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1441. From the Great Influenza to COVID-19: Epidemics of Scale through a Historical Lens

Author:
Fedir Razumenko
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
COVID-19 has galvanized changes in the economy of patient-doctor relationships and technological interfaces across the healthcare system. A rapid adoption of technologies that were previously slow to take hold opened more diverse and accessible spaces for care. At the same time, some persistent barriers in pivoting to scientific-medical advances in managing the pandemic revealed stark inequities in both access to care and exposure to risk. Political and organizational responses to the crisis often excluded the perspectives of vulnerable groups bearing more burdens than others. Some patients and healthcare providers suffered in isolation, however these experiences have escaped public attention due to the fragmented Canadian health information infrastructure. The social meanings of and collective responses to the pandemic nationally are rooted in historical developments. Comparative analyses of epidemic crises along with their consequences have the potential to inform our critical evaluations of problem-solving approaches and policymaking when what we do not know about the issue exceeds what we know. This article demonstrates that historical analysis serves an important role in examining the complex interaction of social and biological forces that constitute epidemic disease. By linking the past and present of epidemic crises we can better understand how social and scientific-medical responses to epidemics shift following the epidemic experience. To be forewarned is to be forearmed acquires a definite meaning as historical contexts set a background for assessing new situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has not emerged out of thin air, so tracing its origin and development is simultaneously a scientific and an historical undertaking.
Topic:
Crisis Management, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Epidemic
Political Geography:
Canada, North America, and Global Focus

1442. Building bridges – Working towards cross-field collaboration amongst VAC and VAW stakeholders

Author:
SVRI
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI)
Abstract:
Despite a growing body of evidence1,2 and calls for more coordination, collaboration, and partnerships between those working to address violence against children (VAC) and those working to address violence against women (VAW), there continues to be significant tensions between these fields and very few evaluated examples of integrated or coordinated programming in practice3–7. We explore what factors may contribute to more equitable, and innovative partnerships and collaborations based on what we learned through a series of consultative processes8 with stakeholders working on VAC and VAW from around the world.
Topic:
Partnerships, Gender Based Violence, Collaboration, Violence Against Children (VAC), and Violence Against Women (VAW)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1443. Drone warfare: an evolution in military affairs

Author:
Andrea Gilli
Publication Date:
10-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Over the past three decades, remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) – also known as drones – have acquired increasing importance in modern warfare. Originally designed to perform surveillance missions during the Cold War, drones gained prominence during the post-Cold War era through their ability to gather real-time intelligence over conflict-prone areas, particularly in support of humanitarian interventions. Following the onset of the global war on terror, drones acquired a further, arguably more significant function: armed with precision-guided munitions, they enabled Western armed forces to identify, track, and accurately strike targets from afar, reducing the need for troops on the ground.1 Simultaneously, drones’ allegedly low costs, limited technological sophistication, and ease of employment also enabled their rapid proliferation to dozens of countries around the world.2 According to some, the major implications are yet to come: drones’ unique capabilities promise in fact to revolutionize warfare. Consequently, militaries could eschew complex and expensive force structures to wage war: they would just need drones. As countries face stronger incentives and fewer constraints for using force, the growing availability of drones coupled with their capabilities deserve attention because this trend risks ushering in a new era of global instability and conflict.3
Topic:
NATO, Military Affairs, Weapons, and Drones
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1444. The Rules of Origin and Global Value Chains Conundrum

Author:
Israel Gutierrez
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper studies the relationship between Global Value Chains (GVC's) and Rules of Origin (RoO's). These are two of the most prevalent features of the trade environment today but have not received a satisfying theoretical treatment, let alone one conjointly. This paper aims to fill that gap in the literature. I present a trade model with heteroge- neous firms where I introduce GVC's and RoO's. I analyse the incentives a firm faces to comply with RoO's and those it faces to operate as a GVC. I then analyse how the stages of production a GVC chooses to operate is affected by RoO's. I find that the optimal number of stages of production decreases the more restrictive the RoO is, and it increases the cheaper its foreign intermediate inputs are. Lastly, I show that, all else equal, a firm operating as a GVC has a bigger incentive to comply with RoO than an exporting firm.
Topic:
Tariffs, Trade, Global Value Chains, Rules of Origin, and Heterogeneous Firms
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1445. From Media-Party Linkages to Ownership Concentration: Causes of Cross-National Variation in Media Outlets’ Economic Positioning

Author:
Erik Neimanns and Nils Blossey
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
A sizable literature on media bias suggests that media coverage is frequently biased towards certain political and economic positions. However, we know little about what drives variation in political and ideological bias in news coverage across countries. In this paper, we argue that increasingly commercialized and concentrated media markets are likely to be associated with media coverage leaning more favorably towards economically more right-wing positions. Media bias should reflect the preferences of media owners and should be a result of a reduced diversity of news media content. In contrast, where media outlets continue to be oriented more closely along partisan lines, often referred to as political parallelism, bias on economic issues should be more likely to cancel out at the aggregate level. To test these claims, we combine expert survey data on partisan attachments of media outlets, party ideologies, and media ownership concentration for twenty-four European countries. Results from multilevel regression models support our theoretical expectations. With media framing potentially affecting individual-level preferences and perceptions, high and rising levels of media ownership concentration may help to explain why governments in the affluent Western democracies often do remarkably little to counter trends of rising income inequality.
Topic:
Politics, Media, News Analysis, and Bias
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1446. Operationalizing Growth Models

Author:
Lucio Baccaro and Sinisa Hadziabdic
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
We present a new methodology for operationalizing growth models based on import-adjusted demand components. Applying the methodology to the latest release of OECD Input-Output Tables, we calculate the growth contributions of consumption, investment, government expenditures, and exports for sixty-six countries in the periods 1995 to 2007 and 2009 to 2018 and identify the respective growth models. We find that most countries are export-led or domestic demand-led and that other forms of growth are rare. Our results corroborate previous classifications in comparative political economy but also differ from them in significant respects. Importantly, our classification improves on previous ones by covering not just the advanced capitalist economies but also Central and Eastern European and South-East Asian and Latin American countries. In a further step, we illustrate how the new indicators can be used to analyze the “drivers” of different types of growth. This examination reveals that there is a clear trade-off between consumption- and export-led growth in advanced Western economies in the period 1995 to 2007 and a dependence of export-led growth in these countries on real exchange rate devaluation in the same period, while export complexity is not a significant predictor of export-led growth.
Topic:
Political Economy, Economies, Economic Growth, and Exports
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1447. A Neoinstitutionalist Proposal to Study the BRICS

Author:
Mario Guillermo Guerrero
Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
This article seeks to contribute to the current disciplinary discussion about the BRICS from a neoinstitutionalist perspective. Here, we understand BRICS as an international institution which has deepened its technical-bureaucratic dynamics after the trust effect that was created from coordination and consistency experiences around aspects of the international economic agenda during the 2008/2009 economic-financial crisis. Therefore, our analytical proposal approaches the BRICS from its three institutional elements: its deliberation spaces; its information system; and its institutional incentive system. In summary, we consider that the proposed approach will allow us to understand in greater detail what institutional factors and features affect the probability of reaching consensus and cooperation among the BRICS member countries, as well as to identify in greater detail the institutional particularities that differentiate the BRICS from similar institutional experiences.
Topic:
Economy, Institutions, BRICS, Coordination, and Neoinstitutionalism
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, and Global Focus

1448. Realist Dystopia - Hans Morgenthau and the Changing Role of the United Nations in World Politics

Author:
Gelson Fonseca Júnior and Eduardo Uziel
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
This research delves into the way in which Hans Morgenthau had studied and discussed the United Nations as an organisation, mainly during its first twenty years. Drawing on the influence of Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen and on his own personal disappointment with the League of Nations, Morgenthau strongly criticized the UN. The author considers that the organisation propounds lofty principles but harbours old-style diplomacy. After establishing a succinct comparison with Raymond Aron, the article highlights the reasons for Morgenthau’s criticism, including some abiding features of realism, such as the focus on great powers, a limited attribution of agency to other actors and an emphasis on security to the detriment of cooperative activities. It underlines how Morgenthau rejected the UN as a basis to build a world state. It concludes by arguing that Morgenthau’s realism highlights the frailties of the UN but does not explain why states still insist in the multilateral institutions.United Nations, international organisation, Security Council, Hans Morgenthau, General Assembly
Topic:
Diplomacy, International Organization, United Nations, UN Security Council, Hans Morgenthau, and UN General Assembly
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1449. Welcome to the New Abnormal

Author:
Michael Miklaucic
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
PRISM
Institution:
Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic is the most globally disruptive event since the terrorist attack against the United States in 2001. Originating in China in late 2019 the disease rapidly spread throughout the international transportation network to every region and every country. Neither its velocity nor its magnitude were initially understood. In 2020 the entire world seemed to come to a standstill. International and even domestic travel came to an abrupt halt. Normally teeming cities were silenced. Streets, markets, and even schools were empty. The gravity of the pandemic was perceived differently in different countries, and at different times, and the subsequent disruption uneven. Each country responded in a unique way, though general response patterns are discernable. Importantly the pandemic revealed significant vulnerabilities caused by the juxtaposition of private sector globalization in the context of national governance. That is what this special issue of PRISM is about; the different perceptions and reactions to COVID-19 as people and governments experienced the disease, and their diverse understanding of its implications for national and international security.
Topic:
National Security, Global Security, Crisis Management, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1450. COVID-19 and Superpower Competition: An Effective American Response

Author:
Amit Gupta
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
PRISM
Institution:
Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:
Before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, the growing consensus among analysts was that we were entering a period of deglobalization. According to the economic analyst Mohammed el-Erian deglobalization was taking place because by the 2000s the adverse economic impact of globalization had become apparent to the Western middle class. Secondly, the U.S.-China trade war saw rising tariffs and a call for rebuilding national manufacturing capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic was the last nail in the coffin as countries adopted highly individualistic and nationalistic policies that put national interest above any global concerns.1 Coupled with the perceived drive to deglobalization is the fact that we have re-entered an era of great power competition with the 2017 National Security Strategy clearly stating that both Russia and China are revisionist powers that challenge American primacy and that, “… want to shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests. China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favor.”2 What this article argues is that true security in the emerging international system will require precisely those aspects of globalization that the critics decry because no single country can effectively tackle such a complex and deadly threat as the COVID-19 pandemic through strictly national measures. Further, the emerging great power competition is one not just of military and economic rivalry but, much in the same way as during the Cold War, it is a struggle between different ways to organize societies and particularly to deliver goods and services efficiently and justly. With the latter in mind, how the United States and its allies and partners lead the response to COVID-19 will have an impact on the outcome of global power relationships. If China provides better solutions on dealing with the pandemic, then it will be able to undercut the American-created liberal international order. To discuss this issue, we need to first explain what globalization is and why, in a COVID-19 world, it provides the security solutions to the challenge posed by the disease.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Globalization, Strategic Competition, COVID-19, and Superpower
Political Geography:
China, Global Focus, and United States of America