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11. Why Summit Optics May Help De-escalate Public Appetite for Conflict

Author:
Max Plithides
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Abstract:
As competition between democracies and autocratic adversaries such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China intensifies, democratic publics may increasingly pressure their politicians to take a more confrontational stance. The implications are dangerous. Public pressure for confrontation during the Cold War caused numerous foreign policy fiascos.1 Public pressure also at times undermined the broad political unity necessary for concluding diplomatic agreements— even between democratic allies.2 How then, as the world enters a new era of great power competition, can public pressure and anger be defused and foreign policy put on a more rational footing? This policy brief, part of a series on great power competition, argues that bilateral summits with autocratic leaders may have a key role to play in shifting the public’s collective emotional ethos. It analyzes results from a large-scale survey experiment, designed around the historic 2018 Singapore Summit, which represented the first-ever meeting of the leaders of North Korea and the United States and was preceded by months of saber rattling.3 According to conventional logic the Summit was worthless: It produced a joint communiqué with “no concrete specifics”4 and had no effect on President Trump’s approval rating.5 Yet evidence shows that joint photographs from the Summit reduced bellicosity in American public opinion towards North Korea by allowing President Trump to act as a visual empathetic mediator. The Singapore Summit thus broadly evinces the potential value of bilateral summits to reduce tensions with autocratic adversaries.
Topic:
Democracy, Citizenship, Strategic Competition, and Autocracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

12. Towards a Stateless Standpoint Epistemology

Author:
Haqqi Bahram
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Opening the discussion about epistemology in statelessness research, this commentary advocates for a stateless standpoint epistemology grounded in experiences of the stateless, their collective intersubjectivities and their inalienable epistemic agency. By interrogating how and what knowledge is produced on the issue, I argue that stateless standpoint epistemology is an invitation to realign our knowledge of statelessness vis-à-vis the accepted citizenist modes of knowledge. While such an epistemology may need time to take its legitimate place within statelessness research, the mission can start already by acknowledging the epistemic agency of the stateless, supporting emerging stateless researchers and denouncing extractive research practices that render naturalised knowledge on and about the stateless. This recognition is needed at all levels of research carried out with the stateless, not only for the significant and transformative role that thestateless standpoint epistemology can play, but also for research to be truly a venue for epistemic justice in the face of the injustice created by world structures of citizenship.
Topic:
Citizenship, Research, Justice, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. The UN and the use of "serious games" as an element of citizen awareness: Survival case study/La ONU y el uso de “serious games” como elemento de concienciación ciudadana: Estudio de caso de Survival

Author:
Antonio César Moreno
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
Games have always been a powerful tool for learning behaviours and attitudes necessary for an efficient socio-cultural performance. In today's digital society this role is played mainly by video games. They provide video players with skills and abilities typical of the time and facilitate the learning of complex processes effectively. The UN, through its different agencies and through various Education programmes, has used this format to bring together and raise awareness among citizens about the main international issues, such as crises and the displacement of refugees. The aim of this text is to analyse how these issues are projected through the case study of the Spanish video game Survival, as well as to assess whether it is a useful tool for raising awareness and providing adequate information to the population. To this end, this article will analyze the message of this title as well as initiatives such as the UNAOC's PEACEapp initiative./Los juegos han constituido siempre una poderosa herramienta de aprendizaje de conductas y actitudes necesarias para el eficiente desempeño sociocultural. En la actual sociedad digital ese papel lo protagonizan, principalmente, los videojuegos. Estos proveen a los video jugadores de habilidades y destrezas propias de la época y facilitan el aprendizaje de procesos complejos con eficacia. La ONU a través de sus diferentes agencias y mediante diversos programas de Educación se ha servido de este formato para aproximar y concienciar a la ciudadanía sobre las principales problemáticas internacionales, como las crisis y desplazamientos de refugiados. El objetivo del presente texto es analizar cómo se proyectan estos temas a través del estudio de caso del videojuego español Survival así como valorar si es una herramienta útil para concienciar e informar adecuadamente a la población. Para ello analizaremos el mensaje de este título e iniciativas como la iniciativa PEACEapp de la UNAOC.
Topic:
United Nations, Refugees, Media, Citizenship, Digital Culture, and Video Games
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. The Right To A Nationality: No Time To Be Complacent

Author:
Erika Feller
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The right to a nationality is often taken for granted. Over the course of decades, UN member states have enshrined this right through fundamental instruments, notably the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet conservative estimates hold that approximately 10 million people spread across every continent are denied a nationality.1 Some, but not all, are refugees. Collectively, these individuals are stateless—they lack any claim to a nationality recognized or assumed by any state. For many years, statelessness was a forgotten issue, relegated to the realm of state sovereignty prerogatives. Recently, states and the UN have begun to focus on the pressing nature of the problem. They have made progress in addressing statelessness as a global, collectively shared challenge. However, the UN target of eradicating statelessness by 2024, while a fine aspiration, continues to face significant hurdles. These obstacles include a serious dearth of informa- tion about the problem’s scope, discriminatory national legislation and policies that obstruct UN efforts, an ambiguous international legal framework, and the absence of solutions that are accessible to stateless individuals.
Topic:
Nationalism, Sovereignty, United Nations, Refugee Issues, Law, Citizenship, Nation-State, Legal Sector, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. From Industrial Citizenship to Private Ordering? Contract, Status, and the Question of Consent.

Author:
Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
This paper revisits the notions of contract and status found in classical sociology, legal theory, and labour law. Adopting an historical perspective, it explores the fragmentation of the status of industrial citizenship during the neoliberal period and discusses the enduring usefulness of the status/contract distinction in analyzing current trends in the regulation of working relations, including the spread of “gig” or platform-mediated work. Elements of status, it is argued, must always be present if work is to be performed and paid for as the parties require it. Claims to the contrary – for example, that the gig economy creates a labour market without search frictions and only minimal transaction costs: contracts without status – assume an undersocialized model of (monadic) social action that has no basis in the reality of social life (Durkheim, Weber). Still, status may come in a variety of forms that are more or less desirable from the perspective of workers, businesses, and society at large. The paper traces what it conceives as the privatization of status via contracts between employers and workers under the pressure of marketization and dominated by corporate hierarchies. Towards the end of the twentieth century, sociologists observed the division of workers into two groups or classes – core (with relatively well-paid and secure employment) and peripheral (low-paid and insecure). Thirty years later, gross inequalities of wealth and conceptions of the neoliberal self as ever-improving, ever-perfectible, are combining to create novel forms of status not fully anticipated by the literature.
Topic:
Democracy, Inequality, Citizenship, Private Sector, and Industry
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. Human Centric Data For Sustainable City – Part: 3

Author:
Teemu Ropponen
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
In the interview that has been made under Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNS) supported TESEV project called Improving Data Ecosystems for Sustainable City, Teemu Ropponen (General Manager of MyData Global) answers the question of “How do citizens and other city stakeholders benefit from your work?”.
Topic:
Governance, Urbanization, Citizenship, Urban, Sustainability, and Data
Political Geography:
Turkey and Global Focus

17. Interoperability for Sustainable Cities – Part: 3

Author:
Davor Meersman
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
In the interview that has been made under Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNS) supported TESEV project called Improving Data Ecosystems for Sustainable City, Davor Meersman (Open and Agile Smart Cities, CEO) answers the question of “How do citizens and other city stakeholders benefit from your work?”.
Topic:
Governance, Citizenship, Urban, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Turkey and Global Focus

18. The Right to a Nationality: No Time to be Complacent

Author:
Erika Feller
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The right to a nationality is often taken for granted. Over the course of decades, UN member states have enshrined this right through fundamental instruments, notably the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet con- servative estimates hold that approximately 10 million people spread across every continent are denied a nationality.1 Some, but not all, are refugees. Collectively, these individuals are stateless—they lack any claim to a nationality recognized or assumed by any state. For many years, statelessness was a forgotten issue, relegated to the realm of state sovereignty prerogatives. Recently, states and the UN have begun to focus on the pressing nature of the problem. They have made progress in addressing statelessness as a global, collectively shared challenge. However, the UN target of eradicating statelessness by 2024, while a fine aspiration, continues to face significant hurdles. These obstacles include a serious dearth of informa- tion about the problem’s scope, discriminatory national legislation and policies that obstruct UN efforts, an ambiguous international legal framework, and the absence of solutions that are accessible to stateless individuals.
Topic:
Sovereignty, United Nations, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Nationality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. Feminist Foresight in Statelessness Century-Old Citizenship Equality Campaigns

Author:
Deirdre Brennan
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
It may have appeared to many working in the statelessness sector, or those campaigning against gender discriminatory nationality laws, that until the launch of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights in 2014, efforts to eradicate such laws were largely only coordinated on a national level. This article, however, uncovers a hidden period in statelessness history: the citizenship equality campaigns of the early 1900s. Through an exploration of these campaigns, their vibrant tactics and eccentric characters, this article provides a feminist revisionist history of statelessness activism and academia that aims to adjust dominant narratives in contemporary statelessness literature.
Topic:
Citizenship, Feminism, Equality, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. ‘Rainbow Statelessness’ — Between Sexual Citizenship and Legal Theory Exploring the Statelessness–LGBTIQ+ Nexus

Author:
Thomas McGee
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article responds to the literature gap within both discourses on ‘sexual citizenship’ and statelessness studies on the nexus between statelessness and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (‘SOGIESC’). It explores the intersectional experiences of stateless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer plus (‘LGBTIQ+’) individuals as well as circumstances in which discrimination on SOGIESC grounds can cause statelessness for LGBTIQ+ persons or their children. In addition to rare reports of arbitrary deprivation of citizenship from LGBTIQ+ persons, the non-recognition of post-transition statuses and intersex realities may lead to situations of statelessness. Finally, complex legislation and administrative practices around assisted reproductive technology — and especially international commercial surrogacy — can leave children born within ‘rainbow families’ at particular risk of statelessness. In arguing that a global nexus does indeed exist between SOGIESC and statelessness, this article calls for further empirical research in order to provide greater nuance and context-specific understandings of the intersectional experiences and causes of statelessness for LGBTIQ+ individuals around the world.
Topic:
Citizenship, LGBT+, Sexuality, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus