Domestic Policy Goals Research Articles

The Islamic State and the independence referendum: The role of foreign policy in maintaining the de facto Kurdish entity in Iraq

AbstractThe onslaught of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (hereafter ISIS) on the Kurdish de facto entity in Iraq in 2014 and the independence referendum in 2017 constituted two important episodes that impacted on the foreign policy of the Kurdish entity in multiple ways. This article analyzes and describes the foreign policies of the entity during and after these two episodes until the end of 2022. It attempts to answer the following two questions: How did the ISIS offensive briefly change the priorities of the Kurdish entity's leadership in terms of its foreign policy goals? Secondly, how did the independence referendum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the subsequent events shape the foreign policy priorities of the Kurdish entity in Iraq? Through conducting interviews with high‐level Kurdish politicians and using recently published secondary source materials, this article argues that foreign policy and paradiplomacy played vital roles in the preservation of the KRI during these two very tough periods and that the Kurdish entity had to alter its domestic policy goals to achieve its foreign policy aims and ensure the survival of the Kurdish facto entity in Iraq.

The Political Crisis in France 2022-2023: International Chaos of Burning Public Facility

This research aims to know the chaos phenomenon on Macron’s foreign policy agenda will not be affected by the protests. He is continuing with a planned trip to China, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in the beginning of April. If his agenda is any indication, he will remain extremely involved in foreign policy in the weeks to come. France’s current instability might pave the way for populist and nationalist parties’ voting shares to grow further. This research used field observation and direct data. It is a euphemism to write that the far-right and the far-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) have indicated that they wouldn’t support staunch French support for Ukraine. Although NUPES (a wide-ranging coalition of left-wing parties) shares major domestic policy goals, the parties diverge on foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Russia and Ukraine. Even if parliament plays a marginal role in foreign policy decision making in France, a new National Assembly could also decide to become more vocal and more vehemently question Paris’ current military, financial, humanitarian, and material support to Ukraine. A major issue in Europe right now is ensuring that European and trans-Atlantic unity on support to Ukraine is not only maintained but reinforced. If France were to weaken its support, that would have very serious consequences for internal European Union cohesion and the future of European security.

Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism

Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism

With no deterrent effect, the WTO dispute settlement crisis leaves US exporters exposed, especially US agriculture

The absence of a functioning Appellate Body at the World Trade Organization (WTO) leaves the dispute settlement mechanism weakened, and countries may be more likely to pursue their domestic policy goals in ways that restrict trade. Industries with relatively large export exposure like US agriculture will be particularly vulnerable in this new chaotic regime. The deterrent effect is more important than you think An integral part of the world trading system has been the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism, which enables the WTO to enforce the rules the Members signed up for. Knowing you could get sued in the WTO for not following the rules tends to deter bad behavior. Citing need for reform, however, the US has blocked appointments to the body responsible for reviewing appeals and this has left the enforcement mechanism ineffective. Countries can still bring cases but there is no Appellate Body so the losing party can indefinitely delay the process by appealing the panel decision into a void, leaving the issue unsettled. The WTO is inherently a member driven organization and the dispute settlement function can be seen as a way for members to “check” each other on following the rules. When Members designed the Dispute Settlement Understanding, they were saying, “we commit to following the rules that we made for ourselves and if we don’t follow them, then we subject ourselves to retaliation.” Disputes inevitably arise from time to time, so having a place to sort things out before a trade war ensues is essential. The most important function of the dispute settlement mechanism might just be the deterrent effect—that is, policymakers and legislators are deterred from designing laws and policies that would violate the WTO rules. The deterrent effect has been hard to measure. Until now.

Moving In and Out of the Shadow of European Case Law: the Dynamics of Public Procurement in the Post‐Post‐Rüffert Era

AbstractJudicial Europeanization, particularly European case law and the Rüffert ruling, has created significant legal uncertainty in the use of labour clauses in public procurement, which may constrain national policymakers. However, national actors find ways to ‘push back’ against Europeanization in order to prioritize domestic policy goals. By analysing the long‐term political dynamic surrounding public procurement in Denmark, Germany and the UK since the implementation of the revised 2014 public procurement directive, we show how both national actors, and actors at subnational level, where much public procurement actually takes place, contest the Europeanization of public policies. Variation in the willingness and ability of actors to leverage the legal uncertainty to adopt labour clauses results in diverging policy trajectories, but also creates a room for policy innovation. This alters the ultimate outcome of the European regulatory agenda and results in a continued divergence of public policies across member states.

International Posturing amidst Domestic Neglect: India's Agricultural Policy Examined

AbstractIndia has actively tried to shape the WTO agricultural negotiations by submitting detailed proposals, building coalitions, and even taking hard stands (veto) at critical junctures. However, this aggressive posturing presents a sharp contrast with India's domestic agricultural space, where the situation highlights policy neglect, manifesting in agrarian distress and farmer suicides. This paper analyzes contradictions between India's internationally espoused negotiating positions and its domestic policy goals. It argues that India's core focus has been to preserve status quo in the domestic food markets, driven by the political need to provide food-based consumption subsidies and manage an assured price and supply protection to its vulnerable consumers. As a result, India's interests are divergent from most of its developing country coalition partners in the G-20 as well as the G-33 groups. Our discussion has significant implications for both the domestic policy, as well as the sustainability of India's strategy in global agricultural trade negotiations.

Comment on “Political Economy of Agricultural Reform in Japan under Abe's Administration”

Comment on “Political Economy of Agricultural Reform in Japan under Abe's Administration”

How the Trump Administration's Use of Trade Sanctions Can Harm the States

The administration of President Donald J. Trump has promised to aggressively impose trade sanctions in the form of higher tariffs on imports from nations that engage in unfair trade practices against the United States. Trump argues that increased tariffs will help the states that have suffered losses from international trade and was able to propel himself to victory in the 2016 presidential election based at least in part on these claims. However, tariffs are a blunt instrument and ill-suited to achieve domestic policy goals. Imposing higher tariffs on imports can actually harm the states because (1) U.S. trading partners might impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports; (2) states may rely on imports as raw materials for use in manufacturing exports; and (3) jobs lost to overseas locations will not return to the United States and more job losses may result. As the states cannot evade the harmful effects of federal trade sanctions on their own, there is the need for a federal-state consultative mechanism through which the states can provide input to the federal government. With input from the states, the federal government can adjust federal policies to mitigate the unpredictable harms that the states may suffer as a result of those policies.

What might have been and could still be: the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s potential to encourage an open internet and digital rights

ABSTRACTHerein I asses the implications for the Internet, digital rights, and digital trade of US abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. I focus on how the agreement attempts to regulate issues at the intersection of cross-border information flows and human rights. I focus on four chapters of the TPP. I show that these chapters may help internet users and policy-makers advance internet openness and make it harder for officials to restrict information flows but only in those cases where doing so would have a trade impact. TPP also contains transparency requirements that could bring much needed sunshine, due process, and increased political participation to trade (and internet related) policy-making in TPP countries such as Malaysia.However, TPP’s ability to limit censorship and filtering is limited. First, not all information flows are cross-border and hence subject to trade rules. Second, these agreements provide clear exceptions that allow governments to restrict information flows when they deem necessary to achieve important domestic policy goals. Third, many internet activists do not take kindly to the idea that trade agreements should become the main venue to regulate cross-border information flows.Meanwhile, TPP proponents have not developed compelling arguments as to how these agreements will benefit internet users and enhance human welfare. Until they do, internet users are unlikely to support efforts to regulate the global internet with trade agreements such as TPP.

“Reverse Permissibility” in the Renewable Energy Sector: Going Beyond the US-India Solar Cells Dispute

AbstractRecent years have witnessed a rise in conflict between WTO members over the use of state subsidies designed to promote the renewable energy sector. Government subsidies are seen by domestic polic-ymakers as a key catalyst in attracting foreign investment, building capacity, and meeting other domestic policy goals. However, subsidies and other state incentivization programmes often carry trade-distorting effects. This paper examines the current state of WTO law and jurisprudence on subsidies extended to achieve environmental goals, in particular the Canada-Renewable Energy/Feed-in Tariff case and the more recent India-Solar Cells case which higlights the localization problem in the renewable energy sector. The case outcome shows that the WTO continues to maintain the status quo by prioritizing free trade over environmental considerations. The paper also discusses the possibility of reform in the GATT/WTO framework for promotion of renewable energy initiatives while maintaining the integrity of the system.

Russia as a nationalizing state: Rejecting the western liberal order

Russia’s government has become increasingly nationalistic, defensive, and vocal in rejecting elements of the Western liberal order. The Kremlin has attempted to mobilize and channel Russian nationalism into an antiliberal discourse to achieve selected foreign and domestic policy goals, but contending nationalisms complicate the government’s ability to control and direct these potent forces. This article draws on official documents, presidential speeches, and recent Russian political writings to assess how Russia’s governing elite has adopted and utilized a specific Eurasianist form of Russian nationalism to promote an aggressive foreign policy while marginalizing domestic opposition. Protecting Russian compatriots abroad, restoring historic lost territories, and confronting the Western world strengthen Putin’s popularity among the Russian people and legitimize his hold on power, while alienating non-Russian minorities and isolating Russia internationally.

Technical Regulations to Prevent Deceptive Practices: Can WTO Members Protect Consumers from [un] Fair-Trade Coffee and [Less-Than] Free-Range Chicken?

International trade law is built around the cornerstone obligation of maintaining equal competitive opportunities for imported products. WTO dispute settlement has defined the lines for this obligation as it regards discrimination through 'tangible' product attributes. Yet as consumer preferences expand to include 'intangible' product attributes, such as 'free-range' chicken, 'sustainably' produced furniture, 'fair trade' coffee or even 'dolphin safe' tuna, the stage is set for a renewed debate over how far a WTO Member can regulate in pursuit of domestic policy goals. This article examines recent WTO jurisprudence on the use of technical regulations, and attempts to construct a generally applicable doctrine governing the prevention of deceptive practices through regulating intangible product claims. Using traditional methods of treaty interpretation, in light of economic efficiency and comparative legal analysis, it also identifies potential inconsistencies in the application of the TBT Agreement. Finally, this article offers considerations for future WTO tribunals when deciding how to more effectively balance the right to regulate intangible product attributes for the prevention of deceptive practices with the obligations and goals expressed by the TBT Agreement.

The GATS: a legal perspective on crossroads of conflicting interests

AbstractThe GATS was concluded among countries with conflicting interests. Although all its parties were interested in this agreement as an instrument for the enhancement of global trade in services, due balance between this interest and other interests, such as the special status of developing countries and of the sovereign right of Members for domestic regulation, formed a pre-condition for countries' adherence to it. Consequently, these interests were explicitly recognized in the agreement. Nevertheless, analyzing two recent GATS/GATT cases, US–Gambling and China–Publications and AV Products, the article suggests that the WTO adjudicating bodies might be keener to legally assist a complaining developing Member than respondents which are developing Members. It further suggests that in these cases the interests of international trade liberalization seem to prevail over domestic policy goals. The article further analyzes the current and future possible adverse implications of this approach on GATS development as the only multilateral instrument for the enhancement of international trade in services.

Italian politics and the European Union: A tale of two research designs

Drawing on the conceptual framework of Europeanisation, we trace the influence of the European Union (EU) on Italian politics by combining top-down analysis (that is, how Italy has adapted to pressure coming from Brussels) with a bottom-up examination of how Italian policy makers have encountered the EU in their attempts to pursue domestic policy goals. We find that the foreign policy orientation and policy preferences of the governing coalition determine the posture, style and choice of institutional venues. Taken together, bottom-up and top-down assessments of Europeanisation suggest that, during the second Berlusconi government, the influence of the EU in Italian politics was limited – although not trivial. When the Berlusconi government (2001–06) faced high pressure, it tried to reduce it at source rather than adapting to EU policies. By contrast, the centre-left governments (1996–2001) used pressure as a lever for policy change, while the governments of the 1980s responded to pressure by delaying implementation.

Impacts of alternative agricultural income support schemes on multiple policy goals

This paper analyses and classifies four agricultural income support programmes (an output subsidy, a land subsidy, and a decoupled payment with and without mandatory production) according to their ability to achieve three domestic policy goals (income support, maintenance of a maximum number of farmers and reduction of negative externalities arising from non-land input use) as well as according to their effects on trade. The results show that no programme uniformly dominates others. They also show the key importance for the ordering of policy impacts of two parameters, the elasticity of output supply with respect to land used, and the derived demand elasticity of land with respect to output. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

THEECONOMICS OF“WHEN” FLEXIBILITY IN THEDESIGN OFGREENHOUSEGASABATEMENTPOLICIES

▪ Abstract This paper focuses on the desirability, from an economic perspective, of setting fixed and relatively short-term targets and timetables, such as those contained in the Kyoto Protocol, as a means of achieving longer-term climate change mitigation goals. The paper argues that whatever long-term policy goals are adopted, greater flexibility lowers implementation costs. Lower implementation costs, in turn, increases the likelihood that the policies will actually be followed and the goals achieved. Importantly, the Kyoto Protocol incorporates key elements of both “what” and “where” flexibility. That is, the “Kyoto basket” includes all six of the major greenhouse gases plus sinks, and the Protocol incorporates several mechanisms that allow emission reductions to take place at the least-cost geographic location, regardless of nation-state boundaries. The Protocol also provides substantial “how” flexibility in the sense that countries can use a variety of means to achieve domestic policy goals. However, the Protocol does not allow emission reductions to take place at a point in time when they can be achieved at lowest cost as long as they are consistent with the long-term environmental goals (“when” flexibility). Additionally, it does not allow the use of efficient price-based policy instruments to define targets and, thereby, balance environmental goals and compliance costs (which could be thought of as a broader version of “when” flexibility). Instead, the Protocol relies exclusively on strict, short term quantity targets. The relative inflexibility of the Protocol with respect to the timing of reductions and definitions of the targets may derive, in part, from a misplaced analogy between the global warming issue and the highly successful effort to phase out CFCs under the Montreal Protocol. The lack of when flexibility may be a key barrier to achieving the broader goals of the Kyoto Protocol, particularly if where flexibility is constrained in the implementation process.

"Hacks" and "Long Hairs": The Question of a DNC Research Division, 1948-1952

Since the American Political Science Association's 1950 report on the American two-party system, political scientists have concentrated on the conditions, behavior, functions, and objectives of national party organizations. Besides examining organizational and functional changes, political scientists have also explored the different styles o f and motives for participation in party organizations by different types o f party activists, especially the differences between reformers and regulars. This study explains a prolonged conflict over the creation o f a permanent research division for the Democratic National Committee headquarters during the Truman administration. It analyzes the different perspectives and roles o f "hacks,” i.e., party regulars, and "long hairs," i.e., the researchers and their White House allies, during this struggle. The framework o f this case study and the different political actors examined may be used to analyze similar conflicts over organizational changes in party structures during other presidencies. This article concludes that the current research and publicity activities o f the DNC under chairman David Wilhelm will seek to alleviate differences between party regulars and issue activists as it tries to identify the Clinton administration's more centrist domestic policy goals with the Democratic party.

The synchronization of business cycles across the European Community

The recent adoption of the Delors Report brings into question the extent of the EC integration and the costs to individual countries of continued integration. In this paper we address this question by comparing EC countries to non-EC countries, specifically comparing the extent to which domestic policies are coordinated. We find a strong coordination between EC countries as compared to non-EC countries. However, Italy shows up as a persistent outlier in the EC, requiring a reformulation of domestic policy goals if continued integration is desired.

Amazon conservation in the age of development: the limits of providence

The tropical rain forest of the Brazilian Amazon has become one of the familiar modern metaphors for wanton destruction. This study addresses this crisis. It argues that in the last two decades those who forged and applied conservation programmes in Brazil misunderstood a basic component of development politics. In his view, top government officials supported conservation more to advance immediate foreign and domestic policy goals and less because of the benefits conservation promissed. Modern conservation theorists assume that conservation programmes are most likely to succeed if they fit into broader national development programmes. Foresta advocates the opposite: leave the Earth's remaining natural areas outside the pale of modern development planning, he urges, for a greater chance of success in the long run. Though focused on conservation efforts for Amazonia, his analysis applies to developing nations throughout the world. Conservation practitioners and administrators can read this work as a guide to the pitfalls of conservation policy-making in the Third World, others as a call for a new approach to preserving the world's biological resource.

Marxism & Militarism

Professor Payne reports here the finding that Marxist states tend to maintain significantly higher levels of military capability than do the non-Marxist states. This tendency on their part, he argues, is not to be understood as a calculated response to specific foreign and domestic policy goals; it is implicit in their ideology and in the totalitarian nature of their regimes. He goes on to suggest that this tendency should be kept in mind while developing American policy toward arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and toward Marxist attempts to take control of governments in the third world.