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Over the past few years increasing attention has been given to the role of international organizations in the diffusion of policy ideas and promotion of particular macro‐level policies. Much of the attention has been on the ideological driving forces behind such policies, and on the extent to which the policies are externally imposed. There has been limited discussion on the bread‐and‐butter, technical policies of international organizations, and how they devise, adopt, adapt, and then promote what come to be seen as policies of global "best practice." This paper seeks to redress this gap by looking at the process of transfer of two infectious disease policies between international and national levels. It demonstrates that international organizations play different roles in policy transfer at particular stages in the process. The paper suggests that health policy transfer is a long adaptive process, made up of several iterative loops, as research and clinical practices developed in one or more countries are adopted, adapted, and taken up by international organizations which then mobilize support for particular policies, market, and promote them. Assumptions that new ideas about policies flow "rationally" into existing decision making are challenged by the processes analyzed here. Policy transfer, given the experience of these infectious diseases policies, goes through separate, "bottom‐up," research‐oriented, and "top‐down" marketing‐oriented loops. Individuals and different configurations of networks play key roles linking these loops. In the process, complex, context‐specific policies are repackaged into simplified guidelines for global best practice, leading to considerable contestation within the policy networks.

AbstractA special challenge posed by the international humanitarian law (IHL) principle of equality of belligerents in the context of non-international armed conflict is the capacity of armed opposition groups to pass sentences on individuals for acts related to the hostilities. Today this situation is conflated by the concurrent application of international human rights and criminal law. The fair trial provisions of IHL can incorporate their human rights equivalents either qua human rights law or by analogy, recognizing that human rights law does not account for the anomalous relationship between a state and non-state party. It is argued that the preferred solution is the latter. This would put greater focus on the actual fairness of insurgent courts rather than on their legal basis. Moreover, it would be consistent with the equality of belligerents principle, a vital condition to encourage IHL compliance by armed opposition groups.

"In this book, Sandra Engstrand uses role theory to study learning processes in environmental policy negotiations in the Arctic Council. Due to rapid ice-melting in the Arctic region, and more accessible commercial opportunities, there is a greater need for environmental protection. However, large sections of the Arctic fall under state jurisdiction, often causing tensions to arise that prevents any cooperation from achieving fully efficient environmental protection. To enhance our understanding on how states learn about environmental norms, Engstrand examines negotiation processes on environmental protection for the prevention of Arctic marine oil spills and the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants. Through interviews with state representatives, and text analyses of nearly twenty years of meetings between Senior Arctic Officials from each of the eight Arctic states, Engstrand suggests that a learning on environmental norms runs firstly through a learning of roles in international relations. She demonstrates how member states develop through self-reflection and by considering the expectation of others, concluding that states' wishes to preserve their social role in a group, and to be perceived as Arctic 'cooperators', also are drivers for a social education on environmental norms. A timely and unmatched volume Role Theory, Environmental Politics, and Learning in International Relations will engage students and academic researchers in International Relations, Environmental Governance and Arctic Politics"--

The multi-levelled division of this topic brings out the fact that sport appears in different guises on these different levels. Sociology presents an important but one-sided perspective of sport as a national and international social institution. This is highlighted by recent developments in the Olympics. The author, former editor of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, submits that sport in journals is hiding behind words which inform us irrefutably about the style and the cultural background of the authors, and somewhat more refutably and one-sidedly about sport. Sport actually concerns the culture of body and mind. overlooked by today's mainstream sociology.

Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; The purpose of this review is to canvas policies and, to the extent possible, practices of major multilateral and bilateral development agencies, aimed at including disability in development. Development that includes disability, as referenced in this review, is understood as development in which persons with disabilities participate as both actors and beneficiaries. It can be achieved by disability specific initiatives, by adding disability-specific components to development programs, by fully inclusive programming, designed to include disability concerns into all development processes, or by a combination of these approaches. While this review does not claim to be exhaustive, it does attempt to provide as comprehensive as possible an overview of policies and practices on disability and development (D&D), both within and among the United Nations (UN) system, and among major bilateral development agencies. It should be noted that this is a dynamic issue and thus many development agencies are either in the process of crafting new disability policies or strategies or are currently reviewing their existing approaches with a view to modifying or amending them. Section two of this report reviews the international legal and policy framework pertinent to the consideration of D&D with particular attention to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Section three reviews multilateral agencies and structures, particularly those within the UN system, and reviews their existing policies and/or practices related to D&D. Section four includes coverage of regional structures supporting the inclusion of disability in development. Section five identifies bilateral development agencies that, either as matter of written policy or as evidenced through practice, have taken steps to design and implement programs and practices that are inclusive of disability. Section six provides conclusions.