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15801. The Aral Sea Basin Crisis and Sustainable Water Resource Management in Central Asia

Author:
Everett J. Peachey
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
This article traces the historical development of water resource management in Central Asia, focusing on the causes of the current Aral Sea Basin crisis. It examines the obstacles facing the Central Asian republics in addressing this problem and offers predictions regarding the future state of the region’s ecology, economy, and stability, as well as the health of the region’s people. The article also explains how existing plans of action have been largely ineffective and why restoring the Aral Sea to its original state is an impossible task. Finally, it provides feasible policy recommendations on how to prevent the further mismanagement of the region’s water while maintaining viable levels of economic development and population growth.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Water, Crisis Management, and Resource Management
Political Geography:
Central Asia and Aral Sea

15802. Outsourcing Post-Conflict Operations: Designing a System for Contract Management and Oversight

Author:
Blake W. Mobley
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
Over the past ten years the United States has relied on private contractors to support military forces and rehabilitate national infrastructures in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Though contractors are essential to such post-conflict operations, the U.S. government’s management and oversight of outsourced support remains critically deficient. As the United States builds its institutional capacity for long-term post-conflict reconstruction, it will need to outsource tasks to specialized private firms and non-profit organizations more strategically, efficiently, and transparently. This paper assesses the ramifications of post-conflict outsourcing in four sections. The first section provides a brief history of outsourcing in military and reconstruction operations. The second analyzes the benefits of private contracting arrangements. The third considers pitfalls of the current U.S. outsourcing system, which include inefficiencies as well as more serious security threats. The final section concludes with policy recommendations to improve management systems in the context of post-conflict operations.
Topic:
Security, Management, Outsourcing, Military Contractors, and Post-Conflict
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

15803. Too Good to be Legal? Network Centric Warfare and International Law

Author:
Erik Dahl
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
America’s military today faces new challenges that appear resistant to conventional solutions. The concept known as Network Centric Warfare (NCW) promises to use speed, precision, and information technology to win conflicts more quickly with minimal force. But many of the advantages that look beguiling to a commander can create problems for a military that focuses too much on speed and effects, at the expense of deliberation and law. This article argues that both the U.S. military and the American public will lose if new tools and technologies make war seem too easy. It calls for a reassessment of NCW in light of international law and offers recommendations to help guide that effort.
Topic:
International Law, Science and Technology, War, and Military
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

15804. Targeting the Leadership of Terrorist and Insurgents Movements: Historical Lessons for Contemporary Policy Makers

Author:
Lisa Langdon, Alexander J. Sarapu, and Matthews Wells
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
In a world where the struggle against terrorism and insurgent movements has become the top priority for many policy makers, there is a growing need for research that examines what happens to militant movements after the death or arrest of a leader. Do groups tend to disband, schism, or become more radical? What characteristics of a group make it more susceptible to certain changes after the loss of a leader? Using thirty-five case studies drawn from more than forty countries, this paper analyzes the effect that the death or arrest of a leader has on social, political, and religious movements. Its conclusions are drawn from an analysis of the groups’ characteristics and an assessment of the effects the loss of a leader had on the survivability and evolution of the movement. The analysis provides some guidance for policy makers focused on incapacitating leadership as part of a broader effort to combat terrorist and insurgent movements.
Topic:
Terrorism, History, Insurgency, and Leadership
Political Geography:
United States of America

15805. Eastward Bound: The Strategy and Politics of Repositioning U.S. Military Bases in Europe

Author:
Todd W. Fields
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
This article examines the strategic rationale and political implications of the U.S. Department of Defense’s proposal to reposition U.S. military bases in Europe. The Pentagon’s plans call for a withdrawal of U.S. bases and personnel from Germany and the creation of various smaller, more flexible bases in Central and Eastern Europe. While the removal of U.S. forces from Germany is appropriate given the absence of an imminent security threat to Europe, revamping the European basing structure in the midst of current trans-Atlantic tensions presents formidable political challenges. Given the impact that base realignment is likely to have on U.S. relations with Germany, Russia, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United States must exercise a deft diplomatic touch—balancing the pursuit of its strategic interests with the preservation of its regional relationships and alliances.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Politics, Military Strategy, and Military Bases
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and United States of America

15806. Negotiating Survival: The Problem of Commitment in U.S.-North Korean Relations

Author:
Steven Grunau
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
Rational accounts of the causes of conflict provide an important framework to examine the dispute between the United States and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear weapons programs. Because North Korea depends on these weapons to ensure its survival, it is unwilling to irrevocably surrender its nuclear potential—and associated bargaining leverage—in exchange for U.S. security guarantees that could be withdrawn at any time. Arguing that neither confrontation nor engagement is likely to succeed in eliminating the North Korean threat, this paper advocates a longer-term strategy of integration as having the potential to alleviate some of the tensions in the bilateral relationship. By establishing alternative sources of economic and political power while simultaneously exposing Pyongyang to the pacifying influences of international interdependence, integration policies could gradually reduce North Korea’s threat, and perhaps eventually create the necessary conditions to negotiate the elimination of its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Asia, North Korea, North America, and United States of America

15807. The Decolonization of Chechnya: Reviving the UN Trusteeship Council

Author:
Julie M. Tremper
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
The Russian-Chechen conflict represents an urgent problem for the international community. Domestic and regional efforts have failed to secure a satisfactory or lasting resolution to it, and terrorist activity, gross human rights violations, the proliferation of Wahhabism, and regional security concerns have led to the internationalization of the Chechen question. There are several potential statehood or non-statehood approaches to the resolution of the conflict. Given the history of hostility between Russia and Chechnya and the character of the current international environment, the best approach would be to revive the UN Trusteeship Council and give it responsibility for overseeing a transition leading to Chechen independence. This revival and application of UN trusteeship would require a redefinition of the trust system in a post-colonial context. In the case of Chechnya, the need for peace and stability should supersede the international community’s usual aversion to the creation of a new nation-state.
Topic:
United Nations, Conflict, Decolonization, and International Community
Political Geography:
Russia, Eurasia, and Chechnya

15808. Litigation as a Tool for Development: The Environment, Human Rights, and the Case of Texaco in Ecuador.

Author:
Elizabeth C. Black
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
As the process of globalization continues into the twenty-first century, ensuring that transnational corporations are held accountable for their work abroad will be one of the greatest challenges faced by development specialists. In the current context, litigation in U.S. courts is an increasingly important tool in assuring that the people of underdeveloped nations do not suffer from the exploitation, pollution, and cultural degradation that has marked such countries’ “progress” in the past. This paper examines the case of María Aguinda et al. v. Texaco Inc., in which a group of indigenous Ecuadorans have sued the U.S.-based petroleum giant in response to environmental and human health damages resulting from its work in Ecuador in the 1970s and 1980s, in order to provide an example of one way in which litigation can foster development. In the context of the Aguinda case, this paper presents several specific recommendations for developing the legal means by which corporations can be held accountable on an international level beyond the U.S. court system.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Globalization, Human Rights, Business, Accountability, Corporations, and Litigation
Political Geography:
South America, North America, Ecuador, and United States of America

15809. Corporate Crime in a Globalized Economy: An Examination of the Corporate Legal Conundrum and Positive Prospects for Peace

Author:
Paul Richardson
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
“This is it. They are going to arrest us all and execute us. All for Shell.” Ken Saro-Wiwa, a leader of the Nigerian Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSAP), made this statement two weeks before his arrest in May 1994. Jailed for exposing the company’s role in directing and arming the Nigerian military, Saro-Wiwa’s efforts paved the way for similar campaigns throughout the world, in places as diverse as India, China, Colombia, Chad and Sudan. As the number of such cases has increased over the past decade, so too has the public’s scrutiny. What are the legal and ethical obligations of corporations operating in a conflict zone? How effective is existing international law in ensuring that companies are held accountable for extraterritorial human rights violations? Taking into account existing efforts to address corporate accountability on a global scale, this paper concludes that neither national legislation nor voluntary corporate codes of conduct provide an adequate means to ensure the protection of human rights. Instead, an international system must be created—one with sufficient oversight and monitoring powers to ensure that corporations adopt conflict-sensitive policies that contribute to peace and security
Topic:
Crime, Globalization, International Law, Economy, Peace, and Corporations
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15810. Fourastié avant Fourastié: La construction d'une légitimité d'expert

Author:
Olivier Dard
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Décédé depuis 1990, Jean Fourastié demeure présent à travers certains titres d'ouvrages, le plus célèbre étant Les Trente Glorieuses. Le succès de ce livre, comme de bien d'autres, a fait de Fourastié une sorte de phénomène de l'édition, spécialisé dans des ouvrages d'un type particulier qui depuis lors a fait florès: l'essai économique grand public. On ne saurait négliger en effet les 400 000 exemplaires vendus de trois livres à succès publiés de 1945 à 1949: L'Économie française dans le monde, La Civilisation de 1960 et Le Grand Espoir du XX è siècle 1. Dès les lendemains de la guerre, les ouvrages de Fourastié ont connu un incontestable retentissement en France comme à l'étranger, ce don't atteste une quantité impressionnante de comptes rendus, les multiples solicitations dont il est l'objet pour des conférences et les nombreuses traductions de ses ouvrages.
Political Geography:
France

15811. Michel Leiris, French Anthropology, and a Side Trip to the Antilles

Author:
Sally Price
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Susan Sontag seems to have been on to something when she placed her word portraits of Michel Leiris and Claude Lévi-Strauss back to back. An elaboration of her comparison (which was more implied than explicit) may help situate anthropological practice in France-and Leiris' special role in it-within the larger context of trends elsewhere in the world.

15812. An Enigma Still: Poujadism Fifty Years On

Author:
James G. Shields
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The day began on a solemn note. The laying of a wreath at the war memorial and a minute's silence for the fallen of Saint-Céré, victims of conflicts from the trenches to Algeria. Red, white and blue carnations, laid by Pierre Poujade and his wife, Yvette. Flanking them, two mayors in their Republican sashes, sons of early-day poujadistes. A picture of respectful, patriotic commemoration.
Political Geography:
Algeria

15813. Between Europe and a Hard Place: French Financial Diplomacy from 1995 to 2002

Author:
Daphne Josselin
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
In the mid-1990s, a series of financial crises placed international financial stability and North-South dialogue once again very firmly on the agenda of economic diplomacy. These had long been pet topics for the French: back in the 1960s, President Charles de Gaulle had famously clamoured for the establishment of a new monetary order; the summitry set up, on French initiative, in 1975, had been largely focused on exchange rate stability and North-South relations; in the 1980s, President Mitterrand had made repeated appeals for a "new Bretton Woods." One could therefore expect the French to contribute actively to debates on how best to reform the international financial architecture.
Topic:
Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Europe and France

15814. An Extremism of the Center? Jean-Pierre Chevènement, French Presidential Candidate, 2002

Author:
Sharif Gemie
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
There are few politicians who can claim that they have, literally, come back from the dead. Jean-Pierre Chevènement can make a still more dramatic declaration: He is a man who has been reborn twice. Chevènement was the French minister of the Interior from 1997-2000, in the last Jospin government. In October 1998 he was admitted to hospital for a routine gall-bladder operation. Following a complication in the anaesthetic procedure, his heart stopped beating for forty-five minutes. He fell into a deep coma that lasted for three weeks, during which he drifted in a muffled, foggy world inhabited by strange beasts, as he later recalled.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
France

15815. Debate: La France qui tombe? Free-Falling France or Free-Trading France

Author:
Sophie Meunier
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The most common perception of France found these days in the American media is that of an arrogant country, whose international gesticulations are the last hurrah masking its inevitable decline into oblivion. The French have not yet come to terms with their lengthy collapse, which started with the devastation of World War I, continued with the humiliation of their defeat in 1940 and was furthered by the loss of their colonial empire. This would explain their support, still to this day, for a Gaullist policy made up of power incantations, in contrast to real power-or lack thereof.
Political Geography:
America and France

15816. Debate: Le Monde qui tombe? La Fin du Monde? Tradition and Change in the French Press

Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Le Monde, or rather its current management team of publisher and editor Jean-Marie Colombani, managing editor Edwy Plenel, and director-of-the-board Alain Minc, has been the critical target over the past year of several best-selling books, accompanied by scores of articles in the rest of the French press. This avalanche of unwelcome attention for the newspaper was launched with the 630-page, exhaustively documented La Face cachée du Monde (The Hidden Face of Le Monde), by Pierre Péan, perhaps France's most highly-regarded investigative journalist, and Philippe Cohen, economics editor for the newsweekly Marianne. Other critical books that appeared during 2003 included Ma part du Monde by former Le Monde journalist Alain Rollat; Le Pouvoir du Monde by Bernard Poulet, an assistant managing editor at business magazine L'Expansion; Bien entendu … c'est off by former Le Monde political reporter Daniel Carton and Le Cauchemar médiatique by former Le Monde television chronicler Daniel Schneidermann.
Political Geography:
France

15817. Debate: Le Monde qui tombe? Premières leçons d'un audit sauvage

Author:
Pierre Grémion
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Lorsque, le 26 février, le livre de Pierre Péan et de Philippe Cohen est sorti, je me suis précipité chez mon libraire. Trop tard! Les quelques exemplaires don't il disposait avaient déjà été enlevés. C'est le lendemain seulement que j'ai pu être servi. Le libraire s'était levé aux aurores pour faire lui-même son réassortiment. Il ne put en mettre en vente que 30 exemplaires: tous épuisés le soir même. "Si j'en avais pris 50 (mais nous ne pouvions pas, nous étions contingentés), ç'aurait été pareil. Je les aurais vendus dans la journée", m'a-t- il dit.

15818. L'expérience, Le Désir Et L'histoire: Alain Corbin ou le "tournant culturel" silencieux

Author:
Dominique Kalifa
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Il est de nombreuses façons d'envisager l'oeuvre d'Alain Corbin dans le paysage historique contemporain. On peut partir des divers objets élaborés par l'historien jusqu'ici (les sociétés et les comportements ruraux, l'histoire des sens et des appréciations, le paysage, etc.) et montrer l'étonnante capacité d'invention ou de renouvellement dont il fit preuve dans leur mise en forme. Souvent privilégiée, cette approche est évidemment pertinente, mais elle peine parfois à se dégager du simple panégyrique. On peut, de façon plus synthétique, insister sur la cohérence du projet d'ensemble (l'histoire des sensibilités), le penser dans le temps long de l'historiographie et l'inscrire dans une série de filiations (la psychologie historique de Lucien Febvre, l'histoire des mentalités façon Robert Mandrou, l'ombre portée de Michelet et du projet romantique de réanimation du passé), elles-mêmes infléchies par l'apport de sociologues comme Norbert Élias ou de philosophes comme Michel Foucault.

15819. L'historien, L'ethnographe Et L'employé De L'état Civil

Author:
Emmanuelle Saada
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Laboratoire de Sciences Sociales À l'origine de ces quelques éléments de réflexion sur les lectures américaines d'Alain Corbin, il y a le souci de percer une énigme et, plus encore, de comprendre un malentendu: ces deux objectifs offrent une belle occasion de saisir les modes sur lesquels sont appropriés les travaux des historiens français et, au-delà, d'éclairer certains points nodaux de l'oeuvre de Corbin. La réception américaine sera donc surtout ici prétexte à une entrée un peu décalée dans l'imposant massif corbinien. Les termes de l'énigme sont bien simples: dans une conjoncture extrêmement difficile pour les presses universitaires aux États-Unis, et plus encore pour la publication de travaux étrangers, presque tous les livres d'Alain Corbin sont traduits en anglais 1, ce dont je crois aucun autre historien français de sa génération ne peut se flatter. Puisque l'on peut raisonnablement penser que les spécialistes de la France lisent ces ouvrages à leur parution, en version originale, la persistance de ce flux depuis 1986 2 semble indiquer l'existence d'un public non francophone, constant et peut-être même fidèle.

15820. Alain Corbin Et L'histoire Des Femmes

Author:
Michelle Perrot
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
De la vaste table ovale des Archives départementales de Caen (Calvados) où Alain Corbin, étudiant-"le beau ténébreux", disait-on alors-préparait, à la fin des années cinquante, son diplôme d'études supérieures à ce dossier qui lui est consacré, presque un demi-siècle s'est écoulé: le temps d'une vie, le temps d'une oeuvre particulièrement originale qui a introduit, dans la pratique de l'histoire contemporaine, des ruptures et des novations libératrices; une autre manière de voir et de sentir; un autre imaginaire. J'en ai été le témoin ébloui et, à maintes reprises, une collaboratrice amicale. Qu'il s'agisse de l'Histoire de la vie privée (tome IV), dont Alain Corbin a écrit près d'un tiers-"Le secret de l'individu"-,sans doute la partie la plus brillante, des recherches sur un dix-neuvième siècle dont nous partageons l'attrait, des thèses d'étudiants, ou encore de l'histoire des femmes, nos rencontres ont été fréquentes, nos échanges constants, et notre complicité de plus en plus vive.