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1951. Between Palestinian and Israeli Elections: Implications for U.S. Policy

Author:
Robert Satloff, Dennis Ross, and Michael Herzog
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On January 30, 2006, Robert Satloff, Dennis Ross, and Michael Herzog addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Dr Satloff is the Institute's executive director. Ambassador Ross is the Institute's counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow. Michael Herzog is a brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and a visiting military fellow at the Institute. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Washington, Middle East, and Israel

1952. Turkey: Between the West and the Middle East

Author:
Yigit Alpogan
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On January 24, 2006, Yigit Alpogan, secretary-general of Turkey's National Security Council, addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Ambassador Alpogan, who assumed his current post in August 2004 as the first civilian head of the Turkish National Security Council, previously served as the Turkish ambassador to Greece and Turkmenistan as well as deputy undersecretary of foreign affairs. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks.
Topic:
International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Washington, Turkey, Middle East, and Greece

1953. Applying Behavioural Economics to International Development Policy

Author:
Kostas Stamoulis and Leigh Anderson
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Many development policies and programmes are premised on a traditional economic model of rationality to predict how individuals will respond to changes in incentives. Despite the emphasis of these programmes on poverty reduction, economists and the development community in general are still unable to fully understand how the poor make decisions, especially under uncertainty and over time. Individuals avail themselves less than predicted in health programmes, participate less than expected in market opportunities, under or over insure themselves, and make short-run decisions that are inconsistent with their long-run welfare. The rise and fall of different descriptive models and paradigms of poor household behaviour can partly be attributed to this limited understanding. More helpful answers may lay within behavioural economics, that these insights are particularly important for poor populations, and that they can improve the future design, implementation and subsequent effectiveness of development programmes. Behavioural economics is an approach that rigorously combines the insights of psychology and economics to try to better understand and predict human decision making. Empirical evidence is helping us learn, for example, how cognitive limitations, fairness, loss aversion, framing of choices, variable discount rates, and the qualitative dimensions of risk—such as proximity and control—affect decision making. The regularity of many of these anomalies suggests that these behaviours are anomalous only to traditional models, but that they may otherwise be the norm.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and International Cooperation

1954. Development Questions for 25 Years

Author:
Lance Taylor
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Recent growth experience in developing countries is reviewed, with an emphasis on structural change and sources of effective demand. Ho w policy influences such outcomes is analyzed in light of historical experience. Options are discussed for macro and industrial/commercial policy, and how they may influence the growth process. The recent 'institutional turn' in development theory may obfuscate serious policy analysis.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Development, and Third World

1955. DEMOCRACY, DIVERSITY, AND CONFLICT: Religious Zionism and Israeli Foreign Policy

Author:
Claudia Baumgart
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Abstract:
Israel's disengagement from the Gaza strip in 2005 marked a momentous turning point in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. After 37 years of occupation, Israel has pulled out from this densely populated strip of land at the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, but it still keeps its military control over all access to the Gaza strip via land, sea, and air. The new government of Ehud Olmert is now debating the next step: to retreat from large parts of the West Bank. While presenting the concept of unilateral disengagement as a necessary step towards peace with the Palestinians, Ariel Sharon and his successor Ehud Olmert made it very clear that, on the other hand, Israel intends to keep and even expand the major Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Olmert's convergence plan reflects these intentions by openly announcing that the settlement blocs would remain a part of the State of Israel forever. But for a certain portion of the Israeli population, this is not enough. In the run-up to the Gaza disengagement, Israel was flooded with Orange – the colour that the disengagement opponents chose to mark their fierce protest against the evacuation of Jewish settlements. Settlers in orange T-Shirts gathered in mass demonstrations, waved Israeli flags with orange ribbons, blocked main roads in the midst of rush hour, quarrelled with security forces and tried to convince soldiers to refuse orders during evacuation. A small minority even threatened to violently resist the evacuation of their homes.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Ethnic Conflict, Post Colonialism, and Religion
Political Geography:
Middle East and Israel

1956. Foreign Direct Investment: Key Issues for Promotion Agencies

Author:
Sergey Filippov, Iornara Costa, and Mariana Zanatta
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The growing importance attached to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is evidenced by the steady rise of investment promotion agencies (IPAs) worldwide, especially from the early 1990s. Since its launch in 1995, the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) has registered a growing number of members representing cities, regions, countries and free zones from all over the world: from 112 in 2002, 161 in 2004, rising to 191 members from 149 countries in 2006. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) there were around 500 IPAs in more than 160 countries in 2004.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United Nations

1957. The Neo Con: The Bush Defense Record by the Numbers - An Analysis of the Data Behind the Bush Approach to National Security

Author:
Sharon Burke and Harlan Greer
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Third Way
Abstract:
Like all presidents before him, President George W. Bush came to office promising to keep America safe, strong, secure, and the leader of the world. There are some who believe that the President has kept this promise. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others inside the Bush Administration have continued to maintain that America's national security strategy—and in particular, the strategy in Iraq—has been successful. But there are many who disagree—even leading conservatives. William Kristol, one of the intellectual leaders behind the Bush foreign policy, now regards America's national security situation as dire. Several retired senior military officers have leveled a barrage of criticism at Bush, with calls for the firing of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, breaking a tradition among retired military against publicly criticizing the commander-in-chief.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, China, Iraq, America, Iran, and North Korea

1958. Channel Surfing: Non-engagement as Foreign Policy

Author:
Barbara K. Bodine
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
The adoption of Security Council Resolution 1701 brought a halt to the month-long Israeli-Hezbollah war. UNIFIL will be greatly expanded with a more vigorous mandate to back Lebanese assertion of full sovereignty and control over southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah’s militia and missile sites. But is an agreement hammered out in Manhattan sustainable on the ground? Was success in New York confirmation that the Bush administra- tion has come to terms with the utility of the United Nations and the facility of our friends and allies? Or does the agreement’s ambiguity and fragility underscore the costs of dogged non-engagement with our adversaries, even in times of crisis?
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, United Nations, Military Strategy, and Hezbollah
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Lebanon

1959. Waiting for Goldilocks: Getting Japan’s Foreign Policy Just Right

Author:
Richard J Samuels
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Generations of American parents have read their children a story called "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." It is the story of a young girl who wanders into the bears’ home in the woods. Goldilocks sits on chairs that are too big and too small, before find- ing one that is “just right.” She rejects bowls of their porridge as being too hot and as too cold, until she finds one that is “just right.” Like most children’s stories, Goldilocks is metaphorical. Americans use it to describe the process of finding just the right balance between alternatives that are too extreme. This metaphor captures the challenges awaiting Abe Shinzo, Japan’s new prime minister very nicely—particularly in the areas of foreign and secu- rity policy. His predecessor, Koizumi Junichiro, had already been like Goldilocks in his extended effort to find just the right policy toward North Korea. In his 2002 visit to Pyongyang he explored engagement, only to adopt toward a harder, more confrontational line. If the first was too hot and the second too cold, Abe is left with the responsibility to find a policy toward the DPRK that is “just right.” North Korea’s nuclear weapons test in October 2006 and its July 2006 missile tests certainly do not make this any easier.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
Japan, China, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

1960. Voices of Hope, Voices of Frustration

Author:
Kathrin Keil
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:
Can international students successfully obtain visas and pass through security checks in order to study in the United States? For most international students interested in studying in the United States, the answer is yes. In the 2005 fiscal year, nearly 256,000 student visas were issued, which marked a significant improvement from the approximately 236,000 issued in 2003 and the approximately 238,000 issued in 2004. While visa issuance for international students has not rebounded to pre-September 11 levels—approximately 320,000 student visas were issued in fiscal year 2001—it would be erroneous to assume that changes implemented to U.S. admission policies post-9/11 are the sole cause for this drop in international student enrollment in U.S. institutions of higher education. First of all, a comprehensive study of the impact of 9/11 on the U.S. visa system conducted by the Washington, DC-based Migration Policy Institute revealed that changes made to the visa system following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were mostly administrative. While these “administrative” changes may have caused visa interview and adjudication backlogs that hindered visa processing, changes to the system were not designed to make it harder for international students to obtain visas. Also, the State Department contends that the worldwide number of visa applications dropped after September 11 and that “the overall visa refusal rate has remained virtually constant since prior to September 11.” Most importantly, there are other factors to consider when evaluating why international student enrollment has declined, such as the growing competition from other countries' universities in terms of tuition costs, student recruitment activities, and academic programs.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Education, Terrorism, and Immigration
Political Geography:
United States