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932. Commentary: Trade and the Environment After Seattle–Perspectives From The Wilson Center
- Author:
- William M. Daley, Andrea Durbin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Martin Albrow, Stacy D. Vandeever, Anju Sharma, Stephen Clarkson, Kent Hughes, and Tamar Gutner
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Free trade, seen by many as the engine of world economic growth, has once again become the subject of bitter dispute. Nowhere was this more evident than at the meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle at the end of 1999. There, environmentalists joined with trade unionists and advocates for developing countries in staging mass protests. These diverse groups claimed the WTO is unrepresentative and undemocratic, overlooking environmental interests and those of the world's poor in favor of big business. Inside the negotiating halls, the United States and the European Union clashed over agricultural subsidies and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Developing country representatives complained that they remained marginalized in the official talks.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
933. Exploring Capacity for Integration: University of Michigan Population-Environment Fellows Programs Impact Assessment Project
- Author:
- Denise Caudill
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Since 1993, the University of Michigan Population-Environment Fellows Programs (PEFP) has linked the population and environment sectors of development both at the field level and in policy analysis. The PEFP and Denise Caudill of World Neighbors launched the Impact Assessment Project to develop a framework for assessing an integrated program. This article addresses project findings, including the successes, constraints, and obstacles of integrated/linked programs, as well as provides field examples from Ecuador and Madagascar. Denise Caudill, the coordinator for this project, offers lessons on the implications of implementing integrated/linked programs from the community to the national, regional, and international levels.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Madagascar
934. Oiling the Friction: Environmental Conflict Management in the Niger Delta, Nigeria
- Author:
- Okechukwu Ibeanu
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- The Niger Delta, a sensitive ecosystem rich in biodiversity, has witnessed considerable violence as a result of the tense relationship among oil companies, the Nigerian state, and oil-bearing communities. Environmental damage from the extraction and movement of fossil fuels is a central point of dispute among the parties while the precise extent of ecological damage remains unknown. Drawing on numerous interviews while living and working in the Niger Delta, Dr. Okechukwu Ibeanu analyzes the management of conflicts surrounding petroleum production in the region, including the role of state violence and contradictory perceptions of security held by Delta communities and the oil companies and their partners in the Nigerian federal government.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Nigeria
935. Human Population and Environmental Stresses in the Twenty-first Century
- Author:
- Richard E. Benedick
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Human populations have put pressure on their natural surroundings throughout history. Yet the world is now facing truly global environmental challenges and rapid population growth in the final half of the twentieth century is a critical component to understanding these phenomena. In his article, Ambassador Richard Benedick examines a host of population dynamics and their complex interlinkages with three representative environmental issue areas: forests, freshwater resources, and climate change. These connections raise the importance of meeting the commitments made at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. Benedick maintains that investments in measures to slow the rate of population growth-and thereby to reach a stable population earlier, and at lower levels, than under current trends-would significantly reinforce efforts to address the environmental challenges of the century ahead, and considerably lower the cost of such efforts.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central America
936. Governance, Urban Environment, and the Growing Role of Civil Society
- Author:
- María Elena Ducci
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- In urban areas in developing countries, the current experience indicates that well organized and well-informed citizens have become the best motors for positive change within cities and it is the state that has fallen out of touch, in spite of constant declarations about the importance of citizens' participation. María Elena Ducci explains how in Latin America, the urban social movements that focused on the fight for land and housing from the sixties to the eighties today have become citizens' groups seeking to maintain and improve quality of life. Once again, territory has become the focus for city inhabitants who are discovering new ways of being social and becoming the political protagonists of their own lives in the city. According to Ducci, the dynamic of urban politics is changing as these new players—the citizens' groups that are defending their urban environment—come to the fore with enormous strength and energy. They oppose and block public and private urban projects of enormous scope, which raises costs and lengthens time frames for the companies involved. This paper focuses on how these groups, which demand a better quality of life and more equality, are working in an increasingly globalized and polarized city.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Economics, Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- South America and Latin America
937. National Intelligence Estimate: The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States
- Author:
- David F. Gordon, Donald Noah, and George Fidas
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death, accounting for a quarter to a third of all deaths worldwide. The spread of infectious diseases results from both human behavior such as lifestyle choices, land-use patterns, increased trade and travel, and inappropriate use of antibiotic drugs, as well as mutations in pathogens. These excerpts from a January 2000 National Intelligence Estimate highlight the rising global health threat of new and reemerging infectious diseases. The National Intelligence Council argues that the infectious disease threat will complicate U.S. and global security over the next twenty years. These diseases will endanger U.S. citizens at home and abroad, threaten U.S. armed forces deployed overseas, and exacerbate social and political instability in key countries and regions in which the United States has significant interests, according to the report.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
938. In Focus: Papua: Another East Timor?
- Author:
- Abigail Abrash
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- Papua is a leading example of a failed decolonization process. Indonesian integration-cum-colonization of Papua—implemented with U.S. complicity—has amounted to an undeclared war against the indigenous population. Indonesia's military buildup and East Timor-style militia activities threaten to destabilize Papua and the region.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Environment, Ethnic Conflict, and Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- United States, Southeast Asia, and Papua
939. In Focus: Central Asia: Aral Sea Problem
- Author:
- Erika Weinthal
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- U.S. foreign policy is geared toward oil development in Central Asia. The Aral Sea crisis has offered a safe issue-area in which to exert U.S. foreign policy in Central Asia. Effectively mitigating the Aral Sea crisis in Central Asia has proven more difficult than originally conceived by U.S. and Central Asian policymakers.
- Topic:
- Security, Environment, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States, Central Asia, and Asia
940. Trade Liberalization and Pollution Intensive Industry in Developing Countries: A Partial Equilibrium Approach
- Author:
- Frank Ackerman and Kevin Gallagher
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- Economic theory suggests that liberalization of trade between countries with differing levels of environmental protection could lead pollution-intensive industry to concentrate in the nations where regulations are lax. This effect, often referred to as the "pollution haven" hypothesis, is much discussed in theory, but finds only ambiguous support in empirical research to date. Methodologies used for research on trade and environment differ widely; many are difficult to apply to practical policy questions.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Environment, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance