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54041. Open Doors

Author:
Paul Masson, Michael Pomerleano, and Robert E Litan
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Foreign direct investment in financial firms in emerging markets surged in the 1990s, although not equally in all places. The main beneficiaries: Latin America and Central Europe, with Asia a distant third. This conference report summarizes findings on the impacts—mainly positive—of this significant inflow of funds and managerial and technical know-how, as well as recommendations for policies toward foreign direct investment (FDI) in the future. The main recommendation: countries with restrictions generally should relax them, even when their own financial systems are weak. At the same time, foreign entry gives rise to new policy challenges, supervisory and competitive, which emerging markets need to confront both unilaterally and with cooperation from source country governments.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, and Third World
Political Geography:
Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe

54042. Moving Forward in South Asia

Author:
Stephen P Cohen
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
The key to an effective American policy in South Asia is the deepening of Washington's engagement with India and Pakistan. India is an emerging major power and Pakistan, despite its internal economic and political problems, is also a significant state. Besides reengaging these states in strategic terms, Washington should overhaul current regional sanctions policy, seeking in return Indian and Pakistani compliance with missile and nuclear proliferation regimes, and should assist them in reducing the risk of accidental nuclear detonation and missile launches.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Pakistan, United States, America, South Asia, Washington, and India

54043. The Caucasus and Central Asia

Author:
Fiona Hill
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
The Caspian Basin and the surrounding states of the Caucasus and Central Asia have crept from obscurity onto the U.S. foreign policy agenda. While the individual countries of the two regions may not be of vital interest to the United States, the countries that border them are. Four have nuclear weapons, one is an important NATO ally, and two are states that have posed direct challenges to U.S. security by their support for terrorist movements.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Central Asia

54044. Corruption and Globalization

Author:
Shang-Jin Wei
Publication Date:
04-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
At least since the Asian financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has, from time to time, included transparency and anti-corruption measures as part of the conditions for countries to borrow its funds. Because of this, it has been criticized as having overstepped its mandate, or even having made crises worse in countries the IMF is supposed to help.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Third World
Political Geography:
Asia

54045. Stemming the Backlash Against Globalization

Author:
Carol Graham
Publication Date:
04-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
There is much speculation about a new round of protests at the upcoming meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The protestors contend that globalization is bad for poor people in poor countries. But the evidence suggests the opposite: that globalization provides the poor in developing countries with new opportunities for upward mobility. Yet it also introduces new vulnerabilities, particularly for those in the middle income strata, which cause even the upwardly mobile in these strata to negatively assess their economic progress. We propose three sets of policies for poor countries — increasing access to higher levels and better quality education, eliminating market distortions that block the upward mobility of the poor (including excessive levels of inequality), and providing more broadly available safety nets for people without steady incomes — that could help prevent these negative sentiments from growing into a broader backlash against globalization, which would ultimately hurt the poor in these countries the most.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Human Welfare, and Third World

54046. Options for Stabilization Policy: A New Analysis of Choices Confronting the Fed

Author:
William T. Dickens, George A. Akerlof, and George L. Perry
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
One of the most important choices any president-elect must make is how to organize and staff the National Security Council (NSC). Chief executives from John Fitzgerald Kennedy to William Jefferson Clinton have found their foreign policy held hostage to the management choices they made between election and inauguration.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States

54047. Fighting Terrorism: Lessons from the Cold War

Author:
Anatol Lieven
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The war on terrorism, which the United States has now been compelled to undertake, will not greatly resemble traditional war. It will, however, have certain important similarities to the Cold War, or at least to those parts of that struggle which took place in what used to be called the third world. Like the struggle against communism, this will be a long, multifaceted struggle in which the terrorist groups must be combated, but so too must be the factors that impel much larger populations to give those groups support and shelter. As in the Cold War, U.S. military action will be only one element of U.S. strategy, and usually not the most important. As then, a central danger is that anti-Western forces will succeed in carrying out revolutions in important states, seizing control and turning them into more bases for anti- Western actions. It is therefore important that the United States plot its strategy with the Cold War's successes and failures clearly in mind.
Topic:
Cold War, Diplomacy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

54048. Revisiting the 12 Myths of Central Asia

Author:
Martha Brill Olcott
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
NEARLY TEN YEARS HAVE PASSED since the countries of Central Asia received their independence. This impending anniversary is a good opportunity to look at how these states are managing the state-building process, and in particular what symbolic or ideological defenses they are offering for their actions. States need little protection from their successes but are always seeking ways to explain away their various failures. This paper looks at the “myths” that the leaders of the five Central Asian states are using to explain away the very disappointing results in both economic and especially political reforms and shows how U.S. policy makers have bought into some of these myths as well.
Topic:
Security, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Central Asia, and Asia

54049. The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian Regimes: China, Cuba, and the Counterrevolution

Author:
Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
It is widely believed that the Internet poses an insurmountable threat to authoritarian rule. But political science scholarship has provided little support for this conventional wisdom, and a number of case studies from around the world show that authoritarian regimes are finding ways to control and counter the political impact of Internet use. While the long-term political impact of the Internet remains an open question, we argue that these strategies for control may continue to be viable in the short to medium term.
Topic:
Communism, Government, Science and Technology, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
China and Asia

54050. Are Russians Undemocratic?

Author:
Michael McFaul and Timothy J. Colton
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
A NEW NARRATIVE ABOUT POST -S OVIET R USSIA is taking hold in policy, media, and academic circles and shows signs of entrenching as a new conventional wisdom. By this reading, Russia's experiment with democracy has flat-out failed. So misconceived and mismanaged were the political and economic reforms of the 1990s that they have fueled mass disenchantment with democratic norms and brought authoritarianism back into repute. Russians, in short, are said to be giving up on democracy.
Topic:
Democratization and Government
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

54051. Pitfalls on the Road to Fiscal Decentralization

Author:
Vito Tanzi
Publication Date:
04-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
IN PAST YEARS, the subject of fiscal decentralization interested mainly specialists—even though several countries, including the United States, came into existence through the political and economic integration of already existing political entities, such as states or principalities. Recently, however, fiscal decentralization has been attracting more general attention, largely because of pressures for greater fiscal decentralization in many countries around the world. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a range of issues related to fiscal decentralization, focusing in particular on possible alternatives to decentralization and various pitfalls that may be associated with it. Unlike much of the previous literature on the subject, therefore, this paper will pay less attention to the actual processes of decentralization and more on whether decentralization is the right direction for a country to choose.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States

54052. The Myth of Output Collapse after Communism

Author:
Anders Åslund
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
According to official statistics, output plunged in almost all Soviet-type countries toward the end of communism. Then in the first year of transition, the plunges turned even more dramatic, continuing for years. The total registered declines in GDP range from 13 percent in the Czech Republic from 1989 to 1992 to 77 percent in Georgia from 1989 to 1994. This collapse has been widely proclaimed as the worst depression in the industrialized world, exceeding the Great Depression of 1929–33. Both communist and post-communist statistics are deeply flawed, however—and in different ways.
Topic:
Communism and Economics
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

54053. The Anti-Terrorism Coalition: Don't Pay an Excessive Price

Author:
Charles V. Peña
Publication Date:
12-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
To prosecute the war on terrorism, President Bush has assembled a diverse coalition of countries for political, diplomatic, and military support. Some of those countries are long-standing friends and allies of the United States. Others have new or changing relationships with the United States. Although there may be a price for their support, America should not pay an excessive price—one that could be detrimental to longer-term U.S. national security interests. And though it may be necessary to provide a certain amount of immediate aid (directly or indirectly) as a quid pro quo for the support of other nations in our war on terrorism, the United States needs to avoid longer-term entanglements, openended commitments, and the potential for an extreme anti-American backlash.
Topic:
Security, Religion, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia

54054. Going Too Far: Bush's Pledge to Defend Taiwan

Author:
Ted Galen Carpenter
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
When he pledged to do whatever was necessary—even use U.S. military forces—to help Taiwan defend itself, President George W. Bush seemingly replaced Washington's long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” with a policy of strategic clarity. Although the president and his advisers subsequently retreated from his initial rhetorical stance, both China and Taiwan are likely to believe that Bush's original statement accurately reflects U.S. policy. That creates an extremely dangerous situation for the United States.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, China, Washington, Taiwan, and Asia

54055. The Rogue State Doctrine and National Missile Defense

Author:
Ivan Eland and Daniel Lee
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The Clinton administration underestimated the technological ability of several of the “rogue” states to develop long-range missiles and politicized its intelligence estimate. However, missile threats to the United States from any one of those states also depend on the intentions of that state and political developments that might affect those intentions.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Politics, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

54056. Instability in the Philippines: A Case Study for U.S. Disengagement

Author:
Doug Bandow
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
As the world becomes a less dangerous place for America, U.S. officials work more desperately to preserve America's pervasive international military presence. This policy is evident in the Philippines, with which Washington recently concluded a Visiting Forces Agreement.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, America, Washington, Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia

54057. Making the World Safer for Incumbents: The Consequences of McCain-Feingold-Cochran

Author:
John Samples
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), joined by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), have introduced legislation adding new regulations on campaign finance. Their proposed law bans “soft money” going to political parties, restricts advertising by for-profit corporations and labor unions, and greatly increases the ambit of federal election law.
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
United States

54058. Toward Market Education: Are Vouchers or Tax Credits the Better Path?

Author:
Andrew J. Coulson
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Education markets have consistently done a better job than state monopolies of serving both our individual needs and our communal goals. Yet all market-inspired education reforms are not intrinsically or uniformly effective. They can succeed only to the extent that they support the conditions for a thriving education market and ensure that all families have access to that market.
Topic:
Education and Government

54059. Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors: 2000

Author:
Stephen Moore and Stephen Slivinski
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
This report presents the findings of the Cato Institute's fifth biennial fiscal policy report card on the nation's governors. The grading mechanism is based on purely objective measures of each governor's fiscal performance. Those governors with the most fiscally conservative records— the tax and budget cutters—receive the highest grades. Those who have increased spending and taxes the most receive the lowest grades.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
United States and America

54060. "Big Oil" at the Public Trough? An Examination of Petroleum Subsidies

Author:
Ronald J. Sutherland
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Critics of the oil industry allege that the industry receives large and unwarranted government subsidies and that rival technologies, such as those for ethanol, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, deserve compensating government preferences. The evidence indicates that, on balance, the oil industry is not a net beneficiary of government subsidies. The facts point in the opposite direction. The oil industry is more harmed than helped by government intervention in energy markets.
Topic:
Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United States