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4482. President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland
- Author:
- Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Columbia University World Leaders Forum
- Abstract:
- Clean Energy and Human Capital: Iceland- The Laboratory Small States in Global Development. A keynote address by President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Climate Change, Democratization, and Energy Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Iceland
4483. Brussels Versus the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union
- Author:
- Christine Mahoney
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Georgetown University Press
- Abstract:
- Lobbying Is A Thriving industry on both sides of the Atlantic. K Street is notorious in Washington as the locus of high-powered lobbyists, with the Hill as the primary object of their attention. Round Point Schuman and Avenue de Cortenbergh form the geographical center in Brussels, with lobbyists descending on Berlaymont and Parliament. Both systems involve a wide range of advocates juggling for a role in the policymaking process, from beekeepers to chemical manufacturers, environmentalists to fishermen, recreational boaters to soda makers. If you can think of an interest, industry, institution, or idea, you can probably find a representative promoting its case in the two capitals.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Bilateral Relations
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Washington, and Brussels
4484. 2008 Hate Crime Survey
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights First
- Abstract:
- European and North American governments are failing to keep pace with a wave of violent hate crime that continues to rise across the region. Racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, anti-Muslim and anti-Roma hatred, religious intolerance, homophobia: the list of biases that fuel these crimes is a long one. Attacks range from lethal assaults to threats and harassment to vandalism and desecration of religious and community property. The perpetrators are individuals acting alone, or in concert with neighbors, coworkers, and fellow students, as well as loosely-knit or more organized groups that share ideologies of hatred and act on them. The violence can ruin lives, or end them. It can terrorize whole communities, driving away vulnerable minorities or forcing them to stay out of sight. Violent hate crime, especially when the official response to it is weak or nonexistent, also attacks the society at large, undermining the very notions of equality and the equal protection of the law.
- Topic:
- Crime, Sociology, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- Europe, North America, and Kurdistan
4485. Alternative to Silence: Whistleblower Protection in 10 European Countries
- Author:
- Craig Fagan and Anja Osterhaus
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- Whistleblowers play a vital role in exposing corruption, fraud and mismanagement and in preventing disasters that arise from negligence or wrongdoing. Prominent whistleblowers revealed the cover-up of SARS and other dangerous diseases that threatened millions of people in China; they disclosed corruption and nepotism in the European Commission and helped to avoid environmental hazards in the US.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Governance, and Law
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, and Europe
4486. L'analyse des transferts internationaux de politiques publiques : un état de l'art
- Author:
- Thierry Delpeuch
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
- Abstract:
- Several prolific research fields dedicate themselves to the analysis of the contemporary phenomena of circulation, transfer and convergence of public policies. These clusters of studies have in common to explore the impact of external influences and foreign sources of inspiration or imitation on policy making process. Two major research orientations can be distinguished among these studies. The first one develops a perspective in the close proximity of the new sociological institutionalism. It scrutinizes the causal grounds and the social impacts of the expansion of policy transfers, by putting the stress on the influence of cultural and institutional factors. The second one, which is related to the sociology of social action, primarily examines the implementation of concrete policy transplant operations from one social context to another, by meticulously investigating the social characteristics of transfer agents and analyzing their interactions. Our argument is that the various approaches covered here–which are sociology of diffusion, new sociological institutionalism, europeanization studies, lesson-drawing and policy learning literature, structural sociology, and, of course, the research stream which identifies itself as policy transfer studies - are today on the way to overcome their divergences and to consolidate a common framework of sociological knowledge about policy transfers, grounded in both holistic and individualistic sociological traditions.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Political Theory, and Sociology
- Political Geography:
- Europe
4487. THE NEXT EU ENLARGEMENT(S)
- Author:
- Hedvig Morvai-Horvát
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Issues: Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs
- Institution:
- Slovak Foreign Policy Association
- Abstract:
- It is often said humorously that there were three kinds of states in the Western Balkans in EU context: candidates, potential candidates and Serbia. The largest country of the region, which has significant economic and social potential, satisfactory administrative capacities and over 70% of public support for EU accession remains unable to strengthen and improve its process of integration in the great European family. Contrary to the situation in other countries, there was no broad social consensus on the need for EU membership in Serbia. Moreover, a new turn on the Serbian political scene becomes more and more obvious. The Democratic Party of Serbia conducts political and qualitative distancing from Europe and European values. Another important moment is the strengthening of the Socialist Party of Serbia. On the other hand, the prospects for the creation of a minority government of democratic forces are not very optimistic. Therefore, Serbia is threatened to continue to remain a 'one issue' state if European minded politicians do not stay strong in insisting on the difficult job which has to be undertaken in spite of their promise for a parallel fight for Kosovo. This will, however be impossible without a clear and true support of the EU, even if it means taking some 'risky steps' for that.
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Kosovo, and Serbia
4488. EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY: INTRODUCING NEW VISIONS
- Author:
- Iris Kempe
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Issues: Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs
- Institution:
- Slovak Foreign Policy Association
- Abstract:
- Learning from its experience with the eastern enlargement, the European Union developed a neighborhood policy aware of the need to avoid the creation of a new dividing line in Europe that might put a strain on the relations between the new member states and other countries of the Central and Eastern Europe that would border the new EU. In the light of changes that occurred over time, especially Russia's resurgence as not only a regional, but a global power, the author points out the obvious shortcomings of the EU's policy and why it failed to meet the expectations of both the countries encompassed by the policy, and the EU. In addition, the author gives an overview of the changes to the neighborhood policy proposed by the EU member states and, finally, points out the importance of devising a coherent strategy towards the region that would yield long-term results.
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
4489. Emerging Market Business Cycles with Remittance Fluctuations
- Author:
- Ceyhun Bora Durdu and Serdar Sayan
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes the implications of remittance fluctuations for various macroeconomic variables and Sudden Stops. The paper employs a quantitative two-sector model of a small open economy with financial frictions calibrated to Mexican and Turkish economies, two major recipients, whose remittance receipts feature opposite cyclical characteristics. We find that remittances dampen the business cycles in Mexico, whereas they amplify the cycles in Turkey. Their quantitative effects in the long run, approximated by the stochastic steady state are mild. In the short run, however, remittances have quantitatively large impacts on the economy, when the economy is borrowing constrained. This is because agents in the economy cannot adjust their precautionary wealth to sudden tightening in credit, hence, fluctuations in remittances get magnified through an endogenous debt-deflation mechanism. Our findings suggest that procyclical (or countercyclical) remittances can play a significant deepening (or mitigating) role for Sudden Stops.
- Topic:
- Debt, Economics, and Credit
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Turkey, Asia, North America, and Mexico
4490. Assessing the Potential for Further Foreign Demand for U.S. Assets: Has Financing U.S. Current Account Deficits Made Foreign Investors Overweight in U.S. Securities?
- Author:
- Carol C. Bertaut
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Since 2001, foreign investors have acquired roughly $5 trillion in U.S. securities – more than doubling their holdings of U.S. equities and bonds – as both official and private inflows have financed record U.S. current account deficits. Although the rapid growth of foreign holdings of U.S. securities raises concerns that foreign investors may have become too heavily weighted in U.S. assets, foreign investors have not in fact materially changed the relative allocations between U.S. and other foreign securities in their portfolios in recent years. Based on data from the most recent comprehensive surveys of foreign portfolio investment, the 2006 IMF Coordinated Portfolio Investment Surveys (CPIS), most foreign investors remain relatively more underweight in both U.S. equities and bonds than they do in foreign securities in general. Although the underweight position suggests that there remains potential for foreign investors to continue to acquire U.S. securities, econometric evidence indicates that the underweight position itself reflects a preference by foreign investors for securities of countries with which they have strong economic or cultural ties, consistent with recent research that suggests “location” or “information” preferences in both domestic and international portfolios. As securities markets abroad continue to deepen, such factors are likely to continue to attract investment from “nearby” markets, especially from European investors.
- Topic:
- Investment, Securities, Bonds, and International Portfolios
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and North America