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121. Kunibert Raffer, Debt Management for Development. Protection of the Poor and the Millennium Development Goals (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010).

Author:
Martino Bianchi
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The ambiguous behavior of international financial institutions and western government faced with southern and poor countries is a highly discussed topic by social science academics, but it is also quite fashionable in newspapers, in political debate and even in films and narrative books. Less than ten years ago, Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and its discontents was a best seller all over the world, a unique event for a text written by a Nobel Prize winner in Economics. Debt management for development will probably not achieve the same popularity but nevertheless it gives us new and considerable insights. While Stiglitz's contribution was more focused on the impact of the Washington Consensus over poor countries' policies, this contribution is more specifically focused on the inefficiencies created by the mismanagement of high sovereign debt levels.Still, both authors share the idea that international financial institutions are more likely to be counted within the problems rather than with the solutions.
Political Geography:
United Kingdom

122. Evan S. Lieberman, Boundaries of Contagion. How Ethnic Politics Have Shaped Government Responses to AIDS (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).

Author:
Ricardo Pereira
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In Political Science and International Relations scholarship HIV/AIDS as a socio-political phenomenon affecting millions of people worldwide has largely tended to be approached in global terms. Particularly in discussions of contemporary international regimes of security and human rights, HIV/AIDS is associated with the generalized idea that in time of globalization 'there are no boundaries.' Just like the human beings who carry them, viruses circulate apparently uncontrolled across the world. To a large extent, this assertion derives clearly from another, broader, assumption based on the retreat of nation-states, and concomitant expansion of a West-led, hegemonic project of globalization, namely with regard to technologies of management of, and response to, human-related issues. However, national contexts have always been fundamental in global approaches to social intervention.
Topic:
International Relations and Political Violence

123. Stephen E. Frantzich, Citizen Democracy. Political Activists in a Cynical Age. 3rd edition (Lanham, Md.: Rowman Littlefield Publishers, 2008).

Author:
Vadim V. Astashin
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Collaboration with students is quite often a source of interesting research ideas. Teaching in the U.S. Naval Academy, Professor Stephen Frantzich noticed to his great wonder that his students, who would be in government service in future, were cynical about their government. The main task for teacher is “to provide real examples of relatively typical individuals who overcame cynism to affect public well-being”.(p.ix). Academic experience originated interesting research work which would help to prove that government could not ignore the people and had to respond.
Political Geography:
United States

124. Aynsley Kellow and Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen (eds.), The International Politics of Climate Change (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2010).

Author:
Emilian Kavalski
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The problems associated with climate change and their unintended consequences have challenged the capacities for comprehension. At the same time, the issues provoked by environmental degradation tend to evince the fickleness of established models for their management. Equally significantly, the dynamics associated with climate change have come to indicate the pervasive uncertainty of the post-Cold War climate of international interactions and the unpredictability of the emerging global patterns. While not new in themselves, the cumulative effects of intensifying environmental threats have drawn the attention of international relations theory to the complex challenges posed by climate change.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Romania

125. Women in Black: Mobilization into Anti-Nationalist, Anti-Militarist, Feminist Activism in Serbia

Author:
Maria Lis Baiocchi
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article presents a study of mobilization into a specific type of political contention—anti-nationalist, anti-militarist, feminist activism in Serbia. It is based on qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with individuals active in the anti- nationalist, anti-militarist, feminist organization Women in Black conducted in Serbia between April and May 2008. By analyzing the data gathered through the prism of social movement theory, the article identifies specific patterns of mobilization that are facilitated through various structures and mechanisms. These include the various functions of social networks, collective action frames, and collective identity and solidarity incentives—that guarantee sustained participation in Women in Black and the continued existence of anti-nationalist, anti-militarist, feminist political contention even in circumstances of strong social and political repression.
Political Geography:
Serbia

126. The Role of Media in European Identity Formation: Understanding the Complexity of Today's European ;Media Landscape

Author:
Natasa Simeunovic
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This analysis is undertaken in the context of enduring questions in possibility of common European identity. This debate has become urgent over the past decade or so. The question I would like to address here is what is the role of the media in European identity formation? The paper attempts to answer this question through secondary analysis of the data from different research. The challenge is to understand how identity formation takes place in today's European media environment. But, an analytical conception of European identity should be understood as a process rather than a final categorization. Although media in Europe are essentially national, different studies prove that they cover European issues. The media have a key role in advancing our knowledge of Europe. For the formation of collective European identity, a strong European media landscape is a prerequisite.
Political Geography:
Europe

127. Genocide Olympics; The Campaign to pressure China over the Darfur Conflict

Author:
Alexandra Cosima Budabin
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
What is the impact of a domestic-based social movement's efforts to promote international conflict resolution? To end the conflict in Darfur, the US-based Save Darfur Coalition (SDC) has pursued a strategy of international venue-shopping to seek additional sources of leverage on the government of Sudan. The SDC identified China as Sudan's staunch ally in the international arena. During the period leading up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, the SDC and its member organizations explored traditional and innovative channels for pressuring the Chinese government. This article will examine the emergence of China as a target, the development of the China Campaign, and the impact on Chinese foreign policy. The reconstruction of the strategies of the SDC is based on a systematic content analysis of the web sites, organization archival material, and newspaper accounts of activities. The main data source consists of in-depth interviews conducted with SDC leadership, Darfuri activists, Congressional legislative aides, and officials from the Chinese Embassy and the Department of State.
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Sudan

128. Online Campaign Strategy, Web 2.0 Tools, and Voter Preference in the 2008 US Presidential Election

Author:
Tommi Hurme
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Can particular campaign strategies influence voters? How and why do campaigns adopt such strategies and how do these strategies help the campaign effort? Using journalistic and professional accounts to describe Barack Obama's and John McCain's presidential campaigns and their online strategies focused on Web 2.0 tools, the author argues that Obama's strategy was more innovative, comprehensive, and gave him an advantage in online campaigning over McCain. Using polling data from the Pew Research Center's Mid-October Election Survey, the extent to which voter engagement with campaign Web sites in fostering candidate support is presented. The study claims that campaign strategies do have an effect on voter preferences and that engaging with candidates via their Web sites greatly increases partisan voter support for candidates.
Political Geography:
United States

129. "Whose Affirmative Actions is Affirmative?" Lessons from Tanzania

Author:
Alexander Boniface Makulilo
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Elections in Tanzania have resulted into the underrepresentation of women in the formal decision making organs particularly the parliament. To address this problem the government introduced women special seats as one of the ways to empower women to participate in making decisions that affect their concerns. The threshold level for such special seats was set at 15 percent in the 1995 elections, 20 percent in the 2000 elections and it was increased to 30 percent of all the parliamentary seats in the 2005 elections. This article argues that while there is a positive trend in terms of the numerical representation via an affirmative action system, the same is yet to be owned by women themselves. The affirmative action in Tanzania is strategically used to divide women and to further the interests of political parties, particularly the ruling party. Thus, women struggles for their inclusion in the formal decision making organs should simultaneously demand for the need to owning the affirmative action itself.
Political Geography:
Tanzania

130. Stuart Mitchell, The Brief and Turbulent Life of Modernising Conservatism

Author:
Konstantin Kilibarda
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Stuart Mitchell's foray into the first decades of post-World War II British history is a welcome addition for those scholars who took an interest in the burgeoning historiography of this period. Mitchell's main focus is on the administrations of Harold Macmillan (1957-1963) and Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-1964), whose brand of 'modernizing Conservatism' antagonized both traditionalists and neoliberals within the Conservative Party. Mitchell thus seeks to painstakingly illuminate Macmillan's attempts to 'modernize' Britain during a period when its postwar consensus – dictated by the 1944 White Paper on Employment Policy - was beginning to unravel.
Political Geography:
Britain