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1611. Making Sense of China's Economic Transformation

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
China's sustained rapid economic growth over the post-1978 reform era, which is also the era of globalisation, is of worldwide importance. This growth experience has been based mainly on China's internal dynamics. In the first half of the era, economic growth was propelled by improvement in both allocative efficiency and productive efficiency. From the early 1990s until the present time, however, economic growth has been increasingly based on dynamic increasing returns associated with a growth path that is characterised by capital deepening. In both periods, the growth paths and their associated long-term-oriented institutions contradict principles of the free market economy - i.e., doctrines of globalisation. In the form of an analytical overview, this article seeks to explain and interpret the historical background, logic of evolution, and developmental and social implications of China's economic transformation. The analytics draws on a range of relevant economic theories including Marxian theory of economic growth, Post-Keynesian theory of demand determination, and Neo-Schumpeterian theory of innovation. It is posited that these alternative theoretical perspectives offer better insights than mainstream neoclassical economics in explaining and interpreting China's economic transformation.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China

1612. Export-Oriented Policies, Women's Work Burden and Human Development in Mauritius

Author:
Myriam Blin
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper, looking at the case study of Mauritius, attempts to understand the factors affecting the relationship between EOP, women's work burden along different social backgrounds. The analysis is based on between-method triangulation consisting of a quantitative survey in the industrial sector and a qualitative survey in the industrial and services sectors. The main result shows that women and the social reproductive process were not affected in the same way depending on the socio- professional background of the woman.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Mauritius

1613. Sécurité et stabilité dans le Sahel africain

Author:
Medi Taje
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
«Rivage aride d'une mer abandonnée», ainsi que l'évoque Jean Gallais (1984) , le Sahel africain, terme d'origine arabe, désigne traditionnellement le rivage ou la bordure méridionale du désert. Géographiquement, le Sahel africain, s'étendant de l'Océan Atla ntique à la mer Rouge fait la transition entre le Sahara, plus grand dés ert du monde où il est impossible de cultiver, et la savane où, à la f aveur d'une pluviométrie suffisante, l'homme est en mesure de développer un e agriculture, même rudimentaire. Les risques climatiques, source s de sécheresse et d'une insécurité alimentaire chronique, caractéri sent ce champ aux limites floues et mouvantes.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Development
Political Geography:
Africa

1614. Russia's Quest for Strategic Identity

Author:
Stanislav Secrieru
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Since the end of the Cold War, post-Soviet Russia has experienced a profound crisis of strategic identity. Previously a self- sufficient and autonomous international actor, post-Soviet Russia not only had to rethink its domestic political and economic organizational model in depth, but also had to “confront the most significant transformation of its surrounding strategic environment in the past five centuries – the greatest change since the rise of Muscovy.” Russia was challenged not only by the losses of strategically pivotal terrestrial and maritime strongholds, and the rise of powerful actors in its immediate vicinity, but also faced profound changes in the entire international political framework with blurred prospects for the future world order.
Topic:
International Relations, NATO, and Development
Political Geography:
Russia and Soviet Union

1615. Defense Reform and the Russian Navy

Author:
Yuri Krupnov
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
As recently as 1991 Russia maintained one of the world's largest military establishments. Moscow's powerful armed forces included one of the largest nuclear weapons arsenals. Owing to the profound political, economic and geostrategic transformation that Russia has experienced since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian armed forces have gone through a terrible crisis. The consequences of this crisis persist today. The Russian armed forces must, therefore, continue implementing reforms to deal with the new internal situation and the international security environment.
Topic:
International Relations, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:
Russia, Soviet Union, and Moscow

1616. A Roadmap for Ukraine's Integration into Transatlantic Structures

Author:
Oksana Kozlovska
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Ukraine's return to Europe, or in other words the process of its becoming a member of key international organizations – namely the EU and NATO – appeared to be complicated, lasting and far from any romantic notions. Besides the need for consensus from society as a whole and from the Ukrainian leadership, appropriate governmental and parliamentary decisions were also required; these factors demonstrating the necessity of serious, internal changes in all spheres of state activity. In practical terms, the basis for these requirements remains to be established: a mutual understanding of key questions of state life, national and international security, internal and foreign policy priorities.
Topic:
International Relations, NATO, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Ukraine

1617. Promoting Sustainable Security

Author:
Jean Dufourcq(ed.) and Laure Borgomano-Loup (ed)
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
War has vanished; it seems to have disappeared from the mental landscape of the Western world. War, that is, as it was understood in the 19th and 20th centuries, as conflict between nation-states and organized societies for the defence or conquest of territory and wealth, the establishment of empires or the imposition of ideologies by force. When the Second World War ended, the Western victors attempted to outlaw war by means of collective regulators and the restrictive provisions of the San Francisco Charter concerning individual and collective legitimate defence. And then these very peoples, armed to the teeth for the cold war, developed the art of strategy and sophisticated weapons of destruction to such a point that, unwittingly, it seems, they domesticated war. The huge-scale disasters that the destructive power of the atom was now able to inflict made war unthinkable. Thus the cold war ended in a strategic stalemate, without a shot being fired. War quietly fell into discredit, as Western states, conditioned by centuries of national wars, border fighting and national defensive postures against neighbouring countries, slowly began to shift the focus to collective security to protect common interests, and policies on disarmament and prevention of proliferation in whatever form it took. In doing so, they exposed themselves to a potential new hazard: the danger that war might return, via other routes, to the heart of the Western world.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Development, and Peace Studies

1618. Global Lessons and Best Practices: Fighting Corruption and Promoting the Rule of Law Through Transparency, Openness and Judicial Independence

Author:
Keith Henderson
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
IFES believes all countries, including China, should publish an annual State of the Judiciary Report that will serve as both an internal and external tool that can be used by multiple stakeholders for multiple purposes, including promoting and systematically reporting on needed reforms and key issues. It should be disseminated to the public at large, as well as to targeted stakeholders, such as the business and human rights communities, bar associations, judges, reformers, policy-makers and donors. We believe the publication and distribution of the report will increase the quality and quantity of concrete information on the judiciary, more transparency, accountability and public awareness, qualitative comparative research and valuable cross-country lessons learned and judicial competition. We invite and challenge you to demonstrate your firm commitment to the important task ahead.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, and Democratization
Political Geography:
China

1619. Corruption in China: Half-way Over the Great Wall

Author:
Keith Henderson
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The legal-judicial transformation taking place behind China's Great Wall outpaces most other developing and transitional countries, but is reaching a critical crossroads. If the pace of judicial reform is maintained and implemented, it has the potential to impact on China and the world's future as much as the economic reforms of the last two decades, if not more so. The judicial system is emerging as a key institution in the reform process, and key decisions related to judicial independence in coming years will largely determine China's stature and place within the global community, and the government's relationship with its citizens. 1 In a relatively short period of time, new criminal, civil and administrative law codes, anti- corruption laws, as well as thousands of judicial, economic and administrative regulations have either been passed, repealed or undergone substantial reform. Property rights and institutional reforms have also been enshrined in the constitution, an important Judges Law professionalising the judiciary has been passed and a number of important treaties have now been ratified. For the first time in modern Chinese history, the courts and legal profession are slowly but surely emerging as important, professional institutions with growing power. The main question of the day is whether China's leaders will now make the structural, judicial and political reforms necessary to address corruption and create an independent judiciary – albeit with Chinese characteristics.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, and Democratization
Political Geography:
China

1620. Post-Election Report on the 2006 Presidential and Local Council Elections in Yemen

Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The simultaneous presidential, governorate council and local council elections in 2006 made them the most technically complex ever held in Yemen. For the first time in the region, a head of state faced a credible opponent in a competitive electoral contest.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, and Democratization
Political Geography:
Africa and Yemen