International Political Organizations Research Articles

The Evolution of Mediation in International Conflicts from 1940s to 2020s

The article analyzes the evolution of international mediation from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. How do changes in international environment influence mediation and research on it? The paper’s hypothesis is that the transformation of international order and political organization of the world, the dynamics of (de)globalization and changes in the nature of international conflict determine the specifics of international mediation and shape the relevant research. Over the last 80 years international mediation evolved through three stages. During the first stage, shaped by the cold war, conflicts were mostly of interstate nature and were settled by states and international organizations. Meanwhile, the growing activity of non-state actors led to the emergence of mediation via “track II diplomacy”. At this stage, the study of international mediation becomes an established research area. The second stage, since the end of 1980s to the beginning of the 21st century, witnessed a rapid progress in the settlement of many protracted regional conflicts, aided by the mediation efforts of the USSR and the United States. In Russia, research on international mediation, previously fragmentary and legalistic, developed into a separate subfield of international studies. During the third stage, in the 21st century, the political organization of the world has been undergoing a turbulent transformation at all the three levels: Westphalian system, the system of interstate relations, and political systems of individual states. The all-encompassing nature of this change increases conflict potential and changes the nature of international conflicts, which become multidimensional and involve a variety of actors. Responding to the demand for managing complex conflicts, new trends in mediation emerge, such as the growth in mediation attempts by developing nations, engagement of peacekeeping missions in mediation, the use of digital technologies for mediation purposes. At the same time, the erosion of the old political organization of the world triggers the rise in identity-based conflicts that involve disagreement over values. As parties to such conflicts are less likely to seek interestbased compromises, the likelihood of successful mediation decreases.

Climate change adaptation mainstreaming through strategic environmental assessments. An in-depth analysis of environmental indicators from spatial plans in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy)

Climate change adaptation, CCA henceforth, is nowadays a shared concern, deeply investigated and advocated by international research and political organisations. However, both CCA implementation and its monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are challenges yet to be properly addressed. From a spatial planning perspective, local plans are the land-use-oriented tools with the highest potential to enhance CCA operativity. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is also acknowledged to be a key instrument to integrate climate change concerns and hence, to monitor and evaluate climate change (CC) risks and CCA efforts. This study addresses two hypotheses, i.e., i) indicators included in SEAs' spatial plans may be used at the service of CCA M&E, ii) the full extent of indicators can be captured by multi-level planning analyses. To this aim, this study provides an in-depth analysis, through a multi-step systematic categorization, of the indicators used within the SEA of regional and municipal plans in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy). This study brings novelty in the SEA research field by bridging the climate risk theoretical principles to the methodological approach for analysing SEAs' indicators, which are classified within the risk function frame. Key insights come from the metrics, the indicators' explicitness for CCA, and the indicators' extent into the climate risk function. Finally, the paper paves the way for further research of CC- and CCA-related indicators in both spatial planning and other public sectors to support CCA mainstreaming through SEAs.

La Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte y la expansión del capitalismo occidental

The outbreak of war in Ukraine and Western support for the Ukrainian state have brought up the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in international politics, a subject debated in the press and media, in universities, in states, and in international organizations. In hasty assessments, the argument that emerges is that the war, particularly the Russian administration of Vladimir Putin, has given NATO a new reason of life, since it no longer had any reason to exist in the face of the defeat and dissolution of the USSR. Our aim in this article is therefore to demonstrate that NATO has always had a reason to exist in order to fulfill the function assigned to it by the Western powers: to eliminate politically and militarily obstacles to the expansion of Western capitalism. Because it is an international political and military organization linked to the capitalist powers led by the United States, with its smaller European partners, it is an organization whose dynamic is expansionist. So, our object is NATO in its founding treaty, institutional organization, strategic concepts, summit meetings, geopolitical expansion, partnerships, and military operations.

Definition, detection, and tracking of nanowaste in foods: Challenges and perspectives.

Commercial applications of nanotechnology in the food industry are rapidly increasing. Accordingly, there is a simultaneous increase in the amount and diversity of nanowaste, which arise as byproducts in the production, use, disposal, or recycling processes of nanomaterials utilized in the food industry. The potential risks of this nanowaste to human health and the environment are alarming. It is of crucial significance to establish analytical methods and monitoring systems for nanowaste to ensure food safety. This review provides comprehensive information on nanowaste in foods as well as comparative material on existing and new analytical methods for the detection of nanowaste. The article is specifically focused on nanowaste in food systems. Moreover, the current techniques, challenges as well as potential use of new and progressive methods are underlined, further highlighting advances in technology, collaborative efforts, as well as future perspectives for effective nanowaste detection and tracking. Such detection and tracking of nanowaste are required in order to effectively manage this type ofwasted in foods. Although there are devices that utilize spectroscopy, spectrometry, microscopy/imaging, chromatography, separation/fractionation, light scattering, diffraction, optical, adsorption, diffusion, and centrifugation methods for this purpose, there are challenges to be overcome in relation to nanowaste as well as food matrix and method characteristics. New technologies such as radio-frequency identification, Internet of things, blockchain, data analytics, and machine learning are promising. However, the cooperation of international organizations, food sector, research, and political organizations is needed for effectively managing nanowaste. Future research efforts should be focused on addressing knowledge gaps and potential strategies for optimizing nanowaste detection and tracking processes.

What are They Talking About? Dislocations Between Institutional Narratives and On-Field Sports actors’ Perspectives on Match-Fixing

ABSTRACT Since match-fixing is considered a major threat to the integrity of sport, the implementation of awareness campaigns has become one of the most recommended and enacted policies. Sports governing bodies and international political organizations have established programmes to morally educate on-field sports actors to recognize the problem, resist its incentives and proposals, and report any offer or case they may know. The homogeneity of the content of those prevention campaigns, which are forged and agreed upon in a top-down perspective by international and sports governing organizations, betting regulators and law enforcement institutions, has generated an official preventive narrative of the problem. Through interviews with on-field sports actors (athletes, players, coaches, referees) this article explores the dislocations between the contents of this official preventive narrative and interviewers’ perceptions and experiences of match-fixing. Findings show how some cognitive limitations of the official narrative can led to the delegitimating of the educational programmes to fight against the phenomenon. The results also provide evidence to broaden the debate on the subject. The conclusions suggest a new road map for policy intervention, and for the set-up of new and more effective awareness initiatives.

The Evolution of the Socio-political Situation of the Republic of Türkiye in the 20th Century – Efforts Towards the Europeanisation of the Society and State

The events related to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the proclamation of the Republic of Türkiye contributed to a complete departure from the system of constitutional monarchy in favour of a parliamentary democracy. Owing to the decisions on Europeanisation and implemented reforms, i.e., adopting a Civil Code based on the Swiss code, a Criminal Code refl ecting the Italian code, a Commercial Code underpinned by the German code (1924), and the transition to the Latin alphabet which replaced Arabic (1928), as well as education reforms (1925), women’s suffrage (1934), and the introduction of surnames (1935), etc. the Turkish people became a European society, aware of their rights and obligations. The transition from a singleparty regime to a multi-party period (1946) allowed for democracy to be consolidated. Türkiye’s participation in strictly European and international political and military organisations was of vital signifi cance and turned the country into an extremely important state. Its failed efforts to join the EEC, and, subsequently, the European Union, resulted in Türkiye abandoning its interest in this form of cooperation (1997). The socio-political transformations that took place in the 20th century, highlighted in this article, characterise this dynamically changing period. The evolution of the views of Turkish society was clearly marked in the second half of the 20th century, which led to serious changes in the mindsets of the Turkish people and completely altered the image of the country post-2002, allowing the newly established Justice and Development Party to assume power (2002).

Azerbaijan’s foreign policy analysis in the perspective of Neorealist Theory: In the example of the Karabakh problem

After Azerbaijan gained its independence, the main problem in its foreign policy was the Karabakh conflict with Armenia. Among the different approaches to solve this problem in foreign policy was the view that a cooperation or conflict-based approach could explain interstate relations and the classical theories of international relations can discuss them; this has been the dominant view in the foreign policy of Azerbaijan.
 We conducted a literature review in developing the conceptual framework for this study. The effect of the anarchic international system on the foreign policy of Azerbaijan, the attitude of the sovereign states and international political organizations in the system, the strategy of Azerbaijan that started with the balance policy, and the 44-day Armenia-Azerbaijan war will be examined from the perspective of neorealist theory. From this, it will be possible to reveal the importance of the balance policy in Azerbaijan's foreign policy.
 This study aims to include the approach to the security problem in the foreign policy of Azerbaijan since its independence, and the strategies it has created to solve the Karabakh problem, using a certain theoretical framework.

The heritage of the League of Nations’ minority protection system

AbstractThis paper discusses the system of minority protection of the League of Nations. Minority protection occupied a prominent place on the League’s agenda, which developed a significant expertise in the field. The League’s system of minority protection is often regarded as an experiment. With regard to both material and procedural aspects this assessment is certainly correct. In particular, minority protection based upon legally binding treaties and declarations gave rise to the question of how individual and group rights should be treated within the frame of an international political organization. The paper further examines whether at least some of the elements of the League’s minority protection system still persist in the context of contemporary international human rights law.

АНТИРАСИСТСКОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ «BLACK LIVES MATTER» КАК ФАКТОР МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ

The purpose of the article is to examine the influence of the «Black Lives Matter» (BLM) movement on international political relations. The uniqueness of the Black Lives Matter movement is determined by the fact that ideologically it offers a new interpretation of racism and racial discrimination. According to the supporters of BLM, modern political relations, criminal and judicial systems, culture, sports and a number of other areas of social existence are hidden racism when the norms of the white population are presented as universal. This leads to the hidden suppression of representatives of other cultures and races, and consequently, to the permissibility of combating racial discrimination, including violent disobedience to the authorities. As a result, the author concludes that the mass actions against racial discrimination carried out by supporters of the BLM had an ambiguous effect on various subjects of international relations. It is emphasized that states rarely considered the BLM movement as a factor of their own foreign policy orientations, while the activities of a number of international political organizations in the field of combating racial discrimination underwent a serious transformation precisely under the influence of the BLM.

Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing.

Active ageing has been discussed in international political organisations and among researchers as a major means for combatting the challenges of demographic ageing. This study aims to make a critical-theoretical and empirical assessment of the active ageing concept, challenging the active ageing discourse from two different angles. First, an assessment of the theoretical framework of active ageing shows that the conceptual framework is undertheorised, lacks conceptual and analytical clarity, and fails to propose clear contributing factors and barriers. The second part presents an empirical analysis of the concept of active ageing guided by the following research question: is active ageing realistic—and for whom? Using Danish data subjected to multiple correspondence analysis, it is found that active ageing at the individual level is preconditioned by health, education, having good finances, etc. Furthermore, a Matthew effect of accumulated advantage is found; that is, older adults who are blessed in one sphere of life are also blessed in others, and such inequalities in old age are the outcomes of social life biographies (i.e., cumulative advantages/disadvantages over the life course). Thus, empirical findings indicate that active ageing may be an elusive goal for a large segment of older adults.

Antimicrobial Resistance, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Lessons for the Orthopaedic Community.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely regarded as one of the most important global public health challenges of the twenty-first century. The overuse and the improper use of antibiotics in human medicine, food production, and the environment as a whole have unfortunately contributed to this issue. Many major international scientific, political, and social organizations have warned that the increase in AMR could cost the lives of millions of people if it is not addressed on a global scale. Although AMR is already a challenge in clinical practice today, it has taken on a new importance in the face of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While improved handwashing techniques, social distancing, and other interventional measures may positively influence AMR, the widespread use of antibiotics to treat or prevent bacterial coinfections, especially in unconfirmed cases of COVID-19, may have unintended negative implications with respect to AMR. Although the exact number of bacterial coinfections and the rate at which patients with COVID-19 receive antibiotic therapy remain to be accurately determined, the pandemic has revived the discussion on antibiotic overuse and AMR. This article describes why the COVID-19 pandemic has increased our awareness of AMR and presents the immense global impact of AMR on society as a whole. Furthermore, an attempt is made to stress the importance of tackling AMR in the future and the role of the orthopaedic community in this worldwide effort.

The principle of equality in the programming documents of the three internationals of the twentieth century

Introduction. The features of the concepts of equality enshrined in the provisions of the programming documents of the Internationals in the perspective of the genesis of the concept of human rights are highlighted. The aim of the article. The content and peculiarities of conceptions of the principle of equality in the programming documents of the Communist, Socialist and Liberal Internationals are investigated and compared in order to determine the influence of the hierarchy of moral and legal values of a particular political community on the evolution of the concept and content of the principle of equality in European society in a certain period of time. Results. The program of the Communist International, adopted at the 45th meeting of the 6th Congress of the Communist International on September 1, 1928, clearly articulates the idea of ​​equality between men and women, as well as the equality of all fighters for a socialist lifestyle, regardless of national, cultural, linguistic or racial differences , gender, or profession. On the other hand, this concept of equality applies only to the class of the proletariat, which fights for "a world-wide proletarian dictatorship and world communism." That is, the authors of the program advocated a class approach to understanding the principle of equality, whose effect was not to extend to other classes and strata of society except the proletariat. The concept of legal equality declared in the Comintern documents has the character of equality of results - a concept whose meaning is that society and the state must guarantee equality of people through the redistribution of wealth and status in order to achieve economic and social equality. Equality in this concept is the first and greatest value compared to freedom and justice. This kind of equality is called egalitarianism and is possible only if free competition, which underlies equality of opportunity, is restricted. The Socialist Declaration of Principles adopted in Stockholm in 1989 proclaimed freedom, justice, equality and solidarity as the basic principles of the Social Democrats. In particular, it was emphasized that the Social Democrats attach equal importance to these fundamental principles and understand their interdependence. Contrary to this view, liberals and conservatives favor individual liberty at the expense of justice and solidarity, while the Communists claim to have achieved equality and solidarity, but at the expense of freedom. The Manifesto of the Liberal International declared the concept of equality of opportunity, according to which each individual should be guaranteed equal chances to succeed in life, and focused primarily on the principle of freedom in accordance with the classical principles of liberalism. In particular, the following liberal principles were proclaimed: independence of thought; respect for the human personality and the family as the foundation of society; the state is only a tool of the community; it must not assume a power which is contrary to the fundamental rights of citizens and to the conditions necessary for a responsible and creative life, namely: personal freedom, guaranteed by the independence of the administration of law and justice; freedom of religion and freedom of conscience; freedom of speech and the press; freedom to associate or not to associate; free choice of classes; the possibility of full and varied training, according to ability and regardless of birth or means; the right to private property and the right to start a separate enterprise; free choice of consumers and the opportunity to take full advantage of the productivity of the soil and the human industry; protection against disease, unemployment, disability and old age; equality between men and women. These rights and conditions can only be guaranteed by true democracy. Сonclusions. Defining in the conception of the equality principle of the Communist, Socialist and Liberal Internationals of the twentieth century there is a balance between equality and freedom. In particular, the limits of freedom and, accordingly, the content of the concept of equality are largely determined by the hierarchy of moral and legal values ​​of a particular political community over a period of time. It is also important to emphasize that the genesis of the concepts of the principle of equality in the programming documents of three influential international political organizations of the twentieth century was conditioned by a complex and contradictory process of becoming European democracy. The triumph of the social-democratic and liberal concept of equality and its consolidation in the constitutions of most European countries in the second half of the twentieth century contributed to the deep disappointment of the general public of the European community with the totalitarian and authoritarian forms of government and the socio-economic progress of states with democratic forms of government.

Instrumental Internationalism: The American Origins of the United Nations, 1940–3

Why did the United States want to create the United Nations Organization, or any international political organization with universal membership? This question has received superficial historiographical attention, despite ample scrutiny of the conferences that directly established the UN in 1944 and 1945. The answer lies earlier in the war, from 1940 to 1942, when, under the pressure of fast-moving events, American officials and intellectuals decided their country must not only enter the war but also lead the world long afterwards. International political organization gained popularity – first among unofficial postwar planners in 1941 and then among State Department planners in 1942 – because it appeared to be an indispensable tool for implementing postwar US world leadership, for projecting and in no way constraining American power. US officials believed the new organization would legitimate world leadership in the eyes of the American public by symbolizing the culmination of prior internationalist efforts to end power politics, even as they based the design of the UN on a thoroughgoing critique of the League, precisely for assuming that power politics could be transcended.

Statistická syntéza indikátorů kvality života – návrh tvorby indexu v evropských regionech

The quality of life is complex, with human existence closely linked theme. Both scientific and international political organizations have been focusing on this topic in recent decades. This research follows the European Union's challenges to deal with the quality of life as a multi-aspect phenomenon. Firstly, the authors' concept of quality of life, based on key aspects and their respective indicators is introduced. To assess the quality of life not only multidimensionally but also comprehensively, it is necessary to address the issue of data aggregation. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a statistical method used to reduce the dimensionality of the data and can also be used to construct a synthetic index. In its basic form, this method is designed for non-spatial data and does not take into ac-count the potential spatial relationships. However, geographically weighted PCA can capture these relationships. Simple PCA, robust PCA, simple geographically weighted PCA, and robust geographically weighted PCA were tested on the quality of life data. The results of the paper describe differences in selected methods and the possibilities of their applica-tion in the regional evaluation of the quality of life in Europe. Using the PCA, a synthetic quality of life index was constructed based on the defined quality of life indicators on the pan-European scale at the regional level defined by NUTS 2 classification. The result does not bring innovation in terms of the used methods, but it is a challenge in the interpretative level. Comprehensively analyses the topic in a broad spatial scope and detail, compared to the existing studies.

A critical multimodal analysis of the Romanian press coverage of camp evictions and deportations of the Roma migrants from France

In this article, we carry out a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) of a sample from a larger corpus of Romanian news articles that covered the controversial camp evictions and repatriation of Romanian Roma migrants from France that began in 2010 and continue to the time of writing in 2017. These French government policies have been highly criticized both within France and by international political and aid organizations. However, the analysis shows how these brutal, anti-humanitarian events became recontextualized in the Romanian Press to represent the French government’s actions as peaceful and consensual. In addition, the demonization of the Roma in the press serves as a strategy to continuously disassociate them from their Romanian counterparts. While there is a long history of discrimination against the Roma in Romania, these particular recontextualizations can be understood in the context of the Romanian government’s need to gloss over its failure to comply with the Schengen accession requirements and acquire full European Union (EU) membership.

RUSSIA AND BRICS: SOME TRENDS AND PROSPECTS

At present, existing institutions of global governance, such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, are increasingly unable to cope with the tasks entrusted to them. The question is about the need to create alternative tools. And the BRICS group, which has established itself as an organization with a fast-growing economy, a reformer of international relations, can become one of them. BRICS is today an international political organization of leading countries with developing economies. The growing economic power of participating countries, their place in the world economy, a large population and rich natural resources form the basis of their influence on the international arena. This association has all the possibilities for forming an agenda of international relations, in view of the fact that the countries of the "five" are participants of the G20 and the United Nations, and Russia and the PRC are permanent members of the UN Security Council. The article analyzes the Russian position in the BRICS. Its engagement with countries belonging to the international organization. The authors analyze the priorities that need to solve it. In order to maintain an effective dialogue at the international level. Marked prospects of BRICS countries in the current global system. It identified some of the fundamental long-term factors that contribute to the rapprochement of the States Parties. Showing positive trends of further cooperation between the countries included in this alliance. Russia is now experiencing another crisis because of the situation with the West, so the BRICS for Russia is an attempt to take a worthy place in the system of international relations and use the association for the benefit of its own modernization of the economy.

Religion and Sustainability: Social Movements and the Politics of the Environment

Religion and Sustainability: Social Movements and the Politics of the Environment Lucas F. Johnston Equinox Publishing Ltd., Sheffield, UK, 2013 x + 273 Pp. Hardcover $99.95, Paperback $29.95 Reviewed by Leslie E. SponselMany may be surprised by the juxtaposition of reli- gion and sustainability in the title of this book. How- ever, since the late 1980s, basic and applied research has increasingly attended to the relationship between religion and ecology, including the relevance of reli- gion for sustainability as well as for the related arenas of environmentalism and conservation (e.g., Dudley, et al., eds., 2005, and Vershuuren, et al., eds. 2010).An overview of this book is best expressed in John- ston's own words in the final chapter: In places where sustainability provides convincing identity markers for people who use the term to reflect particular visions of where society is headed and what values it ought to maximize, it is fulfilling the function of explicitly religious narratives- a basic companion to human culture (p. 198). For example, he discusses the religious ideas, meta- phors, and imagery that leaders of sustainability initiatives use in their narratives.The primary goal and achievement of this book is to reveal the relatively little-recognized, let alone appreciated, connections between religion and sustainability through a historical review of the pertinent literature and, more importantly, the results of field research. The latter encompassed dozens of informal interviews and 25 formal interviews with leaders of major organizations focused on sustain- ability. The results of Johnston's interviews are discussed in Chapters 7-9 which focus, respectively, on Evangelical Creation Care, interfaith approaches like the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, and the Faith-based Outreach Program of Conservation International, among other cases. These religious, interfaith, and cases of sustainability initia- tives at the local grass-roots and international levels, plus much more, are well-contextualized, including points regarding the broader arena of what may be called religion and ecology, religion and nature, or spiritual ecology. Importantly, Johnston reveals that: Even ostensibly secular international organizations utilize the religious dimensions of sustainability (in the form of spiritualized language, religious meta- phors, or discourses of awe and reverence) for their own, often different ends (p. 55).The presentation of the results of these interviews in Part III: The Ethnographic and Data is skillfully set up by Part I: Defining Religion and Sustainability, and Why it Matters, and Part II: The Emergence and Development of Sustainability. Johnston's rigorous analysis of sustainability recog- nizes the diverse and sometimes conflicting ways in which the concept is applied by energy companies, international political institutions, environment organizations, radical environmentalists, indigenous peoples, and others. Johnston himself applies this working definition: Sustainability is a strategy of cultural adaptation to the limitations imposed by the dynamic interplay of ecological and social systems, couched in large-scale stories that illustrate how to persist within habitats in a manner that provides genuine affective fulfillment now, and for the fore- seeable future (p. 25). Although this definition is rather involved, it serves as a heuristic device to help Johnston reveal many of the religious and religious- like elements in sustainability discourse that may generate emotive responses and promote core beliefs and values in the audience.Throughout the book Johnston repeatedly asserts that sustainability serves as a political religion to the degree that its underlying core values function as a vehicle for connecting affective or emotionally evoca- tive states with political issues regarding resource use. He broadly conceives religion as simply deep beliefs and core values. …

NATO Intervention in Kosovo in light of Security Council Actions and International Law

The horrors of World War Two made it universally clear that the world cannot progress without general respect for human rights. Still, the need for humanitarian intervention arose several times before 1999, but international political and military organisations including the UN, were either late or hesitant to prevent genocides or other related human catastrophes worldwide. The NATO intervention in Kosovo, however, marked the beginning of the new era in international relations. The facet of this intervention in view of legality is the topic of this paper. The aim of this study, above all, is to analyze the Security Council actions, debates and resolutions concerning situation in Kosovo, and the level of impact that the military operation had in international law (in particular) and international relations (in general). The study uses many authentic documents issued by the United Nations Security Council itself and other material related to the theme in order to develop an argument on the points raised. Throughout, this research paper has attempted to answer numerous issues related to the topic and offer a balanced view on the all the themes examined. Several but distinct points raised focus on relevant core subjects, discuss the challenges and opportunities of the humanitarian intervention and offer recommendations regarding the future of such operation for the well being of the humanity.

Posiciones internacionales del Brasil al nivel unilateral

The relations between the conduct of Brazilian foreign policy and internal affairs have attracted the attention of academics in this area, as well as the main path of Brazilian diplomacy in its historical aspects. This paper examines the positions that Brazil has assumed at the multilateral level. In doing so, an attempt is made to restrict the examination, which does not pretend to be exhaustive, to taking samples of positions, attitudes and basic statements of Brazilian delegations in some international political organizations such as the Organization of American States, the United Nations, their specialized agencies and multilateral conferences under its auspices and, additionally, various specific areas of action are examined.

The Economic and Environmental Effects of an EU Ban on Illegal Logging Imports: Insights from a CGE Assessment

Illegal logging is widely recognized as a major economic problem and one of the causes of environmental degradation. Increasing awareness of its negative effects has fostered a wide range of proposals to combat it by major international conservation groups and political organizations. Following the 2008 US legislation which prohibits the import of illegally harvested wood and wood products, the European Union (EU) is now discussing a legislation proposal which would ban illegal timber from the EU market. In this study we use the ICES computable general equilibrium model to estimate the reallocation of global demand and timber imports following the pending EU legislation. With this exercise our final objective is to assess the economic impacts and measure the potential emission reduction resulting from the introduction of this type of policy. Results show that while the EU ban does not seem particularly effective in reducing illegal logging activities, its main effect will be the removal of illegal logs from the international markets. In addition, the unilateral EU ban on illegal logs increases secondary wood production in illegal logging countries as their exports become relatively more competitive. Through this mechanism, part of the banned, illegal timber will re-enter the international trade flows, but it will be “hidden” as processed wood. This effect is, however, limited. Finally, given the limited effect on overall economic activity, effects on GHG emissions are also limited. Direct carbon emissions from logging activities can decrease from 2.5 to 0.6 million tons per year.