Sovereignty Of Country Research Articles

Regime Shifting of IP Law Making and Enforcement from the WTO to the International Investment Regime

This article provides new insight to regime shifting and regime complexes through one of the first detailed analysis of the regime shift in intellectual property law making and enforcement from the World Trade Organization to international investment law. Unlike prior cases of regime shifting that have predominantly focused on the efforts of States and NGOs creating counter-norms viz-a-viz those of the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, the current regime shift is primarily engineered by multinational corporations seeking to destabilize TRIPS flexibilities through investor-state arbitration. Since defending these cases costs countries millions of dollars, this regime shift to investor state arbitration has a significant chilling effect on the regulatory authority of states. We argue and show that by bringing or threatening to bring investor-state litigation to protect their IP rights against countries seeking to protect public health, pharmaceutical and tobacco companies pose a serious threat to the sovereignty of countries to implement the TRIPS Agreement in a manner that balances IP rights against values such as access to affordable medicine. As a consequence this Article argues that this regime shift is significant not only for developing countries, but for developed countries, such as Canada, Australia, and members of the European Union as well. The last part of the article proposes solutions to the challenges that this regime shifting raises. The first set of proposals recommend defining and clarifying key terms in investment treaties to minimize harm to domestic sovereignty as well as to maximize flexibilities under the TRIPS Agreement. The second set of proposals recommend improving the investment dispute process through a variety of reforms.

Consequences, Necessities and Advantages of Iran’ Accession to the Statute of International Criminal Court

The existing conflicts between approval of Rome Statute by Islamic Consultative Assembly along with joining the International Criminal Court and national interests and some of Islamic laws and regulations, has always been a controversial issue among scholars of law community of Iran because of the establishment of International Criminal Court and signed the Rome Statute by Islamic Republic of Iran. Many believe that accession to the International Criminal Court and its approval by parliament is inconsistent with national interests and sovereignty and also would bring negative consequences to the country. Contrary to this view, it is believed that provisions of the Rome Statute are not inconsistent with Islamic and domestic regulations and this accession can bring positive outcomes and international interests to Iran. In this way, national power and sovereignty of country would be reinforced at international level. The present study has investigated positive consequences and advantages of Iran’s accession to the Rome Statute.

EFFECT OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET ON THE STATE OF THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES ENERGY

In article the main aspects and influence of the foreign exchange market on economy are considered. In this area, indicate specific facts relating to the foreign exchange market. To ensure the security of our country's economy, we need a sustainable economic system that can keep the country's sovereignty and resist external economic and political pressures. The main aspects of the global monetary system, reveals the essence of some of them, made proposals, the implementation of which would stabilize the economies that depend on the state of the currency market. Are factors that influence the currency market itself. The most important component of Russia's national wealth is the potential energy resources, it is unique in its diversity and scale. For our country's fuel and energy complex is a factor of social and economic stability, economic security, both in normal operating conditions and in the event of an emergency. Requirements for fuel and energy complex (Energy), as an element of the national economy predetermined state of internal and external energy supply, competitiveness of different types of energy in the regional Russian and foreign markets, as well as the efficient functioning of sectors included in the energy industry. The Russian budget is heavily dependent on oil prices. From the ruble price of oil depends on the amount of revenues that will receive the federal budget. The monetary policy of each state involves not only goals, but also the specific methods to achieve them. At the moment main task of state regulation of the foreign exchange market is the construction of a monetary system, which would be an essential element of the modernization of the Russian economy, saturation with the necessary means of production and modernization of the economy, including in the fuel and energy sector.

Globalization of Financial Capitalism and its Impact on Financial Sovereignty

Under the influence of neo-liberalism, financial liberalization initiated by developed countries has transformed industrial capitalism into financial capitalism and subsequently brought about the globalization of financial capitalism. Despite the respite after the financial crisis of 2008, the resurgence of globalization of financial capitalism will be unavoidable. Globalization of financial capitalism, an economic phenomenon as well as a social, political, and legal phenomenon, may have a significant impact on the financial sovereignty of countries around the world. In an era of globalization of financial capitalism, how to safeguard the financial sovereignty has become a serious challenge for all countries, especially developing countries.

An argument for South Africa's accession to the optional protocol to the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights in the light of its importance and implications

The universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all rights have been universally acclaimed since the drafting in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, despite the doctrine of indivisibility, civil and political rights (CPRs) have for a long time been treated as being enforceable judicially at the national, regional and international levels, while socio-economic rights (SERs) have not. With the elaboration and adoption of an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR), which mandates the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) to consider individual communications detailing the violations of SERs, the justiciability of SERs was also fully recognised at the international level.This paper undertakes an analysis of the importance and implications of the individual communications procedure under the OP-ICESCR and details some of the reasons why it would be beneficial for South Africa to accede thereto. The argument for accession by South Africa to the OP-ICESCR departs from the premise that South Africa's ratification of the ICESCR is imminent. Having signed the ICESCR on 3 October 1994, the South African Cabinet on 10 October 2012 decided that South Africa should ratify the Covenant. The authors argue that acceding to the OP-ICESCR will complement domestic protection and will confirm South Africa's global leadership in the field of justiciable SERs. Logic dictates that South Africa should confirm at the international level its position as a world leader on the national justiciability and legal enforcement of SERs, as indeed it has done during the drafting process of the OP-ICESCR. Accession to OP-ICESCR, the argument continues, will not detract from the country's sovereignty, especially in the light of the requirement of the exhaustion of domestic remedies, including the condition that applicants must show that they have suffered a "clear disadvantage". In any event, South Africa already has undertaken obligations as to SERs under regional human rights treaties that are equal to and in some respect more arduous than the obligations emanating from the ICESCR.
 

Storytelling, Myth, and the Afghanistan Wars in Spozhmai Zaryab’s Antiwar Short Stories

Spozhmai Zaryab and Her Narrative WorksBorn in 1955 in Kabul and holding a BA in French language from Kabul University and an MA and a PhD in comparative literature from Montpellier University in France, Spozhmai Zaryab is one of Afghanistan's major authors. She has published two collections of short stories, Sharang Sharang-i Zang-ha [The Jingling of the Bells] and Dasht-i Qabil [Cain's Desert], and a novel, Dar Keshwar-i Digar [In Another Country]. It is not the quantity but the artistic merit of her works that has established her reputation. Zaryab has been writing fiction since the early 1970s, but she emerged in the 1980s as one of the country's leading writers. She writes in a variety of genres, but her contribution to modern fiction in Afghanistan lies mainly in her anti-war works; she is considered the godmother of Afghan anti-war literature (Bezhan, Women Causes 264). This type of fiction emerged with the outbreak of war after the 1978 Leftist coup and the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops in late 1979. Neighboring countries, Iran and Pakistan, and the West chose to channel financial, military, and political aid to the armed opposition groups, known as the Mujahideen, or freedom fighters. Soon the war escalated and involved many players, from domestic to regional to international superpow- ers. To the present day the war has undergone many stages. But the peak of the war was in the 1980s, when Afghanistan became a battleground for internal, regional, and superpower forces. Although the protagonists changed, the misery of the people did not. As the conflict ground on, each side accompanied their military efforts with fierce public relations campaigns to promote the righteousness of their cause and to vilify their opponents.The significance of Zaryab's works lies in the ways that they give voice to the ordinary people who have no stake in the war. They demonstrate the impact of war on the population in general and women in particular. Her account of the war is from the victims' perspective. An essential element of this strategy involves bringing elements of oral storytelling, the people's medium, into her narrative frameworks. Zaryab incorporates two types of traditional stories into her works: epic and religious folktales. They represent literary, religious, and folk heritage and assume value in being the collective residue of the past. As well, they are the most popular types of storytelling across a wide spectrum of society, from the educated elites to illiterate groups. By using these types of stories, she also undermines ideological representations of the war by the warring partisans.The Leftist government and the Mujahideen had striven to create mas- ter narratives of the conflict that would serve to uphold their own political/ ideological outlooks. The Leftist regime portrayed it as a nationalist struggle, defending the homeland from the aggression of foreign powers who would install the Mujahideen as their proxy. The support of the Mujahideen by the regional governments and the West was proof of their intention to compromise Afghanistan's sovereignty and keep it a backward country. The regime's invitation to the Soviet troops simply served to defend the national sovereignty and the southern, eastern and western borders and to sustain socioeconomic and cultural progress. For the Mujahideen, Russian troops represented an occupying power that would transform Afghanistan into a satellite socialist state. They believed that the Russians would destroy not only the country's sovereignty but also its sociocultural and religious character. The war was fought (and is still being fought) not only for the liberation of the homeland from invaders but also for the liberation of Dar ul-Islam, the land of Islam, from the grip of infidels. Zaryab's use of epics and religious folktales had the intended effect of countering both sides' warring narratives.Storytelling in AfghanistanStorytelling has a rich tradition among women and men in Afghanistani culture, from courtly palaces to popular meeting places where ordinary people gathered. …

Latest trends and global challenges of the development of international economic relations

The article provides an outline of modern tendencies of international economic relations in the context of increasing openness of national economies and growing protectionism. It is offered to consider economic development of countries as changing the geopolitical map of the world under influence of globalization. The article defines the main tendencies of evolutionary development of countries and proves the inexpedience of applying development strategies of certain countries to the developing countries. It proves the necessity of reconsidering the world economic order and defines the historic role of globalization in its formation. It analyzes the main features of interpreting globalization as a socio-historic process. Based in this, it defines that globalization increases the level of economic cooperation between countries that was initiated in the middle of XX century, but the uncertainty in the development of contemporary international economic relations disrupts the functioning of world financial infrastructure and increases the threat to national sovereignty of countries. It is proved that restricting the independence of states in choosing their trajectories of development contradicts the documents of international organizations, namely the United Nations. The article also reviews the ideological ideas of mondalism and its relation to globalization, which allows for confirming the utopianism of the idea of formatting a holistic world and the impossibility of one-sided world construction. It estimates the scenarios of world economic relations development under the influence of globalization and proves that heterogeneity of global environment will remain until the structure of global economy changes as a result of a constructive dialogue.

Promoting the Usage of Organic Produce Through Decentralization

Organic produce and alternative food business has become one of the biggest boom in the last decade. In recent past the phenomenon has seen the booster speed as global food security has come to question as countries are shifting toward service industry for development and globalization is claiming country sovereignty. Bangladesh is still known for an agricultural land surrounded by India and rich in rivers and greens. However, in reality, Bangladesh is a confused country where value for livelihood is been trampled by the overload of intruding investments, middlemen massacre, in-equal distribution of resources, centralized development pattern and way too many people trying their luck out in the capital. Political chaos and corruption are just the dusting on this dish of mayhem. There are many theories of development that looks good on the shelve yet very little practice and extremely rare success. To leave the food worry would therefore build a better environment for development, give the people a superior lifestyle and in way will keep them driven for country growth. Decentralized distribution of certain organic products when made available area wise, Dhaka might be a healthier place to live.

El petróleo en el vértice de una crisis que somete y sus trazos privatizadores a lo trasnacional

La crisis financiera y cambiaria que sacudió con fuerza a la economía mexicana hacia el final de 1994, fue aprovechada por el imperio financiero y el petrolero estadounidense. Dando otro paso más dentro de su ambicioso proyecto de integración hemisférica occidental; donde las reservas e industria del petróleo de los países latinoamericanos juegan un papel estratégico, transitando entre internacionalización y privatización. El "rescate" financiero pensado y estructurado por los EUA, llevo a firmar el Acuerdo de Garantías con EUA y signar un Memorándum de Políticas Económicas con el FMI; acuerdos que debilitan el quehacer soberano e independiente del país y directa o indirecta inciden sobre el proceso de privatización de Petróleos Mexicanos. La debilidad mostrada por México deviene de su problemática del endeudamiento interno y externo público. Aceptar el destino impuesto externamente, nos ubica sobre un peligroso mundo supranacional.

Converging Trends in Investment Treaty Practice

Traditionally, the vested interests of states concluding bilateral investment treaties (BITs) fell into two categories: on the side of capital-exporting states, an interest in adopting strong protections for foreign investors; on the side of capital-importing states, an interest in attracting foreign investment but also in attempting to preserve host country sovereignty and authority to promote the public interest. Over the past decade or so, however, the line between capital-exporting and capital-importing state increasingly has blurred, and the calculus for states negotiating BITs has become less certain. The experience of the US as a respondent to claims brought to arbitration by Canadian investors under Chapter 11 of NAFTA significantly affected the development of a new generation of US BITs that better balance the interests of host states against those of foreign investors. Similarly, as emerging market economies become significant exporters of capital, these countries are concluding BITs and resorting to investor-state arbitration, driven at least in part by the needs of their own foreign investors. This article examines this convergence in BIT practice. It suggests that these converging trends, a function of states operating behind what Rawls referred to as a “veil of ignorance,” are having and should continue to have a moderating influence on the content of BITs.

Bandwagoning for status: Canada's need of the F-35

Why does Canada need a fifth generation combat aircraft? Four rationales put forth by Canadian decision-makers to justify this procurement are examined in this article: to support Canada's aerospace industry, to protect the country's sovereignty, to ensure the interoperability between Canadian and American air forces, and to contribute to international security. The article critiques the financial and industrial benefits arguments made by the government; it discusses the security threats that Canada is likely to face in the future and the ways in which the F-35 might address them; it assesses how the acquisition of the F-35 accords with Canada's traditional “defence against help” strategy; and finally, it stresses the importance that status-seeking and perceptions of reliability play into the choice of the F-35. Simply put, interoperability and international prestige seem necessary (but insufficient) conditions of Ottawa's perceived need to procure F-35s. The Canadian government seeks, by bandwagoning with the United States on this issue, to preserve its capacity to maintain (or enhance) its status as a reliable and prominent ally in Western-led air campaigns.

Cigarettes and plain packaging: the battle lines are drawn

Cigarettes and plain packaging: the battle lines are drawn

Terrorism Shocks: Domestic Versus Transnational Responses

This article distinguishes the demand from the supply of counterterrorism following either a large-scale terrorist attack or campaign. On the demand side, terrorism shocks increase the willingness of civilians to sacrifice their liberties for security, thereby giving the government a mandate to augment defensive and proactive measures against the terrorists. The supply side differs greatly between domestic and transnational terrorism. Supply problems may plague countermeasures against transnational terrorism as at-risk nations act strategically. In particular, there is a strong proclivity for nations to overspend on defense and to underspend on proactive measures. These tendencies are explored using simple game theory. A country's sovereignty also bolsters the ability of targeted nations to address domestic terrorism with an appropriate mix of counter- terrorism measures.

United States-Myanmar Relations: On the Threshold of Rapprochement? A Response

Priscilla Clapp's article very clearly describes the pragmatic new US policy approach to Myanmar adopted by the Obama administration, and the very deep-seated obstacles in both countries that stand in the way of genuine rapprochement. The paper accurately concludes that there is realistically no chance of this happening in the near future, even after the elections scheduled for 7 November 2010. The deep-seated obstacles include the fact that, for the past twenty years, the focus of US policy has almost exclusively been on the personal leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi framed in terms of democracy and human rights. The objective of US policy was to remove the military dictatorship and replace it with the parliament elected in 1990 under the leadership of Suu Kyi. While this policy focus has shifted slightly under Obama, Suu Kyi is still central to US policy on Myanmar. As recently as 24 September 2010, the US government reiterated that the elections could not be seen as credible as long as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remained under house arrest. (1) For Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), this validates their claim that Suu Kyi is being used by colonial forces (British) and neocolonial forces (US) to subjugate Myanmar: Suu Kyi was not allowed to compete in the 1990 elections; she was under house arrest; political prisoners were not released; the election campaign was not free and fair by any standards; and the media were as restricted then as now. Yet the US and the international community hailed the 1990 elections as credible. From the military's point of view, what has changed to make the 2010 elections illegitimate? Was it because Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won in 1990 and has no chance of winning in 2010? The regime will certainly not release Suu Kyi before the elections, let alone allow her to compete. This means that Washington will not be able to improve relations with Myanmar as long as she remains the focus of US policy. Suu Kyi remains a crucial figure, and she may be the only person able to hold Myanmar together in any future transition to a democracy; but if the US is serious about improving relations with Myanmar, it needs to take into account other factors that may be equally important. As described in Ms Clapp's paper, the SPDC's primary goal is to maintain power. Improving ties with the United States, or any other country or organization including the United Nations, is secondary. Therefore, no matter what pressure Washington or other external actors bring to bear on Nyapyidaw, it will not release Suu Kyi because she is perceived as a threat to regime survival. Myanmar's military (the Tatmadaw) refuses to entertain the possibility of her assuming a leadership role. To the generals, it would be tantamount to surrendering the country's sovereignty to the colonialists and neocolonialists. The regime simply cannot, and will not, accept the premise that they are the villains and she is the saviour of Myanmar. Neither will the regime risk losing the elections by allowing them to be genuinely free and fair. Nor will it release political prisoners and allow unfettered media coverage. All these factors impinge on the security of the regime and nothing will be allowed to challenge its supremacy. The only hope the article holds out for a possible opening for better relations is if the new government is composed of different faces and the parliament produces a significant number of independent opposition figures including non-Burman ethnic leaders. And if the government adopts more open policies--such as the release of political prisoners and the introduction of economic reform--the process of rapprochement might inch forward. Yet as the author points out, this is extremely unlikely, given the SPDC's approach towards the elections. Does this then mean that the Obama administration's new Myanmar policy is destined to fail? …

Agricultural Protection and Electoral Systems: An Empirical Investigation

This paper examines the relationship between countries' electoral systems and their policies of support for the agricultural sector. In particular, we are interested in whether majoritarian systems, which would tend to favor specific geographic districts, are more likely to protect agriculture, than are proportional systems, which would tend to focus more on the well-being of the country as a whole. The broad theoretical framework is take from Grossman and Helpman (2005), who suggest a protectionist bias in majoritarian systems, reflecting a tendency for legislators to redistribute income to industries in their home districts. We find that countries with proportional systems in fact tend to have higher levels of support for agriculture. This result holds after controlling for a number of possible explanatory factors, including a country's resource structure, as well as historical factors which could affect its political system. It is also in contrast to our findings for non-agricultural products, for which countries with majoritarian systems tend to have higher barriers. We attribute this result to the fact that agriculture may be viewed as different from other sectors of the economy - an intrinsic element of a country's national sovereignty and security.

Risk governance for geological storage of CO2 under the Clean Development Mechanism

Managing local and global risks from the geological storage of CO2 under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) presents three main challenges. First, the CDM procedures must be adapted to the specifics of the technology. Second, storage must last far longer than the crediting period, leaving questions about the management of long-term risks. Third, management of local environmental, health and safety risks falls largely outside the CDM governance framework. CDM procedures could be adapted to successfully manage the short-term global risk of carbon dioxide re-entering the atmosphere during the CDM crediting period, but local environmental, health and safety risks and longterm global risk cannot be ensured under existing structures. To better manage these risks, the implications for the CDM are: (1) to provide guidance on site characterization requirements, and have an independent auditor verify that the proposed geological storage site has a high likelihood of safely containing the injected carbon dioxide; (2) to require that carbon capture and storage (CCS) project design documents specify post-crediting-period commitments; and (3) to support CCS specific capacity building. But because CDM governance is designed to strike a balance between respecting host country sovereignty and ensuring high-quality emission reduction credits, some limitations to risk management of geological storage under the CDM remain. These limitations should be weighed against the potential benefits of including CCS in the CDM.

Invisible semicolony: the postcolonial condition and royal national history in Thailand

The emergence of anticolonial and ‘independent’ nation-states following colonialism is frequently accompanied by a desire to forget the colonial past. In the case of semicolonial Siam, the ‘forgetting’ commences at the very point of encounter with the colonial itself. While residents of turn of the twentieth century Bangkok were aware of how extraterritoriality compromised the country's sovereignty, this has been written over by the history of enlightened Siamese monarchs, abetted by contemporary British officials. So successful has royalist history been that even its critics overlook the loss of territory to the gunboat diplomacy of the west as demonstrated in the Paknam crisis (1893) as a predatory colonial encounter, thus forgoing anticolonialism (and hence also antiroyalism) as basis of Thai nationhood. Instead, the wars with the Burmese in the precolonial period have been played up, with Thai monarchs portrayed as warriors and national saviours. The 1997 financial crisis occasioned a similar stock cultural response, only this time, the warrior monarchs were brought to life in the blockbuster movie Suriyothai (2001). The reification of the Thai monarchy is contingent on the continuing denial of the country's semicolonial past.

Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Marriage of convenience: Rockefeller international health and revolutionary Mexico, University of Rochester Press, 2006, pp. xi, 434, illus., £55.00, $95.00 (hardback 1-58046-222-7).

Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Marriage of convenience: Rockefeller international health and revolutionary Mexico, University of Rochester Press, 2006, pp. xi, 434, illus., £55.00, $95.00 (hardback 1-58046-222-7).

More Bumps on the Road to Global Sharing of H5N1 Samples

AVIAN INFLUENZA![Figure][1] Isolated. Indonesia has had the world's greatest number of H5N1 deaths, even while the country flip-flops on sharing flu samples with the World Health Organization. CREDIT: TRISNADI/AP PHOTO A battle between Indonesia and the World Health Organization (WHO) is escalating. Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, has claimed that WHO is refusing to return dozens of H5N1 influenza viruses isolated from Indonesian samples. WHO calls the claims baseless and says Indonesia can get back the viruses once it shows it can handle them safely. The clash promised to complicate what was already expected to be a difficult international meeting about pandemic preparedness, slated to start in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, after Science went to press. At issue are 56 specimens from human H5N1 victims that Indonesia has shared with WHO as part of the Global Influenza Surveillance Network over the past few years. As usual, the samples have gone to WHO's four Collaborating Centres in London, Atlanta, Tokyo, and Melbourne, where researchers isolate and study the virus. Their analysis helps WHO monitor virus evolution, drug resistance, and pandemic risk, as well as aiding vaccine development. Indonesia, by far the most heavily afflicted country with 113 human cases and 91 deaths, has protested the scheme; the country worries that even if it collaborates, it will not have access to vaccines if a pandemic occurs. So far in 2007, Indonesia has shared only two samples, says David Heymann, who heads WHO's pandemic influenza efforts. Heymann says that at Supari's request, on 31 October WHO sent Indonesia a list of the 56 specimens the country had submitted to the network prior to 2007. He says the four labs had isolated H5N1 virus from 40 of them. But according to a report in the Jakarta Post , Supari said at a press conference in Jakarta on 8 November that WHO refuses to send the samples back. “We keep asking [WHO] to return the samples because they belong to us. This is for the sake of our country's sovereignty,” the newspaper quoted Supari as saying. Health ministry officials could not be reached to confirm the report. Heymann claims Supari is trying to cast WHO in a bad light. “She has always said she doesn't trust WHO, and she's finding new reasons not to trust us,” he says. Masato Tashiro, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Tokyo, says he believes Indonesia did not retain part of the samples, as countries usually do, because it previously did not have the biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories recommended for handling dangerous pathogens. Indonesia had cooperated with WHO's flu-sharing network until early this year when it learned that an Australian company had developed a vaccine using an Indonesian H5N1 strain. Fearing that such a vaccine made outside the country would be out of reach financially, Indonesia started developing its own research and development capabilities while withholding specimens and demanding capacity-building assistance from the international community. Tashiro says that when the institutions requesting viruses can certify that their planned BSL-3 labs are up and running, getting viruses returned from Japan—and probably other countries—would be routine. Although Indonesia is the only country that has stopped sending samples, it is reportedly trying to persuade others to follow course. Widjaja Lukito, a physician at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta and a member of Indonesia's delegation to the Geneva meeting, says Indonesia would “clarify everything” in Geneva. Heymann and others say any interruption of the 55-year-old sharing system would create a huge risk for global health. [1]: pending:yes

From the land of hibiscus: Koreans in Hawai`i, 1903-1950

In 1903, 102 Koreans migrated to Hawai'i in search of wealth and fortune - the first in their country's history to live in the Western world. Thousands followed. Most of them, however, found only hardship while working as sugar plantation laborers. Soon after their departure, Korea was colonized by Japan, and overnight they became international orphans with no government to protect them. Setting aside their original goal of bettering their own lives, these Korean immigrants redirected their energies to restoring their country's sovereignty, turning Hawai'i into a crucially important base of Korean nationalism. From the Land of Hibiscus traces the story of Koreans in Hawai'i from their first arrival to the eve of Korea's liberation in 1945. Using newly uncovered evidence, it challenges previously held ideas on the social origins of immigrants. It also examines their political background, the role of Christian churches in immigration, the image of Koreans as depicted in the media, and, above all, nationalist activities. Different approaches to waging the nationalist struggle uncover the causes of feuds that often bitterly divided the Korean community. Finally, the book provides the first in-depth studies of the nationalist activities of Syngman Rhee, the Korean National Association, and the United Korea Committee.