Suchergebnisse

We present a game-theoretic approach to the analysis of the emergence or survival of buffer states. We analyze a two-stage game with three players orderly located on a linear territory, where the player in the middle is passive, and the players on the two ends are aggressive with options to declare war against the others. We conduct an equilibrium analysis and characterize the conditions under which the passive player acts as a buffer state between the aggressive players. We find various equilibrium outcomes, which can be grouped into the following categories: ( i) peace with buffer, ( ii) peace without buffer, and ( iii) the last man standing. Our comparative static analyses reveal valuable insights regarding the factors affecting the existence of buffer states.

We analyze the effect of land reform legislation on labor market dynamics in the Romanian economy. We show that the agricultural sector, a source of precarious employment, has become an absorbing state for certain categories of workers who lost their jobs in the nonagricultural sector. A random utility model is used to represent individuals? sequential labor market decisions. The resulting multivariate probit model is estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.

Advocates of Job Guarantee (JG) or Employer of Last Resort (ELR) schemes have suggested that if the state provides "buffer stock" employment to workers displaced from private employment, then full employment can be maintained over the course of the business cycle. Kalecki was sceptical about the prospects for maintaining full employment in capitalist economies, without fundamental institutional change that would alleviate certain political constraints on the maintenance of full employment. We argue that in and of themselves, JG/ELR schemes do not create the fundamental institutional change required to address Kalecki's concerns and so ensure that full employment becomes achievable as a permanent state.

The article analyses the Jordanian foreign policy with a primary focus on Jordan's status as a buffer state. This characteristic can be regarded as a key determinant of the foreign policy, which not only defines vital interests of the monarchy, but also shapes its behaviour in the international arena and impacts on its domestic scene. Consequently, main trends in the Jordanian foreign policy are explored: moderation, quest for regional modus vivendi and long-standing alliance with the West. The author also indicates that with a relative scarcity of natural resources and weak economy, foreign policy becomes a strategic national asset of Jordan, a tool of domestic legitimacy for the political regime, and evidence of interlinked state interests and dynastic ambitions of the Hashemite family. The article concludes that despite regional turmoil in the wake of the Arab revolts, Jordan remains relatively stable and is skillfully playing its diplomatic card in order to gain leeway on the domestic front. ; Artur Malantowicz

This article employs the theory of buffer zone trade to understand archaeological data related to trade in Wiman Chosŏn (195–108 b.c. ), one of the earliest states in Korean history. Buffer zone trade is performed by an entity (B) placed between a fully developed state with a centralized government (C), and an underdeveloped polity in a periphery (P). B creates a route to convey C's advanced products, and exports imported goods from C as well as its own products to neighboring polities in the periphery, while controlling the flow of luxury materials. Significantly, in this process B moderates the impact of more powerful and regionally dominant civilizations on the polities in the periphery, therefore preventing these peripheral polities from losing their indigenous cultures entirely or experiencing structural collapse. Furthermore, B exercises authority over the polities in the periphery, controlling the flow of advanced materials. Wiman Chosŏn imported Han's monetary currency, iron products, weapons, farming tools, high-fired pottery, horse trappings, bronze mirrors, and bronze vessels, while exporting a few simple iron tools like hand knives, bronze mirrors, slender daggers, and fine-lined mirrors to Chin. Interestingly, the discrepancy of both the quality and quantity of the imported Han products takes place in the Korean Peninsula. Additionally, there was no influx of Han currencies and iron weaponry in the southern Korean Peninsula before the second century b.c. I believe that this phenomenon represents a result of trade conducted by Wiman Chosŏn and that Wiman Chosŏn functioned in this way as a semi-core.

This book, first published in 1993, examines the security concerns of the Central European countries in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought considerable uncertainty and instability to its satellite states, now free from Moscow's influence. This collection of essays by leading Central European experts analyses the problems and difficulties faced by these countries, as well as the opportunities offered in forging new security doctrines and alliances.

If you were to examine an 1816 map of the world, you would discover that half the countries represented there no longer exist. Yet since 1945, the disappearance of individual states from the world stage has become rare. State Death is the first book to systematically examine the reasons why some states die while others survive, and the remarkable decline of state death since the end of World War II. Grappling with what is a core issue of international relations, Tanisha Fazal explores two hundred years of military invasion and occupation, from eighteenth-century Poland to present-day Iraq, to.

The growth of world trade, the activity of transnational companies, the global world financial system, global production and the regional trading blocs such as the European Community and NAFTA, all point toward an emerging global world order in which states must adjust. For decades the constraints of small size, a common history and certain cultural affinities have combined with external pressures to push Caribbean countries towards even closer regional integration (Mc Kinney and Gardner 2008). The recent Economic Partnership Agreement premised on trade liberalization has plunged Caribbean countries into a global economic system where regional integration is now a necessity for survival as advocated by the EU (Assembly of European Regions 2001). The goals for CARlCOM integration include accelerated and sustained economic development through increased productivity, higher levels of international competitiveness and expansion of economic relations with third countries, and more efficient operations of health, education and other social services. However, present trends indicate that more sustained efforts to deepen the existing integration arrangements are integral to making CARICOM a truly effective instrument of global integration, competitiveness and economic growth for its member states. CARICOM is constrained in terms of its capacity to ensure Caribbean development because of its limitations in terms of political unity and cooperation among the leaders of the region. However, CARICOM is the engine of growth which the Caribbean countries must utilize in order to ensure sustained growth and development in the region and keep up with world trends.

India's economic standing and its policy landscape have come a long way since the 1943 Bengal famine. History saw buffer stocking of food grains as a famine-combating tool. Today, apart from serving as an effective hedge in times of famines, such grain stocks are a conduit deployed by the government to foster the country's agriculture development and food security. The buffer stocking policy of food grains has become the one tool with the government used to fulfil the interlinked objectives of supporting food-producers and food-consumers, and of ensuring food availability at the national level. The policy of widespread government intervention in the food management of the country has been successful in many ways. From a food-scarce, food-importing country, India has emerged as a grain-surplus and a net grain-exporting country. The production base is strong and growing. Food security, in terms of ample grain supplies, has been attained at the national level. However, an evaluation of the country's buffer stock policy reveals gaps and inefficiencies. Large quantities of food grains have accumulated in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and its nominated state agencies, raising questions about the economic efficiency of the entire operation. At the same time, there is high incidence of malnutrition and rising food grain prices across the country. The level of government intervention in grain markets is straining government finances because of the increasing burden of food subsidy. There are increasing concerns regarding the imbalances being created in the national production basket, of alienation of market forces and its players, of quality of grain, and the sustainability and relevance of such operations.