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52. Alternative Political and Economic Futures for Europe
- Author:
- William A. Niskanen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Defeat of a proposed constitution for the European Union by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 should have provided an opportunity to reflect on a broader range of alternative political and economic futures for Europe. But it did not. For the Lisbon Treaty, which became effective in December 2009, implemented most of the provisions of the proposed constitution that the voters rejected more than four years prior. It was important to reconsider the major current European political and economic institutions as well as alternative steps toward further European integration. For the major current institutions were created under different conditions, and the experience suggests that they may not best serve the peoples of Europe under current and expected future conditions.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- Europe, France, and Netherlands
53. US Rebalances as Others Squabble
- Author:
- Ralph A. Cossa and Brad Glosserman
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Comparative Connections
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- The only good news to report when it comes to Korean Peninsula denuclearization is the absence of any new really bad news over the past four months. North Korea's widely predicted (including by us) third nuclear test or follow-on missile launch did not occur. No one anticipated any serious movement toward resumption of the stalled Six-Party Talks, and those expectations were met. The biggest multilateral surprise came from ASEAN, which for the first time in its 45-year history, concluded its annual ministerial meeting without issuing a chairman's statement or communiqué. The ministers at the follow-on ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) did produce a summary, which once again highlighted the need for broader multilateral cooperation throughout the region, including the South China Sea. Economic ministers were equally productive in meetings in August, when among things they launched the first East Asian Summit Economic Ministers Meeting and the inaugural ASEAN-US Business Summit.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- China, East Asia, and North Korea
54. Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court
- Author:
- Jeffrey Budziak
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Social science researchers face the challenge of balancing the competing demands of parsimony and comprehensiveness when attempting to explain human behavior. In the study of Supreme Court decision making, scholars have generally chosen the former, creating models of decision making that prioritize one factor at the expense of other considerations. In Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court, Richard Pacelle, Brett Curry, and Bryan Marshall opt for the latter, rejecting the notion that any of the three dominant models (attitudinal, legal, and strategic) of Supreme Court decision making exhaustively explains the Courtʼs collective decisions. Rather, the authors construct an integrative model of Supreme Court decision making predicated on two theses. First, each model has something to contribute to our understanding of Court decision making. Second, the varying conditions faced by the Court will affect how each of these models impacts the Court ʼ s decisions. The authors argue that case con- text (constitutional vs. statutory review) and salience (civil rights vs. economic) structures when each model is likely to impact Court decision making. In the case of constitutional civil rights cases, attitudinal factors are predicted to dominate. For statutory economic decisions, legal factors are hypothesized to be most important. When the Court hears statutory civil rights cases or constitutional economic cases, strategic considerations are expected to play a central role (p. 52).
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
55. The Luck of the Draw: The Role of Lotteries in Decision Making
- Author:
- Stephen Broomell
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Most people are familiar with making decisions based on the flip of a coin or the roll of a die, random processes that work as examples for Peter Stone's definition of a lottery. The curious paradox about lotteries is that most people can agree to their usefulness in many everyday circumstances, but nevertheless find applying them to similar contexts that involve economically or politically important goods (or positions) to be unsettling. Stone drives right to the heart of this issue to provide a precise definition of what lotteries have to offer for public decision making. This argument takes us beyond the feeling that lotteries are absurd when making critically important decisions by making a distinction between good and bad reasons for making a choice. Stone identifies certain circumstances, for example which patient receives an organ transplant, in which it benefits society as a whole for bias (or bad reasons) to be eliminated after all good reasons have been exhausted. Stone provides a variety of these situations that are more or less ideal for lottery usage. The inherent value of a lottery is in the unpredictable nature of the decision and that the decision is made with no reasons at all. This principle is easily applied to many circumstances, and the ethical, practical, and moral dilemmas that Stone illuminates help guide the reader through his discussion of a concept of lotteries that reveals a myriad of philosophical complexities.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
56. Graceful Decline? The Surprising Success of Great Power Retrenchment
- Author:
- Paul MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Security
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- How do great powers respond to acute decline? The erosion of the relative power of the United States has scholars and policymakers reexamining this question. The central issue is whether prompt retrenchment is desirable or probable. Some pessimists counsel that retrenchment is a dangerous policy, because it shows weakness and invites attack. Robert Kagan, for example, warns, “A reduction in defense spending . . . would unnerve American allies and undercut efforts to gain greater cooperation. There is already a sense around the world, fed by irresponsible pundits here at home, that the United States is in terminal decline. Many fear that the economic crisis will cause the United States to pull back from overseas commitments. The announcement of a defense cutback would be taken by the world as evidence that the American retreat has begun.” Robert Kaplan likewise argues, “Husbanding our power in an effort to slow America's decline in a post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan world would mean avoiding debilitating land entanglements and focusing instead on being more of an offshore balancer.... While this may be in America's interest, the very signaling of such an aloof intention may encourage regional bullies.... [L]essening our engagement with the world would have devastating consequences for humanity. The disruptions we witness today are but a taste of what is to come should our country flinch from its international responsibilties.” The consequences of these views are clear: retrenchment should be avoided and forward defenses maintained into the indefinite future.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, and China
57. Europe's Troubles: Power Politics and the State of the European Project
- Author:
- Sebastian Rosato
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Security
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- For a decade after the end of the Cold War, observers were profoundly optimistic about the state of the European Community (EC). Most endorsed Andrew Moravcsik's claim that the establishment of the single market and currency marked the EC as “the most ambitious and most successful example of peaceful international co - operation in world history.” Both arrangements, which went into effect in the 1990s, were widely regarded as the “finishing touches on the construction of a European economic zone.” Indeed, many people thought that economic integration would soon lead to political and military integration. Germany's minister for Europe, Günter Verheugen, declared, “[N]ormally a single currency is the final step in a process of political integration. This time the single currency isn't the final step but the beginning.” Meanwhile, U.S. defense planners feared that the Europeans might create “a separate 'EU' army.” In short, the common view was that the EC had been a great success and had a bright future.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Germany
58. US-Japan Relations: Responding to Multiple Crises
- Author:
- Nicholas Szechenyi and Michael J. Green
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Comparative Connections
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that struck Japan March 11 tested the leadership credentials of the Kan government and the alliance coordination during simultaneous crises. With the exception of disconnects in assessing the nature of the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the March 11 tragedy revealed the strength of the alliance as the Obama administration demonstrated US solidarity with Japan by announcing a partnership for reconstruction to support Japan's recovery. Prime Minister Kan reshuffled his Cabinet for the second time and unveiled a policy agenda aimed at “the opening of Japan” but faced scrutiny for failing to usher budget-related legislation through a divided Diet. Bilateral diplomacy proceeded apace and was aimed at advancing economic and security cooperation, though a controversy over alleged remarks about Okinawa by a senior US diplomat had the potential to cause another crisis in the alliance.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- United States and Japan
59. China-Taiwan Relations: Steady as She Goes
- Author:
- David G. Brown
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Comparative Connections
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- The Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Committee held its first meeting in February, an important step in implementing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. Both Beijing and Taipei believe this year will see steady consolidation of cross-strait relations, but few new agreements. The backdrops of this modest prospect are the leadership transitions underway on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Evidence of PLA modernization confirms that military capabilities threatening Taiwan continue to increase, confronting Washington with difficult decisions on arms sales to Taiwan.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- Washington and Taiwan
60. Selen B. Morkoç, A Study of Ottoman Narratives on Architecture: Text, Context and Hermeneutics
- Author:
- Nina Ergin
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Insight Turkey
- Institution:
- SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
- Abstract:
- This volume is a welcome contribution to the study of the last centuries of the existence of the Byzantine state, the 'empire' that until its demise in 1453 had dominated the Bosphorus and the link between Europe and Asia Minor, even though its political authority was minimal from the early years of the 14th century. Yet authority and legitimacy aside (for the Byzantines always saw themselves as the legitimate heirs to the Roman empire) it exercised both a fascination for those around it as well as an having an importance and, until quite late on, an influence far in excess of its actual military or economic power. Necipoğlu's book focuses on the politics of the empire, more particularly on the ways in which different groups within the empire adopted, fought for, or abandoned particular views of their situation within Byzantine society and in the wider world, and more particularly in the context of the influence, cultural, military and economic, of the regional powers around it. The empire's Latin neighbors in the southern Balkans on the one hand, along with the central Balkan powers of Serbia and Bulgaria (albeit minimally for the period in question), and the rising Ottoman power in Asia Minor and then Thrace on the other hand, frame this portrait, and the chronology is set by the last almost-century of the empire's existence, from the 1360s and 1370s to the 1450s. But the author's real interest is not foreign relations or military events, but rather the ideological, one might even say psychological, make-up of the various groups and factions within Byzantium, especially in Constantinople, Thessaloniki and in the southern Peloponnese, which can be detected in the sources of the period.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Asia