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951. Pakistan: No End to Humanitarian Crises

Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
With three years of devastating floods putting the lives and livelihoods of at least four million citizens at risk, and military operations against militants displacing thousands more in the conflict zones of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan's humanitarian crises need urgent do-mestic and international attention. Since the democratic transition began in 2008, some progress has been made, but much more is needed to build the federal and provin-cial governments' disaster and early recovery response. Efforts to enhance civilian ownership and control have also had mixed results, particularly in the conflict zones, where the military remains the dominant actor. To effectively confront the challenges, the most urgent tasks remain to strengthen the civilian government's capacity to plan for and cope with humanitarian crises and to prioritise social sector and public infrastructure development. It is equally important that all assistance and support be non-discrimi-natory and accompanied by credible mechanisms for citi-zens to hold public officials accountable.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Disaster Relief, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia

952. Security sector governance (SSG) and conflict management in Indonesia: The Aceh case

Author:
Rizal Sukma
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
Abstract:
This paper examines the evolution of security sector governance (SSG) in Indonesia, focusing in particular on the effects of security sector reform (SSR) on the management of the secessionist conflicts in the country. It discusses the military's use of force as an instrument of conflict management in the years immediately following Indonesia's Independence, arguing that while it is possible to suppress conflicts through military force, such a strategy brings about several problems. The underlying causes of the conflicts may remain unaddressed, and military impunity could increase. These could lead to rising resentment, and eventually escalation of conflicts, as occurred in Indonesia in the late 1990s. This paper argues that to resolve such conflicts, SSR is vital, and it illustrates this through the case of Aceh as an instance of successful resolution of conflict achieved against a backdrop of reform of the military sector.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Political Violence, Development, Post Colonialism, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
Indonesia

953. Absent from the discussion: The other half of investment promotion

Author:
Lise Johnson
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
As UNCTAD highlighted over a decade ago and again recently in its Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development, home-country measures (HCMs), like host-country commitments regarding the protection of foreign investors, are tools of promoting foreign investment. Nevertheless, the vast bulk of investment treaties, which state the promotion of foreign investment as their objective, overlook the potential role of HCMs and focus rather singularly on setting out the obligations of host countries regarding the treatment of foreign investors. Even recent agreements and model investment treaties that should represent “next generation” practices incorporating accumulated learning about the impacts and effectiveness of these treaties remain relatively devoid of any obligation for governments to facilitate or promote the quantity and quality of outward investment that many countries want and need for sustainable development.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment

954. Reconciling IMF rules and international investment agreements: An innovative derogation for capital controls

Author:
Elizabeth L. Broomfield
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
There is currently no universal framework governing capital controls. As a result, a conflict has arisen due to the different approaches taken by various international organizations and many international investment agreements (IIAs). In particular, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- established to manage the international financial system -- preserves national autonomy over capital controls when such measures are deemed necessary; in contrast, IIAs, and especially bilateral investment treaties (BITs) -- crafted primarily to protect investors -- typically do not allow for the imposition of restrictions on capital outflows associated with foreign investments for balance-of-payments reasons.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Monetary Fund, Foreign Aid, Foreign Direct Investment, and Financial Crisis

955. Starting anew in international investment law

Author:
M Sornarajah
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
The legitimacy of investment arbitration becomes increasingly questioned, with liberal states like Australia moving away from the regime. Defenders seek to ensure the survival of this regime of asymmetric investment protection, using a variety of techniques. The conservation of the gains of property protection has resulted in novel arguments relating to the existence of a global administrative law and standards of global governance. These arguments seek to preserve an approach associated with the failure of market fundamentalism and global economic crises. As long as the inequity contained in regulatory restraints of the system affected only the powerless states, it operated with vigor; but with powerful states feeling the effects of regulatory restraints of investment treaties, there has been movement away from the earlier premises of the established regime.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
China, India, and Australia

956. Law at two speeds: Legal frameworks regulating foreign investment in the global South

Author:
Lorenzo Cotula
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Foreign investment in developing countries' natural resources brings into contact competing interests characterized by an unequal balance of negotiating power -- from multinational enterprises and host governments to people affected by the implementation of investment projects. Economic globalization has been accompanied by extensive developments in national and international norms regulating investment and its impact -- including investment law, natural resource law and human rights law. These norms affect the way the costs, risks and benefits of investments are shared among the multiple parties involved.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Law, Foreign Direct Investment, and Law

957. Roll out the red carpet and they will come: Investment promotion and FDI inflows

Author:
Torfinn Harding and Beata Javorcik
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Foreign direct investment flows to developing countries are hindered by many factors. Two of these factors -- the mere lack of information and red tape -- could be easily remedied through investment promotion efforts.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment

958. Seeing Like a Slum: Towards Open, Deliberative Development

Author:
Kevin P. Donovan
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Making information more transparent in international development initiatives is most promising when accompanied by changes in the institutional arrangements of power, such as those supported by theorists of deliberative development.
Topic:
Development

959. Modernisation in Russia and Iran: Toward an Autonomous and Adaptive Developmental Trajectory

Author:
Ghoncheh Tazmini
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:
Iran and Russia are experiencing their own modernity at a time when the very paradigm of modernity is being radically questioned in the west, its place of origin. Having passed through the labyrinth of social contradictions, both Russia and Iran have reached a point where they are transcending the logic of development of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Russian and Iranian modernization represents a unique interaction of universal value patterns and specific cultural codes— a trajectory that can be qualified as an autonomous and adaptive modernity. As such we need a broader cognitive space to allow the emergence of "multiple modernities". The era of fixed, euro-centered, and non-reflexive modernity is reaching its end— modernity, as as epistemological category, is transcending the totalizing narrative in whose grip it has been enchained. The ethnocentric west needs to acknowledge the heterogeneity of the modernization experience, and accordingly subdue its impulse to "homogenize" and "orientalise" the "other". It needs to move away from a unilateral logic toward a genuine cross-cultural encounter that takes a much broader view of the modernization process by placing it in the long-term context of cultural adaptation of civilization complexes to the challenge of modernity.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Russia and Iran

960. The Obama and Securitization of Iran's Nuclear Energy Program

Author:
Hossein Pour-Ahmadi and Sajad Mohseni
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:
Developments relating to the Islamic Awakening in the Middle East, especially in 2011, influenced and intensified, more than ever, the efforts made by the Obama Administration to securitize nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, these activities have always been one of the major preoccupations for the foreign policy the USA. Obama followed up seriously on what George Bush did, especially during his second term. The approach of both US presidents, predicated on considering the Iranian nuclear energy programme as a threat against the US and its interests, has its root in the security-oriented approach, and its adverse consequences, towards the Iran. Therefore, a major part of Iran's foreign policy has been influenced by nuclear activities. This paper proposes to consider the process of securitizing Iran's nuclear file, especially under Obama's administration, on the basis of the conceptual pattern provided by the Copenhagen School and from speech act and action perspectives. This paper seeks also to answer the question as to what methods Obama has used to securitize Iran's nuclear file. It presupposes that the attempts to isolate Iran have been made through speech act and actions.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Islam
Political Geography:
America, Iran, and Middle East