertainties (for example, locating the source of rules that govern the formation of customary norms), semantic problems (such as what exactly is general practice) and the divergence of conceptions articulated within international practice. These difficulties, which hamper a better understanding of international law itself, originate from the conceptual level. This article will therefore focus on certain symptomatic conceptual and methodological problems. Nine of them are outlined, and three will be analysed in greater detail, namely the relationship between opinio juris and acceptance, the characteristics of the concept 'general practice' and the failure of attempts to describe customary international law by dichotomies. As a conclusion, the author identifies seven requirements of, and assumptions about, a possible, workable theory of customary international law.
Topic:: International Law

39539. Women's Rights and the Periphery: CEDAW's Optional Protocol

Author:: Loveday Hodson
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: This article places the UN Women's Committee at its centre in order to consider the normative implications of having a space within the realm of international law that is headed by women decision-makers, whose remit is specifically gendered and whose task is to uphold the rights of women. It suggests that the Committee's importance has largely been overlooked, which is a considerable oversight. The Committee is uniquely positioned to contribute to the transformation of human rights norms, occupying, as it arguably does, positions simultaneously at the centre and at the periphery of international law. In particular, this article examines the jurisprudence that has emerged under the individual complaints procedure of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and questions how far the Committee has been able to develop women's rights in recent years into a body of law that departs from the normative and structural limitations of international human rights laws.
Topic:: Human Rights
Political Geography:: United Nations

39540. The Venice Commission of the European Council – Standards and Impact

Author:: Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The article analyses the activities of the European Commission for Democracy through Law. Addressed are the standards applied in the Commission's opinions, especially on constitutional provisions and other legal norms or drafts. The article looks at the impact that these (non-binding) opinions have on the states concerned as well as on the European Court of Human Rights. Though recommendations are sometimes disregarded, most states do react positively, at least in part. To some extent the Commission could enhance the effect of its opinions by joining forces with other relevant institutions in the field, especially the Council of Europe and the European Commission. Endorsing and implementing recommendations gives states an opportunity to share in the reputation that comes with being part of a community founded on Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Democracy. An overall assessment is made of the Commission's approach to its work.
Topic:: Human Rights
Political Geography:: Europe

39541. Mark Mazower. Governing the World. The History of an Idea

Author:: Jochen von Bernstorff
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Mark Mazower provides us with a very readable and highly stimulating intellectual history of Western internationalism starting with the Vienna Congress in 1815 and ending in 2012 with the ongoing Syrian civil war. The historical analysis focuses not only on the philosophical and political currents at the heart of 19th and 20th century internationalism but also on how Anglo-Saxon politicians and high ranking civil servants viewed and shaped international institutions during these two centuries; all of this is full of interesting biographical findings, illustrative contemporary quotations, and insightful historical judgement.
Topic:: Civil War
Political Geography:: Europe

39542. Mónica García-Salmones Rovira. The Project of Positivism in International Law.

Author:: David Roth-Isigkeit
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: That positivism is not the promised land of legal methods has become a truism among critical international lawyers. All too often the proclaimed objectivity, neutrality and science has turned out to be intertwined with ideology and domination. In line with the historical-economic turn of the Helsinki school, Monica García-Salmones Rovira's book The Project of Positivism in International Law finds the historical roots of positivism deeply embedded in the development of a global neo-liberal economy. The economic foundations of the method are unearthed with two intellectual biographies of its founding fathers, Lassa Oppenheim and Hans Kelsen, whose life projects have so far escaped critical scrutiny. The book weaves into these two biographical studies the story of international law as a pragmatist and scientific project that freed the discipline from the tradition of natural law to become a servant of global economic interests.
Topic:: International Law and War

39543. Carlo Focarelli. International Law as Social Construct. The Struggle for Global Justice

Author:: Lorenzo Gradoni
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: An enigmatic epigram welcomes the reader of Carlo Focarelli's book: '[w]hat is a mountain for? For the moon to set behind' (at lv). Poetic images not infrequently hint at hidden meanings; in this case, however, the enigma stems from the fact that the phrase, although appearing between quotation marks, is not credited to anyone (which is strange for a heavily footnoted book whose name index includes more than 1,000 entries). Since a Google search takes the reader straight back to the book under review and nowhere else, the temptation to assume that the anonymous poet was the author himself has been strong (and maybe imputable to the advent of EJIL's 'Last Page'). I resisted this impulse for fear of appearing too unlearned ('other readers will surely have recognized the author', I said to myself) to be considered fit to review the immensely erudite book that Focarelli's International Law as Social Contract indisputably is. Turning a blind eye to the epigraph would have been an easy way out; I chose to ask the author. He was kind enough to reveal to me that the phrase is an abridged version of a dialogue between the famous Swiss psychologist (and polymath) Jean Piaget, asking questions about the Salève, a mountain also known as the Balcon de Genève, and a seven – year – old boy named Rou: 'The Salève was made "by men. – Why? – It couldn't make itself all alone. – What is it for? – For the moon. – Why? – For it to set behind."' Enquiring about the meaning of the epigraph turned out to be a serendipitous choice.

39544. Philipp Dann. The Law of Development Cooperation: A Comparative Analysis of the World Bank, the EU and Germany

Author:: Giedre Jokubauskaite
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Philipp Dann has long been committed to the legal issues of international development cooperation, and now his monograph on this subject, originally written in German, has been published in English. The comprehensive monograph entitled The Law of Development Cooperation skilfully builds upon the knowledge that already exists on this topic and systematizes an enormous amount of relevant literature. The reader is presented with a stimulating text that is dense in terms of its arguments and yet easy to engage with.
Topic:: International Law

39545. Efthymios Papastavridis. The Interception of Vessels on the High Seas, Contemporary Challenges to the Legal Order of the Oceans

Author:: Seline Trevisanut
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Many are the threats that challenge the security of the oceans today. Piracy, which was thought to be relegated to history and adventure books (and films), has re-appeared and threatens human lives but also, cynically more importantly for states, the safe transport of goods. The seas provide the main route for trade in goods worldwide. Their security is an imperative for a globalized economy. In the 2008 Report on Oceans and the Law of the Sea, the UN Secretary General identified seven specific threats to maritime security: (1) piracy and armed robbery; (2) terrorist acts against shipping, offshore installations, and other maritime interests; (3) illicit trafficking in arms and weapons of mass destruction (WMD); (4) illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; (5) smuggling and trafficking of persons at sea; (6) illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; and (7) international and unlawful damage to the marine environment.
Topic:: Human Rights

39546. Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen, Camilla Guldahl Cooper and Gro Nystuen (eds). Searching for a 'Principle of Humanity' in International Humanitarian Law

Author:: Catriona H. Cairns
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The stated aim of the book under review, edited by three prominent Scandinavian academics, is to explore whether a 'principle of humanity' exists as an independent, binding norm in international humanitarian law (IHL) or whether its legal impact is limited to the norm-creation process. It consists of 11 articles (with an introduction and a conclusion), divided into two principal sections: 'theoretical perspectives' and 'Nordic experiences'.

39547. Morten Bergsmo and Ling Yan (eds). State Sovereignty and International Criminal Law

Author:: Alexandre Skander Galand
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: State Sovereignty and International Criminal Law, edited by Morten Bergsmo and Ling Yan, brings together two recent issues of international law: the rise of international criminal law as a building block in the nascent constitution of the international legal order and the increasingly active participation of China in international law. Even though China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), it has until recently been de facto absent from the debates over norms of international law. Likewise, international criminal justice is a field of law that stagnated for more than 40 years. The last two decades have witnessed a revival of both phoenixes.
Topic:: International Law
Political Geography:: China

39548. Kevin Jon Heller and Gerry Simpson (eds). The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials

Author:: Milan Kuhli
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The book The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials – edited by Kevin Jon Heller and Gerry Simpson – is a compilation of 21 contributions to a conference convened in Melbourne at the end of 2010. The project aims at a scholarly recovery of accounts of war crimes trials that were ‘either neglected or under-rehearsed’ (at 1) in the discipline of international criminal law. Accordingly, the contributions tell ‘stories about familiar but under-explored and misunderstood landmarks in the conventional history of international criminal law’ as well as about trials that have been less analysed in this field (at 1). Gregory S. Gordon’s illustrative chapter on the trial of Peter von Hagenbach (chapter 2) is a story of the first kind, whereas Benjamin E. Brockman-Hawe’s comprehensive account of the Franco-Siamese tribunal for the Colonial Era (chapter 3) exemplifies the latter type.
Topic:: International Law and War
Political Geography:: Europe

39549. The Waiting Room

Author:: Kim Lockwood
Publication Date:: 05-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: This here is nowhere. A circle of whiteness squared to still the furthest confines of the room. Passengers pass by with nothing to declare, papers and permissions all approved. As ceaseless movement breaks in waves of sound on sound, a static too thickly sewn to undo grounds us in a place of stark sensation where mattresses are spread thinly on the ground and belonging can't be found in our slow translations.

39550. The Impact of Asian Investment on Africa's Textile Industries

Author:: Tang Xiaoyang
Publication Date:: 08-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Asian investors' impact on Africa's cotton, textile, and apparel sectors may have profound consequences for the continent's industrialization and development. As southeast African countries seek to industrialize and build indigenous cotton-textile-apparel value chains, the interactions between Asian—particularly Chinese—investors and African companies become more and more complex. Indeed, Asian investors present both a challenge to and an opportunity for local industries, and southeast African countries need a clear vision and tailored policies to make the most of the opportunities. Asian investors' impact on Africa's cotton, textile, and apparel sectors may have profound consequences for the continent's industrialization and development. As southeast African countries seek to industrialize and build indigenous cotton-textile-apparel value chains, the interactions between Asian-particularly Chinese-investors and African companies become more and more complex. Indeed, Asian investors present both a challenge to and an opportunity for local industries, and southeast African countries need a clear vision and tailored policies to make the most of the opportunities.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Africa and Asia

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