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41. The Economics of CO2 Mitigation: the Stern Review and its critics

Author:
Marilyn Power
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
The debate surrounding Global Warming and potential policies to curve its consequences has been ever-growing in noise and status. Sir Nicholas Stern's Review on the Economics of Climate Change in 2006 stimulated more debate and research with its conclusions of immediate policy action based on cost-benefit techniques; its critics coming from both the mainstream and ecological economic backgrounds. This paper will examine Stern Review's use of discounting in environmental cost-benefit analysis, its critiques, and possible alternatives to analyze the economic understandings of global warming. And, in the end, it will tie together the above economics to the political atmosphere of today.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Globalization, and Political Economy

42. Conflict Prevention and Development Cooperation

Author:
Robert Picciotto and Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Violent conflicts are concentrated in the countries farthest behind in achieving the MDGs. Much work has been done to develop a better understanding of conflicts and their relationship to development, but the development community has yet to engage fully with the need for new policy approaches that can help prevent conflict. Structural conditions that increase vulnerability to political violence and conflict are rarely addressed by current conflict prevention policy work. Without addressing the root causes, sustainable peace cannot be achieved. Surprisingly few studies have analyzed the contribution of aid to the full human security agenda and the current aid policy framework still favors countries with institutional and policy characteristics that are deemed to generate good growth performance. As a consequence, many fragile states (who are also the most vulnerable) have ended up with limited little donor support. A systematic study of aid in relation to conflict prevention is proposed as a policy objective to help fill a significant dimension of the current knowledge gap. Specifically, this project will seek to demonstrate that only by targeting structural risks and state fragility will development cooperation achieve human security. Engagement with fragile states requires a coherent combination of aid and non-aid policies in areas such as international trade and debt.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Development, International Cooperation, and War

43. The Strategic Triad: Form and Content in Brazil's Triangular Cooperation Practices

Author:
Adriana Erthal Abdenur
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Triangular cooperation, in which two countries form a partnership to lend technical assistance to a third country, is a growing model of technical cooperation in the developing world. Why do developing countries participate in triangular cooperation, and how are these arrangements different from bilateral and multilateral linkages? An analysis of Brazilian triangular cooperation arrangements reveals that, in addition to offering pragmatic solutions, triangular cooperation is a tactic for national self-promotion within a broader strategy of foreign relations. The spread of triangular cooperation marks a shift in both the configuration and politics of international cooperation networks.
Topic:
International Relations, International Cooperation, and Politics
Political Geography:
Brazil and Latin America

44. Unequal Development in the 1990s: Growing Gaps in Human Capabilities

Author:
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and David Stewart
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
This paper assesses poverty trends by using human development outcomes rather than by using income measures alone. It shows that the decade of the 1990s was a decade of prosperity and progress for the world but also of development disaster for many of the world's poorest countries where key indicators of human development not only failed to progress but began to register reversals based on both income and capability indicators. The paper goes on to identify the poorest performing countries and examines their characteristics. These characteristics suggest common constraints that they face, constraints that merit attention in the fight against global poverty.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Poverty

45. Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of the US War on Terror

Author:
David Gold
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
In October of 2003, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a memo to his top advisers asking how we would know whether the US was winning the Global War on Terror. This question may have been mistimed but it was perfectly appropriate. In this paper, I use the framework of cost-benefit analysis to identify some of the issues that would need to be addressed in order to answer Rumsfeld's question. The most difficult issue is that there is no accepted definition as to what constitutes victory, or success, so there is no way to identify the ultimate benefits. Available evidence does suggest that while there are numerous identifiable sources of costs, it is far less clear where the benefits are located. The conclusion, necessarily qualitative in nature, is that the costs have been many and the benefits few.
Topic:
National Security, Political Economy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East

46. Shared Knowledge, Joint Pursuits: International Relations Beyond the Age of Information

Author:
Sean Costigan and Christopher Pallaris
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
This paper offers an initial attempt to examine international relations (IR) in light of the ongoing information revolution and recent developments in knowledge sharing and educational instruction. Chiefly, it argues for a greater appreciation of the way in which knowledge and learning are shaping the security agenda and the course of international affairs. It urges the IR and security community to make greater use of open learning environments and open source methodologies as a means of knowledge creation, acquisition and delivery. Finally, it advocates the teaching and cultivation of new skills for individuals working in international affairs.
Topic:
International Relations, National Security, Political Economy, and Science and Technology

47. Justice and Developing Country Debt

Author:
Barry Herman
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
This paper draws on recent discussions by lawyers, theologians, philosophers and economists to reach some conclusions about the just international treatment of the government over-indebtedness and insolvencies that have occurred and recurred many times in many developing countries. It asks what should be considered “fair” expectations in the relationship of government borrowers and their lenders. It also considers some proposed reforms in the international treatment of sovereign borrowing and debt that are prompted by the ethical analyses.
Topic:
International Relations, Debt, Development, and Post Colonialism