Suchergebnisse

Recognizing the magnitude, complexity and chaos of the Rwanda emergency, 36 donor countries, the United Nations and international agencies and non-governmental organisations launched the "Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda" on the premise that it would be possible to identify lessons to be learned by the international community applicable to future complex emergencies and to the continuing attempt to help Rwanda rebuild its society. Study 1 presents the historical background to the developments in contemporary Rwanda that culminated in the genocide beginning in April 1994. Study 2 examines the effectiveness of international monitoring (early warning) and management of the Rwanda conflict. Study 3 examines the provision of humanitarian aid and physical protection by the international community in response to the Rwanda crisis. It combines a detailed technical assessment of the principal sectors and phases of the response with an attempt to draw out the principal conclusions and policy lessons from the experience. Study 4 examines the effectiveness, impact and relevance of international assistance to Rwanda on repatriation and on rehabilitation, reconstruction and long-term development of the country. The Synthesis Report presents a summary of the four studies. (DÜI-Hff)

One of the research topics which intrigues researchers in the subject areas of applied linguistics, international relations and politics is political discourse and the way it is perceived and represented in the media. Researchers have analysed and interpreted the political and international relations discourse of various politicians and diplomats in different countries. By the same token, Iran, as a country with an influence on the political issues of the Middle East and a role in international dynamics and trends, has devoted a plethora of research to itself where researchers have examined and critiqued the international and foreign policies of Iran in various periods of time, in relation to various countries and in connection with various political and international events and situations. However, a search carried out by the present researcher showed that there are not many publications on how the British mass media, newspapers in particular, perceive and represent the Iranian governments international relations discourse. To address this lacuna, a corpus of news stories and reports extracted from two renowned British newspapers, the Guardian and Daily Mail, was analysed by adopting a double hermeneutic content analysis approach. The results suggest that the two newspapers, in spite of being famous for having polar political views, seem to have similar perceptions and representations of the above discourse. The study also provides directions for further research in other contexts.

"Formed in 1947, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was the first postwar international organization dedicated to cooperation in Europe along the boundaries set by the Cold War. Linking the universalism of the UN to European regionalism, both Cold War superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, were founding members of the UNECE. This book provides a unique study of this important but hitherto under-researched international organization. Incorporating research on the Cold War, the history of internationalism and European integration, Stinsky weaves these different threads of historical enquiry into a single analytical narrative. Building on the League of Nations' difficult heritage, and in an increasingly challenging political environment, the UNECE's mission was to facilitate European cooperation across the Iron Curtain. With a number of competitor organizations set against it, the UNECE managed to carve out a niche for itself, setting norms and standards that still have an impact on the everyday lives of millions in Europe and beyond today. Working against an overwhelming geopolitical trend, UNECE succeeded in bridging the Cold War divide on several occasions, and maintained a broad system of contacts across the Iron Curtain."

For a number of net food importing developing countries (NFIDCs), abrupt changes in international staple food prices constitute an important source of macroeconomic instability. Theory suggests that in the face of instable current accounts, due to relatively volatile export earnings and/or food import bills, agents should seek to boost savings, a move that enables smoothing consumption over time. Yet, the ability to increase the level of savings is rather limited in many poor NFIDCs, mainly due to weak domestic financial systems. Their capacity to borrow funds from world markets to finance food imports is also limited because of generally elevated levels of default risks. A casual review of staple foods and cash crops price series shows that they tend to display a synchronized behavior. This was particularly evident during 2007-2011, corresponding to the period of high and volatile commodity prices. This coordinated price movement means that export revenues, from the sales of cash crops that many NFIDCs rely on, could act as a good hedge against surges in food import bills, and hence, contribute to reducing current account instability. This is because international demand for agricultural commodities is generally inelastic, implying that movements in prices outweigh those of quantities. This thesis explores the relationship between cash crop and staple food prices by examining co-movements and dynamics in terms of level and volatility. While movements in quantities together with prices determine the direction and magnitude of export earnings, the focus of this research is exclusively on the price component of the equation, given its relative importance. This study applies a series of econometric techniques, including GARCH estimation, wavelet analysis, volatility spillover index, general forecast error variance decomposition, and Bayesian model averaging, to characterize the interdependence between a selection of major international cash crop and staple food price series. Results show that the intensity of interaction between cash crop and staple food quotations varies considerably, but is generally positive and stronger during the period 2007-2011 associated with high commodity prices and financial market stress. Results also indicate that the level of co-movement and volatility linkages are strongest at lower frequencies (i.e. longer run) than at higher time scales (i.e. short run), with information running from staple food to the cash crop markets. Finally, an analysis of the international sugar market, using a Bayesian model averaging technique, confirms the importance of staple food prices as key determinants of international sugar quotations. Positive conditional correlation between cash crop and staple food markets means that Governments of NFIDCs can evaluate more accurately their financial needs in the face of current account imbalances due to import bills by taking into consideration the fact that revenues from cash crop exports can reduce funding requirements, and hence borrowing costs. They can also use price information relevant to international staple foods in the design and planning of investment strategies for the cash crop sub-sector.

The industrialized nations of the world have begun to plan for the storage and eventual disposal of their increasing volumes of nuclear wastes. In this paper the authors inventory the progress made by these nations in planning for nuclear waste disposal. A typology based on the adoption of spent-fuel reprocessing programs and of progress toward selection of permanent disposal sites is developed, and the world's nuclear nations are located within this typology. However, those countries which have been active in determining and constructing disposal sites have faced considerable internal and international political conflict. Conflict over nuclear waste disposal site-selection is both a geographical and a political problem. There is a review of various factors which contribute to the articulation and resolution of political conflict, including public participation in siting decisions, veto power of local governments, and prospects for international cooperation in siting decisions. It is concluded that decentralized democratic procedures, which emphasize public participation in siting decisions, have the strongest potential for conflict resolution.

Solidarity and community interest may appear to be purely abstract notions. But in fact they may form the basis of a more flexible approach to international lawmaking than traditional formulas of legally binding commitments. Through an empirical analysis of existing and emerging public international law, this book traces these concepts in existing regimes and investigates the impact they have had and will continue to have on the progressive development of specific international regimes, particularly those serving the protection of the environment and of human rights. It discusses how through these two regimes these concepts have changed the international normative order and explores the challenges such changes have created for implementation and enforcement. One such challenge is the lack of an adequate dispute settlement regime, and the book closes with some practical suggestions for an appropriate mechanism

The beginning of XXI century was marked by few events that had influence on international relations in the whole world. Terror attacks in the United States of America in September 11, 2001, were the first such high a big range attacks against the USA. It had shown that the USA – the most powerful state of the world – is vulnerable to more danger, than nuclear weapons alone. After September 11 the USA started war against terrorism in Afghanistan, and many states supported it. However, in spring 2003 the USA unilaterally, without international support, decided to use military power in Iraq, arguing that Iraq possessed potential threat – weapons of mass destruction. Unilateralism, and military and technological differences between the USA and its allies have brought to light a presumption that in the international system there is a single pole, a superpower (hyperpower), the United States of America. The existence of one pole only can have different consequences on international system and international security. The aim of this article was to determine specific features of the unipolar world, influence of polarity of international system upon international security, and specific threats to security that emerge only in unipolar international systems. Another aim was to try to predict the end of the unipolar system: what could be the next poles and when could it come to the end. After analysing a number of articles concerning this topic, few conclusions were drawn. Contemporary international system is unipolar and the single pole is the USA; the USA is superior in military, economic, geopolitical, and political spheres at the same time. Increasing military power and unilateralism of the USA may be treated as a threat to international security. Great powers are trying to balance unipolar power, however, the creation of balance to unipolar power is complicated for several reasons.[.].

The beginning of XXI century was marked by few events that had influence on international relations in the whole world. Terror attacks in the United States of America in September 11, 2001, were the first such high a big range attacks against the USA. It had shown that the USA – the most powerful state of the world – is vulnerable to more danger, than nuclear weapons alone. After September 11 the USA started war against terrorism in Afghanistan, and many states supported it. However, in spring 2003 the USA unilaterally, without international support, decided to use military power in Iraq, arguing that Iraq possessed potential threat – weapons of mass destruction. Unilateralism, and military and technological differences between the USA and its allies have brought to light a presumption that in the international system there is a single pole, a superpower (hyperpower), the United States of America. The existence of one pole only can have different consequences on international system and international security. The aim of this article was to determine specific features of the unipolar world, influence of polarity of international system upon international security, and specific threats to security that emerge only in unipolar international systems. Another aim was to try to predict the end of the unipolar system: what could be the next poles and when could it come to the end. After analysing a number of articles concerning this topic, few conclusions were drawn. Contemporary international system is unipolar and the single pole is the USA; the USA is superior in military, economic, geopolitical, and political spheres at the same time. Increasing military power and unilateralism of the USA may be treated as a threat to international security. Great powers are trying to balance unipolar power, however, the creation of balance to unipolar power is complicated for several reasons.[.].

The beginning of XXI century was marked by few events that had influence on international relations in the whole world. Terror attacks in the United States of America in September 11, 2001, were the first such high a big range attacks against the USA. It had shown that the USA – the most powerful state of the world – is vulnerable to more danger, than nuclear weapons alone. After September 11 the USA started war against terrorism in Afghanistan, and many states supported it. However, in spring 2003 the USA unilaterally, without international support, decided to use military power in Iraq, arguing that Iraq possessed potential threat – weapons of mass destruction. Unilateralism, and military and technological differences between the USA and its allies have brought to light a presumption that in the international system there is a single pole, a superpower (hyperpower), the United States of America. The existence of one pole only can have different consequences on international system and international security. The aim of this article was to determine specific features of the unipolar world, influence of polarity of international system upon international security, and specific threats to security that emerge only in unipolar international systems. Another aim was to try to predict the end of the unipolar system: what could be the next poles and when could it come to the end. After analysing a number of articles concerning this topic, few conclusions were drawn. Contemporary international system is unipolar and the single pole is the USA; the USA is superior in military, economic, geopolitical, and political spheres at the same time. Increasing military power and unilateralism of the USA may be treated as a threat to international security. Great powers are trying to balance unipolar power, however, the creation of balance to unipolar power is complicated for several reasons.[.].