Suchergebnisse

While the field of foreign policy has generated an impressive amount of research, there is still much to be explored and explained of the way in which regime types (totalitarian and democratic) influence the dynamics of state behavior at the international level. The present study examines in a comparative way the characteristics that influence the process of foreign policy making in totalitarian and democratic states. This can help achieve a better understanding of their foreign policy decisions and also help reveal valuable patterns in their decision making process. For the purpose of the present study, the United States of America and the People`s Republic of China were chosen as representative cases of the above mentioned highly contrasting regimes. The foreign policy and diplomatic relationship of the two countries is analyzed on the period between the 1940s and the 1970s using comparative foreign policy analysis, their differences providing a fertile ground for comparison.

We work with a newly developed method to empirically assess whether a specified new-Keynesian business cycle monetary model estimated with U.S. quarterly data is consistent with a unique equilibrium or multiple equilibria under rational expectations. We conduct classical tests to verify if the structural model is correctly specified. Conditional on a positive answer, we formally assess if such model is either consistent with a unique equilibrium or with indeterminacy. Importantly, our full-system approach requires neither the use of prior distributions nor that of nonstandard inference. The case of an indeterminate equilibrium in the pre-1984 sample and of a determinate equilibrium in the post-1984 sample is favored by the data. The long-run coefficients on inflation and the output gap in the monetary policy rule are found to be weakly identified. However, our results are further supported by a proposed identification-robust indicator of indeterminacy.

In recent years, thousands of foreign fighters have left over 100 countries to join armed groups, especially jihadist groups, in Syria and Iraq and in other theaters of war. The phenomenon has also affected Italy, although to a much lesser extent than in other European countries. The foreign fighters of Italy are, in fact, about 130. What are the socio-demographic characteristics of these individuals? Where did they live before they left? Were they part of extremist networks in Italy and in Europe? What role did they play in the conflict area? How many have already returned? Are there common profiles? These are just some of the questions that this ISPI Report tries to answer. Through a detailed analysis of the profiles of foreign fighters linked to Italy, on the basis of original data, the peculiarities of the entire national contingent are highlighted for the first time, also thanks to the comparison with other Western countries.

Democracy promotion – or democracy assistance – has always represented a fil rouge in U.S. foreign policy. At least since the beginning of the 20th century, the United States has used such issue in its global and regional agenda. Despite during the Cold War the quest for national and international security in a bipolar world system restricted the role of democracy promotion as an autonomous feature in US foreign policy, since the '90s the promotion of democracy has been growing steadily. In fact, democracy promotion became a distinguishing feature in both the "Clinton doctrine" and George W. Bush's foreign policy after the 9\11 attacks. Although, under Obama, US democracy promotion has experienced a consistent re-orientation, it has not disappeared from the US global agenda. This article aims to show the evolution of US democracy promotion, in particular from the Cold War bipolar world to the multipolar system of the 21th century: from both a theoretical and practical perspective, democracy promotion has gone through different phases and evolutions but it is still vividly alive within US foreign policy.