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33022. A Global Race for Free Trade Agreements
- Author:
- Arne Melchior
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The article examines the currently expanding worldwide network of bilateral free trade agreements. Following regional integration in Europe and later the Americas, the process if East Asia has accelerated from 2002. A Distinctive feature of the current stage in the expansion of FTAs beyond geographical regions and into global space, hence challenging WTOs supremacy on inter-continental trade rules. Setbacks in the WTO Doha Round may stimulate a further move towards «global bilateralism». The more such agreements in place, the greater is the incentive for new ones. Even if political obstacles hinder some agreements, the process is currently accelerating. While it is rational for countries to pursue such agreements, they should in parallel work for multilateral trade liberalisation in order to reduce the discriminatory impact of FTAs. This is needed if we are to avoid that «Most Favoured Nation» treatment under the WTO actually becomes «Least Favoured Nation» treatment: Rules that only apply to countries that are left outside the «free trade race».
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- America, Europe, and East Asia
33023. Corruption and fast change: Shifting modes of micro-coordination
- Author:
- Jens Chr.1 Andvig
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The paper studies the effects on corruption of having coexisting, contradictory norms for allocating different micro-coordination modes across society. One important reason for their coexistence is fast change, and links to Huntington's classical analysis of corruption are worked out. The notion of micro-coordination most is exposed and its usefulness for explaining corruption is argues through examples. The examples outlined are corruption in land allocation in Kenya, the economic transition in post-communist countries and the global telecommunications industry.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Kenya and Africa
33024. The Rhetoric of Hegemony
- Author:
- Daniel Heradstveit and David C. Pugh
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper looks at the rhetorical extension of the word “terrorism” to cover what used to be called guerrilla war, separatism, civil war, armed resistance and all other forms of political violence, down to and including non-lethal sabotage and vandalism. It begins by reflecting on how political power must be buttressed by legitimacy, which in turn involves the de-legitimisation of challengers. This is often achieved by assimilating political dissent to the “criminality” that by definition governments are created to combat. When governments use the term “order” to mean their own convenience, and the converse, this can effectively evoke the individual citizen's fear of personally suffering violence, even when he is in fact more at risk from the government itself than from its critics. In much the same way, “terror” no longer means government violence against citizens (as in the 19th century), nor solely violence against civilians by dissident groups; it has recently mutated to mean any armed resistance to the party deploying the rhetoric, even in conventional military forms. The terrorist label is the ultimate delegitimising technique, which may be employed to mobilise metropolitan populations to support a globally-coordinated suppression of resistance to the new world order.
- Topic:
- Crime, Human Welfare, Politics, and Terrorism
33025. A Polanyi Perspective on Post-Communist Corrruption
- Author:
- Jens Chr.1 Andvig
- Publication Date:
- 08-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The paper seeks to explain the present high levels of corruption in the post-communist countries, i.e. the centrally planned economies where the communist party lost power as the outcome of a specific historical process where both the character of the former economic system as well as that policy shock itself played key roles. Among the possible explanatory factors the study focuses on the effects of production decline and the 'monetarisation' of the economy which started before the policy shock.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
33026. The Intangible Globalization: Explaining the Patterns of International Trade in Services
- Author:
- Leo A. Grünfeld and Andreas Moxnes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- We identify the determinants of service trade and foreign affiliate sales in a gravity model, using recently collected bilateral data for the OECD countries and their trading partners, as well as new indicators for barriers to service imports and foreign affiliate sales. We emphasize the strong links between service FDI and trade, since a large proportion of trade is facilitated through foreign affiliate sales. Trade barriers and corruption in the importing country have a strong negative impact on service trade and foreign affiliate sales. We find a strong home market effect in service trade, and rich countries do not tend to import more, which may indicate that rich countries have a competitive advantage in service trade. Free trade agreements do not contribute to increased service trade. A full liberalization of international trade in services in our model, lifts exports by as much as 50% for some countries, and no less than 30%.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, and Science and Technology
33027. Study of selected Fredskorpset exchange projects
- Author:
- Axel Borchgrevink
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The present study examines nine Fredskorpset exchange projects, in order to assess the degree to which the goals specified have been reached. The basis for the exchanges is the partnerships established between institutions in Norway and counterpart entities in the South. The projects studied encompass a wide variety of such partnerships, illustrating the flexible and innovative attitude that Fredskorpset has shown during its first two years of operation. By basing its work on such partnerships, Fredskorpset has avoided some of the weaknesses of traditional volunteer programs. In terms of achievements, there are variations among the projects. While individual learning of participants was strong in all cases, the degree to which institutional benefits were achieved varied. Well-matched partners with sufficiently strong institutional structures; thorough planning of exchanges; and participants selected in accordance with well-defined needs for professional skills were seen to be important factors for successful projects.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Norway
33028. How the Axis of Evil Metaphor Changes Iranian Images of the USA
- Author:
- Daniel Heradstveit and G. Matthew Bonham
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The respondents feared an American attack, and regarded their membership in «the Axis of Evil» as a stab in the back after Iranian help in Afghanistan. This demonisation was seen overwhelmingly in terms of American geopolitical designs, ignorance and downright irrationality – an expansionist superpower that is dangerously out of control. The WTC attack initially caused a strengthening of Iranian national unity and a more coherent foreign policy, but most of the respondents regard «the Axis of Evil» as killing the nascent dialogue with the USA stone dead and coming as a godsend to the conservatives and the ultras.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, America, Iran, and Middle East
33029. Evaluation of Fadcanic's teacher training program in Nicaragua's Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast
- Author:
- Axel Borchgrevink and Anníbal Ramírez Rodrígues
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Since 1997, FADCANIC has been implementing a training program for unqualified teachers working in primary schools of Nicaragua's Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast. SAIH, the Norwegian NGO that has been funding this program, has commissioned the present evaluation. It concludes that the program has had a significant impact in terms of improving education in the region through addressing one of the most urgent needs of the educational sector, namely teacher qualifications. However, the evaluation also points out a number of other limitations for the sector, including lack of resources for materials, physical infrastructure and reasonable teacher salaries, as well as general social problems of the region. It recommends that the program is continued, and that even greater emphasis is put upon creating a teacher education appropriate to the multilingual and -cultural reality.
- Topic:
- Development, Education, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Norway, Central America, and Nicaragua
33030. Defusing a Ticking Bomb? Disentangling International Organisations
- Author:
- Indra Øverland
- Publication Date:
- 05-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This article examines how various organisations divide and coordinate their conflict prevention and development aid in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of southern Georgia, and how that coordination might be improved. There have been numerous early warnings of impending violent conflict and calls for conflict prevention in Samtskhe-Javakheti. Counter-claims have, however, been asserted that the region's problem is in fact not one of potential violent ethnic conflict, but rather one of poverty and peripherality, and that exaggerated, uncoordinated early warning might in fact inflate conflicts that were not initially acute. At one point it seemed that the Samtskhe-Javakheti case would provide an example of uncoordinated and one-sided focus on conflict prevention and early warning on the part of international organisations, and its potentially detrimental consequences. An overview of the activities of the organisations, however, shows the contrary. A critical, sensitive and deconstructive perspective is already incorporated into their approach, and their activities are well coordinated. More formalised institutions are nonetheless needed to ensure the inclusion of large multilateral actors such as the World Bank and Council of Europe in the process, and consistent coordination in other regions too.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Development, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Georgia