School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
Damascus residents talk in recent years of long periods of daily water shut-offs for most months especially between June and the following January. “ In 2001 … stringent water rationing was in force in Damascus… the authorities … shut off the capital's piped water supply for 20 hours each day (compared with 16 hours previously) from July of that year. Europa Publications (2002: p.979).”
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Environment, and Human Welfare
International and regional human rights treaties recognize the right to a fair trial by an independent tribunal in the determination of rights and obligations in civil, commercial and administrative matters and in the determination of criminal charges. The right to a fair trial and its core components, including the “reasonable time” requirement and the principle of judicial independence, is now universally accepted. Building upon the declarations of principle of legally binding conventions, international and regional expert guidelines and principles have aimed at fleshing out the specific elements of judicial independence. In addition, international and regional human rights courts and commissions have interpreted the provisions of human rights treaties and shed some light on the minimum standards and components of the right to a fair trial and judicial independence.
Topic:
International Relations, Human Rights, and International Law
Willy Lam, Richard A. Bitzinger, Alexandr Nemets, and Enzio Von Pfeil
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
In April, the European Union (EU) dodged a bullet by refusing to take up the issue of overturning its 15-year-old ban on selling arms to China. Supporters of lifting the embargo, led by France and Germany, are unlikely to abandon their quest, however, and the issue will likely come up again for review, perhaps as early as this summer. If it lifts the ban, the EU risks further damaging a transatlantic alliance already strained over Iraq and other issues, with very little likelihood that its defense industry would see much, if any, benefit.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership has been at pains not to appear to be gloating over the American quagmire in Iraq. Yet in terms of geopolitical calculus, there is little doubt Beijing sees America's worsening problems in Iraq as beneficial to China's global standing, diplomatically and militarily. Capitalizing on fissures in the international community over Iraq and America's war on terror, China has strengthened ties with key members of the European Union and the United Nations in an effort to counterbalance U.S. hegemony. Meanwhile, Chinese experts' scrutiny of the exploits as well as challenges of American and Allied Forces in Iraq will have a big impact on the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) ambitious modernization drive.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Geopolitics, which is the science of politics on geography, has throughout the history focused on geographical areas to be controlled or on geographical reasons for expansion of states. Those who aim to rule the world by controlling certain geographical areas have especially searched for ways of controlling Eurasia. In the core of geopolitical approaches that this paper deals with, is the aim of controlling the World through control of Eurasia first.
Topic:
International Relations, Energy Policy, and Politics
The political logic (i.e., political perceptions of the ruling elite in a given country and nature of the political relations with other countries) determines economic activity, not the other way around, among the proto-capitalist states of the Middle East. As the political ties has primacy in the region in determining the course of economic relations, even market oriented democratic (or quasi-democratic) countries have to accept the prominence of political-strategic relations when dealing with such states. This paper will examine the interrelated fluctuation of trade and political tensions between Turkey and its immediate Middle Eastern neighbours - Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It will highlight the political determinants of the relationship between these countries; will discuss the role of the US as the independent variable; and will assess the possible effects of the emergence of Justice and Development Party government in Turkey on country's political and economic relations with its Middle Eastern neighbours.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Europe, Iran, Turkey, Middle East, and Syria
With the accession of ten states to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, Eastern Europe strode firmly into the international spotlight. A few months earlier, Bulgaria and Romania had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), further extending the membership of Eastern, Central, and Southeast Europe in the alliance. These developments support the region's ongoing policy of integration into the West and its emergence as a socio-political landscape entirely distinct from that imposed by the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) until its demise in 1991. Not surprisingly, these drastic changes are vividly reflected in the national defence industries of the region.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Arms Control and Proliferation
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Although success stories do exist, most high-technology cluster-development projects do little to enhance regional economic growth. The taxpayer costs for a wide array of tax incentives offered by politicians to corporations and research institutes as inducements to move facilities into their districts are rarely recouped, and often only wealthy organizations and developers benefit from the projects.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The Europeans who will nominate a new managing director for the International Monetary Fund should view their task as an opportunity to return the Fund's focus to exchange-rate issues and assistance of countries in fiscal crisis.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
At an alarmingly increasing frequency, westernized Muslims and converted Christians in Western Europe are joining radical Islamic organizations to wage jihad against the United States and its allies. These young Muslim males funnel continental anti-Americanism and the alienation of centuries-old Islamic struggle against the Christian West into full-fledged rage that threatens to divide Western allies who together withstood the advance of the Islamic empires during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics