« Previous |
1 - 10 of 13
|
Next »
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. Toward a More Proliferated World? The Geopolitical Forces that Will Shape the Spread of Nuclear Weapons
- Author:
- Eric M. Brewer, Ilan Goldenberg, Joseph Rodgers, Maxwell Simon, and Kaleigh Thomas
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for a New American Security
- Abstract:
- The United States and the international community have been relatively successful at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, but there are new reasons to question whether this track record will last into the future. Working with partners, the United States has steadily built a framework of disincentives and barriers to prevent proliferation. These include: 1) international treaties and agreements that have erected legal, political, and normative barriers to the bomb; 2) U.S. security commitments to allies that dampen their own perceived need for nuclear weapons; and, 3) a set of tough penalties (e.g., sanctions) for those who get caught trying to build the bomb. In other words, the barriers to entry to the nuclear club are high, and those countries that want the ultimate weapon need to be willing to accept significant risks. This helps explain why, although many countries have explored or pursued nuclear weapons, only nine states have them today. But several trends are eroding the foundation on which this formidable set of barriers rests. These trends are rooted in, and being shaped by, changes to the nature and structure of the international system: namely, the decline of U.S. influence and its gradual withdrawal from the international order that it helped create and lead for more than 70 years, and the concurrent rise of a more competitive security environment, particularly among great powers. These trends (detailed below) will have three broad implications for proliferation and U.S. policy. First, they stand to increase pressures on countries to seek nuclear weapons or related capabilities as a hedge. Second, they will almost certainly challenge the U.S. ability to effectively wield the traditional “carrots and sticks” of nonproliferation and counterproliferation policy and dilute the effectiveness of those tools. Finally, they could increasingly pit U.S. nonproliferation goals against other policy objectives, forcing harder tradeoffs.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Geopolitics, Nonproliferation, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus and United States of America
3. The concept of hedging and its application to Southeast Asia: a critique and a proposal for a modified conceptual and methodological framework
- Author:
- Jürgen Haacke
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Japan Association of International Relations
- Abstract:
- In the context of the complex unipolar post-Cold War period that has witnessed China’s reemergence as an economic and military power, small and middle powers are increasingly considered to be hedging. This analysis is especially prevalent in relation to Southeast Asian countries, many of which face security challenges posed by China. However, as the literature on hedging has expanded, the concept’s analytical value is no longer obvious. Different understandings of hedging compete within the literature, and there are many criteria by which hedging is empirically ascertained, leading to confusion even over the basic question of which countries are hedging. In response, this article presents a modified conceptual and methodological framework that clearly delineates hedging from other security strategies and identifies key criteria to evaluate whether smaller powers are hedging when confronting a serious security challenge by one of the major powers. This framework is then applied to Malaysia and Singapore.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- China, Malaysia, Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia
4. Explaining Eastern Europe: Imitation and Its Discontents
- Author:
- Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes
- Publication Date:
- 07-2018
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Democracy
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- For countries emerging from communism, the post-1989 imperative to “be like the West” has generated discontent and even a “return of the repressed,” as the region feels old nationalist stirrings and new demographic pressures. The origins of the region’s current illiberalism are emotional and preideological, rooted in rebellion at the humiliations that accompany a project requiring acknowledgment of a foreign culture as superior to one’s own. Further contributing to illiberalism in the region is a largely unspoken preoccupation with demographic collapse—resulting from aging populations, low birth rates, and massive outmigration—which manifests as a fear that the arrival of unassimilable foreigners will dilute national identities and weaken national cohesion.
- Topic:
- Nationalism, Post Cold War, and Illiberal Democracy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
5. Explaining Eastern Europe: The Crisis of Liberalism
- Author:
- Jacques Rupnik
- Publication Date:
- 07-2018
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Democracy
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- Thirty years ago in Central and Eastern Europe, belief in an open society and a sense of reasserted national and indeed European identity seemed to go hand-in-hand. Today this has changed: Through the combination of the rise of “illiberal democracy” and heightened concerns about identity in the face of the migrant wave, the authoritarian and sovereigntist turn in Central Europe has revealed a rupture in the fabric of the European Union. This draws to a close the post-1989 liberal cycle, but perhaps also the longer cycle associated with the Enlightenment, which is now more than two-hundred years old.
- Topic:
- Nationalism, European Union, Democracy, Liberal Order, Post Cold War, and Illiberal Democracy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
6. Cooperation in a Post-Western World: Challenges and future prospects
- Author:
- Michèle Roth and Cornelia Ulbert
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Development and Peace
- Abstract:
- The post-Cold War world has been characterised by global cooperation, largely driven by Western actors and based on the norms of Western liberalism. Today, global power shifts are accelerating. The Western liberal order finds itself in deep crisis. Its previous anchor, the United States (US), is no longer willing or able to run the system. Its most important former ally, the European Union (EU), is struggling with inte- gration fatigue. New nationalist movements in many Western countries are proliferating. In other parts of the world, too, people fear the impact of globalisa- tion and are seeking to regain national autonomy. What does this mean for the future of global cooper- ation? How can the wish for more national autonomy be reconciled with the need to cooperate in the face of unsustainable development, global inequality, conflict and gross violations of human rights? How do changing power constellations affect global cooper- ation? We suggest that new forms of governance will contribute to sustaining global cooperation. This paper uses the example of the Paris Agreement to illus- trate new forms of polycentric and multi-stakeholder transnational governance that are bottom-up rather than top-down. Moreover, constructive coalitions of the willing and more flexibility in global governance provisions might also be key for successful future cooperation.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, International Cooperation, Governance, European Union, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and North America
7. Electoral System of the Republic of Belarus after 25 Years of Independence
- Author:
- Anna Kuleszewicz
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Polish Political Science Yearbook
- Institution:
- Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
- Abstract:
- This paper aims to present a case study analysis of the condition of the electoral system in the Republic of Belarus after more than a quarter of a century of independence. The main purpose of the paper is to explain the discrepancies between legislation and prac- tice. The author intended to note a real situation that dominates the country’s political scene in comparison to theoretical establishments. A Constitution of the Republic (created in 1994, with minor changes in 1996 and 2004) is the legal ground of the electoral system, how- ever, procedural details were drawn up in the Electoral Code. The principles of Belarusian electoral code consist of some statements known from democratic models, such as universal suffrage, direct suffrage, secret ballot and equality. There are different types of elections in Belarus but the most important ones are presidential and parliamentary elections. Despite the detailed legal rules for conducting these elections, in fact, the principles of democracy, as well as the internal rules in Belarus, are not respected. Both presidential and parliamentary elections have shown this in recent years. Independent observers for a long time have been alarming about worrying electoral practices in Belarus. It is also worth emphasizing that since 1994, one man has been in power uninterruptedly, and Parliament has in fact a sym- bolic function. In the source materials, the author used Belarusian legal acts, analyses and reports, press notes as well as scientific papers.
- Topic:
- Elections, Democracy, Independence, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Belarus
8. Collective Regional Image: Logics of Consciousness and Modes of Management in Post-Cold War Africa and Southeast Asia
- Author:
- Brooke Coe
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- One distinguishing feature of the “new” regionalism is its outward orientation – the increased importance of the external dimension of regional cooperation. It makes sense, then, that efforts to manage external perceptions of a region, on the part of policy-relevant actors in that region, might contribute to important changes to regional norms and institutions. By and large, though, existing accounts of normative and institutional change at the regional level do not explicitly conceptualize and theorize collective image consciousness and management. This paper offers an initial attempt to address this conceptual gap, making use of two cases of regional image crisis (post-Cold War Africa and post-1997 Southeast Asia) in order to draw out logics of regional image consciousness and to distinguish among types of regional image management efforts. As regional communities of states, Africa and Southeast Asia promoted and adhered to a relatively strict interpretation of the principle of non-interference during the Cold War period. In the post-Cold War era, the non-interference norm has eroded in both regions. In each, these developments constituted – in part – a collective image management strategy, aimed at external audiences. Reforms to regional institutions were promoted in part as efforts to ameliorate negative international perceptions.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Institutionalism, Regionalism, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia
9. Collective Regional Image: Logics of Consciousness and Modes of Management in Post-Cold War Africa and Southeast Asia
- Author:
- Brooke Coe
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- One distinguishing feature of the “new” regionalism is its outward orientation – the increased importance of the external dimension of regional cooperation. It makes sense, then, that efforts to manage external perceptions of a region, on the part of policy-relevant actors in that region, might contribute to important changes to regional norms and institutions. By and large, though, existing accounts of normative and institutional change at the regional level do not explicitly conceptualize and theorize collective image consciousness and management. This paper offers an initial attempt to address this conceptual gap, making use of two cases of regional image crisis (post-Cold War Africa and post-1997 Southeast Asia) in order to draw out logics of regional image consciousness and to distinguish among types of regional image management efforts. As regional communities of states, Africa and Southeast Asia promoted and adhered to a relatively strict interpretation of the principle of non-interference during the Cold War period. In the post-Cold War era, the non-interference norm has eroded in both regions. In each, these developments constituted – in part – a collective image management strategy, aimed at external audiences. Reforms to regional institutions were promoted in part as efforts to ameliorate negative international perceptions.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Institutionalism, Regionalism, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia
10. The Specter Haunting Europe: The Unraveling of the Post-1989 Order
- Author:
- Ivan Krastev
- Publication Date:
- 10-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Democracy
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- This article argues that the unraveling of the post–Cold War liberal order is manifested by the West’s declining influence in international politics; the waning attraction of liberal democracy; and the maturing tensions within liberal democratic regimes. This unraveling renders problematic the European project of trying to extend democracy beyond the nation-state—a project that has enhanced the appeal of illiberal democracy, defined by majoritarian regimes in which the majority transforms the state into its own private possession. These regimes have become an answer to the pressures of a world where popular will is the only source of political legitimacy, and global markets are the only source of economic growth. Their rise portends devastating and far-reaching consequences throughout Europe.
- Topic:
- Democracy, Global Markets, Legitimacy, and Post Cold War
- Political Geography:
- Europe