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61. The Trade and Climate Change, Joint Agenda

Author:
Thomas L Brewer
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Climate change, international trade, investment and technology transfer are all issues that have intersected in diverse institutional contexts and at several levels of governmental activity to form a new joint agenda. The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of this joint agenda by identifying the specific issues that have emerged, the policies that have been adopted, especially in the EU and US, and the options that are available for further policy-making.
Topic:
Climate Change, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

62. U.S. Energy Security and Oil Revenue Transparency

Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
A diverse set of panelists addressed the challenges and opportunities presented by the growing importance of energy security as a central element of the U.S. foreign policy debate. The first panel featured speakers from the non-profit, private and financial sectors discussing the links between U.S. energy security and oil revenue transparency. All panelists focused on how a lack of transparency in energy transactions can contribute to both national instability in oil-rich nations and energy insecurity in oil-importing countries. Revenue transparency was seen by all as a critical first step in combating corruption. Panelists also noted the importance of conceiving of transparency in the broadest terms, to encompass budget transparency, contract transparency, reserves transparency, and transparency of concessions.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Energy Policy, International Political Economy, and Oil
Political Geography:
United States

63. China's March on the 21st Century

Author:
Kurt M. Campbell and Willow Darsie
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
After a protracted period of uncertainty concerning the nature of the foreign policy challenges that are likely to confront the nation over the course of first half of the 21st century, twin challenges are now coming into sharper relief. For the next generation or more, Americans will be confronted by two overriding (and possibly overwhelming) challenges in the conduct of American foreign policy: how to more effectively wage a long, twilight struggle against violent Islamic fundamentalists, and at the same time cope with the almost certain rise to great power status of China.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, and Asia

64. Program for the Study of Biofuels, Poverty and Food Security

Author:
Jikun Huang, Mark Rosengrant, Rosamond Naylor, Walter P. Falcon, David Victor, Kenneth Cassman, and Scott Rozelle
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
The recent global expansion of biofuels production is an intense topic of discussion in both the popular and academic press. Much of the debate surrounding biofuels has focused on narrow issues of energy efficiency and fossil fuel substitution, to the exclusion of broader questions concerning the effects of large-scale biofuels development on commodity markets, land use patterns, and the global poor. There is reason to think these effects will be very large. The majority of poor people living in chronic hunger are net consumers of staple food crops; poor households spend a large share of their budget on starchy staples; and as a result, price hikes for staple agricultural commodities have the largest impact on poor consumers. For example, the rapidly growing use of corn for ethanol in the U.S. has recently sent corn prices soaring, boosting farmer incomes domestically but causing riots in the streets of Mexico City over tortilla prices. Preliminary analysis suggests that such price movements, which directly threaten hundreds of millions of households around the world, could be more than a passing phenomenon. Rapid biofuels development is occurring throughout the developed and developing world, transforming commodity markets and increasingly linking food prices to a volatile energy sector. Yet there remains little understanding of how these changes will affect global poverty and food security, and an apprehension on the part of many governments as to whether and how to participate in the biofuels revolution.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Economics, Globalization, Government, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States and Mexico

65. Defense Monitor, Civil Wars Turned Regional

Author:
Col. Daniel Smith
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
No conventional, state-sponsored opposing armies took to the field of battle in 2006. Nonetheless, the number of overt armed interventions by out-side powers in other nations civil wars increased, illustrating a trend away from conventional armed conflicts and toward more complex civil wars that increasingly transform into larger regional wars.
Topic:
Defense Policy, International Political Economy, and War
Political Geography:
United States

66. Contemporary Chinese Views of Europe

Author:
Karine Lisbonne-de Vergeron
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Undoubtedly, the Chinese currently think of Europe, and of the European Union, primarily in economic terms. Since 2004, the EU has been China's first trading partner, accounting for 15% of its overall external trade in 2006, with a bilateral increase of 25% from 2005. Overall, bilateral trade between China and the EU has increased more than sixty-fold since 1978 to reach nearly €255 billion in 2006. In return, China is the EU's second largest trading partner, after the United States, and in 2006 became the largest source of EU imports, amounting to approximately €192 billion, or 14.4% of the total, a 21% increase from 2005. Over the same period, EU exports to China increased by 23% to approximately €63 billion.
Topic:
Civil Society, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, and Asia

67. U.S. Public and Private Funding of Independent Media Development Abroad

Author:
Peter Graves
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
U.S. efforts to develop an independent media sector abroad are a relatively recent phenomenon. Both public and private funders have supported journalism training since World War II, but some of the most significant opportunities to develop the independent media sector came after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since most media in Eastern European countries and the former Soviet republics were controlled by the state during the Cold War, the fall of communism spurred American interest in developing free and independent media in these countries as a building block toward transparent and democratic societies.
Topic:
Cold War and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and America

68. Foreign Investment and National Security: Getting the Balance Right

Author:
David M. Marchick and Alan P. Larson
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Despite the significant benefits that foreign investment brings to the U.S. economy, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 53 percent of Americans believe foreign ownership of U.S. companies is “bad for America,” a sentiment that reached a boiling point with the proposed acquisition of the U.S. port operations of P Steam Navigation Company by Dubai Ports World (DPW). The DPW case brought to the public's attention the little-known executive committee charged with reviewing the security risks of foreign investment—the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—and ignited a flurry of congressional activity to change its mandate and operations under the Exon-Florio Amendment to the Defense Production Act of 1950.
Topic:
Security, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Dubai

69. The Implications of China's Rise for Asia and Europe

Author:
Linda Jakobson
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
China has in a very short time span embraced multilateral mechanisms to address a broad range of issues and avoided confrontation with the United States. Both stances have shaped Asian and European views of a rising China. At present, Asian and European leaders take China's word regarding its peaceful intentions as a rising power. However, Asian and European policy-makers tend to refrain from confronting China too strongly on issues sensitive to Beijing (poor implementation of intellectual property rights, disregard for human rights, etc). The more prosperous China grows, the less influence any other country will have over Beijing's policies. A rising China is a challenge to others because of its sheer size, its great need for imported energy, and the environmental degradation it causes due to its ongoing industrialization. The troubled relationship between China and Japan is one of increasing concern and could lead to aggravated tensions in East Asia.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, and Asia

70. Human Security on Foreign Policy Agendas. Changes, Concepts and Cases, INEF-Report 80

Author:
Tobias Debiel and Sascha Werthes
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
When the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its 1994 report, nobody expected that the human security concept outlined within it would attract so much attention from politicians and academics alike. This is all the more astonishing as the concept has provoked a lot of criticism ever since its first appearance due to its excoriated analytical ambiguity and its disputed political appropriateness.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Human Rights, International Political Economy, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, Europe, and Asia