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The year 2012 saw rapid economic growth, resource development, and a young, dynamic population starting to change the face of Lao public life. The governing Lao People's Revolutionary Party was quick to claim across the board success. There remain, however, significant caveats: success has been moderate, and growth has come with human costs.

SUMMARYWe expect those who govern to do so in the interests of the governed. From an international institutional perspective on governance, derived from major international donor frameworks (IMF, WB, EU), good governance refers to efficiency in the provision of services and economic competitiveness. Increasingly, good governance has also come to mean accountability in the provision of services and in the generation and distribution of the collective good. Although even then, there are concerns regarding the impact on the extreme poor, cultural relativity and path dependency, as aggregate measurements of success are used, top‐down exogenous values and primarily Western standards are imposed and political rights are prioritised over other, perhaps more immediate, entitlement rights. This article returns to a fundamental conceptualisation of governance, arguing that the 'right' approach to public administration is that which provides for the basic human needs of all to the greatest extent, but in particular, provides for those of the most vulnerable sections of society. Poverty is one of the greatest challenges to human security and basic human needs, in particular, as addressed in this article, when it is linked to insecurity due to the impact and legacy of conflict. Thus, the article examines conceptual and policy problems related to the provision of 'safe havens' for the vulnerable, regardless of their citizenship status. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 was an attempt under U.S. domestic law to provide aid and humanitarian relief to and broadcast support for those perceived as suffering from the actions of the North Korean regime. It also aimed to transform the regime and contribute to the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula (in a process similar to that which had occurred as a result of the Helsinki Accords with regard to Eastern Europe). However, contrary to serving its avowed objectives, the act contributes little to enhance human rights protection in North Korea and to instigate regime transformation. Rather, the act is more likely to endanger strategic relations in Northeast Asia. (Asian Perspect/GIGa)

This thesis examines theoretical explanations for why military interventions have taken place in the 'long-decade' following the end of the Cold War. International relations paradigms are evaluated in terms of whether their theoretical precepts provide a potential logical motivation for intervention in each case, based upon the available physical evidence and rational modelling. For the first time the importance of normative justifications for intervention will be assessed in terms of the likelihood of them forming the actual motivation for key decision-makers to make the decision to intervene, using the very rational and empirical methods utilised by critics of new world order claims and that have hitherto been shunned by its advocates. This thesis will attempt a measurement of the fit between theoretical models and empirical evidence in the form of analysis of case studies of "humanitarian intervention" or normative war fighting; a category particularly apt for study, as it can be made to fit with the world-views of all competing paradigms. ; TARA (Trinity's Access to Research Archive) has a robust takedown policy. Please contact us if you have any concerns: rssadmin@tcd.ie

Preliminary Material /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch -- Introduction to the Developments, Trends and Challenges to UN Peacekeeping Operations /Boris Kondoch and Brendan Howe -- Northeast Asian Perspectives on UN Peacekeeping: China, Japan, Korea /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch -- Southeast Asian Perspectives on UN Peacekeeping: Indonesia and Malaysia /Alistair D. B. Cook -- South Asian Regionalism and UN Peacekeeping Missions: A Case of 'and Never the Twain Shall Meet'? /Rashed Uz Zaman and Niloy Ranjan Biswas -- Australia and Peacekeeping /Peter Londey -- RAMSI Ten Years On: From Post-conflict Stabilisation to Development in Solomon Islands? /Sinclair Dinnen -- All-Japan Approach to International Peace Operations /Yuji Uesugi -- Thailand's Participation in UN Peacekeeping Missions: The Reciprocal Transference of Expertise and Norms /Keokam Kraisoraphong and Brendan Howe -- Why Contribute? Understanding Asian Motivations for Troop Contribution to Peace Operations /Xenia Avezov -- Index /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch.

Preliminary Material /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch -- Introduction /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch -- Aggression, the Prohibition of the Use of Force and Northeast Asia /Boris Kondoch -- East Asian Values and Humanitarian Intervention /Brendan Howe -- Between Harmonious World and "War of Order": Chinese Meanings of Just War and Their Reemergence /Nadine Godehardt -- From Ideology to Pragmatism: China's Position on Humanitarian Intervention in the Post-Cold War Era /Jonathan E. Davis -- The Paradox of Non-use of "Use of Force" Option in Japan's Foreign and Security Policy Consensus /Toshiya Hoshino -- "The Crime of Aggression" and Japan /Madoka Futamura -- Questioning the Legality and Legitimacy of a Preventive Strike by the U.S. to Disarm North Korea of Nuclear Weapons /Dan Ernst -- Bibliography /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch -- Index /Brendan Howe and Boris Kondoch.

Good governance is an essentially contested concept. In Asian countries, economic efficiency and macro-economic projects have predominantly been pursued with the aim of promoting national, aggregate measurements of development. Hydroelectric power generation projects have played a central role in the national planning of several regional states as part of an attempt to achieve these goals. Even by their own terms of reference, however, hydroelectric power projects have at most a mixed record of success, and are increasingly criticized with regard to their negative impact on the environment, and upon vulnerable groups. The government of Malaysia has embraced the "developmental state" model, and this is best illustrated by governance initiatives and resource exploitation in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and their respective "development corridors". Sarawak's Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is the most visible sign of Malaysia's macro-economic hydroelectric development focus, as Sabah's corridor focuses on trade, investment, and tourism. This article takes a critical perspective towards good governance, emphasizing that it should function in the interests of all society, but in particular the most vulnerable. It therefore addresses the impact of Malaysian hydroelectric development policies on one of the most vulnerable sections of Malaysian society, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The findings cast doubt on the validity of continued prioritization of hydroelectric dam construction as a cornerstone of government energy and development policy.