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581. Subregional Cooperation and the European Union

Author:
Dr. Renata Dwan
Publication Date:
04-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Since 1992-93, the Institute for EastWest Studies (IEWS) has been organizing meetings of a 'Strategy Group for Strengthening Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe'. The Strategy Group brings together representatives of the Central and Eastern European Associates of the European Union and Ukraine (and Western states and neighbouring countries where appropriate) to discuss the security challenges facing the region. The Strategy Group aims to foster the development of cooperative solutions to the problems facing Central and Eastern Europe. Participants in Strategy Group conferences and workshops come from diverse backgrounds, including governmental representatives, politicians, business people, academics and non- governmental representatives.
Topic:
International Organization and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Ukraine

582. Security and Integration in Eurasia's New Boundary Zones: The Role of Sub-Regional Relations

Publication Date:
02-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Security and Integration in Eurasia's New Boundary Zones: The Role of Sub-Regional Relations' is the second year of a project which the Institute for EastWest Studies (IEWS) is running with generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This project explores the contribution made by intergovernmental sub-regional groupings to security and integration in the OSCE area. In 1996-97 a detailed comparative study of six Central and Eastern European groups was undertaken and the role they play in assisting states of the region in their democratic transition, in entering wider European integration processes and in increasing the stability and security of the the region. Two conferences were held and a book summarizing the conclusions of the six case studies will shortly be published. Cooperative relations with OSCE, EU and WEU have been established to help develop these international organizations' policies toward sub-regional relations.
Topic:
Security, International Organization, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
New York, Eurasia, Eastern Europe, and Maryland

583. The Basel Convention

Author:
Jonathan Krueger
Publication Date:
05-1998
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The international community is increasingly turning to the use of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to solve problems of global environmental degradation and transboundary pollution. One of the most important of these MEAs is the 1989 Basel Convention dealing with transboundary movements of hazardous waste. The Convention has been instrumental in helping to eliminate the dumping of industrialized countries' hazardous wastes on developing countries. However, the development of the regime has been slow and it is now tackling the more controversial issue of regulating 'recyclable' hazardous wastes. This briefing paper provides a short guide to the development and current status of the international effort to manage transboundary movements of hazardous wastes.
Topic:
Environment, International Organization, and Science and Technology

584. From G7 To G8: Evolution, Role and Documentation of a Unique Institution

Author:
Peter I. Hajnal
Publication Date:
04-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
As the next millennium approaches, the international community faces the fundamental challenge of devising at the global level mechanisms for governance to reinforce, and at times replace, those that have operated effectively for several centuries at the national level. The end of the cold war has substantially eliminated a world divided among a democratic west, communist east and non-aligned south, highlighted a host of new transnational, human security priorities and led to the demise of the self-contained "national security" state. The advent of globalization in finance, investment, trade, production and communication has led many national economies to be integrated into a single global economy, whose healthy functioning is increasingly vital to the well being of citizens even in large, advanced industrial economies such as the United States and Japan. Finally, new openness and technology have meant that many issues once dealt with primarily as a part of domestic politics - supervising banking systems, protecting the environment, combating organized crime, drugs and disease, ensuring nuclear safety, and creating employment, have now come to require collective international action for their effective accomplishment.
Topic:
International Organization and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, and Europe

585. Conflict in Kosovo: Failure of Prevention? An Analytical Documentation, 1992-1998.

Author:
Stefan Troebst
Publication Date:
05-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Not too much of inside knowledge of the Balkans was needed to realise that the winter of 1997/98 turned the formerly autonomous Yugoslav province of Kosovo inhabited predominantly by Albanians into one of the most violent-prone crisis zones in Europe. In September 1997, a massive protest movement of Albanian students gained momentum; from November 1997 on, an underground "Liberation Army of Kosovo" (UÇK)) with an estimated strength of several hundred fighters increased the number of attacks on and assassinations of Serbian officials and police officers; and the regime retaliated first by police violence, show trials, long-term sentences, and nationalist tirades, then by bringing more and more security forces into the central part of Kosovo. In January 1998, The Economist depicted Kosovo as "Europe's roughest neighbourhood”.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Ethnic Conflict, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, Balkans, and Albania

586. Time to Reinvent APEC

Author:
Edward Lincoln and Kenneth Flamm
Publication Date:
11-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, provides an opportunity for 18 countries with strong trade and investment ties to discuss a wide range of economic issues. APEC has scored two tangible achievements to date: a sweeping but vaguely worded 1994 pledge by its member states to open up to free trade and investment by 2010 and 2020, and a central role in the negotiation of the 1996 Information Technology Agreement (ITA). However, APEC is in danger of fading. When this year's summit begins on November 19, the United States must push for major reform of the APEC bargaining process if the organization is to have any chance of realizing its ambitious trade reform targets.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Asia

587. Open Regionalism: Lessons from Latin America for East Asia

Author:
Clark Winton Reynolds
Publication Date:
08-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The process of regional integration is part of the reshaping of the international economic order at the end of the 20th century. Much if it is impelled by raw market forces, or what one may term 'silent integration.' In this process the increasingly liberalized movement of goods and services, factors of production (capital, technology, and labor through migration and as embodied in trade in goods and services), and tastes offers new prospects and challenges. There are opportunities for major increases in income and wealth for the most intrepid, skilled, mobile, and aggressive participants in the process. There are threats of lost income, power, prestige, values, and institutions for those left behind. There is a need to go behind the impulse of market forces, taking advantage of their dynamic but finding ways to manage interdependence so as to best reconcile differences among social groups, institutions, and values to ensure that the process of liberalized exchange produces gains that are equitable, stable, and sustainable.
Topic:
Economics, International Organization, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Israel, East Asia, South America, and Latin America

588. APEC beyond Economics: The Politics of APEC

Author:
Brian L. Job and Frank Langdon
Publication Date:
10-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper deals with the history, formation, and objectives of APEC. It describes the tensions between the Anglo-Saxon and the East Asian APEC members and the clashes of interests between the large and small and developed and less developed nations, which show how precarious the formation of APEC was. Within the short term APEC does not seem destined to become an overarching regional, political, security, and economic institution. Indeed, certain forces within the region, such as increased arms acquisitions in some states, friction arising over trade disputes, protectionism, and investment flows, and tension between China and Taiwan, could hinder the objectives of the organization. It remains possible that the very process of finding common ground through APEC may contribute more to fostering community and to ensuring security in the region than the proposals actually agreed upon by all member nations.
Topic:
Economics and International Organization
Political Geography:
China and Europe

589. Trade Policy Options for Chile: A Quantitative Evaluation

Author:
Glenn W. Harrison and Thomas F. Rutherfod
Publication Date:
05-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
This paper examines the net economic benefits and government revenue implications for Chile of forming a free trade area with MERCOSUR as an associate member, forming a free trade area with NAFTA, and reducing its external tariff multilaterally and unilaterally. The research shows that NAFTA would benefit Chile, but Chile must obtain improved access in non-grain crops, one of its key export sectors, or NAFTA will result in losses for Chile. Chile will lose from the MERCOSUR agreement as presently constituted but can gain from participation in MERCOSUR by reducing its external tariff to between 6 percent and 8 percent. Such a lowering of the external tariff would lead to a reduction of costly, trade-diverting imports (on which Chile does not collect tariffs) from high-priced partner country suppliers. The paper indicates that Chile should continue to push for NAFTA membership, while moving toward broader multilateral trade liberalization. Additionally, collecting the value added tax at more uniform rates in Chile would reduce domestic distortions and enhance the effectiveness of trade policy reforms.
Topic:
Economics, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance

590. Costs of the Polish Integration with the Euroatlantic Structures

Author:
Pawel Wieczorek and Katarzyna Zukrowska
Publication Date:
03-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The public opinion polls show that decisive majority of Poles support Polish entrance to the NATO (80%) and the European Union (66%). This support derives mainly - as can be supposed - from association of the membership in the above mentioned institutions with priviliges linked with this status, what silently is accompanied by rather low financial consequences of integration. Awareness of real financial burdens tied up with integration can be considered as one of the basic arguments in support of preparing a reliable balance of widely understood benefits and commitments which are connected with the Polish membership in NATO and the EU.
Topic:
Security, NATO, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe