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17211. India's rise in Africa

Author:
Ian Taylor
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The holding of the second Africa–India Forum summit in Addis Ababa in May 2011 highlighted the burgeoning political and economic ties between New Delhi and the African continent. It also reflected the growing significance of interest in Africa on the part of a diverse group of developing nations, of which China and India are perhaps the most noteworthy. China's increasing involvement in Africa has been well analysed and discussed; India's connections with the continent have by comparison been relatively overlooked. Yet the increasing salience of India's interest in Africa has important implications, representing a further diversification of Africa's international relations away from 'traditional' North–South linkages and arguably contributing to a greater range of options for the continent. In the light of these considerations, this article seeks to provide an insight into some of the main implications of the growing Indian relationship with Africa.
Political Geography:
Africa, China, India, and New Delhi

17212. Economic statecraft in China's new overseas special economic zones: soft power, business or resource security?

Author:
Deborah Bräutigam and Tang Xiaoyang
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
China's rapid expansion of economic and political ties with other developing countries has aroused deep concern in the West and Japan. Much of this apprehension focuses on China's search for natural resources and its 'no-political-strings-attached' stance on official finance. Yet despite the popular unease provoked by China's growing outward engagement, scholars have done relatively little research on the Chinese government's strategic employment of its economic instruments overseas.
Political Geography:
Japan and China

17213. Asia's role in twenty-first-century global economic governance

Author:
Srinivasa Madhur
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The basic foundations of today's framework for global economic governance were laid in the years immediately after the Second World War, with the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)—later the World Bank (WB)—and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the precursor to today's World Trade Organization (WTO). In those postwar years, much of Asia was in dire poverty and Asia's share in the world economy had fallen to its lowest level for centuries. Reflecting the balance of economic power of the time, Asian countries did not play a significant role in either designing the institutional architecture or setting the agenda for global economic governance.
Political Geography:
Asia

17214. Containment and territorial transnational actors: Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas

Author:
Amnon Aran
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Containment is the term generally used to characterize American policy towards the USSR after the Second World War, when it consisted of a series of attempts to deal with the power and position won by the USSR in order to reshape postwar international order. Containment, as originally articulated by its chief architect, George F. Kennan, was always contested, for example because it did not clarify whether Soviet behaviour had strictly national or ideological roots, and would result in the USSR's having the initiative about where and when to act. Nonetheless, throughout the Cold War it remained US policy, partly because of the failure in 1953-4 of the alternative, 'liberation' and 'rollback'. Although containment changed and sometimes seemed to have broken down, for example in the Vietnam War, the imprint of Kennan's ideas—perhaps more than anyone else's—endured. After 1989 it seemed that containment had no place in the peaceful multilateral environment which seemed to be emerging; however, it proved adaptable to a range of post-Cold War situations, including some which appear to have little in common with the context and goals of containment's original formulation: among these are the challenges posed to US national security by the so-called rogue states.
Topic:
Cold War
Political Geography:
United States, Israel, and Soviet Union

17215. Review article: Realism: rational or reasonable?

Author:
Chris Brown
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
For better or worse, since the publication of E. H. Carr's Twenty years' crisis in Britain in 1939 , and Hans J. Morgenthau's Politics among nations in the United States in 1948 , 'Realism' has been the default setting for International Relations (IR) theory. The core insight of Carr, Morgenthau and their successors—that the international order and the foreign policies of states are, at a fundamental level, shaped by considerations of power and interest—has been repeatedly challenged but remains at the heart of the discipline of International Relations; it also, not coincidentally, tends to be the way in which both practitioners and informed publics think about matters international. But the price of this dominance is that the clarity which Carr and Morgenthau sought two generations ago has been lost. There are now many varieties of Realism on offer, and many theories that once were thought of as antithetical to Realism have adopted Realist ideas; navigating the field has become a job for specialists. The direct descendants of Carr and Morgenthau think of themselves as 'classical Realists' (or, if Reinhold Niebuhr is acknowledged as a major influence, 'Augustinian Realists') as opposed to the 'Structural Realists' who take their lead from Kenneth Waltz's master work Theory of international politics . Structural Realists in turn divide into 'defensive Realists' and 'offensive Realists', and are also closely related to 'neo-classical Realists'; to make matters worse, 'liberal institutionalists', who, in principle, are the modern version of the traditional opponents of Realism, have adopted from Waltz the notion of the 'anarchy problematic' and from some perspectives have become part of the Realist big tent. So confusing is this spectrum of theories that, on the one hand, John Vasquez can claim that the 'power of power politics' is such that Realism still dominates the field, while, on the other, liberal institutionalists Jeffrey Legro and Andrew Moravcsik can ask 'Is anybody still a Realist?'—and John Mearsheimer, perhaps today's most prominent Realist, can regard himself as a lone figure in an academic field dominated by 'idealism'.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
United States

17216. Review article: The effectiveness of UN and EU sanctions: lessons for the twenty-first century

Author:
Alex Vines
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
This decade has been a difficult time for the United Nations. Splits among the dominant powers in an increasingly divided Security Council have stymied its efforts to resolve acute global problems. The UN global system, built more than 60 years ago, is finding today's challenges overwhelming. Many issues that the United Nations should lead on are being resolved through world capitals or by regional power blocs, leaving the UN at risk of being marginalized.
Political Geography:
China and United Nations

17217. Stirring up the South China Sea (II): Regional Responses

Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The South China Sea dispute between China and some of its South East Asian neighbours – Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei – has reached an impasse. Increasingly assertive positions among claimants have pushed regional tensions to new heights. Driven by potential hydrocarbon reserves and declining fish stocks, Vietnam and the Philippines in particular are taking a more confrontational posture with China. All claimants are expanding their military and law enforcement capabilities, while growing nationalism at home is empowering hardliners pushing for a tougher stance on territorial claims. In addition, claimants are pursuing divergent resolution mechanisms; Beijing insists on resolving the disputes bilaterally, while Vietnam and the Philippines are actively engaging the U.S. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). To counter diminishing prospects of resolution of the conflicts, the countries should strengthen efforts to promote joint development of hydrocarbon and fish resources and adopt a binding code of conduct for all parties to the dispute.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Maritime Commerce, Natural Resources, and Food
Political Geography:
China, Malaysia, Israel, Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and Brunei

17218. Global food security index 2012

Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Global food prices rose twice as fast as inflation in the last decade, impoverishing millions at a time when poverty relief captured the world's attention. Huge price swings for wheat, maize, soybeans and rice—staple crops for much of the world—made matters worse, disrupting markets and harming both producers and consumers. The food riots that swept more than two dozen countries in 2008 and 2011 were the most visible effect of these trends, but they also point to a deeper and more lasting concern: chronic food insecurity.
Topic:
Agriculture, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Poverty, and Food

17219. Best cities ranking and report

Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Earlier this year the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) teamed up with data sharing company BuzzData to host a competition offering users the opportunity to combine data from the Worldwide Cost of Living and Liveability surveys with other sources to provide a ranking of their own. Here Jon Copestake, the Editor of the EIU's Cost of Living and Liveability surveys, discusses his experience of the competition.
Topic:
Demographics, International Trade and Finance, Culture, and Urbanization

17220. Supersized cities: China's 13 megalopolises

Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
The rise and decline of great cities past was largely based on their ability to draw the ambitious and the restless from other places. China's cities are on the rise. Their growth has been fuelled both by the large-scale internal migration of those seeking better lives and by government initiatives encouraging the expansion of urban areas. The government hopes that the swelling urban populace will spend more in a more highly concentrated retail environment, thereby helping to rebalance the Chinese economy towards private consumption.
Topic:
Communism, Demographics, Development, Economics, Migration, and Urbanization
Political Geography:
China and Israel