US Agenda Research Articles

Lekcja realizmu

In April 1978 Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu visited the United States. He met with his counterpart Jimmy Carter and discussed current bilateral and multilateral issues. Romanian agenda for that visit was to strengthen the country’s independence in the Soviet Bloc and to increase the international recognition of its leader. US agenda was to diversify the Soviet Bloc and to influence Romanian leadership to orient its internal policy towards respecting the human rights.This point was not reached. US achieved only the goals that could be described as belonging to “political realism”. Ceaușescu was not open for any idealistic principles and avoided the human rights topics. It was the last visit in the US of any leader of the Soviet Bloc countries before Gorbachev came to power.

Asia’s Response to the US Indo-Pacific Strategy: Building the RCEP

This roundtable, organized by the ASIL-Law in the Pacific Rim Region Interest Group, centers on Asia’s response to the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) from dispute resolution and trade perspectives. We seek to address the following issues: What are Asian countries’ legal and political response to the US agenda? How will recent diplomatic developments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and India counter US unilateralism? In a similar vein, how will Asia’s alternative strategies, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Comprehensive and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), shape international law and commercial transactions?

Asia-Pacífico en la perspectiva de Estados Unidos: la convivencia en una misma Agenda de las cuestiones comerciales y de las de seguridad

The Barack Obama cabinets (2008-2012; 2012-2016) entailed a significant shift regarding the issues considered as priorities during the former Republican administration (2000-2008). The priority of fighting against jihadist terrorism was coupled with an approach that gave more importance to diplomacy and international institutions. We should not interpret this phenomenon as the United States giving up the development of its role as a global leader. When it comes to the regional level, the main transformation constituted the new geostrategic and geopolitical importance conferred upon the Asia-Pacific region in detriment of the European Union, for instance. This was due to a variety of factors, some of which arise from the recent past (issues related to security and defense) or the present (the economic crisis that the EU could not fight effectively). The new US agenda towards the Asia-Pacific generated reactions of different nature, since some international actors reacted cautiously (China, Russia or the European Union), each of them for different motives. Nevertheless, it was positively regarded by the traditional US allies in the region (Australia, Japan and South Korea).

Internet & Human Rights in Foreign Policy: Comparing Narratives in the US and EU Internet Governance Agenda

The intricate relationship between Internet, on the one hand, and Human Rights, on the other, is increasingly becoming relevant in foreign policy. Discussions are animated by different actors, providing contributions from multiple perspectives, yet the debate on Internet and Human Rights is still fragmented and has not evolved into a unified agenda. This paper explores this on-going debate over competing perspectives, and frames the current discussion on Internet and Human Rights in foreign policy by providing an overview of the key governmental conferences addressing the Internet and Human rights over the first 3 years (2010-2012) since the beginning of the debate. It then proceeds to analyze key narratives, stakeholders and agendas within these conferences, as well as questions of power and legitimacy. Finally, it argues that the conferences draw from a common discourse and language, but are also representing divergent agendas between stakeholders and states.

Images on Environment in the US and Russian Media Agenda in a Comparative Perspective

The article describes the differences and similarities in media reporting and framing of environmental images across US and Russian national and regional newspapers. The cross-newspaper analysis highlighted that in the portrayal of environmental images, the US press, compared to Russian press, took a major step forward. The rationale of such a discrepancy in media coverage could be caused by the different media industry in Russia and the US as well as by the different social and geopolitical context.

Continuities and Ruptures: Tracking the US Interests in the Black Sea Area in the Context of the ‘Pivot to Asia’

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the USA has become one of the main actors on the Black Sea stage. Whereas energy has been the key driver of Washington's involvement in the region since the end of the 1990s, the US agenda has broadened to include security issues and democratization after the 9/11 attacks. Today, in the context of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ‘pivot to Asia’, the US influence in the Black Sea is retrenching. However, despite a seeming waning interest, Washington's involvement in the region is likely to remain driven by energy security considerations as well as by the deployment of NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense.

The Beagle Channel frontier dispute between Argentina and Chile: Converging domestic and international conflicts

The Beagle Channel crisis (1977–1984) unfolded in a global political context. In other words, it was never solely a bilateral matter between Argentina and Chile, as many analyses have suggested. From the international arbitration to the participation of a third actor (the Vatican), the role of the United States, the Falklands war and the United Kingdom, the Beagle crisis had pronounced regional and international dimensions. Domestic structures and international conditions affected the Argentinian and Chilean foreign policies to different degrees. The Beagle crisis resolution has been explained by reference to the key role played by the Vatican. However, recently declassified US documents and interviews with key actors reveal a different story. International sanctions for human right violations were affecting both countries’ leverage in the international community and creating internal political problems. This finding suggests that both countries were keen to use mediation as a strategy to remove human rights violations from the US agenda.

Reaping the Bloody Harvest: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the US Imperial Project

On July 22, 2011, President Barack Obama certified the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. The fight for the repeal of the homophobic policy has become a defining issue for the national LGBT civil rights movement. The repeal of the policy has been widely heralded as a civil rights victory, but it also raises questions about the complex meanings of justice, fairness, and equality under neoliberalism. Thus, the fight for the repeal of DADT provides a vital site of critique for rhetoricians as a location where neoliberal discourses of equality mask an imperialist US agenda. The article uses fantasy-theme criticism, as popularized by Ernest G. Bormann, to analyze reaction to the repeal as it chained out on social-media sites in order to locate the strategies that enable a progressive movement—that is, LGBT civil rights—to become entwined with US imperialism. This analysis illustrates how popular discursive crafting of DADT as a US civil rights issue masks the many ways that the construction “gays in the military” shores up homonormativity and sexual exceptionalism that assist in the deployment of US imperialism.

A Challenge for Higher Education: Preparing Competent Global Leaders

The current US agenda for global learning encompasses institutions of higher education, faculty, and students. Few institutions, however, have strategically embraced the challenge of developing a mission or agenda for global learning. Even more evident is the need for institutions offering advanced degree programs in leadership to commit to, and strategically create globally sensitive campus communities and assist faculty in developing global mindset competencies that can be transferred to students through pedagogy and practice. Strategic institutional, infrastructural development, support, and resources are a prerequisite in preparing faculty to prepare students and future leaders with global mindset competencies and skills. Institutional deductive and inductive strategic planning initiatives are needed so that current and future leaders can effectively navigate with confidence and efficacy the global landscape and effectively lead international and multinational businesses. Strategies and specific recommendations to address the institutional globalization challenge are highlighted to encourage current and future academic institutional and economic viability and competitiveness.

Recruiting High Skill Labour in North America: Policies, Outcomes and Futures

AbstractThis article compares Canadian and US recruitment of highly skilled workers, defined by educational, skill, and occupational criteria. Analysis shows that Canada disproportionally recruits skilled workers as legal permanent residents whereas family reunification dominates in the US. But such contrast ignores the large temporary skilled worker flows to the US and the on‐going reliance on them, or the growing use of temporary labour in Canada, including skilled workers. Data is presented on the admission of skilled migrants; recent and future policy developments are discussed. Comprehensive immigration reform is back on the US agenda with potential to increase the migration of skilled immigrants, to utilize a point system for some, and to continue the role of employers in the H1B visa programme. Canada has recently moved to a model of high skill labour recruitment that is characterized by decentralized selection mechanisms, and is demand driven and employer instigated. Policy Implications In studies of high skill international worker flows, it is insufficient to focus only on permanent resident policies; temporary worker programmes also offer entry to high skilled workers. Although skill can be defined by high education and professional or science based occupation, some countries seek skilled workers in the trades. New Canadian policy includes a Skilled Trades class. In the United States, the congressional system often produces incremental change on aspects of skilled worker policy. In Canada, the consolidation of power in the parliamentary executive is allowing substantial change in how skilled international workers will be recruited.

How the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement could undermine PHARMAC and threaten access to affordable medicines and health equity in New Zealand

New Zealand's Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC) has been highly successful in facilitating affordable access to medicines through a combination of aggressive price negotiations, innovative procurement mechanisms, and careful evaluation of value for money. Recently the US government, through the establishment of a series of bilateral and plurilateral "free" trade agreements, has attempted to constrain the pharmaceutical access programs of other countries in order to promote the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) represents the latest example; through the TPPA the US is seeking to eliminate therapeutic reference pricing, introduce appeals processes for pharmaceutical companies to challenge formulary listing and pricing decisions, and introduce onerous disclosure and "transparency" provisions that facilitate industry involvement in decision-making around coverage and pricing of medicines (and medical devices). This paper argues that the US agenda, if successfully prosecuted, would be likely to increase costs and reduce access to affordable medicines for New Zealanders. This would in turn be likely to exacerbate known inequities in access to medicines and thus disproportionately affect disadvantaged population groups, including Māori and Pacific peoples.

Contesting Identity

The interface between religion and politics has become strong in the wake of expansion of modernity in its contemporary form. This can be regarded as cultural globalization. To interpret this phenomenon, the demonization of Islam by the West led by the US has been taken as a key epistemological point. This article argues that this policy, framed as part of the American strategy in the global war on terrorism, has constituted a key component of the larger US agenda. One facet of this agenda is primarily related to America’s bid to perpetuate the institutional structure of the permanent war economy envisaged during the Cold War period. The structure consists of the vocational interests of the arms lobby and the hawkish politico-bureaucratic-strategic condominium in the US. To accomplish this goal, communism, the United States’ Cold War enemy, has been replaced by a new enemy, Islam, at the end of the Cold War. The events of 11 September 2001 brought all this to a full circle and facilitated the US to advance justifications for continuing the permanent war economy and to substantiate the transformation of the ideological conflict of the Cold War into a cultural conflict in the post-Cold War period. In this regard, the rise of US soft power, made possible by the pervasive impact of globalization, has helped defend America’s post-Cold War proposition regarding an emergent war culture and the portrayal of Islam as the Manichean other in this war.

From “Shared Responsibility” to a Migration Agreement? The Limits for Cooperation in the Mexico‐United States Case (2000–2008)1

AbstractWhy were the Mexican and United States governments unable to establish formal cooperation for the management of migration flows even after agreeing on the need for a “shared responsibility” approach and establishing an agenda for negotiations on a bilateral agreement in the spring of 2001? Conventional wisdom is that the terrorist attacks of September 11th were the main reason for the shift from a bilateral to a unilateral approach to the management of US‐Mexico migration flows. Although this event changed the US government’s foreign policy priorities, in order to understand the reasons why the proposal for a migration agreement failed, it is necessary to look beyond the security context that permeated the US agenda after September 11th and analyse the underlying structural, domestic and ideological factors that influenced the governments’ positions during and after the negotiations. By examining the context of power asymmetry in the US‐Mexico relationship, the domestic politics that surround the issue and public perceptions of immigration in the United States, this paper identifies the challenges implied in efforts to expand bilateral cooperation over migration issues in the NAFTA framework. The fact that both countries’ migration policies are mostly pursued unilaterally despite the acceptance of a “shared responsibility” raises key questions regarding the limits of regional integration and bilateral or multilateral cooperation for the management of migration.

Constructive Partner or Menacing Threat? Analyzing China's Role in the Iranian Nuclear Program

This article examines contrasting paradigms of China's foreign policy in the context of China's role in the Iranian nuclear program. In contrast to revisionist and status quo paradigms, which view China as either a menacing threat or a constructive partner of the United States, this article advances a reformist paradigm that presents China as neither a follower nor an opponent of US policies. Rather, the reformist paradigm suggests that although China has placed a premium on its relations with Washington, it has also pursued stealthily obstructive policies in Iran that have enabled it to garner substantial narrow gains at the expense of compromising the US agenda in the region. The author calls this grand strategy opportunistic pragmatism.

Questioning Global Vaginahood: Reflections from Adapting The Vagina Monologues in Hong Kong

Drawing on the author's experience in devising a localized version of The Vagina Monologues in Hong Kong, this paper critically appraises the ‘global vaginahood’ in the globalization of The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day movement that reproduces a core-periphery relationship in the transnational women's movement. As a theatrical performance and a worldwide movement, these productions are remarkable for the manner in which they raise awareness about women's sexuality and violence against women in different parts of the world. Critical questions, however, remain on the rhetoric of universalism and the ethnocentric methods of the global campaign, with US women's experiences and agenda defining those of women in other parts of the world. As a worldwide campaign, the V-Day movement reproduces a hierarchical model between the global North and South, with an emphasis on Western leadership rather than coalition between partners with different experiences, priorities, and strategies. The paper argues that feminists may develop more effective coalitions with local women by recognizing and identifying locally derived creative efforts to respond to issues that are pertinent to their lives. As such, the paper is a push for dialogues in the V-Day campaign and transnational women's movement in general.

An Undesirable Alliance: The New Appearance of Iraq's Occupation

The agreements reached in November 2008 between the Bush administration and the new pro-US Iraqi political establishment are not only concerned with the modalities and the duration of the US military presence in Iraq, but they are primarily long-term agreements that bind Iraq in a relationship of dependence in political, economic, security and other fields. These agreements represent a new phase of indigenising the Iraqi conflict and accelerating institutional, economic and political dimensions of the occupation by establishing lasting conditions and mechanisms for driving a US agenda regardless of Iraqi wishes. Nevertheless, it is argued that Iraq's structural weakness under occupation and the imposition of a sectarian worldview on Iraqi political life will not be a stable environment for promoting an imperial US agenda, and that the agreements do not in themselves represent a one-way course for the future of US military engagement in Iraq. Los acuerdos logrados en noviembre de 2008 entre la administración de Bush y el nuevo establecimiento político iraquí pro-E.E.U.U. están interesados no sólo en las modalidades y la duración de la presencia del ejército estadounidense en Iraq, pero como acuerdos principalmente a largo plazo que comprometen a Iraq a una relación de dependencia política, económica, de seguridad y de otros sectores. Estos acuerdos representan una nueva fase de indigenización del conflicto iraquí y la aceleración de las dimensiones institucionales, económicas y políticas de la ocupación mediante el establecimiento de condiciones y mecanismos duraderos para conducir un plan de los E.E.U.U. independientemente de los deseos de los iraquís. No obstante, se sostiene que la debilidad estructural de Iraq bajo la ocupación y la imposición de una visión del mundo sectarista sobre la vida política iraquí, no constituirá un medioambiente estable para promover un plan imperial de los E.E.U.U. y que los acuerdos por sí mismos, no representan un trayecto unidireccional para el futuro de la participación del ejército estadounidense en Iraq.

The 2003 “Rose Revolution” in Georgia: A Case Study in High Politics and Rank-and-File Execution

The principal elements of the opposition against Eduard Shevarnadze were trained and financed by the US government and mainstream US NGOs. The Georgian opposition's orientation towards an alliance with the West and a state of “low-intensity democracy” were in accordance with the interests of Euro-Atlantic (especially US) capital. The US agenda is to ensure economic and geo-political dominance in Eurasia by means of a shift in allegiances of the local elites and the concomitant prevention of deeper democratisation. The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role. (Brzezinski)

Stem-cell issue moves up the US agenda

Stem-cell issue moves up the US agenda

Taking the lead [computer waste handling

This paper reviews the current policy of the US government on computer waste recovery and disposal. Records show that about 80% of unwanted computers are shipped overseas and the remaining 20% are not necessarily recycled responsibly. While there are pending federal initiatives, their success is seriously questioned mainly because environmental responsibility does not appear to be that high on the US agenda. In contrast, Europe has two related pieces of legislation, i.e., the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives, that are already in place to eliminate the hazardous substances from the manufacturing process itself.

Back in the race

An almost unthinkable defeat for President Bush in Congress has put embryonic stem-cell research firmly back on the US agenda. But with South Korea setting a pace the United States will still struggle to match, the field's future is fraught. Nature reports on the key political battles surrounding this issue.