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54242. Composite Indexes of Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indicators: January 2001
- Publication Date:
- 01-2001
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Conference Board
- Abstract:
- The leading index increased 0.8 percent, the coincident index increased 0.2 percent, and the lagging index increased 0.1 percent in January. Taken together, the three composite indexes and their components show that the pace of economic activity is moderating, with no clear sign of a recession looming on the horizon.
- Topic:
- Economics and Political Economy
54243. Removing Small Arms from Society: A Review of Weapons Collection and Destruction Programmes
- Author:
- Sami Faltas, Glenn McDonald, and Camilla Waszink
- Publication Date:
- 07-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- A key component of efforts to curb small arms proliferation is the removal of these weapons from society. A broad range of programmes has been carried out in recent years—in every region of the world—for the purpose of collecting and/or disposing of small arms and light weapons. Weapons collection conducted in a peacetime setting for the purpose of reducing and preventing crime is often, though not always, voluntary in nature, with a wide variety of incentives (and sanctions) deployed for the purpose of recovering firearms from legal (and illegal) owners.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
- Political Geography:
- Central America
54244. The Small arms Survey: Legal Controls on Small Arms and Light Weapons in Southeast Asia
- Author:
- Katherine Kramer
- Publication Date:
- 07-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- The uncontrolled proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Southeast Asia threatens the security of both people and states, retards development, and contributes to increasing levels of violent crime. Porous borders coupled with weak and uncoordinated enforcement efforts ensure that the problems caused by small arms in one state are felt in neighbouring ones. Despite these effects, there is no accurate information regarding the number of legal and illegal small arms flowing into and out of the region, nor how many weapons are circulating internally.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
- Political Geography:
- Asia
54245. Breaking with Tradition: Service Trade Liberalization in the EU and Germany
- Author:
- Jette Steen Knudsen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- This chapter asks why and how services that were not previously thought of as tradable have increasingly been opened up to international competition in EU member states including even in Germany. The chapter contrasts an explanation that focuses on the impact of economic interests with an explanation that focuses on the impact of EU membership. The chapter argues that lobbying by producers or users of services cannot fully explain reform nor does EU membership simply constrain reluctant member state governments to adopt new legislation. Instead the chapter argues that in important service sectors the German government has promoted trade reform even sometimes in the face of strong opposition from providers, consumers, and unions. The chapter maintains that a crucial key to liberalisation is the emergence of a break in government opposition. In particular, the ability of the government to re-interpret services as regular tradable products combined with new regulation to "shelter" exposed groups such as consumers and workers against potential harm. Implications of this claim for future service sector liberalisation are subsequently discussed.
- Topic:
- Economics and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
54246. Adaptation of the Legal Systems of Candidate Countries - the Case of the Baltic States
- Author:
- Christen Boye Jacobsen
- Publication Date:
- 08-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- In all the countries of Eastern Europe, the collapse of the socialism presented the legal system and the lawyers and administrators with an immense conceptional and practical challenge. In a couple of years, and in a constantly changing economic and political climate, they were required To introduce the rule of law and democracy (der demokratisch-freiheitliche Rechtsstaat), To introduce and implement the rules and institutions of a market economy, To modernise the normative acts and the public institutions of virtually all aspects of a modern society, and To implement the EU-acquis.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe
54247. Danish Security Policy over the last 50 Years - Long-Term Essential Security Priorities
- Author:
- Bertel Heurlin
- Publication Date:
- 07-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- This article is about the general priorities of Danish security policy over the last 50 years. But what exactly is security policy – and how should one perceive priorities? First a few remarks on semantics. The term security policy is new. From 1949 Denmark only gradually used the term security policy, rather than defence policy and foreign policy. In 1945 the United Nation's Security Council had been established. It was to act on behalf of the Member States when international peace and security were threatened. In 1947 the National Security Council was established in the United States. The Council was evidently intended to take care of the US' national security. With the introduction of these vital institutions the step was taken towards using the terms ”international” and ”national security policy”. In general the term ”security policy” became common in the beginning of the 1960s. Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Hækkerup talks about security policy in his book on Danish Foreign Policy from 1965. Furthermore the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1967 could publish the first book on Danish security policy.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
54248. Greenland's geopolitical reality and its political-economic consequences
- Author:
- Jens Kaalhauge Nielsen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- Geopolitics is an old concept, which received its classic modern form in the work of Friedrich Ratzel, Rudolf Kjéllen, Harold J. Mackinder, Alfred T. Mahan, and Karl Haushofer. It can be regarded as an intellectual approach that aims at establishing a political grammar of world politics, through a scientific discipline based on the objective reality of geography. Thus, geopolitics is often seen as a “realistic” attempt to establish world policy as an objective science based on some kind of "physico-spatial reference". The implicit assumption is a discreet claim that it is possible to study international politics and the allocation of power as one studies the weather: as a system based on objective, natural laws with a fixed and firmly established pattern of forces and indispensable reference points. Hence, Halford J. Mackinder believed that he could identify "the Geographical Pivot of History." In this way, somewhere behind the concept of geopolitics as a scientific concept lies a compelling idea: a theory of the international system based on sheer objective forces, which can be reduced to the invariable necessities of an ultimate "physical" matrix that was merely given expression by the vocabulary of "national interests." We find the same notion in the concept of "realpolitik," the idea that it is possible to conduct a policy grounded on a realm of crucial necessities, as in Bismarck's policies framed in the image of Iron and Blood.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
54249. In Tempestuous Waters: Denmark and the WTO Regime
- Author:
- Erik Beukel
- Publication Date:
- 04-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- International trade negotiations and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have come into the public limelight. Until a few years ago, the governance of the world trading system, encapsulated in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was considered a mundane and dull subject to which only a few people with a special economic interest payed attention. Today, however, the problems dealt with in the WTO affect much broader economic interests and attract attention from different political persuasions and social movements, as illustrated by the battle in Seattle, in December 1999, when the Third Ministerial conference of the WTO was met by massive demonstrations organised by multifarious NGOs. Generally, multilateral economic institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the WTO, have become tempestuous waters, because among other things these institutions are contested by a medley of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and grass roots movements (O'Brien et al. 2000). The conflict centres on “globalisation”, a controversial and ambiguous notion (Hirst and Thompson 2000), and the WTO is a focal point of the globalisation storm (Hart 1997).
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
54250. European Defence: Visions and Realities?
- Author:
- Julian Lindley-French
- Publication Date:
- 04-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is a real honour for me to be here today to address you on the complex subject of European Defence: Vision and Realities. I am grateful as ever to Bertel Heurlin and David Munis Zepernick for arranging this chance to discuss with you European defence at what is a crucial moment. Last time I was here I spoke a lot about visions, so today, as you will hear, the emphasis will be on realities rather than visions.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe