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Virtually all political theory and ethical systems presuppose the primacy of human beings. Abstract human beings have rights, privileges, legal standing, and—it is said—claims to our sympathy. Many political debates, therefore, center on questions of where these lines are to be drawn. But many humans do not behave this way. People, for example, may expend far more love, time, money, and energy on their pets' well-being than on abstract humans. If the choice is between an operation to save their dog's life, or saving a human life through the United Nations, for example, most will choose the former, even if put in such stark terms. This essay argues that people's love for their dogs transcends the human/animal barrier, that this love overturns assumptions about the role of abstraction in our lives, and that such attunement can be understood only via new formulations of the roles of ethics and philosophy.

Abstract: The Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets differs in several aspects from the other Protocols. It deals to a large extent with 'assets' that are permanently out of reach, and therefore includes elaborated 'associated rights' (inter alia permits, licences, and authorizations issued by states or international organizations). Seizure of rights and/or control by a creditor could cause friction with respect to state sovereignty. Furthermore, although thus far no conflict with existing international space law has been identified, the application of the Protocol could have consequences for the obligation of the launching state to retain jurisdiction and control, as well as for the international liability of the launching state. It is suggested that both matters can and should be resolved through national space legislation. Finally, the proposed Supervisory Authority is not an intergovernmental organization, but a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Successful regional cooperation is a crucial element in the future peace and prosperity of Central Asia. Sharing their rich human and natural resources and establishing efficient transport links within the region and beyond are the keys to achieving sustainable economic growth and to improving living standards. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) began the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program in 1997. Member countries are the People's Republic of China (PRC), primarily the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Mongolia, and five of the six Central Asian republics (CARs) namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan has not yet joined. CAREC is also an alliance of institutions that support regional cooperation including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme. This first Regional Cooperation Strategy and Program (RCSP) will focus future ADB assistance on regional cooperation.

Der Status der Frau in der arabischen Welt war immer eine hoch sensible politische Angelegenheit. Dies gilt umso mehr für die vergangenen zwei Jahre mit ihrer Eskalation der Gewalt im Nahen Osten. Einerseits hat der 2002 veröffentlichte Arab Human Development Report die Frauenemanzipation als eines von drei großen Defiziten benannt, die die Entwicklung der arabischen Welt behindern. Andererseits werden die in den westlichen Medien dominierenden stereotypen Darstellungen der arabischen Frauen als Opfer ihrer repressiven Gesellschaften dazu benutzt, den neoimperialistischen Diskurs von Intervention und Präventivkrieg gegen die arabischen "Schurkenstaaten" zu legitimieren. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem soziopolitischen Status der Frau in der arabischen Welt geht daher über den Bereich der Gesellschaftsanalyse hinaus und berührt auch den Sektor der internationalen Beziehungen und internationalen Politik. Gemessen am 1995 formulierten Maßstab des United Nations Development Program (UNDP) für Frauenemanzipation liegt die arabische Welt auf dem vorletzten Platz. Will man jedoch eine kulturalistische Verkürzung vermeiden, ist zu berücksichtigen, dass die Ungleichheit der Geschlechter ein weltweites Problem ist, auch in entwickelten Ländern. Generalisierungen über arabische oder islamische Ländern sind irreführend und verdecken vorhandene Unterschiede. Zwischen Saudi-Arabien, Tunesien und dem Sudan gibt es beispielsweise grundlegende Unterschiede, was die Position der Frau in der Öffentlichkeit betrifft. Auch das in der Theorie auf der Scharia basierende Familienrecht weist signifikante Unterschiede auf. Ein Blick auf die jüngere Geschichte der Frauenrechte in einigen arabischen Ländern zeigt zudem, dass Frauen in ihrem Kampf um ein besseres Leben für alle als aktive soziale Akteure auftreten und nicht hilflose Opfer sind. (ICEÜbers)

Assesses the Kosovo "problem" five years after the beginning of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that fueled the Kosovo crisis. Summarizes institutional responses including international civilian and military entries into Kosovo, passage of a constitutional framework for provisional self-government, and the establishment of an elected legislative assembly along with increased ethnic-based violence that has increased tensions in the region. Socioeconomic factors, Serb and Albanian cultural and historical differences, and problematic political conditions are cited as underlying explanations for the continued tensions inadequately addressed by current international efforts at normalization. Problems with the Kosovo Standards Implementation Plan, international and regional explanations for Kosovo's ongoing tensions, and a summary of Russia's numerous positions regarding Kosovo are considered. Concludes that the difficult prospect of resolving the various issues in Kosovo depends on a coordinated international effort to implement United Nations' GA Resolution 1244 to ensure regional peace, stability, and a multiethnic, democratic society.

Successful regional cooperation is a crucial element in the future peace and prosperity of Central Asia. Sharing their rich human and natural resources and establishing efficient transport links within the region and beyond are the keys to achieving sustainable economic growth and to improving living standards. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) began the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program in 1997. Member countries are the People's Republic of China (PRC), primarily the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Mongolia, and five of the six Central Asian republics (CARs) namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan has not yet joined. CAREC is also an alliance of institutions that support regional cooperation including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme. This first Regional Cooperation Strategy and Program (RCSP) will focus future ADB assistance on regional cooperation.

This article examines the process of normative change and nascent norm emergence in areas of global policy making through the convening of UN global conferences. Specifically, the article is a case study of how the norms and discourse undergirding and legitimising global population policy have changed from population control to reproductive rights through the passing decades. The United Nations, as a main site of discursive and normative contestation, provides opportunities for global social movements to lodge oppositional claims against states and other actors in world politics. A constructivist approach is used to identify five processes integral to understanding mutually constitutive and fluid agent-structure processes of normative change and nascent norm emergence in global population policy. This research contributes to the extant constructivist literature on the process of norm emergence by suggesting one processual model that can illuminate other cases of norm formation, maintenance, and change regarding other transnational issues. (Original abstract)

In 1996, shortly after termination of the Bosnian civil war and the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, the University of Denver established a service learning program in the Balkans. Now, about to enter its eighth consecutive year of operation, "Project Bosnia" has become the university's longest‐running service learning/field school initiative. Each summer, from ten to 15 students (representing disciplines as diverse as anthropology, international relations, and law) participate in on‐site, agency‐based activities that allow them to hone both their community outreach and applied research skills. Some serve as summer school teachers in the small town of Vares. Many work with refugees and internally displaced persons in Sarajevo, the capitol. Placement agencies include the International Commission on Missing Persons, America's Development Foundation, the International Crisis Group, World Vision, the Mine Action Center, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. In‐class, academic work directed by the author complements each student's fieldwork.

Books reviewed in this article: Leonore Loeb Abler and Uwe P. Gielen(EDS.), Migration: Immigration and Emigration in International Perspective Samuel Agyei‐Mensah and John B. Casterline(EDS.), Reproduction and Social Context in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Collection of Micro‐Demographic Studies Francesco C. Billari And Alexia Prskawetz(EDS.), Agent‐Based Computational Demography: Using Simulation to Improve Our Understanding of Demographic Behaviour Siew‐Ean Khoo And Peter McDonald(EDS.), The Transformation of Australia's Population: 1970‐2030 James P. Lynch and Rita J. Simon, Immigration the World Over: Statutes, Policies, and Practices C. Ford Runge, Benjamin Senauer, Philip G. Pardey, And Mark W. Rosegrant, Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: Food Security and Globalization Sheldon J. Segal, Under the Banyan Tree: A Population Scientist's Odyssey Lynn M. Thomas, Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya United Nations Economic Commission For Europe, Dynamics of Fertility and Partnership in Europe: Insights and Lessons from Comparative Research

Abstract
The following comment on Peter Singer's One World is divided into four parts. It starts with some objections agairrst Singer's utilitarian approach (1). Then it argues for an 'Ethics of Globalization' which at the same time has universal validity and maintains context sensitivity (2). In part three it is shown that these two conditions are better fulfilled by an ethics based on Human Rights than by an utilitarian ethics. In this context John Rawls' Law of Peoples is defended against Singer's criticism (3). In the final part the role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), which are not mentioned by Singer, is analyzed. It is argued that in a world in which the states are overcharged, the United Nations weakened and the Transnational Companies' power is increasing, the NGOs get growing responsibility up to the point that many of them turn out to become Human Right's advocates and Human Right's guardians (4).

Sir John Boyd Orr, who became the first director‐general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, sought a peace centered on the idea of achieving "freedom from want." This idea led to the World Food Board proposals he developed and presented to the international community in 1946. However, his plan for a massive international campaign to boost global agricultural productivity as well as an ambitious commodity storage program to stabilize world prices were largely rejected by the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office. Orr's vision of the postwar world—of how to win the peace—differed markedly from their own, which was based on the ideas of free trade and military strength aimed at the emerging Soviet bloc. This article raises questions about alternatives to the Cold War as well as the role of the new UN's specialized agencies in developing the postwar world.

ABSTRACTMany of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon were originally established as tented encampments during the period 1948–1955. Half a century later, with high population densities and limited vehicular access, they remain largely separate from adjacent Lebanese communities, with infrastructure and welfare services mainly provided by the United Nations. Water supply, sewerage and stormwater‐drainage systems have been developed on a piecemeal basis, are frequently in poor condition, and are inadequate to cops with expanding populations. A project for the design of new systems was commissioned to serve a total population of about 250 000 by the year 2020. The new facilities have had to take account of complex networks of narrow pedestrian alleyways that characterise many of the camps.This paper provides an insight into (a) working within established refugee camps and other economically poor and densely populated communities, and (b) the problems which were experienced in developing feasible solutions for the improvement of infrastructure.

Kofi Annan (1999), the Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted that, "A Society for All Ages is one that sees elders as both agents and beneficiaries of development. It honors traditional elders in their leadership and consultative role in communities throughout the world." Older persons are among the world resources most often unseen and overlooked. It therefore becomes necessary to raise the consciousness of older people to their changing role in American and global societies to ensure fulfillment in their eldering years. Prior prejudice against elders has prevented inclusion of their enormous potential, of their accumulated experience and wisdom. This paper is directed toward determining how best to utilize the talents, wisdom and life's experience of these elders to add meaning and substance to their lives, while affording them the opportunity to continue to contribute their talents and abilities as political activists and leaders directed toward peacemaking and social change.

Calls for a new philosophy of diplomacy & diplomatic affairs practice reflective of a more profound global political consciousness of the mystical in the post-September 11 (2001) theopolitical context wherein Western values are in contention with Islamic ideals. It is asserted that focusing on irenology, the theological or ecclesiastical study of peace, might spur a paradigm shift in the secular philosophy, nature, & practice of diplomacy, which is seen to have stagnated. The United Nations U of Peace in Costa Rica has been established to focus on irenology. The long tradition of Holy See diplomacy & the relatively younger Islamic diplomacy are discussed, & a theo-irenological perspective is advocated for diplomatic & international human relations programs. Spiritual by nature, man's global engagement should not be void of spiritual values. Moving in that direction will compel secular diplomacy toward evolutionary diplomacy that will help build a new interdisciplinary peace intelligence dynamic & foster a just sustainable peace. J. Zendejas