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5651. Firm Characteristics and Em

Author:
Leonid Kogan and Mary Tian
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
"A three-factor model using the standardized-unexpected-earnings and cashflow-to-price factors explains 15 well-known asset pricing anomalies." Our data-mining experiment provides a backdrop against which such claims can be evaluated. We construct three-factor linear pricing models that match return spreads associated with as many as 15 out of 27 commonly used firm characteristics over the 1971-2011 sample. We form target assets by sorting firms into ten portfolios on each of the chosen characteristics and form candidate pricing factors as long-short positions in the extreme decile portfolios. Our analysis exhausts all possible 351 three-factor models, consisting of two characteristic-based factors in addition to the market portfolio. 65% of the examined factor models match a larger fraction of the target return cross-sections than the CAPM or the Fama-French three-factor model. We find that the relative performance of the complete set of three-factor models is highly sensitive to the sample choice and the factor construction methodology. Our results highlight the challenges of evaluating empirical factor models.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Economic Theory, Data, and Models
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5652. Institutional Herding in the Corporate Bond Market

Author:
Fang Cai, Song Han, and Dan Li
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
We find substantial herding in U.S. corporate bonds among bond fund managers, much higher than that previously documented for the equity market. Herding is generally stronger among illiquid bonds, and buy herding and sell herding are driven by different factors. In particular, sell herding increases on negative news about bond ratings and corporate earnings. Interestingly, increases in ex-post transparency in corporate bond trading through Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) led to higher buy herding but not to higher sell herding. Finally, we find significant return reversals in the post-herding quarters, especially for sell herding and for junk bonds. Price reversal is most prominent when funds herd to sell illiquid bonds, which suggests that temporary price pressure is the reason behind price reversal.
Topic:
Markets, Business, Investment, Corporations, and Liquidity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5653. Self-Determination and National Minorities: the Difficulties of 'Making' a Referendum in Schleswig-Holstein and why to think Twice in Kosovo

Author:
Tove H. Malloy
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The unofficial, non-binding referendum in Northern Kosovo and the ongoing debate in the international community about solutions for the Serbian minority bring the problem of self-determination for national minorities back to the fore. The right to vote on national allegiance and sovereign borders has never been a simple matter in European inter-state relations, let alone in international law. such a referendum is not respected unless it holds international backing, even if it is considered a domestic matter. And a referendum on sovereign international borders is usually the result of long and often drawn out geo-political processes, including tediously negotiated settlements after major bellicose conflicts. It is not something national minorities can unilaterally decide to undertake independently. This is at least one of the lessons that European history has taught us. Thus, the case of Northern Kosovo is not likely to be any different than past referenda on national allegiance and sovereign borders. Drawing on the experience of the 1920 referendum in the Danish-German border region, this Issue Brief will put the problem of self-determination for the Serbs in Northern Kosovo in an historical perspective as a basis for a contemporary analysis.
Topic:
Nationalism, Self Determination, Minorities, and Identity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5654. Has Sovereignty Eroded?

Author:
Binneh S. Minteh
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
This paper argues that globalization and interdependence has contributed to the “contingent maneuvering” of states with sovereignty from an economic perspective, whilst nuclear non-proliferation, security, survival, and rising nationalism established states as prominent actors on the global stage from a political perspective. The paper proceeds with an Introduction and Background Information of the State in part one. Part two gives a literature review of the state on the global political stage. In part three, the paper theorizes globalization and economic interdependence as the border- less source responsible for the decreasing power of states. Part four ponders how the contentious issues of nuclear proliferation, residual nationalism and non state actors contributed to the erosion of sovereignty for reasons of security and survival. And in part five, I ponder the theoretical implications and give concluding remarks.
Topic:
Security, Globalization, Nationalism, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5655. Terrorism as Genocide: Killing with “Intent”

Author:
Ashlie Perry
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
It is plausible that terrorism can manifest itself as a form of genocide. Using Raphael Lemkin’s definition of genocide and the UN Genocide Convention’s definition of genocide, non-state and state terrorism are assessed as a form of genocide. Commonalities found in the definitions of both genocide and terrorism supports the argument. The psychology of terrorism and Lemkin’s psychology of genocide describe similar motivations of perpetrators. The September 11th attacks and the U.S. invasion of Iraq are used as case studies to illustrate that terrorism can result in genocide or genocidal acts. Framing acts of terrorism as genocide allows for prosecution in international courts and brings a new perspective to the concept of killing with intent.
Topic:
Genocide, Terrorism, United Nations, Violence, and State Sponsored Terrorism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5656. Nobody's Century: The American Proposal in Post-Imperial Times

Author:
Chas W. Freeman Jr.
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
We are entering a novel period in our history–one in which the United States will be both fiscally constrained and also unable to call the shots in many places around the globe. Let me try to set the stage for your discussions by raising some difficult questions for you to ponder.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Hegemony, and World System
Political Geography:
North America, Global Focus, and United States of America

5657. CTBT at 15: Status and Prospects

Author:
Arms Control Association
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arms Control Association
Abstract:
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has already helped to bring an end to nuclear testing, reduced nuclear arms competition, and improved global capabilities to detect and deter nuclear testing in the future. But until the CTBT enters into force, the door to renewed testing is still open. Entry into force requires ratification by a handful of key states. On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Preparatory Commission for the CTBT Organization (CTBTO), ACA organized a high-level conference on the CTBT in Vienna, Austria involving senior government representatives and leading technical experts. The participants reviewed the progress of the CTBTO and the International Monitoring System, examined the role of the CTBT in advancing disarmament and curbing proliferation, and evaluated the obstacles and pathways to the Treaty’s entry into force. This conference report includes formal conference presentations and summarizes the discussions.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5658. News, Noise, and Fluctuations: An Empirical Exploration

Author:
Olivier Blanchard, Jean-Paul L'Huillier, and Guido Lorenzoni
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
We explore empirically models of aggregate fluctuations with two basic ingredients: agents form anticipations about the future based on noisy sources of information and these anticipations affect spending and output in the short run. Our objective is to separate fluctuations due to actual changes in fundamentals (news) from those due to temporary errors in agents’ estimates of these fundamentals (noise). We use a simple forward-looking model of consumption to address some methodological issues: structural VARs cannot be used to identify news and noise shocks in the data, but identification is possible via a method of moments or maximum likelihood. Next, we use U.S. data to estimate both our simple model and a richer DSGE model with the same information structure. Our estimates suggest that noise shocks play an important role in short-run consumption fluctuations.
Topic:
News Analysis, Business, and Information
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5659. Economic Consequence of War on the US Economy

Author:
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
An overview of the macroeconomic effects of government spending on war and the military since World War II. It specifically examines five periods: World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, summarizing the effect of financing the wars on consumption, investment, taxes, government deficits and inflation.
Topic:
Economics, War, History, Tax Systems, Inflation, World War II, Macroeconomics, Vietnam War, and Korean War
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5660. Measuring Peace in the Media

Author:
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
Peace and conflict are two of the most newsworthy subjects that can occur but how accurately does the media report on them and are the levels of violence portrayed in countries actually accurate? Media Tenor and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) have come together to jointly create a unique platform that utilizes a fact-based approach for analysing the global media coverage on topics related to peace and conflict. The aim of this study is to better understand the texture of news coverage and its accuracy. This was achieved by analysing Media Tenor’s extensive database consisting of 164,000 news items. These news items have been compiled from 31 news and current affairs programs that air on four continents. The data was further analysed and broken down by country coverage with news stories from 101 different countries. The aggregated country data was then compared to the Global Peace Index (GPI) so as to rate the accuracy of the coverage.
Topic:
Media, News Analysis, Arab Spring, Conflict, Violence, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5661. Uluslararası İlişkiler Kuramında Anarşi Söylemi

Author:
Faruk Yalvaç
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article discusses the development of the anarchy discourse in international relations theory. It questions the main problematiques around which the discourse of anarchy is organised and asks whether anarchy is still a valid concept to understand international relations. The mainstream IR theory analyses anarchy from an institutional framework, and is based on the assumption that state relations is sufficient to describe and understand anarchy. Post-positivist period have developed diverse criticisms to this conceptualisation. The article evaluates the criticisms of postmodernist, historical sociological, postcolonial and feminist approaches to the concept of anarchy. One of the main theses of this article is that the concept of anarchy can meaningfully be used to analyse international relations only if it is connected to social relations (and more specifically to social relations of capitalism with respect to understanding present international system). Therefore, the approach adopted in this article overlaps with many of the criticisms of anarchy by postmodernism, feminism, but more specifically with recent historical sociological approaches and the postcolonial studies. Another argument of the article is that the anarchy/order opposition can not totally be eradicated unless the social relations sustaining them can be altered.
Topic:
Political Theory, Socialism/Marxism, and Anarchy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5662. Segregasyonlar ve Jeopolitik “Yeni” Düzenler: Müteşebbis Efendiler olarak Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri

Author:
Anna M. Agathangelou and Barış Karaağaç
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Beginning with the epistemological principle, International Relations (IR) critiques “world politics”, we look at the discipline of International Political Economy (IPE) within IR, considering to what extent IPE re-thinks key IR divides. What does IPE mean when the military-industrial complex is a site of power for the accumulation of resources and knowledge production? Can we critically theorize without understanding the international, the military, or the industrial as contested categories? How have critical theories of security and militarization and their racial formations been “globally” and “locally” positioned? Does an assumed segregation of security and property relations preclude making tensions visible in security regimes and among vulture capitalists? This essay foregrounds Turkey and its armed forces as sites of critical inquiry into the key divides of IR: national and international; global and local; the economy and state relations; rationality and bodies. We highlight what is produced as viable within the fields of the current model of global power and collective practices instrumental in changing IPE consensus about global processes and relations to dissent.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Political Theory, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5663. “Güvenlik İkilemi”ni Yeniden Düşünmek Güvenlik Çalışmalarında Yeni Bir Perspektif

Author:
Ali Bilgiç
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Th is article will discuss the concept of “security dilemma”, which was conceptualized sixty years ago, but has been enriched and recently re-thought, in three periods. In the first period, the concept was formulated based on the security understanding dominating the Cold War era. The second period is the one during which the concept was enriched in conjunction with emerging problems in world politics and the broadened security understanding in the discipline of International Relations. In the last period, the concept was completely re-thought and fed by new ideas. Among these new ideas, the concept of “trust” was offered as a way of transcending security dilemmas. The re-generated version of “security dilemma” presents a new perspective to understand, study, and re-think what security and insecurity mean in world politics.
Topic:
International Relations, International Security, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5664. Yirmibirinci Yüzyılda Savaşı Tartışmak: Clausewitz Yeniden

Author:
Ali L. Karaosmanoğlu
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
In the post-Cold War era the changing international system, primordial hate and violence motivated by ethnic and religious conflicts, transnationally operating non-state actors, relativization of the state, and rising democratic and liberal values have prompted an ongoing debate on the nature of war. Those commentators who argue that the “new” wars have fundamentally changed the nature of war are of the opinion that the theory of war by Carl von Clausewitz has lost its analytical relevance as a conceptual framework for understanding and explaining war in the twenty-first century. The major contention of this article is the following: In some respects, “new” wars are different from the “old” (conventional) ones. The depth of this difference, however, falls short in changing the nature of war. The conceptual framework of Clausewitz, therefore, remains relevant to a great extent. Clausewitzian interpretation of contemporary wars would be useful to reevaluate political and strategic alternatives that are developed to control and terminate them.
Topic:
War and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5665. Savaş Hukukunda Tecavüz ve Yağmayı Yasakla(ma)yan Rejimler Lahey Sözleşmeleri (1899, 1907)

Author:
Tuba İnal
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Th is article seeks to explain two related theoretical questions by looking at the treatment of two related practices of war, pillage and rape, by international law: How does change, particularly legalized regime change, happen in international relations and what is the role of “gender” as a category in this process of change? The argument here is that three conditions are necessary for the emergence of a legalized prohibition regime: Firstly, states must believe that they can comply with the prohibition because non-compliance is costly. Secondly, a normative context conducive to the idea that the particular practice is abnormal/undesirable is necessary. Thirdly, actors actively propagating these ideas to promote the creation of a particular regime should exist. The 100-year temporal difference between the emergence of the regimes against pillage and rape reveals the role of gender in this process.
Topic:
Gender Issues, International Law, and War Crimes
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5666. “The International”, Epistemic Fallacy and Possibilities of Critical Realism

Author:
Burak Ülman, Evren Balta-Paker, and Muhammed A. Ağcan
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article examines the main assumptions of neo-realism and neo-liberalism from the perspective of a critical realist philosophy of science. Although neo-realist and neo-liberal theories of inter- national relations (IR) disagree on some issues, they do have a common ontological understanding of “the international” based heavily on the principle of anarchy. The centrality of and emphasis on anarchy, in turn, creates a monolithic, unhistorical and asocial idea of the international. This article argues that a critical realist philosophy of science, as proposed by Roy Bhaskar, provides a good framework to pursue the ontological interrogation required to deconstruct the anarchy centered idea of the international assumed by rationalist/positivist theories. Critical realism allows us to identify the crucial error that the rationalist/positivist tradition commits: which is to fall into the trap of ‘epistemic fallacy’, where ontological questions concerning the nature of being are posed and answered in epistemological terms. Critical realism not only provides a tool to investigate the ontological assumptions of mainstream IR theories but also to propose a differentiated and stratified ontology that can open the door to the mutual recognition of alternative perspectives.
Topic:
Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5667. Perception or Discourse? Security Threats in Copenhagen School and Neoclassical Realism

Author:
Sinem Akgül-Açikmese
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article compares the perceptive approach of neoclassical realist security understanding with the discursive constructivist methodology of the Copenhagen School in analyzing the emergence of security threats. It departs from the assumption that these theories divergent in their perspectives on the content of security threats as well as security actors are comparable since they reveal methodological commonalities. The main emphasis of this article is that while partly adopting the perceptive subjectivity of neoclassical realism, the Copenhagen School has further developed an alternative model of discursive intersubjectivity in analyzing security threats. In this context, it will first cover the discussions on the content of security threats in Security Studies literature. It will then compare the assumptions of various realist understandings of security on the content and emergence of security threats, with a particular focus on the perceptive perspective of neoclassical realism. Finally, it will study the threat approach of the Copenhagen School through its securitization theory with insights from the speech-act theory, political theory and discourse analysis, in comparison with neoclassical realism.
Topic:
Security and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5668. Rethinking International Cooperation: The Case of Regulatory Networks in Competition Policy

Author:
Umut Aydin
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
In the last few decades, globalization has led to the emergence of complex international problems and new methods of cooperation to deal with them such as Transnational Regulatory Networks (TRNs). In this article I argue that dominant rationalist theories of International Relations such as neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism have difficulty accounting for the emergence of TRNS and their effects on state behavior. Thus, there is an increasing need to rethink our concepts and theories of international cooperation with the spread of TRNs. 6 e article explores this argument by focusing on cooperation on competition policy in the International Competition Network.
Topic:
International Relations, International Cooperation, and Regulation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5669. The Issue of Effectiveness in International Environmental Regimes

Author:
Yasemin Kaya and Sezgin Kaya
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The effectiveness of international environmental regimes is a subject that is becoming more and more important within the International Relations discipline. While one of the reasons of that is the increasing interest of the international community in environmental issues, the other reason is that the environmental issues have turned into a problem that has a direct impact on the relations among the states. However, there is no consensus on approaches about the assessment of the effectiveness of the environmental regimes. This study aims to consider the different approaches and views that are important in terms of the assessment of the effectiveness of environmental regimes. In this framework, the approaches related to regime effectiveness are assessed, and the outlines of theoretical and methodological framework that can be used in the analysis of regime effectiveness are tried to be defined.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5670. Developing Strategies for City Culture and Urban Responsibilities in the future of Urban Services

Author:
Nihat Kurt
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
Due to industrialization, immigration and socio-economical effects cities and their problems are getting developed and they have gained new contents as a natural result of parallel improvement with globalization and localization. With localization, solution suggestions have revived on living problems in cities through urban and urban life perspectives taking part of the focused subjects in the first stage about local values for cities. In this course, it is aimed that city residents will reflect their living styles in harmonious with the city requirements. The facts for responsibility, state of belonging and willingness are basic elements for citizen within the frame of citizen consciousness. Furthermore, there are some city responsibility areas such as the active participation of local people for the management in democratic values, fair benefiting from the city opportunities, living peacefully and security in the city, finding chances to develop themselves and asking for qualified services from the city management etc. Important rolls are given for city management as well as citizens in the area for providing enlargement of the city within the sustainable development, keeping the city opportunities, ownership of citizens for cities, transformation of city to safe places and so on.
Topic:
Urban and Industrialization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5671. Relationship between Career Stages and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: An Emprical Case

Author:
Yasemin Özdemir and Rana Özen Kutanis
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
The concept of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is a relatively new phenomenon for Turkish behavioral sciences literature. There has been a body of literature on the relationship between this kind of behaviors and the organizational behavior concepts such as job satisfaction, organizational culture and organizational commitment. However, there has not been high volume of publications on demographic components compared to other parts of the literature. The aim of this study is to contribute the literature in this respect. With the aim of determining that if the career stages are effective components for the tendency of organizational citizenship behavior, a two-stage research is executed in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of a state university constitute the research universe of this research. Thus, getting a deeper and more detailed perspective is targeted.
Topic:
Demographics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5672. Compliance with the Climate Change Obligations: The Kyoto Protocol Compliance Mechanism

Author:
Şûle Anlar Güneş
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
“Procedures and Mechanisma on Compliance Under the Kyoto Protocol” was adopted by the Kyoto Protocol First Meeting of Parties at Montreal in 2005. The Compliance Committee which constitutes of Facilitative Branch and Enforcement Branch, started to operate in 2006. While the Enforcement Branch deserves a special attention due to its innovative quasi-judicial characteristics, the mandate of the Facilitative Branch have many similarities with the Non-Compliance Procedures which is already applicable for various Multilateral Environmental Agreements, predominantly the Montreal Protocol. The outcomes of the ongoing climate change negotiations for post-2012 will possibly shape and guide the necessary changes to the Kyoto Protocol compliance regime as well. Thereupon, the purpose of this article is to shed light on the structure and functioning of the compliance mechanism; the mandates used by the Facilitative and Enforcement Branches; the legal nature of the decisions taken by the Compliance Committee.
Topic:
Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5673. Review: Gender and International Security-Feminist Perspectives, Laura Sjoberg (Ed.)

Author:
Çiğdem Aydin Koyuncu
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Laura Sjoberg editörlüğünde hazırlanan dört ana bölüm altında on üç makaleden oluşan bu derleme kitap, toplumsal cinsiyet (gender) perspektifiyle uluslararası güvenlik kuramlarının analizini/eleştirisini ve uluslararası güvenlikle toplumsal cinsiyet arasındaki ilişkinin değerlendirilmesini amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada, özellikle toplumsal cinsiyet konusunun uluslararası güvenlik alanında önemli bir yere sahip olmakla birlikte gerek kuramda gerekse uygulamada ihmal edildiği tartışılmaktadır. 2000 yılında BM Güvenlik Konseyi\'nin toplumsal cinsiyetin barışın korunması, mültecilerin idaresi, çatışma sonrası silahsızlanma, savaş sırasında savaş dışı olanların korunması gibi konulara bütünleşmesini içeren 1325 sayılı kararı kabul etmesi, küresel güvenliğin tüm alanlarında aktörleri toplumsal cinsiyet konularına yönelik daha duyarlı olmaya yöneltmiştir. Bu kitap giriş kısmında da belirtildiği gibi, geleneksel güvenlik çalışmaları ile feminist güvenlik çalışmaları arasındaki iletişimi nicelik ve nitelik açısından arttırmayı, toplumsal cinsiyet analizlerinin uluslararası güvenlik çalışmalarındaki önemini ortaya koymayı ve feminist yaklaşımların güvenlik çalışmalarındaki yerini genişletmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Kitap sadece toplumsal cinsiyete yönelik varsayılan ilgisizliği sorgulamak ve toplumsal cinsiyetin güvenlik çalışmalarının bir alt başlığı olduğunu iddia etmek amacında değildir. Çalışmaya katkıda bulunanlar, toplumsal cinsiyetin kavramsal, ampirik ve normatif olarak uluslararası güvenlik çalışmalarında gerekli olduğunu ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Ayrıca uluslararası güvenlik kuramları ve güvenliğin temel konuları eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla ele alınmakta, güvenlik alanında kadınların birer aktör olarak giderek artan rolleri analiz edilmekte ve günümüz güvenlik sorunları toplumsal cinsiyetçi bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirilmektedir.
Topic:
Gender Issues and International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5674. Cooperating in the Energy Security Regime Complex

Author:
Jochen Prantl
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:
This paper investigates the influence of global power shifts on energy security cooperation and examines the existing structure for energy governance. It asserts that a regime complex is likely to be more effective that an integrated regime in governing energy cooperation. It concludes with recommendations on how to enhance cooperation in energy security.
Topic:
Energy Policy, International Cooperation, Power Politics, and Governance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5675. Religion and International Relations Theory

Author:
Jack Snyder
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
Religious concerns stand at the center of international politics, yet key paradigms in international relations, namely realism, liberalism, and constructivism, barely consider religion in their analysis of political subjects. The essays in this collection rectify this. Authored by leading scholars, they introduce models that integrate religion into the study of international politics and connect religion to a rising form of populist politics in the developing world. Contributors identify religion as pervasive and distinctive, forcing a reframing of international relations theory that reinterprets traditional paradigms. One essay draws on both realism and constructivism in the examination of religious discourse and transnational networks. Another positions secularism not as the opposite of religion but as a comparable type of worldview drawing on and competing with religious ideas. With the secular state's perceived failure to address popular needs, religion has become a banner for movements that demand a more responsive government. The contributors to this volume recognize this trend and propose structural and theoretical innovations for future advances in the discipline.
Topic:
Religion and International Relations Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231526913
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

5676. Mapping Digital Media: Online Media and Defamation

Author:
Toby Mendel
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The internet is fantastically enabling for the news media, creating previously unimagined possibilities in terms of distribution, audience interaction, and archiving. But it also presents new threats, such as in the area of defamation law, already a significant problem for many media outlets. This paper assesses these problems against international guarantees of freedom of expression and comparative national practice, through both law and self-regulation, highlighting solutions that are more protective of free expression, as well as those that are not. It also probes new ideas such as greater reliance on the right of reply—which the internet enables—and the notion that some spaces on the Internet should be protected against any defamation liability.
Topic:
Communications, Law, Regulation, Media, News Analysis, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5677. Government Accountability for Torture and Ill-Treatment in Health Settings

Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The absolute prohibition under human rights law of all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment is commonly applied to prisons and pretrial detention centers. However this prohibition also applies to places such as schools, hospitals, orphanages, and social care institutions—places where coercion, power dynamics, and practices occurring outside the purview of law or justice systems can contribute to the infliction of unjustified and severe pain and suffering on marginalized people. This briefing paper focuses on torture and ill-treatment in health settings, including hospitals, clinics, hospices, people’s homes, or anywhere health care is delivered. It focuses on government accountability for placing health providers and patients in unacceptable situations whereby torture and ill-treatment is neither documented, prevented, punished, nor redressed. People who are perceived as “deviant” by authorities, who pose a “nuisance” to health providers, who lack the power to complain or assert their rights, or who are associated with stigmatized or criminalized behaviors may be especially at risk of torture in health care.
Topic:
Health, Human Rights, International Law, Torture, Law, Health Care Policy, and Marginalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5678. Sterilization of Women and Girls with Disabilities

Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
In many parts of the world, women rely on access to a range of methods to control their fertility, including voluntary sterilization. However, too often, sterilization is not a choice. Women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to forced sterilizations performed under the auspices of legitimate medical care. The practice of forced sterilization is part of a broader pattern of denial of the human rights of women and girls with disabilities. This denial also includes systematic exclusion from comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care, limited voluntary contraceptive choices, a focus on menstrual suppression, poorly-managed pregnancy and birth, involuntary abortion, and the denial of rights to parenting. These practices are framed within traditional social attitudes that characterize disability as a personal tragedy or a matter for medical management and rehabilitation. The difficulty some women with disabilities may have in understanding or communicating what was done to them increases their vulnerability to forced sterilization. A further aggravating factor is the widespread practice of legal guardians or others making life-altering decisions for persons with disabilities, including consenting to sterilization on their behalf. This briefing paper, produced as part of the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, outlines various international human rights standards that prohibit forced sterilization. It also offers several recommendations for improving laws, policies, and professional guidelines governing sterilization practices.
Topic:
Torture, Law, Health Care Policy, Women, Disability, Sexual Violence, Medicine, Sexual Health, and Girls
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5679. Treatment or Torture? Applying International Human Rights Standards to Drug Detention Centers

Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
People identified as drug users in many countries are confined to abusive locked detention centers for months or even years. Such detention centers are supposedly mandated to treat and "rehabilitate" drug users, but the "treatment" they receive in some cases amounts to torture or other cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. In Treatment or Torture? Applying International Human Rights Standards to Drug Detention Centers, legal experts review common forms of abuse in drug detention centers and show how these practices in many cases are in violation of basic human rights treaties widely ratified by most nations worldwide. International health and drug-control agencies—including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization—all endorse comprehensive, evidence-based drug dependence treatment services. Yet drug detention centers rarely provide treatment that meets these standards. Depending on the country, so-called rehabilitation consists of a regime of military drills, forced labor, psychological and moral re-education, and shackling, caning, and beating. Treatment or Torture? comes in advance of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture—both on June 26, 2011. The report was published by the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, a coalition led by the Open Society Foundations, and featured legal analysis by Human Rights Watch, Harm Reduction International, and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Topic:
Health, Human Rights, International Law, War on Drugs, Health Care Policy, Criminal Justice, Drugs, and Public Health
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5680. Post G20 Seoul Summit Meeting and East Asia

Author:
Yves Tiberghien
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the global economic system has entered a period of intense turbulence, higher systemic risk, and structural change. Many observers and policy-makers recognize the current period as a critical juncture , during which the system of global governance must be successfully upgraded to cope with increasingly globalized and volatile markets. In addition, the global system is undergoing a historic rebalancing in the distribution of power, a process marked by the rise of large emerging countries, primarily China, India, and Brazil. As a consequence, the share of OECD countries in the global GDP has shrunk from 60% to 50% between 2000 and 2011 (PPP basis). This new reality has empowered the new rising emerging economies to demand a larger say in global governance, as witnessed during the debates over the choice of a new IMF Managing Director in June 2011. By chance and also owing to its relatively careful initial design, the G20 Leaders Summit has emerged as the prime forum for the negotiation of changes in the global economic governance. In particular, the G20 represents a relatively stable equilibrium, due to its near equal balancing between developed OECD countries and emerging economies (nearly 10 to 10, depending how one codes Mexico and Korea). The G20 suffers somewhat from its large size, but at least enjoys support from most of its members due to its numerous opportunities for coalition-building and issue-specific balancing. It is true that the G20 in still in the process of proving itself and has to deal with many skeptics. Many analysts in Canada and the U.S. are quick to discount the G20 process as meaningless summitry among too many countries focused on widely divergent domestic agendas. Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini both call this a G-zero situation. Likewise, many leaders in Japan, especially in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are very skeptical about the G20’s potential and Japan has broadly not yet accepted the G20 as the central game of global governance, preferring to it the well-established G8. Yet, the G0 or G8 or G193 are not functional options. They represent default realities without the ability to solve any of our global problems. Only the G20 is able to deliver the necessary political leadership to initiate the upgrading of global governance. For this reason, the majority of key countries (including Europe, China, Korea, and many in the U.S.) see the G20 as the core game of global governance and the best option for the enhancement of global cooperation and the restructuring of global institutions. After an interim summit in Toronto, the Seoul summit came at a critical moment when the future of the G20 was in the balance. By managing to deliver visible results and institutional milestones, the Seoul Summit played a key role in the gradual institutionalization of the G20. The Seoul summit provided significant momentum to the G20 and significant legacies. It can be seen as a second high point after the London summit.
Topic:
Diplomacy, International Cooperation, G20, Economic Cooperation, and Summit
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5681. After the Busan Forum: Transformation of the International Development Aid Regime

Author:
Taekyoon Kim
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:
The 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) was held in Busan, South Korea from November 29 to December 1, 2011. This forum was the last of the four High Level Forums which were arranged to enhance the effectiveness of foreign aid from major donor countries led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development Assistance Group (OECD-DAC). Following the first HLF, the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness which contains specific action plans was endorsed at the second HLF. Then in 2008, the international development aid regime was finally institutionalized with the third HLF in Accra. The fourth HLF in Busan was expected to evaluate the progress made by the previous forums and to seek a comprehensive expansion of the existing international “aid” regime into a new international “development” regime. Considering that the deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals is 2015, the Busan HLF-4 held particular significance as a rearrangement of international governance on aid effectiveness. Moreover, the Busan Forum was also a testing ground for South Korea’s soft power diplomacy which was related to the “development issues” that Seoul, during its presidency of the G20 in 2010, presented as a scheme to reduce the gap between developed and developing countries. In this context, it is important to evaluate the significance of Busan HLF-4 from the following three perspectives. Firstly, the agenda promoted most vigorously by the Busan Forum was to undertake a paradigm shift in development aid. This shift from “aid effectiveness” to “development effectiveness” encourages a multi-dimensional change in the international development aid regime. The shift reflects the international society’s efforts to desist from the conventional method of aid provision centered only on traditional donors, and to extensively and comprehensively embrace more development issues as well as a wider variety of aid providers as part of a more long-term development plan. This new concept of “development effectiveness” can also be found in the draft of the Busan Outcome Document (BOD) that was published after four successive meetings of the OECD-DAC “aid effectiveness” work team. However, if the sprawling concept of “development effectiveness” is not refined with apt and concrete principles, the Busan HLF-4 runs the risk of merely reiterating the five pillars of the Paris Declaration. Secondly, the forum was an attempt to integrate and restore the governance function of the international aid regime which is divided between the OECD-DAC-centered body of donors and the Non-OECD-DAC Donors (NODDs) that are pursuing an independent path. The so-called South-South Cooperation, consisting of NODDs such as China, India, and Brazil is widely welcomed by fragile states in Africa and East Asia for their focus on constructing infrastructure and prioritizing mutual respect and equality. This can however, disrupt the established international aid framework. The debate on aid effectiveness in 2010 predominated by the Paris Declaration regime was very much confined to the standard model of aid provision centered on DAC and its member states. Therefore, making the participation of emerging donors in the aid effectiveness commitments compulsory was a task of utmost significance at the Busan HLF-4. The involvement of the leading NODDs such as China in the Busan Forum elicited tentative hopes for an expansion of the international aid regime, and the proposition of traditional donors for South-South-North Triangular Cooperation during the forum also succeeded in expanding the point of compromise. Thirdly, another distinctive feature of the Busan HLF-4 was that it took place under the slogan of “Inclusive Partnership,” pursuing change that encourages the participation of diverse actors in the field of international development at the forum. This stood in contrast to previous forums where only the traditional donors of OECD-DAC were invited. For example, at the HLF-1 in Rome and the HLF-2 in Paris, only OECD-DAC member states, major multilateral organizations, and some partner recipient countries were invited to the forums. Civil Society Organizations (CSO) only came to be recognized as independent partners in the field of development assistance at the HLF-3 in Accra, but their proposals were still not reflected in the forum’s outcome to any substantial degree owing to the perfunctory level of their participation. The Busan HLF-4, however, embraced a much more extensive range of participants from the NODDs to civil sector participants such as CSOs and multinational corporations. This broader participation was possible because South Korea itself has experienced a successful transition from a recipient country to a donor country. With this background, South Korea could bridge the gap between recipients group and donors group. Moreover, CSOs led by Better Aid, a global organization for development cooperation, organized the “Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness” in the run-up to the Busan Forum. The CSOs strived to apply their policies on human rights, gender equality, and creation of healthy jobs to the Busan Outcome Document (BOD). Whether the inclusion of a diverse range of participants can bear substantive results depends on how well the demands of these actors can be reflected and translated into effective policies in the final draft of the BOD.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Development Aid
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5682. Friend not Foe: Opening Spaces for Civil Society Engagement to Prevent Violent Extremism

Author:
David Cortright, Alistair Millar, Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf, George A. Lopez, Eliot Fackler, and Joshua Weaver
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:
One of the less known aspects of the tragic 9/11 events and the subsequent global war on terror is the chilling impact counterterrorism measures have had on civil society and citizens’ agency. Ten years later the phrase ‘war on terror’ is no longer used officially, but measures that curtail the operational and political freedoms of civic organizations worldwide in the name of countering terrorism continue to be real, tangible, and strongly counterproductive.The report by David Cortright et al, Friend not Foe: Opening Spaces for Civil Society Engagement to Prevent Violent Extremism, gives a comprehensive and vivid account of the challenges that civil society groups continue to face worldwide in protecting and expanding their political voice and operational space. The first edition of this report focused primarily on the e8ects of counterterrorism measures on civil society in the Global South. This updated version places the closing of civil society space in a wider global context of securitization of aid, de-funding of civil society, and civil military cooperation. It gives a crystal clear account of the persistent shift in international cooperation policy from sustainable development as an intrinsic public good to development as an instrument for national and geopolitical security and economic goals.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, Sustainable Development Goals, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5683. Security Matters

Author:
Centre for European Security Studies
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Centre for European Security Studies
Abstract:
30 August is Victory Day in Turkey, a national holiday celebrated with military parades and jet fighters painting the sky red and white, the colours of the Turkish flag. Victory Day commemorates the final battle in Turkey’s War of Independence. It glorifies the army and the new republic created on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. On Victory Day, all promotions of officers are announced, and the students of military schools celebrate their graduation. Besides, the Chief of Turkish General Staff used to receive the congratulations of high state officials. However on 30 August 2011, things were a bit different.
Topic:
International Organization and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5684. The Invention of International Relations Theory: Realism, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the 1954 Conference on Theory

Author:
Nicolas Guilhot
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
The 1954 conference on theory, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, featured a who’s who of scholars and practitioners debating the foundations of international relations theory. Assembling his own team of experts, all of whom have struggled with this legacy, Nicolas Guilhot revisits a seminal event and its odd rejection of scientific rationalism. Far from being a spontaneous development, these essays argue, the emergence of a “realist” approach to international politics, later codified at the conference, was deliberately triggered by the Rockefeller Foundation. The organization was an early advocate of scholars who opposed the idea of a “science” of politics, pursuing, for the sake of disciplinary autonomy, a vision of politics as a prerational and existential dimension that could not be “solved” by scientific means. As a result, this nascent theory was more a rejection of behavioral social science than the birth of one of its specialized branches. The archived conversations reproduced here, along with unpublished papers by Hans Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Nitze, speak to this defensive stance. International relations theory is critically linked to the context of postwar liberalism, and the contributors explore how these origins have played out in political thought and American foreign policy.
Topic:
International Relations, Political Theory, and History
Political Geography:
Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231526449
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

5685. Governance Without a State?: Policies and Politics in Areas of Limited Statehood

Author:
Thomas Risse
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
Governance discourse centers on an “ideal type” of modern statehood that exhibits full internal and external sovereignty and a legitimate monopoly on the use of force. Yet modern statehood is an anomaly, both historically and within the contemporary international system, while the condition of “limited statehood,” wherein countries lack the capacity to implement central decisions and monopolize force, is the norm. Limited statehood, argue the authors in this provocative collection, is in fact a fundamental form of governance, immune to the forces of economic and political modernization. Challenging common assumptions about sovereign states and the evolution of modern statehood, particularly the dominant paradigms supported by international relations theorists, development agencies, and international organizations, this volume explores strategies for effective and legitimate governance within a framework of weak and ineffective state institutions. Approaching the problem from the perspectives of political science, history, and law, contributors explore the factors that contribute to successful governance under conditions of limited statehood. These include the involvement of nonstate actors and nonhierarchical modes of political influence. Empirical chapters analyze security governance by nonstate actors, the contribution of publicprivate partnerships to promote the United Nations Millennium Goals, the role of business in environmental governance, and the problems of Western state-building efforts, among other issues. Recognizing these forms of governance as legitimate, the contributors clarify the complexities of a system the developed world must negotiate in the coming century.
Topic:
International Relations, Political Theory, and History
Political Geography:
Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231521871
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

5686. American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security

Author:
Richard K. Betts
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
While American national security policy has grown more interventionist since the Cold War, Washington has also hoped to shape the world on the cheap. Misled by the stunning success against Iraq in 1991, administrations of both parties have pursued ambitious aims with limited force, committing the country's military frequently yet often hesitantly, with inconsistent justification. These ventures have produced strategic confusion, unplanned entanglements, and indecisive results. This collection of essays by Richard K. Betts, a leading international politics scholar, investigates the use of American force since the end of the Cold War, suggesting guidelines for making it more selective and successful. Betts brings his extensive knowledge of twentieth century American diplomatic and military history to bear on the full range of theory and practice in national security, surveying the Cold War roots of recent initiatives and arguing that U.S. policy has always been more unilateral than liberal theorists claim. He exposes mistakes made by humanitarian interventions and peace operations; reviews the issues raised by terrorism and the use of modern nuclear, biological, and cyber weapons; evaluates the case for preventive war, which almost always proves wrong; weighs the lessons learned from campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam; assesses the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia; quells concerns about civil-military relations; exposes anomalies within recent defense budgets; and confronts the practical barriers to effective strategy. Betts ultimately argues for greater caution and restraint, while encouraging more decisive action when force is required, and he recommends a more dispassionate assessment of national security interests, even in the face of global instability and unfamiliar threats.
Topic:
International Relations, Political Theory, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231521888
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

5687. Arms Trafficking: The International and Domestic Legal Framework

Author:
Oona A. Hathaway, Elizabeth Nielsen, Chelsea Purvis, Saurrabh Sanghvi, and Sara Solow
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Legal Challenges, Yale Law School
Abstract:
The conventional arms trade,2 both legal and illegal, is vast in scope. As of 2001, there were an estimated half billion documented small arms in the world, more than one for every twelve people.3 International arms sales are a booming business, and the United States is the world’s largest exporter. In 2008, worldwide arms transfer agreements reached a value of $55.2 billion, of which 76.4% involved developing nations.4 The United States accounted for $37.8 billion, or 68.4%, of these worldwide arms transfer agreements,5 and U.S. activity falls into five categories: foreign military sales agreements between foreign governments and the Department of Defense, direct commercial sales to foreign buyers negotiated by U.S. companies, leases of military equipment by U.S. entities, excess defense materials, and emergency decreases of weapons stockpiles.6 An extensive legal regime has emerged at the international and domestic levels to regulate conventional arms trafficking. This report aims to provide an overview of that framework. It surveys existing international arms trafficking agreements and provides an analytic framework for distinguishing between them. It also surveys the domestic legal framework regarding arms trafficking. Together, these overviews provide a starting point for identifying the shortcomings of existing law, identifying gaps in the legal framework as it currently operates, and considering options to begin to address these shortcomings. This report begins in Part I by briefly outlining the scope of the problem of conventional arms trafficking. It then turns in Part II to identifying three fundamental axes on which international arms trafficking agreements differ. First, each agreement targets one or more points in a conventional arms life cycle: it targets the point of production; the point of domestic ownership and transfer; or the point of interstate transfer. Second, agreements differ in the scope of weapons they cover—they may target different classes of weapons (such as major conventional weapons, small arms and light weapons, and dual-use technologies) and different legal categories of weapons (for example, some cover both legal and illicit weapons, while others only focus on illicit weapons). Third, agreements differ in terms of their enforceability: some are legally binding while others set nonbinding goals. Part III of the report examines the ways in which the United States regulates arms trafficking through its domestic laws and international agreements. It shows that the United States places strong controls on interstate transfers of arms, but it has a more mixed record when it comes to regulating earlier stages of the arms life cycle. While U.S. law places a number of marking and recordkeeping requirements on arms producers and sellers, domestic ownership laws are lax compared to those of other countries. Part IV shows that there are three major gaps in extant arms trafficking agreements. First, the international agreements that are the most enforceable either fail to target arms trafficking at multiple points in the life cycle or fail to cover a broad scope of weapons. Second, arms trafficking agreements do not adequately regulate the illicit resale of arms in the black market after they are produced and sold for the first time legally. This is because there is no binding and enforceable agreement that requires states to track all domestic weapons transfers, from their initial sale to the final sale before their export. Finally, major arms suppliers, such as the United States, are not party to several major arms trafficking agreements. To address these shortcomings, this report offers three options available to U.S. policymakers for strengthening arms trafficking laws. First, the United States could increase multilateral engagement by ratifying the leading regional arms trafficking agreement, Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunitions, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (CIFTA). Doing so would likely require no changes in U.S. domestic law but would strengthen the U.S. ability to coordinate its arms control efforts with other countries while encouraging other countries to more effectively address arms trafficking. Second, the United States could increase bilateral programmatic assistance to address arms trafficking—at the very least by taking arms trafficking into account in existing assistance programs. Finally, the United States could engage more actively in leading negotiations over a robust and comprehensive arms trade treaty. Such an agreement would ideally aim to bring the international legal standards developed in CIFTA to the global stage. In leading the way toward such a comprehensive treaty, the United States could encourage universal adoption of the high standards the United States already has in place to ensure that arms are not transferred for illegitimate purposes—purposes that may directly affect U.S. security interests.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Arms Trade, Trafficking, Legal Theory, and Illegal Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5688. War on Drugs

Author:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Abstract:
The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed. In this seminal report, the Global Commission on Drug Policy calls on global leaders to join an open discussion on drug policy reform.
Topic:
War on Drugs, Public Policy, and Drugs
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus

5689. Good Regulation is Good Governance 101

Author:
K N Vaidyanathan
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Abstract:
In 1925, at the time that Britain reverted to the gold standard, Winston Churchill, then Chancellor, said that he would like to see ‘finance less proud and industry more secure.’ The move was criticized by economists for overvaluation of the British Pound; but the quote was prescient and is especially relevant today, when the hubris of the financial markets has fractured the global economy so excessively. Course correction so far has relied on bailouts. Instead what is immediately needed is the observance of good governance in regulation and in the long term, a restructuring of the regulatory architecture. Key to this is the recovery of ground lost by the regulator in ensuring market integrity, reinforcement of the currency of financial markets viz., trust, and deliverance of market stability which will help the underlying economy and the society at large. In sum: ensuring good regulation through good governance. This is the challenge before regulators today. The impact and import of the global financial crisis can be judged by two simple numbers: global market capitalization and GDP growth. (Source – the World Federation of Exchanges www.world-exchanges.org data.worldbank.org), They grew from $17.1 trillion and $27.5 trillion in 1990 to $ 64.5 trillion and $ 63.2 trillion, in 2007 respectively. A year later, market capitalization had almost halved to $ 33.5 trillion while GDP growth fell from over 5% to 3% in 2008 and -0.5% in 2009. The crisis that surfaced in 2007 has already peaked twice, in 2008 and 2011, and is far from over. In every analysis, financial market regulators have been accused of sleeping at their desks, held captive by the industry, remaining benign as the party went on and even abetting the excesses both wittingly and unwittingly.
Topic:
Markets, Governance, Regulation, Economy, and Global Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5690. State-Sponsored Homophobia (2011)

Author:
Eddie Bruce-Jones and Lucas Paoli Itaborahy
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
Every year, ILGA World publishes its State-Sponsored Homophobia report, a world survey of sexual orientation laws. Since its first edition, back in 2006, ILGA World’s State-Sponsored Homophobia has been a fundamental resource for those interested in accessing the core information on legislation affecting people on the basis of their sexual orientation. Not only human rights defenders, but also civil society organisations, governmental and United Nations agencies, allies and media worldwide value the publication as one of the main sources of information on the issue. The publication is accompanied by a series of maps and charts illustrating where criminalisation, protection and recognition laws exist.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, LGBT+, and Homophobia
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5691. Becoming (Un)employed and Life Satisfaction: Asymmetric Effects and Potential Omitted Variable Bias in Empirical Happiness Studies

Author:
Wolfgang Maennig and Markus Wilhelm
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg
Abstract:
Becoming unemployed has negative effects on life satisfaction; a transition from unemployment to employment, however, has stronger positive effects in absolute terms. The asymmetry of the non-pecuniary effect indicates a potential “omitted variable bias” in previous empirical happiness studies.
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Employment, Unemployment, and Happiness
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5692. Beyond Sovereignty: The transformation of the Nation State

Author:
Jody Jensen
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI)
Abstract:
As interdependence and interconnection on the planet become ever-more apparent, new challenges and conflicts arise for individuals and for the role of government.
Topic:
International Relations, Sovereignty, and State
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5693. Getting the Most out of International Capital Flows

Author:
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Increased international capital flows can support long-term income growth through a better international allocation of saving and investment.
Topic:
Economic Growth, Capital Flows, Investment, and Fiscal Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5694. International Capital Mobility: Which Structural Policies Reduce Financial Fragility?

Author:
Rüdiger Ahrend, Antoine Goujard, and Cyrill Schwellnus
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
International capital mobility: Which structural policies reduce financial fragility?
Topic:
Fragile States, Economic structure, Mobility, Fiscal Policy, and Capital
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5695. Explaining the Energy Consumption Portfolio in a Cross-Section of Countries: Are the BRICs Different?

Author:
David M. Arseneau
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
This paper uses disaggregated data from a broad cross-section of countries to empirically assess differences in energy consumption profiles across countries. We find empirical support for the energy ladder hypothesis, which contends that as an economy develops it transits away from a heavier reliance on traditional fuel sources towards an increase in the use of modern commercial energy sources. We also find empirical support for the hypothesis that structural transformation--the idea that as an economy matures, it transforms away from agriculture-based activity into industrial activity and, finally, fully matures into a service-oriented economy--is an important driver for the distribution of end-use energy consumption. However, even when these two hypotheses are taken into account, we continue to find evidence suggesting that the patterns of energy consumption in the BRIC economies are importantly different from those of other economies.
Topic:
Development, Energy Policy, Infrastructure, Services, and BRIC
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Europe, India, Asia, Brazil, South America, and Global Focus

5696. Limited Market Participation and Asset Prices in the Presence of Earnings Management

Author:
Bo Sun
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
We examine the role of earnings management in explaining the properties of asset prices and stock market participation. We demonstrate that investors' uncertainty about the extent of manipulation can cause excess movements in stock price relative to fluctuations in output. When faced with information asymmetry about fundamentals in the presence of earnings management, investors demand a higher equity premium for bearing the additional risk associated with their payoffs. In addition, when investors have heterogeneous beliefs about managerial manipulation, the dispersion in belief endogenously gives rise to limited stock market participation. Our model suggests that the increasing stringency of corporate governance and varying composition of investors may have played a role in the contemporaneous run-up of market participation rates in the recent years.
Topic:
Markets, Finance, Investment, and Stock Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5697. Financial Frictions, Trade Credit, and the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis

Author:
Brahima Coulibaly, Horacio Sapriza, and Andrei Zlate
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
This paper studies the role of the credit crunch in the severe contraction of economic activity during the 2008-09 global financial crisis, using firm-level data from six emerging Asian economies. After controlling for the effect of falling demand, we find that sales declined by less for firms with better pre-crisis financial conditions. Amid the decline in external financing opportunities, some firms relied more on trade credit from suppliers during the crisis, which allowed them to post relatively better sales. Export-intensive firms resorted less to trade credit as an alternative source of finance, which contributed to their larger declines in sales.
Topic:
Finance, Global Financial Crisis, Trade, and Credit
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5698. Optimal Monetary Policy in an Operational Medium-Sized DSGE Model

Author:
Malin Adolfson, Stefan Laseen, Jesper Linde, and Lars E.O. Svensson
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
We show how to construct optimal policy projections in Ramses, the Riksbank's open-economy medium-sized DSGE model for forecasting and policy analysis. Bayesian estimation of the parameters of the model indicates that they are relatively invariant to alternative policy assumptions and supports our view that the model parameters may be regarded as unaffected by the monetary policy specification. We discuss how monetary policy, and in particular the choice of output gap measure, affects the transmission of shocks. Finally, we use the model to assess the recent Great Recession in the world economy and how its impact on the economic development in Sweden depends on the conduct of monetary policy. This provides an illustration on how Rames incoporates large international spillover effects.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Monetary Policy, and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5699. Evaluating the Forecasting Performance of Commodity Futures Prices

Author:
Trevor A. Reeve and Robert J. Vigfusson
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
Commodity futures prices are frequently criticized as being uninformative for forecasting purposes because (1) they seem to do no better than a random walk or an extrapolation of recent trends and (2) futures prices for commodities often trace out a relatively flat trajectory even though global demand is steadily increasing. In this paper, we attempt to shed light on these concerns by discussing the theoretical relationship between spot and futures prices for commodities and by evaluating the empirical forecasting performance of futures prices relative to some alternative benchmarks. The key results of our analysis are that futures prices have generally outperformed a random walk forecast, but not by a large margin, while both futures and a random walk noticeably outperform a simple extrapolation of recent trends (a random walk with drift). Importantly, however, futures prices, on average, outperform a random walk by a considerable margin when there is a sizeable difference between spot and futures prices.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Markets, Investment, and Commodities
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5700. Firm Default and Aggregate Fluctuations

Author:
Tor Jacobson, Jesper Linde, and Kasper Roszbach
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
This paper studies the relationship between macroeconomic fluctuations and corporate defaults while conditioning on industry affiliation and an extensive set of firm-specific factors. By using a panel data set for virtually all incorporated Swedish businesses over 1990-2009, a period which includes a full-scale banking crisis, we find strong evidence for a substantial and stable impact from aggregate fluctuations on business defaults. A standard logit model with financial ratios augmented with macroeconomic factors can account surprisingly well for the outburst in business defaults during the banking crisis, as well as the subsequent fluctuations in default frequencies. Moreover, the effects of macroeconomic variables differ across industries in an economically intuitive way. Out-of-sample evaluations show that our approach is superior to models that exclude macro information and standard well-fitting time-series models. Our analysis shows that firm-specific factors are useful in ranking firms' relative riskiness, but that macroeconomic factors are necessary to understand fluctuations in the absolute risk level.
Topic:
Economics, Finance, Macroeconomics, and Banking
Political Geography:
Global Focus