Prolonged Negotiations Research Articles

Multi-level governance and policy contestation: Ambiguity and conflict in the implementation of peatland conservation in Ireland

Biodiversity represents one of the most controversial areas of environmental governance. Objectives: Compliance with the EU regulatory framework is contained in the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and in the designation of special areas of conservation which has prompted contestation in relationships between public authorities, farmers, and local landholders across all levels of governance. Methodology: Using Matland’s ambiguity-conflict model as a lens to view the implementation experience, the discussion uses official documentation and literature sources to explore Ireland’s compliance with EU biodiversity regulation with reference to peatlands. Results: This article uses the case of Ireland to explore inadequate implementation which led to prolonged legal proceedings culminating in an unfavourable judgement against the Irish state on 29th June 2023. In Case C-444/21 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Ireland failed to fulfil its obligations under the directive, namely the appropriate designation of a Natura 2000 network of sites for important habitat and a protection regime for them. Central to Irish debates on the habitats directive is the protection of raised bogs which has resulted in considerable conflict, politicisation, and prolonged negotiations between peat-cutters and public authorities at national and local levels. Conclusions: The discussion highlights the difficulties in changing ingrained attitudes and practices for managing nature conservation in privately owned land and in securing collaborative engagement with stakeholders.

Gazing from the air: tourist encounters in the age of travel drones

Consumer drones can be increasingly spotted in tourist sites, and arguably the aerial technology has transformed how tourism in Singapore is experienced and represented. This investigation explores in empirical detail how the videomaking practices of DroneTubers contribute to the diversification of tourist encounters. Based on evidence from ethnographic fieldwork in the Southeast Asian metropolis and on digital platforms, this article maps tourist encounters facilitated by drone tourism and illuminates the formation of a platform ecology for travel drones. In recent years drone videos featuring Singapore’s urban landscapes have rapidly gained popularity on YouTube. Drawing on analyses of situated drone practices in Singapore’s Marina Bay and its audiovisual representation on digital platforms, this case study demonstrates how the platformization of drone tourism facilitates participatory gazing. This form of gazing made possible a prolonged negotiation of the meanings that the researched travel influencers and their audiences attributed to tourist attractions. The frequent use of travel drones in Marina Bay gave rise to an additional space of representation for the urban landscapes of Singapore. The ethnographic study finds that the videomaking practices of DroneTubers extended the scope of tourist encounters by establishing an everyday lived space where the allure of tourist attractions is negotiated through online co-presence. The findings of the study call into question long-standing conceptualisations of tourist encounters as place-bound practices and indicate how drone tourism established new interdependencies among local tourism professionals, tourists and platform audiences.

Ensuring access to novel COVID-19 therapeutics in Pacific island countries and areas.

As of November 2022, over 417 397 confirmed cases and 2631 deaths related to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in Pacific island countries and areas (PICs). Most PICs have faced challenges accessing therapeutics recommended for the treatment of COVID-19 due to their high demand worldwide and supply chain constraints. The World Health Organization (WHO) coordinates and provides tailored technical and operational support to 21 PICs. Since the start of the pandemic, WHO has worked with partners to establish a mechanism to ensure equitable access to three novel COVID-19 therapeutics (tocilizumab, molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) for lower-income countries, including 11 eligible PICs. WHO coordinated the requests, procurement and distribution of the three novel therapeutics. In addition, WHO supported PICs by providing trainings in clinical management of COVID-19, developing critical supply needs estimates, and facilitating regulatory approval of clinical therapeutics, including emergency use authorization. The main barriers to procurement of novel COVID-19 therapeutics were identified as prolonged negotiations with licence holders, sourcing funding, the high cost of therapeutics and limited capacity to provide safety monitoring. Uninterrupted supply and availability of essential medicines in the Pacific region is dependent on external and local sourcing. To overcome procurement barriers and ensure access to novel COVID-19 therapeutics in PICs, WHO's pandemic support to Member States focused on strengthening regulatory requirements, safety monitoring and supply chain activities.

Intellectual Property and International Clean Technology Diffusion: Pathways and Prospects

AbstractInternational clean technology diffusion is essential to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while fast and optimal diffusion can be prevented by the paywall of patents. This article explores the deficiency in clean technology diffusion caused by the legal fragmentation and rule complex of international environmental law and intellectual property law. It systematically examines three pathways to foster international clean technology diffusion through: restriction of intellectual property, including imposing external restraints in environmental law; striking internal balancing in maximizing TRIPS flexibilities; and keeping the status quo. It argues that treaty pathways may not work, and an operable pathway to promote clean technology diffusion is to maximize and consolidate TRIPS flexibilities in national laws. This option challenges the popular proposal of a “Doha-like” declaration on TRIPS and climate change due to the paralyzed multilateral trade mechanism, asymmetrical negotiation power of developing countries, prolonged negotiation process, and categorization problem in treaty negotiations.

Music, Theatre, and Diplomacy: The Paris Opéra during the Second Empire

Abstract One of the first accomplishments of the Second Empire (1852–70) was to bring the Opéra under the control of a committee of the most highly placed politicians in the land. While this had far-reaching consequences for the development of repertory in the capital and beyond, it also opened up the possibility of using the Opéra as a locus of diplomatic activity, and major works and productions were made to work for diplomatic purposes. The Opéra emerged as a site of four types of diplomatic activities: the spectacle of state visits, the celebration and monumentalizing of military victories, the restoration and maintenance of good relations, and the promotion of Napoléon’s imperial project. Occasionally, as at the end of the “Crimean war,” the Opéra served as one of the sites for a series of prolonged negotiations that would lead to formal treaties.

The Brexit learning effect? Brexit negotiations and attitudes towards leaving the EU beyond the UK

ABSTRACT Britain’s decision to leave the EU did not go unnoticed by the remaining EU states. Previous studies have shown that the assessment of the Brexit decision shortly after the referendum took place influenced the voting behaviour of citizens in a hypothetical EU referendum held in their country. This research note goes one step further by examining whether citizens’ willingness to leave the EU changed during the following three years of prolonged Brexit negotiations. To this end, Eurobarometer and ESS data are used to descriptively trace public votes in hypothetical referendums on EU membership over time. In addition, a cross-sectional analysis of Eurobarometer data collected two years after the referendum finds that citizens’ assessment of the British Brexit experience is strongly associated with attitudes towards EU membership. If Brexit is seen as the right decision for Britain, withdrawal of one’s own country from the EU is seen as more attractive although reassuringly for the EU, most people in the EU do not hold this belief.

The Free Trade Agreement and Investment Dispute Settlement Between the European Union and Vietnam: A Critical Assessment

Abstract The European Union (EU) is an open market economy, and against the rise of protectionism globally, the ‘Global Europe: Competing in the world’ communication of European Commission in 2006 reflected the EU perspective that Free Trade Agreements as alternatives can go further and faster in promoting openness and integration, by tackling issues which are not readily available for multilateral negotiations and by preparing the stepping stones for the next level of multilateral liberalization. After the prolonged negotiations and the EU’s legislative processes, the European Parliament gave its consent to both agreements of European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and Investment Protection Agreement on 12 February 2020. Those bilateral instruments promote enhanced transparency and regulatory best practices that are consistent with existing international norms or standards, also an important stepping stone and a show-case for the EU’s longer-term goal of a region-to-region (EU - Southeast Asia) trade deal. Those agreements have established a new two-level judicial structure with the strong judicial character (Investment Tribunal System – ITS) which Vietnam has accepted via legally binding commitments. It is important for Vietnam to follow the good governance standards and the rule of law principles. If the ITS works well, it will provide additional safeguards and guarantees to investors whereby FDI flows to Vietnam are likely to increase. Finally, the ITS regime provides a powerful incentive or a catalyst to review and modernize the domestic legal system of Vietnam not only to improve the investment eco-system in Vietnam but to pave the way for optimization of its economic potential and competitive power in the region (i.e. in the ASEAN).

Kufala! Translating witchcraft in an Angolan–Chinese labor dispute

Drawing on fieldwork conducted at a Chinese state-owned enterprise brought to Angola in the postwar reconstruction boom, this article devotes sustained attention to a labor dispute between an Angolan laid-off worker and his former Chinese employers. Called upon to interpret between the worker and his bosses, neither of whom spoke directly or transparently, the ethnographer found herself implicated in a prolonged negotiation of attempted kindness and unavoidable cruelty. Through repeated translations and circumlocutions, both parties attempted to preserve sociality despite being structurally positioned in an exploitative relationship. Translating this exchange into an ethnographic narrative, this paper explores how the indirectness both of speech and of witchcraft failed as social relations broke down.

Bridging the Science-Policy Divide

Prolonged negotiations and insufficient policies to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss are often attributed to policymakers’ lack of understanding of the relevant science. Conversely, what do scientists need to understand about the policymaking process in order to engage policymakers productively and communicate their research effectively in this context?

Problem of Compensation for American Property in Czechoslovakia in 1945–1948

This article explores one aspect of the US policy in Europe between 1945 and 1948. Following World War II, Washington’s increased influence required new mechanisms and ways of behaviour. US diplomacy needed to combine its traditional course meant to protect American interests with the intention of expanding its influence and support democratic governments in the liberated states. However, the policy was accompanied by several serious problems and contradictions, e.g. the US relations with Czechoslovakia concerning the compensation for the nationalised and requisitioned property of American citizens. Conducted to improve and recover its economy within the socialist reforms course, the measures were perceived in the US as evidence of an increased Communist and Soviet influence. The inability of the Czechoslovak government to pay compensation and prolonged negotiations put American diplomats in front of a choice between the protection of their citizens’ property interests and continuing to support pro-Western forces in Czechoslovakia. The weakness of the Czechoslovak economy and its limited financial resources were not accepted by the Americans as a good enough reason for concessions. Washington took a principled stand declaring the need for adequate and effective compensation as a condition for the development of any other relations. It used financial pressure — blocking loans and credits which Czechoslovakia was desperate for. This led to a deterioration of bilateral relations and influenced the decline of popularity of pro-Western political forces in Czechoslovakia, ending with the Communist takeover in 1948, which made compensation impossible for a few decades to come.

Filial Considerations in Mate Selection: Urban and Rural Guangdong in the Post-Mao Era

This article examines the transformation of filial piety by probing disagreements between parents and children over marriage decisions. Based on field observations and in-depth interviews in Guangdong, this research shows that children’s responses to disagreements vary by gender, generation, and rural or urban background. Collective family economies and intergenerational moral imperatives create a strong patriarchal basis for filial obedience for older respondents and rural non-migrants. Rural migrants’ responses are the most diverse given the option to live separately from their parents, although they feel obligated to please their parents, who are morally and culturally constrained by their rural community. The resurgence of parental power is conflated with strong reciprocal emotional bonding in young urbanites, contributing to painful and prolonged negotiations with parents. Sons are more constrained by parental authority than daughters, given the continued importance of patrilineality. This study therefore illustrates the resilience and the multifaceted transformation of filial piety in China.

Can Ownership Restrictions Enhance Security Value? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

This paper examines the role of ownership restrictions in raising capital from niche clienteles. Extant literature suggests that limiting availability of securities to only certain classes of investors constricts demand, and hence decreases prices. We argue that ownership restrictions can have positive implications for prices when viewed in the overall context of security design. We provide empirical evidence through an in-depth analysis of a natural experiment: multiple events of capital raising by an emerging market company with ownership restrictions, namely $4.2 billion and $5.5 billion of bonds offered by India's largest bank, State Bank of India exclusively to Indians living abroad at approximately 150 basis points below comparable benchmarks leading to a bottom line savings of $1.08 billion. This is an intriguing issue because it raises the question, how can an emerging market issuer with junk bond ratings obtain such yields? We argue that ownership restrictions can lead to value enhancement as well as value transfer from holders of other securities. Ownership restrictions can enhance value by circumventing the deadweight costs of prolonged negotiations, particularly when a security is restricted to a homogenous clientele that values the underlying collateral higher than other investors. Restricting the ownership further ensures that investment is limited to a homogenous class of investors that the issuer cares about. It thus serves as a precommitment to ensuring an efficient ex-post renegotiation in the potential default states, resulting in a lower ex-ante offering yield (and a higher offer price). This can result in an implicit seniority of holders of these restricted bonds vis-a-vis holders of unrestricted bonds. We empirically test and find support for both value enhancement as well as for value transfer from ownership restrictions. In particular, we find evidence of a transfer of wealth from existing holders of foreign currency denominated bonds of other Indian firms. However, the implicit seniority accounts for some but not all the difference in yields suggesting that ownership restrictions also enhance value through other avenues such as higher collateral valuation and lower renegotiation costs. Overall, our results suggest that firms with niche clienteles can benefit from designing securities with ownership restrictions, by offering new securities exclusively to investors who value them the most.

The Battle of Shangganling, Korea, October-November 1952

The six-week-long Battle of Shangganling (known to the Americans as Operation SHOWDOWN), demonstrated the increasing military effectiveness of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (cpva) in the Korean War. The cpva intervention in October and November 1950 had deprived the American-led United Nations Command (unc) of an almost certain victory and set the outcome of the Korean War in strategic limbo. After five Chinese-led campaigns and several u.s. Eighth Army counteroffensives, the battle lines stabilized with the cpva still exposed to American firepower from the ground and air. Prolonged negotiations to settle the conflict (begun in July 1951) gave Chinese armies the opportunity to rearm, reform, and establish a competitive tactical method. Both sides deadlocked over the issue of prisoner repatriation in the spring of 1952, leading a frustrated unc to seek to inflict enough damage on Chinese armies while seizing key terrain to make them more likely to accept demands for voluntary repatriation. SHOWDOWN’s failure convinced American leaders that the military power then available in the Korean theater could not settle the war. The Chinese experience at Shangganling produced a similar lesson and further validated the cpva’s doctrine and technique that permitted them to resist the unc’s coercive approach.

Paris agreement (PA) on climate change and South Africa’s coal-energy complex: issues at stake

After two decades of unduly prolonged negotiations that characterized the Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, the international system only recently witnessed a substantive globally acceptable climate regime, the Paris Agreement (PA). The less legally binding and largely voluntary agreement establishes, amongst other things, a common framework for all Parties aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) to not more than 2°C and more significantly, 1.5°C above the pre-industrial levels. Although the agreement admits that an economy driven by clean energy is indispensable to sustainable development, its demand of a rapid end to fossil fuel places a burden on South Africa to replace its coal and gas with clean energy sources. Meeting such demand, when no credible alternatives are put in place, would only exacerbate poverty for the millions of South Africans whose livelihood and businesses are largely sustained by coal-powered electricity. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) assess the Paris climate agreement and its feasibility; (2) appraise South Africa’s coal-dependent economy; (3) suggest adjustment options aimed at dealing effectively with the situation, and also providing support for the aggregate welfare of South Africans. This article adopts the ‘complex interdependence’ and ‘green’ theories.

Transparency vs efficiency? A study of negotiations in the Council of the European Union

Recent studies suggest there is a direct trade-off between transparency and efficiency in legislative politics. We challenge this conclusion and present a bargaining model where one particular kind of transparency – the publication of legislative records – works to overcome problems of incomplete information. We also present empirical findings from legislative activities in the Council of the European Union from 1999 to 2014 and from 23 interviews with senior officials in Brussels. Our results show that increased transparency, in the form of publication of legislative records, does not lead to gridlock or prolonged negotiations. On the contrary, recordings of governments’ positions help facilitate decision-making as it increases credibility of policy positions. This, in turn, lowers risk of negotiation failure and screens out marginal amendments.

Regulatory Unilateralism: Arguments for Going It Alone on Climate Change

AbstractClimate change is a collective action problem that has often been analyzed as a Prisoner's Dilemma. States have an incentive to free ride on the efforts of others. Yet around the globe national and sub‐national governments are introducing regulatory measures to reduce emissions that can be fairly characterized as unilateral actions. The US and China, the world's two largest emitters, are at the forefront. Indeed the evidence of states beginning to depart from business‐as‐usual behavior raises the possibility that the characterizations of climate change as a Prisoner's Dilemma may apply less strongly to the problem and that something else may be starting to happen. Accordingly, this article considers: (i) to what extent nations are taking unilateral action to address climate change; and (ii) in the context of climate change, which is considered one of the greatest global collective action problems the world has faced, what are the possible economic explanations for nations to act in a unilateral fashion and what are the normative reasons for doing so. We justify regulatory unilateralism on economic, geopolitical and moral grounds, and argue that regulatory unilateralism may offer the best hope of triggering a race to cut emissions. A race rather than prolonged negotiations is what is required at this moment in climate history.

Worldwide impact of IMF policies during the Asian crisis: who does the IMF help, creditors or crisis countries?

This paper examines the effects of International Monetary Fund (IMF) policy announcements on financial markets worldwide. We investigate reactions from stock, bond, foreign exchange and futures markets and banking and financial companies during the Asian crisis. We explore the impact of IMF bailouts not only on crisis countries, but also on main creditor countries. We study the impact of local governments’ and public responses in crisis countries to account for interaction between the IMF and local parties. We show IMF involvement and local governments’ co-operation actually helps crisis countries but not creditors. We show that in crisis countries, financial markets generally react unfavourably to their governments’ initial demands for IMF assistance, while compliance of the crisis countries with the IMF policy action is commonly perceived as good news. Financial markets in crisis countries react negatively to prolonged negotiations and government actions against IMF policy. Creditor countries’ financial markets are not responsive to IMF actions in crisis countries. We discuss policy implications of findings.

Anhalt’s Oppenheimer: The History of a Never-Finished Major Work

The “opera fantasy” Oppenheimer by Istvan Anhalt (1919–2012) survives as a draft libretto and 1,100 pages of musical sketches, on which the composer concentrated from mid-1988 to late 1991, partly with the collaboration of the playwright John Murrell. Prolonged negotiations with the Canadian Opera Company eventually collapsed and the work was abandoned. Using prior research by Peter Laki and archival documents (especially the composer’s previously inaccessible “diary” of the opera’s progress), this article traces Oppenheimer’s compositional development and the COC production talks, compares it to the 2005 opera Doctor Atomic by John Adams and Peter Sellars (both works deal with J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in creating the first atomic bomb), and speculates on possible affinities between the existing sketches and other Anhalt compositions of the same period.

Prolonged international environmental negotiations: the roles and strategies of non-state actors in the EU

For scholars of international environmental agreements, the role of non-state actors has been a central focus. There is a considerable literature on the influence of environmental NGOs and business groups on state behaviour and in turn international environmental outcomes. However, much less empirical work has been done to examine the influence of these actors and the strategies they can use in prolonged international environmental negotiations that last for years or decades. This article takes up this task. Drawing on a rich empirical data set on the role of European-based actors in the international climate change negotiations, it considers the influence of non-state actors in prolonged negotiations and identifies four strategies that these actors can use to influence state actors and non-state actors alike.

Negotiating Economic Partnership Agreement between EU and ECOWAS : Implications for West African Integration

European Union (EU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreement for over fourteen years without significant progress. The stalled negotiation is affecting integrative initiative of ECOWAS vision 2020:20. This study not only interrogated the prolonged negotiations of the economic partnership agreement between EU and ECOWAS but also investigated the reasons for the prolonged negotiations and its implications for West African integration. The study adopted a combination of historical and descriptive survey designs. The population for the study was the ECOWAS member states. Qualitative data,, supported by structured and unstructured interviews will be applied. Secondary data would be obtained from relevant books, Internet and other documents from EU and ECOWAS secretariats. Descriptive statistics and content analysis will be used in analysing the data. The study adopted Zartman theory of the weak versus the strong and neo functionalism. The study found out that the unfavourable clauses and selfish interests among the ECOWAS leaders are prolonging the EPA among other factors. The study recommended that ECOWAS countries must eschew self interest, overcome issues associated with distrust among member states, mobilise and sensitise patronage and consumption of local products amongst others, in order to promote integrative economic partnership negotiation and trade bloc