Search

Begin New Search Political Geography North America Publication Year within 25 Years

1591. NAFTA Dispute Settlement Systems

Author:
Gary Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Drawing on the 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) extended dispute settlement provisions to cover more ground. In fact, within NAFTA there are six dispute settlement systems. NAFTA Chapter 11 is designed to resolve investor-state disputes over property rights; Chapter 14 creates special provisions for handling disputes in the financial sector via the Chapter 20 dispute settlement process (DSP); Chapter 19 establishes a review mechanism to determine whether final antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) decisions made in domestic tribunals are consistent with national laws; and Chapter 20 provides government-to-government consultation, at the ministerial level, to resolve high-level disputes. In addition, the NAFTA partners created interstate dispute mechanisms regarding domestic environmental and labor laws under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAAL C), respectively. This chapter examines the first four dispute settlement systems; the NAAEC and NAALC systems are evaluated elsewhere in this book.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, and North America

1592. Criminal Enterprise in the Political Economy of Middle Eastern Terrorism

Author:
Matthew Levitt
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
At least five terrorist suspects who entered the United States illegally from Canada during the Christmas holidays are now the subjects of an international manhunt. The suspects' international travel was apparently facilitated by Pakistani criminal elements engaged in the production of false documents, including forged visas and passports. The nexus between criminal and terrorist activity is not new. Indeed, international terrorism is facilitated and financed by an array of states, groups, fronts, individuals, businesses, banks, criminal enterprises, and nominally humanitarian organizations. Since the attacks of September 11, experts and decisionmakers have focused much attention on charitable and humanitarian organizations, as well as official and unofficial banking systems in the network of terrorist financing. The political economy of terrorism, however, relies just as heavily on legitimate businesses and, increasingly, criminal activity.
Topic:
Security, Political Economy, and Religion
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Africa, United States, Europe, Middle East, Taliban, Arab Countries, Syria, and North America

1593. Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime

Author:
Raimo Väyrynen
Publication Date:
10-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
It is important to make a careful distinction between illegal immigration, human smuggling, and human trafficking which are nested, but yet different concepts. This distinction is relevant because these different categories of the illegal movement of people across borders have quite different legal and political consequences. Human smuggling and trafficking have become a world-wide industry that 'employs' every year millions of people and leads to the annual turnover of billions of dollars. Many of the routes and enclaves used by the smugglers have become institutionalized; for instance, from Mexico and Central America to the United States, from West Asia through Greece and Turkey to Western Europe, and within East and Southeast Asia. More often than not flourishing smuggling routes are made possible by weak legislation, lax border controls, corrupted police officers, and the power of the organized crime. Naturally, poverty and warfare contribute to the rising tide of migration, both legal and illegal.
Topic:
Environment and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Turkey, East Asia, Greece, Asia, Latin America, Central America, North America, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and West Asia

1594. The Gender Impact of Pension Reform in Latin America—and Broader Policy Implications

Author:
Estelle James, Alejandra Cox Edwards, and Rebeca Wong
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Over the past two decades multipillar pension systems that include both a public defined benefit (DB) and private defined contribution (DC) pillar have been adopted in many countries. Critics of these pension reforms argue that the tight link between payroll contributions and benefits in the DC pillar will produce lower pensions for women. In contrast, supporters of these reforms argue that multipillar systems remove distortions that favored men and permit a more targeted public pillar that will help women. To test these conflicting claims about multipillar reforms, and to analyze more generally the gender impact of alternative pension systems, this paper examines the differential impact on the two genders of the new and old systems in three Latin American countries—Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. On the basis of household survey data, we simulate the employment histories of representative men and women and the pensions that these are likely to generate under the new and old rules.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Argentina, South America, Latin America, Central America, North America, Mexico, and Chile

1595. Promoting U.S. Economic Growth and Security Through Expanding World Trade: A Call for Bold American Leadership

Author:
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
This report presents a leadership vision of a strong and open global trading system, and urges the United States and its trading partners to adopt vital policy reforms, including delinking agricultural subsidies from prices and production while opening agricultural markets everywhere, and eliminating all tariffs and non-tariff barriers in both manufacturing and services.
Topic:
Security, International Trade and Finance, Leadership, Economy, and Economic growth
Political Geography:
North America, Global Focus, and United States of America

1596. The Reform of EU Development Policy

Author:
Carlos Santiso
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Improving external relations and the management of development aid is a key component of the current reform of the European Union (EU). In the course of the 1990s, the promotion of democracy, the strengthening of good governance and enhancing the rule of law progressively became both an objective and a condition for the EU development assistance with developing countries. Achieving these sometimes-contradictory goals in practice is a permanent challenge. This paper reviews the EU's policies and strategies aimed at preventing conflict and responding to the crises of governance. It explores the difficult combination of democracy assistance and governance conditionality and its applicability to the prevention of democratic erosion in developing countries. While the EU mainly relies on a positive approach of support and inducement, it has also introduced, since 1995, provisions to suspend aid in the event of a sudden and persistent interruption of the democratisation process. The suspension mechanism enshrined in the cooperation agreement between the EU and ACP countries has made political dialogue the main strategic tool for achieving these varied purposes. Mainstreaming political dialogue into the cooperation forces the EC to focus more explicitly and more rigorously on issues of power, politics and democracy than it has done in the past.
Topic:
Democratization
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

1597. Recommendations for Democratization Assistance in the Caspian Region

Author:
Vladimir Shkolnikov
Publication Date:
05-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
This paper discusses Western democratization assistance programs to Caspian states over the last ten years and the lessons policy makers should learn from these programs. It makes the following points: The euphoria of the early 1990s over the end of the Cold War caused Western organizations to have unrealistic expectations for democratic development in the former Soviet Union. Western democracy assistance programs have often failed to take the perspective of “the ordinary person on the street” in recipient countries into consideration. Instead, these programs usually reflect external, Western-imposed priorities. Western democracy-promoting organizations have often failed to appreciate the extent to which traditional institutions in Caspian societies (such as kinship networks) managed to survive the Soviet period and still influence the societies of the region. Western democracy-promoting organizations have failed to take into consideration the security challenges that Caspian states have had to confront during their first decade of independence. The war against global terrorism gives the West an opportunity to reevaluate its policies towards the Caspian region. Rather than relying solely on experiences of North American and Western European democracies, Western democracy-promoting organizations need to draw upon the recent experiences of new democracies of Central Europe in creating new models for the Caspian region.
Topic:
Democratization
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Central Asia, Asia, Soviet Union, and North America

1598. Politics and Parallel Negotiations: Environment and Trade in the Western Hemisphere

Author:
John Audley and Edward Sherwin
Publication Date:
04-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
IN DECEMBER 1994, at the behest of then–U.S. president Bill Clinton, the leaders of the 34 Western Hemisphere democracies convened in Miami for the first comprehensive hemispheric summit in more than 25 years. The assembled heads of state pledged that their countries would forge a path toward regional integration based on four overarching principles: Governments should build strong democratic institutions, prosperity should be promoted through free trade and economic cooperation, poverty and discrimination should be eliminated, and the natural environment should be preserved through policies promoting sustainable development. “Future generations,” Clinton said at the time, “will look back on the Miami summit as a moment when the course of history in the Americas changed for the better.”
Topic:
Environment and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, America, South America, Latin America, Central America, and North America

1599. Determinants and Repercussions of the Composition of Capital Inflows

Author:
Mark Carlson and Leonardo Hernandez
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
The Mexican, Asian, and Russian crises of the mid- and late 1990s have renewed the interest among policymakers in the determinants and effects of private capital flows. This paper analyzes whether policies can affect the composition of capital inflows and whether different compositions aggravate crises. We find that, while fundamentals matter, capital controls can affect the mix of capital inflows that countries receive. We find that during the Asian crisis countries with more Yen denominated debt faired worse, while during the Mexican crisis larger short-term debt stocks increased the severity of the crisis.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Economics
Political Geography:
Russia, Asia, and North America

1600. Toward a North American Community? - A Conference Report

Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
The “Toward a North American Community?” conference hosted by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on June 11, 2002, examined the current relationships between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and investigated the future of North American integration.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Government
Political Geography:
North America