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The 44-day Karabakh War seriously affected the international balances in the Caucasus in terms of security, politics, and economic dimensions. The attitude of international actors during the war was important to define the fate and consequences of the war. Among these international actors, Russia's attitude was of special importance. The policy followed by Russia during and after the 44-day Karabakh War had four main and parallel pillars: The first pillar of Russia's policy was maintaining the status of its traditional ally Armenia. The second pillar was maintaining its mediator role for the resolution of the conflict. The third pillar of the policy pursued by the Kremlin was not harming the strategic partnership relationship with Azerbaijan, which had been specially developed during Vladimir Putin's tenure. The fourth pillar of the policies pursued by Russia was not disrupting the multidimensional profound relationships with Turkey, which had advanced in recent years. The first two dimensions of this policy followed by the Putin Administration during the 2nd Karabakh War represent Russia's conventional Caucasus policy and the last two dimensions embody a policy change.

Economic policy is commonly treated as a vehicle for selecting among possible allocative outcomes within an economy. An economy, however, is a complex network of relationships whose patterns can be understood but whose details can be neither predicted nor controlled. Because of this complexity, allocative outcomes are not direct objects of choice. They are simply emergent consequences of human interaction that takes place within some framework of governing rules and conventions. All economic policy can do is modify some of the rules that govern this interaction. Economic policy is thus constitutive and not allocative in character, being centrally involved in shaping the character of the regime that governs our relationships with each other.

The uneven geographical distribution of economic activities is a huge challenge worldwide and also for the European Union. In Krugman's New Economic Geography economic systems have a simple spatial structure. This book shows that more sophisticated models should visualise the EU as an evolving trade network with a specific topology and different aggregation levels. At the highest level, economic geography models give a bird eye's view of spatial dynamics. At a medium level, institutions shape the economy and the structure of (financial and labour) markets. At the lowest level, individual decisions interact with the economic, social and institutional environment; the focus is on firms' decision on location and innovation. Such multilevel models exhibit complex dynamic patterns - path dependence, cumulative causation, hysteresis - on a network structure; and specific analytic tools are necessary for studying strategic interaction, heterogeneity and nonlinearities

Abstract Introduction The South American country Chile now boasts a life expectancy of over 80 years. As a consequence, Chile now faces the increasing social and economic burden of cancer and must implement political policy to deliver equitable cancer care. Hindering the development of a national cancer policy is the lack of comprehensive analysis of cancer infrastructure and economic impact. Objectives Evaluate existing cancer policy, the extent of national investigation and the socio-economic impact of cancer to deliver guidelines for the framing of an equitable national cancer policy. Methods Burden, research and care-policy systems were assessed by triangulating objective system metrics – epidemiological, economic, etc. – with political and policy analysis. Analysis of the literature and governmental databases was performed. The oncology community was interviewed and surveyed. Results Chile utilizes 1% of its gross domestic product on cancer care and treatment. We estimate that the economic impact as measured in Disability Adjusted Life Years to be US$ 3.5 billion. Persistent inequalities still occur in cancer distribution and treatment. A high quality cancer research community is expanding, however, insufficient funding is directed towards disproportionally prevalent stomach, lung and gallbladder cancers. Conclusions Chile has a rapidly ageing population wherein 40% smoke, 67% are overweight and 18% abuse alcohol, and thus the corresponding burden of cancer will have a negative impact on an affordable health care system. We conclude that the Chilean government must develop a national cancer strategy, which the authors outline herein and believe is essential to permit equitable cancer care for the country.

Profiles Myanmar's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and opposition forces; includes constitutional revision highlights, economic agenda, and foreign policy.

Elected officials and practitioners generally believe that - along with gains in time, environment, and roadway safety - the local economic impacts brought by high-speed railways (HSR) could be a major ingredient in socioeconomic appraisals. However, academic studies have shown mixed results. This article reviews the various channels through which HSR may impact the local economies.We break down the economic effects by stages of the projects' lifetime and we question the existence of these impacts with an eye towards empirical evidence from the abundant academic and grey literature. Outside the construction effects, that constitute a broad consensus, studies find both the existence and the absence of impacts of HSR, whether these are shortterm effects on local productivity and the geography of consumption (through tourism or extended stays) or long-term effects on the relocation of businesses and households and ultimately local growth patterns. Results show great variability as economic effects are conditional upon a set of other factors such as city size, industry structures, amenities, and distance from the urban core.The main difficulty is being able to identify empirically to what extent new infrastructures have affected variations observed in the field, and not the opposite. We believe that making progress on these questions requires clarifying which model of local development is to be used and what kind of development is the goal of public policy.

Elected officials and practitioners generally believe that - along with gains in time, environment, and roadway safety - the local economic impacts brought by high-speed railways (HSR) could be a major ingredient in socioeconomic appraisals. However, academic studies have shown mixed results. This article reviews the various channels through which HSR may impact the local economies.We break down the economic effects by stages of the projects' lifetime and we question the existence of these impacts with an eye towards empirical evidence from the abundant academic and grey literature. Outside the construction effects, that constitute a broad consensus, studies find both the existence and the absence of impacts of HSR, whether these are shortterm effects on local productivity and the geography of consumption (through tourism or extended stays) or long-term effects on the relocation of businesses and households and ultimately local growth patterns. Results show great variability as economic effects are conditional upon a set of other factors such as city size, industry structures, amenities, and distance from the urban core.The main difficulty is being able to identify empirically to what extent new infrastructures have affected variations observed in the field, and not the opposite. We believe that making progress on these questions requires clarifying which model of local development is to be used and what kind of development is the goal of public policy.

Growth in the Western Balkans has strengthened to an estimated 3.5 percent. In most of the region, growth projections for 2018 have been revised upward. Growth was stimulated by higher public investment and consumption. Driven by tax reforms and faster growth, higher tax revenues created fiscal space, which some countries rushed to use for current spending and capital investment. Higher exports are also necessary for more secure long-term growth. External imbalances have been high but mostly stable. The risks clouding a positive growth outlook are both external and internal. A possible tightening of the financing conditions in international capital markets is a downside risk, especially in countries that have external and fiscal imbalances. With domestic sovereign bond markets often underdeveloped, Western Balkan countries are exposed to rises in global interest rates. Robust growth in the region also depends heavily on domestic and regional political stability, which define the speed of structural reforms. Mitigating these external and internal risks requires both a firm commitment to fiscal consolidation and acceleration of structural reforms.

AbstractDespite its worthy motives, social market philosophy provides neither a useful analytical framework for understanding modern capitalism, nor the policy tools to address our present economic and social predicament. The concept of 'market failure', with its underlying assumption of market equilibrium, does not capture the systemically adverse outcomes of collective market forces. A more sophisticated understanding of capitalist economies, and the societies in which they exist, would recognise that the market economy is a dynamic but not self‐regulating system. It is embedded in, and impacts on, four other economies – of the natural environment, of family and care, of voluntary association, and of the public sector – which operate under different motivations and allocative principles. The role of government is central, to balance the values created by different kinds of institutions and to constrain the dynamic impacts of market forces. A number of policy conclusions are offered arising from this framework.

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is faced with a number of difficult choices concerning Canada's foreign policy in Central America. These choices are particularly problematic because their repercussions may have an important impact on Canada- US relations. On the one hand, the Prime Minister must heed public opinion in Canada which favors increased government concern about human rights and economic development in Central America. On the other hand, he must consider American security interests and not irritate or embarrass the United States and President Reagan in particular.Canada's middle power status puts it in a difficult quandary, for it seeks to retain an independent role in Central America, while it finds its influence circumscribed by its proximity to the US superpower. Its ability to wield tangible authority is thus severely attenuated. Canada's asymmetrical relationship with the United States allows it a certain degree of latitude in formulating foreign policy but imposes important constraints as well.