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381. China, the United States, and the Changing Global Architecture

Author:
Seungjoo Lee
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:
With the prospect of leadership change in China and the United States in 2012, the possibility for instability and uncertainty in the East Asia region is high. Despite such concerns, it is expected that the current structure of global governance will mitigate the difficulties associated with this period of transition. Considering the importance of global governance, it becomes necessary then to follow the changes in the global and regional architecture and think about how South Korea should meet this challenge. The trio of closely-related summit meetings that took place in November 2011 was such an occasion in which China and the United States grappled to shape the regional and global architecture. These meetings included the G20 Cannes summit on November 3, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on November 12, and the East Asia Summit (EAS) on November 19. It is important to focus on the fact that during these meetings Beijing and Washington had the chance to examine the intention and capability of each other. In that sense, these meetings were akin to that of a boxing match fought over three rounds using not force but the complex elements of international politics in the twenty-first century that interact to design the regional and global architecture. These elements include power politics in international relations, cooperation and conflict in institutions and networks, and the knowledge power which allows for a consensus among countries by sharing the vision of a new order.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Globalization, Hegemony, and Leadership
Political Geography:
China, Asia, North America, and United States of America

382. An Interdisciplinary Forum on Time and Globalization

Author:
Christopher Breu
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
How do globalization and temporality relate to one another? This was the question addressed by a 2011 workshop sponsored by Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition (IGHC) at McMaster University. In the past, globalization and temporality have both been characterized as moving forward independently of human volition, carrying all of us along in their flow. Now there are large literatures challenging this view, and showing how globalization and time are constructed and modified by humans. However, with some important exceptions (Harvey 1990, Sassen 2000, Appadurai 2005, Bauman 2000), the literatures on globalization and on temporality have developed separately from one another. It is important to bring these literatures into closer dialogue, because a great many urgent issues in contemporary human affairs involve interactions between temporality and globalization. These range from individual-level questions, such as managing the accelerated pace of everyday life, to large epochal problems, such as climate change, that may not always be readily apprehended, but are no less significant. The workshop participants, drawing on their backgrounds in a variety of academic disciplines, addressed the relationship between temporality and globalization in a variety of settings. Six of the papers presented at this workshop are gathered in this IGHC Working Paper. The assembled papers, individually and jointly, identify a number of themes of particular relevance to any comprehensive discussion of globalization and time. By way of introduction, it is useful to briefly consider how the most prominent of these themes are addressed by the contributors.
Topic:
Globalization, Human Development, and Time
Political Geography:
Global Focus

383. A Map for Strengthening the G20 Mutual Assessment Process

Author:
Kevin English, Xenia Menzies, Jacob Muirhead, and Jennifer Prenger
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The 2007–2009 global financial crisis demonstrated that the world required a much stronger framework for cooperation on financial and economic issues. In September 2009, G20 heads of state responded to this need at the Pittsburgh G20 Summit with the “Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth” (the Framework). The MAP was created to both monitor and support G20 countries in their follow- through on commitments made under the Framework.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis

384. A Future Without HIV/AIDS: Dream or Reality?

Author:
Anthony Fauci, Eric Goosby, Michel Sidibe, and Wafaa El-Sadr
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
High-level leaders debate how to achieve an AIDS-free generation. -Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health Eric Goosby, United States Global AIDS Coordinator, U.S. Department of Stat Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Wafaa El-Sadr, Director of ICAP and the Global Health Initiative at the Mailman School of Public Health, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, Columbia University.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Health, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

385. Drivers of Strategic Contestation in South America

Author:
Daniel Flemes and Leslie Wehner
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
The politics of contestation on the part of secondary regional powers such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela towards Brazil as the regional leader oscillate between competition and cooperation, inasmuch as the South American region has one regional power and is a zone of negative peace without aggressive rivalries. The secondary powers use different tactics, which constitute their respective foreign policy strategies, to soft balance Brazil. These tactics include alliance building, entangling diplomacy, binding, and omni‐enmeshment. This paper identifies, first, the specific drivers of contestation towards Brazil and, second, why the secondary powers' foreign policy strategies vary in how they directly or indirectly contest the rise of Brazil at the regional and international levels. The paper demonstrates that in a regional order such as that of South America, which is characterized by relative stability, domestic drivers of contestation are key to explaining secondary powers' varied strategic responses to the regional power.
Topic:
Development, Emerging Markets, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Regional Cooperation, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Japan and South America

386. Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance

Author:
David Roodman
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Microfinance: Few development ideas have been so buoyed by high expectations in recent decades, and few have been so buffeted by difficulties in recent years. Images of microfinance lifting people out of poverty now compete with ones of the poor driven by debt to suicide. Where does the truth lie? David Roodman investigates in Due Diligence. He finds no evidence that small loans lift people out of poverty en masse but argues that financial services, like clean water and electricity, are essential to a modern life. The practical question is not whether microfinance should continue, but how it can play to its strengths, which lie in providing useful services to millions of poor people in a businesslike way. Due Diligence is the most complete investigation ever into the sources and consequences of microfinance. Rood - man explores the financial needs of poor people, the history of efforts to meet those needs, the business realities of doing so, and the arguments and evidence about how well modern microfinance is succeeding.
Topic:
Debt, Development, Economics, Globalization, Poverty, and Foreign Direct Investment

387. Engaging African diasporas for peace: cornerstones for an emerging EU agenda

Author:
Judith Vorrath
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Over the last decade, researchers and policy-makers have paid increasing attention to diasporas. They have focused on diasporas not merely as a challenge, but as a source of largely untapped potential. Their transnational nature and peculiar position as non-state actors linking host and home countries has been identified as an important basis for engagement. Diaspora groups from sub-Saharan Africa in Europe, which according to a 2008 Council of Europe parliamentary report on immigration are roughly estimated to comprise between 3.5 and 8 million people, are not only a relevant force, but often come from homelands that have experienced or are still facing armed conflict. Against this background, this Occasional Paper addresses the question of what contribution diaspora communities can make to promoting peace in their homelands and how the European Union can engage with African diasporas in the field of peace and security.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Migration, Diaspora, and Immigration
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

388. Freeing the Global Market: How to Boost the Economy by Curbing Regulatory Distortions

Author:
Shanker A. Singham
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
The U.S. economy faces major challenges competing internationally. One of the most worrisome is the growing use in China and other advanced developing countries of anticompetitive market distortions (ACMDs)—including regulatory protection that privileges specific companies—which put foreign competitors at a disadvantage. ACMDs are government actions that give certain business interests artificial competitive advantages over their rivals, be they foreign or domestic, to the detriment of consumer welfare. These market distortions are especially damaging to the industries in which the United States enjoys the greatest comparative advantages, but they are also harmful to the long-term prosperity of developing economies and cost the global economy trillions of dollars. To combat ACMDs, the conventional trade policy approach of focusing on the The U.S. economy faces major challenges competing internationally. One of the most worrisome is the growing use in China and other advanced developing countries of anticompetitive market distortions (ACMDs)—including regulatory protection that privileges specific companies—which put foreign competitors at a disadvantage.1 ACMDs are government actions that give certain business interests artificial competitive advantages over their rivals, be they foreign or domestic, to the detriment of consumer welfare. These market distortions are especially damaging to the industries in which the United States enjoys the greatest comparative advantages, but they are also harmful to the long-term prosperity of developing economies and cost the global economy trillions of dollars.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, China, India, and Brazil

389. Global microscope on the microfinance business environment 2012

Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
The last few years have presented a series of challenges and learning opportunities for the microfinance sector. During the last few decades the microfinance industry experienced substantial growth, but eventually this resulted in market saturation, a rise of The last few years have presented a series of challenges and learning opportunities for the microfinance sector. During the last few decades the microfinance industry experienced substantial growth, but eventually this resulted in market saturation, a rise of non-performing loans and multiple lending across a few key markets. The global financial crisis then increased the focus on risk management, corporate governance and regulatory capacity. Most recently, the Andhra Pradesh microfinance credit crisis that unfolded in India has raised serious questions about the viability of microfinance as a valid development modality.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Poverty, Financial Crisis, and Governance
Political Geography:
Andhra Pradesh

390. Declining Inequality in Latin America in the 2000s: The Cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

Author:
Nora Lustig, Luis F. Lopez-Calva, and Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Between 2000 and 2010, the Gini coefficient declined in 13 of 17 Latin American countries. The decline was statistically significant and robust to changes in the time interval, inequality measures, and data sources. In-depth country studies for Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico suggest two main phenomena underlie this trend: a fall in the premium to skilled labor and more progressive government transfers. The fall in the premium to skills resulted from a combination of supply, demand, and institutional factors. Their relative importance depends on the country.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Poverty, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, and Mexico