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221. Nancy A. Combs. Fact-Finding Without Facts. The Uncertain Evidentiary Foundations of International Criminal Convictions

Author:
Chris Stephen
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The field of international criminal law (ICL) is synonymous with the crowded courtroom and the infamous individual in the dock; Adolf Eichmann, Slobodan Milošević, Saddam Hussein, and now Radovan Karadžić. The actions of such individuals have taken place within the various conflicts and mass atrocities that have proven to be lamentably frequent both during the last century and now into this one. In the aftermath of this sustained bloodshed, trials, whether national (Klaus Barbie in France, John Demjanjuk in Germany) or international (Jean Kambanda before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)), have constituted a frequent (David Scheffer's pronouncement of 'tribunal fatigue' suggests perhaps too frequent) reflex reaction by states and have formed the backbone of ICL. Beginning with the Leipzig trials, then via Nuremberg and Tokyo, Yugoslavia and Rwanda to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), successive tribunals have sought to build upon the strengths (and weaknesses) of their predecessors. For example, the recent rise of hybrid courts such as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) can be attributed, at least in large part, to the flaws of previous international judicial institutions; a perceived lack of legitimacy, huge running costs, and detachment from victims, communities, and the locus delicti. The evolution of ICL thus proceeds through a series of trials and error.
Political Geography:
France, Cambodia, Tokyo, and Lebanon

222. Force in Our Times

Author:
Robert Jervis
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Abstract:
Recent world politics displays two seemingly contradictory trends: on one hand, the incidence of international and even civil war shows a very great decline, but on the other hand the US, and to a lesser extent Britain and France, have been involved in many military adventures since the end of the Cold War. The causes are numerous, but among them are the unipolar structure of world politics, which presents the US with different kinds of threats and new opportunities. Central also is the existence of a Security Community among the leading states. A number of forces and events could undermine it, but they seem unlikely to occur. Even in this better world, however, recessed violence will still play a significant role, and force, like other forms of power, is most potent and useful when it remains far in the background.
Topic:
Civil War, Cold War, War, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
United States and France

223. FDI stocks are a biased measure of foreign affiliate activity

Author:
Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Jean-François Hennart, Arjen Slangen, and Roger Smeets
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Researchers often call the value added (VA) in a host country by firms based in another country foreign direct investment (FDI) and use FDI stocks and flows from a country's balance of payments to measure it. What FDI stocks and flows actually measure, however, is narrower, since they record long term financial transactions by which domestic firms exert control over foreign firms. French FDI stocks in Australia, for example, measure the value of shares and reinvested earnings of Australian firms owned by French firms and the net indebtedness of these Australian firms to their French parents.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Foreign Direct Investment, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
France and Australia

224. Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women

Author:
Irina Vainovski-Mihai
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Leaving aside the academic discourse, the “theoretical and methodological shields that usually ensure a semblance of detachment,” (p.ix) Marnia Lazreg, a professor of sociology at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center, adds her voice to the ever-expanding bibliography on the veil. Committed to writing this book, as she declaredly has reached a point where she could no longer keep quiet about the issue, (p.2) the author addresses Muslim women who either have taken up the veil or are considering wearing it. In doing this, she finds incumbent to reveal herself personally while recounting her experience as a Muslim woman growing up in colonial Algeria and that of several women she has interviewed over the past fifteen years in the Middle East, North Africa, France, and the United States. In each of her five open letters, Lazreg presents different veiling or reveiling experiences, interprets them and takes issue with their justification, pointing out that the custom of “covering” should be always regarded in its historical, political, and socio-cultural context, as long as “the veil is never innocent,” (p.125) it is both a discourse and a practice. Based on these grounds, in the Introduction, when clarifying certain terms used in the book, Lazreg states that by the expression “Muslim women” she refers to the “the women who have taken up the veil as a way for them to display their religious affiliation” (p.12) and she adds: “The best but cumbersome way to refer to these women would be 'women-who- wear-the-veil-because-they-think-it- is-a religious-obligation-in-Islam.' There is no generic 'Muslim woman,' just as there is no generic 'Christian woman' – only concrete women engaged in concret actions.”
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, France, and North Africa

225. Britain's coalition government and EU defence cooperation: undermining British interests

Author:
Clara Marina O'Donnell
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The formation of a coalition government by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, combined with the need for important cuts to Britain's armed forces has raised significant uncertainties about Britain's attitude to defence cooperation within the European Union. Since taking office the coalition, while grappling with the implications of Britain's fiscal challenges, has shown an unprecedented interest in strengthening bilateral defence collaborations with certain European partners, not least France. However, budgetary constraints have not induced stronger support for defence cooperation at the EU level. On the contrary, under the new government, Britain has accelerated its withdrawal from the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This article assesses the approach of the coalition to the CSDP. It argues that, from the perspective of British interests, the need for EU defence cooperation has increased over the last decade and that the UK's further withdrawal from EU efforts is having a negative impact. The coalition is undermining a framework which has demonstrated the ability to improve, albeit modestly, the military capabilities of other European countries. In addition, by sidelining the EU at a time when the UK is forced to resort more extensively to cost-saving synergies in developing and maintaining its own armed forces, David Cameron's government is depriving itself of the use of potentially helpful EU agencies and initiatives—which the UK itself helped set up. Against the background of deteriorating European military capabilities and shifts in US priorities, the article considers what drove Britain to support EU defence cooperation over a decade ago and how those pressures have since strengthened. It traces Britain's increasing neglect of the CSDP across the same period, the underlying reasons for this, and how the coalition's current stance of disengagement is damaging Britain's interests.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Britain, Europe, and France

226. Power, Leadership and US Foreign Policy

Author:
Erik Jones
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The Obama administration is attempting to 'lead from behind' in Libya, causing much concern among its allies and derision among its adversaries. Nevertheless this strategy represents an appropriate response both to the specific situation in Libya and to the wider constraints on American global leadership. With the shift in global resources from North to South and West to East, collective action has become more difficult to organise and global institutions have become harder to reinforce. Meanwhile governments in the United States and elsewhere must wrestle to bring their fiscal accounts back under control. A cooperative approach is the only answer. The difficulty for the Obama administration is that by emphasizing cooperation they make the success of their Libya intervention depend upon the actions of the other countries involved. Should France and Great Britain fail in Libya, President Obama's new conception of American global leadership will falter as well.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, America, France, and Libya

227. The social construction of European solidarity: Germany and France in the EU policy towards the states of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP) and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC)

Author:
Siegfried Schieder, Rachel Folz, and Simon Musekamp
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
This article compares the foreign policies of France and Germany in the 1990s towards the European Union (EU)'s special relationships with the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) on the one hand and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) on the other. Whereas France advocated support for ACP interests, Germany supported those of the CEEC. We argue that French and German prioritisations cannot sufficiently be explained by rationalist, interest-based approaches (i.e. neorealism, economic liberalism and institutionalism) and offer a constructivist supplement to fill in the gaps. This approach is based on the concept of solidarity. First, we develop our theoretical concept and identify three principles of solidarity action (i.e. ties, need and effort). We then apply our concept of solidarity to show how French and German policies towards the Cotonou Agreement, concluded in 2000 with the ACP, and the EU's Eastern enlargement process were shaped by different social constructions of solidarity, resulting in strong preferential support for either the ACP (France) or the CEEC (Germany).
Political Geography:
Africa, Eastern Europe, France, Germany, Caribbean, and Central Europe

228. Fiscal Asymmetries and the Survival of the Euro Zone

Author:
Paul R. Masson
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The independence of the European Central Bank (ECB), seemingly guaranteed by its statutes, is presently under attack. The ECB has been led to acquire large amounts of government debt of the weaker euro zone members, both to help contain their interest costs and to help protect the solvency of banks throughout the zone that hold their debt. This paper presents a model of a dependent central bank that internalizes the government's budget constraint. Using a Barro-Gordon framework, the model embodies both the desire to stimulate output and to provide monetary financing to governments. As a result of the inability to pre-commit to first-best policies, the central bank produces excess inflation — a tendency partially reduced in a monetary union. The model implies that not only shock asymmetries, but also fiscal asymmetries, are important in the membership calculus of desirable monetary unions. On the basis of this framework, calibrated to euro zone data, the current membership is shown not to be optimal: other members would benefit from the expulsion of several countries, notably Greece, Italy and France. A narrow monetary union centred around Germany is sometimes mooted as a preferable alternative, especially if it could guarantee central bank independence. However, simulation results suggest that such a narrow monetary union would not be in Germany's interest: though better than the euro zone with a dependent central bank, it would not internalize enough trade to make it more attractive than the resumption of monetary autonomy by Germany.
Topic:
Debt, Economics, Monetary Policy, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe, Greece, France, Germany, and Italy

229. Revival of the Civic Spirit: Contradictions in Somali-American Citizenship

Author:
Louise Dickson
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Throughout history, the notion of citizenship has been full of contradictions. Both as a method of inclusion and exclusion, of privilege and second-class status, citizenship is a cornerstone of one's individual, national, and global identity. Some optimistic scholars have noted an entrance into a “post-national” phase of global citizenship; however, this vision cannot be realized while human rights are being violated. To be sure, citizenship has become a much more universal concept since its inception and has been facilitated by ideas of cosmopolitanism. Yet it has not transcended national boundaries into the global sphere. This claim can be supported by almost any national immigration case study. Whether in South Africa, Norway, or France, immigrant refugees fleeing persecution are rarely granted full human rights in terms of citizenship. The United States is in the midst of a third major wave of immigration: from 1990 to 2008 almost one million new arrivals landed here each year. Since the eruption of civil war in Somalia in 1991, many Somalis have sought refuge in the United States—a symbol of political, religious, and social freedom—and have followed chain migration patterns scattered across the country, with one of the largest populations settling in the Twin Cities area. However, the “Somali Capital of the United States” does not provide asylum or immunity from the international contradictions in citizenship and human rights, which will be an underlying theme throughout the essay.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States, Norway, France, South Africa, and Somalia

230. "Military Doomsday Machine"? The Decisions for War 1914

Author:
Holger Herwig
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
On 28 June 1914 the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated. The Austrian government alleged official Serbian involvement, issued an ultimatum, and, rejecting negotiation, began hostilities on 29 July with a bombardment of Belgrade. In a linked series of decisions, four other major European powers—Germany, Russia, France, and Britain—joined the struggle. Ultimately, twenty-nine nations, including Japan and the Ottoman Empire, would be involved. In all instances, the decision makers recognized the inherent hazards. They knew their choices could enlarge the conflict and significantly escalate the dimensions of the struggle.
Political Geography:
Britain, Russia, Europe, France, and Germany