High-level Politicians Research Articles

Working ‘off the record’: polio eradication and state immunity in Chad

The reappearance of polio in Chad generates anxieties about governance as well as public health. Since Chad was declared polio-free in 2003, at least 180 cases of paralytic polio have been linked to importations of wild poliovirus from Nigeria. In efforts to eradicate polio through house-to-house vaccination campaigns, international agencies have aggressively implicated political leaders, placing those authorities in a bind. On the one hand, governments are required to demonstrate compliance in the form of universal vaccination. On the other hand, the legitimacy of political leaders and of local authorities in particular depends upon their ability to show compassion for their populations and to be responsive to individual circumstances and concerns about the drops. This article looks at how the obligation of the African state to adopt global public health policy as its own becomes problematic when the goals and protocols of international agencies rely on the assumption that the state controls its population. Under pressure to render account to international agencies, state officials deploy high-level politicians to enforce vaccination mandates at critical moments, create administrative forms to record campaign progress that conceal difficulties in vaccinating children, and use statistics to portray the campaigns as success stories. Local authorities, who feel the bind most acutely, grant exceptions to the mandate of universal vaccination to certain subjects and work with local vaccinators and supervisors to keep cases of unvaccinated children ‘off the record’. These efforts allow the vaccination campaigns to be carried out without incident even as they work against the goal of polio eradication.

The Temelín-Judgement of the European Court of Justice

On 27 October 2009, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered its milestone decision in the so called EEZ case which deals with the operation of the Temelin nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. The nuclear power plant in Temelin has strongly strained the relationship between Austria and the Czech Republic throughout its history, involving not only local communities but also high level politicians, members of parliament and European Union institutions. For the outside world it is difficult to understand that antinuclear politics is part of the Austrian identity. Against the background of this tense relationship, the case was brought before the ECJ, whose judgement shall be analysed in this paper.

Comment on “Multi-level Governance and Global Climate Change in East Asia”

aepr_1152 108..109 As has been indicated in the title of Schreurs' (2010) paper, "multi-level governance" has become a popular notion to express the current status of climate change policy. Climate governance is observed across all levels, starting from multilateral, regional, national, and down to sub-national levels. One of the major reasons behind such comprehensiveness could be due to the problem's unique characteristics. Many other environmental prob- lems, such as local air pollution and ozone depletion, are caused by pollutants that are emitted from a limited number of point sources. For other types of environmental issues such as the loss of species or of resources, it is crucial to deal with people who are legally or illegally directly involved in the depletion. In either case, policies are directed at those who have stakes in the problem, and the number of the stakeholders could be quite small. On the other hand, climate change involves almost all the people and all types of indus- tries around the globe. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are emitted while people light up and heat their houses and drive their cars. Emissions also come from deforestation and other land-use changes. Each individual could be designated as a "stake- holder of climate change." The climate change problem requires a global solution because it involves everybody around the globe. The involvement of all nations is a strength of the United Nations (UN) system. Agreements achieved under the UN arena affect all nations simultaneously. It is also one of the most reliable and authoritative places to discuss global issues. Nevertheless, the weakness of involving all national governments is that agreements are likely to be the least common denominator of countries' positions. Assuming that countries' positions are more or less the least common denominator of the assertions of stakeholders at domestic levels, the consequence could be international agreements that are far from solving the problem. A variety of channels are established to complement the limitations of the UN system. Even at the multilateral level, non-UN processes such as the G8 and Major Economies Forum (initially the Major Economies Meeting led by the US government), have been taking important roles in facilitating dialogue among high-level politicians and govern- ment officials over the past few years. Furthermore, numerous cooperative agreements are concluded on a bilateral basis. Actions to combat climate change are observed at the local level, not only in East Asia, but also in many other countries. In those countries, it is actually movements of local

The American system: US foreign and domestic politics since the Second World War

Historians, like politicians, need to find a language and frame of reference to connect with their audience or readership. In the current US presidential campaign the candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, are offering the voters a bridge between the troubled past and a more hopeful future. The works under consideration in this review article employ a similar method. All the authors share the widely held view of the broad shape of US foreign relations since the Second World War, in particular the ideological struggle with the Soviet Union known as the Cold War followed by the more amorphous attempt to maintain American primacy, which has characterized the last two decades. Throughout this longer period the processes and goals of US foreign policy have been controversial: there has not, of course, been complete consensus. One topic which was and remains debated is the role and value of individuals, either high-level politicians or senior diplomats, in the conduct of foreign policy. Another area of debate, often fierce argument, is the impact of domestic forces upon policy-making. In the present case the leading example is provided by the amalgam of influences which determine US policy towards that nexus of competing interests often optimistically short-handed as the Arab–Israeli peace process. One link between these two topics is the role of the US in multilateral bodies; and American actions within the United Nations and towards other international organizations are also examined. These and other related issues are contextualized geographically through an examination of American policies in the Greater Middle East, in particular the predominantly Muslim states which stretch eastwards from Egypt to India. While not providing a partisan political programme for the incoming president to follow, the collective message of these texts offers guidelines, even injunctions for the future conduct of US foreign policy.

Quebec and Latin America Reaffirm Priorities

Differing Views of Quebec and Latin America In April 2001, Summit of Americas was held in Quebec City and was attended by representatives, high-level politicians, and civil servants of United States, Canada, and all nations of Latin America save Cuba. The object of this meeting was to continue discussing principal aspects of a Free Trade Agreement for Americas, to be negotiated and concluded by thirty-four countries on Latin American continent before year 2005. The fact that province of Quebec was meeting place for this summit meeting was not a random choice, since Latin America has been a point of political, social, cultural, and economic reference at different levels of Quebec society for more than seventy years. Added to this line of reasoning is fact that, when building its identity imagery, Latin America has always been a referential concept for Quebec (Gay 1983; Saragossi 1996). Most analyses of character and history of relations between province of Quebec and countries of Latin America affirm that such interest has appeared even more clearly since Quiet Revolution. In fact, many principles of Quebec's international policy were born during this period and it is logical, therefore, that Latin America should hold an important place within this vision (Mace 1989,1993; Therien, Belanger, Gosselin 1994; Donneur 1994; Balthazar 1993). But, as I will show here, origins of this relationship go back to middle of nineteenth century when, in 1867, four of Britain's North American colonies--Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island--disputed in Quebec City the possibilities offered by Mexican market as a commercial alternative to expansionism of United States' markets (Gutierrez-Haces 1997). Even so, Quebec's presence in Latin America cannot be characterized as a continuous one, nor can it be said that its presence has touched most of countries on American continent, much less can it be affirmed that it has always manifested same impetus, or that it has always carried same weight. This is explained when we take into consideration traits characterizing its own history, as well as degree of Quebec's political and economic development during its transit within confederation of Canada. The purpose of this paper is to draw up an analysis and at same time a re-reading--from point of view of a Latin-American intellectual--of significance of impact Latin America has had on Quebec in four aspects considered as key to developing its international policy. -- The right justifying Quebec's claim as a province for extending its internal sphere of competence to Latin America. -- The inclination shown in Quebec, both individually and as a society, to consider Latin America, Latin Americans, and everything Latin American as a real space and image, in which it can test its ideals and values, and reaffirm its identity. -- The way Latin America has inspired political and social discussion in Quebec on oppression and its exclusion. -- The possibility Latin America offers Quebec to test its discussion of Quebec as a modem and more aggressive society economically than rest of Canada. Because other authors in this same issue are analyzing Quebec's international policies and its relations with United States, Europe, and Asia, my focus here is limited to examining what has occurred in Latin America. Paradoxically, large bibliography of Canadian and Quebec authors proved to be greater than that existing in Latin America, when counting papers devoted to this type of analysis (Mace and Goulet 1996). In fact, intellectual interest aroused by Quebec in Latin American circles has been limited mainly to literary and cultural aspects, which for decades have been widely supported, thanks to Quebec's Francophone-linked policy. …

The non-timber forest policy process in Nepal: actors, objectives and power

The importance of commercial non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to the livelihood strategies of rural collectors in Nepal is increasingly recognised. This paper provides suggestions for improving rural collectors’ possibilities for income generation. The formation and implementation of NTFP policies in Nepal is examined by investigating the area of interactions between policy formation, choice and implementation of forest policy tools within the ‘new political economy’ approach, and suggestions are subsequently evaluated within the found practical political context. The study is based on approximately 400 interviews carried out with some 1000 stakeholders in the period 1992–1998. Following a qualitative research strategy hypotheses are formulated on the basis of patterns emerging from the data collected. The main stakeholders in NTFP collection and trade are identified to be: rural collectors and traders; local level politicians; lower level government staff; high level politicians; conservation-oriented institutions; and development oriented institutions. The objectives and influence of these stakeholders on the non-timber sector are identified and proposals for change are discussed in the light of distribution of objectives and power. It is hypothesised that NTFP policy formation, implementation and the field reality are weakly connected: implemented policy tools do not correspond to the aims of formulated policies, and field reality is not regulated in the envisioned direction by policy tools. This situation is explained by the fact that stakeholders at different levels of the policy hierarchy can influence their own level only. It is further hypothesised that a number of changes in forest legislation and regulations can have immediate and powerful effects on rural livelihoods of collectors. Taking into account the present political situation such changes may not be introduced from within the decision making process and, therefore, the view is put forward that pressure from outside the forestry sector is needed to bring about significant changes in favour of rural collectors.

Local agenda 21 in practice - a Swedish example

Local agenda 21 in practice - a Swedish example