Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Africa Content Type Journal Article

1001. The Musée du Quai Branly: Art? Artifact? Spectacle!

Author:
Herman Lebovics
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Designed by Jean Nouvel, the Musée du Quai Branly, the just-opened museum of African, Amerindian, Pacific, and Asian cultures, covers a city block on the Left Bank of Paris's museum row. Both in landscaping and internal layout, Nouvel wished to frame the building within his understanding of the cultures on display inside, but also within its setting in the metropolitan capital. Objects collected in the imperial age now are displayed in what French officials see as the postcolonial era. But how were the pieces on display to be shown: as works of art or well-made cultural artifacts? Nouvel took the lead in evoking a vision of the cultures on display that is closer to Joseph Conrad's dark tales than to enlightened contemporary scholarship and museology on these societies. Neither an art nor an ethnography museum, the Musée du Quai Branly is a spectacle about the societies of the global South.
Political Geography:
Africa, Paris, and Asia

1002. Foreword: To Arrest And To Judge In Europe: The genesis, the struggles and the issues at stake in the judicial cooperation

Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Les dynamiques de la coopération judiciaire sont des enjeux forts pour l'Europe. Elément fondamental du champ de la sécurité, notamment en termes de légitimation du pouvoir de police, le processus d'européanisation du pouvoir judiciaire renvoie aux questions existantes entre les problématiques européennes et les interrogations sur la gouvernementalité internationale de la sécurité.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

1003. La création de la Cour africaine des droits de l\'Homme et des peuples. Les dessous d\'une ingénierie institutionnelle multicentrée

Author:
Marielle Debos
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
L\'étude du processus d\'ingénierie institutionnelle de la Cour africaine des droits de l\'Homme et des peuples révèle le rôle central joué par les ONG : elles ont donné l\'impulsion initiale, orchestré la mobilisation, encadré les négociations et milité pour l\'adoption du Protocole. Ce nouveau mode de production du droit doit cependant être analysé avec un regard critique afin de déceler les logiques de pouvoir très fortes au sein du « monde multicentré ». La professionnalisation des ONG et l\'autonomisation du champ de la production des standards juridiques vont de pair avec la marginalisation des militants locaux. L\'activité de production de normes est l\'affaire des experts juridiques apolitiques qui entretiennent des relations de collaboration avec les notables des diplomaties d\'Etat et des organisations intergouvernementales.
Topic:
Government and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
Africa

1004. Editorial

Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
The Africa Law Institute is pleased to announce the publication of its second issue of the African Journal of Legal Studies (“AJLS”). While delayed, we hope that the improvements made since launching our first issue last year will have made the wait worthwhile.
Political Geography:
Africa

1005. United Nations Resolutions and the Struggle to Curb the Illicit Trade in Conflict Diamonds in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:
Mungabalemwa Koyame
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
This article examines the extent to which revenues from the trade in rough diamonds have funded civil war in African countries and the difficulties encountered by the United Nations in putting an end to it. As case studies, the article considers the conflicts in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone where the illicit trade in rough diamonds, also referred to as "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds," provided most of the funds used by rebel groups in their war efforts. The article further examines the role played by the diamond industry, the international community and diamond importing countries such as the United States and Belgium in the trade of conflict diamonds. The article concludes that several resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council concerning "conflict diamonds" were at times not successful because of indifference on the part of the international community.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

1006. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Demystification of Second and Third Generation Rights under the African Charter

Author:
Justice C. Nwobike
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
This article argues that the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Ogoni case represents a giant stride towards the protection and promotion of economic, social and cultural rights of Africans. This is predicated on the African Commission's finding that the Nigerian Government's failure to protect the Ogoni people from the activities of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta is contrary to international human rights law and is in fact a step backwards since Nigeria had earlier adopted legislation to fulfill its obligation towards the progressive realization of these rights. The findings of the African Commission demonstrate that economic, social and cultural rights are not vague or incapable of judicial enforcement. They also illustrate how the Charter can be interpreted generously to ensure the effective enjoyment of rights. Novel and commendable as the decision is, it is not without its shortcomings. These shortcomings lie in the failure of the Commission to pronounce on the right to development, its silence on the desirability of holding transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations, and the institutional weakness of the Commission in enforcing its decisions.
Political Geography:
Africa

1007. Using Foreign Aid as a Foreign Policy Tool: The Case of Japan

Author:
Ali Balcı and Murat Yeşiltaş
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article attempts to explain the relationship between foreign policy and foreign aid. The question of how Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme is related to Japan's foreign policy will be explored. The findings suggest that foreign aid has been used to promote Japan's national interests and national security since the 1950's. Although Japan has used ODA in order to prevent humanitarian violation and promote democracy, especially since the 1990's, the humanitarian aspect of ODA has remained secondary to concerns about national interests. Japanese aid programs to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) nations, Africa, China and the Kurile Islands will be analyzed in support of our argument that ODA is, at root, a realist approach.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, and China

1008. Ethiopian Ethnic Federalism and Regional Autonomy: The Somali Test

Author:
Abdi Ismail Samatar
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
In the 1990s in Africa, two sharply contrasting models of state-society relations and the role of ethnicity in national affairs have emerged. The first is the unitary dispensation that rejects the ethnic classification of its citizens while cognizant of the ill effects of a race and ethnicbased apartheid order. The African National Congress (ANC) and its allies in South Africa opted for a strategy they thought would ensure the country's political and administrative restructuring but would not perpetuate sectarian ethnic identity at the expense of citizenship. Consequently, the post-apartheid regional administrative structure and boundaries are not based on ethnicity. Further, the populations in these regions elect their provincial councils, and have gained some degree of fiscal autonomy, although South Africa remains a unitary state. A key manifestation of the system's competitiveness is the fact that opposition parties have governed two of the wealthiest and most populous regions for most of the past decade and the ANC has been unable to dislodge them until the most recent election in 2004. Although the ANC won the most votes in Kwa Zulu–Natal and the Western Cape, it lacks a majority in these provincial councils to unilaterally form regional administrations. This openness of the political process has made possible a significant degree of regional autonomy in a unitary system.
Political Geography:
Africa, South Africa, and Somalia

1009. For the Record: International Crisis Group Report on Somaliland: An Alternative Somali Response

Author:
Ahmed I. Samatar and Abdi Ismail Samatar
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The International Crisis Group's (ICG) most recent report on the Somali Republic deals with developments in the Northern region (Somaliland). It narrates what the informed knew all along: (a) that peace has been restored in most of the North for the past decade while the rest of the country, particularly Mogadishu and the southern third, are mired in violence; (b) that some semblance of constitutional order and administrative structure is in place; (c) that most of the public refused to accept naked force as a political instrument to deal with political problems; and (d) that corruption is pervasive among the political elite. Conceptually, the ICG report is divided into three parts. First, it provides a brief review of Somali political history. Second, it sketches the evolution of the region since the collapse of the Somali government in 1991 and the declaration of the region's breakaway status from the rest of the country. Finally, it focuses on three elections organized in the last three years, in order to buttress the claim that the region deserves to be recognized as a sovereign country. This information raises pivotal questions about the profile of the region as well as the fate of the Somali people. Together, these two points invite a timely, wide, and thoughtful debate among Somalis and others concerned. After serious cogitation upon the details of the document, we submit that the Report presents important points for the international community to come to the aid of the people of the region to consolidate their communal achievements—particularly in the areas of stability, economic advancement, and institution building. However, the Report fails to clinch the argument for international recognition of a new sovereign Somaliland state in the Horn of Africa. The rest of this critical assessment elucidates this proposition.
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

1010. Engendering Property Rights: Women’s Insecure Land Tenure and its Implications for Development Policy in Kenya and Uganda

Author:
Kanika Mak
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
The importance of women’s contributions to the predominantly agrarian societies of Kenya and Uganda contrasts sharply with the inequity and insecurity these women face in their ability to own, inherit, manage, and dispose of land and property. This paper examines how gender equality in the design and implementation of property rights in East Africa can promote development as well as enhance the status of women in patriarchal societies. Women’s insecure land tenure stems specifically from deficiencies in the constitutional order, institutional arrangements, and social norms that govern property rights systems. Accordingly, recommendations for reform in these three areas share the ultimate goal of making property rights systems not only more equitable, but also more effective.
Topic:
Development, Women, Land, and Property
Political Geography:
Uganda, Kenya, and Africa

1011. Making Peace: Preventing and Responding to Sexual Exploitation by United Nations Peacekeepers

Author:
Sarah W. Spencer
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
To help establish and maintain peace and security around the world, the UN is currently managing sixteen peacekeeping missions. Instead of affording protection to civilians impacted by armed conflict, however, some UN peacekeepers use their positions of power to sexually exploit and abuse women and children. This article examines current UN policies and procedures to address sexual exploitation perpetrated by UN peacekeepers in sub-Saharan African peacekeeping missions. Ending sexual exploitation requires leadership at all levels and a serious commitment of financial and human resources. UN policies and procedures must be drastically improved if they are to adequately address and eradicate sexual exploitation within peacekeeping missions.
Topic:
United Nations, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, and Exploitation
Political Geography:
Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa

1012. Reforming the Cotton Trade Order? An Analysis of Cotton Subsidies and Implications for Sustainable Development

Author:
Christine M. Makori
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
Cotton is the most widely produced cash crop in the developing world. It supports the livelihoods of numerous households in these countries and occupies a significant position both economically and politically. However, in the recent past, this sector has experienced a pricing crisis mainly attributed to subsidies of developed nations. This article analyzes the effects of cotton subsidies (the most controversial agricultural commodity in the ongoing trade negotiations) on sustainable development, focusing on the impacts of U.S. subsidies on four West African countries. Given that these support systems have political motivations, the article briefly surveys political challenges to subsidy reforms. In conclusion, the article makes specific recommendations to the WTO and national governments to promote free trade, enhance economic efficiency, and support the global fight against poverty.
Topic:
Sustainable Development Goals, Trade, WTO, Subsidies, and Cotton
Political Geography:
Africa, West Africa, and United States of America

1013. Foreword

Author:
Chernor Jalloh
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
On behalf of the entire Editorial Board, I am pleased to present the inaugural issue of the African Journal of Legal Studies (‘AJLS’) on the theme of Justice and Reconciliation. It is dedicated to the memory of all those who were killed in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
Political Geography:
Africa

1014. Somali Mental Health

Author:
David McGraw Schuchman and Colleen McDonald
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Over the past seven years, there has been a vast influx of Somali refugees and immigrants making their new home in Minnesota, with the overwhelming majority residing in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. While official estimates indicate that less than 20,000 Somalis are in Minnesota, it is well accepted that there are actually 50,000–75,000. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact number due to limitations in census data collection and the continual growth resulting from such factors as secondary migration. Since Minnesota has welcomed African immigrants, family members who live in other states within the U.S. and Canada continue to join many newly arrived families. The prospect of Somali immigrants and refugees returning to their homelands is unlikely. Continuing war, civil strife, and economic crises make the outlook for return bleak. Therefore, it is important that Minnesota continue to embrace and welcome Somalis into the community and assist in their acculturation process.
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Canada

1015. The New Politics Of African Cinema At The French Ministry Of Foreign Affairs

Author:
Teresa Hoefert de Turégano
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The article examines French cinematographic policy toward Africa within the context of the shift in control from the French Ministry of Cooperation and Development to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Is francophone West Africa losing its privileged position in French cinematographic policy? During the first two years of the new regime for cinema a dual dynamic was evident, with both transition and historical continuity. In the final months of 2001 a clearer message appears in the politics of African cinema at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Central elements of the film policy under the Ministry of Cooperation are compared to current policy and then situated into French film politics in a more general sense.
Political Geography:
Africa

1016. French E-Managers: A Generation in the Making

Author:
Mette Zølner
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The article examines French cinematographic policy toward Africa within the context of the shift in control from the French Ministry of Cooperation and Development to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Is francophone West Africa losing its privileged position in French cinematographic policy? During the first two years of the new regime for cinema a dual dynamic was evident, with both transition and historical continuity. In the final months of 2001 a clearer message appears in the politics of African cinema at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Central elements of the film policy under the Ministry of Cooperation are compared to current policy and then situated into French film politics in a more general sense.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Africa

1017. Republican Antiracism And Racism: A Caribbean Genealogy

Author:
Laurent Dubois
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
In the Département d'Outre-Mer of Guadeloupe, a schoolteacher named Hugues Delannay presents me with a conundrum that has preoccupied him for a long time. He has been teaching in a lycée for over twenty years in Basse-Terre, the island's capital, and has had many brilliant students who, when they take their baccalaureat examinations, get mixed results. Normally, they excel on the written portions of the examination. Consistently, however, they do worse on their oral examinations, which drags down their grades. Why? It is not that their speaking skills are not up to par-far from it, he tells me, these students are articulate and speak impeccable French. There is, according to Delannay, a simpler, and ultimately more disturbing explanation. The examiners who give these students low grades in their oral examinations almost always come from metropolitan France. When they are face-to-face with the students, they of course notice their race (usually they are black, of African and/or Indian descent, as are most people in Guadeloupe) and this informs the grades they give. The students are, he believes, quite simply the victims of well-ensconced structural racism.
Political Geography:
Africa, India, France, and Caribbean

1018. Antiracism Without Races: Politics and Policy in a "Color-Blind" State

Author:
Erik Bleich
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Since the end of the Second World War, millions of immigrants have arrived on French shores. Although such an influx of foreigners has not been unusual in French history, the origin of the postwar migrants was of a different character than that of previous eras. Prior to World War II, the vast majority of immigrants to France came from within Europe. Since 1945, however, an important percentage of migrants have come from non- European sources. Whether from former colonies in North Africa, Southeast Asia, or sub- Saharan Africa, from overseas departments and territories, or from countries such as Turkey or Sri Lanka, recent immigration has created a new ethnic and cultural pluralism in France. At the end of the 1990s, the visibly nonwhite population of France totals approximately five percent of all French residents. With millions of ethnic-minority citizens and denizens, the new France wears a substantially different face from that of the prewar era.
Topic:
Politics and History
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Turkey, France, Sri Lanka, North Africa, and Southeast Asia

1019. Review Essay: Histories of Race in France

Author:
Tyler Stovall
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Tzvetan Todorov, On Human Diversity: Nationalism, Racism, and Exoticism in French Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). Sue Peabody, "There Are No Slaves in France": The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Régime (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1995). Maxim Silverman, Deconstructing the Nation: Immigration, Racism and Citizenship in Modern France (London and New York: Routledge, 1992). In the final decade of the twentieth century, few issues have seemed more central, and disturbing, to French society than considerations of race. Questions of racial tolerance and difference have led France to reconsider the cherished right of all those born on the nation's soil to French nationality, have (until its recent split) prompted the rise of the biggest new political party in France since the Parti communiste français, and suffused debates about nationality and citizenship. Such has been the importance of this phenomenon that French intellectuals recently found themselves praising, of all things, the Disney animated version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because of its topical relevance to the plight of African immigrants seeking asylum in a Parisian church. In contrast to the traditional rosy view of France as a land without color prejudice, race and racism now seem unavoidable aspects of life in the Hexagon.
Political Geography:
Africa and France

1020. Monitoring the Dynamics of Democratization in Korea: The Korea Democracy Barometer Surveys

Author:
Doh Chull Shin
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
The past decade has witnessed a growth in major efforts to study mass reactions to democratic regime change on a global scale. Since 1991 Professor Richard Rose, of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, has been conducting the New Democracies Barometer surveys and the New Russia and Baltic Barometer surveys to compare the mass experience of democratization in post-Communist countries. Since 1995 Dr. Mata Lagos, of Market Opinion Research International in Santiago, Chile, has been conducting the Latinobarometro surveys on an annual basis to trace and compare the levels and sources of popular support for democracy and democratic reforms in 15 Latin American countries along with Spain. Most recently, in1999, Professor Michael Bratton of Michigan State University in the United States and Robert Mattes of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa launched the Afrobarometer to map mass attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil society in a dozen African countries.
Political Geography:
Africa, Russia, United States, Latin America, Spain, Korea, and Scotland