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912. Guiding and Protecting Prosecutors: Comparative Overview of Policies Guiding Decisions to Prosecute
- Author:
- Howard Varney, Shenali De Silva, and Alexandra Raleigh
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
- Abstract:
- Prosecution guidelines provide benchmarks for decision making and act as a shield for prosecutors in the face of undue influence, pressure, or interference. Prosecutors pursuing sensitive cases, such as those involving mass atrocities, ought to do so by applying binding, objective, fair and publicly known criteria. This report presents a comparative overview of prosecution guidelines from around the world in "ordinary" times and in the context of post-conflict transitions.
- Topic:
- Law, Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, and Justice
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
913. Eyes on U: Opportunities, Challenges, and Limits of Remote Sensing for Monitoring Uranium Mining and Milling
- Author:
- Grace Liu, Joseph Rodgers, Scott Milne, Margaret Rowland, Ben McIntosh, Mackenzie Best, Octave Lepinard, and Melissa Hanham
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
- Abstract:
- The mining and milling of uranium does not generally receive the attention that the subject deserves. Yet this overlooked aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle can offer analysts important clues about a country’s fissile-material production. This, in turn, helps inform highly sensitive inquiries, such as estimates of arsenal size and potential for growth. Geospatial technology is uniquely helpful as a discovery and verification tool. The production of fissile material is often a closely held state secret; even for states that report production levels to the International Atomic Energy Agency, these numbers can be difficult to verify. Remote-sensing technology, such as satellite imagery paired with change-detection algorithms, can help pierce the veil of state secrecy and overcome physical barriers to inform analysts about this vital first step in the nuclear fuel cycle. Occasional Paper #44—the final installment in a four-part series that uses open-source remote-sensing data to identify and monitor uranium mining and milling activities—examines these new tools and technologies in detail to demonstrate how analysts use them to detect, estimate, or verify uranium production. It explores different remote-sensing techniques and their various advantages, including traditional optical imagery, multispectral and hyperspectral images, and thermal and near-infrared images. It also discusses machine-learning algorithms as another tool for analysts examining large quantities of geospatial information in a relatively short amount of time. Though these technologies hold great promise for WMD analysts, there are limitations to their use. CNS Occasional Paper #44 discusses these current and future limits, and concludes by calling for increased collaboration between the commercial satellite industry and analytical organizations and verification regimes alike, as a way f
- Topic:
- Natural Resources, Mining, Minerals, Uranium, and Milling
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
914. WMD Capabilities Enabled by Additive Manufacturing
- Author:
- Christopher Daase, Grant Christopher, Ferenc Dalnkoki-Veress, Miles A. Pomper, and Robert Shaw
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
- Abstract:
- Additive Manufacturing (AM)—also known as 3D printing—is a rapidly emerging technology with growing relevance for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery. The rapid pace of AM development makes it increasingly difficult to keep track of AM’s potential effect on proliferation pathways. So far, studies addressing the issue have mainly focused on nuclear proliferation. This has created two major problems for policy makers. First, by the time governments are able to respond to specific AM-induced proliferation risks, those risks might already have been overtaken by newer developments. Second, by focusing on nuclear proliferation pathways, governments can fail to recognize AM’s relevance to other proliferation modalities, including chemical and biological weapons and, especially, the means of WMD delivery. This report addresses these shortcomings. As an innovative pilot study, this report provides a more comprehensive approach toward explaining latest AM developments and mitigating the risk of WMD proliferation. Effectively, this report is the first beyond-the-horizon assessment of the impact of AM developments not only on potential nuclear-weapons programs, but also on other WMD modalities and their delivery systems. For this project, Negotiation Design & Strategy (NDS) assembled an expert team of well-known AM and nonproliferation specialists from Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom—three countries at the forefront of AM development. The research team’s contextual knowledge of AM facilities in Europe and the United States allowed for in-depth, on-the-ground interviews with US and European experts from the private sector, national laboratories, and research institutions. Interviews were augmented with an analytical deep dive into the latest AM developments, based on open-source technical literature, including academic papers and patents. The final report allows us to better forecast technological developments and raise awareness for the critical role that AM plays in international security. This report also demonstrates the importance of emerging technologies in the nonproliferation field and underscores the need for further research of this kind. Studies such as this are crucial to inform the broader examination of the relationship between technology and international security.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, Science and Technology, Manufacturing, and Emerging Technology
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
915. Cultural Evolution: People’s Motivations are Changing, and Reshaping the World, Ronald F. Inglehart
- Author:
- George E. Marcus
- Publication Date:
- 07-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Consolidating more than four decades of research, Ronald F. Inglehart elaborates on the enlightenment story that reliance on science and technology enables nations to meet the material needs of their populations. To that story he adds that populations, finding their security needs being met, are increasingly abandoning materialist values for post-material values. The meaning of life satisfaction is changing. Inglehart advances this story by converting it into explicit hypotheses and subjecting them to extensive empirical testing. Inglehart marshals considerable evidence chiefly drawing on the World Values and European Values Surveys covering something on the order of 90 percent of the world’s population from 1981 to 2014. Along the way, Inglehart demonstrates the potent role of culture in advancing or retarding the overall trajectory of economic growth and life satisfaction. These shifts occur on a time scale marked in decades through intergenerational change.
- Topic:
- Culture, Book Review, Political Science, State, and Corporations
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
916. Are Politics Local? The Two Dimensions of Party Nationalization around the World, Scott Morgenstern
- Author:
- Arjan H. Schakel
- Publication Date:
- 07-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- The statement that geography matters for politics probably will not be contested by many political scientists. Therefore, it is quite surprising that few studies have systematically explored how the territorial distribution of preferences affects political processes and policy outcomes. This book by Scott Morgenstern is an important landmark study that puts geography high on the research agenda of comparative political science. Three features make this book worthwhile reading for scholars working on the nationalization of elections and parties. First, Morgenstern identifies two dimensions of party nationalization and shows that they are theoretically and empirically unrelated. Static nationalization refers to the extent to which party vote shares are homogeneously distributed across districts at a particular point in time. Dynamic nationalization taps into the consistency in the change of a party’s vote shares across time. The combination of these two dimensions leads to a useful fourfold categorization of nationalized, unstable, unbalanced, and locally focused parties. As Morgenstern shows in Chapters 7, 8, and 9, each type of party has different implications for electoral accountability and bill co-sponsorship among legislators.
- Topic:
- Politics, Book Review, Political Science, Political Parties, and Nationalization
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
917. Civil Society and Civil War Onset: What is the Relationship?
- Author:
- Davin O'Regan
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM)
- Abstract:
- U.S. foreign policy increasingly embraces and seeks to empower civil society organizations in developing countries as a critical contributor to stability and security. This paper explores whether there are grounds for these claims, specifically whether variation in civil society can explain the onset of civil wars. It examines two common explanations for the conflict-preventative potential of civil society, namely its ability to increase social capital and citizens’ voice. Four hypotheses are tested by integrating new data on various attributes of civil society from the Varieties of Democracies Initiative into a common model of civil war onset. Little support is found for claims that civil society reduces the probability of civil war onset by improving social capital, but onset may be reduced when a strong advocacy and political orientation is present in civil society. In other words, there appears to be some grounds for U.S. policy claims that a stronger civil society can enhance citizens’ voice and reduce instability and conflict onset. This finding still raises many questions about the precise links between civil society and civil war onset, and introduces potential complications for how policymakers might address conflict onset through support for civil society.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Civil War, Democracy, and Political stability
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
918. The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems
- Author:
- New Global Commons Working Group
- Publication Date:
- 07-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- A July 2018 ISD report on “The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems” explores the implications of the New Arctic, and the broader geopolitical repercussions of these changes. The Arctic region has become a New Global Common. Increasingly navigable seaways and new access to natural resources create both opportunities for greater collaboration between Arctic and non-Arctic nations, as well as potential flashpoints, environmental disasters, and threats to indigenous communities. The challenge is to mitigate all of these potential threats, and develop the policies, partnerships, and infrastructure to help guide Arctic diplomacy in the decades to come.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Diplomacy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Geopolitics
- Political Geography:
- Arctic, Global Focus, and United States of America
919. The New Metropolitanism: The International Order and Sub-National Actors
- Author:
- New Global Commons Working Group
- Publication Date:
- 09-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- The growth and international clout of cities and sub-state actors has been unparalleled in recent decades. These players seek agency in the international arena, forming networks at the sub-state level that help shape new organizing principles for international cooperation on Global Commons issues like climate, health, transnational crime, and migration. These types of issues will continue to create opportunities for sub-national leadership to help shape outcomes beneficial for all—not just cities and states—through systematic interactions, a stronger connection up and down between cities, states, national capitals, and international bodies, and a larger voice for sub-national actors on Global Commons issues. To explore sub-national activism and its effects upon the international arena, in late 2018 the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy convened a working group on “The New Metropolitanism.” Participants included experts and practitioners drawn from the ranks of local governance, academia, think tanks and research institutions, as well as the diplomatic community. They discussed whether the continuation and pace of this phenomenon is inevitable or a passing response to stalled nation-state leadership; and how this rising “metropolitanism” complicates—or complements—the work of central governments and “old-world” international relations. This report provides a set of policy guidelines and recommendations, aimed at multiple audiences: cities and other sub-national actors and those that work with and within them; national governments; nation-state level foreign ministries; and international organizations. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all the relevant players find ways to harness emerging sub-national activism towards processes, procedures, and relationships that can produce innovative solutions to global challenges.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Governance, Leadership, and Cities
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus and United States of America
920. Mobilizing Additional Funds for Pro-Poor Water Services: An Exploration of Potential Models to Finance Safe Water Access in Support of Sustainable Development Goal 6.1
- Author:
- Tanvi Nagpal, Ammar A. Malik, Matthew Eldridge, Yoori Kim, and Chloe Hauenstein
- Publication Date:
- 09-2018
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Urban Institute
- Abstract:
- Meeting the Sustainable Development Goal for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030 requires utilities serving the poorest households to play critical roles. Yet these utilities are frequently unable to cover their current operational costs, much less expand access, through existing tariffs and transfers. New models and approaches are needed to identify new sources of sustainable subsidies for these utilities. Drawing on lessons from other sectors, this study explores three potential models in particular – global funds, solidarity levies, and land value capture – for raising additional resources and considers ways that funding could be pooled and delivered to incentivize improved outcomes.
- Topic:
- Water, Sustainable Development Goals, and International Development
- Political Geography:
- United Nations and Global Focus