Search results

Explores how nation-states handle the unpredictability surrounding water availability & flow while negotiating water treaties. At issue is whether states adopt available mechanisms to address climate uncertainty while negotiating new water regimes & whether & how these regimes evolve during crisis events to contend with climate risk, especially in light of new local & regional water organizations. An examination of the negotiation process of three water treaties reveals that nations typically eschew risk management mechanisms because these mechanisms often shift the balance of power & undermine the sustainability of the resource regulatory regime. These case studies in water flow management are the lower Rio Grande drought & the 1944 Mexico-US treaty; the 1961-1964 drought along the Great Lakes & the 1909 Canadian-US treaty; & 1997-1999 water shortage in the Jordan Basin & the 1994 Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty. The most important of these excluded/neglected mechanisms are drought mitigation measures. The ramifications of not adopting these mitigation measures are assessed through a look at the performance of these treaties & how they evolved during drought conditions. In this context, considered are hybrid cooperative mechanisms to address regional climate risk that also accommodate the requirement of the nation-state to maintain its hegemony over transnational institutions & secure a long-standing water regime. Attention is also given to how local & regional initiatives are overcoming state inadequacies in grappling with climate risk. Tables, Figures, References. D. Edelman

Existing understandings of democratization are reassessed. International & regional determinants that have affected democratization in Latin America & in Eastern & Southern Europe since the early 1980s are studied. After delineating democratization as a long-term & open-ended process, five overlapping components of democratization in the post-Cold War era are then highlighted: the transitional objective of augmenting political inclusion; the formation of democratic institutions; the creation of social foundations required to support democratization; reaching international agreement about the normative basis for democratic political systems; & the peoples realization of political sovereignty. Even though the involvement of international organizations is a necessary component of democracy promotion, it is demonstrated that international agreements alone (eg, the creation of United Nations transitional administrations) are generally insufficient to produce democratic systems in transitional states. Several theoretical propositions that informed Cold War era thinking about democratization in post-conflict or post-colonial nations are reconsidered, eg, whether democratic governments should be perceived as augmenting peoples liberty or guaranteeing their security. J. W. Parker

The chapter explores the theoretical, historical, & economic transformations informing the current dialectic between the globalization of capital & international labor's response to the transnationalization of social relations & working-class exploitation. While the fledgling transnational labor movement is as yet split between reformist & radical factions, the emergence of a "new popular internationalism" nonetheless indicates progress in coalition building beyond nation-specific labor interests, enhancing worldwide political as well as labor-class consciousness. K. Coddon

Scrutinizes the international relations literatures surrounding three principal research movements that study international conflict: game theory, the democratic peace, & offense-defense theory. The development of the microfoundations of conflict, ie, crisis origins & escalation to war, in game theoretic models is examined; focus of this approach is on why actors fight when preferable peaceful settlements exist. The notion of the democratic peace centers on the observation that democracies are far less likely to war with one another than other dyads. Its establishment as stylized fact is considered before critiquing theories proposed to explain this phenomenon. Three additional approaches to explain the democratic peace are delineated, & a call is made for more hypotheses to test against the large-n sets typically analyzed as well as case studies. Offense-defense theory derives comes from the idea that war & conflict are more likely when territory is easily taken; case studies dominate this research field. Measurement of the offense-defense balance has proven problematic, & the two World Wars, key to the theory's development, are seen to pose a puzzle. Following a look at some test cases, a revision to the theory is proffered. It is contended that the democratic peace & offense-defense theory can benefit by employing game theory. J. Zendejas

Argues that the current theorization of orthodox international political economy (IPE) obstructs the goal of achieving security which requires the integration of security & community with a critical IPE that is democratic, historical, & reflexive. The dominance of a neoliberal discourse is challenged. It is contended that it is essential for security to be closely related to some notion of community; therefore, the political economy must be embedded in social practice & institutions. The link between community, emancipation, & political economy is explored in depth, along with the critical importance of the IPE for the life chances of the majority of the world's population. Attention is also given to the various ways contemporary US-structured economic & technological globalization has helped to dislocate & destabilize the experience & idea of community. Emphasis is placed on the need for a differently constructed notion of economics that has the potential to achieve real security by uniting politics & economics through a critical articulation of the field of IPE. J. Lindroth

"In this article we use uniquely comparable data sets from two very different settings to examine how exogenous economic transformations affect the likelihood and selectivity of international out-migration. Specifically, we use data from the Mexican Migration Project to construct event history files predicting first U.S. trips from seven communities in the state of Veracruz, which until recently sent very few migrants abroad. Similarly, using data from the Polish Migration Project, we derive comparable event history files predicting first trips to Germany from four Polish communities, which also sent few migrants abroad before the 1980s. Our analyses suggest that the onset of structural adjustment in both places had a significant effect in raising the probability of international migration, even when controlling for a set of standard variables specified by other theories to influence migration propensity, such as die size of the binational income gap and various indicators of human and social capital." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Discussion opens with a brief historical overview of nongovernmental organization (NGO) refugee protection involvement. Attention then turns to detailing the current NGO activity & their place in the international refugee regime. Civil society development & increasing public financial support for emergencies are noted before distinguishing between international & indigenous NGOs. NGOs' growing reliance on government funding requires professionalism & accountability on their part; the relationship between the UNHCR & NGOs is touched on. Noting the crisis in international refugee protection, the context in which these NGOs operate is described, particularly in terms of contemporary warfare & NGO responses to emergencies in light of the UNHCR's inability to protect refugees in all situations. Their impact is seen in their assistance & presence in crisis situations, awareness raising, advocacy, & role in conflict resolution. UNHCR-NGO collaboration is developing around five areas, but strengthened NGO-NGO, NGO-UNHCR, & NGO-government partnerships remain a necessity. J. Zendejas