National Negotiations Research Articles

South west pay consortium may derail AfC talks, unions warn

National negotiations to overhaul Agenda for Change could collapse after unions said talks cannot proceed unless NHS trusts in the south west formally suspend their bid to break away from national pay.

Guest Editor’s Introduction

Guest Editor’s Introduction Alison Fields (bio) This special issue of American Indian Quarterly examines indigenous cultural tourism in both theoretical and practical contexts. The articles critically address the practices of spectatorship and participation at work in world’s fairs, Wild West shows, photography, cinema, museums, cultural performances, commemorative events, and public sculpture. By addressing this diverse subject matter from a range of disciplinary perspectives, the contributors in this issue add to current scholarly conversations about self- representation and identity, national and transnational negotiations, and personal and cultural memory. To open the issue, Melissa Rinehart examines an act of resistance at the World’s Columbian Exposition. When Native performers showed up to the exposition with short hair, organizers felt that they appeared “too civilized” and insisted that they wear wigs. When spectators openly discussed ugly stereotypes in front of Antonio Apache, the young Native American organizer of the Indian pageant, he threw out the wigs in frustration. The tourists, who thought the wigs were scalps, fled. Rinehart writes, “This resistance ultimately spoke to their resiliency as an unconquered people directly countering the progressive theme of the Exposition.” Next, I address trajectory of the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Real Wild West show. Native participants in the Real Wild West show performed on national and international circuits and subcontracted with organizations such as Germany’s Sarrasani Circus and southern California’s early film studios. Through an analysis of these sites, I suggest that the transition from live to filmed performances in the early twentieth century was a fluid process, leading to new viewing positions for both performers and spectators. [End Page vii] Moving into the present, Michelle Jacob draws on interviews with members of the Wapato Indian Club, a dance troupe based on the Yakama Reservation in Wapato, Washington, to “articulate the lessons about identity, representation, and resistance contained in the narratives about participation in [the club].” By revitalizing cultural traditions of dancing and intergenerational exchange, Jacob argues that “the Wapato Indian Club represents a community-based educational effort that seeks to heal the soul wounds of colonialism.” Jennifer Adese questions “the nature of Indigenous involvement” in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremony and the broader implications of such participation for conceptions of Canadian nationhood. Jon Daehnke addresses the Confluence Project, a series of contemporary art installations along the Columbia River primarily designed by Maya Lin, created for the Bicentennial of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery. Envisioned as a collaboration between civic groups, Pacific Northwest Native American tribes, and architects and landscape designers, the project emphasized environmentalism and the Corps of Discovery as “part of a larger shared heritage.” However, Daehnke argues: “Rather than transforming and reimagining the story of Lewis and Clark, I suggest that the messages of shared heritage and sustainability found in the Confluence Project serve to further assimilate the Native American story as one more component of the American master narrative, create a false equation of indigenous and settler experiences on the landscape, distance and erase the tragedies of colonialism, and perpetuate stereotypes of pristine nonanthropogenic landscapes.” Doctoral student Jeff Fortney’s essay further examines commemoration and remembrance, considering how a statue of a Civil War soldier on Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma, reflects an often-silenced historical narrative in former Indian Territory. In closing, Doreen Martinez calls for a theoretical and methodological (re)mapping of “previous expectations and imposed understandings of Indigenous cultures” to “more fully illuminate the landscape, terrain, and meaning of lives” in a global society. [End Page viii] Alison Fields Alison Fields is the Mary Lou Milner Carver Professor of Art of the American West, an assistant professor of art history and affiliated faculty in film and media studies at the University of Oklahoma. She also serves as the managing editor of American Indian Quarterly. Copyright © 2013 University of Nebraska Press

Living in in-between spaces: A structure-agency analysis of the India–China and India–Bangladesh borderlands

Research on borderlands in recent years has emphasized the variation in how boundaries and borders operate for different groups of people and institutions in theera of globalization. Capital, goods, and people withresources inhabit an almost “borderless world.” In contrast, people in the less developed regions tend to experience borders more asbarriers. Borders create different lived experience for people who reside in particular borderlands as distinctive in-between spaces. This paper contends to understand the formation of borderlands and their meanings in the current context of globalization, especially those created as part of colonizationor the legacies thereof. We need to carefully analyze the embedded experience of inhabitants’ informal and fluid lived experiences that straddle national geopolitical disputes, local conflicts and negotiations, and in-between urban spaces characterized by what we call “relative urbanity”. We offer supporting evidence for this argument via a grounded analysis of the links and interactions between people living in and across two borderlands along China’s and Bangladesh’s boundaries with Eastern India—that were acreation of British colonial rule in India and have evolved with and beyond this colonial legacy.

A Tale of Two Cities: Climate Change Policies in Vancouver and Melbourne — Barometers of Cooperative Federalism?

AbstractThe failure of the United Nations negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen presents governments with an opportunity to consider new approaches to implementing climate change policy. Developed nations like Canada and Australia continue to fall short of their commitments to Kyoto targets and predict that their greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise. The planning and development of metropolitan areas continues to promote high levels of consumption and increased dependence on fossil fuel‐based energy. City governments in Vancouver and Melbourne have strong commitments to both mitigation and adaptation policy action against the impact of global warming. Both argue they are constrained in their efforts by federal institutional arrangements and require improved cooperation from other levels of government. This article uses the conceptual framework developed by the OECD to support greater levels of cooperation between governments in multilevel systems when implementing climate change policies. The article examines the contextual factors inherent in the institutional arrangements and uses the experiences of Vancouver and Melbourne to explore the factors that encourage or discourage cooperation in climate change policy.RésuméL'échec de la conférence des Nations Unies à Copenhague sur les changements climatiques offre aux gouvernements l'occasion d'envisager de nouvelles approches de politiques publiques dans ce domaine. Les nations développées telles que le Canada et l'Australie ne tiennent toujours pas leurs engagements sur les objectifs de Kyoto et annoncent que leurs émissions de gaz à effet de serre vont encore croître. L'aménagement et le développement des zones métropolitaines continuent de stimuler la consommation des énergies fossiles, donc la dépendance à leur égard. Les municipalités de Vancouver et de Melbourne se sont fortement impliquées dans des actions publiques visant à atténuer l'impact du réchauffement climatique, ou à s'y adapter. Selon elles, leurs tentatives sont gênées par les dispositifs institutionnels fédéraux, et il faudrait une meilleure coopération avec les autres niveaux de gouvernement. À l'aide du cadre conceptuel élaboré par l'OCDE, cet article défend une coopération accrue entre les gouvernements des systèmes à plusieurs niveaux lorsque sont mises en place des politiques liées à l'évolution du climat. Il étudie les facteurs contextuels inhérents aux dispositifs institutionnels et s'appuie sur les expériences de Vancouver et Melbourne pour examiner les facteurs qui encouragent ou découragent la coopération dans ce domaine d'action publique.

COMPARING CLIMATE COMMITMENTS: A MODEL-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE COPENHAGEN ACCORD

The political accord struck by leaders at the United Nations negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 allows participants to express their greenhouse gas commitments in a variety of ways. This paper compares the environmental and economic performance of these disparate commitments using the G-Cubed model of the global economy. We focus on fossil-fuel-related CO2 and assume targets are achieved domestically. We show how different formulations make the same targets appear different in stringency and explore the Accord's spillover effects across countries. We find that commitments by Japan and Europe imply high carbon prices and relatively high GDP losses. The United States and China both have moderate carbon prices and moderate GDP effects. Australia and Eastern Europe/Former Soviet Union have relatively large GDP effects despite small or zero carbon prices because their terms of trade decline. OPEC suffers a large drop in GDP from a sharp decline in world oil demand.

Governing and implementing REDD+

Abstract Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conserving and enhancing forest carbon stocks, and sustainably managing forests (REDD+) are emerging as a central policy instrument to halt land-use related emissions from developing countries. In this article we introduce a special issue dedicated to understanding the governance and implementation dimensions of REDD+ at international, national and local levels. We use the earth system governance framework developed by Biermann et al. (2009) to illustrate the key governance issues underlying REDD+ and we highlight three main pillars for a future research agenda, namely (1) the politics of REDD+ in international and national negotiations; (2) the interplay between REDD+ policies and measures and other developments in land-use related processes; and (3) the examination of the environmental and socio-economic outcomes of REDD+ activities, integrating locally informed monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) techniques and using robust counterfactual assessment methods.

Rebuilding depleted fish stocks: the good, the bad, and, mostly, the ugly

Abstract Murawski, S. A. 2010. Rebuilding depleted fish stocks: the good, the bad, and, mostly, the ugly. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 1830–1840. Recovery of depleted fish populations has become an important theme in national and international negotiations and commitments regarding sustainability. Although up to 63% of fish stocks worldwide may be in need of rebuilding, only 1% are currently classified as “rebuilding”, and fewer yet have been “rebuilt”. Recent history in stock recovery provides a rich source of examples of rebuilding plans across a spectrum of execution (“good”, “bad”, “ugly”, and “in progress”). Of 24 depleted stocks with formal plans that successfully reduced the fishing mortality, all but one exhibited signs of recovery. The median instantaneous annual rate of biomass recovery (0.16) was similar to the rate of depletion (−0.14) experienced, but stocks with more vulnerable life histories recovered substantially slower than they had been depleted. Most successful rebuilding programmes have incorporated substantial, measurable reductions in fishing mortality at the onset, rather than relying on incremental small reductions over time. A particularly vexing issue is the differential pace of recovery among relatively productive and unproductive components of mixed-species fisheries. Rebuilding the majority of stocks classified worldwide as “overfished” will take a more effective, consistent, and politically supported stock-recovery paradigm, if society is eventually to meet its articulated sustainability goals for global fisheries.

The Uses of the Past and European Integration: Austria between Lisbon, Ireland, and EURO 08

This article examines Austrian national identity negotiations through a qualitative analysis of the country's ideologically heterogeneous media, with a focus on Austria's most widely read paper (and its popular readers’ letters pages) between April and August 2008. This turbulent period coincided with widening opposition to the EU's Lisbon reform treaty, Austria's co-hosting of the European football championship, and the collapse of the country's coalition government. This analysis of media coverage and readers’ letters focuses on the rhetorical strategies underpinning various discursive constructions of Austria's place within the EU. The following key findings are discussed: projections of perceived social ills and resulting anxieties onto the EU; the interpretative uses of the past—historical episodes selected from Austrian and other national contexts—to make sense of and politicize the present; constructions of ‘European ideals’ in juxtaposition to perceived ‘European realities’; and competing models of national identity in relation to the European ‘network state.’

Comparing Climate Commitments: A Model-Based Analysis of the Copenhagen Accord

The political accord struck by world leaders at the United Nations negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 allows participating countries to express their greenhouse gas commitments in a variety of ways. For example, developed countries promised different percent emissions reductions relative to different base years by 2020. China and India committed to reducing their emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) relative to 2005 by 40 and 20 percent respectively. Such flexibility promotes consensus by allowing each country to use its preferred commitment formulation. However, the disparate approaches and widely varying baseline trends across different economies complicate comparing the likely emissions reductions and economic efforts required to achieve the commitments.

Thinking Copenhagen: the cognitive dimension of climate change policy making In Brazil and the United States

This article explores the cognitive dimension of climate change policy making in Brazil and the United States as both countries prepare for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP15 in Copenhagen. The comparative policy analysis is framed by Putnam (1988) and informed by Bazerman (2009), but adapted to explore the cognitive expressions of policymaking through investigation of public opinion, newspaper coverage, and policymaker statements. The analysis reveals key differences in the ways that Brazilian and U.S. citizens, journalists, and policymakers understand global warming and climate change and think through the policy alternatives for addressing this global challenge through national policy and international negotiations. Brazil’s cognitive dimension provides its negotiators with a wide range of strategic positions, allowing this country to play the role of dealmaker. The U.S. administration arrives at Copenhagen with a narrow win-set, limited by the discordant and divisive cognitive expressions that surround policymaking. These differences limit bilateral cooperation and complicate the COP15 negotiations.

CARBON AND LAND USE ACCOUNTING FROM A PRODUCER'S AND A cONSUMER'S PERSPECTIVE – AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION COVERING THE WORLD

National policies for reducing environmental pressures stemming from emissions and the use of natural resources usually adopt a producer approach, i.e. the legislation refers to pressures occurring within the territorial boundaries of a country. An alternative approach to environmental accounting is the consumer approach, which includes environmental pressures associated with imports for domestic consumption, wherever these pressures occur. The carbon footprint, for example, is such an approach, in which CO2 or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered from a consumer's perspective. The consumer approach may offer new ways for policies to reduce pressures, and therefore it would be interesting to adopt this perspective in national environmental policy-making and international negotiations. To gain insight into the differences between the approaches, this paper discusses the concepts of both, showing the results of an empirical analysis and going into the application of the two different perspectives in (international) environmental policies. Due to international trade, the environmental pressures accounted for in a producer's and a consumer's perspective are usually not the same for a country. This paper presents a worldwide overview, comparing the outcomes for the two approaches with regard to GHG emissions and land use, for 12 world regions. Furthermore, for GHG emissions, a quantitative comparison was made between 87 countries and regions covering the world. Consumption-related GHG emissions and land use per capita were calculated with a full multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model. MRIO analysis is an attractive method for footprint analyses in an international context. The research shows that, for most developed countries, GHG emissions and land use are higher in the consumer approach than in the producer approach. For most developing countries, the opposite is true. Before applying national targets to the consumer approach – for instance, in climate policies – further improvements and standardisation of methodology and data will be necessary.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), National Courts, Truth Commissions and Peace Negotiations; Complimentary or Alternatives to the Restoration of Peace in Northern Uganda?

The paper discusses the conflict in Northern Uganda and examines the idea of using mechanisms like prosecutions by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the national courts, truth commissions and peace negotiations as measures to restores long lasting peace, justice and reconciliation.

Earth System Research Priorities

Human-induced climate change was unknown outside of limited scientific circles just 25 years ago, but it has now become the focus of intense national discussions and international negotiations. One chapter in the story of how this issue moved from lab benches to national capitals was recognized by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which was co-awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its influential assessments of the state of scientific knowledge. But the story also involves the research itself; in particular, that catalyzed by the Global Environmental Change Research Programmes * and the Earth System Science Partnership. These programs, sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU) in partnerships with other international science organizations ( www.icsu.org ), have helped to catalyze and guide global environmental research for several decades. But it's time to propose new research priorities, and ICSU seeks input through a Web consultation process now under way.

CLIMATE CHANGE First round of UN negotiations on new accord end quietly

The first round of United Nations negotiations on a new climate-change treaty that ended last week gave the international community its first opportunity to feel out the Obama Administration’s positions. The March 29—April 8 meeting in Bonn was the first of three negotiating sessions scheduled for this year. It served as a venue for governments around the world to toss about ideas ahead of tougher talks to come later this year and a December meeting to complete a new accord. The meeting yielded no spectacular breakthroughs, but none were expected at this stage of the talks, Rosario Bento Pais, the European Commission’s deputy head of climate strategy, informed reporters. Jonathan Pershing, U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change, explained that the Obama Administration wants to blend science-based urgency to address mounting levels of greenhouse gases with a politically pragmatic approach. U.S. negotiators want the new treaty to be one that Congress will implement, he told ...

Acquisition Costs and Use of Medicare Part D-Excluded Drugs in Veterans Health Administration Long-Stay Nursing Home Residents

Nursing home populations may consist of both short- and long-stay residents, who have different resource use profiles. Differentiating between these two populations is important in any analysis of drug costs and use. The aim of this analysis was to provide national annualized estimates of drug acquisition costs and use of drugs excluded under Medicare Part D for dually eligible long-stay nursing home residents in the US. This was a national, descriptive, secondary data analysis. The study population consisted of 6554 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) long-stay nursing home residents (n=136 nursing homes), identified from the Minimum Data Set (MDS), who had an annual assessment during fiscal year (FY) 2005 linked with their 8,847,561 inpatient pharmacy claims. The study data generated were descriptive statistics of the annual drug acquisition costs and use of medications excluded under Medicare Part D. VHA therapeutic drug classes were obtained from FY 2005 national pharmacy claims linked at the individual resident level. The excluded drugs accounted for 3 036 306 of the more than 8.8 million inpatient pharmacy claims, totalling $US3,406,756 or $US526 per resident (99% CI 490, 562). Non-opioid analgesics were received by 73.3% of the residents, totalling $US352,608 or $US73 per resident; 25.3% received antitussives, decongestants, or cold and cough medications, totalling $US27,220 or $US16 per resident; 63.8% received vitamins, totalling $US281,909 or $US67 per resident; 17.7% received benzodiazepines or sedative hypnotics, totalling $US76,083 or $US66 per resident; and 64.3% received laxatives or stool softeners, totalling $US298,326 or $US71 per resident. The total acquisition cost of all drugs was $US23,782,717 for 6554 VHA nursing home residents or $US3629 per resident (99% CI 3343, 3915). The cost of Medicare Part D-excluded drugs represented a fraction of the total VHA drug costs for long-stay nursing home residents, accounting for only 14.3% of all drug costs and 34.3% of the more than 8.8 million inpatient pharmacy claims. More research is needed to account for the drug dispensing and administration costs associated with these excluded classes of drugs and their efficacy. Studies of VHA drug acquisition costs provide important policy-relevant data for the Medicare Part D national price negotiation debate, particularly in a US presidential election year.

Bargaining Theory Meets Interest‐Based Negotiations: A Case Study1

This is a case study of the 2005 national contract negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Given the scale and complexity of these negotiations, their successful completion provides an exemplar for collective bargaining in this country. In 1997 Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions formed a labor management partnership, and negotiations were structured around the principles of interest‐based negotiation (IBN). Drawing on direct observation of all parts of the bargaining process, interviews with individuals from Kaiser and the Coalition of Unions, and surveys we conducted after bargaining was completed, we conclude that the parties employed a mix of interest‐based and traditional negotiation processes across an array of integrative and distributive issues. We find that IBN techniques were used extensively and successfully to reach mutually satisfying agreements when the parties shared interests. When interests were in greater conflict, the parties resorted to more traditional, positional tactics to reach resolution. Strong intraorganizational conflicts limited the use of IBN and favored the use of more traditional positional bargaining. While a high level of trust enabled and supported the use of IBN, tensions that developed limited the use of IBN and required surfacing and release before either IBN or more traditional positional processes could proceed effectively. The use of IBN tools helped the parties apply the principles underlying the partnership in which these negotiations were embedded. We conclude that IBN served as a way of applying or operationalizing integrative bargaining and affected the process dynamics in ways the Walton and McKersie theory predicted. As such we see IBN as techniques that neither displace nor render obsolete other aspects of bargaining theory or practice but that show considerable promise for helping collective bargaining to address the complex issues and challenges found in contemporary employment relationships.

The United States and NAFTA Dispute Settlement: Ambivalence, Frustration and Occasional Defiance

The three major dispute settlement mechanisms in NAFTA - Chapter 11 (investment disputes), Chapter 19 (review of administrative decisions in unfair trade actions), and Chapter 20 (disputes over the application and interpretation of NAFTA) - have been extensively used, with more than 40 Chapter 11 actions notified and over 100 Chapter 19 filings. The mechanisms have worked reasonably well in resolving the types of disputes for which they were designed. This has occurred, however, without generating much enthusiasm for any of them (and in some instances, such as softwood lumber and Chapter 19, with strong opposition) from the U.S. Congress, some government officials, civil society, and the courts, all of whom tend to be suspicious of third party dispute resolution because of the loss of national control compared to national courts or diplomatic negotiations. This article reviews each of the mechanisms, in terms of their origin, utilization, private party and government participation, the cases decided and the controversies they have generated, for government officials of the executive branch and the Congress, and for the business community and for civil society. It also considers how the attitudes of each have changed over the twelve years in which NAFTA has been in force.

How usage statistics can inform national negotiations and strategies

The paper describes a recent Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded project, the aim of which was to analyse library usage data from selected e-journal deals negotiated by the JISC within the NESLi2 initiative. The project began in May 2004 and examined usage data from four publishers and 17 libraries. The aims, methodology, conclusions and recommendations of the project are included. Owing to confidentiality agreements with publishers and libraries, it is possible to share only a limited amount of usage data.

Intellectual Property Rights, Agriculture, and Rural Communities

The global extension of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in agriculture and the simultaneous move towards evolving community and farmers' rights have significant implications for the future of rural communities. While IPRs are based on individual interests, the movement for granting farmers' rights is becoming diluted towards assigning ownership rights in a similar fashion as IPRs. It is important to reframe the debate to ensure that communities can claim their role in national and international negotiations.

Book Review: Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity

Book Review: Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity