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392. The Economy-Security Nexus in Northeast Asia
- Author:
- Motoshi Suzuki
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
- Institution:
- Japan Association of International Relations
- Abstract:
- The Northeast Asian region has attracted at least two types of international relations analyses. A first type focuses primarily on military and hard security and investigates changes in states' power and the politics of coercion, balance of power, and alliances. A second type is interested in cross-border economic activities, regional interdependence, and institutionalization and then examines the states' policies of development, trade, money, and technology, as well as the politics of institutional building and reform. T.J. Pempel's edited volume synthesizes the two approaches by viewing the mutually shaping interactions between economics and security as a major feature of regional politics. The book is a fruit of collaborative efforts by American, Japanese, South Korean, and Chinese scholars who provide in-depth analyses of recent developments in the region.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, America, Asia, South Korea, and London
393. Online Consultation and Citizen Feedback in Chinese Policymaking
- Author:
- Steven J. Balla and Zhou Liao
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly utilised online consultation as a means of providing citizens with opportunities to offer feedback on draft laws and regulations. As little is known about the operation of online consultation, this article analyses the content of citizen feedback submitted on a revision to China's health system proposed by the National Development and Reform Commission. Citizen engagement with the political and substantive issues under consideration is crucial if online consultation is to impact government decision-making and enhance the performance of laws and regulations. This paper's main findings are that it was common for comments to address substantive issues in great depth, as well as express negative assessments of government decisions. This suggests that online consultation holds promise as an instrument of governance reform, which the Chinese Communist Party has embraced as a means of cultivating popular support.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, Law, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- China
394. The Decline and Fall of France
- Author:
- Milton Ezrati
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The National Interest
- Institution:
- Center for the National Interest
- Abstract:
- FRANCE's ECONOMY is not just doing badly. It is in profound decline. The slide has proceeded far enough now that businesspeople and politicians across the Continent increasingly refer to France as the "sick man of Europe"-quite a distinction at a moment when Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy share the hospital ward. For decades, European Union structures were strong enough to allow Paris to ignore the country's economic shortcomings. No longer. Unless Paris reforms its economic policies and practices, it could have a disastrous effect. Further economic woes may undermine the Franco-German cooperation on which the EU has relied, confronting the union with either dissolution or, more likely, an increasingly Germanic future.
- Topic:
- Economics and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United States, France, and Germany
395. Dodd-Frank: Money Never Sleeps
- Author:
- Christopher Whalen
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The National Interest
- Institution:
- Center for the National Interest
- Abstract:
- PRESIDENT OBAMA and Congress continue to wrestle with competing ideas to fix America's housing crisis, ranging from abolishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to introducing new regulations for repairing the rickety mortgage-financing system years after it crashed. To understand the enduring nature of today's housing-system mess, it is not really necessary to do much more than to look backward. To look, that is, at the careers of two former prominent politicians, each of whom has played an integral role in American finance in recent decades.
- Topic:
- Government and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United States, New York, and America
396. A Kinder, Gentler Immigration Policy
- Author:
- Jagdish Bhagwati and Francisco Rivera-Batiz
- Publication Date:
- 12-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Foreign Affairs
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Ever since Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, in 1986, attempts at a similar comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration policies have failed. Yet today, as the Republican Party smarts from its poor performance among Hispanic voters in 2012 and such influential Republicans as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush have come out in favor of a new approach, the day for comprehensive immigration reform may seem close at hand. President Barack Obama was so confident about its prospects that he asked for it in his State of the Union address in February 2013. Now, the U.S. Senate looks poised to offer illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.
- Topic:
- Government, Immigration, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United States and Syria
397. The Common Agricultural Policy Health Check: time to check the health of the theory of the reform?
- Author:
- Marko Lovec and Emil Erjavec
- Publication Date:
- 01-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of International Relations and Development
- Institution:
- Central and East European International Studies Association
- Abstract:
- In 2008, the ministers of agriculture of European Union member states made a political agreement on the Common Agricultural Policy reform, also known as the Health Check. The reform coincided with three things: the ongoing Doha round of the World Trade Organization negotiations; political pressures to limit the costs of the policy financed from the common budget; and various 'new' policy issues. Rational institutional and constructivist approaches, which are often viewed as theoretical alternatives with each explaining some aspects of the reform, have employed simplified and narrow abstractions in conceptualising the role of these policy contexts. In order to identify the mechanisms facilitating the Health Check, a critical realist approach is proposed here, arguing that the relationship among the trade negotiations, budget bargaining, new issues and the policy reform can be explained by theoretically endorsing the asymmetrical development of the agricultural production factors and of production relations. A qualitative analysis is used to determine which of these three approaches seems to be better able to explain the empirical evidence.
- Topic:
- Development and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Europe
398. Innovation in Urban Development: Incremental Housing, Big Data, and Gender
- Author:
- Allison M. Garland
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
- Abstract:
- Within the last five years, the global population reached a critical turning point, making the demographic shift from rural to urban; for the first time in history, the majority of the world's people now live in cities. Over the next two decades the number of city dwellers will soar to nearly five billion, 60 percent of the world's population. Virtually all of this urban growth is occurring in cities of the developing world, overwhelming ecosystems and placing tremendous pressure on the capacity of local governments to provide necessary infrastructure and services.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Human Rights, Poverty, Governance, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United Nations
399. The Stalin Puzzle: Deciphering Post-Soviet Public Opinion
- Author:
- Thomas de Waal, Maria Lipman, Lev Gudkov, and Lasha Bakradze
- Publication Date:
- 03-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The Soviet leader who was responsible for the deaths of millions over his thirty-year rule still commands worryingly high levels of admiration for a host of reasons. These findings are clear in the first-ever comparative opinion polls on the dictator in the post-Soviet countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia. The surveys, commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment in 2012, suggest de- Stalinization has not succeeded in the former Soviet Union and most post-Soviet citizens have not come to grips with their history.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Politics, History, Governance, Culture, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Soviet Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia
400. Iran's Nuclear Odyssey: Costs and Risks
- Author:
- Karim Sadjadpour and Ali Vaez
- Publication Date:
- 04-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The covert history of Iran's nuclear program is marked by enormous financial costs, unpredictable risks, and unclear motivations.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Middle East