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42. See No Evil: South Korean Labor Practices in North Korea
- Author:
- Marcus Noland
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Economic engagement between South and North Korea is often justified as a means of encouraging economic and social evolution in North Korea, with the ultimate goal of national unification. The South has invested heavily in the North, and firms have employed more than 50,000 workers. Yet expectations of a transformational impact rest on unexamined assumptions. The North recognizes the Trojan horse nature of the engagement policy: results of an original survey of South Korean employers show that the North Korean government has largely circumscribed the exposure of its citizens to both South Koreans and market-oriented economic practices, in the process violating labor rights defined by covenants to which both countries belong. The problem seems intractable, given that South Korea's diplomatic commitment to engagement with North Korea trumps labor rights concerns and South Korean firms perceive that the North Korean status quo confers benefits. As the experience of labor rights movements elsewhere shows, conditions will likely improve only if an aroused citizenry—here, the South Koreans—demands change.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Economics, Human Rights, Bilateral Relations, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Asia, South Korea, and North Korea
43. Going Beyond Economic Engagement: Why South Korea Should Press the North on Labor Standards and Practices
- Author:
- Marcus Noland
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- In recent years, despite a history of enmity and armed conflict that never really ended after the Korean War more than 60 years ago, South Korea has been a major investor in North Korea, and South Korean firms have employed more than 50,000 North Korean workers. South Korea's stated goal has been to encourage sufficient economic progress by North Korea, emboldening it toward establishing a meaningful basis for reconciliation and, ultimately, national unification. The expectation, or at least the hope, has been to use economic engagement to lessen the North's direct state control over the economy and to encourage the development of a middle class that might demand greater internal opening. The goal, as enunciated by former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, has also been to foster a rise of interest groups with an enhanced stake in peaceable external relations.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, and Bilateral Relations
- Political Geography:
- Asia, South Korea, and North Korea
44. From Juvenile System Reform to a Conflict of Civilizations in Contemporary Russian Society (De la réforme de la justice des mineurs au conflit de civilisations dans la société russe contemporaine)
- Author:
- Kathy Rousselet
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
- Abstract:
- Youth delinquency has been a hot topic in Russian society for many years. Numerous associations, NGOs and international organizations have raised public awareness of the problem and have encouraged the government to place judicial reform on its agenda. However, debate over how to apply it, the various possible models and how to structure the relationship between social and judicial institutions has been limited. Discussion has instead focused on the relative priorities to be given to the interests of children versus those of the family, so-called “traditional” versus “liberal” values, and the extent to which the State should interfere in the private lives of Russian citizens. Discussion of the actual situation of children at risk and the concrete problems posed by reform have been overshadowed by rumors, encouraged by a discourse of fear in an increasingly violent society that tend to distort the real problems. Additionally, implementation of international norms and judicial reform has been largely blocked by the patriotic agenda of the State.
- Topic:
- Crime, Democratization, Human Rights, Sociology, Prisons/Penal Systems, Reform, Children, Youth, and Political Science
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Asia
45. Online journalism in Russia : The ordinary games of political control freedom
- Author:
- Françoise Daucé
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
- Abstract:
- Many online newspapers were created in Russia during the early 2000s, which gave rise to hopes concerning further developments of media pluralism. Their day-to-day operations differ little from those of their Western counterparts. They are subject to the same technical possibilities and to the same financial limitations. Under the increasingly authoritarian Russian regime, however, these common constraints can become political. Economic constraints on editorial boards, limitations on their sources of advertising revenue, administrative requirements, and surveillance of Internet providers are all tools used for political purposes. This article uses the examples of the major news sites that are lenta.ru and gazeta.ru, and the more specialized sites, snob.ru and grani.ru, to show how this political control is based on the diversity of ordinary constraints, which procedures and justifications are both unpredictable and dependent on the economic situation. The result is that political control is both omnipresent and elusive, constantly changing.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Crime, Human Rights, Science and Technology, Sociology, Internet, Freedom of Expression, Political Science, and Social Policy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Asia
46. What Future for Human Rights?
- Author:
- James W. Nickel
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Carnegie Council
- Abstract:
- Like people born shortly after World War II, the international human rights movement recently had its sixty-fifth birthday. This could mean that retirement is at hand and that death will come in a few decades. After all, the formulations of human rights that activists, lawyers, and politicians use today mostly derive from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the world in 1948 was very different from our world today: the cold war was about to break out, communism was a strong and optimistic political force in an expansionist phase, and Western Europe was still recovering from the war. The struggle against entrenched racism and sexism had only just begun, decolonization was in its early stages, and Asia was still poor (Japan was under military reconstruction, and Mao's heavy-handed revolution in China was still in the future). Labor unions were strong in the industrialized world, and the movement of women into work outside the home and farm was in its early stages. Farming was less technological and usually on a smaller scale, the environmental movement had not yet flowered, and human-caused climate change was present but unrecognized. Personal computers and social networking were decades away, and Earth's human population was well under three billion.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Europe, Asia, and United Nations
47. Chinese global investment growth pauses
- Author:
- Derek M. Scissors
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- Chinese foreign investment declined through mid-2014 for the first time since the financial crisis. By sector, energy draws the most investment, but a slump in energy spending means that metals and real estate have been more prominent so far in 2014. The United States has received the most Chinese investment since 2005, followed by Australia, Canada, and Brazil. China invests first in large, resource-rich nations but has also diversified by spending more than $200 billion elsewhere. Chinese investment benefits both China and the recipient nation, but host countries must consider thorny issues like Chinese cyberespionage and subsidies.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Terrorism, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Canada, Asia, Brazil, and Australia
48. Southeast Asia's Regression From Democracy and Its Implications
- Author:
- Joshua Kurlantzick
- Publication Date:
- 05-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Between the late 1980s and the late 2000s, many countries in Southeast Asia were viewed, by global democracy analysts and Southeast Asians themselves, as leading examples of democratization in the developing world. By the late 2000s, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore all were ranked as "free" or "partly free" by the monitoring organization Freedom House, while Cambodia and, perhaps most surprisingly, Myanmar had both taken sizable steps toward democracy as well. Yet since the late 2000s, Southeast Asia's democratization has stalled and, in some of the region's most economically and strategically important nations, gone into reverse. Over the past ten years, Thailand has undergone a rapid and severe regression from democracy and is now ruled by a junta. Malaysia's democratic institutions and culture have regressed as well, with the long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition cracking down on dissent and trying to destroy what had been an emerging, and increasingly stable, two-party system. Singapore's transition toward contested politics has stalled. In Cambodia and Myanmar, hopes for dramatic democratic change have fizzled. Only the Philippines and Indonesia have stayed on track, but even in these two countries democratic consolidation is threatened by the persistence of graft, public distrust of democratic institutions, and continued meddling in politics by militaries.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, and Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Southeast Asia
49. Sustaining Myanmar's Transition
- Author:
- Priscilla Clapp, Suzanne DiMaggio, Ike Reed, and U Kyaw Tin
- Publication Date:
- 06-2013
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Asia Society
- Abstract:
- New York, June 26, 2013 - At the launch of a new Asia Society paper on Myanmar, Priscilla Clapp, Suzanne DiMaggio, Ike Reed, and Myanmar Representative to the UN U Kyaw Tin assess challenges facing a newly democratizing Myanmar. Introduction by former Ambassador Frank Wisner. (1 hr., 21 min.)
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, Development, Economics, and Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- New York and Asia
50. Africa's Booming Oil and Natural Gas Exploration and Production: National Security Implications for the United States and China
- Author:
- David E. Brown
- Publication Date:
- 12-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
- Abstract:
- The frenetic search for hydrocarbons in Africa has become so intense and wide ranging that there is planned or ongoing oil and gas exploration in at least 51 of the continent's 54 countries. Knowledge about Africa's geology is improving rapidly, generating great optimism about the continent's energy future. Onshore and offshore rifts and basins created when the African continent separated from the Americas and Eurasia 150 million years ago are now recognized as some of the most promising hydrocarbon provinces in the world. Offshore Angola and Brazil, Namibia and Brazil, Ghana and French Guyana, Morocco and Mexico, Somalia and Yemen, and Mozambique and Madagascar are just a few of the geological analogues where large oil fields have been discovered or are be-lieved to lie. One optimistic but quite credible scenario is that future discoveries in Africa will be around five timestheir current level based on what remains un-explored on the continent versus currently known sub-soil assets. If proven true, this could have a pro-foundly positive impact on Africa's future growth and strategic position in the global economy.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Rights, and Natural Resources
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, China, America, Eurasia, Asia, Brazil, Yemen, Mozambique, Mexico, Morocco, Somalia, Angola, Ghana, Namibia, Guyana, and Moldavia