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1232. Double-Edged Prices: Lessons from the food price crisis
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The recent sharp increase in food prices should have benefited millions of poor people who make their living from agriculture. However, decades of misguided policies by developing country governments on agriculture, trade, and domestic markets - often promoted by international financial institutions and supported by donor countries - have prevented poor farmers and rural workers from reaping the benefits of higher commodity prices. As a result, the crisis is hurting poor producers and consumers alike, threatening to reverse recent progress on poverty reduction in many countries. To help farmers get out of poverty while protecting poor consumers, developing country governments, with the support of donors, should invest now into smallholder agriculture and social protection.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, and Poverty
1233. A Holistic Approach for Promoting the Rule of Law
- Author:
- Josef Bucher
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
- Abstract:
- The world has become smaller as a result of globalization tendencies, making the establishment of a global order more important than ever. Nations have become closer. Hence, the intensive relations between countries must be increasingly protected by legal security. In order to stabilise this global order, also intra-state relations must be subjected to the protection of the law. The rule of law has thus become a central element of successful globalisation on two different levels.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Civil Society, Globalization, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and International Law
- Political Geography:
- Asia
1234. Constitutional and Succession Crisis in West Africa: The Case of Togo
- Author:
- Adewale Banjo
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- African Journal of Legal Studies
- Institution:
- The Africa Law Institute
- Abstract:
- The politics of succession in post-independence West Africa has left much to be desired and, by extension, has affected the quality of democracy and human security in the sub-region. This article briefly assesses succession politics in Togo, a small West African nation of approximately 5 million people, following the death of President Gnassingbe Eyadema, one of Africa\'s longest serving dictators. The author describes the military takeover and subsequent election that legitimized the illegal take over of power by Eyadema\'s son despite sustained domestic opposition from politicians and civil society, as well as sub-regional, regional and international condemnation of a Constitutional "coup d\'etat" in Togo. The article concludes that the succession crisis in Togo is far from over, given the continuing manipulation of what the author calls the geo-ethnic divide in that country.
- Topic:
- International Relations
- Political Geography:
- Africa
1235. War and Peace in Early Modern East Asia: Hierarchy and Legitimacy in International Systems
- Author:
- David C. Kang
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
- Abstract:
- Between 1368 and 1841 – almost five centuries – there were only two wars between China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. These Sinicized states crafted stable relations with each other, and most of the violence and instability arose between these states and the nomadic peoples to the north and west of China and Korea. Building on the “new sovereignty” research in international relations, I argue that the status quo orientation of China and established boundaries created a loose hierarchy within anarchy that had much to do with the period of peace. Built on a mix of legitimate authority and material power, the China-derived international order provided clear benefits to secondary states, and also contained credible commitments by China not to exploit secondary states that accepted its authority. Korean, Vietnamese, and even Japanese elites consciously copied Chinese institutional and discursive practices to craft stable relations with China, not to challenge it. International systems based on legitimacy and hierarchy are not unique to early modern East Asia, and incorporating these insights into our theories of international society has implications for the contemporary world as well.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, War, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, Israel, Asia, and Vietnam
1236. States and Rules, Norms and Interests
- Author:
- Ian Hurd
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The conventional separation in IR theory between instrumental behavior and legitimated norms as explanations for state action has discouraged the study of phenomena that include both. As a result important practices including hypocrisy, norm violation, and the strategic reinterpretation of rules and laws are under-examined. The source of the problem is the idea of 'internalization' of external rules and norms, which has come to define the distinction between rationalism and constructivism in IR, and between the logics of appropriateness and of consequences. I argue that internalization is problematic for empirical research in IR because it eliminates the possibility of strategic thinking by states in relation to international norms and rules. It leaves no room for instrumentalism around norms and so cannot account for norm violation, the strategic manipulation of norms, and the productive process of norm innovation. This is a problem equally for rationalism and constructivism. I argue for an alternative model that focuses on the practice of invoking international norms and rules and show that this approach allows new insight into the agent-structure problem, the relation between states and rules in world politics, and the relation between rationalism and constructivism.
- Topic:
- International Relations, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and Political Theory
1237. Solidarism or Pluralism? Political Ideas of the American Union and the European Union
- Author:
- Robert Jackson
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
- Abstract:
- Writing in the late 18th century Edmund Burke characterized the British East India Company as "a state disguised as a merchant." What, in these terms, is the United States? Is it an empire disguised as a republic dis guised as a democracy? What is Canada? Is it an international system disguised as a confederation disguised as a federation? What, finally, is the European Union? It is somewhat ambiguous. But I shall argue that it is an international organization thinly disguised as a political community.
- Topic:
- International Relations, International Organization, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Europe
1238. East Asian regionalism: Much ado about nothing?
- Author:
- John Ravenhill
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian National University Department of International Relations
- Abstract:
- In the decade since the financial crises, East Asia has become the most active site in the world for the negotiation of preferential trade agreements. Region-wide functional collaboration now goes substantially beyond trade, however, ranging across such areas as financial cooperation, disaster management, transborder crime, tourism, energy and environmental issues.
- Topic:
- International Relations, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Israel and Asia
1239. The politics of post-trauma emotions: Securing community after the Bali bombing
- Author:
- Emma Hutchison
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian National University Department of International Relations
- Abstract:
- This paper examines how traumatic events can influence the constitution of identity and community in international relations. It demonstrates that emotions are central to how individuals and societies experience and work through the legacy of catastrophe. Often neglected in scholarly analysis of international relations, emotions can become pivotal sites for the renewal of political stability and social control. Key to this process are practices of representation. They provide individual experiences of trauma with a collective and often international dimension. They often smooth over feelings of shock and terror and unite individuals in a spirit of shared experience and mutual understanding. The paper illustrates the ensuing dynamics by examining the media's portrayal of the Bali bombing of 12 October 2002. Focusing on photographs and the stories that accompany them, the paper shows how representations of trauma may provide a sense of collective solace that can, in turn, underwrite the emotional dynamics of a political community.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Political Violence, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Israel and Australia/Pacific
1240. Raymond Aron and the morality of realism
- Author:
- MURIELLE COZETTE
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian National University Department of International Relations
- Abstract:
- The realism school of thought in international relations is often accused of presenting politics as an autonomous sphere which does or should exclude ethical considerations, and of providing a tragic vision of politics which precludes any belief in progress. These accusations are particularly misplaced when applied to Raymond Aron, a leading classical realist whose insights are rarely investigated in the discipline. The article challenges the perception of Aron as a 'mainstream' classical realist and emphasises the distinctiveness of his formulation of realism by focusing on his views on ethics, politics and progress. It demonstrates that Aron promotes a 'morality of wisdom' which gives a central place to the defence of values alongside considerations of power. He also provides a definition of survival which stresses the importance of shared values for the existence of political communities, and consequently the need to uphold them even though ethical perfection cannot be achieved in the political sphere. Aron's ideas are finally underpinned by Kantian elements. Advocating not so much faith in a determined future, but rather hope sustained by reason, his realism provides a middle ground between moralism and cynicism. Aron therefore provides a very distinctive European version of realism which demonstrates the richness of realist arguments upon morality, politics and progress.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Government, International Political Economy, Politics, and Political Theory