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11. Thinking the Twentieth Century

Publication Date:
06-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
This is an extraordinary book by two extraordinary thinkers. Diagnosed with a terminal illness that made the use of his hands impossible, the eminent historian and public intellectual Tony Judt agreed to an unusual project: a series of free-flowing conversations with fellow historian Timothy Snyder, organized topically around areas of mutual interest, such as the intellectual history of twentieth-century Europe and the history of and future prospects for social democracy in Europe and North America. Snyder, whose groundbreaking 2010 book Bloodlands established him as one of the most important historians of European history working in the English language, serves as the interlocutor here, encouraging (and at times nudging) Judt to expand upon many of the themes of his earlier books and essays, such as Reappraisals, Ill Fares the Land, and the monumental Postwar.
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

12. Clean Trade in Natural Resources

Author:
Leif Wenar
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
The "resource curse" can strike countries that derive a large portion of their national income from exporting high-value natural resources, such as oil, gas, metals, and gems. Resource-exporting countries are subject to four overlapping curses: they are more prone to authoritarianism, they tend to suffer more corruption, they are at a higher risk for civil wars, and they exhibit greater economic instability. The correlations between resources and such pathologies as authoritarianism, corruption, civil conflict, and economic dysfunction are evident in the list of the five major African oil exporters: Algeria, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, and Sudan. The recent histories of mineral exporters support the correlations: for example, "blood diamonds" fueled Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war, and the continuing conflict in the metal-rich eastern Congo has caused up to 6 million deaths. The phenomenon is not solely African: Burma, Yemen, and Turkmenistan, for example, are also resource cursed. Moreover, poor governance in resource-cursed countries can engender follow-on pathologies, such as a propensity to cause environmental damage both domestically (for example, through the destruction of forests) and globally (through increased greenhouse gas emissions). Most research on the resource curse has focused on the institutions of exporting countries. This essay focuses instead on importing countries, especially those in North America and Europe. I survey how the resource curse impedes core interests of importing states. I then discuss how the policies of importing states drive the resource curse, and how these policies violate their existing international commitments. The second half of the paper describes a policy framework for importing states that can improve international trade in resources for both importers and exporters.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Burma, North America, Nigeria, and Angola

13. "Protectors of Privacy: Regulating Personal Data in the Global Economy" by Abraham L. Newman

Author:
Judith Wagner DeCew
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Abraham Newman has written a thoughtful and provocative book about the protection of privacy and how it has evolved in two dramatically different ways in the European Union and the United States over the past 50 years.
Topic:
Intellectual Property/Copyright
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

14. Just War, Jihad, and the Study of Comparative Ethics

Author:
John Kelsay
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
What can the study of the comparative ethics tell us about the similarities and divergences between the just war and jihad traditions? How can the discipline help locate shared concerns, identify persistent differences, and reveal common narratives?
Topic:
Islam and Culture
Political Geography:
America and Europe

15. "A Cosmopolitanism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini's Writings on Democracy, Nation Building, and International Relations" Edited by Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati

Author:
Daniel Voelsen
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Editors Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati assemble a new collection of original texts by Giuseppe Mazzini, a 19th century Italian activist-philosopher who, despite being almost forgotten today, was a prominent and prescient voice for republicanism and liberal nationalism.
Political Geography:
Europe

16. The Politics of Punishing Terrorists [Full Text]

Author:
Anthony F. Lang, Jr.
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Debates about trying and punishing terrorists reveal how the failure to construct a shared normative consensus in international criminal justice continues to bedevil the international community. The only way to achieve this consensus is to engage in the messy business of politics.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
United States, New York, and Europe

17. Public Accountability and the Public Sphere of International Governance

Author:
Jens Steffek
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
After long and awkward negotiations, on November 19, 2009, the heads of state and government of the European Union finally nominated Catherine Ashton as the Union's new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security. The next day an Internet user nicknamed ''hoeckt'' posted the following comment on a popular German news site: This morning I listened to an interview with [Ashton] on B5 [radio station] and was flabbergasted. She has already understood how they work at the EU level. She wants to do diplomacy the silent way, which to me means that there will be no transparency; nobody will know what she is doing, and how. And hence nobody will be able to judge success or failure of her actions.
Topic:
Security and Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Hong Kong

18. Briefly Noted

Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
Topic:
Security and Development
Political Geography:
Africa, New York, and Europe

19. Briefly Noted

Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
“When meaning is drawn from killing,” observes Timothy Snyder, “the risk is that more killing would bring more meaning.” Although Nazism and Stalinism are ostensibly separated by an ideological gulf, this brute fact binds the human nightmares unleashed by both. As Snyder notes, both Stalin and Hitler saw themselves as victims of an international conspiracy—for Stalin, the threat was capitalist encirclement and infiltration; for Hitler, it was the cosmic menace of the Jewish people—which thus justified the wanton slaughter of millions of innocent people according to a logic of self-defense. For both men, killing became self-justifying, leading to more murder, and more death.
Political Geography:
Europe

20. Categorizing Groups, Categorizing States: Theorizing Minority Rights in a World of Deep Diversity

Author:
Will Kymlicka
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Since 1989 we have witnessed a proliferation of efforts to develop international norms of the rights of ethnocultural minorities, such as the UN's 1992 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, the Council of Europe's 1995 Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and the Organization of American States' 1997 draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This activity at the level of international law is reflected in a comparable explosion of interest in minority rights among normative political theorists. In the same twenty-year period we have seen a proliferation of attempts at formulating a normative theory of minority rights and examining how minority rights relate to broader political values (such as freedom, equality, democracy, and citizenship) and broader normative frameworks (such as liberalism, communitarianism, and republicanism). Key works here include those by Charles Taylor, Jim Tully, Iris Young, Jeff Spinner-Halev, Bhikhu Parekh, Yael Tamir, Joseph Carens, Susan Okin, and Anne Phillips—a rich literature that has informed and inspired my own work in the field.
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe