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132. The Issue of Effectiveness in International Environmental Regimes
- Author:
- Yasemin Kaya and Sezgin Kaya
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Abstract:
- The effectiveness of international environmental regimes is a subject that is becoming more and more important within the International Relations discipline. While one of the reasons of that is the increasing interest of the international community in environmental issues, the other reason is that the environmental issues have turned into a problem that has a direct impact on the relations among the states. However, there is no consensus on approaches about the assessment of the effectiveness of the environmental regimes. This study aims to consider the different approaches and views that are important in terms of the assessment of the effectiveness of environmental regimes. In this framework, the approaches related to regime effectiveness are assessed, and the outlines of theoretical and methodological framework that can be used in the analysis of regime effectiveness are tried to be defined.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
133. Community Assets First: The implications of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach for the Coalition agenda
- Author:
- Niall Cooper, Lucy Brill, Moussa Haddad, Rachel Newton, and Jenni Viitanen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is an analytical model that seeks to build on the existing assets and strategies that people living in poverty use to support themselves, and then to identify what needs to change in order for their livelihoods to become more secure and sustainable.
- Topic:
- Humanitarian Aid, Political Economy, Poverty, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom
134. Reasoning about a distributed probabilistic system
- Author:
- J.W. Sanders and Ukachukwu Ndukwu
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Reasoning about a distributed system that exhibits a combination of probabilistic and temporal behaviour does not seem to be easy with current techniques. The reason is the interaction between probability and abstraction, made worse by remote synchronisation. In this paper the recently proposed language ptsc (for probability, time and shared-variable concurrency) is extended by constructs for interleaving and local block. Both enhance a designer's ability to modularise a design; the latter also permits a design to be compared with its more abstract specification, by concealing appropriately chosen design variables. Laws of the extended language are studied and applied in a case study consisting of a faulty register-transfer-level design.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, International Organization, United Nations, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- United States
135. Mechanism-Based Thinking on Policy Diffusion. A Review of Current Approaches in Political Science
- Author:
- Torben Heinze
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- Despite theoretical and methodological progress in what is now coined as the third generation of diffusion studies, explicitly dealing with the causal mechanisms underlying diffusion processes and comparatively analyzing them is only of recent date. As a matter of fact, diffusion research has ended up in a diverse and often unconnected array of theoretical assumptions relying both on rational as well as constructivist reasoning – a circumstance calling for more theoretical coherence and consistency. Against this backdrop, this paper reviews and streamlines diffusion literature in political science. Diffusion mechanisms largely cluster around two causal arguments determining the desires and preferences of actors for choosing alter¬native policies. First, existing diffusion mechanisms accounts can be grouped according to the rationality for policy adoption, this means that government behavior is based on the instrumental considerations of actors or on constructivist arguments like norms and rule-driven actors. Second, diffusion mechanisms can either directly impact on the beliefs of actors or they might influence the structural conditions for decision-making. Following this logic, four basic diffusion mechanisms can be identified in mechanism-based thinking on policy diffusion: emulation, socialization, learning, and externalities.
- Topic:
- Education, International Affairs, Political Theory, and Sociology
136. Modifying Gender Role Stereotypes in Children
- Author:
- Laura McCloskey
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI)
- Abstract:
- Gender stereotypes exist in all cultures, conveyed through media messages, television, music, religious and cultural institutions, and even toys. Parents convey expectations of gender role conformity starting in infancy' with one study finding that parents hold gender-typed expectations of their sons and daughters in the first 24 hours following birth. Another found that children show an awareness of their parents' communication about gender roles from two to two-and-a-half years of age' with the early provision of gender differentiated toy selection typically reflecting parental stereotypes. These gender stereotypes persist throughout childhood, with parents choosing, and rewarding' certain stereotypical activities for their children, from playing with dolls for girls to sports activities for boys. Additionally, childhood peers and teachers play a significant role as children enter school. While both mothers and fathers contribute to the gender stereotyping of their children, fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often than mothers.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Political Theory, Social Stratification, and Sociology
137. Would Women Leaders Have Prevented the Global Financial Crisis? Implications for Teaching about Gender and Economics
- Author:
- Julie A. Nelson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- Would having more women in leadership have prevented the financial crisis? This question challenges feminist economists to once again address questions of "difference" versus "sameness" that have engaged—and often divided—academic feminists for decades. The first part of this essay argues that while some behavioral research seems to support an exaggerated "difference" view, non-simplistic behavioral research can serve feminist libratory purposes by debunking this view and revealing the immense unconscious power of stereotyping, as well as the possibility of non-dualist understandings of gender. The second part of this essay argues that the more urgently needed gender analysis of the financial industry is not concerned with (presumed) "differences" by sex, but rather with the role of gender biases in the social construction of markets. An Appendix discusses specific examples and tools that can be used when teaching about difference and similarity.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Politics, Political Theory, Financial Crisis, and Governance
138. The Invention of International Relations Theory: Realism, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the 1954 Conference on Theory
- Author:
- Nicolas Guilhot
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Columbia University Press
- Abstract:
- The 1954 conference on theory, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, featured a who’s who of scholars and practitioners debating the foundations of international relations theory. Assembling his own team of experts, all of whom have struggled with this legacy, Nicolas Guilhot revisits a seminal event and its odd rejection of scientific rationalism. Far from being a spontaneous development, these essays argue, the emergence of a “realist” approach to international politics, later codified at the conference, was deliberately triggered by the Rockefeller Foundation. The organization was an early advocate of scholars who opposed the idea of a “science” of politics, pursuing, for the sake of disciplinary autonomy, a vision of politics as a prerational and existential dimension that could not be “solved” by scientific means. As a result, this nascent theory was more a rejection of behavioral social science than the birth of one of its specialized branches. The archived conversations reproduced here, along with unpublished papers by Hans Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Nitze, speak to this defensive stance. International relations theory is critically linked to the context of postwar liberalism, and the contributors explore how these origins have played out in political thought and American foreign policy.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Political Theory, and History
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
- Publication Identifier:
- 9780231526449
- Publication Identifier Type:
- ISBN
139. Governance Without a State?: Policies and Politics in Areas of Limited Statehood
- Author:
- Thomas Risse
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Columbia University Press
- Abstract:
- Governance discourse centers on an “ideal type” of modern statehood that exhibits full internal and external sovereignty and a legitimate monopoly on the use of force. Yet modern statehood is an anomaly, both historically and within the contemporary international system, while the condition of “limited statehood,” wherein countries lack the capacity to implement central decisions and monopolize force, is the norm. Limited statehood, argue the authors in this provocative collection, is in fact a fundamental form of governance, immune to the forces of economic and political modernization. Challenging common assumptions about sovereign states and the evolution of modern statehood, particularly the dominant paradigms supported by international relations theorists, development agencies, and international organizations, this volume explores strategies for effective and legitimate governance within a framework of weak and ineffective state institutions. Approaching the problem from the perspectives of political science, history, and law, contributors explore the factors that contribute to successful governance under conditions of limited statehood. These include the involvement of nonstate actors and nonhierarchical modes of political influence. Empirical chapters analyze security governance by nonstate actors, the contribution of publicprivate partnerships to promote the United Nations Millennium Goals, the role of business in environmental governance, and the problems of Western state-building efforts, among other issues. Recognizing these forms of governance as legitimate, the contributors clarify the complexities of a system the developed world must negotiate in the coming century.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Political Theory, and History
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
- Publication Identifier:
- 9780231521871
- Publication Identifier Type:
- ISBN
140. American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security
- Author:
- Richard K. Betts
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Columbia University Press
- Abstract:
- While American national security policy has grown more interventionist since the Cold War, Washington has also hoped to shape the world on the cheap. Misled by the stunning success against Iraq in 1991, administrations of both parties have pursued ambitious aims with limited force, committing the country's military frequently yet often hesitantly, with inconsistent justification. These ventures have produced strategic confusion, unplanned entanglements, and indecisive results. This collection of essays by Richard K. Betts, a leading international politics scholar, investigates the use of American force since the end of the Cold War, suggesting guidelines for making it more selective and successful. Betts brings his extensive knowledge of twentieth century American diplomatic and military history to bear on the full range of theory and practice in national security, surveying the Cold War roots of recent initiatives and arguing that U.S. policy has always been more unilateral than liberal theorists claim. He exposes mistakes made by humanitarian interventions and peace operations; reviews the issues raised by terrorism and the use of modern nuclear, biological, and cyber weapons; evaluates the case for preventive war, which almost always proves wrong; weighs the lessons learned from campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam; assesses the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia; quells concerns about civil-military relations; exposes anomalies within recent defense budgets; and confronts the practical barriers to effective strategy. Betts ultimately argues for greater caution and restraint, while encouraging more decisive action when force is required, and he recommends a more dispassionate assessment of national security interests, even in the face of global instability and unfamiliar threats.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Political Theory, and Military Affairs
- Political Geography:
- United States and Global Focus
- Publication Identifier:
- 9780231521888
- Publication Identifier Type:
- ISBN