Search

Begin New Search Topic International Political Economy

531. U.S. Energy Security and Oil Revenue Transparency

Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
A diverse set of panelists addressed the challenges and opportunities presented by the growing importance of energy security as a central element of the U.S. foreign policy debate. The first panel featured speakers from the non-profit, private and financial sectors discussing the links between U.S. energy security and oil revenue transparency. All panelists focused on how a lack of transparency in energy transactions can contribute to both national instability in oil-rich nations and energy insecurity in oil-importing countries. Revenue transparency was seen by all as a critical first step in combating corruption. Panelists also noted the importance of conceiving of transparency in the broadest terms, to encompass budget transparency, contract transparency, reserves transparency, and transparency of concessions.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Energy Policy, International Political Economy, and Oil
Political Geography:
United States

532. China's March on the 21st Century

Author:
Kurt M. Campbell and Willow Darsie
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
After a protracted period of uncertainty concerning the nature of the foreign policy challenges that are likely to confront the nation over the course of first half of the 21st century, twin challenges are now coming into sharper relief. For the next generation or more, Americans will be confronted by two overriding (and possibly overwhelming) challenges in the conduct of American foreign policy: how to more effectively wage a long, twilight struggle against violent Islamic fundamentalists, and at the same time cope with the almost certain rise to great power status of China.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, and Asia

533. European Banks in the Developing World

Author:
Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper looks at the recent expansion of European banks in the developing countries. It argues that no specific European influence is apparent in emerging markets, other than a declining financial interest in former colonies. Actual developments in emerging markets are determined by domestic factors, financial liberalisation, and capital account liberalisation. The sole exception is provided by monetary unions of France and Portugal with former colonies. These highlight the drying up of local money markets as local banking becomes a branch activity of global banks. This is a paradoxical result, since financial liberalisation is usually supposed to result in financial development. It also suggests financial liberalisation may not be the best way of supporting the under-banked small and medium enterprise sector in developing countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

534. Transnational Public-Private Partnerships in International Relations

Author:
Marco Schäferhoff, Sabine Campe, and Christopher Kaan
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Transnational public-private partnerships have become a popular theme in International Relations (IR) research. Such partnerships constitute a hybrid type of governance, in which non state actors co-govern along with state actors for the provision of public goods, and thereby adopt governance functions that have formerly been the sole authority of sovereign states. Their recent proliferation is an expression of the contemporary reconfiguration of authority in world politics that poses essential questions on the effectiveness and the legitimacy of global governance. Significant issues are at stake concerning whether transnational public private partnerships can in fact deliver public goods in an effective and legitimate way. This article surveys the literature with regard to three central issues: It addresses the questions why transnational public-private partnerships emerge, under which conditions they are effective, and under which conditions they are legitimate governance instruments. The article demonstrates that, at present, research on transnational public-private partnerships is theoretically under-informed and suffers from poor research designs. As is pointed out in the course of the article, future research on transnational public-private partnerships could benefit from well-known IR theories on international institutions, from compliance theories in particular. Applying these IR theories to partnerships opens up the possibility for the systematic comparative research that is necessary to obtain conclusive knowledge about transnational public private partnerships.
Topic:
Development, International Political Economy, Non-Governmental Organization, and Political Economy

535. Reviving Economic Growth in Liberia

Author:
Steve Radelet
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Liberia was decimated by 25 years of gross economic mismanagement and 14 years of brutal civil war. GDP fell by over 90% in less than two decades, one of the largest economic collapses in the world since World War II. This paper explores the challenges in reinvigorating rapid, inclusive, and sustained economic growth in the post-war environment. It stresses the importance of not just reigniting growth, but rebuilding the economy in a way that avoids the substantial income concentration of the past and creates significant economic opportunities to groups that were marginalized and excluded in the past. It examines the new government's progress so far, including the major steps it has taken in its first 18 months and the unique way that it has organized government-donor relations.
Topic:
Development, Government, International Cooperation, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa and Liberia

536. Chinese missile technology control-regime or no regime?

Author:
Niels Aadal Rasmussen
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Since China has an interest in delivery systems of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the main strategic capability available to the country is missile technology, China has a range of ballistic and cruise missile capabilities. China's technology export or proliferation of ballistic missile technology is of particular and serious concern. China has not joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), but has applied for membership and pledged to abide by its main control mechanisms. The Brief concludes that it seems unhelpful to deny China's accession to the MTCR on the grounds of inadequate missile export control, in stead of seeking ways to bring China's missile technology export control policy and infrastructure to the acceptable level. The MTCR in the present international situation appears increasingly less dependent on exclusively bringing likeminded countries inside the regime and more on inclusiveness.
Topic:
Defense Policy, International Political Economy, Science and Technology, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
China

537. State Failure Revisited I: Globalization of Security and Neighborhood Effects, INEF-Report 87

Author:
Tobias Debiel and Daniel Lambach
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
'State failure' has become a part of the global post‐9/11 security calculus. Faltering states are presented as dangers to international stability, as terrorist safe havens and as 'black holes' of global politics. However, the political and academic debate about this phenomenon still leaves much to be desired. This working paper and its companion piece (INEF Report 88/2006) try to revisit the phenomenon from new perspectives. The focus of “State Failure Revisited I” is on the globalization of security and neighborhood effects.
Topic:
Security, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and Terrorism

538. Program for the Study of Biofuels, Poverty and Food Security

Author:
Jikun Huang, Mark Rosengrant, Rosamond Naylor, Walter P. Falcon, David Victor, Kenneth Cassman, and Scott Rozelle
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
The recent global expansion of biofuels production is an intense topic of discussion in both the popular and academic press. Much of the debate surrounding biofuels has focused on narrow issues of energy efficiency and fossil fuel substitution, to the exclusion of broader questions concerning the effects of large-scale biofuels development on commodity markets, land use patterns, and the global poor. There is reason to think these effects will be very large. The majority of poor people living in chronic hunger are net consumers of staple food crops; poor households spend a large share of their budget on starchy staples; and as a result, price hikes for staple agricultural commodities have the largest impact on poor consumers. For example, the rapidly growing use of corn for ethanol in the U.S. has recently sent corn prices soaring, boosting farmer incomes domestically but causing riots in the streets of Mexico City over tortilla prices. Preliminary analysis suggests that such price movements, which directly threaten hundreds of millions of households around the world, could be more than a passing phenomenon. Rapid biofuels development is occurring throughout the developed and developing world, transforming commodity markets and increasingly linking food prices to a volatile energy sector. Yet there remains little understanding of how these changes will affect global poverty and food security, and an apprehension on the part of many governments as to whether and how to participate in the biofuels revolution.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Economics, Globalization, Government, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States and Mexico

539. Defense Monitor, Civil Wars Turned Regional

Author:
Col. Daniel Smith
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
No conventional, state-sponsored opposing armies took to the field of battle in 2006. Nonetheless, the number of overt armed interventions by out-side powers in other nations civil wars increased, illustrating a trend away from conventional armed conflicts and toward more complex civil wars that increasingly transform into larger regional wars.
Topic:
Defense Policy, International Political Economy, and War
Political Geography:
United States

540. Contemporary Chinese Views of Europe

Author:
Karine Lisbonne-de Vergeron
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Undoubtedly, the Chinese currently think of Europe, and of the European Union, primarily in economic terms. Since 2004, the EU has been China's first trading partner, accounting for 15% of its overall external trade in 2006, with a bilateral increase of 25% from 2005. Overall, bilateral trade between China and the EU has increased more than sixty-fold since 1978 to reach nearly €255 billion in 2006. In return, China is the EU's second largest trading partner, after the United States, and in 2006 became the largest source of EU imports, amounting to approximately €192 billion, or 14.4% of the total, a 21% increase from 2005. Over the same period, EU exports to China increased by 23% to approximately €63 billion.
Topic:
Civil Society, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, and Asia