Search

Begin New Search Content Type Journal Article

10741. A Balkan divorce that works? Montenegro's hopeful first year

Author:
Paul Hockenos and Jenni Winterhagen
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Among old Balkan hands, it is said tongue-in-cheek that the surest way to start a war in former Yugoslavia is to hold a referendum on independence. Indeed, in Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia, armed conflict did follow popular votes and declarations of statehood in the early 1990s. But Montenegro, a mountainous republic of just 630,000 in the western Balkans, was and remains different, for a variety of reasons. One year after its declaration of independence, it boasts stability and macroeconomic growth. Yet the question of exactly what kind of democracy Montenegro will be still looms large. The newly independent country is in the process of making critical choices with implications that will impact its political culture for decades to come.
Topic:
Culture
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Croatia

10742. The politics of national security: an unabashed liberal view

Author:
Todd Gitlin
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Is there any question about whether the United States must protect itself against mass murderers who devoutly believe that brutality is their ticket to paradise? The question is silly, or worse. When addressed strictly to progressives, it amounts to a calumny. Why should such a question be asked of liberals alone, and not of the conservatives who ignored warnings when the al-Qaeda plot to massacre thousands was well underway and the country's defenses were down?
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
United States

10743. Red world, Blue world

Author:
Joshua Brook
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Since the 2000 presidential election, political scientists, commentators, and intellectuals have seized on the "red state"/"blue state" divide to explain American politics. The United States is described as a single country with two distinct cultures. Red Americans tend to oppose abortion, regard homosexuality as moral deviance, respect the military, and look kindly on public displays of religious faith. Blue Americans, on the other hand, support environmentalism, abortion rights, gender equality, and gay rights, while opposing militarism and overt displays of patriotism and religious zeal.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States and America

10744. U.S. Small Arms Policy: Having it Both Ways

Author:
Susan Waltz
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Does United States policy indeed represent the gold standard for export controls on small arms, as often asserted? Recent events suggest that it is time for a fresh look at this common claim.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East

10745. Rethinking the "Third World": Talking with Lakhdar Brahimi

Author:
Forrest D. Colburn
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi has a distinguished history in the politics of what has long been known as the "Third World," most of which were once beleaguered colonies of Europe. After the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955--the first coming together of the non-aligned movement--Lakhdar was sent to Indonesia by the National Liberation Front of Algeria to open its first office in Asia.
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Indonesia, Asia, and Algeria

10746. Terrorism and Heroism: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Author:
Milan Hauner
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Sixty-five years ago, on May 27, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi viceroy of the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was assassinated in broad daylight in a Prague suburb by Josef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, two Czechoslovak paratroopers dressed as civilians. Although the assassination had been carefully prepared months in advance, many things went wrong.
Topic:
Terrorism
Political Geography:
Germany

10747. A Very British Coup: How Reza Shah Won and Lost His Throne

Author:
Shareen Blair Brysac
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Tehran, April 25, 1926. The Persian capital is bathed in sun and carpets--Kermans, Kashans, Kashmars--cluster edge to edge, covering balconies and windows. Red, white, and green bunting stretches across the streets and hundreds of pictures of the new monarch, Reza Khan Pahlavi, a former Persian Cossack colonel, hang from scaffolding as he makes his way through a triumphal arch and lines of soldiers to his coronation in his glass carriage a la Cinderella drawn by six horses. Waiting for him in the Gulistan Palace is an Armenian priest smothered in purple velvet, a Turcoman wearing a tunic of rose-red silk, his head wrapped in a great lambswool busby, an assortment of Kurds in fringed silk turbans, Bakhtiari tribesmen sporting black felt hats, and bearded Shiite mullahs in long robes and gigantic turbans.

10748. Brown's Britannia, Warts and All

Author:
Karl E. Meyer
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
To escape New York's summer heat, my wife and I fled to the United Kingdom, only to plunge from the griddle into the washbasin. “Water levels still rising as thousands hit by worst floods in modern British history,” headlined The Guardian (July 24). As if to make American visitors feel right at home, the adjoining headline elaborated: “Ministers warned three years ago over flood defense failings.” Think of it: here is a country not unused to rain and yet its officials were caught by surprise when a 3-inch surge occurring within 60 minutes turned the Midlands into a lake, leaving as many as 350,000 homes without power and/or water. Yet, in shades of FEMA, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government had failed to act on reports in 2004 and 2005 that spoke firmly of the need to overhaul obsolete flood defenses, integrate emergency responses, and coordinate information services.
Political Geography:
New York, United Kingdom, and America

10749. Letter from the Editors - 2007

Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Abstract:
We are pleased to present the 2007 edition of the Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA). Now in its eighteenth year, JPIA publishes the work of graduate students from schools of public and international affairs, providing young scholars with a unique forum to present original research and analysis on issues of domestic and international concern. JPIA also provides an opportunity for professional and intellectual exchange among the members of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA).
Political Geography:
United States

10750. He Who Would Rule: Climate Change in the Arctic and its Implications for U.S. National Security

Author:
Elizabeth L. Chalecki
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Abstract:
Anthropogenic climate change will have its greatest effect on the Arctic, which will experience impacts ranging from increasing ambient air temperature to glacier and sea ice melting to permafrost thaw. This altered environment will result in new national security concerns for circumpolar nations such as the United States, including increased Arctic access by Russia and other nations; competition over newly accessible fossil fuel resources; and loss of Arctic military facilities resulting from permafrost thaw and land subsidence. Although these effects will be felt cumulatively over the coming decades, the United States must make the necessary strategic changes now in order to prevail in this new security environment. The United States should retrain and re-equip military forces for greater Arctic operability, work toward a clear legal understanding of open sea access in newly ice-free waters, and consider implementing a joint circumpolar security apparatus to facilitate adaptation to this new globally-warmed Arctic.
Political Geography:
Russia and United States