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1261. Special Feature on Palestinian Well-Being

Author:
Paul Aaron Gaston and Thomas Hill
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
THE THREE PAPERS that comprise this dossier vary widely but benefit greatly from being read together. One presents results from an ambitious twenty-five–year study tracking the generation of Palestinians who participated in the first intifada and constitutes an unprecedented piece of research in terms of its length and breadth; the second paints a picture of the late vision and practice of Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, one of the authors of the original study and the man who pioneered psychiatry in Gaza and wedded mental health to the struggle for human rights and political liberation; the third is a recent interview with Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, the current executive director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCHMP) which El Sarraj founded in 1990
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Palestine

1262. Mujid Suleiman Kazimi (1947–2015): A Preeminent Palestinian-American Scientist

Author:
Hani Faris and John Makhoul
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Outstanding nuclear scientist and leading Palestinian-American Mujid S. Kazimi died suddenly in July 2015. This tribute summarizes his professional career and his remarkable contribution to nuclear science, his involvement with Arab- American organizations, and the personal qualities he brought to a lifelong commitment to Palestine.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Palestine

1263. Documents and Source Material

Author:
Journal Of Palestine Studies
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This section comprises international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials, as well as an annotated list of recommended reports. Documents and source materials are reproduced without editing to conform to JPS style or spelling. Along with PDFs of recommended reports, they are available in full at www.palestine-studies.org.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Palestine

1264. Special Document File

Author:
Ahmad Samih Khalidi
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
ONE OF THE MANY REASONS for the humbling of the mighty Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 2006 Lebanon War was an Israeli combat doctrine named Systemic Operational Design, better known by its perhaps aptly abbreviated acronym SOD. The brainchild of a group of military intellectuals clustered around the IDF’s Operational Theory Research Institute (OTRI), SOD was first mooted in 1995. It was an operational doctrine that drew on U.S. studies and postmodern French philosophical and textual analysis to develop an integrative critical and creative approach to the battlefield and generate new means of addressing old problems. The basic paper outlining SOD was signed by then incoming Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and formally adopted as the IDF’s operational doctrine in April 2006.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Palestine

1265. Commentary: Jerusalem at Boiling Point

Author:
Rashid Khalidi
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
WITH THESE THREE ESSAYS by residents of Jerusalem, the Journal of Palestine Studies presents wide- ranging and varied accounts of the nature of the violent events in that city, bolstered by precise details and copious facts. As close observers of the situation there, Daniel Seidemann, Nazmi Jubeh, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian offer granular and often painful descriptions, both from the ground up and analytically, of the Israeli occupation regime’s ceaseless and brutal encroachment on the rights, patrimony, space, and lives of the over three hundred thousand Palestinian residents of occupied Arab East Jerusalem.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Palestine

1266. Local Democracy and Economic Growth

Author:
Carl Henrik Knutsen, John Gerring, and Svend-Erik Skaaning
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
Abstract:
Theoretical work on the institutional sources of economic growth regards decentralization and democracy in a positive light. Despite this, empirical work shows that neither fiscal decentralization nor national democracy is a robust predictor of per capita GDP growth. We argue that these theories have failed to bear fruit because they ignore the linchpin of decentralization and democracy, namely local democracy. Democracy at a local level enhances economic growth by enabling decentralized policy selection and incentivizing local politicians to select policies that benefit economic development, including the provision of local public goods. We test for the relationship using a novel measure of local democracy with global coverage and time series extending from 1900 to the present. We find robust evidence that local democracy nurtures growth. This relationship holds up when accounting for country- and year-fixed effects, when controlling for democracy at the national level, and when we treat our measure of local democracy as an endogenous regressor. Additional tests reveal that the relationship is clearer in contexts where our argument suggests that it should operate more strongly, namely (national- level) democracies and in periods and regions where local-level institutions have a more pronounced role in policy-making.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1267. Space for Local Content Policies and Strategies

Author:
Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
This paper explores both the role that local content measures can play in advancing sustainable development, and the impact that trade and investment treaties concluded over the past 20 years have had and will continue to have on the ability of governments to employ those tools. Certain local content measures had been restricted under the WTO due to wide agreement by negotiating parties that their costs outweigh their benefits. But the WTO also left a number of local content measures in governments’ policy toolboxes. As is discussed in this paper, however, that is changing, with the range of permissible actions for many countries being significantly smaller than it was even a decade ago. This narrowed policy space, in turn, can limit the steps governments can take to make progress on the universally adopted Sustainable Development Goals.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1268. Employment from Mining and Agricultural Investments: How Much Myth, How Much Reality?

Author:
Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Olle Östensson, and Perrine Toledano
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Employment creation is often seen as a key benefit of investment in natural resources. However, this benefit sometimes falls short: job estimates may be inflated, governmental policies may fail to maximize employment generation, and, in some cases, investments may lead to net livelihood losses. A more thorough examination of employment tied to mining and agricultural investments is thus useful for assessing whether and how employment from natural resource investments contributes to sustainable economic development—a particularly timely topic as countries consider how they will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.
Topic:
Agriculture, International Affairs, and Economic growth
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1269. Guide to Land Contracts: Agricultural Projects

Author:
Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Agricultural investment contracts can be complex, with complicated provisions that are difficult to understand. This Guide provides explanations for a range of common provisions, and includes a Glossary of legal and technical terms. It assists non-lawyers in better understanding agricultural investment contracts, such as those available on OpenLandContracts.org. The Guide was prepared by International Senior Lawyers Project staff and volunteers in collaboration with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment.
Topic:
Agriculture and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus