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711. A Draft Convention on Illicit Trade in Precious Metals and Precious Gems

Author:
Jonas Hartelius
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Precious metals and gemstones have long been valued for their aesthetic properties and ability to retain (or increase) their value. Many precious metals today are also used in the manufacture of high technology commodities. Their high value makes precious metals and precious gems attractive to criminals. They have several functions in the criminal economy: They are attractive goods for theft and other forms of criminal acquisition, calling for special protection on the part of the owners and governments. They can be used for re-circulating stolen goods, including jewelry, antiques, and works of art, through fragmentation, smelting, and other forms of destruction or transformation. Such processes reduce or even destroy the commercial or cultural value of the material, but they also increase the difficulties for police and other authorities to trace the material and bring criminals to justice. They can be used for transporting and transferring valuables outside regular channels and thus finance war, civil conflicts, terrorism, and other forms of dangerous crime. They can be used to hide criminal assets and thus make recovery more difficult. They can be used for tax evasion through smuggling, hiding of assets, etc. The full extent or value of criminal activities with precious metals and precious gems has not been fully investigated. It can safely be assumed, however, that the criminal market in these goods is considerable.
Topic:
Globalization, International Law, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

712. The economic and environmental effects of border tax adjustments for climate change policy

Author:
Warwick McKibbin and Peter J. Wilcoxen
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
For the foreseeable future, climate change policy will be considerably more stringent in some countries than in others. Indeed, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change explicitly states that developed countries must take meaningful action before any obligations are to be placed on developing countries. However, differences in climate policy will lead to differences in energy costs, and to concerns about competitive advantage. In high-cost countries, there will be political pressure to impose border adjustments, or “green tariffs”, on imports from countries with little or no climate policy and low energy costs. The adjustments would be based on the carbon emissions associated with production of each imported product, and would be intended to match the cost increase that would have occurred had the exporting country adopted a climate policy similar to that of the importing country. In this paper, we estimate how large such tariffs would be in practice, and then examine their economic and environmental effects using G-Cubed, a detailed multi-sector, multi-country model of the world economy. We find that the tariffs would be small on most traded goods, would reduce leakage of emissions reduction very modestly, and would do little to protect import-competing industries. We conclude that the benefits produced by border adjustments would be too small to justify their administrative complexity or their deleterious effects on international trade.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Environment, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and United Nations

713. Obama Must Lead at Financial Summit; or G-20 Could Become "G-19 + 1"

Author:
Douglas Rediker
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
European Affairs
Institution:
The European Institute
Abstract:
Seeking a global response to the crisis, the U.S. assigns priority to coordinated stimulus. Germany, France and some other European nations emphasize better global financial regulation - perhaps partly to punish Wall Street but also to prevent a recurrence of abuses. Leadership now by Obama is needed on both issues because the world's confidence and trust in U.S.-style capitalism has been shaken.
Topic:
Security and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, France, and Germany

714. Asymmetric Warfare Creates the Need for "New Soldier"

Author:
Rumu Sarkar
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
European Affairs
Institution:
The European Institute
Abstract:
A new theme among strategists stresses the need for redefining future military missions to include more emphasis on winning the hearts and minds of civilians. If this task is seen as essential for redrafting operational doctrines for Western militaries, planners also should consider some radical practical changes in defining the desirable profile for soldiers and training.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

715. Non-Military Organizations Should Lead on "Nation Building"

Author:
Courtney N. Meyers
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
European Affairs
Institution:
The European Institute
Abstract:
Timed for the Obama administration's Pentagon, this RAND study says government leaders should take more account of the lessons learned from people "on the ground" in recent successful (and unsuccessful) ventures in state-rebuilding. Best practice means strong local command (involving the military under civilian leadership) which is heeded in national capitals.
Topic:
International Law and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States and America

716. Refugee Camps in the Palestinian and Sahrawi National Liberation Movements

Author:
Randa Farah
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Drawing on ethnographic field research, this analysis compares the evolution of refugee camps as incubators of political organization and repositories of collective memory for Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Sahrawi refugees of the Western Sahara. While recognizing the significant differences between the historical and geopolitical contexts of the two groups and their national movements (the PLO and Polisario, respectively), the author examines the Palestinian and Sahrawi projects of national consciousness formation and institution-building, concluding that Palestinian camps are "mapped" in relation to the past, while political organization in Sahrawi camps evidences a forward-looking vision. TO WHAT EXTENT do ideological and political structures affect the positioning of refugee camps in national space and shape the politics of identity and memory? Does the symbolism of camps change following radical shifts in official national politics? Are subjective factors irrelevant in such circumstances? Comparing the evolution of political leaderships in two different settings-Palestinian and Sahrawi refugee camps-can shed light on these questions. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork conducted in Palestinian camps in Jordan (1995-2000 and 2007) and Sahrawi camps in Algeria (2005-2007), this article examines camps as venues refracting the structural dynamics, political contexts, and nationalist ideologies and praxis of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of al-Saqiat al-Hamra' and Rio de Oro (Polisario). It proposes that the contexts within which these organizations evolved have led to two different prototypes of polities and leaderships in exile, enabling the Polisario-but not the PLO-to transform refugee camps into incubators of new social and political institutions transportable to national territory upon repatriation. Given the complexity of the subject matter, this article will limit its discussion to the pivotal historical, structural, and subjective factors most useful for explaining the different political trajectories of Palestinian and Sahrawi camps. INITIAL COMPARISONS Whereas the Palestinian issue is well known, a brief overview of the history of the Sahrawi movement provides context for the argument that follows. As the Spanish government prepared to abandon its protectorate of Western Sahara in November 1975, it secretly signed an agreement with Morocco and Mauritania aimed at establishing a tripartite administration of the territory. Morocco and Mauritania had competing claims to the Western Sahara, a region bordered on the north by Morocco, the northeast by Algeria, the south and southeast by Mauritania, and the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Just as Spain was preparing to withdraw, Morocco and Mauritania invaded the territory. Morocco took control of the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara, which it renamed its southern (or "Saharan") provinces, while Mauritania seized control of the southern third. Meanwhile, the Polisario, established in 1973, won Algeria's backing for its independence struggle and set up its headquarters in Sahrawi refugee camps located in an isolated region of the southwestern Algerian desert near the town of Tindouf. The camps are also home to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the state-in-exile established by the Polisario in 1976. After Mauritania withdrew from the Western Sahara in 1979, Morocco extended its control to the territory Mauritania had claimed. In the 1980s, Morocco built a 2,700-kilometer-long sand and earthen wall (or "berm") that cuts diagonally through Western Sahara, extending from its northeast corner down to the southwest near the Mauritanian border. (See map.) The berm enables Morocco to control two-thirds of the areas richest in phosphate and minerals, as well as the Atlantic coast's fishing industry. On the eastern side of the berm is what the Polisario calls the "liberated" or "free" zone. No country recognizes Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara, which remains on the United Nations' list of non-self-governing territories. Hostilities between Morocco and the Polisario ended in 1991 with the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in accordance with settlement proposals accepted in 1988 by Morocco and the Polisario. Both the PLO and the Polisario are Arab national liberation movements that, despite decades of struggle, have failed to fulfill their aspirations of self-determination long after most other national liberation struggles entered a postcolonial stage. It is worth noting that the Palestinian resistance inspired the Polisario, which drew parallels between the colonization of Western Sahara in the maghreb and Palestine in the mashreq. As Sahrawi refugees frequently pointed out to me, the resemblance between their flag and the Palestinian flag was intentional. . . .
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Palestine, Arabia, and Morocco

717. The Alliance of Civilizations: A Spanish View

Author:
Máximo Cajal
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
In the foreseeable future, the international system will become one of multipolarity. This new order can be sustainable and peaceful only if it can guarantee harmony and a common purpose among nations. To that end, it must be based upon a package of ethical principles under the aegis of a more powerful, democratic and efficient United Nations system. These principles - democracy, multilateralism, full compliance with international law and respect for human rights - are the same moral rules that underpin the Alliance of Civilizations project as initiated by Spain and Turkey. It was a consequence of the awareness that something new had to be done to prevent a potential confrontation between two worlds, two mindsets. There was, and still is, a danger of a further drift between Islamic and Western societies that might threaten international peace and stability.
Topic:
Human Rights and United Nations
Political Geography:
Turkey

718. Toward a Third Generation of International Institutions: Obama's UN Policy

Author:
Thomas G. Weiss
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
By nominating his confidante, Susan E. Rice, as ambassador to the United Nations and restoring the post's cabinet status, President Barack Obama enunciated his ''belief that the UN is an indispensable_and imperfect_forum.'' He not only announced that the United States has rejoined the world and is ready to reengage with all member states, but also that multilateralism in general and the UN in particular would be essential to U.S. foreign policy during his administration by stating the simple fact that ''the global challenges we face demand global institutions that work.''
Topic:
Foreign Policy and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

719. A European View on the Future of Multilateralism

Author:
Manuel Lafont Rapnouil
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Washington Quarterly
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
In 2003, trying to convince member states to reform the United Nations, former secretary-general Kofi Annan contended at the General Assembly that the international community was at ''a fork in the road'': in his mind, member states had to decide whether it is possible to continue on the basis agreed in 1945, when the UN was founded, or whether radical changes are needed. With current calls for a ''new BrettonWoods'' to respond to the ongoing economic crisis, Annan's judgment can be applied to the whole multilateral system today. Never has reform seemed so necessary. The coming challenges and threats call not only for collective action, but also for effective institutions, legitimate rules, and global mobilization, which is precisely what multilateralism is about.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe

720. Cyprus: Reunification or Partition?

Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Three decades of efforts to reunify Cyprus are about to end, leaving a stark choice ahead between a hostile, de facto partition of the island and a collaborative federation between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities living in two constituent states. Most actors agree that the window of opportunity for this bicommunal, bizonal settlement will close by April 2010, the date of the next Turkish Cypriot elections, when the pro-settlement leader risks losing his office to a more hardline candidate. If no accord is reached by then, it will be the fourth major set of UN-facilitated peace talks to fail, and there is a widespread feeling that if the current like-minded, pro-solution Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders cannot compromise on a federal solution, nobody can. To avoid the heavy costs this would entail for all concerned, the two leaders should stand shoulder to shoulder to overcome domestic cynicism and complete the talks, Turkey and Greece must break taboos preventing full communication with both sides on the island, and European Union (EU) states must rapidly engage in support of the process to avoid the potential for future instability if they complacently accept continuation of the dispute. A real chance still exists in 2009-2010 to end.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East