Suchergebnisse

This article appeared in Strategic Insights (April 2003), v.2 no.4 ; Tensions surrounding North Korea escalate unpredictably on an almost daily basis. Much of this volatile situation can be ascribed to Pyongyang's willingness to engage in a reckless combination of provocative acts and rhetorical tirades that constitute its infamous diplomatic brinkmanship. North Korea's willingness to make use of its nuclear option in a U.S.-DPRK diplomatic meeting last October seems to have been motivated by a desire to reinforce its peculiar brand of deterrence. The Kim Jong-il government was further emboldened in subsequent months by the combination of two sets of circumstances. First were favorable political developments in South Korea--in the form of December's election of President Roh Moo-hyun, who strongly favors ROK engagement of the DPRK and took office riding a wave of strident anti-Americanism. The second were the United States' commitments within its war on terrorism and related tensions in the Middle East that stretched U.S. strategic resources. Against this background North Korea saw an opportunity.

This paper investigates the role that imperfect knowledge about the structure of the economy plays in the formation of expectations, macroeconomic dynamics, and the efficient formulation of monetary policy. Economic agents rely on an adaptive learning technology to form expectations and to update continuously their beliefs regarding the dynamic structure of the economy based on incoming data. The process of perpetual learning introduces an additional layer of dynamic interaction between monetary policy and economic outcomes. We find that policies that would be efficient under rational expectations can perform poorly when knowledge is imperfect. In particular, policies that fail to maintain tight control over inflation are prone to episodes in which the public's expectations of inflation become uncoupled from the policy objective and stagflation results, in a pattern similar to that experienced in the United States during the 1970s. Our results highlight the value of effective communication of a central bank's inflation objective and of continued vigilance against inflation in anchoring inflation expectations and fostering macroeconomic stability. July 2003.

AbstractDuring the 1950s, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) led a global covert attempt to suppress left-led labor movements in Western Europe, the Mediterranean, West Africa, Central and South America, and East Asia. American union leaders argued that to survive the Cold War, they had to demonstrate to the United States government that organized labor was not part-and-parcel with Soviet communism. The AFL's global mission was placed in care of Jay Lovestone, a founding member of the American Communist Party in 1921 and survivor of decades of splits and internecine battles over allegiance to one faction or another in Soviet politics before turning anti-Communist and developing a secret relation with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after World War II. Lovestone's idea was that the AFL could prove its loyalty by helping to root out Communists from what he perceived to be a global labor movement dominated by the Soviet Union. He was the CIA's favorite Communist turned anti-Communist.

This article reviews the concept of "social integration" as it developed through the series of international conferences and summits held over the last decade. Social integration, which was once viewed in a welfarist way that emphasised giving help to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups so that they could integrate better into "normal" society, was redefined to focus on the very nature of society and the relations among all its component groups. Emphasis is shifted from a narrow focus on groups to a broader understanding of social forces that create vulnerability and disadvantage. Implications of this shift for social policy research are suggested. The article also summarises the main activities of the Social Integration Branch of the Division for Social Policy and Development, UNDESA, which has primary responsibilities within the United Nations Secretariat for policies and activities related to the situation of specific social groups, including youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, families and persons in situations of conflict. (Original abstract)

Students of political behavior have often found that the primary use of languages other than English impedes many forms of political participation in the US. We develop expectations about how language choice operates with social context to influence an individual's decision to vote. Although choosing to speak a language other than English -- in this case, Spanish -- may affect the amount of political information individuals have at their disposal, this choice also represents their access to social & community resources that enable, rather than impede, political participation. We examine the voting behavior of Latinos, almost entirely Mexican Americans, living in south TX counties on the US border, & reconsider the consequences of language choice for political behavior. Controlling for past residential tenure, we find that Spanish-speaking Latinos will be more likely to vote than English-speaking Latinos. The establishment of ties to an ethnic group in a majority-minority context over time mitigates the negative relationship between the use of Spanish as a primary language & voting. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 41 References. Adapted from the source document.

White Paper on the History of Accreditation in Canada & the US re: EAPs ; Accreditation is a means of verifying the professional competence and programmatic integrity of an employee assistance program (EAP). This paper examines the history of the accreditation of EAPs in the United States and Canada by the two dominant professional associations in the field, and makes some observations about the outlook for EAP accreditation. The two professional associations, driven by divergent philosophies, have evolved differently in their approach to accreditation. However, they share the conviction that control of standards is essential to the self-definition of a professional field, and has implications as well for marketing and governmental regulation. Accreditation thus has an important role in those areas, and should define acceptable standards in the emerging employee assistance environment, which entails such issues as managed behavioral health care, work-life, and international programs. Accreditation may also help advance thinking about current tensions in the field, and thus help shape its future. ; Full Text

The Indonesian Government argues that the sea bridges the many islands and different peoples of Indonesia. Politically, this might be appropriate as a means of encouraging people to think that wherever and whoever there are, they are united as Indonesians. However, when this ideology is used for maritime resource management, it creates problems. One issue derives from the fact that people do not think that the Indonesian sea is 'free for all' Indonesians. I will argue that people, however vaguely, talk about 'we' and 'they' in defining who has the right to a particular fishing ground and who should be excluded. By analyzing conflicts that have taken part in different places in Indonesia, I will demonstrate that ethnicity and regionalism have been used as the defining factor of 'We' and 'They.' In particular contexts, ethnicity and regionalism define whether fishermen can access marine resources. Thus, at the practical level the sea does not unite Indonesians, and it is in fact, ethnicity and regionalism that divides the Indonesian seas.

This paper investigates the role that imperfect knowledge about the structure of the economy plays in the formation of expectations, macroeconomic dynamics, and the efficient formulation of monetary policy. Economic agents rely on an adaptive learning technology to form expectations and to update continuously their beliefs regarding the dynamic structure of the economy based on incoming data. The process of perpetual learning introduces an additional layer of dynamic interaction between monetary policy and economic outcomes. We find that policies that would be efficient under rational expectations can perform poorly when knowledge is imperfect. In particular, policies that fail to maintain tight control over inflation are prone to episodes in which the public's expectations of inflation become uncoupled from the policy objective and stagflation results, in a pattern similar to that experienced in the United States during the 1970s. Our results highlight the value of effective communication of a central bank's inflation objective and of continued vigilance against inflation in anchoring inflation expectations and fostering macroeconomic stability.

Is "sound bite democracy" only a U.S. phenomenon? & how do different forms of a candidate's appearance in television news affect his or her perception by the viewer? These are the major research questions we pursued using a large-scale content analysis of German television news coverage of the 1998 general election. The results show that German candidates still have a substantial opportunity on television news to speak to the people in their own words. The results also indicate that the degree of authenticity has a strong effect on the perception of the candidate by the television viewer. Pictures convey a better impression than just verbal news about the candidate, & original sound bites with pictures leave a better impression than pictures with just the voice-over. Results are discussed in light of the different media cultures in the United States & Germany & of the shifting balance of power between politicians & journalists. 3 Tables, 4 Figures, 44 References. [Copyright 2003 Sage Publications, Inc.]

Abstract The new GATT negotiation launched by the Kennedy administration aimed at raising American exports to the Common Market and at slowing American investments in Western Europe, which had a negative impact on the US balance of payments, but also at preventing the Six from building a common foreign policy, free from American influences. According to Kennedy and his advisers, the creation of an Atlantic free trade community would secure all these ends at the same time. After the rejection by De Gaulle of the British application to the Common Market, which killed the Atlantic free trade area project, the Kennedy Round negotiation became restricted to trade matters. Since it forced European countries to define a common stand toward the United States, its unintended effect was to strengthen the unity of Europe. The Round resulted in important tariff reductions and revealed that the US economy was now fully integrated in the larger world. In spite of this, protectionist interests entrenched in the US Congress objected strongly to this new phase of trade liberalisation.

The Return of Religion in International Politics, by Henri MADELIN
Throughout the year 2003, new types of cards have been dealt out in the image of Cesar and God, in Europe, even more so in the United States and, pointedly, in Muslim countries. The three points of crystallisation of conflicts with religion as a powerful underlying élément were Afghanistan with the dispersion of the Talibans, the Near East with a road map put back onto the agenda by G.W. Bush between Israelis and Palestinians, and Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and the growing difficulties encountered by the Anglo-American forces of occupation. The spectres of Holy War, Jihad and of the concept of just war could be seen to re-emerge. The Pope and the diplomatie action of the Holy See played a substantial rôle throughout this period. However, one may wonder how corne the images of the Christian God of the Americans differ somewhat from those of the Western Europeans.

Family law in Australia is an important and unique jurisdiction that directly impacts upon the well-being and future family relationships of children whose families are in dispute over post separation parenting arrangements. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children have the right to participate in decisions that directly affect them. But there are many barriers and tensions to children's participation in the jurisdiction of family law in Australia. Decisions said to be in the child's 'best interests' are influenced by value judgments and beliefs that are informed by dominant western discourses on the needs and competencies of children. In practice under the Family Law Reform Act 1995 children remain marginalised without an effective voice. Failure to hear the voice of the child is of special concern for children who have been traumatised by exposure to family violence and ongoing conflict. It is important to develop new understandings about children and the importance of giving children a voice.

This paper reports on research that tells the story of nurse managers' attempts to provide a 24-hour service. Although research was contextualized within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, the outcomes are not merely about the NHS. It is argued that middle managers, possessing delegated responsibility, are considered to be empowered. Such empowerment is accompanied by widely experienced anxiety. An escalatory and contagious process is observed which exaggerates 'normal' stress and challenge among middle managers into a state of selfperceived angst. It is argued that anxiety is, in effect, delegated, a process which serves to partially relieve superiors of anxiety-generating responsibilities. In contrast to arguments that players in bureaucracy 'conspire' to ensure that responsibility and consequent anxieties are largely held by the organizational elite, this paper argues that this traditional Weberian notion is worthy of challenge. Findings are based on qualitative data from an ethnographic research project that immersed itself in the minutiae of middle managers' organizational lives.

Health risk assessment is widely advocated in the United Kingdom as the most comprehensive means of assessing the health risks posed by the emissions of a planned waste incinerator. Its main advantage over other methods of assessment, such as air quality impact assessment, is its ability to address explicitly the direct (inhalation) and indirect (ingestion and dermal contact) health risks posed by different chemicals, including those that are not thought to have a threshold below which no adverse effect will take place. This article examines the level and quality of the emissions assessments included in 61 waste incinerator environmental statements (ESs); in particular, it focuses on the quality of the exposure assessment and risk characterization stages of the health risk assessment process. The article concludes that the ES has not always provided interested stakeholders with the best available information upon which to determine the tolerability of the health risks posed by waste incinerator emissions. Some recommendations are made as to how this problem might be addressed in future environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes.