Suchergebnisse

Those who have to cross "hard" borders face many problems on their way, including arbitrary and unjust treatment by consular and border guard officers, protracted and nitpicking inspections and extortion by customs officers, and huge traffic congestions. This article examines the extent to which various categories of people crossing the European Union-Russian border can self-organize in order to act together and be heard better for solving these and other issues. Tourists, shuttle traders, and truck drivers working for international cargo carriers are taken as three case studies for the research. I argue that all of the three mentioned categories of border crossers are capable of self-organizing in various ways: tourists—by exchanging best practices within thematic networks, shuttle traders—by taking advantage of their ability to gather in their common places of residence and (as well as truck drivers) near checkpoints when traffic congestions arise, truck drivers—also by taking advantage of support from influential business associations. It is also important that the audibility of border crossers' voices can be seriously amplified by mediators, among which officials, politicians, business structures, and the mass media are the most efficient. At the same time, the capability of these three kinds of border crossers to make their voices heard is very limited, since their interactions are typically weak and instable and since officials are much more powerful.

Since the end of the Cold War, walls, fences, and fortifications have been constructed on interstate borders at a rapid rate. It remains unclear, however, whether these fortifications provide effective security. We explore whether border fortifications provide security against the international spread of violent militancy. Although barriers can reduce the likelihood that militant activity diffuses across international borders, their effectiveness is conditional upon the roughness of the terrain on which they are built and the level of infrastructure development in their proximity. Barriers require intensive manpower to monitor and patrol, and so conditions like rough terrain and poor infrastructure render security activity more difficult. However, rebels and other militants prefer to operate in such difficult areas, ultimately reducing the effectiveness of barriers in containing the international spread of violent militancy. Analyses on newly collated data on interstate border fortifications within a global sample of contiguous-state directed-dyad-years show that border fortifications are only effective in limiting the diffusion of militancy in contexts in which states can plausibly monitor and police their borders. This paper has significant implications for the academic literatures on national security and intrastate conflict, and it also speaks to the broader policy debate over border walls and fences.

AbstractThis special issue focuses on the difficulties of negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with contributions by scholars from different perspectives. This introductory article briefly examines the trend to mega-FTAs of which TTIP is a leading example. It then reviews the contributions to this special issue, drawing on an analytical approach that reflects extant work on transnational and transgovernmental relations. This approach, we contend, helps to understand the stark mismatch between the desire of some parties to negotiate binding trade rules on behind-the-border regulatory policies in certain key sectors of national economies and the progress made in TTIP talks. We then highlight the significance of some key actors in a case study of failed E.U. attempts to include financial sector reforms and associated regulatory processes in TTIP.

We investigate the impact of the elimination of import tariffs and nontariff policy barriers (NTPBs) on agricultural trade in a notional East Asian Free Trade Agreement using a Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP)‐based computable general equilibrium model. The investigation is divided into two parts. We first measure the NTPBs by employing a widely used method derived from the literature on border effects. Then, by adding into the GTAP database our estimates on the NTPBs, which the original GTAP database by its nature does incorporate, we compute the impact of the entire elimination of policy barriers (the complete reduction of import tariffs and NTPBs) on GDP. The result shows that there are remarkable differences between the effect of abolition of import tariffs and that of entire elimination of all import barriers.

Intro -- BORDER SECURITY:BARRIERS ALONG THEU.S. INTERNATIONAL BORDER -- BORDER SECURITY:BARRIERS ALONG THEU.S. INTERNATIONAL BORDER -- Contents -- PREFACE -- Border Security: Barriers Alongthe U.S. International Border -- Background -- The San Diego Border Primary Fence -- Operation Gatekeeper -- Sandia National Laboratory Study -- Congressional Border Barrier Legislation -- Section 102 of IIRIRA - Improvement of Barriersat the Border -- Expansion of Waiver Authority under the REAL ID Act -- The San Diego Sandia Fence -- The California Coastal Commission -- Current Status of the San Diego Triple Fence -- The San Diego Fence and USBP Apprehensions -- Border Barrier Construction -- Steps Prior to Construction -- Border Fence Construction Process and Funding -- Types of Fences and Barriers -- Other Border Barriers: Vehicle Barriers -- Current Status -- Legislation in the 110th Congress -- Enacted Legislation -- Proposed Legislation -- Legislation in the 109th Congress -- Issues For Congress -- Effectiveness -- Costs -- Fence Design -- Fence Location -- Land Acquisition -- Diplomatic Ramifications -- Environmental Considerations -- Legal Considerations -- Unintended Consequences -- Appendix I: Examples of USBP Border Fencing -- Appendix II: The San Diego Fence -- Appendix III: Permanent Vehicle Barrier Schematic -- Appendix IV: Permanent Vehicle Barriers -- Appendix V: Data From Figure 4 -- Appendix VI: Legal Requirements Waived by DHS for the Construction ofthe San Diego Border Fence -- Appendix VII: Legal Requirements Waived by DHS for the Construction of Physical Barriersand Roads in the Vicinity of the Barry M. Goldwater Range in Southwest Arizona -- Appendix VIII: Legal Requirements Waived by DHS for the Construction of Physical Barriersand Roads in the Vicinity of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Areain Southeast Arizona -- INDEX.

How do signatures required for exporting and business registration procedures affect the volume and composition of country's exports? To answer this question, I develop a model where a country can export two types of products: differentiated and homogeneous. I show that export signatures and registration procedures reduce overall exports by increasing transaction costs. The impact, however, varies across goods according to the product's degree of differentiation- the lack of price data on differentiated products due to their heterogeneity makes them more sensitive to export signatures. Regress

Administrative boundaries create all sorts of barriers. These include obstacles associated with cross-border mobility. The presence of cross-border transports can be pivotal to reducing the barrier-effect on citizen's mobility and to increasing territorial integration of the European Union (EU). As recent surveys have revealed, cross-border accessibility is still considered a major barrier across most EU borders. In this context, this paper examines the overall current panorama of cross-border transports in the EU as a crucial barrier, whilst proposing a Cross-border Transport Permeability index to allow comparing this barrier across the EU. The findings indicate that cross-border transports are not yet sufficiently developed in the face of the increasing needs of EU citizens to cross borders, even in the most mature and socio-economically developed EU border areas, and that complex legal and administrative frameworks from both sides of the border make the creation of joint solutions for improving cross-border transportation across EU borders a challenging task. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion