Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Great Divide -- 2. Violence and Religious Rivalry -- 3. The "Making of" Boko Haram -- 4. The "Flight" of Boko Haram -- 5. Regional Security and Cooperation -- 6. Boko Haram and the Global Jihad -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author

The article seeks to put forward a dynamic conception of construction of issues and their resolution, largely falling under the theoretical rubric of constructivism. The hydropower issues on the Asian continent pertaining to transboundary rivers construct a dynamic binary of dependence and interdependence. Instead of being permanently resolved, as suggested by epistemic community proponents, the issues follow a Hegelian dialectical ontology of problem to solution leading to a new problem. The organisation of the article, built around two foci, India and China, is elliptical. Both countries share transboundary rivers with a number of countries. Most bilateral agreements are, when signed, hailed as the dawn of a new era, before themselves becoming contentious, spawning a new cycle of accusations and counter-accusations. River water issues generate a complex binary of dependence and interdependence, played along the intersection of domestic and international.

There are several technical, institutional and geopolitical challenges facing an expanded nuclear industry in the twenty-first century. This article addresses some of the security concerns that are linked to the expansion of nuclear power in the world. Given that more and more states are going to have access to sensitive nuclear technology and material, the security concerns surrounding nuclear energy are bound to increase. However, in the absence of a satisfactory nuclear waste management solution and adequate regulatory protocols, a large-scale expansion of the civil nuclear sector will present significant security challenges. The adaptation of the fuel cycle to incorporate reprocessed spent nuclear fuel presents perhaps the most serious concern owing to the inherent relationship between reprocessing and nuclear proliferation. Of equal concern is the fact that existing international regimes are inadequate to deal with civilian nuclear-related issues in the twenty-first century.

The relationship between Japan and India has been influenced by the international power configuration over time. In the early post-War period, both countries embraced idealistic moor-ings about how the world should be. In due course of time, the United States (US) alliance system put Japan in the western camp of Cold War power politics while India followed a policy of non-alignment. However, with the end of the Cold War and the transformation of Asia into a composite power playground, India and Japan have developed a much closer relationship. The relative decline of America's strategic interest towards the East Asian region and the changing dynamics of security in Asia have forced Japan to search for new partners in Asia, culminat-ing in the present strategic partnership with India. It is in this context that this article probes Indo-Japanese relations by analysing their economic, political and strategic facets.

The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is a new development in the politics of South Asian insurgencies. It has emerged and grown in the socio-economic and political conditions of Nepal, and in a decade has become a major political force with the capacity to challenge the state and the country's socio-economic fabric. With its wide ranging domestic, regional and international support base and ideological and material linkages, the Maoist movement is not an isolated phenomenon. The Nepali state has tried to find a military solution to the problem of insurgency. It is, however, a moot question whether the movement can be dealt with by force, which has failed to prevent the insurgency from becoming increasingly violent. Resolution of the conflict will depend upon the perspective of the Nepali ruling elite. The attitude of the present government does not appear to be sufficiently broad based.

South Asia is one of the least integrated regions in terms of trade and people-to-people contact. With the goal of promoting regionalism, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in 1985 and now has eight South Asian countries as a member (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). India alone controls more than 80% of all variables, including economy, size, and population. Thus, the entire regional integration of South Asia has been and will continue to be dependent on India's intentions regarding SAARC. As a result of several bilateral disagreements between the organisation's member states, the SAARC has been dubbed a dysfunctional, talk-shop, and dead organisation. Having said that, this article aims to investigate the role of India as a regional leader as well as its intention and approach towards South Asian integration. Similarly, this document also assesses the effect of India's leadership on the regional integration of South Asia. This article is based on the qualitative method of research and thus uses discourse analysis as the main methodology. As primary sources, discourse analyses in international relations often examine official speeches, declarations, legislative debates, diplomatic documents, interviews, newspapers, and editorials. Other scholarly works, novels, and conceptual histories can be analysed in addition to these.

The theory of functionalism is based on the notion that the cumulative effect of "functional" activities will tend to influence the political aims of governments towards more cooperation and fewer conflicts. This has not been the case in ICAO and it remains to be seen whether technical cooperation can transcend the vested national interests of states in the other aspects of civil aviation. Anything that is non-technical is likely to be political in nature, even when such issues come up before the ICAO Council, under the guise of technical problems. Any expectation that political and functional activities in aviation could be separated were dashed as soon as ICAO joined the United Nations System. As a consequence, it is bound to follow political positions which do not necessarily accord with its mandate and with the requirements of air transport.

This article analyses the extent of the China-India diplomatic thaw since the early 1990s. Without ignoring the existence of multiple cooperation channels, or seeking to minimise the importance of the considerable achievements realised in recent years by the two governments towards normalising their relations, the article shows that relations between the two Asian giants remain hamstrung by a series of geostrategic and economic rivalries. Despite fast growth in trade and in specific areas of economic cooperation, the normalisation of ties between Beijing and New Delhi does not yet constitute a genuine strategic partnership. (China Perspect/GIGA)

Aus sowjetischer Sicht

"Alongside economic wealth, Egypt's business elite attained notable political influence under Mubarak. And after Mubarak's fall in February 2011 Egyptian entrepreneurs very successfully defended their power, profiting from the laxness of fraud and corruption investigations after the armed forces took power. The same course was continued by the Muslim Brotherhood under the presidency of Mohammed Morsi in 2012/2013. More broadly, the Brotherhood's policies closely echoed Mubarak's pro-business economic policy. But its attempt to co-opt the business elite failed, as did the efforts of certain Brotherhood members to seriously expand their own business activities. Many of the mostly secular-leaning top entrepreneurs were deeply mistrustful of the Brotherhood and supported its adversaries by funding opposition parties and politicians and via private-sector media. These activities contributed to the Brotherhood's failure to consolidate the power it gained through elections. The armed forces' removal of Morsi in July 2013 could permit the influence of big business on the political process to increase still further. Regardless of current political turbulence, Germany and the European Union should therefore shape their long-term cooperation with Egypt so as to counteract the foreseeable negative consequences of such influence by supporting both the creation of transparency and competition in the Egyptian economy and the establishment of a more equitable tax system." (author's abstract)

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Baseline for Change: The Brezhnev Legacy -- 2. The Early Impact of New Political Thought, 1985-1989 -- 3. Reshaping the Establishment -- 4. Ripple Effects of Perestroika on Relations with Cuba -- 5. Nicaragua: Test Case of Superpower Cooperation -- 6. Relations with the Other Countries of the Isthmus -- 7. Relations with the Island and Rim Countries of the Caribbean -- 8. Prospects for the Future -- Notes -- Index

In this article we break new ground by investigating cooperative agreements in urban development services, which include urban development, housing and sanitation for small local governments in Brazil (i.e., those with fewer than 20,000 residents in 2013–15). We find that public expenditure on urban development can be explained by both horizontal (intermunicipal cooperation) and vertical (public–public partnerships) cooperation. Regarding the impact of public sector cooperation on public expenditure, our results show that housing and sanitation services are less costly under intermunicipal cooperation. By contrast, urban development services are less costly when local authorities do not cooperate with other public entities. For public–public partnerships (with the state or federal government) cooperation leads to an increase in public funding, which implies that cooperative agreements might not lead to lower public expenditure. The findings in this article provide useful empirical insights into the administrative reorganization of Brazilian local government.