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401. The Outlook for International Monetary System Reform in 2011: A Preliminary Report Card

Author:
Edwin M. Truman
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
Reform of the international monetary system was placed on the agenda of the Group of 20 (G-20) a year ago at the initiative of the incoming French leadership of the G-20. On November 4, 2011 in Cannes, France, the G-20 leaders will announce their conclusions and agreements after a year and half of intense dialogue and debate. This policy brief summarizes my preliminary rating of the expected results based on the evidence to date: a barely passing grade on substance but an A for effort. Neither final grade is locked in stone, however.
Topic:
Economics, International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, International Monetary Fund, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
France

402. The European Union: A Schumpeterian Model of Democracy?

Author:
Markus Pausch
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:
Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:
One of the most discussed aspects of the so called democratic deficit of the EU is the lack of a European public sphere. The Union's democracy is perceived by its citizens as Schumpeterian in nature and this perception corresponds to a large extent to reality. Schumpeter described democracy as the rule of the politician, who gains decision making power in the free competition over votes. The parliament's role is of minor importance; it decides more by acceptance than by initiative. Citizens can neither bring up the issues nor decide them. The European Union is indeed an ideal platform for such a model, be - cause it is elitist, technocratic and rather complicated for the ordinary citizens. European integration was and still is an elite-dominated project, where citizens do not have many possibilities to intervene during legislation-periods. Over many years, the consensual behaviour of the political elites hindered the emergence of broad debate and of conflict in a European public sphere. As a consequence, scepticism towards the integration process became stronger in the Member States. At the beginning of the new millennium, politicians tried to turn the table by stressing the importance of the involvement of the citizens. A convention was installed to work out a Constitutional Treaty. But once again, the debate remained elite-dominated. The heads of governments finally signed another elitist compromise without the broad involvement of the citizens. The rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands in 2005 can thus be considered as the result of an elitist and Schumpeterian model of democracy which is perpetuated by the new reform treaty of Lisbon. Thus, the claim for a European public sphere remains relevant, although scholars differently define such a sphere. The argument of this paper is that besides the often claimed Europeanization and transnationalisation of European debate, the notion of broad conflict is of high importance for the emergence of a European public sphere.
Political Geography:
Europe, France, and Netherlands

403. Don't Expect Much from Japan in the Indian Ocean

Author:
Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Japan is an Indian Ocean power of long standing. Ten years ago, in a post-9/11 show of solidarity with the United States and to exercise a more muscular foreign policy, Tokyo committed vessels of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF, or MSDF) to the coalition naval contingent supporting combat operations in Afghanistan. JMSDF tankers resupplied coalition warships, while Aegis destroyers guarded against air and surface threats in the Arabian Sea. Japanese seamen posted impressive statistics for this naval enterprise. The Japan Ministry of Defense reported that JMSDF vessels supplied about 137 million gallons of fuel oil and some 2.8 gallons of water to customers from about a dozen countries, including the United States, Pakistan, France, Britain, and Germany. Tokyo spent over $110 million on the logistics mission in its final two years according to Defense Ministry spokesmen, even as demand for such support dwindled.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Britain, Afghanistan, United States, Japan, India, France, Arabia, Germany, and Tokyo

404. Decolonization by Europeanization? The Early EEC and the Transformation of French-African Relations

Author:
Martin Rempe
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
Abstract:
“Françafrique”, “Francophonie”, “l'état franco-africain” and “Mafiafrique” – all these terms are commonly used if one comes to talk about French-African relations after the severing of colonial ties in 1960. Even though they bear slightly different meanings, they share the notion of a very close, stable, and continuous if not to say colonially-styled relationship. According to the relevant literature, the European Economic Community (EEC) acted thereby as a stabilizing instrument. Against this backdrop, the paper tries to present new perspectives on the complex relationship between the EEC, France and its former African colonies associated to the community since 1958. The paper explores to what extent France's belonging to the EEC triggered Europeanization processes that directly affected French-African relations and eventually acted in favor of decolonization of metropolitan France. I will argue that in the course of the 1960s, emulation of community procedures as well as supranational legal coercion to a certain extent transformed French development co-operation and trade relations with the Francophone African states and in the end fostered France's regional reconfiguration towards Europe.
Topic:
Development, Post Colonialism, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and France

405. Nancy A. Combs. Fact-Finding Without Facts. The Uncertain Evidentiary Foundations of International Criminal Convictions

Author:
Chris Stephen
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The field of international criminal law (ICL) is synonymous with the crowded courtroom and the infamous individual in the dock; Adolf Eichmann, Slobodan Milošević, Saddam Hussein, and now Radovan Karadžić. The actions of such individuals have taken place within the various conflicts and mass atrocities that have proven to be lamentably frequent both during the last century and now into this one. In the aftermath of this sustained bloodshed, trials, whether national (Klaus Barbie in France, John Demjanjuk in Germany) or international (Jean Kambanda before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)), have constituted a frequent (David Scheffer's pronouncement of 'tribunal fatigue' suggests perhaps too frequent) reflex reaction by states and have formed the backbone of ICL. Beginning with the Leipzig trials, then via Nuremberg and Tokyo, Yugoslavia and Rwanda to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), successive tribunals have sought to build upon the strengths (and weaknesses) of their predecessors. For example, the recent rise of hybrid courts such as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) can be attributed, at least in large part, to the flaws of previous international judicial institutions; a perceived lack of legitimacy, huge running costs, and detachment from victims, communities, and the locus delicti. The evolution of ICL thus proceeds through a series of trials and error.
Political Geography:
France, Cambodia, Tokyo, and Lebanon

406. Force in Our Times

Author:
Robert Jervis
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Abstract:
Recent world politics displays two seemingly contradictory trends: on one hand, the incidence of international and even civil war shows a very great decline, but on the other hand the US, and to a lesser extent Britain and France, have been involved in many military adventures since the end of the Cold War. The causes are numerous, but among them are the unipolar structure of world politics, which presents the US with different kinds of threats and new opportunities. Central also is the existence of a Security Community among the leading states. A number of forces and events could undermine it, but they seem unlikely to occur. Even in this better world, however, recessed violence will still play a significant role, and force, like other forms of power, is most potent and useful when it remains far in the background.
Topic:
Civil War, Cold War, War, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
United States and France

407. FDI stocks are a biased measure of foreign affiliate activity

Author:
Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Jean-François Hennart, Arjen Slangen, and Roger Smeets
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Researchers often call the value added (VA) in a host country by firms based in another country foreign direct investment (FDI) and use FDI stocks and flows from a country's balance of payments to measure it. What FDI stocks and flows actually measure, however, is narrower, since they record long term financial transactions by which domestic firms exert control over foreign firms. French FDI stocks in Australia, for example, measure the value of shares and reinvested earnings of Australian firms owned by French firms and the net indebtedness of these Australian firms to their French parents.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Foreign Direct Investment, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
France and Australia

408. Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women

Author:
Irina Vainovski-Mihai
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Leaving aside the academic discourse, the “theoretical and methodological shields that usually ensure a semblance of detachment,” (p.ix) Marnia Lazreg, a professor of sociology at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center, adds her voice to the ever-expanding bibliography on the veil. Committed to writing this book, as she declaredly has reached a point where she could no longer keep quiet about the issue, (p.2) the author addresses Muslim women who either have taken up the veil or are considering wearing it. In doing this, she finds incumbent to reveal herself personally while recounting her experience as a Muslim woman growing up in colonial Algeria and that of several women she has interviewed over the past fifteen years in the Middle East, North Africa, France, and the United States. In each of her five open letters, Lazreg presents different veiling or reveiling experiences, interprets them and takes issue with their justification, pointing out that the custom of “covering” should be always regarded in its historical, political, and socio-cultural context, as long as “the veil is never innocent,” (p.125) it is both a discourse and a practice. Based on these grounds, in the Introduction, when clarifying certain terms used in the book, Lazreg states that by the expression “Muslim women” she refers to the “the women who have taken up the veil as a way for them to display their religious affiliation” (p.12) and she adds: “The best but cumbersome way to refer to these women would be 'women-who- wear-the-veil-because-they-think-it- is-a religious-obligation-in-Islam.' There is no generic 'Muslim woman,' just as there is no generic 'Christian woman' – only concrete women engaged in concret actions.”
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, France, and North Africa

409. Britain's coalition government and EU defence cooperation: undermining British interests

Author:
Clara Marina O'Donnell
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The formation of a coalition government by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, combined with the need for important cuts to Britain's armed forces has raised significant uncertainties about Britain's attitude to defence cooperation within the European Union. Since taking office the coalition, while grappling with the implications of Britain's fiscal challenges, has shown an unprecedented interest in strengthening bilateral defence collaborations with certain European partners, not least France. However, budgetary constraints have not induced stronger support for defence cooperation at the EU level. On the contrary, under the new government, Britain has accelerated its withdrawal from the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This article assesses the approach of the coalition to the CSDP. It argues that, from the perspective of British interests, the need for EU defence cooperation has increased over the last decade and that the UK's further withdrawal from EU efforts is having a negative impact. The coalition is undermining a framework which has demonstrated the ability to improve, albeit modestly, the military capabilities of other European countries. In addition, by sidelining the EU at a time when the UK is forced to resort more extensively to cost-saving synergies in developing and maintaining its own armed forces, David Cameron's government is depriving itself of the use of potentially helpful EU agencies and initiatives—which the UK itself helped set up. Against the background of deteriorating European military capabilities and shifts in US priorities, the article considers what drove Britain to support EU defence cooperation over a decade ago and how those pressures have since strengthened. It traces Britain's increasing neglect of the CSDP across the same period, the underlying reasons for this, and how the coalition's current stance of disengagement is damaging Britain's interests.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Britain, Europe, and France

410. Power, Leadership and US Foreign Policy

Author:
Erik Jones
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The Obama administration is attempting to 'lead from behind' in Libya, causing much concern among its allies and derision among its adversaries. Nevertheless this strategy represents an appropriate response both to the specific situation in Libya and to the wider constraints on American global leadership. With the shift in global resources from North to South and West to East, collective action has become more difficult to organise and global institutions have become harder to reinforce. Meanwhile governments in the United States and elsewhere must wrestle to bring their fiscal accounts back under control. A cooperative approach is the only answer. The difficulty for the Obama administration is that by emphasizing cooperation they make the success of their Libya intervention depend upon the actions of the other countries involved. Should France and Great Britain fail in Libya, President Obama's new conception of American global leadership will falter as well.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, America, France, and Libya