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29121. Green Financing - International Panorama

Author:
Helena Gonçalves
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
In this article, Helena Gonçalves presents some of the main economic instruments and financial incentives in effect today, emphasizing some examples of good international practices in applying these mechanisms. The author highlights the cross-cutting nature between social and environmental problems, as well as the necessary complementarity between society, market and State in order to solve this crisis.
Topic:
Environment, International Cooperation, International Affairs, and Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

29122. Green Financing - Brazilian Panorama

Author:
Erika Pinto, Osvaldo Stella, and Paulo Moutinho
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
In this article, Erika Pinto, Osvaldo Stella, and Paulo Moutinho present some of the main economic instruments and financial incentives set forth by Brazilian law, which are used by governments at the national and sub-national levels as well. The authors highlight the strain put on natural resources by the present economic model and emphasize the need to switch from production cycles that pollute and are obsolete in regards to sustainability to more environmentally conscious alternatives.
Topic:
Environment, International Trade and Finance, and Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Brazil

29123. Reinsurance in Brazil: the challenges and opportunities of the opening of the market

Author:
Claudio Contador
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
The opening of the reinsurance market in Brazil finally took place in 2007, amidst euphoria and great expectations. The process lasted nearly two decades, with little movement, to the great frustration of the companies, international investors and, especially, the domestic insurance market, which was in need of modernization and less government involvement. The exhaustion of the nationalized reinsurance model created in 1939 was evident by the 1990s and became even more visible in that decade, in the face of opportunities for insurance offered by the large investments in infrastructure, and rural, environmental and disaster insurance, among others.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Global Markets, Financial Markets, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
Brazil and Global Focus

29124. Pathways to 'The future we want': financing mitigation and adaptation

Author:
Haroldo Machado Filho and Thiago de Araújo Mendes
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
Haroldo Machado Filho and Thiago Mendes introduce the reader to the complex architecture of international funding available for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In a very consistent manner, the authors propose an analysis on the institutional and political context in which the creation and maintenance of these financial mechanisms occur. Emphasizing the truly global spatial scale of climate change, Machado Filho and Mendes highlight the importance of international cooperation to promote the transformation to a low-carbon world and with more resilient societies to climate change. However, the authors show that the negotiations in multilateral forums aimed at the question of financing have been marked by slow decision-making and the absence of clear rules that guide the implementation of the agreements.
Topic:
Climate Change, International Trade and Finance, and Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

29125. Pathways to 'The future we want': socio-environmental indicators

Author:
José Veiga
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
José Eli da Veiga critically examines the socioeconomic measures already established, like the GDP and the Human Development Index (HDI). The author contextualizes the creation of such measures and points out the limits of those, which can measure the economic performance of a given society, but are not intended to measure welfare and sustainability. With a keen eye, Eli da Veiga addresses the major issues related to the development and adoption of new indicators, selecting four emerging indicators to be examined in detail. These indexes – all created by renowned international institutions – seek to overcome the notion of wealth based on the production of commodities and on physical capital and propose a narrative of progress that is more compatible with the 21st century, focusing on people’s quality of life and on environmental sustainability.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Political and institutional effectiveness, and International Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

29126. Brazil's Risk Exposure in a More Challenging Global Economic Environment | Report

Author:
CEBRI
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
In recent times, Brazil has been passing through a process of evaluation as it is set to host major international events, mostly sportive ones, in the next few years. Due to the realization of extensive infrastructure work, occurrence of natural disasters and existence of nuclear power plants, the debate surrounding the reinsurance topic has been growing.
Topic:
Development, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Brazil

29127. Avoiding the Blind Alley China’s Economic Overhaul and Its Global Implications

Author:
Daniel H. Rosen
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
DURING THE PAST THREE DECADES, perhaps no country has turned in an economic performance as impressive and transformative as China’s. China has emerged as the world’s second largest economy and its greatest exporting nation, accumulating huge trade surpluses, vast foreign currency reserves, and enormous influence on the global economy. Despite all the attention that policymakers, business executives, and scholars have paid to China’s economic rise, much debate surrounds China’s future growth prospects. For their part, President Xi Jinping and the new generation of Chinese leaders responded to the risk of a major economic slowdown by announcing a far-reaching reform campaign at the Chinese Communist Party’s Third Plenum in November 2013. If Beijing shifts direction along the lines it has announced, the behavior of Chinese companies, government agencies, and individual members of society is likely to change in remarkable ways – and thereby create opportunities for the rest of the world. Should the reform program stall, the effects will be just as profound. Either way, China’s new policy design, and its success or failure in achieving it, will have a major influence on the international economy and stability and security in Asia and beyond. With so much at stake, and an outcome that is far from certain, there is an evident need for greater clarity about what the reform program consists of, how it is progressing, and what it means for policy and business.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
China

29128. Water, State Power, and Tribal Politics in the GCC: The Case of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi

Author:
Laurent A. Lambert
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar
Abstract:
This paper shows that the GCC cities’remarkable capacity to provide water to all their inhabitants despite the regional aridity should not be explained solely by apolitical factors such as the availability of desalination technologies and massive energy resources. Although acknowledging their importance, this paper demonstrates that the historical evolutions and achievements of the water sectors in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait city over the twentieth century are first and foremost the product of local and regional politics, and of reformist leaders’ agency at various times. Major changes in water governance can also be seen as a tool for, and as a signifier of, broader state reforms and changing politics. After independence, the manufacturing, subsidizing, and massive allocation of desalinated water were part of a political strategy aimed at redistributing oil rent to facilitate the tribes’ allegiance to the regimes, and to legitimize the increasing power of the new states. By contrast, the region’s recent trend of water privatizations, as in Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Riyadh, for instance, represents a strategy of gradually streamlining the rentier states and liberalizing their economies with a post-rentier perspective.
Topic:
Environment and Power Politics
Political Geography:
Middle East

29129. Implications of the 2011-13 Syrian Uprising for the Middle Eastern Regional Security Complex

Author:
Fred H. Lawson
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar
Abstract:
By the autumn of 2013, the Middle Eastern regional security complex (RSC) had taken on a new configuration, which was substantially different from—and much more explosive than—the one that existed prior to the large-scale popular uprisings that broke out across the Arab world in the winter of 2010-11. Foreign policies adopted between 2000 and 2010 by the Ba‘thi regime in Damascus, the leaderships of Hizbullah and HAMAS, and the Israeli government to parry overlapping internal and external threats created an unprecedented patchwork of strategic rivalries and alignments. Large-scale popular unrest in Iraq and Egypt in early 2011, along with the outbreak of full-scale civil war in Syria later that same year, generated an even more intricate web of interstate security dynamics. The reconfigured RSC that emerged out of the “Winter of Arab Discontent” is only beginning to be explicated, and can best be addressed by tracing the connection between domestic political conflicts and shifts in external belligerence and alignment across the region.
Topic:
International Relations and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Syria

29130. Iran’s Northern Exposure: Foreign Policy Challenges in Eurasia

Author:
Manochehr Dorraj and Nader Entessar
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar
Abstract:
This paper analyzes Iran’s evolving interest and geopolitical challenges to its foreign policy in Central Eurasia. Historically, Iran, Turkey, and Russia have wielded the greatest influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. Therefore, it is not surprising that these three countries reemerged as principal actors in the region during the first decade of the post-Soviet era. Since the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, Iran performed a balancing act. That is, it aspired to develop closer relations with a region with which it shared significant historical and cultural ties. At the same time, Russia regards Central Eurasia as its sphere of influence and would like to keep the “intruders” at bay. Hence, the United States’ expanding presence in the region has added a new twist to Iran’s geopolitical calculations in how to define its policy toward the region. Turkish-Iranian cooperation and competition in the region is yet another piece in the strategic triangle that molds Iranian regional political posture. The looming impact of these three countries aside, as an emerging regional power with its own political agenda, perception, and calculus of its interests, Iran uses identity politics and shared cultural and religious values, where appropriate, to forge closer relations with Central Eurasian countries. Beyond this motif in Iran’s foreign policy, this paper concentrates on political, economic, and strategic variables affecting Iran’s foreign policy decisions in Central Eurasia. Islamic factors are treated as variables within the broader context of sociocultural factors that have played a role in shaping Iran’s foreign policy in the region.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Iran