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62. Regional Trade Agreements vs. Multilateral Trading System: A Study of Chinese Interests and Policy Options
- Author:
- Chen Taifeng
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The simultaneous emergence of rapidly developing RTAs and a strengthened and more encompassing MTS attracts worldwide attention. “Complementary Competition” is the very essence of the RTA/MTS relationship. Both compete complementarily in trade liberalization and economic integration initiatives. Since joining the WTO, China has pursued a “three-pronged” economic and trade development strategy of pushing forward regional trade cooperation and bilateral trade cooperation while enhancing multilateral trade and cooperation. After joining the WTO, China has basically developed a spatial landscape of “focusing on Asia-Pacific and reaching out globally” with regard to its participation in the RTA.By participating in RTAs, China can obtain the same benefits of market openness and trade and investment liberalization as other countries do. It is important for China not to act too hastily, but to push forward regional cooperation step by step from adjacent to remote regions and level by level, from easy to difficult regions. Asia is especially important to China, and Asian economic cooperation is the foundation of China's RTA policy.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
63. Implications of a Comprehensive or Integrated Approach for Training in United Nations and African Union Peace Operations
- Author:
- Cedric De Coning
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The mixed findings of a number of recent peacekeeping, humanitarian and peacebuilding evaluation reports and related research, and the poor sustainability of peacebuilding activities undertaken to date, have led to a renewed focus on efforts aimed at improving our ability to undertake meaningful, coherent, coordinated and sustainable peace interventions. For example, the Joint Utstein Study of peacebuilding, which analysed 336 peacebuilding projects implemented by Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway over the past decade, has identified a lack of coherence at the strategic level, what it terms a 'strategic deficit', as the most significant obstacle to sustainable peacebuilding (Smith, 2003:16). That study found that more than 55% of the programmes it evaluated did not show any link to a larger country strategy.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, and United Nations
64. Theoretical Models of Heterogeneity, Growth and Competitiveness
- Author:
- Fulvio Castellacci
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper presents a survey of theoretical models of heterogeneity, growth and competitiveness. We compare two main theoretical traditions, evolutionary economics and mainstream heterogeneity models, in order to investigate whether the incorporation of heterogeneous agents has made the recent wave of mainstream models more similar to the evolutionary modelling style and results. The results of our survey exercise can be summarized as follows. On the one hand, we observe some increasing similarities and converging aspects between the evolutionary and the mainstream approaches to the study of heterogeneity. On the other hand, however, there are still some fundamental differences between them, which mainly relate to the distinct set of theoretical assumptions and methodological frameworks in which these heterogeneity models are set up and rooted. In short, the evolutionary approach emphasizes the complexities of the growth process and makes an effort to provide a realistic description of it, whereas the mainstream approach does instead follow a modelling methodology that emphasizes the analytical power and tractability of the formalization, even if that implies a somewhat simplified and less realistic description of the growth process.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
65. Technological Regimes, Schumpeterian Patterns of Innovation and Firm Level Productivity Growth
- Author:
- Fulvio Castellacci and Jinghai Zheng
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The paper investigates the relationships between technological regimes and firm-level productivity performance, and it explores how such a relationship differs in different Schumpeterian patterns of innovation. The analysis makes use of a rich dataset containing data on innovation and other economic characteristics of a large representative sample of Norwegian firms in manufacturing and service industries for the period 1998-2004. First, we decompose TFP growth into technical progress and efficiency changes by means of data envelopment analysis. We then estimate an empirical model that relates these two productivity components to the characteristics of technological regimes and a set of other firm-specific factors. The results indicate that: (1) TFP growth has mainly been achieved through technical progress, while technical efficiency has on average decreased; (2) the characteristics of technological regimes are important determinants of firm-level productivity growth, but their impacts on technical progress are different from the effects on efficiency change; (3) the estimated model works differently in the two Schumpeterian regimes. Technical progress has been more dynamic in Schumpeter Mark II industries, while efficiency change has been more important in Schumpeter Mark I markets.
- Topic:
- Economics and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Norway
66. Technology Clubs, Technology Gaps and Growth Trajectories
- Author:
- Fulvio Castellacci
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper looks at the convergence clubs literature from a Schumpeterian perspective, and it follows the idea that cross-country differences in the ability to innovate and to imitate foreign technologies determine the existence of clustering, polarization and convergence clubs. The study investigates the characteristics of different technology clubs and the growth trajectories that they have followed over time. The cross-country empirical analysis first explores the existence of multiple regimes in the data by means of cluster analysis techniques. It then estimates a technology-gap growth equation in a dynamic panel model specification. The empirical results identify three distinct technology clubs, and show that these are characterized by remarkably different technological characteristics and growth behavior.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
67. Services Trade and IT-enabled Services: A Case Study of India
- Author:
- B.P. Vani and Meenakshi Rajeev
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Services trade has assumed considerable significance for the Indian economy. The role of IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) is particularly worth mentioning in this context. The growth of this sector has not only helped to improve the current account balance of India, but also generated income and employment. This paper anlyses data on services trade provided by IMF for different countries across the globe and examines India's position in relation to other countries. In particular, the paper compares India's exports of IT and ITES (clubbed together in IMF classification under other business and computer services categories) vis-à-vis some of its competitors in this field as far as international trade is concerned. The paper then looks at the trade in IT-enabled outsourcing services from India and examines the strengths and weaknesses of India as an outsourcing location.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
68. The Sadrists of Basraand the Far South of Iraq The Most Unpredictable Political Force in the Gulf's Oil-Belt Region?
- Author:
- Reidar Visser
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The argument in this paper is two-fold: On the one hand, the oil-rich far south of Iraq has a special potential for radical and unpredictable millenarianism by discontented Sadrists; on the other hand, developments among the Sadrist leadership nationally suggest that many key figures – including Muqtada al-Sadr himself and some of his lieutenants with links to Basra – still prefer a more moderate course and will seek to hold on to a veneer of Shiite orthodoxy as long as possible. Accordingly, the future of the Sadrist movement, including in the far south, will likely be decided by how US and Iraqi government policies develop over coming months. If Washington chooses to support Nuri al-Maliki in an all-out attack against the Sadrists, the response may well be an intensification of unpredictable Mahdist militancy in the far south, in a far more full-blown picture than anything seen so far. There will be no genuine national reconciliation in Baghdad, simply because the centralism of the Sadrists is a necessary ingredient in any grand compromise that can appeal to real Sunni representatives. Conversely, if the Sadrists are encouraged to participate in the next local elections, Amara, where Sadrists have been engaged in local politics since 2005, could emerge as a model of positive Sadrist contributions to local politics in Iraq. At the national level, too, the Sadrists could come to play the same constructive role as that seen in February 2008, when they together with Fadila reached out to Sunni Islamists and secularists to challenge the paralysed Maliki government on a nationalist basis by demanding early provincial elections.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Islam, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Washington, Middle East, Baghdad, and Palestine
69. Moving Beyond the 4Ps – An Integrated Conflict Management System for the African Union.
- Author:
- Cedric H. de Coning
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The 1992 Agenda for Peace was a landmark development in the conflict management field, but it did also produce side-effects. The UN, AU, EU and others have developed conflict management capacities that have encouraged the bureaucratic compartmentalization of the 4Ps across different units and departments. This report introduces an integrated conflict management model that is, instead, focussed on the multi-dimensional (political, security, socio-economic, rule of law and human rights) nature of conflict systems, and the need to coherently combine the collective efforts of a wide range of internal and external actors to build momentum towards peace. The report argues that, in the AU context, such an integrated conflict management model would be more effective and efficient than the existing 4Ps model. The AU, being smaller, newer and more open to further development and capacity building than the UN and EU, has a better chance of breaking free from the inadequacies of the bureaucratic 4Ps model, and adopting an integrated conflict management model.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, International Organization, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe
70. The Mongol Connection: Russia's Asian Entry into European Politics
- Author:
- Iver B. Neumann
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The end of the 15th Century saw what was beginning to be known as Europeans coming into first contact with the 'new world' to their West, and driving the Moor out of Europe to their South. In what contemporaneity thought of as 'the North', i.e. what we would now call the East, a less conspicuous but nonetheless highly consequential development took place. Beyond Poland, a new political entity was making itself felt in such a degree that diplomatic relations had to be sought with it. This was Muscovy, led by Ivan III. Russians shared an experience with Christians in the South Balkans and the South Iberians; they had fresh experience with being ruled by non-Christians, more specifically, by the Mongols who were based in their tent capital Saray at the Volga. I start with a presentation of Mongol and Rus' political organization at the time of the invasion in 1240, and discuss Rus' as a suzeraign system which was part of the Golden Horde empire (which was itself in the early decades part of the Mongol empire). I then ask how, once the Golden Horde fell apart and Muscovy emerged as a separate polity, Muscovy's Mongol connection coloured its entry into the European states system. My conclusion is that, since Muscovy itself chose to seek recognition among other things as successors to the Mongol Golden Horde and since it did so by dint of a number of practices that were taken directly from the Mongols, European powers were warranted in seeing Russia as a partly Asian polity. The argument is framed as a critique of the English School's proclivity for treating sequences such as these as cases of 'expansion of international society'. I attempt to demonstrate that such a perspective cannot account adequately for what should rather be treated as relations between cultures.
- Topic:
- History
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Asia, Poland, and South Iberia