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Many developing countries are still grappling with the consequences of the pandemic and the associated high debt burdens while facing huge financing needs, inter alia related to climate change. In response, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). The G7 and G20 have committed to re-channelling SDR 100 billion of their allocation to developing countries (on-lending, recycling and re-channelling are used interchangeably in this policy brief). The question now is how to implement these commitments in a way that promotes the global transformation and at the same time supports debt sustainability. It is important to note that there are certain restrictions on the re-channelling of SDRs. Most importantly, the re-channelling must be consistent with the SDR's status as an international reserve asset. There are different interpretations of these requirements. The IMF has encouraged the use of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) for re-channelling. It has also signalled general support for re-channelling SDRs to the multilateral development banks (MDBs). The European Central Bank (ECB) has taken a more restrictive stance. Does the re-channelling of SDRs through the above-mentioned IMF trusts ("the current on-lending option") effectively support the global transformation? Measured against this objective, the current on-lending regime has two shortcomings. First, it does not sufficiently link foreign exchange support to deep structural transformation. Second, it does not allow funds to be leveraged in the private capital market. In this policy brief, we discuss a promising alternative: recycling SDRs for MDB hybrid capital ("the hybrid capital option"). This option can overcome the two drawbacks of the current system. At the same time, it has its own challenges. Moreover, both the current on-lending option and the hybrid capital option raise concerns about debt sustainability. If implemented in their current forms, they would risk exacerbating vulnerable countries' debt problems. It would therefore be desirable to modify these options to better integrate debt implications. This could be done by using the on-lent SDRs primarily for programmes that are not "expenditure-based", but rather help to improve the composition of expenditure and revenue in a socially equitable manner, for example the introduction of regulatory standards, feebates and carbon pricing, or the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies. Such an approach could have the added benefit of making previously sceptical member states more receptive to the hybrid capital proposal. The mid-term review of the RST, scheduled for May 2024, as well as the full review in 2025 provide good opportunities to further explore some of the issues raised in this policy brief. In addition, the brief identifies three ways in which interested shareholders of the IMF and MDBs could advance the debate on the hybrid capital option.

"This book provides insights on the art of governing a state and managing its external relations from a wealth-power logic. It looks at "economic statecraft" which consists of wealth production, wealth mobilization and wealth-power conversion by a state. This book reconceptualizes what economic statecraft is and proposes a new theory focused on wealth-power conversion. With a long historic perspective, this book goes through the modern history of western powers practicing economic statecraft since 1500, and presents three case studies, the US, the EU and China, the three biggest users of economic statecraft in contemporary world. The book serves as an ideal reference for policy-makers, business people and researchers whose work touch upon either wealth creation, power projection or the combination of both"--

The era of liberal interventionism is over, and the prevailing international discourse is once again about defending state borders and putting up walls. This broad re-assertion of sovereignty and non-intervention - often considered the normative foundation of the BRICS countries, of the Non-Aligned Movement, of Bandung, of the "Westphalian" South - raises a series of difficult questions, not least about the management of challenges shared by all. How are we to make sense of re-organisations of intervention and non-intervention in global order? Recently the dominant way of approaching these issues has been through the lens of cosmopolitan or liberal-solidarist duties, including the Responsibility to Protect. Yet it seems doubtful that this framework is still capable of posing the right questions or generating the right sorts of answers. This volume offers a new approach that provincializes the conventional debate, de-naturalises what it takes as universal or given, and lays out a series of alternatives at a time when non-intervention, quite suddenly, seems everywhere in the discourse of international society. It does so through a genealogy of the intervention concept since 1945. Intervention before Interventionism is about the ways in which statespeople have re-ordered intervention and non-intervention since the middle of the twentieth century; it is concerned primarily with non-Western contestations of Western-dominated order; it illustrates institutional change in and through decolonization; and it provides a conceptual roadmap for understanding dilemmas of intervention and non-intervention today, particularly in relation to contestation as it has re-emerged in the twenty-first century. While building upon and conversing with existing literature, the book stands out from previous approaches insofar as it is a mapping of international struggles for the re-constitution of intervention in the globalization of the society of states.

The Anglo-American Military Relationship explores military cooperation since the end of the Cold War. Much of the literature on the Anglo-American 'Special Relationship' has focused on the personal linkages between American Presidents and British Prime Ministers. This book argues that much of what is special between the two countries has resided in their military cooperation. This has provided the ballast that has underpinned other aspects of the political and economic relationship and given it durability.The book focuses on how the British armed services have worked alongside a superpower, in both peacetime and conflict. This military cooperation has been a challenging task, not least because it has occurred within a dynamic strategic context in which the nature of conflict has been evolving. British armed forces have engaged with their American allies in high intensity warfare, as well as in developing military doctrines to address insurgency, peace enforcement, and nation-building tasks. Working so closely with the US military has generated risks as well as benefits for Britain's armed forces. It has led them to engage in tasks that have weighed heavily upon their resources and has resulted in numerous tensions between the two sides.

As the world grows increasingly turbulent, war crimes justice is needed more than ever. But it is failing. The International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, the world's first permanent war crimes court, opened in 2002 but it has jailed just five war criminals to date. Meanwhile, wars continue to rage around the globe. So what has gone wrong, and can it be fixed? Journalist and war correspondent Chris Stephen takes a colourful look at the erratic history of war crimes justice, and the pioneers who created it. He examines its shortcomings, and options for making it more effective, including the case for prosecuting the corporations and banks who fund warlords. Casting the net wider, he examines alternatives to war crimes trials, and peers into the minds of war criminals themselves. With war law advocates fighting for justice on one side, and reluctant governments unwilling to relinquish control on the other, will the world of the future be governed by rule-of-law, or might-is-right?

From a globally-renowned expert on Russian military strategy and national security, The Russian Way of Deterrence investigates Russia's approach to coercion (both deterrence and compellence), comparing and contrasting it with the Western conceptualization of this strategy. Strategic deterrence, or what Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky calls deterrence à la Russe, is one of the main tools of Russian statecraft. Adamsky deftly describes the genealogy of the Russian approach to coercion and highlights the cultural, ideational, and historical factors that have shaped it in the nuclear, conventional and informational domains. Drawing on extensive research on Russian strategic culture, Adamsky highlights several empirical and theoretical peculiarities of the Russian coercion strategy, including how this strategy relates to the war in Ukraine. Exploring the evolution of strategic deterrence, along with its sources and prospective avenues of development. Adamsky provides a comprehensive intellectual history that makes it possible to understand the deep mechanics of this Russian stratagem, the current and prospective patterns of the Kremlin's coercive conduct, and the implications for policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, newspapers have been full of stories about Russia's military brass and political leaders. However, there has been very little attention paid to what life in Russia is like for ordinary citizens. This publication offers a much-needed evidence-based view of human rights under Putin. East View Press is proud to present relevant data gathered by the Moscow-based nonprofit SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which for over two decades has been reporting on the country's legislation and law enforcement. As local Russian offices of advocacy groups such as Memorial, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been shuttered one after the other, this book emerges as a critical resource. Its publication has become even more urgent with the recent dissolution of the SOVA Center itself.Compiled for the first time in book form, this collection spotlights SOVA's research on Russia's evolving anti-extremism laws. The statistics here show convincing evidence that, far from safeguarding citizens from hate crimes, this legislation harbors a not-so-hidden agenda: silencing dissent. A must-read for scholars of civil rights, post-Soviet politics, and international relations, this book also resonates with anyone interested in the development of nation-states and the strategies they deploy to retain their authority.

Der Ruf nach verstärkter Regulierung der Kommunikation auf und der Aktivitäten von Plattformen wird in Wissenschaft und Praxis lauter, was angesichts der Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre erklärbar ist: Filterblasen und Echokammern, Algorithmen, kommunikative Fehlentwicklungen wie Hate-Speech und Fake-News. Dieser Band versammelt theoretische Analysen und neuere empirische Ergebnisse bezogen auf die gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen und ethischen Probleme der Kommunikation auf Plattformen. Dazu gehören mögliche "ideale" Plattformen aus ethischer Perspektive, die Datengebarung von digitalen Plattformen, Formen der Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation, Lokalkommunikation in Demokratien, Journalismus und vulnerable Zielgruppen auf Plattformen, Algorithmen gesteuerte Nachrichtenselektion auf Plattformen und problematische Social-Media-Kommunikationsformen. Die Zielgruppe des Bandes sind Kommunikationswissenschaftlerinnen und -wissenschaftler, Studierende und mit digitalen Plattformen in Berührung kommende interessierte Bürgerinnen und Bürger.Mit Beiträgen vonUlla Autenrieth | Johanna Burger | Susanna Endres | Luciano Floridi | Christian Fuchs | Christian Gürtler | Vanessa Kokoschka | Stefan Kosak | Larissa Krainer | Friedrich Krotz | Matthias Künzler | Michael Litschka | Tassilo Pellegrini | Marlis Prinzing | Lars Rademacher | Florian Saurwein | Ingrid Stapf | Katrin Wallner

Why are children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) substantially less likely to be enrolled in child care? We study whether barriers in the application process work against lower-SES children - the group known to benefit strongest from child care enrollment. In an RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (N = 607), we offer treated families information and personal assistance for applications. We find substantial, equity-enhancing effects of the treatment, closing half of the large SES gap in child care enrollment. Increased enrollment for lower-SES families is likely driven by altered application knowledge and behavior. We discuss scalability of our intervention and derive policy implications for the design of universal child care programs.

We provide experimental evidence that enabling access to universal early child care increases maternal labor supply and promotes gender equality among families with lower socioeconomic status (SES). Our intervention offers information and customized help with child care applications, leading to a boost in child care enrollment among lower-SES families. 18 months after the intervention, we find substantial increases in maternal full-time employment (+160%), maternal earnings (+22%), and household income (+10%). Intriguingly, the positive employment effects are not only driven by extended hours at child care centers, but also by an increase in care hours by fathers. Gender equality also benefits more broadly from better access to child care: The treatment improves a gender equality index that combines information on intra-household division of working hours, care hours, and earnings by 40% of a standard deviation, with significant increases in each dimension. For higher-SES families, we consistently observe negligible, insignificant treatment effects.