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34182. Talking With The Islamic World: Is The Message Getting Through? Session Three: Projecting a Positive American Image
- Publication Date:
- 10-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- Dwyer emphasized two things: the event of 9/11, and the response—both diplomatic and personal—that the State Department has taken in the last several months.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy and Religion
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Middle East
34183. Surprises, Challenges and Opportunities Since September 11
- Author:
- Paul G. Frost
- Publication Date:
- 04-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy hosted the spring 2002 meetings of the Schlesinger Working Group on the topic of challenges and potential surprises flowing from September 11 and its aftermath. As a starting point for the discussion, the March meeting of the Working Group debated the following main points: How has the world changed since September 11, and how enduring and deep-seated are the changes? Have key U.S. relationships changed? Has the U.S. itself changed? What are the main shifts in U.S. policy and the framework of U.S. policy debate since the terrorist attacks? What kinds of surprises might lie in store for U.S. policymakers as we pursue the war on terrorism as a unifying policy rubric? The second, May meeting focused on a range of surprise scenarios or unanticipated consequences born out of a current trendline in U.S. foreign policy. While the group does not make forecasts, some scenarios were judged more credible and more significant in the near to medium term than others. Where appropriate, the working group identified policies that could forestall the surprise or mitigate its effects.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States
34184. Sustaining Global Democratization: Priority Task Now More Than Ever
- Author:
- Morton H. Halperin, Paula Dobriansky, Paul Collier, Wayne Merry, Mark Palmer, and Elizabeth Spiro Clark
- Publication Date:
- 01-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- October 1, Mayor Rudy Guiliani told the UN Special Session on Terrorism “The best long term deterrent to terrorism . . . is the spread of our principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human life. The more that spreads around the globe, the safer we will all be. These are very powerful ideas and once they gain a foothold, they cannot be stopped.” This forum on sustaining global democratization was planned well before September 11. However, the premise of our discussion is that the spread of democracy is now more important than ever in building a safe world.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- United States
34185. The Problem with Redundancy Problem: Will more nuclear security forces produce nuclear security?
- Author:
- Scott D. Sagan
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
- Abstract:
- After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many scholars, journalists, and public officials expressed fears about the security of nuclear facilities in the United States. Terrorists could attack military bases, weapons in transit, or nuclear weapons production and dismantlement plants in order to steal a weapon or its components. Terrorists might attack nuclear power reactors, nuclear materials storage sites, nuclear waste transportation vehicles, or nuclear research facilities, with two basic motives in mind: to cause a conventional explosion, spreading radioactive materials in the area; or to seize the nuclear materials, which could be used for building either a dirty bomb (a radiological weapon) or, conceivably, a primitive nuclear bomb. These fears were highlighted in President George Bush's January 2002 State of the Union address, in which he reported that diagrams of American nuclear plants were discovered in al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. Senior U.S. intelligence officials also revealed that Osama bin Laden had sent operatives to try to purchase stolen nuclear materials and that there was “pretty convincing evidence” that al-Qaeda operatives had been “casing” nuclear power plants in the U.S. prior to the September 11th attacks. In January 2002, U.S. intelligence agencies issued a warning, based on an interrogation of a captured terrorist, of a possible attack on a nuclear power plant or Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facility. Then, in June 2002, the Justice Department announced that it had arrested an American citizen who had joined al-Qaeda in Pakistan and was sent back to the United States to develop and execute a plan to seize nuclear materials and use them in a radiological bomb attack.
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, America, and Middle East
34186. Does Conflict Beget Conflict? Explaining Recurrent Civil War
- Author:
- Barbara F. Walter
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
- Abstract:
- This article seeks to explain why some countries experience recurring civil war while others do not. It argues that renewed war has less to do with the attributes of a previous war, as many people have argued, and more to do with the incentives individual citizens have to join rebel groups at any given point in time. Civil wars will have little chance to get off the ground unless individual farmers, shopkeepers, and workers choose to enlist in the rebel armies that are necessary to pursue a war, and enlistment is likely to be attractive when two conditions hold: the status quo for the average citizen is perceived to be worse than the possibility of death in combat, and there is no non-violent outlet for political change. An analysis of all civil wars ending between 1945 and 1996 suggests that improvements in basic living conditions and in the average person's access to political participation have a significant negative effect on the likelihood of renewed war. Countries that are able to increase the economic well-being of their citizenry, and create a more open political system are less likely to experience multiple civil wars regardless of what happened in a previous conflict.
- Topic:
- Security, Peace Studies, and Politics
34187. Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Project. The User's Guide to the ACE Project Electronic Resources
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- The political dimensions - the issues, the positioning of parties and candidates, and the results - garner the most media attention and public discussion during an election campaign. Overshadowed, but no less important, however, is the “behind-the-scenes-work” of those ensuring the electoral process comes about without a hitch. If the election goes smoothly, the administration will hardly be noticed. If it does not, accusations of disenfranchisement, manipulation, or malpractice may result, possibly jeopardising the legitimacy and the results of the electoral event.
- Topic:
- Education, Government, and Politics
34188. Political Parties in Tajikistan
- Author:
- Saodat Olimova and Anthony Bowyer
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- The main events that took place in Tajikistan in the first few years after independence was attained were characterized by the two diverse processes: the crises in the old political system and its consequent collapse, and the development of a new political system.The political development of sovereign Tajikistan was strongly influenced by Soviet political traditions and the stereotypes of political conduct that formed during the Soviet Union. The bipolarization of political forces at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s in the USSR did not stimulate the formation of democratic alternatives in political behavior, and in fact limited political choices to the rigid dichotomy of “democracy – anti-democracy,†both for the electorate and the political elites, which eventually led to the breakout of civil war in Tajikistan. The complexity of the situation in Tajikistan was that the elites were just as divided and diverse as the Tajik demographic composition itself, consisting of various ethno-cultural sub-ethnic and ethno-regional groups. Immediately after independence was attained, regional elites of diverse ideological and foreign policy orientations began scrambling for power in the new sovereign state. In 1992-1993 the conflict exploded into a civil war led by two main conflicting camps – the National Front and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) (a coalition of opposition parties).During the conflict a significant shift of elites took place, as the previously governing elite of Soviet times from Soghd (formerly Leninabad) Oblast in northern Tajikistan was removed from power. The Kulyab regional elite ascended to power, and played the main role during the war in pushing out other regional elites to the periphery of power.Â
- Topic:
- Democratization and Government
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe
34189. Election Law Compendium of Central and Eastern Europe
- Publication Date:
- 08-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- The objective of this work is to provide a comprehensive collection of the election laws of developing democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. The editor is all too conscious of the difficulty in keeping abreast of the dynamic and vast changes in democratic processes taking place in this area of the world, as reflected in the ever-changing bodies of law governing the conduct of elections.
- Topic:
- Democratization and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Eastern Europe
34190. Palestinian Elections
- Publication Date:
- 08-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), as well as a representative of the Government of Norway, jointly organized a pre-election assessment mission to the West Bank and Gaza between July 14 and July 24, 2002. The purpose of the mission was fourfold: 1) to evaluate the pre-electoral environment and identify the requirements of the Palestinian Authority, political parties, civil society and the international community to establish a meaningful electoral process; 2) to identify the elements of the process that are most vulnerable and the obstacles that must be overcome; 3) to assess the state of technical preparations for elections; and 4) to recommend electoral reform measures that could enhance the transparency and credibility of the process.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Norway, and Palestine