International Policy Issues Research Articles

Postface: fragmentation, failing trust and enduring tensions over what counts as climate finance

The Paris Agreement commits nations in Article 2(1) to “Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.” However there is an absence of internationally agreed accounting rules that would permit overall assessments of progress to this goal and any meaningful comparisons of performance between countries. This is true also for the quantitative Copenhagen/Cancun promise by developed nations to jointly mobilize US$100 billion by 2020. Our goal is to provoke discussion about the depth of the problems this lack of a functional definition and accounting system have created and perpetuated. We do so by describing the fragmented system of national reporting of climate finance and how the OECD’s Rio Marker system is serving neither contributors nor recipients. More than a trust issue between developed and developing countries, we argue that the lack of modalities to account for climate finance also considerably impedes the effective functioning of the bottom-up approach that now prevails under the UNFCCC. The deadline to propose "modalities of accounting climate finance" by 2018 is a crucial window in which to address this chronic issue in international climate policy.

International Politics of Climate Change: A Study of Issues and Challenges

The problem of Climate Change has become an enormous political and policy issue, at the same time it is also a conceptual and deliberative challenge. Global temperature is increasing day by day because of human caused greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, and this warming is affecting both nature and human wellbeing. There is an urgent need to address the problem of climate change with all its related issues. While international environmental law has achieved notable successes and International legal programs to deal with climate change are already well underway. Indian climate politics continues to be focused on climate change as a foreign policy concern, and centred on climate negotiations; in a manner that is consistent with India’s development needs and foreign policy concerns. The present paper explores the international climate change politics; negotiation process and domestic policy. It also investigates the issues of fairness and equity in the international climate change law and policy.

Migrants as victims - Victimological perspectives of human smuggling and human trafficking

The ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe touches on fundamental issues of international law, criminal policy, criminology – and victimology. Public perception of and opinions on human trafficking, human smuggling and the situation of migrants in general is in a state of flux; perceptions and opinions are heavily influenced by media depictions and highly dependent on the general political climate of a society. Political, public and even academic debates are often polarizing events that are characterized by stereotyical arguments. In the course of such debates, distinct phenomena such as trafficking (THB) and smuggling of humans are often mixed to the point that differences between the two become increasingly blurred.

Book review: S Jayakumar, Tommy Koh, Robert Beckman and Hao Duy Phan, Transboundary Pollution: Evolving Issues of International Law and Policy (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2015) 456 pp

Book review: S Jayakumar, Tommy Koh, Robert Beckman and Hao Duy Phan, Transboundary Pollution: Evolving Issues of International Law and Policy (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2015) 456 pp

Costruire il dominio coloniale. La conquista dell'Africa orientale tedesca e la politica della cittadinanza

In the colonial context, the legal institution of citizenship often assumed a bio-political meaning; in this way ethnic and racial differences became legal categories. A look at the citizenship policy in German East Africa confirms this and offers a new perspective on the relationships between the colonized and the colonizers. This article concentrates on the occupation and establishment of German rule in East Africa at the turn of the 20th century, a period marked by a crisis caused by the new regime's impact on the local population. On the one hand, colonial rule quickly sought to fragment the local society and assign its different parts a broad multiplicity of juridical statuses, seeking to divide the colonizers from the colonized on a racial basis; on the other hand, this operation also created margins of negotiation for sectors of colonial society that hoped to position themselves in this new political context. The article highlights the necessity of placing the issue of colonial citizenship in a broad postcolonial interpretative framework that takes into consideration the local actors and does so by joining together issues of (internal) colonial and international policy and those of economic interests and cultural dimensions.

Some International Policy Issues for China

In this paper we provide a simple model of an emerging market like China. We attempt to capture two characteristics of an emerging market: The simultaneous presence of market failures and government failures. In this model, we study the national welfare properties of four types of “governance” or “institutions”: A Benevolent Dictator, Extreme Economic Liberalism, Extreme Economic Nationalism and Factional Fighting with groups pressuring the government. We also discuss a case of the Realistic Dictator, who may switch from adopting liberal policies to nationalistic policies as the domestic market gets larger.

Financing Productivity- and Innovation-Led Growth in Developing Asia: International Lessons and Policy Issues

Growth in developing Asia will need to rely more on improvements in productivity growth and less on capital deepening. Although there is no single reform path to spur productivity growth, financial system deepening is central to a more efficient allocation of capital across sectors and can facilitate innovation and technology transfer. But malfunctioning financial systems can also result in the misallocation of resources, making it important that policymakers focus less on increasing the size of the financial sector and more on improving its intermediation function. The paper discusses the general policy priorities for further financial development in Asia based on financial sector realities in the region and the level of country income. Steps to mobilize Asia’s ample private savings for long-term financing, especially to tackle the region’s infrastructure deficit and improve access to financing for small and medium enterprises, can help raise productivity. Further, as many countries in Asia shift from a development model based on technology absorption to one that promotes innovation, specialized finance and investors can play a critical role in allowing innovative firms to conduct research, adopt technologies necessary for inventions, and ultimately commercialize innovations.

Think Tanks, Research Influence and Public Policy in India

Think tanks have been considered the educated voice on behalf of citizens in practices of government. They are key agencies for discussion on contemporary issues of national and international policy making. Think tanks as powerful agents in the policy making process, sometimes are considered institutions of lobbying. This article is an outcome of focused group (FG) discussions conducted at four locations in India to comprehend the presence and position of think tanks, their research authority and their role and influence in the public policy making process as a stakeholder. The FG discussions with 80 experts captured national perspective on think tanks. The findings of the study suggest that institutional think tanks in India are relatively new phenomena in comparison to the west. In this backdrop, the article analyzes issues of definition and ideology, credibility in research, governance, funding and interaction on policy.

Mapping international forest-related issues and main actors' positions in Bangladesh

SUMMARY The international forest regime complex (IFRC) comprises a wide range of international policies, institutions and actors. The study of the influence of individual elements of the IFRC at a domestic level has become significant in forest governance processes. This paper identifies the most relevant international forest-related policy issues currently discussed in Bangladeshi forest politics and analyses the active actors and their positions on the issues identified. As an empirical method, the content analyses of media and of expert sources were employed and a theorybased actor typology was adopted. The analysis detects issues that encompass various policy domains e.g., REDD+ elements of UNFCCC, biodiversity elements of CBD, sustainable forest management, community based forest management and good governance. Our results suggest that future empirical research on the implementation of the IFRC in Bangladesh, especially analysing the role of powerful actors (e.g., the Ministry of Environment and Fore...

Investment Choice in Defined-Contribution Pension Schemes: International Experience and Policy Issues

Populations around the world are becoming older and countries are increasingly adopting defined contribution (DC) pension schemes to ensure adequate and sustainable retirement incomes for people. Such schemes typically give people the ability to exert choice in a series of key decisions in the administration of their own retirement wealth. One of such decisions is how to allocate retirement assets across different investment options. This paper reviews how investment choice in DC pension schemes is regulated across different countries and also reviews actual country experiences in terms of individual active choice. The discussion of policy implications is supported by the current knowledge in the literature on behavioral economics and finance. How much freedom workers should have over the choice of a pension provider and the choice of investment portfolio is a key economic and policy question because academic literature shows that people’s behavior is often characterized by naive decisions, inertia and switching and searching costs. What the evidence tells us, in general, is that the proportion of people that actively choose how to invest their pension contributions is low. People’s money is often invested in default investment funds. Therefore, policy intervention is usually desirable, particularly in the design of an optimal default policy. Our discussion suggests that an optimal regulation approach would move the basis of competition from short-term returns to long-term returns. One strategy is to set performance objectives for pension funds for outperforming a long-term benchmark fund (or funds) regulated by the government. Such funds could operate with life-cycle principles.

Governing Climate Change: A Case for Europe

type="graphical" xml:id="gpol12155-abs-0002"> The European Union needs to close ranks in order to stand its ground in our globalised world.

“The Anti-Poverty Hoax”: Development, pacification, and the making of community in the global 1960s

This essay provides an alternative history of U.S. community development by establishing a global context for such policies. It demonstrates that the emergence of poverty as a domestic and international public policy issue in the 1960s was closely linked to anxieties about racialized violence in American cities and wars of insurgency in the global South. In doing so, it traces how programs of pacification, both at home and abroad, sought to deal with delinquent youth, to marry policing to economic development, and to grapple with poverty and insecurity. Such a global view provides new insights into American-style community development, specifically how a double system of pacification was an integral part of this approach to urban policy. By focusing on an important precursor to the War on Poverty, the Ford Foundation’s Gray Areas program, the essay also highlights how the problem of poverty came to be territorialized not only in the city but specifically in a unit understood as community. However, “community” was a space of contestation. Community action was rapidly transformed into programs of community development, especially those animated by the ethos of self-help. But, in cities like Oakland, the first of the Gray Areas cities, and described as a “racial tinderbox,” the bureaucracy of poverty became the platform for radical visions and practices of self-determination, notably by the Black Panther Party. Understood in this way, community is a key site for the analysis of liberal government. In particular, urban policy mandates such as community development and community participation reveal the enduring contradictions between ideologies of self-help and struggles for self-determination.

How California Institute for Regenerative Medicine research programs support science and regulatory policy.

The authors discuss the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's focus on state, national, and international regulatory policy issues impacting basic research and translational medicine.

Countriess Safety and Competitiveness, and the Estimation of Current Account Misalignments

Current account imbalances and their sustainability are among the most debated international policy issues. Through the recently designed External Balance Assessment methodology (EBA), the IMF estimates the impact of several countries’ fundamentals and policies on their current account balance, calculates misalignments in their current account position and indicates policy recommendations which, if implemented, should contribute to reducing these imbalances.In this paper, we explore some extensions to the EBA, following two courses. First, we distinguish in current account regressions between countries that are considered safe investment destinations and non-safe economies. Since this distinction is likely to acquire special relevance in periods of global turmoil, we also distinguish between periods of global stress and tranquil times. Second, we embed in EBA regressions variables that drive countries’ external competitiveness.Results show that current account dynamics may be affected by competitiveness factors and differ significantly between safe and non-safe economies, with such differences becoming particularly relevant in turbulent times. These findings suggest that EBA regressions may be overlooking the influence of countries’ safety and competitiveness on external balances. Our alternative misalignment estimations show larger imbalances than those calculated with the EBA for some Asian economies and smaller imbalances for some high-surplus EU countries.

Enhanced Cooperation in Governance

The concept of enhanced cooperation in Internet governance arose with the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. In the years since the Tunis Agenda was written, “enhanced cooperation” has remained subject to differing interpretations. To assist with ongoing discussions on how to further implement enhanced cooperation in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet, this paper presents an overview of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) documents and provides of description of a selection of activities in the Internet governance space where governments work with other stakeholders on issues related to international public policy. The selection of activities described in this paper demonstrate that enhanced cooperation is a viable process for considering and arriving at policy in ways that are more likely to be viewed as legitimate by all stakeholders. The alternative — limiting participation to a subset of stakeholders — may result in less robust public policy that fails to be viewed as legitimate by those left out of the process.

Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change: Gender Issues in International Law and Policy

Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change: Gender Issues in International Law and Policy

Identifying the main actors and their positions on international forest policy issues in Argentina

Resumen en: Since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, forest management and conservation have become important issues in international forest- related politics and poli...

The Federal Reserve in a Globalized World Economy

The Federal Reserve in a Globalized World Economy

US Perspectives on the EU Medical Device Approval System, and Lessons Learned from the United States

The literature on the regulation of drugs at the FDA and the European Union is substantial, yet little research has provided comparative analyses and robust empirical data on the regulation of medical devices in the United States and the European Union. As medical and health markets become increasingly globalized, and the U.S. and the EU compete for leadership and recognition, salient domestic regulatory issues are becoming increasingly international and transnational policy issues. Building on Carpenter's (2010) work on drug regulation at the FDA, but taking a slightly narrower yet at the same time a broader approach by drawing on interdisciplinary studies instead of limiting ourselves to only the Political Science literature, this comparison focuses on key aspects of risk regulation and governance of medical devices in the U.S. and the EU, and shows how and why individual and organizational learning is imperative in each case.

Review of the Regulatory and Policy Frameworks of the Nigerian Water Sector and International Legal Response for Sustainable Management and Protection of Water Resources

The law and science relating to water is vast. This is perhaps unsurprising given that water is critical to life and waters cover over 70% of the earth’s surface. Fresh water accounts for only 2.7% of the earth’s water and a large proportion of this limited quantity is frozen in glacial ice caps at the two poles and on high mountains. At the same time the demand for water has risen with increasing human population and economic activity. Many water-stressed areas have been forced to turn to their groundwater reserves, which frequently are pumped faster than they can be replenished. In addition to pressure on water resources from economic development and changes in social consumption patterns, water supply increasingly is constrained by land use changes and contamination from human settlements, industry and agriculture. Water law usually has the objective of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical and biological integrity of inland and marine waters. It may regulate the discharge of pollutants, activities affecting wetlands, accidental spills, and the use and disposal of wastes. Most enforcement agencies are given powers to assess administrative penalties, issue orders and initiate civil judicial actions. The legal treatment of pollution also is complicated by differences between identifiable “point” sources and “diffuse” sources of pollution. The latter category includes emissions that individually or separately are responsible for possible insignificant amounts of pollution, such as small, often continuous discharges of wastes and utilization of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture. Laws and regulations typically require that any discharges into water require a permit and impose strict liability on those who make discharges without or in violation of the conditions of a permit. Knowledge or intent is frequently irrelevant. Fresh water and marine environments are undeniably interlinked, but the legal regimes applicable to them differ widely in response to varied geographic, economic, social and political factors. The sea receives a large part of its pollution from rivers, but specific rules are needed to resolve its problems. One-quarter of all freshwater is found under the soil and generally is closely connected with surface waters, but their legal regimes are often distinct. Moreover, even the same type of water source may be regulated differently, accordingly to the use of which the waters are put (e.g., domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes). Judges in many countries encounter cases concerning water pollution, allocation of water and the regulation of fishing and other uses of water resources. This paper aims realizing the following objectives: i. To underscore the importance of water and its sustainable use; ii. To review Nigerian Legislations and Policies on various aspects of the water sector; iii. To briefly survey the major issues in national and international water law and policy; iv. To conclude with some viable options for Nigeria.