Showing papers in "Foreign Affairs in 2004"

Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide

Abstract: Part I. Understanding Secularization: 1. The secularization debate 2. Measuring secularization 3. Comparing secularization worldwide Part II. Case Studies of Religion and Politics: 4. The puzzle of secularization in the United States and Western Europe 5. A religious revival in post-communist Europe? 6. Religion and politics in the Muslim world Part III. The Consequences of Secularization: 7. Religion, the Protestant ethic, and moral values 8. Religious organizations and social capital 9. Religious parties and electoral behavior Part IV. Conclusions: 10. Secularization and its consequences 11. Re-examining the theory of existential security 12. Re-examining evidence for the security thesis.

Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics

Abstract: 1. Bureaucratizing World Politics2. International Organizations as Bureaucracies3. Expertise and Power at the International Monetary Fund4. Defining Refugees and Voluntary Repatriation at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees5. Genocide and the Peacekeeping Culture at the United Nations6. The Legitimacy of an Expanding Global BureaucracyList of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing

Abstract: 1. The argument 2. Ethnic cleansing in former times 3. Two versions of 'we, the people' 4. Genocidal democracies in the New World 5. Armenia, I: into the danger zone 6. Armenia, II: genocide 7. Nazis, I: radicalization 8. Nazis, II: fifteen hundred perpetrators 9. Nazis, III: genocidal careers 10. Germany's allies and auxiliaries 11. Communist cleansing: Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot 12. Yugoslavia, I: into the danger zone 13. Yugoslavia, II: murderous cleansing 14. Rwanda, I: into the danger zone 15. Rwanda, II: genocide 16. Counterfactual cases: India and Indonesia 17. Combating ethnic cleansing in the world today.

What's the matter with Kansas? : how conservatives won the heart of America

Abstract: One of "our most insightful social observers"* cracks the great political mystery of our time: how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank turns his eye on what he calls the "thirty-year backlash"--the populist revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment. The high point of that backlash is the Republican Party's success in building the most unnatural of alliances: between blue-collar Midwesterners and Wall Street business interests, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers. In asking "what 's the matter with Kansas?"--how a place famous for its radicalism became one of the most conservative states in the union--Frank, a native Kansan and onetime Republican, seeks to answer some broader American riddles: Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where's the outrage at corporate manipulators? And whatever happened to middle-American progressivism? The questions are urgent as well as provocative. Frank answers them by examining pop conservatism--the bestsellers, the radio talk shows, the vicious political combat--and showing how our long culture wars have left us with an electorate far more concerned with their leaders' "values" and down-home qualities than with their stands on hard questions of policy. A brilliant analysis--and funny to boot--"What's the Matter with Kansas?" presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People. *"Los Angeles Times"

When States Fail: Causes and Consequences

Abstract: Do weak governments around the globe merit assistance? The premise of When States Fail: Causes and Consequences is that without strong government, society devolves into chaos Sponsored by the Harvard University Failed States Project, this edited volume contains fourteen chapters, most of them written by political scientists Not all authors come to the same conclusions, but they agree on most issues Thus, I will treat the arguments collectively The writers argue that the United States and other nations have a positive role to play in helping at-risk governments become strong That most contributors are mainstream political scientists rather than Austrian economists becomes evident quickly As the old saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail In the case of these political scientists, they clearly believe that scientifically designed government institutions are needed to solve all of the world’s problems A small minority of the contributions are interesting and thoughtful; of the remainder, the best chapters are the ones that do not say much The arguments will be convincing to those who believe in increasing state power and those who believe that groups such as the United Nations should be involved in governmental affairs around the globe The arguments will be unconvincing to anyone with the slightest appreciation for free markets or self-governance Although these academics pay some lip service to the importance of markets, they argue that society crucially relies on strong states As such, they want to find ways to make states strong The arguments rest on certain basic assumptions that the authors unfortunately never justify Nowhere in the book do they offer evidence that having a failed state or a weak state is bad At a few points the authors try to provide evidence for this hypothesis, but rather than attempting to create an objective measure of the strength of states and then attempting to correlate that with measures of results, they simply choose countries with bad outcomes and then define those countries as having weak states When high mortality, low literacy, and low life expectancy rates plague a country, the cause, according to these authors, is that the government is not strong enough Never do they consider the possibility that these bad outcomes could be due to overly strong states The Soviet Union was certainly a very strong state, and it effectively killed millions of its citizens (Rummel 1994) If the authors of this book wish to defend their simple hypothesis that strong states are good, they would need to ignore the evidence

The river runs black : the environmental challenge to China's future

Abstract: 1. The Death of the Huai River2. A Legacy of Exploitation3. The Economic Explosion and Its Environmental Cost4. The Challenge of Greening China5. The New Politics of the Environment6. The Devil and the Doorstep7. Lessons from Abroad8. Avoiding the CrisisNotesIndex

The purpose of intervention : changing beliefs about the use of force

Abstract: Martha FinnemoreIthaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. x, 173pp, US$26.00 cloth (ISBN 0-8014-3845-4)All societies regulate the use of force among members. In international society, those states with the means to use force against others have enforced understandings of right and permissible conduct and punished actions branded as \"illegitimate\" through military intervention. Martha Finnemore argues that the reasons and meanings behind military intervention, as well as the ways in which it is carried out, have changed dramatically over the history of the states system. These changes in the patterns of military intervention, she further contends, cannot be explained merely by alterations in material factors, such as the balance of power or military technology. Instead, what has changed are states' understandings about the purposes to which they can and should use force. These changes have been global in scope.Finnemore examines three cases of systemic change in intervention behavior: 1) military intervention to collect debts owed to nationals by other states (sovereign default)--a practice which stopped in the early twentieth century; 2) humanitarian military intervention--a practice which has continued for two centuries but has changed in terms of whom states protect and how they intervene; and 3) military intervention to enforce international order--a practice which has changed with the definition by powerful states of their geostrategic interests and security needs.The book advances several arguments that target different audiences. Targetting realists, Finnemore's humanitarian cases show that states have consistently intervened for reasons other than purely geostrategic and economic interests. Indeed, state interests, she claims, are indeterminate, and that is why decision makers debate over whether and when to intervene. Recognizing that the primary function of the political process is to determine the national interest, Finnemore examines these political debates to explain the coordinated shifts in perceptions of interests among states and how they understand the utility of intervention as a form of statecraft. With constructivists and legal scholars in mind, Finnemore offers a theory of \"strategic social construction,\" whereby powerful states consciously set out to change the values and perceptions of others regarding the use of force. The issue is how one set of rules that regulate military intervention are replaced by a different set of equally self-interested rules. Here Finnemore advances the argument that purposive agency by powerful actors, as well as historical context and contingency, explain changes in the legitimate use of force. …

Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism

Abstract: The doctrine of "Islamic economics" entered debates over the social role of Islam in the mid-twentieth century Since then it has pursued the goal of restructuring economies according to perceived Islamic teachings Beyond its most visible practical achievement--the establishment of Islamic banks meant to avoid interest--it has promoted Islamic norms of economic behavior and founded redistribution systems modeled after early Islamic fiscal practices In this bold and timely critique, Timur Kuran argues that the doctrine of Islamic economics is simplistic, incoherent, and largely irrelevant to present economic challenges Observing that few Muslims take it seriously, he also finds that its practical applications have had no discernible effects on efficiency, growth, or poverty reduction Why, then, has Islamic economics enjoyed any appeal at all? Kuran's answer is that the real purpose of Islamic economics has not been economic improvement but cultivation of a distinct Islamic identity to resist cultural globalization The Islamic subeconomies that have sprung up across the Islamic world are commonly viewed as manifestations of Islamic economics In reality, Kuran demonstrates, they emerged to meet the economic aspirations of socially marginalized groups The Islamic enterprises that form these subeconomies provide advancement opportunities to the disadvantaged By enhancing interpersonal trust, they also facilitate intragroup transactions These findings raise the question of whether there exist links between Islam and economic performance Exploring these links in relation to the long-unsettled question of why the Islamic world became underdeveloped, Kuran identifies several pertinent social mechanisms, some beneficial to economic development, others harmful

The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (Book)

Abstract: 1. Political Ethics in an Age of Terror 2. The Strength of the Weak 3. The Weakness of the Strong 4. The Ethics of Emergency 5. The Temptations of Nihilism 6. The Usefulness of Ethics.

The European dream : how Europe's vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the American dream

Abstract: Are you looking to uncover the european dream how europes vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the american dream Digitalbook. Correct here it is possible to locate as well as download the european dream how europes vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the american dream Book. We've got ebooks for every single topic the european dream how europes vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the american dream accessible for download cost-free. Search the site also as find Jean Campbell eBook in layout. We also have a fantastic collection of information connected to this Digitalbook for you. As well because the best part is you could assessment as well as download for the european dream how europes vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the american dream eBook

The Quiet Revolution: Central Banking Goes Modern

Abstract: Although little noticed, the face of central banking has changed significantly over the past ten to fifteen years, says the author of this enlightening book Alan S Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve System and member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, shows that the changes, though quiet, have been sufficiently profound to constitute a revolution in central banking Blinder considers three of the most significant aspects of the revolution The first is the shift toward transparency: whereas central bankers once believed in secrecy and even mystery, greater openness is now considered a virtue The second is the transition from monetary policy decisions made by single individuals to decisions made by committees The third change is a profoundly different attitude toward the markets, from that of stern schoolmarm to one of listener With keenness and balance, the author examines the origins of these changes and their pros and cons

Counterinsurgency Lessons From Malaya and Vietnam: Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife/Resisting Rebellion: The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency (Book)

Abstract: Preface Introduction Setting the Stage How Armies Learn The Hard Lesson of Insurgency The British and American Armies: Separated by a Common Language Malaya The Malayan Emergency, 1948-1951 The Empire Strikes Back, 1952-1957 Vietnam The Advisory Years, 1950-1964 The Fighting Years, 1965-1972 Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam Comparing British and American Counterinsurgency Learning Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife Bibliography Index

Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation-Building and a History Denied

Abstract: If we think there is a fast solution to changing the governance of Iraq, warned U.S. Marine General Anthony Zinni in the months before the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, \"then we don't understand history.\" Never has the old line about those who fail to understand the past being condemned to repeat it seemed more urgently relevant than in Iraq today, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the Iraqi people, the Middle East region, and the world. Examining the construction of the modern state of Iraq under the auspices of the British empire—the first attempt by a Western power to remake Mesopotamia in its own image—renowned Iraq expert Toby Dodge uncovers a series of shocking parallels between the policies of a declining British empire and those of the current American administration. Between 1920 and 1932, Britain endeavored unsuccessfully to create a modern democratic state from three former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which it had conquered and occupied during the First World War. Caught between the conflicting imperatives of controlling a region of great strategic importance (Iraq straddled the land and air route between British India and the Mediterranean) and reconstituting international order through the liberal ideal of modern state sovereignty under the League of Nations Mandate system, British administrators undertook an extremely difficult task. To compound matters, they did so without the benefit of detailed information about the people and society they sought to remake. Blinded by potent cultural stereotypes and subject to mounting pressures from home, these administrators found themselves increasingly dependent on a mediating class of shaikhs to whom they transferred considerable power and on whom they relied for the maintenance of order. When order broke down, as it routinely did, the British turned to the airplane. (This was Winston Churchill’s lasting contribution to the British enterprise in Iraq: the concerted use of air power—of what would in a later context be called \"shock and awe\"—to terrorize and subdue dissident factions of the Iraqi people.) Ultimately, Dodge shows, the state the British created held all the seeds of a violent, corrupt, and relentlessly oppressive future for the Iraqi people, one that has continued to unfold. Like the British empire eight decades before, the United States and Britain have taken upon themselves today the grand task of transforming Iraq and, by extension, the political landscape of the Middle East. Dodge contends that this effort can succeed only with a combination of experienced local knowledge, significant deployment of financial and human resources, and resolute staying power. Already, he suggests, ominous signs point to a repetition of the sequence of events that led to the long nightmare of Saddam Hussein’s murderous tyranny.

Why Democracies Excel

Abstract: "ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT makes democracy possible" asserts the U.S. State Department's Web site, subscribing to a highly influential argument: that poor countries must develop economically before they can democratize. But the historical data prove otherwise. Poor democracies have grown at least as fast as poor autocracies and have significantly outperformed the latter on most indicators of social well-being. They have also done much better at avoiding catastrophes. Dispelling the "development first, democracy later" argument is critical not only because it is wrong but also because it has led to atrocious policies-indeed, policies that have undermined interna tional efforts to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the developing world. Those who believe that democracy can take hold only once a state has developed economically preach a go-slow approach to promoting democracy. But we and others who believe that countries often remain poor precisely because they retain autocratic political structures believe that a development-first strategy perpetuates a deadly cycle of poverty, conflict, and oppression.

A Duty to Prevent

Abstract: The unprecedented threat posed by terrorists and rogue states armed with weapons of mass destruction cannot be handled by an outdated and poorly enforced nonproliferation regime. The international community has a duty to prevent security disasters as well as humanitarian ones -- even at the price of violating sovereignty

Conspiracy to murder : the Rwandan genocide

Abstract: April 2004 sees the tenth anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, an event generally acknowledged to be both one of the most appalling of the twentieth century and one that could have been avoided. Linda Melvern's new book is a damning indictment of almost all the key figures and the institutions involved.

Engaging Eurasia's separatist states : unresolved conflicts and de facto states

Abstract: In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, secessionist forces carved four de facto states from parts of Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Ten years on, those states are mired in uncertainty. Beset by internal problems, fearful of a return to the violence that spawned them, and isolated and unrecognized internationally, they survive behind cease fire lines that have temporarily frozen but not resolved their conflicts with the metropolitan powers. In this, the first in depth comparative analysis of these self proclaimed republics, Dov Lynch examines the logic that maintains this uneasy existence and explores ways out of their volatile predicament.Drawing on extensive travel within Eurasia and remarkable access to leading figures in the secessionist struggles, Lynch spotlights the political, military, and economic dynamics both internal and external that drive the existence of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, and Nagorno-Karabakh. He also evaluates a range of options for resolving the status of the de facto states before violence returns, and proposes a coordinated approach, spearheaded by the European Union, that balances de facto and de jure independence and sovereignty.Slim but packed with information and insight, this volume also offers instructive lessons about the dynamics of intrastate and ethnic conflict and the merits of autonomy and power sharing in places as diverse as Kosovo, Northern Cyprus, and Chechnya."

Saving Iraq From Its Oil

Abstract: AS THE United States, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Governing Council struggle to determine what form Iraq's next government should take, there is one question that, more than any other, may prove critical to the country's future: how to handle its vast oil wealth. Oil riches are far from the blessing they are often assumed to be. In fact, countries often end up poor precisely because they are oil rich. Oil and mineral wealth can be bad for growth and bad for democracy, since they tend to impede the development of institutions and values critical to open, market-based economies and political freedom: civil liberties, the rule of law, protection of property rights, and political participation. Plenty of examples illustrate what has come to be known as the resource curse." Thanks to improvements in exploration technology, 34 less-developed countries now boast significant oil and natural gas resources that constitute at least 30 percent of their total export revenue.1 Despite their riches, however, 12 of these countries' annual per capita income remains below $1,500, and up to half of their population lives on less than $1 a day. Moreover, two-thirds of the 34 countries are not democratic, and of those that are, only three (Ecuador, S-ao Tome and Principe, and Trinidad and Tobago) score in the top half of Freedom House's world ranking of political free dom. And even these three states are fragile: Ecuador now teeters on

Counterinsurgency lessons from Malaya and Vietnam : learning to eat soup with a knife

Abstract: Preface Introduction Setting the Stage How Armies Learn The Hard Lesson of Insurgency The British and American Armies: Separated by a Common Language Malaya The Malayan Emergency, 1948-1951 The Empire Strikes Back, 1952-1957 Vietnam The Advisory Years, 1950-1964 The Fighting Years, 1965-1972 Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam Comparing British and American Counterinsurgency Learning Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife Bibliography Index

The Outsourcing Bogeyman

Abstract: WHEN a presidential election year coincides with an uncertain economy, campaigning politicians invariably invoke an international economic issue as a dire threat to the well-being of Americans. Speechwriters denounce the chosen scapegoat, the media provides blanket coverage of the alleged threat, and legislators scurry to introduce supposed remedies. The cause of this year's commotion is offshore outsourcing-the alleged migration of American jobs overseas. The depth of alarm was strikingly illustrated by the firestorm of reaction to recent testimony by N. Gregory Mankiw, the head of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. No economist really disputed Mankiw's observation that "outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," which makes it "a good thing." But in the political arena, Mankiw's comments sparked a furor on both sides of the aisle. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused the Bush administration of wanting "to export more of our jobs overseas, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle quipped, "If this is the administration's position, I think they owe an apology to every worker in America." Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, meanwhile, warned that "outsourcing can be a problem for American workers and the American economy." Critics charge that the information revolution (especially the Internet) has accelerated the decimation of U.S. manufacturing and facilitated the outsourcing of service-sector jobs once considered safe, from backroom call centers to high-level software programming.

America's Crisis of Legitimacy

Abstract: "WHAT KIND of world order do we want?" asked Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. That this question remains on the minds of many Europeans today is a telling sign of the differences that separate the two sides of the Atlantic-because most Americans have not pondered the question of world order since the war. They will have to. The great transatlantic debate over Iraq was rooted in deep disagreement over world order. Yes, Americans and Europeans debated whether Saddam Hussein posed a serious threat and whether war was the right way to deal with it. A solid majority of Americans answered yes to both questions, while even larger majorities of Europeans answered no. Yet these disagreements reflected more than just differing tactical and analytical assessments of the situation in Iraq. As Dominique de Villepin, France's foreign minister, put it, the struggle was less about Iraq than it was between "two visions of the world." The differences over Iraq were not only about policy. They were also about first principles. Opinion polls taken before, during, and after the war show two peoples living on separate strategic and ideological planets. Whereas more than 8o percent of Americans believe that war can sometimes achieve justice, less than half of Europeans agree. Americans and

Harvest of despair : life and death in Ukraine under Nazi rule

Abstract: Figures Preface Introduction 1. Soviet Ukraine and the German Invasion 2. The Reichskommissariat Ukraine 3. The Holocaust of the Jews and Roma 4. Prisoners of War 5. Life in the Countryside 6. Conditions in the Cities 7. Famine in Kiev 8. Popular Culture 9. Ethnic Identity and Political Loyalties 10. Religion and Popular Piety 11. Deportations and Forced Migrations 12. Toward the End of Nazi Rule Conclusion Appendix: Tables Abbreviations Notes Sources Acknowledgments Index

This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation to Ethiopia

Abstract: How do communities grapple with the challenges of reconstruction after conflicts? In one of the first in-depth ethnographic accounts of refugee repatriation anywhere in the world, Laura C. Hammond follows the story of Ada Bai, a returnee settlement with a population of some 7,500 people. In the days when refugees first arrived, Ada Bai was an empty field along Ethiopia's northwest border, but it is now a viable—arguably thriving—community. For the former refugees who fled from northern Ethiopia to eastern Sudan to escape war and famine in 1984 and returned to their country of birth in 1993, "coming home" really meant creating a new home out of an empty space. Settling in a new area, establishing social and kin ties, and inventing social practices, returnees gradually invested their environment with meaning and began to consider their settlement home. Hammond outlines the roles that gender and generational differences played in this process and how the residents came to define the symbolic and geographical boundaries of Ada Bai. Drawing on her fieldwork from 1993 to 1995 and regular shorter periods since, Hammond describes the process by which a place is made meaningful through everyday practice and social interaction. This Place Will Become Home provides insight into how people cope with extreme economic hardship, food insecurity, and limited access to international humanitarian or development assistance in their struggle to attain economic self-sufficiency.

What Went Wrong in Iraq

Abstract: WITH THE TRANSFER of power to a new interim Iraqi government on June z8, the political phase of U.S. occupation came to an abrupt end. The transfer marked an urgently needed, and in some ways hopeftil, new departure for Iraq. But it did not erase, or even much ease at first, the most pressing problems confronting that beleaguered country: endemic violence, a shattered state, a nonfuinctioning economy, and a decimated society. Some of these problems may have been inevitable consequences of the war to topple Saddam Hussein. But Iraq today falls far short of what the Bush administration promised. As a result of a long chain of U.S. miscalculations, the coalition occupation has left Iraq in far worse shape than it need have and has diminished the long-term prospects of democracy there. Iraqis, Amer icans, and other foreigners continue to be kilied. What went wrong? Many of the original miscalculations made by the Bush adminis tration are well known. But the early blunders have had diflise, profound, and lasting consequences-some of which are only now becoming clear. The first and foremost of these errors concerned security: the Bush administration was never willing to commit anything like the forces necessary to ensure order in postwar Iraq. From the beginning, military experts warned Washington that the task would require, as Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told Congress in Feb ruary 2003, "hundreds of thousands" of troops. For the United States

The Terrorist Threat in Africa

Abstract: The Bush administration has focused on destroying al Qaeda in East Africa, but it has been slow to address less-visible terrorist threats elsewhere on the continent, such as Islamist extremism in Nigeria and criminal syndicates in West Africa's failed states. This indifference could be costly -- for Africans and Americans both.

Genes, Trade, and Regulation: The Seeds of Conflict in Food Biotechnology

Abstract: Preface vii Chapter One: Introduction and Summary 1 Chapter Two: Challenges 22 Chapter Three: Polarization 44 Chapter Four: Interest Group Politics 66 Chapter Five: Regulatory Federalism 102 Chapter Six: International Trade Conflict 118 Chapter Seven: Coping with Diversity 168 Notes 185 References 213 Index 225