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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Publication Year within 25 Years

421. Iran Is Not an Island: A Strategy to Mobilize the Neighbors

Author:
George Perkovich
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
With luck, Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons could be delayed through a combination of Iranian technical difficulties, U.S. military action, and European diplomacy. However, neither delay nor regime change would remove the causes of proliferation pressures in Iran. Iran needs to be assured that the U.S. will respect its autonomy if it ceases nuclear weapons development, while Iran's neighbors need to be reassured that Tehran will respect their interests. Arab governments are reluctant to join in a regional security dialogue in part because of Washington's double standard regarding Israel's nuclear arsenal and treatment of Palestinians. To mobilize all of the international actors opposing Iranian nuclear development, the U.S. must recognize that Iranian proliferation, Persian Gulf security, the U.S. role in the Middle East, Israel's nuclear status, and Palestinian-Israeli relations are all linked and cannot be resolved without a more balanced U.S. stance.
Topic:
Diplomacy and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Iran, Middle East, Israel, Tehran, Palestine, and Persia

422. Post-Election Iraq: Facing the Constitutional Challenge

Author:
Nathan J. Brown
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Iraq's newly elected National Assembly (NA) will soon take up its major task—although hardly its only one—of drafting a permanent constitution. The task is to be completed in time to submit the draft constitution to a national plebiscite by October 15, 2005.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

423. How Russia is Not Ukraine: The Closing of Russian Civil Society

Author:
Maria Lipman
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The revolutionary events in Ukraine in November–December 2004 highlighted the absence of checks and balances in the Russian political system. What happened in Ukraine is inconceivable in today's Russia.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Asia

424. Political Alternation, Regardless of Ideology, Diminishes Influence Buying: Lessons from Transitions in Former Communist States

Author:
Karla Hoff, Shale Horowitz, and Branko Milanovic
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The Relationship between Alternation in Power and Governance: In many countries, for many firms, it is more profitable to pay off influential politicians to obtain property rights protection à la carte than to rely on existing rules of the game, or to support new institutions that would provide general protection of property rights. This is particularly likely to be the case in the early stages of economic liberalization and the transition to democracy, when state institutions and legal systems are too weak to check executive power, legal boundaries on corruption are not well-defined, and institutions to protect private property rights may be undeveloped. What factors can make influence buying less profitable? The most direct way to break the grip on state power of private interests is through the alternation of officeholders with new political players. Businesses often have “dedicated” relationships with specific political parties or politicians, but if “their” party or leader loses power, businesses' investments in influence may be wasted, since the new officeholders will not be beholden to them and may even punish them. It is true that when businesses expect political turnover, they may respond by trying to influence the entire political spectrum of parties. But attempting to influence all political players is prohibitively costly if there are many parties with widely different political ideologies. In that case, the most successful strategy for influence seekers would be to accept more transparent and equitable rules of competition and checks on arbitrary state action—a rule of law.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Government
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

425. A Better Way to Support Middle East Reform

Author:
Thomas Carothers
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), an important component of the Bush administration's policy of promoting Middle East reform, is falling short. MEPI should be relaunched as a private foundation funded by the government, akin to the Asia Foundation or the Eurasia Foundation. Such a relaunch would permit MEPI to develop greater expertise in the region, use more flexible, effective aid methods, and gain some independence from other U.S. programs and policies that serve conflicting ends. The restructuring of MEPI should be part of a broader set of measures to establish a more visible, coherent institutional policy structure to pursue the critical goal of fundamental political and economic change in the Middle East.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Eurasia, Middle East, and Asia

426. The Dangers of Political Exclusion: Egypt's Islamist Problem

Author:
Bassma Kodmani
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN in recent years about Islam and politics, Islam and democracy, and Islam's compatibility with the requirements of modernity. These debates cannot be settled conclusively by referring to the holy texts, because such texts lend themselves to conflicting interpretations. This paper, therefore, takes a different approach. Using Egypt as a case study, it focuses not on the relationship between Islam and politics in the abstract, but on the relationship between religious authority and political authority as it unfolds in practice. It outlines the motivations, interests, strategies, and agendas of the institutions that represent and speak for Islam and those that represent the state and act in its name. The interaction between them is a mix of complicity and rivalry that has profound effects on Egyptian society, the Egyptian state, and its relationship with the outside world.
Topic:
Islam, Politics, Religion, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Africa and Egypt

427. Why Did the Poorest Countries Fail to Catch Up?

Author:
Branko Milanovic
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
DURING THE PAST TWENTY YEARS, THE POOREST COUNTRIES of the world have fallen further behind the middle-income and rich countries. The median per capita growth of the poorest countries was zero. This is an unexpected outcome because, from the perspective of economic theory, both globalization and economic-policy convergence imply that poor countries should grow faster than the rich. The main reasons why this has not happened lie in poor countries' much greater likelihood of being involved in wars and civil conflicts. This factor alone accounts for an income loss of about 40 percent over twenty years. Slower reforms in poor countries compared with faster reforms in middle-income countries played some, albeit a minimal, role. Increased flows from multilateral lenders did not help either because the net effect of the flows on growth rates is estimated to have been zero. Finally, neither democratization nor better educational attainment of the population can be shown to have had any notable positive impact on poor countries' growth. Reducing the prevalence of conflict seems to be the first and most important step toward restoring growth.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, Poverty, and Third World

428. Legalism Sans Frontières?: U.S. Rule-of-Law Aid in the Arab World

Author:
David M. Mednicoff
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE IN RULE-OF-LAW PROMOTION, above all the basic question of whether Western rule-of-law aid programs are on the right track to help build the rule of law in recipient countries, is especially acute in the Arab world. Arab states generally share two features that render external rule-of-law aid particularly difficult—long-standing nondemocratic governments, and legal systems that graft Ottoman, European, and contemporary sources onto Islamic norms. We cannot presume that U.S. common-law practitioners can build the rule of law by transporting or transplanting their technocratic techniques into such different legal soil. Indeed, the very idea that people in Arab societies would be receptive to American guidance in legal reform is dubious in the current climate of broad, popular mistrust of the United States.
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Arabia, and Arab Countries

429. Cambodia Blazes A New Path To Economic Growth and Job Creation

Author:
Sandra Polaski
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
A UNIQUE AND SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL POLICY EXPERIMENT has been under way in Cambodia for the last six years. In the country's export apparel factories, working conditions and labor rights are monitored by inspectors from the International Labor Organization (ILO), an international public organization. The results of the inspections are published in credible, highly transparent reports that describe in detail whether the factories are in compliance with national labor laws and internationally agreed basic labor rights. These reports are published on the Internet, and a range of Cambodian and international actors use them. The U.S. government uses the reports as a key input for decisions under an innovative scheme that allows Cambodian firms to sell more apparel in the U.S. market if they improve working conditions and respect workers' rights. Private retail apparel firms that buy from Cambodian factories also use the reports. These buyers, conscious of their brand reputations, use the reliable information they find in the reports to steer orders toward compliant factories and away from noncompliant ones.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia

430. The Complexity of Success: The U.S. Role in Russian Rule of Law Reform

Author:
Matthew J. Spence
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
MIXED RESULTS FROM THE PROLIFERATION OF WESTERN RULE OF LAW assistance over the past twenty years has taught us much about what efforts do not work. Criminal justice reform in Russia offers a different type of lesson; it is a rare success story of rule of law promotion. In the 1990s, the U.S. government sought to promote the rule of law in many parts of the former Soviet Union and beyond, but few of these efforts outside Russia produced concrete results. Instead, lawlessness became a primary symptom of the apparent failure of many attempted rule of law reforms in the former Soviet Union.
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Europe