Suchergebnisse

This article examines the political geography of state building in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. The absence of interstate war has produced a unique situation for contemporary state builders in Africa—they have inherited states with relatively fixed borders encapsulating a variety of environmental and geographic conditions, compounded by varying distributions of population densities. The author examines the effects of a variety of strategies that African rulers have employed to enhance their state-building efforts given the type of national design they inhabit. These strategies include the allocation of citizenship, interventions in land tenure patterns, and the adoption and management of national currencies. The author tests the effects of these strategies on several dimensions of state capacity in sub-Saharan Africa from 1960 to 2004 using a variety of statistical analyses. The results indicate that the strategies currently adopted by African rulers have generally failed to substantially augment their capacity.

The author describes Russian participation at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, including the proceedings of 'ministerial week.' Russian President D. A. Medvedev during his September presentation to the UN General Assembly emphasized the UN's privileged mediating role in a number of international economic and political issues. The president also outlined future strategies for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, including the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones in such regions of the world as the Middle East. The UN is instrumental in giving the regional governments a greater role within the bounds of an emerging polycentric international system. The author notes that whereas during the 63rd session many Western delegations criticized Russia for provoking Georgian aggression during the August 2008 South Ossetian conflict, only a few delegations during the current session singled out Russia for criticism for its actions during the conflict. Adapted from the source document.

The sheer enormity of Soviet losses at the hands of German forces during the Second World War staggers the mind. During the immediate post-war period, Stalin did not want the West to know just how badly the Soviet Union had been mauled or the fact that far more Soviet soldiers had died than German ones (up to three times as many); consequently, the Soviets clamed that thetotalnumber of dead was 7 million, while Western estimates were between 10 and 15 million Soviet dead. It was only during the Khrushchev era that the true scale of the disaster was revealed and the more accurate figure of 20 million dead was generally accepted. Of these, only half were soldiers. The rest were at least 10 million civilians, including 2 million who died as slave laborers in Nazi Germany. The death toll has more recently been put at 25, 27 and even 30 million, though I suspect the latter figures also take into consideration the decline in birth rates. In April 2009 Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev appointed yet another commission to give a final accounting of Soviet losses.

The article is a contribution to the IEEP's project to assess the external impacts of European Union (EU) biofuels policies and specifically the 2020 target, on sustainable development in third world countries. The author focuses on the potential influence of these policies on biofuel investments and associated land use/infrastructure changes in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The article notes that while SADC does not currently export biofuels, land-speculators and foreign investors are readying land to produce such biofuels for export. The author, through a comparative study, recommends sorghum and jatropha as the biofuel crops with the most potential for success in this arid region of the world. The article concludes with an outline of the research that needs to be carried out, and regional policies and regulations that need to be implemented, in order to more confidently assess the impacts of the EU 2020 biofuels target on SADC. K. Cargill

Since the end of the Cold War, the Latvia, Lithuania, & Estonia have adopted an "occupation doctrine" as a means to resolve various practical & ideological issues, among them, discrimination against the hundreds of thousands of Russians permanently living in the Baltic states today. The author contends that there was no "occupation regime" in the Baltics; in fact, the legally elected parliaments of the three republics in 1940 decided to join the USSR in order to gain protection from Nazi Germany. They received much more state budget money from the Soviet regime than did other similar regions, & their personal incomes were higher than anywhere else in the USSR. Many Russians in these republics saw the non-Russians as a privileged group. The author explores the history of the Baltic peoples before they joined the USSR & suggests how it helps explain their current behavior vis-a-vis the Russian speakers in their states. Adapted from the source document.

In response to the religious fanaticism spawned by the attempt to marry political philosophy and political theology, Mark Lilla admonishes us to return to the "wisdom" of Thomas Hobbes. The author of the "Great Separation" laid the ground for a humane political project by keeping separate the realms of God and man. In this article, I question the viability of Lilla's enterprise on Lilla's own terms. Hobbes, after all, did not set out to refute revelation. The author of Leviathan is the great "subject changer" who reorients human thinking toward a materialistic science of politics. However, if we are to contend with the challenges of political theology as Lilla understands them, we cannot in principle rule out the capacity of reason to speak to the claims of divine ascent. I propose a return to classical political rationalism as a better way of coming to terms with the "theological-political problem.". Adapted from the source document.

This article analyzes the debate over same-sex marriage in America by looking at definitions of marriage, commonly held myths about marriage, & moral arguments against same sex marriage. Same sex marriage is not excluded by gender-nonspecific definitions of marriage, as gays & lesbians are capable of sexual intimacy, raising families, & companionship. After considering several legal arguments for & against same-sex marriage, the author comes to the conclusion that the state has no right to deny any group of people the right to choose who they wish to marry. Laws that deny same-sex marriage are then similar to the anti-miscegenation laws of the recent past, & should be done away with as barriers to equality. Additionally, the author is in favor of courts rather than democratic majorities deciding whether or not to allow same sex marriage, as majoritarian consensus does not adequately protect minority rights. Adapted from the source document.

The article examines the unrest and clashes between the (Han) Chinese and minority Uyghurs not only in Xinjiang, but throughout China -- i.e. the Guangdong province. The author analyzes the history and aspects of the tension between both groups, with viewpoints from the (UWC) Uyghur World Congress and exiled leader Rabiya Kadeer; time-lined up to the events of July 5, 2009 in Urumqi, and the overall, resounding effects throughout China, Eurasia and the world. The Chinese government's policy regards the Xinjiang's indigenous minority Uyghurs as an internal security threat, though the region itself is a strategic gateway to Central Asia and a major concern of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Stability is the major issue, though human rights and democratization in the region seem non-existent. The author opines that the government's internal and integration policies need revision and a further preponderance before enacting, guarantying peaceful co-existence. Adapted from the source document.

Раздел "Международное право" - рубрика "Сравнительное правоведение" ; Законодательство ряда стран мира, регулирующее обращение с радиоактивными отходами, представляет значительный интерес и для Республики Беларусь. В статье предпринята попытка проанализировать законодательство Финляндии и США по вопросам охраны окружающей среды в области хранения и утилизации радиоактивных отходов. Автор рассматривает возможности создания специального органа, ведающего вопросами утилизации, поиска и учреждения мест захоронения радиоактивных отходов, что может позволить Республике Беларусь избежать ошибок других стран. = Legislation of several countries of the world which regulates radioactive waste handling is of considerable interest, especially, for the Republic of Belarus. The author tries to analyze the legislation of Finland and the USA on issues relating to environmental protection in the area of storing and utilisation radioactive waste. The author considers a possibility to establish a special body, which would be responsible for recycling issues, the search and setting up radioactive burial ground; it would permit the republic to avoid other states' mistakes.

The article deals with causes and consequences of the global financial crisis in the small-scaled economy of Iceland which appeared to be its first victim. The author investigates the mechanism of crisis in Iceland, where the Government was too slow in tightening state regulation in the financial sector. The country happened to be a bankrupt due to the liberal model of regulation and high interest rate causing high level of investments up to the credit and mortgage crises development. ; The article deals with causes and consequences of the global financial crisis in the small-scaled economy of Iceland which appeared to be its first victim. The author investigates the mechanism of crisis in Iceland, where the Government was too slow in tightening state regulation in the financial sector. The country happened to be a bankrupt due to the liberal model of regulation and high interest rate causing high level of investments up to the credit and mortgage crises development.

По мнению автора, ряд важных правовых актов последних лет, формально не нарушая Конституцию РФ, содержат признаки тенденциозного манипулирования конституционными нормами, строятся на прагматичной интерпретации этих норм и по сути противоречат демократическим принципам, внутреннему императиву нашего Основного Закона. Приводятся конкретные примеры этих противоречий, обосновывается необходимость установления правовых и нравственных пределов интерпретации конституционных норм в текущем законодательстве Федерального Собрания РФ и других органов государства. ; According to the author, a number of current legal acts formally not infracting the Constitution of the Russian Federation nevertheless contain traces of tendentious manipulating with the constitutional provisions, are based on pragmatic interpretation of these provisions and contradict to the democratic principles and inner imperative of our main law. The author presents the instances of the above-mentioned contradictions, proves the necessity of setting the legal and moral limits of interpreting the constitutional provisions in the legislation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and other state entities.

The Italian Province of South Tyrol is often presented as a successful model of the legal regulation of interethnic relations between the majority and minority population in ethnically heterogeneous regions in Europe. South Tyrol has been a place of coexistence of three ethnic groups for centuries, viz. the Italian, the Ladin, and the German. However, the German ethnic group has always outnumbered the other two and such an ethnic structure had led to the establishment of a territorial autonomy within unitary Italy. In this article the author analyses the legal underpinnings of the autonomy concerned, its repercussions on the position of the German language group and on the interethnic relations in South Tyrol. The author focuses in particular on the positive effects of the established autonomy, namely on its role in preserving the distinctive identities of the three ethnic groups and in ensuring peace and stability in the Province and the region at large. ; Peer reviewed