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521. Chinese Lessons from Other Peoples' Wars

Author:
Andrew Scobell (ed.), David Lai (ed.), and Roy Kamphausen (ed.)
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:
The annual Conference on the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) took place at the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on October 22-24, 2010. The topic for this year's conference was the “PLA's lessons from Other People's Wars.” Participants at the conference sought to discern what lessons the PLA has been learning from the strategic and operational experiences of the armed forces of other countries during the past 3 decades.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Globalization, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

522. What Can and Cannot Be Done about Rating Agencies

Author:
Nicolas Véron
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) are prominent participants in the assessment of credit risk by financial markets. They determine and publish credit ratings, which represent the CRA's opinions on issuers' relative probability of default. The market for credit ratings is currently dominated in most western countries by three players: n Standard Poor's (S) is a division of the McGraw- Hill Companies, a US-based media group whose ownership is dispersed (the largest shareholder is Capital Group, with 12 percent of shares); n Moody's Corporation is an autonomous US-based listed company with dispersed ownership (the largest shareholder is Berkshire Hathaway, with 12.5 percent of shares); n Fitch Ratings is a division of the Fitch Group which is jointly owned by Fimalac, a Paris-based listed investment vehicle (60 percent of shares), and the US-based Hearst Corporation (40 percent of shares).
Topic:
Debt, Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States

523. G-20 Reforms of the International Monetary System: An Evaluation

Author:
Edwin M. Truman
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
With great French fanfare the G-20 committed itself in Seoul, Korea a year ago “to build a more stable and resilient international monetary system (IMS), including by further strengthening global financial safety nets.” As subsequently elaborated by French President Sarkozy and other French government officials, the agenda for IMS reform included five elements: surveillance of the global economy and financial system, the international lender-of-last-resort mechanisms (global financial safety nets), the management of global capital flows, reserve assets and reserve currencies, and IMS governance.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and International Monetary Fund
Political Geography:
Korea

524. The Current Currency Situation

Author:
William R. Cline and John Williamson
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
The currency markets have been extremely disturbed for the last three months. The period witnessed a major strengthening of the US dollar in September, then the European currency crisis, a recovery of the euro when the markets believed that the crisis was being controlled, and then a rebound of the dollar. In view of these developments, those who follow currency movements need a new guide as to how the current values of currencies compare to our estimates of fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs). That is the main object of this paper.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Political Economy, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

525. Manufacturing Globalization

Author:
Robert Z. Lawrence, Richard Katz, and Michael Spence
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
TROUBLE ON THE HOME FRONT Richard Katz A decade ago, the great American jobs train fell off its tracks. Traditionally, boosts in private-sector employment have accompanied recoveries from economic downturns. In the first seven years after the beginning of the 1980 and 1990 recessions, for example, the number of private-sector jobs increased by 14 percent. Yet in January 2008, seven years after the previous pre-recession peak and before the most recent recession began, private-sector jobs were up only four percent. Today, for the first time in the postwar era, there are fewer of these jobs than there were ten years before. Ignoring the overall dearth of jobs, Michael Spence (“The Impact of Globalization on Income and Unemployment,” July/August 2011) singles out the fraction of employment in sectors related to trade. He claims that China and other developing countries have taken U.S. jobs and blames globalization for the substantial increase in income inequality across the country. It is misleading, he says, to argue that “the most important forces operating on the structure of the U.S. economy are internal, not external.” He is wrong: the fault lies not in China or South Korea but at home.
Topic:
Globalization
Political Geography:
China, America, and South Korea

526. Table of Contents

Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
No abstract is available.
Topic:
Globalization
Political Geography:
Europe

527. Memory and Urbanism in the Constitution of Global Citizenship: Heritage, Preservation, and Tourism in Amsterdam and Rotterdam

Author:
Ernesto Capello
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
One of the most exciting areas in the cultural study of globalization concerns heritage preservation and heritage tourism. This subfield has grown out of the studies of collective memory by sociologists, historians, and art historians attentive to the relationship between capital, spectacle, and place. Whereas traditional studies of collective memory by figures like Maurice Halbwachs emphasized group social interaction, contemporary scholars have underscored the produced nature of what Pierre Nora terms “sites of memory.” Christine Boyer, for example, distinguishes between what she terms “vernacular topoi,” or sites tied to memory due to repeated use, and “rhetorical topoi,” sites intended to instruct, often at the behest of the state, a local elite, and, increasingly, global financial concerns. These latter sites tend to demarcate not only official narratives of local history but also cater to visitors seeking to encounter pasts both nostalgic and contested. As such, they lay at the intersection of heritage, preservation, and tourism.
Topic:
Globalization
Political Geography:
Amsterdam

528. Prospects for a Multipolar International Monetary System

Author:
Paul Masson and Mansoor Dailami
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
As the second decade of the 21st century unfolds, the growing clout of emerging markets is paving the way for a world economy with an increasingly multipolar character. The distribution of global growth will become more diffuse, with no single country dominating the global economic scene or even the global security agenda.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Political Economy, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis

529. Benchmarking Against Progress: An Assessment of Australia's Aid Effectiveness

Author:
Laurence Chandy
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Is Australia's aid program effective? Measuring the effectiveness of aid is no easy feat. For a start, there is uncertainty about what aid is trying to achieve. Even seemingly straightforward objectives, like poverty reduction, throw up a range of questions as to what precisely ought to be measured. For instance, how should one balance the provision of temporary relief to those in need with catalyzing permanent transformation in people's lives (Barder, 2009)? Second, it is notoriously difficult to isolate the effect of a single aid program from other factors. Aid is delivered in an environment of enormous complexity where all manner of other events shape outcomes, including actions by recipient governments, aid from other countries, non-aid flows, and the performance of the global economy. To accurately attribute impact to aid therefore requires a thorough understanding of the setting in which aid is given. Third, the effects of aid are not always immediate or straightforward. For instance, improvements in people's skills or the performance of institutions may manifest gradually. Measurements of what aid achieves must be sensitive to the different ways change is brought about (Woolcock et al., 2009).
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Australia/Pacific

530. Forest Clearing in the Pantropics: December 2005–August 2011

Author:
David Wheeler, Robin Kraft, and Dan Hammer
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
This report summarizes recent trends in large-scale tropical forest clearing identified by FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action). Our analysis includes 27 countries that accounted for 94 percent of clearing during the period 2000–2005. We highlight countries with relatively large changes since 2005, both declines and increases. FORMA produces indicators that track monthly changes in the number of 1-sq.-km. tropical forest parcels that have experienced clearing with high probability. This report and the accompanying spreadsheet databases provide monthly estimates for 27 countries, 280 primary administrative units, and 2,907 secondary administrative units. Countries' divergent experiences since 2005 have significantly altered their shares of global clearing in some cases. Brazil's global share fell by 11.2 percentage points from December 2005 to August 2011, while the combined share of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Myanmar increased by 10.8. The diverse patterns revealed by FORMA's first global survey caution against facile generalizations about forest clearing in the pantropics. During the past five years, the relative scale and pace of clearing have changed across regions, within regions, and within countries. Although the overall trend seems hopeful, it remains to be seen whether the decline in forest clearing will persist as the global economy recovers.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Globalization, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar