Topic: Government - CIAO Search Results

2701. Dialogue of Civilisations? The Case of Nepad

Author:: Henri Vogt
Publication Date:: 07-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: This paper has two parallel aims. First of all, it seeks to present and critically discuss some central aspects of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative. A programme of the African Union and officially launched in October 2001, NEPAD is a comprehensive, ambitious framework for changing the negative course of development in Africa and for ending the increasing marginalisation of the continent in the global era. In the words of its founding document, 'the Programme is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world' (§1).
Topic:: Development, Government, International Cooperation, International Organization, International Political Economy, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: Africa

2702. China's State-Owned Enterprises: Thriving or Crumbling?

Author:: Christopher A. McNally
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: Even though China's state firms lost their near-monopoly status after 1978, they still form the country's financial and industrial nucleus.Nevertheless, in early 1996 the total losses of these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) exceeded profits for the first time. With the economy threatened, offi-cialdom issued a mandate in 1997: SOEs must become profitable in three years. In 2001, statistics showed a massive turn around, and victory was declared. Despite doubts about the official statistics, substantial improvement did seem evident. The question was, what caused it? While massive layoffs and corporate restructuring did increase efficiency, most improvements have been the result of external factors such as debt restructuring and government-arranged buy-outs and mergers. This strategy offers short-term rewards, but could be a disaster in the long term. Real reform of China's state sector requires financial reforms that bite (even more urgent with WTO entry), serious moves toward a social security system for displaced workers, and more outright priva-tization of state firms to give non-state shareholders real power on their boards.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: China

2703. The Ethnopolitical Dynamics of Elections

Author:: Stefan Wolff
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:: Elections are a key element in any political process because of their rule-legitimating function. They are, therefore, frequently used instruments at different levels of the political process (from local government to presidential elections) and in most types of political systems (from democracies to single-party totalitarian systems). In democratic and democratizing systems in particular, elections serve a variety of different purposes in addition to legitimating rule, including providing an institution for the expression of the popular will and providing mechanisms for peaceful change in government.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe

2704. From Copenhagen to Brussels European defence: core documents, Volume IV

Author:: Antonio Missiroli
Publication Date:: 12-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: With the present issue, the 'European defence core documents' annual collection reaches its fourth volume – stretching from Copenhagen, where the last European Council of 2002 was held, to Brussels, where the last one of 2003 took place. In actual fact, the Thessaloniki European Council of June 2003 was the last one to be hosted by the country holding the rotational EU presidency. From now on, all European Councils will take place in Brussels – thus crucially depriving this collection of a distinctive title for each issue.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe

2705. €uros for ESDP – financing EU operations

Author:: Antonio Missiroli
Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: The financing of EU-led crisis management operations is a somewhat neglected yet nevertheless crucial factor affecting the external effectiveness and internal consistency of the Union's foreign and security policy. Until recently, CFSP's operational acquis has been minimal, its legal underpinning limited and tortuous, its budgetary fundament ludicrous, and its administrative practice mostly contradictory and often fraught with inter-institutional turf battles between Council, Commission and Parliament. With the launch of the first ESDP operations proper (EUPM in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Concordia in FYROM) in 2003, the forthcoming Operation Artemis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the possible takeover of SFOR after 2004, it has become all the more important and urgent to devise more appropriate arrangements and incentives for common action. The European Convention and the ensuing Intergovernmental Conference represent additional opportunities to be seized. In this respect, the main issues to be addressed regard: a) the speed and readiness of budgetary allocations, on the one hand, and their long-term sustainability, on the other; b) the coherence of the relevant provisions, in both institutional and functional terms, and their consistency with the peculiarities of the EU as an international actor; and c) the degree of transparency, accountability and internal fairness compatible with the imperatives of crisis management. The experience of other international organisations operating in this field (NATO, OSCE, UN) can also be taken into consideration with a view to selecting rules and modalities that may be helpful in tackling the problems highlighted here. First and foremost, it is desirable that the current fragmentation of CFSP expenditure in separate EU budgetary lines be overcome. The appointment of an EU 'Minister for Foreign Affairs' (or whatever title is given to the new foreign policy supremo) is expected to help solve this problem and reduce some inter-institutional tensions and bottlenecks. For example, it is desirable for all expenditure related to civilian crisis management (with the possible exception of the salaries of seconded national personnel) to be borne by the EU bud- get in a more transparent fashion. To this end, the relevant procedures have to be made less tortuous and more flexible. Secondly, expenditure for operations 'having military or defence implications' — in so far as it will remain distinct and separate from the rest — should be pooled in a more systematic, sustainable and explicit manner. Neither the current 'ad hocery' (as exemplified by EUPM and Concordia ) nor the minimalist approach adopted by the Convention's Praesidium (with the proposal of a subsidiary 'start-up' fund) address the essential issues. In fact, if a subsidiary budget has to be set up, then it should be more ambitious and create a long- term basis for covering all the 'common costs' arising from military operations. Such an EU Operational Fund could usefully draw upon the precedent of the European Development Fund and adopt a distinct 'key' for national contributions. Such a 'key' should take into account e.g. the member states' ability to pay but also their ability to contribute in kin through the actual involvement of personnel and equipment in EU operations. It should also be periodically adjustable and help overcome potential 'burden-sharing' disputes inside the Union by setting agreed criteria against which to measure and assess national contributions without resorting to the crude GDP scale. At the same time, the Fund's financial cycle should be the same as that of the EU budget. And, in perspective, the “common costs” thus covered should include also accommodation and transportation costs, especially if the Union develops common capabilities in the fields of strategic lift and logistics. By doing so, the EU would eventually have two main modalities for common operational expenditure at its disposal: the EU budget for all non-military aspects, and the Operational Fund. Both would guarantee a reliable financial perspective. If the separation between civilian and military aspects were ever to be bridged, their merger would not represent a problem. Thirdly, the European Parliament could consider reimbursing those member states who participate in ESDP operations a fixed somme for faitaire to cover partially the per diems of their seconded personnel (civilian as well as military). Such reimbursement could be made through the EU budget annually, ex post facto, with no political conditions attached. On the one hand, it would prove that the EU budget covers not only internal benefits (agriculture and structural funds) but also external commitments. On the other, it would add transparency to ESDP in that the Parliament could organise hearings with experts and officials as well as plenary debates. For their part, the member states would gain an additional incentive – however modest – to provide adequate human resources for external operations. Finally, participating 'third' (and especially remaining and future candidate) countries could well be associated with all these arrangements, either case by case or more systematically. And none of the proposals outlined here necessarily require treaty change, although it would be preferable to insert some 'enabling' clauses in the Constitutional Treaty. All proposals, however, would require collaboration — rather than competition — between EU institutions.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Democratic Republic of the Congo

2706. The European Union and armaments Getting a bigger bang for the Euro

Author:: Burkard Schmitt
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: The proposals of the Convention on the Future of Europe and the recent European Commission Communication on a Defence Equipment Policy have revived the debate about the EU's possible involvement in armaments. There is indeed a chance today that a European Agency for Armaments, Research and Capabilities will be set up and anchored in the new EU Treaty. At the same time, there is a growing consensus that the EU Commission should have certain competencies in the field of security-related research, and even the establishment of a common defence equipment market is (again) under discussion.
Topic:: Defense Policy, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe

2707. European armament cooperation Core documents

Author:: Burkard Schmitt
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: There is a long tradition of armaments cooperation in Europe. The first cooperative programmes were launched in the 1960s, and their number increased considerably over the following decades. Projects such as Transall, Tornado, HOT, Milan and Eurofighter – to name just a few – have illustrated both the political will and the technological capability to develop and produce high-tech weapons systems jointly.
Topic:: Defense Policy, Government, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:: Europe

2708. DCAF Security Sector Governance Status Report and Needs Assessment on Timor Leste

Author:: Philipp H. Fluri
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: The DCAF Security Sector Governance Status Report and Needs Assessment on Timor- Leste was planned and implemented on the initiative and on behalf of the Foreign Minister of Switzerland Madame Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Development, and Government

2709. Before and After 1998 - A Romanian Short History

Author:: Mircea Plangu
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Bitter impressions can be presumed if we are to acknowledge that society is somehow divided into two categories: military and civilians, or vice-versa. Or if we understand that the civilians involved in security policy are a scarce resource. Reading about the concept, we can perceive hints about some obstacles existent in the activity of civilians at the interface with their military colleagues.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe

2710. The Role of Civilians in National Security Structures - The Bulgarian Experience

Author:: Velizar Shalamanov
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: The strengthening of the democratic and civilian control of the security sector has been an important policy issue on the agenda of the international community throughout the last decade. A key dimension in this respect is the role of civilians in the formulation and conduct of national security policy.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe and Bulgaria

2711. The Role of Civilians in Security and Defence Policy Making - The Case of the Czech Republic

Author:: Marie Vlachová
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Formal and institutional framework of democratic control of armed forces has been installed in the Czech Republic – roles, responsibilities and powers of security sector institutions/actors are determined by law.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe and Czech Republic

2712. Intelligence Practice and Democratic Oversight - a Practitioner's View

Publication Date:: 07-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Democracy is founded on every citizen's right to take part in the management of public affairs. This requires the existence of representative institutions at all levels and, as a cornerstone, a parliament in which all components of society are represented and which has the requisite powers and means to express the will of the people by legislating and overseeing government action.
Topic:: Democratization, Economics, Government, and Politics

2713. Comparing Frameworks of Parliamentary Oversight: Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine

Author:: David Betz
Publication Date:: 07-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: It is a truism that the nature and limits of parliamentary oversight in any state are determined by the constitutional and political structure unique to that state. That is to say, a state's constitutional and political “framework of legislative oversight” ultimately constrains the extent to which its parliamentarians may regulate their defence establishment. In some countries, parliament has the legal wherewithal to exert a high degree of scrutiny and control over developments in the defence sector. In others, parliaments possess only limited legal prerogatives in this respect because the executive dominates the defence sector.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Hungary

2714. Monitoring of the Norwegian Secret Services

Author:: Leif Mevik
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: In Norway, monitoring of the secret services (EOS services) is carried out by a parliamentary monitoring body, the Committee for Monitoring of Intelligence, Surveillance and Security Services. The Committee conducts continuous monitoring of the Norwegian Police Security Service, the Norwegian Intelligence Service and the Norwegian National Security Authority (NoNSA). The monitoring arrangement is independent of the EOS services and the remainder of the administration. The Committee's members are elected by the Storting (the Norwegian parliament), and the Committee reports to the Storting annually. The arrangement was established in 1996. The continuous monitoring takes the form of regular inspections of the secret services. The Committee also deals with complaints from private individuals and organizations that believe the secret services have committed injustices against them.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: Europe

2715. The Integration of Women into the Czech Armed Forces

Author:: Marie Vlachová
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: In the mid-1980s, only three per cent of Czechoslovak women served in the professional corps. By the turn of the millennium, their number had increased to ten per cent. The process of a slow, but steady integration of women into the Czechoslovak/Czech armed forces, its present state and future perspectives are described in this study.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, and Government
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe

2716. The Professionalisation of the Czech Armed Forces

Author:: Marie Vlachová
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Throughout modern history, the fate of the Czech nation has always been determined by politicians and not the armed forces. Czech soldiers have seldom fought for "their cause", i.e. one with which they are able to identify fully. The existence of Czechoslovakia's pre-war army, which was supposed to guarantee national sovereignty, was too short-lived, ending unimpressively when the political representation decided to demobilize prior to the country's occupation by the Nazis. The First Republic tradition was not sufficient to overcome widespread anti-military sentiments, which were personified by the infamous Czech literary character known as "Soldier Shweik" - whose origins lie in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the Communist era, most people were unable to identify with a fight against imperialism, that was designed by the Communist regime as the main reason for compulsory service in the military. The fact that the army stayed away from the public resistance to the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, only exacerbated the common perception that the military was no more than an obedient instrument of the Soviet Union's power politics. Even after the collapse of communism, doubts about the necessity to have an army persisted within Czech society. After November 1989, the armed forces drifted from the public.s and politician.s centre of attention for a short time. However, once it became apparent that the army would not intervene in the political transformation process; both the population and the new political representation shifted their focus towards political, economic, and also social issues.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe and Czech Republic

2717. Democratic Control of Security and Intelligence Services: A Legal Framework

Author:: Ian Leigh
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This paper is a contribution to a continuing project of the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF): to provide a map or 'matrix' of legal norms to govern security sector reform. Previous contributions have addressed civil-military relations and work remains to be done on policing. The focus here is on the implications of this approach for the norms governing security and intelligence agencies.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Geneva

2718. Management of National Security Sector - Bulgarian Experience

Author:: Anyu Angelov
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: The notion of national security could be perceived in a narrow meaning or in an exceptionally broad meaning. Using this term in broader sense creates opportunities of binding mutually the functions and the responsibilities of almost all state institutions, local administration and municipalities in almost all spheres of public life. But such a perception hides a danger of dilution and chaotic shift of responsibilities between agencies for some of their paramount activities. And sometimes the broader sense could mislead even governments in their decision-making process. Let me give you a brand new Bulgarian example. Recently the Supreme Administrative Court stopped temporarily one of the biggest privatisation deals- those on Bulgarian tobacco holding known as "Bulgartabac". Striving for acceleration of the privatisation process and finding no other opportunity to overrule the court's decision about a concrete buyer, the government passed a bill, in which only the parliament is authorised to make decisions on the privatisation of fifteen of the biggest state companies, among them Bulgarian Tоbacco Holding, Bulgarian Railways, Bulgarian Airlines. Those decisions cannot be protested by the prosecution and overruled by the court. The only motivation of such exclusive procedure was the "exceptional importance of these companies for the national security". The bill was adopted by the National Assembly with shake majority, but was vetoed by the President.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe and Bulgaria

2719. Oversight and Guidance: the Relevance of Parliamentary Oversight for Security Sector Reform

Author:: Hans Born and Philip Fluri
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: There is a widespread belief that security policy is a 'natural' task for the executive as they have the requisite knowledge and ability to act quickly. The decision to go to war, to contribute troops to multinational peace support operations, to conclude international treaties or to raise defence spending, to mention just some of the most important governmental security responsibilities, are regarded to be executive decisions. The stubborn perception exists that parliaments should be kept out of these decisions. Parliament tends to be regarded as a less suitable institution for dealing with security issues, especially given its often time-consuming procedures and lack of full access to the necessary expertise and information. Additionally, parliaments are regarded as ill-suited institutions for keeping classified information secret. However, this is a misperception. The past teaches us that parliaments do play a major role in matters of security in democratic states, both in times of war and peace. In the times of the Roman Republic, the Dutch Republic in the sixteenth century, Great Britain in the Second World War, or, more recently at the outbreak of the Second Gulf War, Parliaments across the globe have debated, influenced and exercised oversight over security policy and security sector reform, even in the middle of war.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe, Romania, and Dutch

2720. Parliamentary Control of Security Policy - The Experience of Poland

Author:: Agnieszka Gogolewska
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: In representative democracies, parliaments play a crucial, albeit sometimes neglected or underestimated role in assuring a proper functioning of the democratic civilian control of the security sector. In that sense, parliaments represent an important link in the chain of democratic institutions exercising such control. It would be wrong however to assume that the controlling functions of the legislatures are realised in much the same way as the executive or civilian bureaucracy exercises them. In democratic systems parliaments are an institutional expression of popular legitimacy and accountability, therefore their controlling role is more general and principle-driven that is the case of other institutions, directly responsible for managing security sector.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, Government, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Poland

2721. Officer Career Management in a Peacetime Democracy

Author:: Jack Petri
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: I have been asked to present brief comments on the subject of officer career management in a peacetime democracy. As I have spent much of my 30-year military career involved either directly or indirectly in the management of officers in a democracy (mostly in peace, but also in war), I am very happy to be able to share my thoughts and experience with you today.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, Government, and Peace Studies

2722. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Chapter: Central Asia

Author:: Philipp Fluri
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Unlike in many other developing countries on the way to democracy, the military plays a more limited role than other security providers, notably the Ministry of the Interior whose forces are much more powerful than the military and have their own armed units. They pose the greater potential threat to security and stability, and thus form a graver potential impediment to economic and political reform than the military. Whereas the economic, social and even some of the defence systems in the post-Soviet republics have gone through reforms, the forces and institutional structures of the Ministries of the Interior have remained more or less the same; change has occurred only in their size which again does not imply larger or more transparent budgets.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Central Asia

2723. Former Soviet Union: Security Sector Reform in the Southern Caucasus

Author:: Philipp Fluri
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: The countries of the Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) experienced seventy years of one-party centralized management of the security sector – a heritage they share with all other former Soviet Republics (though precise time spans vary). Independent state-building can be expected to be slow, and it has further been vexed by armed conflicts which are far from being permanently settled and which have led to considerable numbers of IDPs and refugees in Georgia and Azerbaijan. This specific situation has naturally slowed the build-up of security sectors much different from the local post-Soviet replica of the once union-wide complex of security services.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: Eastern Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

2724. Control and Oversight of Security Intelligence in Romania

Author:: Larry Watts
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: According to March 2002 poll, 60% of the Romanian population believe that their intelligence services – in particular the SRI (Serviciul roman de informatii – domestic security intelligence) and the SIE (Serviciul de informatii externe – foreign intelligence) – have been “transformed into democratic institutions on the western model.” 52% believe that the services are serving national interests in a politically-neutral fashion as opposed to partisan aims of the sitting government (32%), and 55% had a generally “good opinion” concerning their performance. 73% of the population believes that the services do not have too much power, and half of those believe they have too little power, while 74% believe that intelligence specialists remaining from before 1989 – about 15% of the SRI and 18% of the SIE – should be retained. Periodic polling by other agencies regularly rank the SRI just behind the church and the army, and ahead of the government and police, in terms of public trust.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Government
Political Geography:: Romania

2725. New Constitutional Position of the Army

Author:: Miroslav Hadzic
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Unwilling to establish the principles of future relations in the joint state, the heads of the Federal, Serbian, and Montenegrin authorities, after being pressured by the European Union (EU), finally signed the Belgrade Agreement. Afterwards, they began to draft the Constitutional Charter of the joint state of Serbia and Montenegro. The entire project is based upon the supposition that this supra-national creation will only have delegated powers agreed to by member states. This infers that the Union will not have original sovereignty; rather Serbia and Montenegro will have it. The implementation of this solution will sever all ties with the federal organization of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and its predecessors, only simplifying matters, as Montenegro has already unilaterally excluded itself from the authority of federal bodies, and in that way, has practically abolished this state.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: Serbia and Montenegro

2726. Practical Confidence-Building Measures: Does Good Governance of the Security Sector Matter?

Author:: Heiner Hänggi
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Good governance of the security sector, when considered from a disarmament perspective, indicates linkages between two principal issue-areas in contemporary international politics, i.e. those of 'security' and 'governance'. These two issue-areas are closely intertwined, contributing to evolving definitions of the terms themselves. During the bipolar period, security was generally defined in 'hard' military terms. Following the end of the Cold War, the concept was broadened to include 'soft' and human security concerns. This was paralleled by a broadening of the concept of confidence-building measures to include, inter alia, the role of security forces in the society. The fundamental principles of good governance include transparency and accountability of the exercise of state power. The implementation of good governance of the security sector (including military, paramilitary, internal security forces, police, border guards, and intelligence services) is a long and often difficult process, and whether this can be achieved is dependent on the capability and willingness of the individual countries.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, Government, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Europe

2727. Democratic and Parliamentary Accountability of Intelligence Services after September 11th.

Author:: Peter Gill
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: In the past thirty years throughout Europe, the Americas and more sporadically elsewhere the issue of how to institute some democratic control over security intelligence agencies has steadily permeated the political agenda. There have been two main reasons for this change. In what might be described as the 'old' democracies (North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand) the main impetus for change was scandal involving abuses of power and rights by the agencies. Typically, these gave rise to legislative or judicial enquiries that resulted in new legal and oversight structures for the agencies, some of these achieved by statutes, others by executive orders. The best known examples of these are the U.S. congressional enquiries during 1975-76 (chaired by Senator Church and Representative Pike), Justice McDonald's enquiry into the RCMP Security Service in Canada (1977-81) and Justice Hope's into the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:: Australia, North America, New Zealand, and Western Europe

2728. Security Sector Reform in Bulgaria

Author:: Velizar Shalamanov
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Security Sector Reform (SSR) is an essential part of transformation of the totalitarian states to democratic ones. Security was motive, tool and excuse for the Communist Parties to control totally the state, economy and society at all. As a result security sector - named Armed Forces was extremely large, powerful, secret (un-transparent), under communist party control and separated from society even using all the resources of the society, including young men for 2-3 years.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe and Bulgaria

2729. A Casual View into the Future: Reform of Military Education in the Czech Republic

Author:: Marie Vlachová and Ladislav Halberštát
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: There is no doubt that the security situation in Europe changed dramatically during the last decade. Whilst total war has disappeared from the inventory of security threats, regional wars with devastating consequences for affected countries, are still topical. With ethnic hostility, organised crime and the world-wide terrorism list of non-military threats has become much wider. A widening gap between rich Western countries and their poor neighbours in Eastern and South Eastern Europe represents another serious danger, as well as do uncontrollable corruption in politically and economically weak regimes, the inability of states to protect their borders efficiently against trafficking, smuggling, illegal immigration and weapons proliferation, including weapons of mass destruction. Information warfare which results in serious damage being caused by attacks on the information systems of developed countries represents another relatively new security threat. Expertise in security political decision-making has become very important, and thus in the future, a shortage of competent specialists in governmental and parliamentary structures could affect states' ability to anticipate threats and make an adequate decision.
Topic:: Security, Development, Government, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:: Europe and Czech Republic

2730. NATO Nuclear Non-proliferation Policies in a Changing Threat Environment

Author:: Alistair Millar and Morten Bremer Maerli
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:: This report summarises the conference “NATO Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policies in a Changing Threat Environment” convened in, Oslo, 12 May 2003. The conference was co-organised by the Fourth Freedom Forum, the Norwegian Atlantic Committee, and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It was co-sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and the Ploughshares Foundation.
Topic:: International Relations, NATO, Climate Change, Government, and Nuclear Weapons

2731. Hidden Costs of War

Author:: William D. Hartung
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:: The Bush administration's war on terrorism and its proposed military intervention in Iraq have sparked the steepest increases in military and security spending in two decades. Since September 11, 2001, the federal government has approved over $110 billion in increased military spending and military aid. Spending on national defense is slated to reach $399 billion in the Fiscal Year 2004 budget, and to rise to over $500 billion annually by the end of this decade. These vast sums do not include the costs of the ongoing war in Afghanistan or a war with Iraq. Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments estimates that only 5 to 10 percent of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pentagon budget is being set aside for anti-terror activities and homeland security.
Topic:: Security, Economics, Government, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and Middle East

2732. Political Disaffection and Democratization: History in New Democracies

Author:: Mariano Torcal
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This paper focuses on the analysis of political disaffection. After discussing and defining this notion, the article shows that disaffection affects more widely, though not exclusively, third-wave democracies. The close link between levels of disaffection and the history of democratization in each country explains its higher incidence among new democracies. For this very reason, political disaffection could also run high among more established democracies. However, regardless of its incidence in each particular country, political disaffection reveals a distinctive nature in new democracies because of the absence of a democratic past in many of these cases. Thus, disaffection constitutes a key element to explain the lower propensity of citizens of new democracies to participate in every dimension of political activity.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, International Political Economy, and Politics
Political Geography:: Europe

2733. Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda

Author:: Gretchen Helmke and Steven Levitsky
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: During the 1990s, comparative research on political institutions focused primarily on formal rules. Yet recent studies suggest that an exclusive focus on formal rules is often insufficient, and that informal institutions, ranging from bureaucratic and legislative norms to clientelism and patrimonialism, often have a profound—and systematic—effect on political outcomes. Neglecting these informal institutions thus risks missing many of the “real” incentives and constraints that underlie political behavior. This article seeks to move informal institutions from the margins to the mainstream of comparative politics research. It develops an initial framework for studying informal institutions and, importantly, integrating them into comparative institutional analysis. In the conceptual realm, the article attempts to clarify what is meant by “informal institution” and then develops a typology of four patterns of formal-informal institutional interaction: complementary, accommodating, competing, and substitutive. In the theoretical realm, the article examines two issues that have been largely unexplored in the literature on informal institutions: the question of why and how informal institutions emerge, and the sources of informal institutions stability and change. A final section explores some of the practical challenges inherent in research on informal institutions, including issues of identification, measurement, and comparison.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, International Political Economy, and Politics

2734. La Posguerra Colombiana: Divagaciones Sobre la Venganza, La Justicia y la Reconciliación

Author:: Iván Orozco
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This essay explores the relationships between vengeance, justice and reconciliation in contexts of war and transitions towards democracy, with a special emphasis and interest on the Colombian situation. It aims at easing, at least partly, the tensions facing peace makers and human rights activists who deal with the issue of “impunity” for atrocious crimes perpetrated by the state and other political organizations. It does so by distinguishing between vertical and horizontal processes of victimization and by distributing functions between peace makers and human rights activists in accord with this distinction. Based upon the premise that transitional Justice always entails a compromise between punishment, truth and reconciliation, the paper argues for a certain priority of punishment in contexts of vertical victimization and for a partial precedence of reconciliation in contexts of horizontal victimization. The notion of “gray areas” where the distinction between victims and perpetrators, best represented by certain kinds of “collaborators” and, “avengers” collapses, lies at the heart of the logics of forgiveness and reconciliation. After characterizing the Colombian conflict as a case of horizontal victimization—i.e., symmetric barbarism—the paper proposes a model of transitional justice for Colombia built on the primacy of truth and forgiveness for the inhabitants of gray zones and punishment for the engineers and managers of barbarism.
Topic:: Democratization and Government
Political Geography:: Colombia and South America

2735. Policy Making Under Divided Government in Mexico

Author:: Benito Nacif
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: Without a majority in the Congress, the president's party looses the ability to direct policy change. With only one-third of the vote, the president's party can prevent any initiative from turning into law. Individual opposition parties gain influence under divided government but lack the power to veto policy change. Contrary to what critics of Presidentialism have argued, political parties in presidential regimes do not lack in incentives to cooperate and build policymaking coalitions. Coalition building depends on the potential gains of cooperation that both the president's party and the opposition parties can capture if they modify the status quo. Two sufficient conditions for coalition building can be identified: an extreme position of the status quo, and the location of the president's party at the median position. This explains law change and the size of lawmaking coalitions under divided government in Mexico.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: North America and Mexico

2736. When Capital Cities Move: The Political Geography of Nation and State Building

Author:: Edward Schatz
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: Capital relocation (i.e., the physical move of the central state apparatus from one location to another) is an unusual tool for nation and state building. Yet, it is used more frequently than we might expect. Thus, when Kazakhstan shifted its capital city in 1997 from Almaty to Astana the move was unique in that post-Soviet region, but not as uncommon in other post-colonial cases. This paper examines the move of the capital in Kazakhstan suggests that this move was designed to address particularly acute nation-and state-building challenges. If the Kazakhstan experience seems strange in de-Sovietization, this tells us much about the different nature of post-Soviet space versus other post-colonial contexts. The relative in frequency of capital moves implies that the challenges of nation and state building in the ex-USSR—as daunting as they have proved to be—are generally not as acute as in those of other post-colonial contexts.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: Russia, Central Asia, and Kazakhstan

2737. Individual Unemployment Accounts

Author:: Lawrence Brunner and Stephen M. Colarelli
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Independent Institute
Abstract:: The unemployment compensation system in the United States is out of date and in trouble. The system has four fundamental problems: (1) during recessions, it often cannot meet its financial obligations without federal aid or deficit spending; (2) it is out of step with the structural and cultural realities of the modern workforce; (3) it encourages layoffs and unemployment; and (4) it operates in isolation from other programs related to employment and financial security. We propose an alternative unemployment policy based on the individual unemployment account (IUA). The IUA would be a mandatory and portable individual trust to which the employer and employee contributed. It shifts control and responsibility from the employer and the state government to the employer and the employee, and it is compatible with the realities of a twenty-first-century economy. We begin by providing an overview of how the current unemployment insurance system works and discussing its problems. We then describe an alternative unemployment policy based on IUAs and discuss the benefits of such a policy.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:: United States

2738. Israeli Democracy Depends on Peace with the Palestinians

Author:: Heiko Wimmen
Publication Date:: 07-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Social Science Research Council
Abstract:: HW: Professor Peled, during the two years of Ariel Sharon's tenure as prime minister, Israel has seen a steep economic decline, and a rapidly deteriorating security situation. Yet Mr. Sharon enjoys more support than any Israeli head of government for a long time. What do you make of this paradox?
Topic:: Government and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

2739. Iraq and the Return of Colonialism

Author:: Burhan Ghalioun
Publication Date:: 07-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Social Science Research Council
Abstract:: The failure to discover any traceable evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq doubtlessly creates a serious embarrassment for the American administration. But the US never made much of an effort to conceal that the purported existence of WMDs in Iraq was only a pretext employed to obtain the consent of some of its bigger allies to its global strategic outlook, and the acquiescence of smaller nations to its regional plans. The real objective behind the US strike against Iraq was not the destruction of WMDs – Iraq in its pre-war state was ill equipped to produce WMDs anyway – but to topple the regime of President Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration also clearly considered regime change to be more than a strategic aim in itself, but rather a prelude to a general makeover of the region, in the course of which many local regimes would have to change or be changed according to its strategic vision. Secretary of State Colin Powell made this abundantly clear when, in December 2002, he promised the peoples of the region a concerted effort on behalf of the US to achieve democratic change, fight unemployment and work for the improvement of women's position in society.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, America, and Middle East

2740. Democracy and Military Intervention: Challenges and Opportunities

Author:: Daniel Byman
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Abstract:: The Bush administration entered office skeptical of using the U.S. military to build democracy. Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's National Security Advisor, wrote before the election that: "The President must remember that the military is a special instrument. It is lethal, and it is meant to be. It is not a civilian police force. It is not a political referee. And it is most certainly not designed to build a civilian society." Despite this skepticism, policing, building a civilian society, and other tasks inherent to democratization were quickly thrust upon the Bush administration. Even before the fall of the Taliban, the United States and its allies began trying to shape a new government to take power in Kabul. And today, as the United States and its allies move to topple Saddam's regime, they are grappling with how to create a stable and democratic future for Iraq.
Topic:: Security, Government, Peace Studies, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, Taliban, and Kabul

2741. You, The People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building

Author:: Simon Chesterman
Publication Date:: 11-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: Transitional administrations represent the most complex operations attempted by the United Nations. The missions in Kosovo (1999—) and East Timor (1999–2002) are commonly seen as unique in the history of the United Nations. But they may also be seen as the latest in a series of operations that have involved the United Nations in 'state-building' activities, in which it has attempted to develop the institutions of government by assuming some or all of those sovereign powers on a temporary basis. Viewed in light of earlier UN operations, such as those in Namibia (1989–1990), Cambodia (1992–1993), and Eastern Slavonia (1996–1998), the idea that these exceptional circumstances may not recur is somewhat disingenuous. The need for policy research in this area was brought into sharp focus by the weighty but vague responsibilities assigned to the United Nations in Afghanistan (2002—) and its contested role in Iraq (2003—).
Topic:: International Relations, Development, Government, and United Nations
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Kosovo, Cambodia, Namibia, and Eastern Slavonia

2742. Defensible Borders for Israel

Author:: Dore Gold
Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:: The quest for defensible borders has been an axiom of Israeli governments since 1967 on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 242. Defensible borders for Israel has been explicitly backed by Washington since the Reagan administration. In Rabin's last Knesset address he made clear that Israel "will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines." He insisted on a map including a united Jerusalem, the settlement blocs, and the Jordan Valley. In 2003, Israeli planners will have to operate under the assumption that the dismantling of the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure will be incomplete, and should a Palestinian state nonetheless be established, its complete demilitarization will not be reliable. During the Oslo years, the Palestinian leadership was in material breach of the military clauses of the Interim Agreement, seeking to import illegal weaponry like SA-7 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and manufacturing Qassam rockets. Many of the same security figures who breached Oslo now serve the government of Mahmud Abbas. Moreover, fundamentalist groups like Hamas that mentioned the Islamic term hudna, for cease-fire, understood that it means a truce that is maintained until the balance of power changes. This means they will seek rearmament; Israeli military intelligence was, in fact, reporting that Hamas had accelerated production of Qassam rockets in early July. In their pronouncements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have even used a weaker term: ta'liq - a temporary cessation of hostilities. In the wake of the decline of the threat from Iraq, Israel will require defensible borders to meet the growing lethality of the Palestinian threat, backed by the assistance of Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. The Bush administration should provide Israel with assurances concerning defensible borders as it seeks Israel's acquiescence to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan

2743. The Global Epidemic of Illegal Building and Demolitions: Implications for Jerusalem

Author:: Justus Reid Weiner
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:: In recent decades, municipalities and governments in all parts of the world have struggled with illegal building. However, compared with the incessant denunciation of rather infrequent demolitions by the Jerusalem Municipality, there has been nearly a complete lack of publicity when other governments demolish illegal structures. Those who complain that many Arabs cannot afford housing in Jerusalem ought to recognize economic reality; Jewish residents of Jerusalem who also cannot afford the high cost of housing find it necessary to move to the periphery of the city where housing is more affordable. In New York, nobody would excuse or tolerate people building illegally in Central Park, whatever their attachment to Manhattan or however large their family. Even the Palestinian Authority has demolished houses constructed illegally. Particularly refreshing was PA leader Sari Nusseibeh's statement that the "gangs that build illegally on land that does not belong to them should be thrown into jail," and that "Nobody in their right mind is in favor of illegal building."
Topic:: Security, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:: New York, Middle East, Palestine, Arabia, and Jerusalem

2744. Should Israel Now Send a Message to the Arab World?

Author:: Dan Diker
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:: The impending renewal of Arab-Israeli contacts after the Aqaba summit is an appropriate occasion to reassess one of the weak points of Israel's information effort. At the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, then Deputy Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "broke the ice" with scores of Arab reporters when he provided articulate explanations of Israel's positions. Eytan Bentsur, Director General of Israel's Foreign Ministry at the time of Madrid, saw Israel's "paternalistic" approach to the Palestinians at Oslo as contributing to the ultimate collapse of the peace process. The launch of Arab satellite television in 1994 provided Israel with direct access to millions of Arab and Muslim viewers throughout the Middle East. Prime Minister Sharon's foreign media advisor, Raanan Gissin, is regularly interviewed on the leading Arab channels. Despite the high standards of news programming on Israel's new Arabic-language Middle East Satellite Channel, it is not widely viewed in the Arab world because it is recognized as an Israeli government operation. ArabYnet, an Arabic translation of the popular Ynet news website of the Israeli Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot, has become one of the most popular Arabic language websites on the Internet, with nearly a million unique monthly users. It is a commercial site that presents an Israeli point of view but with no particular political agenda.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, and Arabia

2745. 'You Have Removed the Devil From Our Door' - An Assessment of the UNDP Small Arms and Light Weapons Control (SALWC) project in Albania

Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:: The Small Arms and Light Weapons Control (SALWC) project was undertaken in 2002-2003 by UNDP in co-operation with the Albanian government, at a programme cost to the international community of US$ 3.47.8 million. Its objectives were to help remove illegally held weapons and explosives from the population, to make the population more aware of the dangers of the illegal possession of such items and to enhance the ability of the authorities to control the private possession of arms and ammunition.
Topic:: Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Civil Society, Government, and Population
Political Geography:: Europe and Albania

2746. Bi-Annual Report: 01 January - 30 June 2003

Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:: In November 2001 the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe adopted a Regional Implementation Plan on Combating the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in South Eastern Europe, which provides a framework of approaches and measures to tackle SALW issues that can be adopted by the countries of the region and supported by international organisations and bi-lateral donors. The Implementation Plan included provision for the establishment of a regional clearinghouse to support its implementation, and on the basis of this mandate SEESAC was officially launched in Belgrade on the 08 May 2002 as a joint UNDP and Stability Pact initiative.
Topic:: Arms Control and Proliferation, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe

2747. Approaching Education from a Good Governance Perspective: USAID Resource Guide for Joint DG/Education Programs

Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:: This resource guide is a joint effort of USAID's Office of Democracy and Governance and Office of Education, responding to the need to promote greater policy and program linkages between the Agency's democracy and governance (DG) and education sectors. The specific goals of this DG and education resource guide are to raise awareness among education sector professionals at USAID about the role of the DG sector in shaping education policies and programs; to raise awareness among USAID DG professionals about education as an important DG issue; and to provide frameworks and best practice examples to help guide joint programming among USAID education and DG staff.
Topic:: Civil Society, Democratization, Education, and Government

2748. Final Evaluation: The OTI Program In East Timor

Author:: Jeffrey Clark, Lia Juliani, and Ann von Briesen Lewis
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:: The report which follows constitutes the final evaluation of the three year Office of Transition Initiatives operation in East Timor. It stems from an independent examination and analysis of OTI's program in that country, as it emerged from the violence of September 1999 and faced the multiple challenges inherent in constructing a new government and in defining a new nation. The evaluation, conducted in October and November of 2002, was undertaken through a big picture approach meant to capture the entirety of OTI's experience in East Timor. The evaluators concentrated on two fundamental questions: Is there evidence that OTI's interventions had impact? Did the interventions deliver on the stated objectives?
Topic:: Development, Economics, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Southeast Asia

2749. Factional Politics and Credit Networks in Revolutionary Vermont

Author:: Henning Hillmann
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:: Studies of state formation tend to emphasize the demise of localism through centralization. This article specifies empirically the social structural conditions that strengthen localism understate formation. The historical case is the creation of Vermont during the Revolutionary War and the local factionalism it involved. Probate records are used to reconstruct credit networks that provided the relational foundation for localism and factional identities. The evidence demonstrates that network segregation between factional regions intensified over time, and was supported by strong cohesion within these regions. Local brokers who forged cohesion within factions consistently attained important political offices while mediators between opposing factions increasingly failed to obtain offices. This structural process coincided with the shift of Vermont's domestic politics into national level conflicts between Federalists and Jeffersonians. Within this escalation local and national factions crystallized around equivalent pairs of binary categorical oppositions. T h e evocation of national politics directly resonated with local lines of conflict, and reinforced factional identities and localism.
Topic:: Government, Human Welfare, Politics, and War
Political Geography:: United States

2750. The Plasticity of Participation: Evidence from a Participatory Governance Experiment

Author:: Subham Chaudhuri and Patrick Heller
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:: Under the “People's Campaign for Decentralised Planning,” initiated by the government of the Indian state of Kerala in 1996, significant planning and budgetary functions that had previously been controlled by state-level ministries, were devolved to the lowest tier of government—municipalities in urban areas, and gram panchayats (village councils) in ural areas. A key element of the campaign was the requirement that every gram panchayat organize open village assemblies—called Gram Sabhas—twice a year through which citizens could participate in formulating planning priorities, goals and projects. Using data from the first two years of the campaign, on the levels and composition of participation in the Gram Sabhas in all of Kerala's 990 gram panchayats we empirically assess the explanatory power of the dominant existing paradigms of participation—social capital, rational choice, and social-historical. The basic patterns we document, as well as our more detailed analyses of the impact that a range of spatial, socioeconomic and political factors had on the levels and social depth of participation, provide broad support for a dynamic and contingent view of participation, a perspective that recognizes the “plasticity of participation.”
Topic:: Economics, Government, Human Welfare, and Governance
Political Geography:: Asia

2751. Unbreakable Bond: Serbs and Kosovo

Author:: Vladimir Matic
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:: Nationalism remains a potent force in Serbia, strongly affecting the politicking within the political elite regarding final status issues in Kosovo. The democratic forces are not immune from Kosovo-related nationalism and have at times adopted hardline positions to diminish their vulnerabilities in the political struggle. Since the end of the Kosovo war the West has done nothing to dispel the perception in Belgrade that Serbia's legal claim of sovereignty over Kosovo remains valid in principle and of equivalent standing as an issue “on the table” with Kosovo Albanians' insistence on independence in the prelude to negotiations. Belgrade ignores the fact that, with virtually no Albanians in Kosovo willing to work with them, they have no Albanian partners in pursuing this goal. Kosovo Serbs also display considerable mistrust of Belgrade's concern for their interests. The EU and UNMIK have attempted to create a framework for progress on the issue, but success will hinge on the willingness of the United States to exercise diplomatic leadership to resolve the deadlock.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, and Albania

2752. Serbia After Djindjic: Can Invigorated Reforms Be Sustained?

Author:: Vladimir Matic
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:: The assassinated prime minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, appears to have won in death much of what he could not achieve in life. His concept of Serbia's way out of the domestic political and economic crisis through reform and membership in a democratic Europe has prevailed over one representing the past; Serbia is finally open to cooperation with the world. But the national consensus he was dreaming about does not yet exist. The prevalence and reach of networks of organized crime and corruption limit prospects for significant further structural change and more serious consolidation of the rule of law. The Serbian people have put aside for the moment their infatuation with radical nationalism rather than exorcising it from their society and intellectual culture. The success of such reform as has been implemented is far from secured. For the time being the joint efforts of the leading pro-democratization parties of Serbia and Montenegro have brought about the beginning of long-postponed changes in the army and initiated far-reaching reforms. This allows continuation of reforms in Serbian services and strengthening of the basic institutions of democracy. If continued, expanded and intensified, this course will take both Serbia and Montenegro irrespective of the final destiny of their Union closer to democracy and to the European Union and the United States.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and Serbia

2753. Interest Rate Rules and Multiple Equilibria in the Small Open Economy

Author:: Luis-Felipe Zanna
Publication Date:: 12-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:: In a small open economy model with traded and non-traded goods this paper characterizes conditions under which interest rate rules induce aggregate instability by generating multiple equilibria. These conditions depend not only on how aggressively the rule responds to inflation, but also on the measure of inflation to which the government responds, on the degree of openness of the economy and on the degree of exchange rate pass-through. As an important policy implication, this paper finds that to avoid aggregate instability in the economy the government should implement an aggressive rule with respect to the inflation rate of the sector that has sticky prices. That is the non-traded goods inflation rate. As a by-product of this analysis, it is shown that "fear-of-floating" governments that follow a rule that responds to both the CPI-inflation rate and the nominal depreciation rate or governments that implement "super-inertial" interest rate smoothing rules may actually induce multiple equilibria in their economies. This paper also shows that for forward-looking rules, the determinacy of equilibrium conditions depends not only on the degree of openness of the economy but also on the weight that the government puts on expected future CPI-inflation rates. In fact rules that are "excessively" forward-looking always lead to multiple equilibria.
Topic:: International Relations, Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance

2754. The High-Frequency Response of Exchange Rates and Interest Rates to Macroeconomic Announcements

Author:: John H. Rogers, Jonathan H. Wright, Jon Faust, and Shing-Yi B. Wang
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:: Many recent papers have studied movements in stock, bond, and currency prices over short windows of time around macro announcements. This paper adds to the announcement effects literature in two ways. First, we study the joint announcement effects across a broad range of assets--exchange rates and U.S. and foreign term structures. In order to evaluate whether the joint effects can be reconciled with conventional theory, we interpret the joint movements in light of uncovered interest rate parity or changes in risk premia. For several real macro announcements, we find that a stronger than expected release appreciates the dollar today, but that it must either (i) lower the relative risk premium for holding foreign currency rather than dollars, or (ii) imply considerable future expected dollar depreciation. The latter implies an overshooting behavior akin to that described by Dornbusch (1976). Second, we use a longer span of high frequency data than has been common in announcement work. A longer span of high frequency data contributes to the precision of our estimates and allows us to explore the possibility that the effects of macro surprises on asset prices have varied over time. We find evidence, for example, that PPI releases had a larger effect on U.S. interest rates before about 1992 than subsequently.
Topic:: International Relations, Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States

2755. Market Power and Inflation

Author:: David Bowman
Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:: This paper examines the extent to which a decline in market power could have contributed to the general decline in inflation rates experienced in developed countries during the 1990s.
Topic:: International Relations, Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance

2756. Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent federal government agency created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) to monitor religious freedom in other countries and advise the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on how best to promote it. The Commission is the only government commission in the world with a mandate to review and report violations of the internationally-guaranteed right to freedom of religion and belief worldwide. By providing reliable information, analysis, and careful and creative policy recommendations, the Commission gives the U.S. government and the American public the tools necessary to promote religious freedom throughout the world.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Government, Human Rights, and Religion
Political Geography:: United States

2757. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: How the US-EU Battle over Article 98 Played Out in Croatia and Macedonia

Author:: Kristina Balalovska and Mieczyslaw P. Boduszynski
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: In the first half of 2003, postcommunist East European countries became pawns in two disputes between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). The first, broadly covered by the Western media, was the clash over the US-led invasion of Iraq. The second was over the jurisdiction of the newly established International Criminal Court (ICC). Although the latter skirmish was less noticed in the wider world, it was in many ways the more significant of the two. In both cases, the small states of East and Central Europe were forced to choose between the conflicting demands of the EU and US. Unlike the battle over the Iraq war, EU member states were united on the point of not granting the US immunity in the ICC. Moreover, it was impossible to walk a tightrope between Europe and the US in the ICC case because it required decisive action, whereas on the question of whether or not to invade Iraqi, some postcommunist countries were able to lend tacit support to both sides. Finally, a lot more was at stake in the ICC issue, since both the US and the EU threatened defecting countries with concrete sanctions.
Topic:: Government, International Organization, Politics, War, and Sanctions
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, Europe, and Macedonia

2758. From Moi to Kibaki: An Assessment of the Kenyan Transition

Author:: Johnnie Carson
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Wilson Center
Abstract:: An Introduction from Howard Wolpe: As the new Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center's Africa Program, I am pleased to present the first of a series of “occasional papers” of interest to those concerned with Africa, and with American policy toward Africa. “From Moi to Kibaki: An Assessment of the Kenyan Transition” provides a remarkably clear and incisive analysis by one of the U.S. Foreign Service's most distinguished Africa specialists.We felt that Ambassador Johnnie Carson's public lecture deserved a wider audience, and was an ideal vehicle for the first of our series of occasional papers.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Africa

2759. Central Asian Leadership Succession: When, Not If

Author:: Eugene B. Rumer
Publication Date:: 12-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: The Central Asian political landscape yields few signs of an impending storm in the near term. The absence of threats to the status quo, however, does not mean that it is acceptable or that it represents a stable political equilibrium in the region. Leadership succession in Central Asia bears watching for several reasons: as a precedent-setting process, it will provide the key missing element for the emerging political structures of the Central Asian states the tenure of the next generation will either make up for the shortcomings of its predecessors or aggravate them in the event of the latter, the stage will be set in Central Asia for more radical changes that could reverberate far beyond remote regional boundaries.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: China and Asia

2760. Modernizing China's Military: A High-Stakes Gamble?

Author:: Howard M. Krawitz
Publication Date:: 12-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: China's accelerated push to modernize the People's Liberation Army (PLA) raises two important questions: What impact will such change have upon the PLA image, status, and role in Chinese society? And how will Chinese military modernization affect the strategic interests and security concerns of the United States and China's neighbors in the region? Making the PLA into a more professional, technologically proficient force would certainly strengthen its capability to perform national defense, regional security, and other externally oriented missions more effectively. But modernization could also significantly change internal PLA demographics, resulting in a drastic alteration of the social contract that has traditionally existed between China's military and civilian society.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: United States and China

2761. Building an Iraqi Defense Force

Author:: Joseph McMillan
Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: The reconstruction and reform of the Iraqi armed forces will inevitably take place in the context of both Iraq's present and past. Saddam Hussein and his predecessors, going back to the creation of the state, have left Iraq a legacy of endemic domestic political violence, dysfunctional civil-military relations, and, in recent decades, an ideology of unremitting hostility to virtually every one of Iraq's neighbors.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: Iraq and Middle East

2762. China Brief, Sars: Spreading Unrest

Author:: Willy Lam, William R. Hawkins, Harvey Stockwin, and Li Thian-hok
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: The spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome—the SARS virus—throughout China is a phenomenon that had previously been denied by authorities and had gone unreported. But the penetration of the disease is now being admitted publicly, and efforts to combat it have begun. While the immediate epidemic in Beijing appears to be in decline, the fear remains that the spread of SARS within China will still be difficult—and maybe impossible—to control, let alone to eliminate. World Health Organization (WHO) officials admit that what happens in China will “make or break” the course of the epidemic. China's neighbors, and particularly Hong Kong, worry that a failure to curtail the virus will inevitably result in a fresh round of crossborder infection, further intensifying the already grave economic impact of SARS on the region. At worst, a sustained epidemic could bring China's opening-up to the outside world to a screeching halt.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China, Israel, Beijing, and Hong Kong

2763. China Brief, Taiwan's presidential countdown: what does it mean for the united states?

Author:: Willy Lam, Arnold Zeitlin, John Tkacik, and Jonathan Mirsky
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Could Taiwan's voters elect a pro-unification candidate in 2004? Can the challenger, Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan, put together an electoral consensus of ethnic mainlanders, Hakkas and ethnic Taiwanese investors in China that will begin the process of moving Taiwan into the embrace of the People's Republic of China? The polls indicate it could be a fifty-fifty proposition, especially if the campaign's focus is the economy—not national identity. Washington should begin to consider its substantial strategic stake in Taiwan, and rethink the message that its diplomats in Taipei are sending Taiwan's public.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China and Israel

2764. China Brief, New Disease, New Leaders, Same Old Regime

Author:: Willy Lam, Harvey Stockwin, Gordon G. Chang, and Richard D. Fisher
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: An epidemic, spread by official deception and indifference, is afflicting the Chinese people. What does this disease mean for the People's Republic of China?
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China and Israel

2765. China Brief, Beijing studies the U.S. war in Iraq

Author:: Willy Lam, Gordon G. Chang, Richard D. Fisher, and Wangchuk Meston
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Chinese strategic and military experts are scrutinizing the U.S. war in Iraq, and for several reasons. First, if American and British forces become bogged down in their effort to liquidate the regime of Saddam Hussein, then it is much less likely that Washington will soon target other rogue regimes with weapons of mass destruction, such as North Korea, a Chinese ally.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China, Iraq, America, Washington, Israel, and North Korea

2766. China Brief, National People's Congress: Popularity and power

Author:: Willy Lam, Harvey Stockwin, Gordon G. Chang, and M. D. Nalapat
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Newly elected President Hu Jintao and his allies should take heart from the results of the recently concluded First Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC).
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China and Israel

2767. China Brief, Osama bin Laden in China

Author:: Willy Lam, Ahmad Lutfi, Gordon G. Chang, and Richard D. Jr. Fisher
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Beijing often downplays the size of its Xinjiang problem for fear of exposing the difficulties it faces containing the “cancer of terrorism.” Since September 11, 2001, Beijing has been forced to reverse this policy due to repeated terrorist attacks. The most recent of these took place on February 25, 2003, when two bombs ripped through two of Beijing's most prestigious universities. The blasts shattered Beijing's long-held claim that it has been winning its war on terror.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China, Israel, and Beijing

2768. China Brief, Beijing: blockade buster?

Author:: Willy Lam, Gordon G. Chang, William C. Triplett, and Dr. Gulshan Dietl
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Will Kim Jong Il just slam down the phone on China's president, Jiang Zemin? That's what Beijing wants us to think. “If Kim tells Jiang he is going to test a nuclear weapon unless Jiang gives him more aid, what do we do? We give him more aid. We don't have a choice,” says one Chinese analyst who has dealt with Pyongyang. “We have some influence, but we don't have the kind of relationship where we can tell Kim what to do. If we tell him to do something, he doesn't listen. If we threaten him, he listens even less. If Jiang called him, he might hang up.”
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China and Israel

2769. China Brief, China's 7-percent solution

Author:: James E. Auer, Willy Lam, Gordon G. Chang, Richard D. Fisher, and Holmes Liao
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: “If we didn't have China I would be suicidal,” chief Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach said this month. “It's the only bright spot in the world economy.” And bright spot it is: Beijing announced that its gross domestic product grew 8 percent last year. The rate is so good that some are wondering whether the People's Republic can become the new engine for world growth.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China and Israel

2770. China Brief, Xu Wenli, into American exile

Author:: Robyn Lim, Willy Lam, Jonathan Mirsky, and Thomas Woodrow
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: On Christmas Eve the Chinese government released Xu Wenli, the founder of the country's tiny Democratic Party, into American exile. Xu has spent sixteen of the last twenty-one years behind bars. The most interesting comments on this event came from John Kamm, who for years has had no equal for occasionally persuading the Chinese government to free its political “enemies”.
Topic:: International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: China, America, and Israel

2771. State Building and Security in Afghanistan and the Region

Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: In May 2003, Princeton University's Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) convened a major international colloquium entitled, “State Building and Security in Afghanistan and the Region,” held in Bonn and Petersberg, Germany, which brought together diplomats, government officials, academics, policy experts, and field practitioners to examine international and local best practices relevant for state and security building in Afghanistan.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, Government, and War
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Germany

2772. Stability and Viability in Afghanistan

Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: As post-Taliban Afghanistan struggles to build a viable and secure state under President Hamid Karzai, a clear and urgent need exists for the international community to assist Karzai's government in building enduring domestic institutions that support the promotion of democracy, while improving the stability and security of this Asian country. In March 2003, Princeton University's Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) sponsored a colloquium entitled, “Stability and Viability in Afghanistan: Building A Viable And Effective Afghan State,” held in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein, which brought together diplomats, government officials, academics, policy experts, and field practitioners to examine international and local best practices relevant for state and security building in Afghanistan—to be considered policy recommendations by Afghans themselves.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Government, and War
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Taliban

2773. Imbalance of Powers: How Changes to U.S. Law and Security Since 9/11 Erode Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Human Rights First
Abstract:: This report examines a wide range of actions taken by the United States government over the last six months in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It updates our report entitled “A Year of Loss” published in September 2002, on the first anniversary of the attacks.
Topic:: Government, Human Rights, and National Security
Political Geography:: United States

2774. Russian Politics under President Vladimir Putin: Current State and Prospects

Author:: Andrei Ryabov
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: Not too long ago, the analysts studying the development of the Russian political process under Vladimir Putin attached foremost attention to efforts aimed to formulate the political priorities of Russia's second president and to ascertain his vision of the way the nation should develop. The actions and decisions made by Putin were analyzed primarily from that angle. For a long time, that way of analyzing today's Russian politics was regarded as perfectly operational: it is common knowledge that the political system in Russia is monocentric and the president is the principal political agent whose position largely determines the character and the thrust of political change. However, the two years that have elapsed since Putin's rise to power have compelled many experts to revise their attitudes. The reason is that despite the occasional changes in the system of government institutions made by the second president of the Russian Federation and his announcement of a continued market-oriented reform, what lies ahead remains uncertain. There are still doubts about the firmness of the stabilization attained under Putin, while the influence wielded by most of the key Russian political actors who arose back in Yeltsin's times has not diminished whatsoever. In this connection it has even been said that, in the final analysis, Putin will have to return to the policy pursued by his predecessor.
Topic:: Government and Politics
Political Geography:: Russia

2775. Islam And Politics in Present-Day Russia

Author:: Alexei Malashenko
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: Despite the interest for Islam in Russia, for the Islamic factor in the country's domestic and foreign policy, and despite the growing number of publications on the subject, the Russian Muslim community remains largely a thing in itself, an enigma. In other words, there are more questions than answers here.
Topic:: Government and Religion
Political Geography:: Russia

2776. International Dimensions of Corruption: The Russian Case

Author:: Louise Shelley
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: The globalization of the fruits of Russian organized crime and corruption have affected Russia's international image and undermined state capacity. The departure of illicitly gained billions quickly diminished the capacity of even a once formidable power. It deprived Russia of the resources it needs to rebuild the state infrastructure, service its debts and pay the salaries and pensions of its citizens. The failure of a former superpower to meet the basic needs of its citizens has served as a powerful lesson to the international community. This occurred, in part, because those who controlled the state's capital could move money abroad in enormous amounts and great rapidity.
Topic:: Government and International Political Economy
Political Geography:: Russia

2777. Putin's Russia: A Confusing Notion of Corruption

Author:: Virginie Coulloudon
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: One of the main difficulties in examining corruption both under the Soviet regime and in post-Soviet Russia lies in its definition. Ever since Yurii Andropov launched systematic anticorruption campaigns in the late 1970s and raised the level of awareness of this social disease, all Soviet and Russian leaders have emphasized the necessity of eradicating corruption without really clarifying what particular phenomenon they had in mind. When analyzing Russian corruption, one is surprised to see how many forms it takes: from rule evasion and bribe taking to rent-seeking, abuses of power, embezzlement, bureaucratic extortion, and insider dealing. Adding to this already complex picture, the causes of such infringements of the law and endemic corruption are perceived differently in different contexts – whether under the Soviet regime or in post-Soviet Russia, or if such actions were motivated by the necessity to survive in an economically and politically hostile environment or merely by a thirst for personal gain.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Russia

2778. Expanding and Deepening Citizen Participation Process in HUD's CDBG Program

Author:: Marcela Tribble and Terry F. Buss
Publication Date:: 12-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: Effective citizen participation processes are now regarded as critical in insuring the successful implementation of federal program s in local com m unities. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, a $4.4 billion community/economic development initiative serving more than 1,000 entitlement communities presents an as of yet unrealized opportunity to involve citizens much more in developing, planning, implementing and evaluating local projects. The Secretary of HUD could greatly expand and deepen citizen participation under CDBG by linking merit pay for federal officials to improved citizen participation efforts, providing entitlement com m unities better incentives, funding demonstration projects, and promoting best practices nation-wide; in short, moving citizen participation much higher up on the national agenda.
Topic:: Civil Society, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: United States

2779. Containing Wildland Fire Costs: Improving Equipment and Services Acquisition

Author:: Frank Fairbanks, Allan V. Burman, Gail Christopher, Patrick J. Kelly, Lyle Laverty, Keith Mulrooney, Paul Posner, and Charles Wise
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: Wildland fire - related acquisition management programs of the five federal land management agencies are big business. For example, Forest Service wildfire preparedness and suppression contracting costs reached almost $800 million in FY 2002. Even at a lower level, these costs significantly affect other land management programs and their funding. Thus, searching for and taking advantage of methods to achieve cost containment of escalating wildland fire acquisition programs take on added value. That is the basic premise of this Academy report.
Topic:: Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: United States

2780. Lifting the Winner's Curse and Avoiding Buyer's Remorse: Lessons from HR Outsourcing Experiences

Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: As the title of this forum suggests, both the government and contractors can lose when outsourcing does not work. At the same time, the prevailing view expressed by the panelists was that outsourcing presents a promising opportunity for the public and private sectors to improve performance and minimize costs.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Government, and Industrial Policy

2781. Post Conflict Governance: From Rubble to Reconstruction

Author:: Ryan J. Watson
Publication Date:: 05-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: Global debate and media awareness of the complex issues involved with post-conflict governance are at an all-time high. With the reconstruction of the Balkans still leaving much left undone, the United States and much of the international community are seeking to balance continued intervention in Afghanistan with the emerging challenge of rebuilding Iraq.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and Balkans

2782. Protecting the Homeland: Lessons from Prior Government Reorganizations

Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: This might well have been the greeting card on the desk of the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security: Officially launched January 24, 2003 with 180,000 employees and a budget of nearly $40 billion, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is, at its inception, the third largest cabinet agency in the U.S. government. No U.S. government reorganization of this magnitude has been accomplished since the creation of the Department of Defense following World War II.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: United States

2783. A Breath of Fresh Air: Reviving the New Source Review Program

Author:: Don Kettl, Peter Harkness, Lisa Heinzerling, DeWitt John, Howard M. Messner, Robert Terrell, Christophe Tulou, and Alfred M. Zuck
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: The New Source Review program (NSR) is a critic al tool enacted by Congress 25 years ago to protect public health and improve the nation's air quality. But, as applied to existing facilities, NSR is not working as Congress intended. Thus NSR should be fundamentally reformed and strongly enforced against past violations by existing facilities.
Topic:: Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: United States

2784. Powering the Future: High-Performance Partnerships

Author:: Camille Cates Barnett, Christine Becker, Peter Goldberg, Sandra J. Hale, Sara E. Melendez, and Michael Rogers
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: A high-performance partnership is a mutually beneficial and reciprocal relationship among entities that share responsibilities, authority, and accountability for results. The partnership is high performance when it achieves goals and outcomes that are meaningful and could not be reached by an individual partner alone.
Topic:: Civil Society, Government, Industrial Policy, and International Organization

2785. Modernizing Democracy

Author:: Terry F. Buss and Stevens F. Redburn
Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:: Changes in society and emerging technologies offer new possibilities for meaningful citizen participation in public choices. A new set of computer-based processes will support sophisticated and game -like group decision-making. Advanced software design accompanied by sensitivity to the hum an/machine interactions that must be managed can lead to citizen-friendly software products and processes that ordinary people can use both individually and in a group setting to make complex choices.
Topic:: Democratization, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

2786. Europe: Neither Plan Colombia, nor Peace Process - From Good Intentions to High Frustration

Author:: Joaquin Roy
Publication Date:: 01-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:: With the public announcement of a reshaped Plan Colombia in mid-2000, European attitudes toward involvement in attempting to solve the crisis of Colombia's endemic violence has oscillated from alarm to hope and, finally, to frustration. The overall scene has been dominated by a sense of powerlessness, mixed with realism and internal contradictions between member states and institutions of the European Union (EU).
Topic:: International Relations and Government
Political Geography:: Europe and Colombia

2787. A Polanyi Perspective on Post-Communist Corrruption

Author:: Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:: 08-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The paper seeks to explain the present high levels of corruption in the post-communist countries, i.e. the centrally planned economies where the communist party lost power as the outcome of a specific historical process where both the character of the former economic system as well as that policy shock itself played key roles. Among the possible explanatory factors the study focuses on the effects of production decline and the 'monetarisation' of the economy which started before the policy shock.
Topic:: Development, Economics, and Government

2788. Transition from socialism—the corruption heritage

Author:: Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The paper explores the apparently high incidence of corruption in those former socialist countries where the Communist Party lost power. It argues that part of the explanation of the high corruption incidence is to be sought in the simultaneous production decline which gives rise to a Schumpeter effect, where former bureaucrats are becoming corruption entrepreneurs. Another important factor is the swift change in the ruling norms giving rise to a Huntington effect an overshooting of the applicability of the market mechanism. An important driver of both effects is the monetation of the centralised multi-tiered bartering system of the old socialist economies. That process is briefly compared to older forms of market expansion into decentralised non-market agricultural economies as analysed by Polanyi and Marx.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy

2789. Remarks on Private-to-private corruption

Author:: Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention may be regarded as the strongest international expression of the recent recognition of corruption as a major global issue. The convention aims to contain trans-border corruption by making it illegal for citizens and enterprises located in the countries that have signed the convention to get involved in corrupt transactions with officials abroad. Working out the convention the legal regulation of transborder corruption has become harmonised across countries. Given the initial success, the question has been raised whether the convention should be extended or modified in some way. New policy instruments have been proposed; greater precision in how to deal with middlemen has been urged.
Topic:: Economics, Government, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance

2790. Public-Private Partnerships in the Urban Water Sector

Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:: The urban water sector presents difficult economic and political choices for governments. The provision of water and sanitation services has undoubtedly reduced disease and yielded other health benefits. Free or cheap access to water has also spurred a variety of other uses from maintaining lawns to washing cars. At the same time, this sector is plagued by a long history of under-pricing, and opposition to full cost pricing for ethical and social reasons. These factors have contributed to the unwillingness of many governments to acknowledge water as a finite natural resource and an economic good – a commodity that needs a market price reflecting the cost of provision and its true value to society.
Topic:: Agriculture, Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy

2791. The e-government imperative: main findings

Publication Date:: 03-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:: Since the advent of computers, and more recently the Internet, pressure on governments to perform better has increased, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have provided them with the capacity to do so via e-government. E-government is here defined as “the use of ICTs, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government”. The impact of e-government at the broadest level is simply better government – e-government is more about government than about “e”. It enables better policy outcomes, higher quality services and greater engagement with citizens. Governments and public administrations will, and should, continue to be judged against these established criteria for success.
Topic:: Development, Government, and Science and Technology

2792. Disability programmes in need of reform

Publication Date:: 02-2003
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:: OECD countries spend at least twice as much on disability-related programmes as they spend on unemployment. Disability benefits on average account for more than 10 percent of total social spending. In the Netherlands, Norway and Poland they reach as much as 20 percent.
Topic:: Development, Economics, Government, Human Welfare, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:: Norway, Poland, and Netherlands

2793. Refugees and the Myth of the Borderless World

Author:: William Maley, Greg Fry, Alan Dupont, Jean-Pierre Fonteyne, James Jupp, and Thuy Do
Publication Date:: 02-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:: Refugees are quintessentially victims of the states system. If the moral justification of the territorial state is to provide an authority accountable for the well-being of a designated citizenry, then the failure of individual states to discharge this task creates a responsibility on those who otherwise benefit from the system of states to aid those who suffer persecution in the territories in which they are nominally owed a primary duty of care. The number of refugees and other displaced persons in the world is extremely small—roughly 0.3 per cent of the world's population—but each is a precious being, and the way they are treated is a measure not of their worth, but of the moral capacity of those who are in a position to come to their assistance. Life chances in the present world order are to a significant degree arbitrarily determined by the accident of birthplace. Afghans and Iraqis, strongly represented in the world's present refugee population, are not refugees as punishment for their own failings. And ministers and bureaucrats in Western countries, typically enjoying lives of considerable luxury, are rarely well-off in recognition of their outstanding moral virtues; many simply had the good luck to be born in the right countries. If there is a global refugee crisis, it is not in terms of the number of refugees, but in terms of the willingness of wealthy and prosperous peoples to reach out to them. In the following paragraphs, I shall do three things. First, I offer brief overviews of the meaning of 'refugee' and of the current state of the world's refugees. Second, I outline the framework of institutions and measures which has evolved for the management of refugee protection and refugee needs. In conclusion, I offer some observations on the challenges which the refugee regime faces, and on the steps which need to be taken to improve the refugees' positions.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution and Government
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

2794. Russia Watch No.7, March 2002

Author:: Duncan DeVille, Danielle Lussier, Melissa Carr, David Rekhviashvili, Annaliis Abrego, and John Grennan
Publication Date:: 03-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Russian support for U.S. efforts in the war on terrorism has surprised many Western observers. But this was not the only recent surprise from Moscow — Western advocates for the rule of law in Russia also had much to celebrate in the closing months of 2001. Under strong prodding by President Vladimir Putin, the Duma passed several impressive pieces of reform legislation, including an entirely new Criminal Procedure Code, a potentially revolutionary land reform law, new shareholder protections in amendments to the Joint Stock Company Law, and the first post-Soviet Labor Code.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Asia, and Moscow

2795. Globalization and the Development of Welfare States in Post-Communist Europe

Author:: Mitchell Orenstein and Martine R. Hass
Publication Date:: 02-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: How has globalization influenced welfare state development in postcommunist Europe? We focus on the leading East-Central European accession states, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and show that these states have experienced radically different welfare state developments since 1989 from their neighbors in the former Soviet Union. The first pa rt of the paper proposes that these divergent paths can be explained by a “Europe effect”. We argue that the effects of globalization have differed greatly, depending on a country's position in the international economy and geopolitical relations. We demonstrate that countries closer to the European Union have used welfare state programs to compensate citizens for the traumas of system transition and economic openness, while the welfare systems in the former Soviet states have collapsed to a far greater extent, in terms of spending and effectivness.
Topic:: Communism, Globalization, and Government
Political Geography:: Europe, Eastern Europe, Poland, Soviet Union, Hungary, and Czech Republic

2796. Assessing the Department of Homeland Security

Author:: Michael E. O'Hanlon, Peter R. Orszag, James B. Steinberg, Ivo H. Daaldar, James M. Lindsay, Robert E. Litan, Paul C. Light, and I. M. Destler
Publication Date:: 07-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: President Bush's June 6 proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would constitute the largest reorganization of the federal government in fifty years. Given the urgency of the terrorist threat, Congress has pledged to act rapidly. It aims to have a bill ready for the President's signature in time for the one-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Government, and Terrorism

2797. The Bush National Security Strategy: An Evaluation

Author:: Ivo H. Daaldar
Publication Date:: 10-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: President Bush's first National Security Strategy presents his vision of “a distinctly American internationalism.” Media reports focused on the Strategy's support for preempting emerging threats militarily, but the 31-page document covers a far broader set of important issues. At its core, the Strategy calls for the United States to use its “unparalleled military strength and great economic and political influence” to establish “a balance of power that favors human freedom” and to defeat the threat posed by “terrorists and tyrants.” These are themes that will likely resonate with the American people, who believe that the United States should play a leading role in making the world a safer and better place.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

2798. Strengthening Financial Sector Governance in Emerging Markets

Author:: Robert Litan, Michael Pomerleano, and V. Sundararajan
Publication Date:: 07-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: Policymakers and analysts are still sifting through the wreckage of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the subsequent crises in Russia, Turkey, and Argentina to discern key lessons so that similar crises will not recur. Some lessons are by now well understood. Pegged exchange rates can encourage excessive borrowing and expose countries to financial collapse when foreign exchange reserves run dry. Inadequate disclosures by both private companies and public bodies can lead to similar dangers. Although many factors undoubtedly contributed to these crises, it is now widely recognized that each suffered from a failure in “governance,” and in particular a failure in governance in their financial sectors. Accordingly, the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Brookings Institution devoted their fourth annual Financial Markets and Development Conference, held in New York from April 17-19, 2002, to the subject of financial sector governance in emerging markets. This conference report summarizes some of the highlights of the conference, whose full proceedings will be published as a Brookings book in the fall of 2002.
Topic:: Economics, Emerging Markets, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Russia, New York, Turkey, Asia, and Argentina

2799. Earnings Insurance for Germany

Author:: Gary Burtless and Holger Schaefer
Publication Date:: 07-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Brookings Institution
Abstract:: For more than a decade, Germany has suffered high rates of unemployment and very slow employment growth. Workers who have lost their jobs face unusually long spells of unemployment, in part because the adverse incentives of the German unemployment compensation system provide strong impetus for unemployed workers to remain jobless.
Topic:: Government and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Europe and Latin America

2800. Global Challenges: Beating the Odds

Author:: P.J. Simmons
Publication Date:: 08-2002
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: The global to-do list has never been more daunting. New arteries for transport, trade, finance, and communications require constantly updated rules. Freer, faster movement across borders necessitates filters to separate terrorists from traders and levees to contain infectious disease, pollution, invasive species, and financial disruption. Once-sovereign responsibilities such as poverty, child labor, and human rights shift to become international moral concerns. Technologies of literally world-shaking power—capable of destroying humans en masse, altering Earth's ecology, or upsetting atmospheric stability—create a set of truly global issues.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Civil Society, and Government

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