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8861. What To Do With the UK? EU perspectives on Brexit

Author:
Charles Wyplosz
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Slovak Foreign Policy Association
Abstract:
The negotiating table is almost set for Britain’s exit from the European Union. In recent months, the Brexit debate has been primarily focused on the UK’s future position within Europe. Little has been discussed about how this decision will affect the remaining 27 member states. With a preliminary date of March 2017 chosen to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, now is the time to begin formally discussing the challenges that both the UK and EU will face during negotiations.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Europe

8862. Slovakia: (Re)Discovering of the international crisis management

Author:
Samuel Goda
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Slovak Foreign Policy Association
Abstract:
The security environment in “wider Europe” has changed significantly in recent years. Depending on one’s preferences, a wide range of milestones may be named – the airstrikes in Yugoslavia, the 9/11 attacks, the Madrid attacks, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, etc. In this study, however, the main issue we are addressing is the Ukrainian crisis (or war), Ukraine being our direct neighbor and a country of special interest – and this being the issue, according to a wide range of experts, that has had the most impact on the region’s security in decades.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Europe

8863. Libya Extremism and the Consequences of Collapse

Author:
The Soufan Group
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Soufan Group
Abstract:
Following the failure to form a unity government in Libya, the country will continue to face monumental hurdles to stabilization. • Existing divides between the East and West of Libya have been exacerbated by the security situation in the country. • The absence of rule of law and the high levels of violence in Libya—when combined with the proliferation of weapons—have allowed violent extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda to thrive.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Libya

8864. Does Compliance Pay? Social Standards and Firm-level Trade

Author:
Greg Distelhorst and Richard M. Locke
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
What is the relationship between trade and social institutions in the developing world? The research literature is conflicted: importing firms may demand that trading partners observe higher labor and environmental standards, or they may penalize higher standards that raise costs. This study uses new data on retailers and manufacturers to analyze how firm-level trade responds to information about social standards. Contrary to the "race to the bottom" hypothesis, it finds that retail importers reward exporters for complying with social standards. In difference-in-differences estimates from over two thousand manufacturing establishments in 36 countries, achieving compliance is associated with a 4% [1%, 7%] average increase in annual purchasing. The effect is driven largely by the apparel industry — a longterm target of anti-sweatshop social movements — suggesting that activist campaigns can shape patterns of global trade.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8865. Does Citizenship Abate Class? Evidence and Reflections from Bangalore, India

Author:
Ebony Bertorelli, Patrick Heller, Siddharth Swaminathan, and Ashutosh Varshney
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
Drawing on data from a large household survey in Bangalore, this paper explores the quality of urban citizenship. Addressing theories that have tied the depth of democracy to the quality and effectiveness of citizenship, we develop an index of citizenship that includes various measures and then explore the extent to which citizenship determines the quality of services and infrastructure that households enjoy. Our findings show that citizenship and access to services in Bangalore are highly differentiated, that much of what drives these differences has to do with class, but we also find clear evidence that the urban poor are somewhat better in terms of the services they receive that they would be without citizenship. Citizenship, in other words, abates the effects of class.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8866. When Courts Plan: The Greening of Delhi's Autorickshaws

Author:
Atul Pokharel
Publication Date:
08-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
Implementing municipal-scale policies is challenging in megacities. Despite this, between 1986 and 2006, Delhi converted its entire public transportation network of nearly 100,000 vehicles to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) instead of diesel and petrol. The use of CNG is widely assumed to have been ordered by the Supreme Court of India. But this overlooks how autorickshaws, privately owned and making up three-fourths of these vehicles, came to use CNG even though the court did not order it. Using two new sources of data, I show that the conversion of autos was jointly led by the largest private manufacturer together with the city government. The court facilitated coordination between several other actors, allowed them to experiment, and monitored progress over two decades leading up to the auto conversion. After capping the total number of autos, it ultimately refrained from passing judgment on two consequential aspects of greening them: vehicle ownership and fuel type. As a result, auto owners were buffeted by decades of incremental policy experimentation. Eventually, these experiments reconfigured auto ownership as some sold their operating permits to become renters, while state institutions remained indifferent to this shadow conversion underfoot.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8867. Cabal City: Regime Theory and Indian Urbanization

Author:
Patrick Heller
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
This paper explores the interaction of politics and business through the lens of the city. The power of business to influence politics in India would lead to a prediction that Indian cities are, in the classic sense of the term, growth machines. Yet we argue in this paper that fundamental problems of governance in India’s megacities have precluded the possibility of business coalitions exerting cohesive influence over investments policies in cities. The result has been the predominance of what we call cabals, that are expert at extracting rents from the city, but in the end fail to promote development in the sense of an institutionalized process of economic and social improvement in the city. Where there has been high growth, it has not been accompanied by the expansion of the cities’ infrastructure and overall coordination capacities. In the end, what is good for business and politicians had neither been good for capitalism in terms of dynamic accumulation nor for inclusion of middle and poorer social groups.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8868. Flexible Governance and Perceived Fairness: Evidence from Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems in Nepal

Author:
Atul Pokharel
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
What is the relationship between flexible governance and fairness? I examine this question in a new longitudinal dataset of irrigation canals in Nepal that were celebrated as paradigmatic cases of successful local governance. The prevalent explanation is that users have avoided knotty collective action problems by committing to rules and mutually monitoring compliance. These rules are understood to have been iteratively crafted over decades so as to render cooperative behavior reasonable. Embedded in a local context that is assumed to be common knowledge for users but ultimately impenetrable to outsiders, it is critical that locals discursively devise the rules and uniformly enforce them. Revisiting these cases three decades later, I first illustrate a distinction between two aspects of flexible governance: flexible rules and flexible enforcement. The former refers to changing rules over time, the latter to variations in enforcement. I document the predicted flexibility of the rules in these cases. I then show that a significant number of successes are associated with flexible enforcement. Whether flexible enforcement helps or hinders sustained collective action appears to depend on how fair users perceive the rules to be. Thus, discretionary enforcement may be related to the possibilities and limits of local governance in achieving fair outcomes, and not just for merely solving collective action problems.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8869. Lessons in Arctic Operations: The Canadian Army Experience, 1945-1956

Author:
P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The documents in this volume provide insights into the Canadian Army’s attempts to secure a better knowledge of the characteristics of Northern operations during the Second World War and early Cold War. An extensive series of Subarctic and Arctic training exercises yielded valuable “lessons learned” that informed the planning, training, and equipping of the Army for Northern missions. The challenges encountered in these operations, the questions raised, and the lessons observed remain remarkably consistent with those experienced during Arctic deployments over the last decade.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Canada

8870. Canada’s Northern Strategy under the Harper Conservatives: Key Speeches and Documents on Sovereignty, Security, and Governance, 2005-15

Author:
P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Ryan Dean
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The speeches and media releases collected in this volume help to reveal the narratives on Arctic sovereignty, security, circumpolar affairs, and governance that the Harper Government sought to construct during its near-decade in office. While the government touted its own achievements in regular updates on its Northern Strategy, other commentators have been more critical, suggesting that either the government’s priorities were misplaced or it promised more than it delivered. This volume is intended to preserve these primary resources for researchers to facilitate ongoing debate and discussion
Topic:
International Affairs and Domestic politics
Political Geography:
Canada