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This paper has two main aims. First, it explores the return of young Ghanaian migrants from Libya following the uprising in 2011. Secondly, the paper is interested in the role state agencies played in the repatriation and resettlement of returnees. Migrants from some 120 countries living in Libya were directly affected by the conflict. The breakdown of law and order saw Ghanaian migrants become targets when the rebels accused the Gaddafi regime of recruiting mercenaries from Sub-Saharan Africa to help put down the rebellion. The conflict brought up the issue of migration management in times of crisis. What was the response of the government of Ghana to its citizens caught up in the crisis? Through a qualitative study of official documents, newspaper reports and in-depth interviews, the paper discusses migration and state responses within a political economy perspective. It posits that Ghanaian migration patterns show no significant difference between the various time periods. However, the characteristics of migrants have changed. Thus, it appears the country has witnessed an increased emigration of young people during the last two decades.

This paper has two main aims. First, it explores the return of young Ghanaian migrants from Libya following the uprising in 2011. Secondly, the paper is interested in the role state agencies played in the repatriation and resettlement of returnees. Migrants from some 120 countries living in Libya were directly affected by the conflict. The breakdown of law and order saw Ghanaian migrants become targets when the rebels accused the Gaddafi regime of recruiting mercenaries from Sub-Saharan Africa to help put down the rebellion. The conflict brought up the issue of migration management in times of crisis. What was the response of the government of Ghana to its citizens caught up in the crisis? Through a qualitative study of official documents, newspaper reports and in-depth interviews, the paper discusses migration and state responses within a political economy perspective. It posits that Ghanaian migration patterns show no significant difference between the various time periods. However, the characteristics of migrants have changed. Thus, it appears the country has witnessed an increased emigration of young people during the last two decades. ; George M. Bob-Milliar

AbstractDo institutions and social capital provide a viable means for advancing the goals of poverty reduction programs in low capacity states? This question has particular importance for Nigeria and Africa as a whole because of the poor performance of poverty reduction programs despite domestic and global efforts to reduce poverty in the continent. In this paper, I assess the usefulness of the informational aspects of the new institutional economics and the social network method of social capital paradigm in reducing access, information and monitoring costs faced by the poor and service providers of micro‐credit institutions in Nigeria. The general proposition of this paper is that poverty reduction can be promoted on the one hand, by designing programs to reflect some regularities (formal and informal rules and regulations) which best enhance benefits and mitigate costs faced by the poor for obtaining services, and on the other hand a mobilization of cohesive social relationships based on existing networks of semiautonomous units, that substitute for weak enforcement of contracts to reduce the service delivery costs to the poor.

The year 2011 will forever be known as the year of mass protests for regime change and democratization in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Opinions on causes and outcomes have focused on the role of young people, the demands of "the Arab street," and the possible transition to a liberal, Islamist, or coalition type of governance. Middle East specialists have long been aware of the problems of authoritarian regimes, widening inequalities, high rates of youth unemployment, deteriorating infrastructure and public services, and rising prices attenuated only by subsidies. But something has been missing from recent discussions and analyses. Let us pose it in the form of a number of (socialist-feminist) questions. We have seen that "the Arab street" is not exclusively masculine, but what kind of democratic governance can women's rights groups expect? To what extent will Tunisian women shape the democratic transition and the building of new institutions? In Egypt, will an outcome be—to use a phrase coined by East European feminists in the early 1990s—a "male democracy"? How can a democratic transition benefit working women and the poor?

Transnational labor migration is one of the most visible features of our globalizing world. The International Organization for Migration estimates that there are 214 million migrant workers crossing national borders in the world today. Migration both in and to the Middle East constitutes an important part of this movement of laborers and has deep roots. In the mid-fifteenth century, workers across a broad spectrum of occupations, including stevedores, boatmen, and bakers, trekked from areas in eastern and central Anatolia to the new imperial Ottoman capital, Istanbul, where they lived and worked for months and even years. Workers from outside the Middle East also have been part of the fabric of life in the region for several centuries, the slave trade from sub-Saharan Africa, which long supplied labor for a variety of purposes, being one of the most notable. Migrant workers took on new significance in the twentieth century, especially after the oil price hikes of 1973. Today the nations on the Arabian Peninsula, the destination for most workers, have the highest ratio of migrants to locals in the world.

This paper addresses the issue of the low level of private investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with special emphasis on the role of governance. Based on the existing literature, we have categorized what types of governance institutions are more detrimental to entrepreneurial investments. We have then estimated a simultaneous model of private investment and governance quality where economic policies concurrently explain both variables. Our empirical results show that governance plays a significant role in private investment decisions. This result is particularly true in the case of "Administrative Quality" in the form of control of corruption, bureaucratic quality, investment-friendly profile of administration, and law and order, as well as for "Political Stability". Evidence in favor of "Public Accountability" seems, however, less robust. Our estimations also stress that structural reforms -- such as financial development and trade openness – and human development affect private investment decisions directly, and/or through their positive impact on governance. These findings bring new empirical evidence on the subject of private investment in the developing world and in MENA countries in particular.

This paper addresses the issue of the low level of private investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with special emphasis on the role of governance. Based on the existing literature, we have categorized what types of governance institutions are more detrimental to entrepreneurial investments. We have then estimated a simultaneous model of private investment and governance quality where economic policies concurrently explain both variables. Our empirical results show that governance plays a significant role in private investment decisions. This result is particularly true in the case of "Administrative Quality" in the form of control of corruption, bureaucratic quality, investment-friendly profile of administration, and law and order, as well as for "Political Stability". Evidence in favor of "Public Accountability" seems, however, less robust. Our estimations also stress that structural reforms -- such as financial development and trade openness – and human development affect private investment decisions directly, and/or through their positive impact on governance. These findings bring new empirical evidence on the subject of private investment in the developing world and in MENA countries in particular.

A discussion of the role of anthropologists in counter-insurgency operations is kicked off by Rye Barcott, an anthropologically trained US Marine officer, who relates his personal experiences in Bosnia, Fallujah, & the horn of Africa. Barcott, who took part in drafting a position paper on ethnic cleansing for the Human Rights Commission of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), maintains that anthropologists can contribute significantly to diplomacy at local & community levels because of their experience with different cultures. Anthropologists have assisted with healing processes; identified bodies of victims of violence; & helped survivors come to terms with traumatic memories. Four anthropologists respond to Barcott's comments. James Peacock questions the usefulness of the AAA statement on ethnic cleansing & the relationship between it & the perspective of a US Marine. Roberto J. Gonzalez discusses ethical dilemmas that may be injected into anthropological work for military campaigns while Nadje Al-Ali & Laura A. McNamara emphasize the need to explore historical contexts in order to discover root causes of sectarian conflict & the challenge of recognizing boundaries respectively. Barcott offers concluding remarks. J. Lindroth

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur has slowly captivated international public, governmental, and media attention. With at least two million persons displaced and an estimated 400,000 killed,1 it is one of the many grave crises of failed states currently occurring within Africa. The people of the region have faced murder, displacement, rape, and banditry at the hands of the Sudanese government, the state-supported Janjaweed, and other militia groups, most notably the Sudan Liberation Army. Yet the United Nations concluded after a fact-finding mission to the region that these widespread atrocities did not constitute genocide but rather were defined as crimes against humanity. This article provides a brief overview of the background and contemporary state of the situation as well as a legal examination of the nature of genocide in international law and the United Nation Security Council's rationale for applying the label of crimes against humanity. The chief purpose of the article is to clearly differentiate the two concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity and to thoroughly examine the practical difference a definition makes.

On May 26, 1906, as German chancellor Bernhard von Bülow rested on the North Sea coast recuperating from a recent physical collapse, his administration suffered a resounding triple defeat in the Reichstag at the hands of his hitherto indispensable Catholic political partners in the Center party. In the course of a single day, the Centrists rejected the military justification for a railroad in wartorn Southwest Africa, ruled out further government compensation for settler losses in the Herero and Nama Uprisings, and then blocked the elevation of the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office to the status of an independent imperial office. Moreover, the intense interest of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the passage of each of these colonial measures rendered the Center's decisive contribution to the rout acutely embarrassing for the chancellor. Faced seven months later with a similar Centrist refusal to authorize more than twenty of the latest twenty-nine million marks toward suppression of the Nama, Bülow would then dissolve the Reichstag, putting a definitive end to nearly a decade of government-Center parliamentary cooperation.

The availability of capital was a common problem for European and Mediterranean states in the early modern period. The inadequacy of taxation revenues, the escalating costs of military engagement, the upgrading of war machinery and the need to strengthen defences meant that rulers became more inclined to turn to banks and wealthy merchants to obtain more rapid flows of currency. While the powerful states on the mainland battled in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, Hospitaller Malta, on the Muslim-Christian frontier, was engaged in the "lesser war" against corsairing. Faced with the Barbary threat from North Africa, and forever wary of the Ottomans, the Order of St. John had to grapple with the financial burdens of plying the surrounding waters, fortifying its defences and, probably most daunting, providing for a growing population. Although it never engaged directly in a full-scale conflict after the siege of 1565, Hospitaller Malta constantly faced shortages. The corso and income from property on the continent seldom met the needs of the Treasury, forcing the Order to search for alternatives to bolster its finances. ; peer-reviewed

Champeta is an urban, modern and commercial music, the African origin of which is both imagined and stigmatized. Born in Congo, associated with the Caribbean, also processed in Paris, it expresses a globalized world, though it is strongly identified with the town of Cartagena, located on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Champeta music circulates through multiple geographical, social, cultural and symbolic universes. Through these diverse itineraries and through a process of relocalization, this music reflects the different faces of Black Music, from aesthetic folklore to world music, between authenticity and mestizaje. Champeta highlights contemporary issues in Afro-Caribbean cultures in America: the naturalization and the stigmatization of difference, the ambiguity of the relation with Africa, the projection in an imagined diaspora. Through the practices and discourses of three characters, all of them cultural brokers and bearers of cross-cultural projects, this article tries to understand the mechanisms through which music is appropriated, transformed and adapted according to supposed expectations of a local and global public, eventually constructing symbolic and normative ethno-racial universes. Adapted from the source document.

After four years of existence, the European Union Military Staff has gone through a phase of significant expansion and development in sending its personnel on missions to respond to the growing needs of the European Security and Defense Policy, or ESDP, notably in the Balkans and Africa. One of its key aims is to strengthen capacity for rapid reaction of European forces through the use of tactical group organization. In addition, the political instruments are being tuned in such as way as to accelerate the timeframe in which the EU is able to exercise security decisions. This article traces some of the previous stages of development of the ESDP to examine its most recent engagements in the Balkans, Congo, and Sudan. Institutional organization is here revealed to be a central objective for development of the ESDP, including the formation of a civil-military segment and crisis management protocol. These measures will eventually come to strengthen the EU's military capacities to the extent that they will more beyond soft power to play a more active and direct role in global security.