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Begin New Search Political Geography Africa Content Type Journal Article

951. Gender and Islam in Africa: Rights, Sexuality and Law

Author:
Araceli González-Vázquez
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Accepting the responsibility of writing a review of a book like this volume edited by the outstanding scholar Margot Badran is both challenging and pleasant. Margot Badran is currently a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Middle East Program) in Washington, and she has become well known in the academic and non-academic milieu for her contributions on women, gender, and feminism in Islam and Muslim societies. In particular, there has been an increasing interestin herwritings, such as in her two books Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences (Oneworld, Oxford, 2009), a selection of her scholarly work over more than two decades, and Feminism beyond East and West: New Gender Talk and Practice in Global Islam (Global Media Publication, New Delhi, 2007), which brings together a collection of her public intellectual work, mainly essays published in the Egyptian Al Ahram Weekly .
Political Geography:
Africa, Washington, and Egypt

952. Cough It Up

Author:
Jack Chow, Shenglan Tang, and Enis Baris
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Yanzhong Huang (“The Sick Man of Asia,” November/December 2011) paints a troubling picture of a China that has rapidly industrialized yet lags in modernizing its health-care system. Yet in his cogent history of China's health policy, much of which centers on self-reliance, Huang puzzlingly omits China's success in winning nearly $1 billion in recent years from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. That the country's health officials have had to resort to tapping a fund ostensibly dedicated to helping the world's poorest countries speaks to their inability to persuade the government to pay for public health with its national coªers. Only when the incongruity of a financial giant getting grants at the expense of impoverished African countries was illuminated did China choose to stop taking Global Fund awards.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Africa, China, and Asia

953. Mojeed Olujinmi A. Alabi and Wahab Olasupo Egbewole (eds.) Perspectives on the Legislature in the Government of Nigeria (Kingdom of Morocco African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development, 2010).

Author:
Alexander B. Makulilo
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The legislature remains an important institution of democracy worldwide. It is the home of the elected representatives of the people and often largely responsible for law making, budgeting as well as overseeing the powers of the executive. In Africa, as elsewhere in the Third World, parliaments have had a checkered history. The executive arm of the government, more often than not, has monopolized political space, normally through excessive ruling party discipline, thereby undermining the powers of legislatures. Yet some countries in the region have experienced a history of military coups with the consequence of halting democratic practices and the functions of legislatures. Nigeria is one country in which military coups became the order of the day. With the restoration of democratic governance in Nigeria, the newly instituted legislature is a clear symbol that distinguishes democratic governance from the authoritarian past. Perspective on the Legislature in the Government of Nigeria is a much needed study to understand how this institution functions in a nascent democratic nation like Nigeria.
Political Geography:
Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco

954. After 2015: The Next Security Era for Britain

Author:
John Mackinlay
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
PRISM
Institution:
Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:
The great international intervention in Afghanistan is due to run down to a token presence by 2014. Foreign troops are returning home already, and their continued reduction will change the nature of the operation there. Closer to Europe, the Arab Spring has displaced more than a million people along the north coast of Africa. The efforts of those refugees to migrate toward Europe could begin to unsettle the region. Meanwhile, the European economy seems to be heading for long-term decline, and last summer's rioting in the United Kingdom (UK) has alarmed politicians and damaged British urban areas. Looking ahead, this article argues that 2015 may mark the start of a rather different security era, one in which the British government may have to determine whether the safety of its own population takes priority over supporting U.S. operations overseas.
Political Geography:
Britain, Afghanistan, Africa, United Kingdom, Europe, and Arabia

955. Libya's Operation Odyssey Dawn: Command and Control

Author:
Joe Quartararo, Sr., Michael Rovenolt, and Randy White
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
PRISM
Institution:
Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:
U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) was established in 2008 as a new kind of geographic combatant command, one focused primarily on stability and engagement operations rather than warfighting. As such, many of its key leadership positions were filled by non–Department of Defense (DOD) personnel, and its civilian manning was proportionately larger than at other commands.
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

956. Defining U.S. Indian Ocean Strategy

Author:
Andrew Shearer and Michael J. Green
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
In the past few years, the Indian Ocean has emerged as a major center of geostrategic interest. The Pentagon's 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) set the tone by calling for a more “integrated approach to the region across military and civilian organizations” and asking the rest of the U.S. government for an assessment of “U.S. national interests, objectives and force posture implications,” which the National Security Council is now undertaking in preparation for the next National Security Strategy report, expected in 2012. Key U.S. allies have also elevated the Indian Ocean in their strategic planning documents. Australia's 2009 Defence White Paper, for example, noted that “over the period to 2030, the Indian Ocean will join the Pacific Ocean in terms of its centrality to our maritime strategy and defence planning.” Japan's 2011 National Defense Policy Guidelines stipulated that “Japan will enhance cooperation with India and other countries that share common interests in ensuring the security of maritime navigation from Africa and the Middle East to East Asia.”
Topic:
International Security
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, Middle East, India, East Asia, and Australia

957. Book Reviews

Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
This edited volume has been published at the end of a year in which African actors have enjoyed almost unprecedented global attention. Protest movements across North Africa, but particularly in Egypt and Tunisia, captured headlines during the Arab Spring, and Time magazine named 'The protestor' as their person of the year for 2011. The world's newest state was born in South Sudan in June. The second half of the year was dominated by a violent revolt and civil war in Libya, against the backdrop of massive western intervention. As the year drew to a close, environmental diplomats and activists from across the world convened in Durban in December, as the possibility of a legally binding global successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was hammered out. One might think, therefore, that the continued warnings from Africanists that most analyses of the continent's inter - national politics continue to 'occur largely from a vantage point of detachment, exclusion and aberrance' (p. 2) might start to ring a little hollow.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Africa, North Africa, Egypt, and Tunisia

958. Breaking Free from Europe: Why Africa Needs Another Model of Regional Integration

Author:
Peter Draper
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Support for regional economic integration in Africa runs high amongst the continent's international development partners and African elites. However, its expression in European forms of economic integration is not appropriate to regional capacities and in some cases may do more harm than good. This lacuna is exacerbated by technical and theoretical analyses rooted either in economics or international relations literature. This article sets out to reconceptualise the foundations of African economic integration by reviewing key debates within each literature and comparing the results across disciplinary boundaries. Overall, it is concluded that a much more limited approach is required, one that prioritises trade facilitation and regulatory cooperation in areas related primarily to the conduct of business; underpinned by a security regime emphasizing the good governance agenda at the domestic level. Care should be taken to design the ensuing schemes in such a way as to avoid contributing to major implementation and capacity challenges in establishing viable and legitimate states. In doing so, the presence of regional leaders with relatively deep pockets - South Africa in the Southern African case - points to the imperative of building such limited regional economic arrangements around key states.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and South Africa

959. Legal Harmonisation in Africa: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

Author:
Magnus Killander
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Despite the lofty objectives set out in the treaties of African intergovernmental organisations, such as the African Union, ECOWAS, SADC and the East African Community, legal harmonisation in Africa is still underdeveloped. Apart from a push towards harmonisation in the protection of human rights and the environment, mainly driven by a global agenda, some progress has been made with regard to legal harmonisation linked to economic integration at the sub-regional level. However, the process is slow and measures to ensure implementation of agreed norms at the national level and ensure consistent interpretation are still underdeveloped. This is illustrative of the lack of political will and the big gap between political rhetoric and reality on the African continent.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

960. Conclusion - Building Regions from Below: Has the Time Come for Regionalism 2.0?

Author:
Lorenzo Fioramonti
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In a changing world ridden with crises and characterized by a general redistribution of power, regional organizations need to reinvent themselves. Equally, the study of regionalism has to reject its traditional Eurocentrism to embrace new conceptual categories in order to describe more effectively the variety of regional processes across the world. Against this background, this article looks the European project and its current crisis before discussing other regional 'experiments' in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which rest on different principles but also manifest considerable shortcomings. The analysis points to need to look at regionalism with a critical eye, emphasizing the undeniably important achievements but also the hidden threats that a certain model of regional integration (for instance, the classical top-down elite-driven process adopted by the EU founding fathers) can pose to the sustainability of regional cohesion and the adaptability of this model to other areas of the world.
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America

961. UN Security Council, Report of the Committee on the Admission of New Members Concerning Palestine's Application for Membership to the UN , New York, 11 November 2011.

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
The UN Committee on the Admission of New Members, comprising representatives of the fifteen serving members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), considered the Palestinian application at a number of meetings between 28 September and 8 November, the date it completed its final report. In addition to the five permanent members (the U.S., France, Great Britain, Russia, and China), the rotating members during this period were Bosnia, Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, Germany, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal, and South Africa. The report was formally accepted by the UNSC on 11 November.
Political Geography:
Britain, Africa, China, New York, Bosnia, Middle East, India, France, Brazil, Colombia, Palestine, Germany, United Nations, Nigeria, and Portugal

962. The Responsibility to Protect and the Role of Regional Organizations: An Appraisal of the African Union's Interventions

Author:
Tom Kabau
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
This article examines the dilemmas and opportunities of the African Union, a regional organization, in implementing the responsibility to protect concepts in respect to forceful intervention to prevent or stop the occurrence of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union specifically mandates the Union to forcefully intervene in a Member State in such circumstances. Although the African Union has successfully resolved some situations where peaceful negotiations or consensual military intervention was sufficient, there has also been failure by the Union where such means fail or are inadequate. Such instances include the Darfur conflict where peacekeeping was insufficient, and recently in Libya where the African Union openly opposed enforcement of no fly zones to protect civilians. This article is of the view that the African Union's failure to implement Article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act, even in deserving situations, may have been aggravated by the failure to institutionalize the concept of responsible sovereignty within the Union's legal framework and processes. Despite the forceful intervention mandate, there are also provisions that affirm the principles of non-interference. The AU system therefore fails to resolve the dilemma between sovereignty and intervention. Sovereignty preservation remains as an effective legal and political justification for non-intervention by the AU. This has promoted a subsequent trend of greater sovereignty concerns by the Union. Institutionalization of the concepts postulated under the emerging norm of responsibility to protect within the AU framework and processes can contribute to the elimination of the legal and political dilemmas of forceful intervention by the Union.
Topic:
Crime and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Libya

963. The Continuing Functions of Article 98 of the Rome Statute

Author:
Jens M. Iverson
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
According to the current jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court, Article 98 of the Rome Statute does not forbid the issuance of an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state. The African Union Commission vehemently objects to this reading of Article 98. Because it viewed the function of Article 98 as forbidding such arrest warrants, it views the current jurisprudence as effectively reading Article 98 out of the Statute, with no continuing function. This article demonstrates the continuing function of Article 98. This continuing function includes immunities resulting from agreements under Article 98(2), as well as customary immunities pertaining to property, persons, diplomatic immunity, and state immunity. Countering the rhetoric and providing a close analysis of the current state of Article 98 in ICC jurisprudence is useful, both with respect to understanding the current operation of Article 98 and to reflect on balancing multiple maximands of criminal law, human rights law, and the international law of immunity.
Topic:
Human Rights and International Law
Political Geography:
Africa and Rome

964. Accomplished and Embattled: Understanding Obama's Presidency

Author:
Theda Skocpol and Lawrence R. Jacobs
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Hope soared as Barack Obama and his beaming family strode onto the stage in Chicago's Grant Park on 5 November 2008. The election night mood was accentuated by tears of affirmation streaming down the face of longtime civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and lifted by graciousness from defeated GOP candidate John McCain, who congratulated the nation's first African American president-elect for having “achieved a great thing for himself and for his country.” Only a day after a bruising election, two thirds of Americans described themselves as optimistic and proud after Obama's victory. Most Americans yearned for a reduction in partisan bitterness and for united efforts to cope with a deepening economic crisis and ensure opportunity for all.
Political Geography:
Africa, America, and Chicago

965. The African National Congress centenary: a long and difficult journey

Author:
Raymond Suttner
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The current political pre-eminence of the African National Congress in South Africa was not inevitable. The ANC was often overshadowed by other organizations and there were moments in its history when it nearly collapsed. Sometimes it was 'more of an onlooker than an active participant in events'. It came into being, as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), in 1912, at a time of realignment within both the white and the conquered black communities. In the aftermath of their victory over the Boers in the South African War (1899-1902), the British were anxious to set about reconciling their former enemies to British rule. This included allowing former Boer territories to continue denying franchise and other rights to Africans, thus disappointing the hopes raised by British under - takings to the black population during the war years. For Africans, this 'betrayal' signified that extension of the Cape franchise, which at that time did not discriminate on racial grounds, to the rest of South Africa was unlikely. Indeed, when the Act of Union of 1910 transferred sovereignty to the white population even the Cape franchise was open to elimination through constitutional change—and in course of time it was indeed abolished.
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, and South Africa

966. Lost in translation: why Nigeria's police don't implement democratic reforms

Author:
Alice Hills
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The transfer of western norms and practices to police forces in West Africa is a substantial part of a billion-dollar business. Out of the US$452 million the Obama administration requested for law enforcement and narcotics control in Africa during the financial year 2010, US$8 million was allocated to United States officials and contractors for police training, infrastructure and equipment in Liberia alone, while between 2002 and 2009 the United Kingdom channelled some £37 million to reforming or improving the security and justice sector of Nigeria, a key anchor state for UK policies in sub-Saharan Africa (hereafter Africa).
Topic:
Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Liberia, and Nigeria

967. India's rise in Africa

Author:
Ian Taylor
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The holding of the second Africa–India Forum summit in Addis Ababa in May 2011 highlighted the burgeoning political and economic ties between New Delhi and the African continent. It also reflected the growing significance of interest in Africa on the part of a diverse group of developing nations, of which China and India are perhaps the most noteworthy. China's increasing involvement in Africa has been well analysed and discussed; India's connections with the continent have by comparison been relatively overlooked. Yet the increasing salience of India's interest in Africa has important implications, representing a further diversification of Africa's international relations away from 'traditional' North–South linkages and arguably contributing to a greater range of options for the continent. In the light of these considerations, this article seeks to provide an insight into some of the main implications of the growing Indian relationship with Africa.
Political Geography:
Africa, China, India, and New Delhi

968. Introduction

Author:
Antonio Franceschet
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Within a short period the International Criminal Court (ICC) has become central to world politics. The dramatic diplomatic process that produced the Rome Statute in 1998 was followed by an unexpectedly rapid succession of state ratifications and the establishment of the court in 2002. As of late 2011 the ICC has indicted twenty-six individuals related to seven official investigations, all in Africa. Proceedings against one of these individuals were dismissed. Two other indictments, including one for Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, became moot because the individuals were killed before arrest or trial. The remaining list includes a sitting head of state, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, as well as Kenya's sitting deputy prime minister, Uhuru Kenyatta. The United Nations Security Council referred both the Sudan and Libya situations to the court; three African states requested investigations of their own situations. The ICC prosecutor independently started an investigation in Kenya. Despite efforts by Kenyan state officials to halt ICC proceedings related to the widespread violence and killings following the 2007 national elections, opinion polls suggest that 73 percent of Kenyans want the ICC to remain involved.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Sudan, Libya, and United Nations

969. Addressing Poverty and Climate Change: The Varieties of Social Engagement

Author:
Simon Caney
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The world is marked by very great poverty and inequality. The lives of many of our fellow inhabitants of this planet are blighted by malnutrition, disease, and destitution. Yet mass suffering is often met by casual indifference or acceptance, and sometimes even by active support of the status quo. While tragedies occur elsewhere in the world, the vast majority of us continue in our daily tasks and, in the words of W. H. Auden, turn away " quite leisurely from the disaster. " It is in response to this reality that Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) asks: What, in light of mass poverty, are the responsibilities of academics?
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa

970. Beyond Charity: Helping NGOs Lead a Transformative New Public Discourse on Global Poverty and Social Justice

Author:
Martin Kirk
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article looks at the role that Northern nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can play in engaging domestic publics in efforts to eradicate mass global poverty. In doing so, it makes two assumptions about this relationship that are important to outline. First, it is assumed that what the public in Northern countries think or understand about mass global poverty is a relevant factor in alleviating or overcoming it. In other words, it is important that people in Ohio or the Scottish Highlands understand why, for example, a billion people live in absolute poverty in a world that has the physical resources to provide for all of humanity's basic needs. As long as Northern states dominate the G7, the G8, and the Bretton Woods institutions; dictate many of the terms of international trade; and consume far more than an equitable share of global resources, the social norms of these countries will directly inform global efforts against mass poverty. Further, the idea that the fight against mass global poverty is the job only of politicians and business leaders, and that the attitudes of the general public are not at all instrumental in or relevant to their decision-making, is clearly untenable. Indeed, public support for the policies that would bring transformational change is essential. As Paul Collier writes in The Bottom Billion , "Without an informed electorate, politicians will continue to use the bottom billion merely for photo opportunities, rather than promoting real transformation"
Topic:
Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa

971. The Demise of Ares: The End of War as We Know It?

Author:
Bruno Tertrais
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
In 1990, U.S. political scientist John Mearsheimer predicted that we would soon ''miss the Cold War.'' In the months and years that followed, the eruption of bloody conflicts in the Balkans and in Africa gave birth to fears of a new era of global chaos and anarchy. Authors such as Robert Kaplan and Benjamin Barber spread a pessimistic vision of the world in which new barbarians, liberated from the disciplines of the East—West conflict, would give a free rein to their ancestral hatreds and religious passions. Journalists James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg chimed in that violence would reassert itself as the common condition of life. Former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned that the planet was about to become a ''pandemonium.''
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

972. Jessica C.E. Gienow–Hecht and Mark C. Donfried (eds.), Searching for a Cultural Diplomacy (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2010)

Author:
Oana Elena Brânda
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Cultural diplomacy is usually limited spatially to the European and American areas and most is mostly investigated for the period of the Cold Wr. What the two intend to do is extend both the geographical and temporal limits to African and Asian continents as well as back to the middle of the 19th century, as is the Japanese case. What Jessica C.E. Gienow-Hect and mark C. Donfried attempt in this work is to offer a comprehensive view of the term "cultural diplomacy" not only by looking as its multiple aspects, but also offering throughout time and space various examples of such a practice. As "cultural diplomacy" is not only a term, but also a valuable practice employed by both state and non-state actors.
Topic:
Non State Actors
Political Geography:
Africa, New York, America, and Europe

973. Çin'in Değişen Enerji Stratejisinin Dış Politikasına Etkileri (1990-2010)

Author:
R. Kutay Karaca
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Deng'in iktidara gelişiyle planlanan ve 1990'ların başında meyvesini vermeye başlayan ekonomik program, 1995 yılından itibaren enerji ithalatına ihtiyac duymaya başlamıştır. Bu ithalat surekli artış gostermiş ve 2009 yılında bağımlılık guvenlik sınırını aşmıştır. Dunyadaki digger guclerin aksine Cin icin enerjiyi sorunsuz elde etme yalnızca ekonomik gelişimin devamı anlamına gelmemektedir. Ekonomik gelişimin devamı halkın refahının artmasını, ordunun hızlı modernizasyonunu ve en onemlisi rejimin devamını sağlayacaktır. Bu durum Cin dış politikasını doğrudan etkilemeye başlamıştır. Cin enerji kaynaklarına sahip ulkeleri oncelikli ilişki kuracak ulkeler olarak gormektedir. Bu ulkelerin coğunun az gelişmiş ya da gelişmekte olan Orta Doğu ve Afrika ulkeleri olması da Cin'in ilişki kurmasını kolaylaştırmaktadır.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Africa and China

974. Harem Histories: Envisioning Places and Living Spaces

Author:
Züleyha Çolak
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Controversies over the realities of life in the harem have long been in need of a treatment that challenges the stereotypically narrow perception of the concept and provides the opportunity to see the harem's multi-layered structure from a critical perspective. This collection of readings on the harem as a cultural and social institution provides such an approach. As stated by the editor, the emphasis of the book is “on the concept/institution/image of the harem as shaped and represented within the societies of the Middle East and North Africa, while . . . [contributing writers] also attend to its representational and political uses by visitors to and observers of these societies.”
Political Geography:
Africa and Middle East

975. Islam in Europa: Religiöses Leben heute. Ein Portrait ausgewählter islamischer Gruppen und Institutionen. (Islam in Europe. Religious Life Today: A Portrayal of Select Islamic Groups and Institutions)

Author:
Bülent Uçar
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
This book presents the results of the collaborative research project “Muslims in Europe and their Societies of Origin in Asia and Africa” which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the “Social sciences in societal dialogue” initiative. The project, which received a total of €1.3 million in funding over a three-year period, was concluded in 2009. The book, which was edited by senior researcher Dietrich Reetz, summarizes the results of a series of subprojects that were presented to the public during the conference “Living Islam in Europe: Muslim Traditions in European Contexts” which took place be- tween May 5 and 7, 2009, in Berlin. Some of the most important results of these sub- projects were subsequently published in a single volume by the Waxmann publishing house. Numerous academics from the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies (ZMA) in Berlin, Hamburg University, the Europa-University Viadrina, and the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg actively participated in the project. The subprojects investigated a) Muslim groups with roots in Asia and Africa in Europe, and b) the role of Islamic educational institutions in European countries.
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Asia, and Berlin

976. How Africans Pursue Low-End Globalization in Hong Kong and Mainland China

Author:
Gordon Mathews and Yang Yang
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This article looks at the livelihoods and lives of African traders coming to Hong Kong and Guangzhou. These traders are practising “low-end globalization”, involving small amounts of capital, and semi-legal or illegal transactions under the radar of the law. The article first considers who these traders are, portraying them as, typically, members of the upper crust of their home societies. It then considers these traders in Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, a building that is an entrepôt between China and the developing world. Finally, it looks at traders' livelihoods and lives in Guangzhou, South China, and traders' efforts to succeed in mainland China. The article argues that one essential economic role China plays today is in manufacturing the cheap, sometimes counterfeit goods that enable Africa and other developing-world regions to experience globalization; the African traders who come to China help make this possible.
Topic:
Globalization
Political Geography:
Africa, China, Hong Kong, South China, and Guangzhou

977. Over-promising and under-delivering? Ambitions and risks in US defence strategy

Author:
Travis Sharp
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The United States has entered a period of strategic change. After spending more than a decade fighting a global counterterrorism campaign and two ground wars, it now faces shifting security challenges. The United States has killed Osama bin Laden and decimated the core leadership of Al-Qaeda and like-minded groups in Pakistan, but regional Al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and the Horn of Africa have taken the lead in planning and attempting terrorist attacks. American troops have left Iraq and are leaving Afghanistan, but 15,000–30,000 may remain in Afghanistan after 2014 to train Afghan forces and strike terrorist cells. Iran continues to pursue the ability to produce nuclear weapons rapidly should its supreme leader decide to do so, further destabilizing a Middle East region shaken by the Arab Spring. China continues to invest heavily in military modernization, raising sharp concerns among its neighbours. North Korea may continue to lash out militarily as its new leader Kim Jong Un seeks to demonstrate control. Last but certainly not least, the global economy remains fragile, the American economic recovery has stagnated, and US policy-makers have responded to rapidly growing American debt by reducing government spending in numerous areas, including defence. The size of these budget cuts may increase substantially in the months ahead.
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Africa, United States, China, Iraq, Middle East, North Korea, and Yemen

978. Perceptions, Politics, and Peace: The Limits of Globalization in Legitimizing the International Criminal Court

Author:
Aimee Mackie
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
In a globalizing world, the field of human rights has attempted to reach a universal moral consensus that transcends state sovereignty. The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 provided a new mechanism to support these efforts. Although the jurisdiction of the Court extends across the globe, so far all of the investigations have taken place on the continent of Africa. This fact, along with the details of the cases the Court has taken up, has sparked questions concerning neocolonialism and the political independence of the Court. In order for the Court to improve its reputation in the global community, it must acknowledge, address, and work toward remedying these genuine concerns in a just and open manner. The inability of the ICC to overcome accusations of neocolonialism and the continual obstacle of state sovereignty evidence the complex impact that globalization has had on international criminal law. The ICC has the potential to bring violators of international criminal law to justice, but in doing so it must avoid promoting impunity among the politically powerful and recognize that there are some situations in which arrest warrants and criminal prosecution cannot bring peace.
Topic:
Globalization and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Africa

979. Journal of Advanced Military Studies: Spring 2012

Author:
J. Peter Pham, Erich Wagner, Robert G. Angevine, and Kenneth H. Williams
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Advanced Military Studies
Institution:
Marine Corps University Press, National Defense University
Abstract:
What should be the role of the United States and other foreign powers in unstable areas of the world? gis question, which is as pertinent as it has ever been, may seem like an issue for presidents, cabinet members, and flag officers—and it is—but it also affects the military and foreign policy establishments all the way down to ground level, where junior officers, enlisted troops, and State Department/USAID personnel are engaging the local populations. Indeed, those of us who have served in a military or civilian capacity among the people in Iraq or Afghanistan will recognize many similarities in the challenges that we faced with those Robert Angevine describes that confronted the U.S. Army in the Philippines a century ago.ge author quotes one Constabulary officer who noted that he “had to know not only military work, but he also had to be an executive as well as a tactful politician.” It is also important to know the local culture, including landmark historical events and how the memory of them continues to have impact. In his article on the Battle of Maiwand, fought by the British in Afghanistan in 1880, Erich Wagner quotes our current commanding officer with Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Lieutenant General Richard P. Mills, as saying that the Afghans regularly reminded him in 2010 of “the Maiwand War”and of how their ancestors had made Afghanistan the “the graveyard of empires.” As Wagner writes, and vividly details in his piece, “the memory of those times is still alive in the community.” Instability has been the order of the day in Somalia for decades now, but Peter Pham’s article offers at least some hope from the northern part of that country, which is known as Somaliland. Pham, who is widely recognized as one of the leading experts on the region and is a senior advisor to U.S. Africa Command, posits that lessons from the Somaliland experience may be applicable in other countries.
Topic:
History, Armed Forces, Political stability, Conflict, and State Building
Political Geography:
Britain, Africa, and Somalia

980. Full Issue

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome, Bertrade Ngo Ngijol-Banoum, Abdul Karim Bangura, Yínká Dánsàlámì, and Ramón Grosfoguel
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
CONTENTS Editorial Dimensions of African Migration to the United States: Labor, Brain Drain, Identity Formation and Naturalization — Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Bertrade Ngo Ngijol-Banoum ... 1 Articles African Immigration and Naturalization in the United States from 1960 to 2002: A Quantitative Determination of the Morris or the Takougang Hypothesis — Abdul Karim Bangura .. 27 The Pass to the United States of America — Yínká Dánsàlámì .................................................. 36 Puerto Rican Labor Migration To the United States: Modes of Incorporation, Coloniality, and Identities. — Ramón Grosfoguel .................................................................................... 43 Skill, Professionalism, Self-Esteem and Immigration: The Case of Nigerian Physical Therapists — Adétóyèje Oyěyemí..................................................................................................... 69 African Development and the Immigration of Its Intelligentsia: An Overview — E. Ike Udogu 94 Africans to America: The Unfolding of Identity — Mary Ann Watson .................................... 118
Topic:
Development, Migration, History, Labor Issues, Immigration, Brain Drain, Identity, and Skills
Political Geography:
Africa, United States of America, and Puerto Rico

981. Full Issue

Author:
Sefi Atta, Kathleen Stassen Berger, Jacqueline Copeland Carson, Kinuthia Macharia, and Femi Ojo-Ade
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
CONTENTS Articles Independence Day — Sefi Atta....................................................................................................... 1 Immigration, Psychosocial Development: Implications for Africa and the US — Kathleen Stassen Berger ................................................................................................................. 30 “Africa” in Minnesota: New Models of Translocal Culture — Jacqueline Copeland Carson . 60 Criminal Convictions That Can Cause Non-U.S. Citizen Removal From The United States — Oláyínká Dánsàlámì ........................................................................................................ 71 African Immigrants in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area: Immigration Waves and Community Building — Kinuthia Macharia ................................................................... 79 Living In Paradise?: Africans In America— Femi Ojo-Ade ...................................................... 111 Rotatory Credit Schemes: A Comparative Analysis of an African Traditional Economic Institution in Contemporary Africa and its Diaspora — Iheanyi N. Osondu ................ 138 Oromo African Immigrants’ Experiences with Child Care — Deborah Ceglowski, Jaesook Gilbert, Greg Wiggan, Tekla Johnson, and Rosemary Traore ...................................... 166 Return Migration to Asmara, Eritrea: Readjustment Challenges — Berhane Keleta Chirum .. 221 Book Reviews Creating Africa in America: Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City — Jacqueline Copeland-Carson............................................................................................................ 245 Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Immigrants on the Journey West — Terri Bennett . 254 Film Reviews J’y Crois - I Believe in it: The Road to Decentralization in Mali, 2004 — Ekerete Udoh ........ 256 In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies, 2004 — Ekerete Udoh ............ 258 The Price of Aid, 2004 — Ekerete Udoh .................................................................................. 260
Topic:
Migration, Diaspora, Immigration, Film, Credit, Identity, and Child Care
Political Geography:
Africa, Rwanda, Eritrea, Mali, and United States of America

982. Full Issue

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
CONTENTS Articles Omolúàbí: The Way of Human Being: An African Philosophy’s Impact on Nigerian Voluntary Immigrants’ Educational and Other Life Aspirations — Dolapo Adeniji-Neill................. 1 Liberian Immigrants in Rhode Island: The Trauma, the Bliss, and the Dilemma — P. Khalil Saucier, Ph.D.................................................................................................................... 29 Why Maine? Secondary Migration Decisions of Somali Refugees — Kimberly A. Huisman..... 55 “'Yo, Jose Dupard, pardo libre natural y vecino de esta ciudad': Masculinity, Race and Respectability in Spanish New Orleans — Megan Kareithi ............................................ 99 Economic Impact of Immigration on African Americans — Stacey-Ann Wilson, Ph.D............ 128 The African Immigrant Family in the United States of America: Challenges and Opportunities — Sulayman S. Nyang ......................................................................................................... 150 Art Papers Afrikea (2009) — Adejoke Tugbiyele ......................................................................................... 172 Altar and the Throne: The Last Fuck and the Sweet Taste of Victory (2010) — Adejoke Tugbiyele ........................................................................................................................ 176 Gèlèdé Tupperware Party — Adejoke Tugbiyele........................................................................ 179 Opinions Blacklisting of Nigeria as the New Den of Terrorists? The Perspective of a Nigerian Student in the U.K. — Olugu Ukpai ................................................................................................ 184 Poetry Lamentations to Oluorogbo — Ademola Araoye........................................................................ 213
Topic:
Economics, Education, Migration, Race, Terrorism, Immigration, Refugees, Philosophy, Family, Masculinity, and Poetry
Political Geography:
Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia, and United States of America

983. Neoliberalism as Liberation: The Statehood Program and the Remaking of the Palestinian National Movement

Author:
Raja Khalidi and Sobhi Samour
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
The Palestinian statehood-by-2011 program, framed through neoliberal institution building, redefines and diverts the Palestinian liberation struggle. Focusing on its economic aspects, and in particular the underlying neoliberal thought that goes beyond narrow economic policy applications, this essay argues that the program cannot succeed either as the midwife of independence or as a strategy for Palestinian economic development. Its weaknesses, the authors contend, derive not only from neoliberalism's inability to deliver sustainable and equitable economic growth worldwide, but also because neoliberal “governance” under occupation, however “good,” cannot substitute for the broader struggle for national rights nor ensure the Palestinian right to development.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Africa, Soviet Union, and Palestine

984. Coping with a Conflicted China

Author:
David Shambaugh
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
2009—2010 will be remembered as the years in which China became difficult for the world to deal with, as Beijing exhibited increasingly tough and truculent behavior toward many of its neighbors in Asia, as well as the United States and the European Union. Even its ties in Africa and Latin America became somewhat strained, adding to its declining global image since 2007.1 Beijing's disturbing behavior has many observers wondering how long its new toughness will last. Is it a temporary or secular trend? If it is a longer-term and qualitative shift toward greater assertiveness and arrogance, how should other nations respond?
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, China, Europe, and Latin America

985. The Economics of Microfinance

Author:
Bryan Barnett
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
It is one of the sad facts of recent human history that the economic prosperity enjoyed by so many remains unknown to most of the rest. The causes of poverty have long been debated and much has been spent in the effort to ameliorate it. Reliable estimates suggest as much as $2.3 trillion has been spent over the last several decades, most of it in the form of sponsored aid programs conceived and pursued by governments and large foundations in developed countries. Despite this investment, however, poverty remains widespread and has worsened in many places, especially in Africa. These basic facts now fuel a vigorous debate over the scale and ultimate value of traditional aid programs and a search for more effective solutions.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Africa

986. Establishing Regional Integration: The African Union and the European Union

Author:
Sougrynoma Z. Sore
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Whether they are world travelers, global citizens, slum dwellers, or farmers in remote villages, people all across the world have, in one way or the other, been exposed to the forces of globalization. Globalization has infiltrated all aspects of life, and as such, is now one of the ―catch‖ terms that has entered the daily jargon. Globalization seems to be everywhere, continuously influencing and affecting the individual. In international relations, these global forces have also shaped state behavior and the way states interact on the international scene. The rise of global capitalism and the emergence of non-state actors as influential borderless entities have distributed power to the most economically advanced of the world. Furthermore, the increasing interconnectedness of the world has progressively undermined borders, making them more and more illusory. Space has become trans-local. We now live in a world where the interests of small and big nations are ever more intertwined. Ulrich Beck describes globalization as ―the process through which sovereign national states are criss-crossed and undermined by transnational actors with varying prospects of power, orientations, identities and networks.‖1 In the history of state and empire formation, such international power dynamics have triggered desires to build coalitions and create strong ties that would grant more leverage in the global arena. This gave rise to regionalism.
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

987. Towards a Jurisprudential Articulation of Indigenous Land Rights

Author:
Gaetano Pentassuglia
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
As expert analysis concentrates on indigenous rights instruments, particularly the long fought for 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a body of jurisprudence over indigenous land and resources parallels specialized standard-setting under general human rights treaties. The aim of the present article is to provide a practical and comparative perspective on indigenous land rights based on the process of jurisprudential articulation under such treaties, principally in the Inter-American and African contexts. While specialized standards inevitably generate a view of such rights (and, indeed, indigenous rights more generally) as a set of entitlements separate from general human rights, judicial and quasi-judicial practice as it exists or is being developed within regional and global human rights systems is effectively shaping up their content and meaning. I argue that indigenous land rights jurisprudence reflects a distinctive type of human rights discourse, which is an indispensable point of reference to vest indigenous land issues with greater legal significance. From a practical standpoint, focussing on human rights judicial and quasi-judicial action to expand existing treaty-based regimes and promote constructive partnerships with national courts, though not a panacea to all the intricacies of indigenous rights, does appear to offer a more realistic alternative to advocacy strategies primarily based on universally binding principles (at least at this stage) or the disengagement of domestic systems from international (human rights) law.
Topic:
Human Rights and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and America

988. Of BRICs and Mortar: The Growing Relations Between Africa and the Global South

Author:
Maxi Schoeman
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The ambitions of the global South for a larger share of global wealth and political power are at least partly being played out on the African continent. The increasing Africa-South relations seem to indicate a relative decline in Africa-North ties, with the shift in Africa's trade relations from North to South resulting in trade creation rather than trade diversion. The South partners are also providing much needed infrastructure development assistance to the continent. Politically, these relations are formalised in a host of frameworks and associations and operate in fundamentally different ways from those between Africa and its erstwhile colonial masters. It is doubtful, though, to what extent Africa's capacity to influence the global agenda is strengthened, especially given that not a single African country is (yet) a member of the 'South Big Four', the BRICs.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

989. From Colonialism to Partnership in Africa-Europe Relations?

Author:
Gerrit Olivier
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The European Union has been trying to achieve its long-term goals through partnerships and cooperation with other like-minded global actors. Africa (through its regional institutional body, the African Union) has been the first and only multilateral entity with which the EU has forged a long-term partnership. Despite its rhetorical language, the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership is unlikely to upgrade the political and economic interaction between the two partners. In the past few years, serious rifts have grown between the EU and its African counterparts concerning trade agreements and development policies. Moreover, new actors have made significant inroads in Africa, providing an alternative to its long-standing dependence on Europe.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

990. Public and Elite Views on Europe vs. China in Africa

Author:
Lorenzo Fioramonti and Patrick Kimunguyi
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Europe has been the privileged economic and political partner of Africa, but more recently China has increased its foothold in Africa through important financial investments and trade agreements. Against this backdrop, the empirical research conducted in 2007-08 in Kenya and South Africa as part of a pioneering international project investigates the perceptions of public opinion, political leaders, civil society activists and media operators. While confirming their continent's traditional proximity to Europe, African citizens are increasingly interested in China and its impact on Africa's development. Europe is criticised for not having been able to dismiss the traditionally 'patronising' attitude towards Africa. While African civil society leaders and media operators describe China as an opportunity for Africa to break free of its historical dependence on European markets, other opinion leaders warn against too much enthusiasm for the Asian giant. There is a suspicion that the Chinese strategy might, in the long run, turn into a new form of economic patronage.
Topic:
Civil Society and Economics
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, China, Europe, Asia, and South Africa

991. Chinese and Indian Engagement in Africa: Competitive or Mutually Reinforcing Strategies

Author:
Fantu Cheru and Cyril Obi
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
This article explores the strategies used by China and India, two emerging global economies, to build a strong relationship with Africa. It analyzes China and India's competing interests and strategies around four broad issues: access to Africa's potentially vast markets, development cooperation, diplomatic influence and energy security. Several questions are raised based on the nature, similarities, differences and impacts of Chinese and Indian strategies. Will these create a new dynamism in South-South relations, or lead to a new form of asymmetrical relations between Africa and its Asian giant friends? What are the likely implications of closer Sino- and Indo-African ties for the continent's relations with the West, Africa's traditional trading partner, with which it has long-established relations, economic and strategic interests? In seeking explanations or answers, we caution that the differences between Chinese and Indian strategies of engagement are more of form than intent, underscoring the primacy of the competing national interests that do not completely foreclose mutually reinforcing strategies. We note that India's strategies presently swing between playing “catch up” with China—which has clearly made greater inroads—and pragmatically accommodating Chinese and other interests in Africa. There are even instances, as in the case of the Sudanese oil industry, in which Chinese and Indian oil companies are cooperating as partners in an oil producing consortium, despite competing in other African countries. While the emerging scenario is one of competition that is moderated to some extent by accommodation, we conclude, based on certain conditions, that in the medium to long term, India may turn out to be more competitive than China in its engagement strategies with Africa.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Africa, China, and India

992. Development issues in Africa: challenges, concepts, opportunities

Author:
Antje Vetterlein
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
The idea for this Forum emerged during the fourth GARNET Capacity Building Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2008, convened by The Evian Group at IMD, an international coalition of corporate, government and opinion leaders, based in Switzerland, in association with Mthente, a South African research-driven consulting firm. The workshop, entitled The Challenges of Youth in the 21st Century: Africa — Creating Opportunities through Entrepreneurship and Education, brought together about 60 participants and experts on the topic, representing civil society, government and business as well as academia to engage in a lively dialogue on the pressing issue of development on the African continent and the role education and entrepreneurship plays in this respect.
Topic:
Education
Political Geography:
Africa

993. The state of development in Africa: concepts, challenges and opportunities

Author:
Mills Soko and Jean-Pierre Lehmann
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
Africa's marginalisation and development challenges are extensively documented. Africa's underdevelopment is a product of the interplay of external and domestic factors including slavery and colonialism, economic mismanagement, ill-conceived structural adjustment policies, inter-state and intra-state conflicts, failed regionalism, unfair trade terms, foreign debt, aid dependence, poor governance, weak states, and institutional decay.
Topic:
Debt
Political Geography:
Africa

994. Empowering tomorrow's African entrepreneurs and managers: the Global Business School Network

Author:
Guy Pfeffermann and Nora Brown
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
The essay introduces an innovative low-cost knowledge-based approach to development cooperation: the Global Business School Network (GBSN). Since 2003 GBSN has been addressing a cross-cutting development issue which has been neglected or altogether ignored by Official Development Assistance institutions as well as private philanthropic funders: the extreme scarcity of well-trained local leaders and managers — 'problem-solvers' — in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as well as other low-income areas of the world.
Political Geography:
Africa

995. Corporate social responsibility: an oversocialised view of multinational corporations in Africa?

Author:
John Agbonifo
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a buzzword in business schools, politics, NGO circles and the business community. Violent companies of yesterday, employing mistrust and malfeasance in their dealings with host communities, have become the vanguard of CSR.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

996. Resource Conflicts over Arable Land in Food Insecure States: Creating an United Nations Ombudsman Institution to Review Foreign Agricultural Land Leases

Author:
Anastasia Telesetsky
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
In the last decade of globalization, States in the Middle East, East Asia, Europe, and North America have looked towards Africa and Southeast Asia for opportunities to lease for 30-50 years large tracts of arable land for production of commodity crops and biofuels in order to meet the needs of home markets. Facing their own governance challenges, States in Africa and Southeast Asia have leased land to private foreign investors without requiring any environmental review or mitigation of the proposed land leases. This paper argues that in food insecure states the recent flurry of land leasing activity to foreign agribusiness is likely to lead to unintended long term consequences for the ecology in land-leasing States by depleting the already fragile environment through monocropping, chemical pesticide and fertilizer applications, and large scale irrigation. This paper argues that international investment law may provide foreign investors with legal protection if land leasing States in the future decide to regulate the leases in a manner that discriminates against large agribusiness. The current proposals for self-regulatory voluntary codes of conduct do not provide sufficient oversight over the leasing process to protect the public's interest in a healthy and productive environment against foreign investors who have under the current lease structure no incentive to improve the land that they are leasing. The creation of an United Nations based ombudsman to provide legal and technical oversight and support for States making long-term leases has greater potential than a voluntary code for ensuring a balanced negotiation among the interests of host State governments for investment, investors for arable land, and the public for long-term sustainability.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Middle East, East Asia, North America, and Southeast Asia

997. Between the Scylla of Water Security and Charybdis of Benefit Sharing: The Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement – Failed or Just Teetering on the Brink?

Author:
Dereje Zeleke Mekonnen
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
The threat of water-related conflicts is comparatively more real and serious in the Middle East and North Africa hydrographic region where the Nile is found. Ominous predictions about water being the next casus belli in the region abound. There are many conflict determinants in the Nile basin which lend much credence to the predictions and the basin's proneness to conflict is quite evident. The unprecedented positive rapport brought about by the launching of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and the enormous hope and optimism evoked by its lofty Shared Vision explain the unprecedented serenity and cooperative atmosphere the basin has witnessed over the past decade. The decade-long effort to work out and agree on an inclusive legal and institutional framework for the basin has, due to the cunning interpolation of the treacherous, non-legal concept of 'water security', ended up in failure., The subsequent shift to and endorsement of benefit sharing as an alternative, simple and cure-all solution to the Nile waters question has further dimmed the prospect for the realization of the Shared Vision which now sounds more like a pipe dream than a realizable vision. Whether these adverse developments would finally pave the way for the ominous predictions to come to pass is as much unlikely as it is perplexing. It will be argued, in this paper, that the likelihood of violent conflicts over the Nile waters is an unlikely scenario, the more likely turn of events being further continuation of the iniquitous status quo.
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, and North Africa

998. The Abyei Arbitration: A Model Procedure for Intra-State Dispute Settlement in Resource-Rich Conflict Areas?

Author:
Freya Baetens and Rumiana Yotova
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
In 2009, the Permanent Court of Arbitration administered a unique case: the Abyei Arbitration between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. This case is unique in several aspects: first, it is an example of intra-state dispute settlement in a conflict zone rich in natural resources, second, it was conducted under a fast-track procedure, and third, it was fully transparent, with all documents and full webcast of the proceedings still available on the PCA website. Currently there is a large number of outstanding intra-state disputes, not limited to Africa, so this paper assesses why the Parties in the Abyei Arbitration chose arbitration in the first place and whether this model could be successfully applied to other similar disputes.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

999. Clean Trade in Natural Resources

Author:
Leif Wenar
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The "resource curse" can strike countries that derive a large portion of their national income from exporting high-value natural resources, such as oil, gas, metals, and gems. Resource-exporting countries are subject to four overlapping curses: they are more prone to authoritarianism, they tend to suffer more corruption, they are at a higher risk for civil wars, and they exhibit greater economic instability. The correlations between resources and such pathologies as authoritarianism, corruption, civil conflict, and economic dysfunction are evident in the list of the five major African oil exporters: Algeria, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, and Sudan. The recent histories of mineral exporters support the correlations: for example, "blood diamonds" fueled Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war, and the continuing conflict in the metal-rich eastern Congo has caused up to 6 million deaths. The phenomenon is not solely African: Burma, Yemen, and Turkmenistan, for example, are also resource cursed. Moreover, poor governance in resource-cursed countries can engender follow-on pathologies, such as a propensity to cause environmental damage both domestically (for example, through the destruction of forests) and globally (through increased greenhouse gas emissions). Most research on the resource curse has focused on the institutions of exporting countries. This essay focuses instead on importing countries, especially those in North America and Europe. I survey how the resource curse impedes core interests of importing states. I then discuss how the policies of importing states drive the resource curse, and how these policies violate their existing international commitments. The second half of the paper describes a policy framework for importing states that can improve international trade in resources for both importers and exporters.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Burma, North America, Nigeria, and Angola

1000. Evangelicalism, race and world politics

Author:
Stuart Croft
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Politics
Institution:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
American identities have traditionally been bound up with racial and religious markers – the WASP marker being for many, many decades and that which described the fullest state of American-ness. In the age of an African-American President, such conventional wisdoms are clearly challenged; and yet race and religion still describe different degrees of American-ness. This article investigates these identity themes not through the traditional duologue of white and African American, but seeks to understand in different communities how race and religion combine to produce different American-ness. Through an examination of two communities deemed problematic because of the high percentage of unchurched among them – First Peoples and Asian Americans – the article describes different processes at work. First Peoples are often seen in racial rather than national terms. The work of evangelicals 'among' such peoples is assessed within the United States and beyond. In contrast, Asian-American identities are often articulated through evangelism, particularly on the campuses of the United States. Together, these case studies show that American-ness is being redefined, to include new racial categories and groups newly empowered by their religious activity. This connects to issues of migration; evangelism is now active in America as well as beyond, as the world comes to live in the United States, traditional boundaries – inside/outside and white/African American – carry different and often less weight than hitherto has been the case.
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, America, and Asia