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111. Switzerland is reduced to tennis: Switzerland's image in the foreign media

Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Media Tenor International
Abstract:
The wounds have healed slowly. At the turn of the millennium, the country of the Alps, of lakes and chocolate was faced with a media storm on a part of its history, which the Swiss themselves would have preferred to ignore: What role did their politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, teachers and others actually play during the Hitler period? The neutral image, passed on for decades in schoolbooks, rhetorical speeches and media coverage, had cracked in view of an international wave of litigation that was caused by American lawyer Ed Fagan, representing Jewish victims of the Holocaust. He tried to publicly demonstrate that Swiss banks, in particular, but also other companies, as well as the Federal Council of Bern had profited from the victims' suffering.
Topic:
International Relations, International Law, and Mass Media
Political Geography:
America, Europe, and Switzerland

112. Institutional Proliferation and World Order: Is There Viscosity in Global Governance?

Author:
Daniel W. Drezner
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Abstract:
In recent years there has been a proliferation of international rules, laws and institutional forms in world politics. This has triggered attention to the role that forum-shopping, nested and overlapping institutions, and regime complexes play in shaping the patterns of global governance. A few policymakers, some international relations scholars, and many international law scholars posit that this trend will lead to more rule-based outcomes in world politics. This paper suggests a contrary position: institutional thickness has a paradoxical effect on global governance. After a certain point, proliferation shifts global governance structures from rule-based outcomes to power-based outcomes–because institutional proliferation can enhance the ability of great powers to engage in forum-shopping.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Government, Health, Human Rights, International Law, and Markets
Political Geography:
America

113. Legacy Agenda: The Future of the Bush Doctrine, Part I

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
With the recent announcements of a new strategy for Iraq and a commitment to begin increasing the size of U.S. land forces, the White House has taken two important steps to ensure that the tenets of the Bush Doctrine endure beyond the end of President George W. Bush's administration. Since 9/11 and indeed since the beginning of this administration, strategy has been made by an odd combination of ad hoc improvisation and expansive rhetoric. The day-to-day business of fitting means to ends and filling in the policy blanks has either been delegated to subordinates, left to the bureaucracy, or put in the “too hard” box. As time grows short, Bush needs to attend closely to three further matters. The first is as obvious and pressing as Iraq and an important factor in the need to rebuild land forces, especially the Army: a surge in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. The second and third factors are less frequently discussed but essential for the long-term viability of the Bush Doctrine and the continuity of the Pax Americana: articulate a strategy for the “long war” in the greater Middle East and devise a genuinely global response to the rise of China. This issue of National Security Outlook begins a series devoted to these three measures of the enduring meaning of the Bush Doctrine.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and National Security
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, China, Iraq, America, and Asia

114. Haiti's Drug Problems

Author:
Robert Perito and Greg Maly
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
At their White House meeting on May 8, 2007, President Bush promised Haitian President René Préval that the United States would do more to help Haiti fight drugs and drug traffickers. Préval agreed that drugs threaten Haiti's government, which lacks the capacity to fight international narcotics trafficking alone. The two presidents were right to emphasize this issue. The nearly unimpeded flow of narcotics through Haiti undermines the rule of law and the legitimacy of Haiti's government. It fosters corruption in the police, courts, and customs; fuels weapons trafficking; finances armed gangs; breeds insecurity; and hampers economic development by discouraging investment and tourism. Haiti is an important transshipment point for cocaine reaching the United States and a major concern for American authorities.
Topic:
International Relations and Health
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Haiti

115. A new transatlantic relationship? European responses to US global hegemony

Author:
Trine Flockhart
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The paper addresses the question of how Europe (in NATO and the EU) has responded to changes in US announced and operational strategic and military policy and what the principal factors are for explaining European responses to what is perceived as a new form of American hegemony. The discussion is centered around the question of whether the United States has altered it conception of hegemony from one based on consent to one based on 'a preponderance of force', and therefore to have abandoned the crucial process of consensus building through persuasion, which has formed the foundation for the post-war Euro-Atlantic community. If so, then the problem relates more to the fundamental question of maintaining the security community during significant international change and perceived changes in European and American interests than it does to the specific policy content of American foreign policy. European reactions to the perceived change in American foreign policy have been varied in style and rhetoric, but can be di vided into those that have been concerned with safeguarding the achievements of the post-war era by following the United States wherever it may choose to go, or those who see a need for constructing a different relationship with the United States based on a more independent European foreign policy stance.
Topic:
International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe

116. American hegemony: A dangerous aspiration?

Author:
James L. Richardson
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
The Bush administration's foreign policies have sparked off a round of new debates on America's power and its international role. At the core of these debates are ideas of empire and hegemony, but these terms are used in many senses and often interchangeably. The paper first distinguishes among these usages and spells out its own concepts. As understood here, a hegemonic power is one that plays a leading role in shaping and maintaining a certain international order, exercising its dominant power in such a way as to win broad acceptance and legitimacy. It is argued that the discussion of hegemony can best be advanced by distinguishing among the various domains of power: military, economic, ideological and political, to follow Michael Mann's breakdown. The US is closest to hegemony in the international economic domain, but in each domain its hegemony is at best partial and qualified. Nonetheless, it remains the preponderant power, with aspirations to hegemony and empire. The benefits of American preponderance are widely acclaimed in the West and infrequently questioned in the international relations discipline, but its dangers merit far greater attention than they normally receive. In particular, beyond the short-term context, the specifically American version of liberal ideology renders the US ill-suited to respond to some of the foreseeable challenges of the twenty-first century. Consequently there is a need for others to engage a great deal more actively than heretofore with the construction of a more viable international order.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Development
Political Geography:
United States and America

117. Living with Palestinian Democracy

Author:
Nathan J. Brown
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
By electing a parliament dominated by Hamas, Palestinians have sharply challenged U.S. policy. The initial American reaction—undermining the new government—will leave the population in chaos, with various Palestinian groups vying for influence. Political constraints preclude anything but a Hamas government in the short term. But the Hamas victory should not be viewed as a defeat for the American vision of reform—which, indeed, may offer a path out of the current deadlock. The United States should develop a policy for the longer term to continue calming the Israeli- Palestinian conflict; maintain the Palestinian Authority; and work for political reform by focusing on the judiciary, media, and other institutions that are independent of the current regime.
Topic:
International Relations, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, America, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

118. Effective Counterterrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining

Author:
Jim Harper and Jeff Jonas
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, spurred extraordinary efforts intended to protect America from the newly highlighted scourge of international terrorism. Among the efforts was the consideration and possible use of “data mining” as a way to discover planning and preparation for terrorism. Data mining is the process of searching data for previously unknown patterns and using those patterns to predict future outcomes.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, International Relations, National Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
America

119. Suicide Terrorism and Democracy: What We've Learned Since 9/11

Author:
Robert A. Pape
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, terrorist organizations have increasingly relied on suicide attacks to achieve political objectives. The specific goal sought in almost all suicide terrorist campaigns in modern history is the same: to compel a democratic state to withdraw combat forces from territory prized by the terrorists. This holds true for al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization of greatest concern to most Americans. Al-Qaeda's efforts to mobilize people to kill Americans are driven principally by a simple strategic goal: to drive the United States and its Western allies from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim countries.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, America, Arabia, and Arabian Peninsula

120. Iran's Nuclear Program: America's Policy Options

Author:
Ted Galen Carpenter
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Although it is possible that negotiations between the leading powers in the international community and Iran may produce a settlement to the vexing issue of Iran's nuclear program, it is more likely that those negotiations will fail. If that happens, U.S. policymakers face a set of highly imperfect options.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
United States, America, Iran, and Middle East