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6712. Contents Page International Affairs
- Author:
- East View Information Services
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- East View Information Services
- Abstract:
- Contents page for International Affairs 2017 Issue
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
6713. Priorities and Flaws of a Great Project
- Author:
- K Gadjiev
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- East View Information Services
- Abstract:
- The European Union, one of the main load-bearing structures of the world order, is still in the process of integration; it has not reached its final form.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
6714. Against the Odds Driving Defense Innovation in a Change-Resistant Ecosystem
- Author:
- Jeffrey P. Bialos, Christine E. Fisher, and Stuart L. Koehl
- Publication Date:
- 02-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Transatlantic Relations
- Abstract:
- Generating the innovation to sustain the United States’ technology-based military superiority will, of necessity, be a core element of defense strategy for the Trump Administration. This paper identifies the challenges faced by the DoD’s large, multi-faceted research and development ecosystem in meeting that national security goal, and proposes a holistic and balanced strategy for addressing them. Fundamentally, the outgoing Obama Administration concluded that the U.S. military dominance against our near-peer adversaries is eroding in a globalized environment where commercial innovation is not only being rapidly generated through agile and fast-paced processes but is being rapidly disseminated globally and therefore available to potential adversaries. In contrast, the DoD faces the challenge of building a future force that is second to none while using internal processes that generally are overly cumbersome, somewhat antiquated and slower—processes which constrain its ability to access all available innovation, commercial and otherwise, and to rapidly transition that technology to the war fighter in order to produce robust effects on the battlefield. Notwithstanding years of studies that have highlighted well known institutional obstacles to change in both our defense R&D ecosystem and the Department more broadly, these challenges still largely remain. Numerous DoD initiatives to address these issues and incentivize change unfortunately have not moved the needle.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Economics, Military Strategy, Military Affairs, Cybersecurity, and Military Spending
- Political Geography:
- United States of America, North America, Washington, and D.C.
6715. The Rules of Reproduction of Capitalism: A Historicist Critique
- Author:
- Samuel Knafo and Benno Teschke
- Publication Date:
- 01-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex
- Abstract:
- Marxism has often been associated with two different legacies. The first rests on a strong exposition and critique of the logic of capitalism, which has been grounded in a systematic analysis of the laws of motion of capitalism as a system. The second legacy refers to a strong historicist perspective grounded in a conception of social relations and an emphasis on the centrality of power and social conflict to analyse history. In this article, we challenge the prominence of structural accounts of capitalism, which are inspired by the first of these legacies and argue for the need to radicalize the agent-centered and historicist contribution of Marx that derive from the second. Our claim is that Marxists operating within a structural framework systematically fall into economistic readings of capitalism, which hinder the practice of historicisation Marxism was supposed to buttress. To make this argument, we show how this tension between these legacies has played out within Political Marxism (PM). We argue that both orientations – encapsulated in the simultaneous programmatic emphasis on historically specific social conflicts and determinate rules of reproduction that are logically deduced from definitive social property relations – co-existed already uneasily in Robert Brenner’s original contributions to the Transition Debate. We proceed by critically exploring the increasing reliance on a structural conception of the ‘rules of reproduction’ in later works of PM’s early proponents and by some of its contemporary followers. This, we argue, has led to the reification of capitalism and a growing divide between theoretical premises and historical explanation. In response, we seek to return to the early historicist innovation of PM and to recover and develop its commitment to a more contextualised and open-ended interpretation of social conflicts. Through this internal critique and re-formulation of PM, we wish to open a broader debate within Marxism on the need for a more agency-based account of capitalism, which builds more explicitly on the concept of social relations.
- Topic:
- Economics, Socialism/Marxism, and Capitalism
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, Eastern Europe, Germany, and Western Europe
6716. War Powers and Unconstitutional Wars from Truman to the Present
- Author:
- Louis Fisher
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
- Abstract:
- The Center for the Study of Statesmanship at Catholic University hosted its first lecture on April 19, 2017, given by constitutional scholar Louis Fisher. Most recently Fisher has worked as a Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers at the Library of Congress, and lectured on the War Powers and unconstitutional wars.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, War, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- United States
6717. America’s Double Government: The Hidden Agenda of the National Security State
- Author:
- Andrew J. Bacevich
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
- Abstract:
- Which figures and organizations actually set the tone for American foreign policy? Do Congress and the executive still enjoy their constitutional powers, or has the authority of Madisonian institutions of government been eclipsed by the national security state? The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, in conjunction with the John Quincy Adams Society, hosted a panel discussion entitled “America’s Double Government: The Hidden Agenda of the National Security State” on November 29, 2017. This video is an edited highlight reel of that event. Featured scholars include: (1) Andrew Bacevich, a prominent author of several books on the American over-reliance on military intervention and professor emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University and a Visiting Senior Fellow at CSS. (2) Michael Glennon, author of National Security and Double Government and professor of international law at Tufts University. (3) Louis Fisher, who has served as a Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers at the Library of Congress and is a Visiting Senior Fellow at CSS.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, National Security, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States and Middle East
6718. The ad bellum Challenge of Drones: Recalibrating Permissible Use of Force
- Author:
- Alejandro Chehtman
- Publication Date:
- 01-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Drones constitute an incremental advance in weapons systems. They are able to significantly reduce overall, as well as collateral, damage. These features seem to have important implications for the permissibility of resorting to military force. In short, drones would seem to expand the right to resort to military force compared to alternative weapons systems by making resorting to force proportionate in a wider set of circumstances. This line of reasoning has significant relevance in many contemporary conflicts. This article challenges this conclusion. It argues that resorting to military force through drones in contemporary asymmetrical conflicts would usually be disproportionate. The reason for this is twofold. First, under conditions of radical asymmetry, drones may not be discriminatory enough, and, thereby, collateral damage would still be disproportionate. Second, their perceived advantages in terms of greater discrimination are counteracted by the lesser chance of success in achieving the just cause for war. As a result, resorting to military force through drones in contemporary asymmetrical conflicts would generally be disproportionate not because of the harm they would expectedly cause but, rather, because of the limited harm they are ultimately able to prevent. On the basis of normative argument and empirical data, this article ultimately shows that we need to revise our understanding of proportionality not only at the level of moral argument but also in international law.
- Topic:
- International Law, War, Military Affairs, Weapons, and Drones
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, and Europe
6719. Does and Should International Law Prohibit the Prosecution of Children for War Crimes?
- Author:
- Noëlle Quénivet
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- This article investigates whether international law prohibits the prosecution of children for war crimes and, if it does not, whether it should do so. In particular, the interplay between restorative and retributive post-conflict justice mechanisms, on the one hand, and juvenile rehabilitative justice mechanisms, on the other, is discussed in detail. The article suggests that in certain, narrow, circumstances children having committed war crimes should be prosecuted.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, International Law, Children, War Crimes, and Transitional Justice
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Europe, and Democratic Republic of Congo
6720. The Value of the European Court of Human Rights to the United Kingdom
- Author:
- Merris Amos
- Publication Date:
- 07-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- National debates concerning the appropriate role of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the United Kingdom (UK) recently intensified with the suggestion by the government that the UK might leave the European Convention on Human Rights system. It has been argued that a British Bill of Rights, to replace the current system of national human rights protection provided by the Human Rights Act 1998, would provide better protection than the ECtHR, making its role in the national system redundant. Claiming that the ECtHR is legitimate and has an impact that is usually illustrated by the transformative power of judgments more than 10 years’ old, have not provided a convincing answer to this claim. In this article, rather than legitimacy or impact, the value of the ECtHR to the objective of protecting human rights through law is assessed. Three different levels of value are identified from the relevant literature and then applied to the judgments of the Court concerning the UK from 2011 to 2015 to determine what has happened in practice. It is concluded that given that the UK government’s objective remains to protect human rights through law, although some types of value are now more relevant than others, overall the potential value of the Court to the UK in achieving this objective is still clearly evident.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, International Law, and Courts
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe