Suchergebnisse

Israel's future peace policy may be affected by facts created so far by the Oslo process, the nature of the coalition government, and the expected reaction of major local and international actors. Israel's policy regarding final status issues will force the Palestinian leadership to choose between two strategies, which are examined and evaluated in this essay.

Recent research on social movements emphasizes the importance of the political opportunity structure (POS) for movement development and impact. The POS for the peace movement, which is a contender in the foreign policy arena, is much more limited than it is for social movements working for changes in domestic policies. In this essay, the authors, both of whom are social scientists and peace activists, analyze the POS for the peace movement, focusing on two of its formal aspects, the interest aggregation structure and the policy‐making structure. The authors conclude by arguing that the peace movement should expend more energy on efforts to democratize the process of foreign policy making if it hopes to be more effective.

The challenge of orchestrating coordination and cooperation among the many international organizations active in international development has attracted much interest from academics and practitioners alike. This study addresses a particular piece of the larger puzzle: as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their donors, each usually with much different policy orientations, coalesce within interorganizational networks, what determines whose policy preferences are pursued, implemented, and delivered on the ground? Within the network-based model of NGO behavior introduced in this article, certain attributes and the internal institutional composition of NGO donor policy networks are significant determinants in shaping opportunities for NGOs and in giving both NGOs and donors leverage over the policy process. The model focuses specifically on demonstrating the effects of a network on NGO autonomy-that is, an NGO's ability to advance its own policy preferences regardless of their congruency with those of its donors. The network typology presented in this study identifies the comparative advantages of distinct network types in which the NGO is most empowered as an autonomous policy actor and is best equipped to withstand parochial donor preferences. Using network analysis and the proposed network-based model, this research takes the form of a comparative study of four NGO donor policy networks from the post-conflict microfinance sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study also charts new research paths toward developing network-based approaches to the study of international institutions. Adapted from the source document.

Problem statement: This study examined foreign aid as administered by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through four presidencies, beginning with the Reagan era. Aid dispensed to the Peace Corps for humanitarian purposes was the major focus of the investigation. The research proposed that such aid should continue under the President Barack Obama administration. Approach: The approach taken used both qualitative analyses of the four administrations along with quantitative analyses of the data from USAID. Results: The findings indicated that, while many forms of economic and military assistance had been both used and abused throughout much of American history, the Peace Corps created under President John F. Kennedy presented an exception. However, the Peace Corps had received both benefit and harm as a beneficiary of US foreign aid due to fluctuating economic realities associated with the federal budget. President Reagan was a strong supporter of the Peace Corps; yet, it was "under his watch" that the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 was passed, which negatively influenced nearly all forms of economic and military assistance distributed through USAID. Starting with President Clinton's second term funding for USAID dramatically increased. Conclusion: The Peace Corps was not immune to the adverse effects, but funding also increased under President Clinton. From this time onward, the Peace Corps has enjoyed a high level of political and financial support, a scenario that deserves to be continued under President Obama. This study can help future analyses of the US presidential responses to the giving of assistance to the Peace Corps.