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Previous research has credited China's top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, with the social policies of their decade in power, arguing that they promoted these policies either for factional reasons or to achieve rational, problem-solving goals. But such arguments ignore the dominant "fragmented authoritarian" model of policymaking in China that centres on bargaining among bureaucratic agencies. This article asks whether top leadership factions, rational problem solving, or "fragmented authoritarianism" can explain the adoption of one of the Hu and Wen administration's flagship policies, New Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes. Based on a careful tracing of this policy's evolution, it finds little evidence for these explanations, and instead uncovers the role played by international events and organizations, and ideas they introduced or sustained within policy networks. The article highlights some of the effects that China's international engagement has had on policymaking and the need to go beyond explanations of the policy process that focus solely on domestic actors. It proposes a new model of policymaking, "network authoritarianism," that centres on policy networks spanning the domestic–international, state–non-state, and central–local divides, and which takes account of the influence of ideas circulating within these networks. (China Q/GIGA)

AbstractPrevious research has credited China's top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, with the social policies of their decade in power, arguing that they promoted these policies either for factional reasons or to achieve rational, problem-solving goals. But such arguments ignore the dominant "fragmented authoritarian" model of policymaking in China that centres on bargaining among bureaucratic agencies. This article asks whether top leadership factions, rational problem solving, or "fragmented authoritarianism" can explain the adoption of one of the Hu and Wen administration's flagship policies, New Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes. Based on a careful tracing of this policy's evolution, it finds little evidence for these explanations, and instead uncovers the role played by international events and organizations, and ideas they introduced or sustained within policy networks. The article highlights some of the effects that China's international engagement has had on policymaking and the need to go beyond explanations of the policy process that focus solely on domestic actors. It proposes a new model of policymaking, "network authoritarianism," that centres on policy networks spanning the domestic–international, state–non-state, and central–local divides, and which takes account of the influence of ideas circulating within these networks.

Research to date concurs in maintaining that performance of nationally homogeneous workgroups differs if compared to heterogeneous ones. Yet, results are mixed on the relationship between cultural diversity and workgroup outcomes. The article argues that cultural differences are given explanatory authority, cultural diversity acquiring a positivist status, and group members being treated as 'dopes of their culture'. An alternative approach is to conceive 'cultural diversity' and 'national culture' as discursive resources used by group members in everyday group life. The author followed an international project group for over 17 months,observing how group members discussed and made sense of what went on. Findings suggest that the way members in international project groups use the 'national/cultural' discourse plays a crucial role in the organization of the project. More specifically, results demonstrate that group members shaped and developed their international project in important ways by using the discourses on 'national culture' and 'cultural diversity' to excuse confusion and misunderstanding, to position themselves vis-à-vis the group, to justify decisions and to give the group a raison d'être. Implications are drawn concerning the need for researchers to acknowledge actors' space for choice in group-life.

The article examines four cases of the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from international arms control agreements in the first two decades of the 21st century from the legislative branch perspective. Each of the four precedents is analyzed through the resolutions, which were submitted by legislators, in order to determine the difference in the approaches of Democrats and Republicans to arms control issues. Also, the paper discusses the constitutionality of presidential action and the exercise of congressional constitutional authority in the circumstances of the U.S. withdrawals from international agreements.

People have the right to expect their food to be safe, of good quality, and suitable for consumption, and national governments must ensure that food imported from other countries is safe. But laws and regulations to minimize threats can create barriers to international food trade. The Codex Alimentarius aims to facilitate international trade by promoting definitions and requirements for foods. This 3-page fact sheet was written by F.M. Fishel, and published by the UF Department of Agronomy, August 2011. (image fromusda.gov)

International development assistance projects are extremely various. They have multiple objectives, take various forms and take place in contrasted contexts. This diversity causes a normative methodological discourse. Indeed, concerning the project's performance evaluation, a single and unchangeable management tools is designed from the start to the end of project.This management tools is supposed to collect and process a large number of indicators also designed at the beginning, according to the project « logical framework ». Tools conceives far away from the project and accountable to the donors. In reality, it can be seen that even projects with substantial resources struggle to master the process of evaluating performance. Few practitioners are successful in leading an evaluation of performance. Even few are the projects whose committee leaders use, for making decision, data from such evaluation. However, performance evaluation are systematically carried out within each international development aid project. This research proposes to explain the reasons of such paradox. ; Les projets d'aide internationale au développement sont extrêmement divers. Ils visent des objectifs multiples, prennent des formes variées, atteignent des dimensions très différentes et se déroulent dans des contextes très contrastés. Cette extraordinaire diversité suscite un discours méthodologique extrêmement normatif. En effet, concernant l'évaluation de la performance des projets, un seul dispositif est conçu dès le démarrage des projets et de façon invariante pour toute la durée de l'action. Les outils et les techniques de ces dispositifs sont censés collecter et traiter un grand nombre d'indicateurs également identifiés dès la création des projets à partir du « cadre logique ». Ces outils et techniques sont conçus par des instances éloignées du terrain, et redevables à l'égard de bailleurs de fonds. Dans la réalité, on constate cependant que même les projets dotés de moyens conséquents peinent à maîtriser le processus d'évaluation de ...

International organizations are ubiquitous in contemporary Europe and the wider world. This special issue takes a historical approach to exploring their relations with each other in Western Europe between 1967 and 1992. The authors seek to provincialize' and de-centre' the European Union's role, exploring the interactions of its predecessors with other organizations like NATO, the OECD and the Council of Europe. This article develops the new historical-research agenda of co-operation and competition among IOs and their role in European co-operation. The first section discusses the limited existing work on such questions among historians and in adjacent disciplines. The second section introduces the five articles and their main arguments. The third section goes on to elaborate common findings, especially regarding what the authors call the vectors for the development of policy ideas and practices and their transfer across different institutional platforms.

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Knowledge Management in Organizations, KMO 2015, held in Maribor, Slovenia, in August 2015. The theme of the conference was "Knowledge Management and Internet of Things." The KMO conference brings together researchers and developers from industry and academia to discuss how knowledge management using big data can improve innovation and competitiveness. The 59 contributions accepted for KMO 2015 were selected from 163 submissions and are organized in topical sections on: knowledge management processes, successful knowledge sharing and knowledge management practices, innovations for competitiveness, knowledge management platforms and tools, social networks and mining techniques, knowledge management and the Internet of Things, knowledge management in health care, and knowledge management in education and research

Le revirement de jurisprudence cristallise une tension classique du droit entre la nouveauté et la sécurité. Le présent ouvrage se propose d'analyser la question du revirement de jurisprudence à travers l'étude de la pratique de plusieurs organes juridictionnels réunis autour de grands ensembles : l'arbitrage (tribunaux interétatiques, CIRDI), les juridictions interétatiques (CIJ, TIDM, ORDOMC), les juridictions des droits de l'homme (CEDH, CIDH), les juridictions d'intégration (CJUE, juridictions d'intégration africaines, juridictions d'intégration latino-américaines), les juridictions pénales internationales (CPI, tribunaux pénaux internationaux ad hoc, tribunaux pénaux internationalisés) et les juridictions administratives internationales

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- About the Author -- Abbreviations -- 1 Environmental Risks That May Be Caused by GM Crops -- 1.1 Biotechnology and GM Crops -- 1.2 Traits of GM Crops -- 1.3 The Cultivation of GM Crops and Related Activities -- 1.3.1 Activities Associated with the Development and the Use of GM Crops -- 1.3.2 The Status Quo of the Cultivation of GM Crops -- 1.4 The Environmental Risks That May Be Caused by the Cultivation of GM Crops and Related Activities -- 1.4.1 The Reduction of the Amount of Chemical Pesticides -- 1.4.2 The Impact on Ecosystems -- 1.5 Reflections from a Legal Perspective -- References -- 2 The International Regulatory Approach Addressing Environmental Risks That May Be Caused by GM Crops -- 2.1 Reasons for Adopting International Law to Regulate GM Crops -- 2.2 International Instruments to Be Discussed in the Chapter -- 2.3 The International Legal Framework -- 2.3.1 Relationships Between the CBD, the CPB and the SP -- 2.3.2 Dispute Settlement and Compliance Mechanisms -- 2.4 The CBD -- 2.4.1 Objectives -- 2.4.2 The Application of the CBD to the Cultivation of GM Crops and Related Activities -- 2.4.3 Legal Measures in the CBD -- 2.5 The CPB -- 2.5.1 Objectives -- 2.5.2 The Scope of Application and Its Application to the Cultivation of GM Crops and Related Activities -- 2.5.3 Legal Principles and Measures in the CPB -- 2.6 The SP -- 2.6.1 Objectives -- 2.6.2 The Scope of Application and Its Application to the Cultivation of GM Crops and Related Activities -- 2.6.3 Legal Measures in the SP -- 2.7 Conclusion -- References -- 3 The Chinese Regulatory Framework and Institutional Structure Addressing Environmental Risks That May Be Caused by GM Crops -- 3.1 The Regulatory Framework -- 3.1.1 Introduction to the Chinese Legal System -- 3.1.2 Legislation and Policies for Environmental Issues Related to GM Crops.

Expectations of world peace and harmony were contested after the September 11 attacks. This notable act of terrorism foreshadowed the changing nature of international conflicts, by no means completely unknown complex techniques and tactics of warfare. Throughout history, mankind has encountered various types of warfare, but none of them was alike today's. The challenges of modern warfare are a result of the appearance of hybrid acts of action, which gave new segments and epithets in conducting armed conflict. The aim justifies the means, is the background and the motto that initiate the non-state actors to influence the achievement of significant geo-strategic goals, and thus to promote their impact on the world globally. The moment we thought that the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) was completed, and through the legislation, all possible variants were legally covered, the enemy found a new guerrilla way in which they would achieve their goal. This confirms the fact that the law is always late for one war, and on the other hand it challenges the world experts to begin analyzing the deficiency of the law and its compatibility to deal with the newest type of warfare. The flexibility and implementation capacity of the IHL regulations are the basic features and criteria that need to be met in order to minimize the casualties and collateral damage that are a direct result of international conflicts in the XXI century. To always keep up with the pace of the modern and at the same time to anticipate the unknown, is the challenge that the international law carries it with great responsibility on its back. Keywords: IHL, conflict, challenge, applicability, hybrid warfare

Recent history has seen a large degree of worldwide activity surrounding the category of women and women's incorporation into social institutions, such as education and government. International organizing around the category of women continues to flourish in the form of women's international non-governmental organizations (WINGOs). Alongside this increasing international civil society activity, the period since 1960 has seen increasing foci on gender equality and empowerment as ideological goals informing mechanisms of national development around the world. In this dissertation, I bring together findings from research in social movements, political sociology, international relations, and cultural sociology in arguing a neo-institutional approach to the following questions: how has the structure and discourse of women's global civil society evolved over time, what is the effect of women's global civil society on the structural expansion of governments to include women globally, and what influence do women's global civil society and structural expansion in government have on women's institutional power outcomes cross-nationally? Based on world society theory, I argue that world society is a locus of messages regarding women which are diffused to nation-states through linkages to international organizations. Furthermore, both women's empowerment and national institutional incorporation are cultural constructions from world culture that diffuse to nation-states through international organizations and have increasingly come to define legitimacy of nation-states, leading to expansion in social concerns of the state to include women. Chapter 1 traces WINGO structure and discourse across time as demonstrated in analyses on increases in WINGO foundation over the period since 1888, increases in national WINGO memberships since 1965, and an exploratory factor analysis of sixteen non-mutually exclusive WINGO categories (UIA 1960-2014). Chapter 2 analyzes expansion in state structure towards women, supporting a world society argument through empirical tests employing event history regression methods to explain rate of women's ministry establishment as a function of linkage to WINGOs and United Nations-designated Least Developed Country status. Finally, Chapter 3 analyzes the effects of world society and national government structural expansion to include women on women's institutional power outcomes cross-nationally since 1960, considering women's labor force participation, women's tertiary education enrollment, and women's parliamentary representation.