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61. Foreign Direct Investment: Key Issues for Promotion Agencies

Author:
Sergey Filippov, Iornara Costa, and Mariana Zanatta
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The growing importance attached to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is evidenced by the steady rise of investment promotion agencies (IPAs) worldwide, especially from the early 1990s. Since its launch in 1995, the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) has registered a growing number of members representing cities, regions, countries and free zones from all over the world: from 112 in 2002, 161 in 2004, rising to 191 members from 149 countries in 2006. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) there were around 500 IPAs in more than 160 countries in 2004.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United Nations

62. The Private Sector in the Fight Against Global Poverty

Author:
Lael Brainard
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
In recent weeks, aging rockers have reclaimed young fans by joining movie stars, faith-based groups, and leaders of developing nations in a global campaign to "Make Poverty History." World leaders have taken note: the push is on for a massive boost in official assistance flows and the cancellation of official debt. But as preparations move forward for the first heads of state stocktaking of the Millennium Development Goals at the United Nations in September, scant attention is being directed at the most powerful engine of growth and poverty alleviation: the private sector. This despite the fact that the past two decades have witnessed an enormous shift in resources away from the public sector to private hands, and private flows to developing countries are now more than twice the level of public flows.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United Nations

63. Is Cybersecurity a Public Good? Evidence from the Financial Services Industry

Author:
Benjamin Powell
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States heightened concerns about vulnerabilities to future attacks. One new area of concern is cyberterrorism: the possibility of terrorists using computers to attack our critical infrastructure electronically. The government has made efforts to better secure its own computer networks to prevent terrorists from hacking into computer systems in the Pentagon, FBI, and other government agencies. Increasingly, however, the government has been concerned that the private sector is vulnerable to cyberterrorism. The private sector owns approximately 85 percent of the critical infrastructure in the U.S. (Deloitte 2004 p. 15). There are concerns that a cyber attack on dams, trains, electrical grids, pipeline pumps, communications networks, or the financial services industry could cause significant physical or economic damage to the U.S. The policy question being asked is whether private businesses, when left to their own devices, provide enough cybersecurity or if some form of government involvement is justified.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and United Nations

64. Collapse In Kosovo

Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
On 17 March 2004, the unstable foundations of four and a half years of gradual progress in Kosovo buckled and gave way. Within hours the province was immersed in anti-Serb and anti-UN rioting and had regressed to levels of violence not seen since 1999. By 18 March the violence mutated into the ethnic cleansing of entire minority villages and neighbourhoods. The mobs of Albanian youths, extremists and criminals exposed the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) as very weak. Kosovo's provisional institutions of self-government (PISG), media and civil society afforded the rioters licence for mayhem. The international community urgently needs new policies -- on final status and socio-economic development alike -- or Kosovo instability may infect the entire region.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Central Asia, Kosovo, United Nations, and Albania

65. Global Human Development: Explaining Its Regional Variations

Author:
Robert B. Smith
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ranks countries annually on its human development index (HDI), which combines a country's measures of longevity, literacy, and per capita income. This paper applies hierarchical modeling to quantify the factors that predict a country's HDI rank, explain the variability between regions, 2 R , and explain the variability between countries within a region, 2 c . It assesses the effects of nine civilizations: African, Buddhist, Hindu, Japanese, Latin, Moslem, Orthodox, Sinic, and Western. Civilization strongly predicts a country's rank on the HDI, but it does not provide the strongest causal explanation of the variability in the HDI quantified by 2 R and 2 c . Among the covariates studied here, present-day slavery (debt bondage, forced labor, chattel slavery, and prostitution) and the lack of political freedom explain much of the variability that is between regions, and corruption explains much of the variability among countries within a region. Additionally, countries with high rates of conflict and social unrest and debt have significantly worse positions on the HDI. Civilizations are best viewed as pointers to underlying social mechanisms like women's education that more directly determine development; its advance may enhance development
Topic:
Demographics, Development, Economics, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United Nations

66. Developing and Applying EU Crisis Management. Test Case Macedonia

Author:
Ulrich Schneckener
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Throughout the 1990s, the notion of conflict prevention had an impressive career. It reappeared on the international scene when UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali coined the term "preventive diplomacy" in this Agenda for Peace (1992). Since then, several international organizations or multilateral institutions, including the UN and its sub-organizations, the OSCE, the OAU, the OECD or the G-8, have published piles of papers and declarations committing themselves to the prevention of violent or armed conflicts, to change their policies accordingly (e.g. in the area of development or financial aid) and to develop new or to reform old tools, ranging from fact-finding or observer missions, special envoys, the use of sanctions, peace-building efforts, institution-building, reconciliation processes to humanitarian aid as well as long-term financial and economic assistance. Until now, however, many celebrated declarations hardly moved from rhetoric to substance, the "culture of prevention", as it has been called by UN Secretary-General Annan, is still to be developed.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Development
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and United Nations

67. Observing the 1999 Elections in Mozambique: Final Report

Publication Date:
08-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
Shortly after Mozambique gained independence in 1975, civil war erupted and continued to rage for the next 16 years. In 1992 a peace agreement was negotiated, and in 1994 the country's first multiparty elections were held under U.N. auspices. President Joaquim Chissano and the ruling Frelimo party won the presidency and a majority in Parliament. Renamo, the former guerilla movement headed by Afonso Dhlakama, received nearly 34 percent of the presidential ballots and won 112 of the 250 seats in parliament.
Topic:
Democratization and Development
Political Geography:
Africa, United Nations, and Mozambique