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59111. The International Observation of the U.S. Elections

Publication Date:
11-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
Robert Pastor, Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Program at The Carter Center and Executive Secretary of the Council, opened the conference with a reference to Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz who once said, "A nation without free elections is a nation without a voice, without eyes, and without ears." Pastor noted that the right to free and fair elections is a universal right enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Charter of the Organization of American States. In the spirit of honoring that right, the Council was formed in 1986 to lend support and assistance to the democratization movement in the Americas.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, United Nations, and Latin America

59112. The Carter Administration and Latin America: A Test of Principle

Author:
Robert Pastor
Publication Date:
07-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
Within a single year, two events unprecedented in the history of the United States shook the nation's confidence in itself as the moral leader of the Free World. In August 1974, the president resigned under a pall of scandal, and eight months later, the United States suffered the humiliation of military defeat as it watched the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam fold the American flag under his arm and flee his post by helicopter.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States, Vietnam, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

59113. Investigating Abuses and Introducing Safeguards in the Democratization Process

Author:
The Conference Center
Publication Date:
07-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
In the two years that have elapsed since The Carter Center hosted "Investigating Abuses and Introducing Human Rights Safeguards in the Democratization Process," the issues we discussed then have become even more pivotal as our views of governance and the rights of individuals and of state sovereignty itself are being fundamentally transformed. It was our view that, although the Center did not previously publish the seminar proceedings, making them available at this time would serve to further inform those who are working in this field by providing insightful observations by many human rights activists, journalists, and academicians who were involved directly in political transitions in their own countries and by others who studied these events from the outside.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, Human Rights, and International Cooperation

59114. The International Negotiation Network: A New Method of Approaching Some Very Old Problems

Author:
Dayle E. Spencer and William J. Spencer
Publication Date:
11-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
For several years The Carter Center of Emory University's (CCEU) Conflict Resolution Program has been engaged in developing an International Negotiation Network (INN) to alleviate the tremendous suffering resulting from intranational conflicts. Our efforts have led to the convening of direct negotiation between warring parties engaged in prolonged conflicts. We have been involved in activities advancing free elections and elections monitoring where such efforts have helped to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power in previously conflict-burdened countries. We have been involved in quiet, back-channel linkages of disputing parties and resources available to them. Some of our efforts have received widespread media coverage. However, the vast majority of our work has not been widely known.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Africa

59115. Resolving Intra-National Conflicts: A Strengthened Role for Non-Governmental Actors

Publication Date:
01-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
This report is a summary of the inaugural consultation of the International Negotiation Network (INN), held at The Carter Center of Emory University CCEU), in Atlanta, Georgia, January 14-17, 1992. The consultation brought together over 200 invited guests from 40 countries and more than 150 organizations or governments. It was made possible through the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and shaped in part by that foundation's president, David Hamburg, who has served as one of the INN's advisors.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Africa, New York, Europe, Asia, and Georgia

59116. Why Do Some Legislators Go To Court? - Congress and the Lawsuit against President Reagan for Noncompliance with the War Powers Resolution

Author:
Jesus Velasco
Publication Date:
01-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the U.S. Congress became very concerned about the increasing role played by the President in foreign affairs. On November 7, 1973, and as a mechanism to diminish the power achieved by the Chief Executive in international matters, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution (WPR) over Richard Nixon's veto. The basic aim of the law was to prevent the President from unilaterally introducing the armed forces abroad without congressional authorization. In so doing, Congress sought "to fulfill the intent of the framers of the American Constitution."
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

59117. Report of The Commission on Television Policy:Volume 3, Number 1

Publication Date:
11-1991
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
The first meeting of the Commission on Television Policy culminated a project that began with basic research on the impact of television on the electoral process in many countries. From this research, a Working Group developed a document presenting a wide range of options and trade-offs in broadcast practice and rules worldwide. With this reference document, Commissioners from the United States and the independent states from the territory of the former Soviet Union began their discussions at The Carter Center on November 15 and 16, 1991.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

59118. Frustrations of Regional Peacekeeping: The OAU in Chad, 1977-1982

Author:
Sam G. Amoo
Publication Date:
02-1991
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
The conflict in Chad is a microcosm of the widespread instability in Africa. Since its independence in 1960, peace, security, and stability have eluded Chad just as they have been scarce in most of Africa. Since 1960, 18 full-fledged civil wars have been fought in Africa. Eleven genocides and politicides occurred in Africa between 1960 and the late 1980s, compared with 24 elsewhere in the world. During the decade of the 1980s alone, it is estimated that conflict and violence claimed over 3 million lives. At the beginning of 1990, 43 percent of the global population of refugees were African, most of them fleeing from political violence. The mediation and resolution of conflicts should indeed be the primary preoccupation of the continent's leadership.
Topic:
Security, Development, Peace Studies, and Population
Political Geography:
Africa

59119. Toward Defensive Restructuring in the Middle East

Author:
Carl Conetta, Charles Knight, and Lutz Unterseher
Publication Date:
02-1991
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Project on Defense Alternatives
Abstract:
Examines the character of force structure and military conflict in the Middle East and outlines a nonoffensive defense posture for nations in the region. It also draws the implications of such a posture for arms transfers and arms control policy. An appendix reviews the pertinent lessons of the 1990-91 Gulf War.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Military Affairs, Conflict, and Gulf War
Political Geography:
Middle East and United States of America

59120. Democratic Transitions: Puzzles & Surprises from West to East

Author:
Giuseppe di Palma
Publication Date:
01-1990
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
Recent communist crises in Eastern Europe seem to have caught many analysts by surprise. They also show features that set them apart from contemporary crises of right-wing dictatorships. The paper analyzes the reasons for the surprise in the light of theories of communism and of civil society under communism developed since the death of Stalin. It also examines and tries to account for the special features of the crises: their sudden acceleration •. the regimes' loss of a will to rule, the mobilization of large popular strata. Explanations focus on the goal-oriented nature of communist regimes as an alternative to the Western order. It makes the issue of self-identity and self justification crucial to these regimes-more crucial than for right-wing dictatorships. Therefore, the announcement by the Soviet hegemon itself that the goal has failed removes those tenuous shreds of self-justification to which the regimes desperately cling. This also makes possible and explains mass mobilization and the revival of civil society as a cathartic exercise. The paper concludes with an analysis of the prospects for democratization in Eastern Europe in the light of recent transitions in Southern Europe and Latin America. Democracy may develop-theoretical pessimism notwithstanding--as a matter of calculus and through an accelerated process of learning.
Topic:
Politics, Dictatorship, Identity, Post-Communism, and Democratic Transitions
Political Geography:
Europe and Eastern Europe