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AA1 Aaron, Henry J. HEALTH CARE RATIONING: WHAT IT MEANS.
The Brookings Institution Policy Brief, December
2005, pp. 1-8.
Full text available from publisher website
The United States spends more on health care than any other
nation. In 2003, medical spending made up more than 15 percent
of U.S. GDP, and if historical trends persist, this share will
climb to more than one-third of GDP by 2040. With medical
technology advancing at an ever-increasing rate, the potential
for spending on procedures not worth their costs is growing. But
there are few good ideas for reining in medical costs without
hurting patients. One approach, used in Britain for many years,
is rationing. This brief examines many of the issues involved
with rationing health care by applying its principles to
radiology, using examples from the budgetlimited British health
system. There, policymakers and medical providers routinely
grapple with two difficult and value-laden questions: How much
should be spent on the expensive but life saving technology? And
how much should be spent on very costly research to evaluate
that investment? Henry J. Aaron is a Senior Fellow at the
Brookings Institution.
AA2 Atkinson, Robert D. IS THE NEXT ECONOMY TAKING SHAPE? Issues in Science and Technology,
Winter 2006, pp. 62-69.
Full text available via ProQuest
Recent economic trends, including a massive trade deficit,
declining median incomes, and relatively weak job growth, have
been, to say the least, somewhat disheartening. But there is one
bright spot: strong productivity growth. Starting in the
mid-1990s, productivity has rebounded after 20 years of
relatively poor performance. Why has productivity grown so much?
Why did it fall so suddenly in the 1970s and 80s? Is this latest
surge likely to last? Understanding the answers to these
questions goes to heart of understanding the prospects for
future U.S. prosperity. Robert Atkinson is vice president of
the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) in Washington, DC and
director of PPI's Technology and New Economy Project.
AA3 Harrald, John R. SEA TRADE AND SECURITY: AN ASSESSMENT
OF THE POST-9/11 REACTION. Journal of International
Affairs, Fall/Winter 2005, pp. 157-178.
Full text available upon request
(to addresses in Belgium only)
In his best selling book, The World is Flat, Thomas
Friedman describes the interconnected global economy enabled by
advances in information and communication technology and other
factors that he terms "flatteners". This compelling tale does
not, however, include a description of the 60-year, post-Second
World War evolution in sea trade that has made globalization
possible. As stated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), "the world paradigm for global
prosperity has been predicated on near-frictionless transport
and trade". Although efficient sea trade is a critical component
of the world economy, security was not a significant factor in
the design or evolution of the global trading system. The
attacks of 11 September 2001 made it apparent that revolutionary
changes in maritime and port security would be required. This
paper outlines the threats against and vulnerabilities of the
sea-trade system; describes the international and U.S. response;
discusses gaps that have not been adequately addressed and
issues that are not yet resolved; and concludes that many
security goals cannot be met without relying on others to
retro-fit security into the complex systems that are the basis
of world economic well-being. John R. Harrald is Professor of
Engineering Management and Director at the Institute for Crisis,
Disaster, and Risk Management at The George Washington
University.
AA4 Katel, Peter. MINIMUM WAGE. CQ Researcher,
December 16 2005, various pages.
Full text available upon request
(to addresses in Belgium only)
The federal minimum wage — $5.15 an hour — has not changed
since 1997. Since then, minimum-wage earners have lost 17
percent of their purchasing power to inflation. Supporters of
increasing the rate say it would lift many Americans out of
poverty, but business groups say an increase would hurt the
working poor because it would cause companies to lay off
low-wage workers. In any case, they say, many minimum-wage
earners are middle-class teens earning pocket money, not poor
adults. Attempts in Congress to raise the minimum wage failed
this year, but perennial sponsor Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
D-Mass., says he will try again next year. Seventeen states and
Washington, D.C., now have higher minimum wages than the federal
level, and 130 cities and counties have so-called living-wage
laws requiring public contractors to pay significantly higher
wages. Nevada and Florida recently passed minimum-wage ballot
initiatives, and more state battles are looming. Peter Katel
is a veteran journalist who previously served as Latin America
bureau chief for Time magazine, in Mexico City, and as a
Miami-based correspondent for Newsweek and The Miami Heralds El
Nuevo Herald.
AA5 Lynn, Leonard and Salzman, Hal. COLLABORATIVE
ADVANTAGE. Issues in Science and Technology, Winter
2006, pp. 74-83.
Full text available via ProQuest
Lynn and Salzman discuss the need for US to develop a vibrant
science and technology economy and to aggressively look for
partnership opportunities--mutual-gain situations--around the
globe. The US should move away from an almost certainly futile
attempt to maintain dominance and toward an approach in which
leadership comes from developing and brokering mutual gains
among equal partners. Such "collaborative advantage" comes not
from self-sufficiency or maintaining a monopoly on advanced
technology, but from being a valued collaborator at various
levels in the international system of technology development.
Leonard Lynn is a professor of management policy at case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Hal Salzman is a
senior research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington,
DC.
AA6 Auer, Josef. EUROPEAN ENERGY STRATEGIES AFTER THE
PETROLEUM AGE. AICGS Issue Brief, January 2006, pp.
1-4.
Full text available from publisher website
Securing the supply of energy is one of mankind’s basic needs.
The exploitation of fossil fuels, (coal, petroleum, and more
recently natural gas), has been one of the foundations of the
development of industrial society. The harnessing of these
conventional energy sources paved the way for the rapid advances
in civilization over the last two centuries. Without fossil
fuels there would be no light for large parts of the population,
no hot meals, no protection against the cold in winter or the
heat in summer, and no modern household appliances,
transportation, or communications. Yet secure energy supplies
can by no means be taken for granted. In the 1990s low prices
for fossil fuels seemed to suggest that energy supplies were
secure. However, recent surges in the price of petroleum, the
number one source of energy, and power outages in North America
and Europe have shown the urgent need to readopt the securing of
supplies as an energy policy objective. The European Commission
was right when it warned at the end of 2000 that the supply
situation was about to become critical. At the time, however,
many regarded this warning as an exaggeration. For a longer-term
sustainable strategy for the future, fossil fuels alone are by
no means sufficient, despite their positive wealth effects in
the past. Dr. Josef Auer is Deutsche Bank Fellow at AICGS.
AA7 Hulsman, John C. and Gardiner, Nile. AFTER SCHROEDER:
U.S.-GERMAN RELATIONS IN THE MERKEL ERA. The Heritage
Foundation Backgrounder #1907, January 11 2006, various
pages.
Full text available from publisher website
The election of Angela Merkel as Germany’s new chancellor and
the departure of Gerhard Schroeder provide an opportunity for
Washington and Berlin to lay the groundwork for greater
cooperation in the war on terrorism and in international efforts
to address the growing threat from rogue regimes such as Iran
and Syria. Merkel’s ascendancy will pave the way both for an
easing of tensions between Germany and the United States in the
wake of the Iraq war and for a modest warming of relations.
However, the Merkel chancellorship will not herald a
fundamental transformation of the U.S.–German relationship.
Washington must not raise its expectations too high with regard
to relations with Germany in the post-Schroeder era. John C.
Hulsman, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow in European Affairs
and Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., is the Bernard and Barbara Lomas
Fellow in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division
of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for
International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.
AA8 Lebl, Leslie S. WORKING WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION.
Orbis, Winter 2006, pp. 117-132.
Full text available upon request
(to addresses in Belgium only)
The past year saw growing uncertainty about the future of the
European Union. Whether it becomesweaker or stronger, andwhether
it acts as a global partner or competitor, the United States
cannot afford to ignore the EU. By understanding the different
EU decision-making processes for defense, foreign policy,
counterterrorism, and economic issues, the United States can do
a better job of advancing its interests in Europe. Leslie S.
Lebl is a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council of
the United States. She is writing a monograph on advancing U.S.
interests with the European Union, based on a grant from the
Smith Richardson Foundation.
AA9 Moustakis, Fotios et al. TURKISH-KURDISH RELATIONS AND THE EUROPEAN
UNION: AN UNPRECEDENTED SHIFT IN THE KEMALIST PARADIGM?
Mediterranean Quarterly, Fall 2005, pp. 77-89.
Full text available upon request
(to addresses in Belgium only)
The struggle for
recognition within a wider political arena has become an
essential ingredient for a state, or a group of people within a
state, if they are to survive and avoid social and economic
extinction. It is widely accepted that the possibility of
Turkey's accession to the European Union not only could bridge
the cultural gap between the East and the West but would bolster
the ailing Turkish economy and create an opening for the EU to
Asia. Fotios Moustakis is senior lecturer in strategic
studies at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
Global Issues
AA10 Anomymous. GLOBAL PROGRESS REPORT. Current
History, December 2006, pp. 403-410.
Full text available upon request
"The article provides a general worldview of the year 2005,
examining the realms of liberal democracy, security and
politics, economic and social development, and the rising
inequality, with citations from Francis Fukuyama's book The End
of History and the Last Man. In the arenas of economic and
social development, critics of affluent nations have observed
more talk than action in attempts to bridge divides between the
lucky prosperous and the invisible poor. Meanwhile, a UN study
released in October noted that, with the spread of economic
growth, political stability, global trade, and more effective
peacemaking institutions, the number of wars worldwide continues
to decline."
AA11 Marten, Gerald et al. ENVIRONMENTAL TIPPING POINTS.
World Watch Magazine.
November/December 2005, pp. 10-14.
Full text available via ProQuest
"In places as diverse as the Philippines, India, and New York
City, people are addressing complex environmental problems by
finding their positive 'tipping points'—a point where catalytic
action can set off a cascade of positive changes that tip the
system towards sustainability.
Where top-down regulations and high-priced technical fixes
aren't working, positive environmental tipping points offer a
third way to restore communities, both natural and human. The
authors use case studies from Apo Island, the Philippines,
Rajasthan in India, and New York City to illustrate how small
changes can lead to both environmental rejuvenation and an
increased sense of community, reversing larger negative social
and environmental trends. 'Environmental tipping points show
that saving an ecosystem and a community can go hand in hand,'
state the authors." Gerald Marten is an ecologist based at
the EastWest Center in Honolulu.
AA12 Morton, David. GUNNING FOR THE WORLD.
Foreign Policy, January/February 2006, pp. 58-67.
Full text available via ProQuest
"Once just a club for red-blooded Americans, the National
Rifle Association has become a savvy global lobby. It presses
for gun rights at the United Nations. It assists pro-gun
campaigns from Sydney to São Paulo. And it has found that its
message -- loving freedom means loving guns -- resonate almost
everywhere." David Morton is a freelance writer working in
South America.
AA13 Stoll-Kleemann, Susanne. VOICES FOR BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
Environment, December 2005, pp. 24-36.
Full text available via ProQuest
"To a large degree, significantly reducing the rate of
global biodiversity loss depends on managing protected
areas. Often, effective management involves enhancing the
ecosystem services of these areas by integrating local
livelihood into action plans. Stoll-Kleemann evaluates the
successes and failures of ecological and socioeconomic
approaches for better governance of protected areas based
from the voices of those experienced in biodiversity
management." Susanne Stoll-Kleemann, is an associate
professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where she
leads the Governance of Biodiversity Research Group.
AA14
Art, Robert J. THE UNITED STATES, THE BALANCE OF POWER, AND
WORLD WAR II: WAS SPYKMAN RIGHT? Security Studies,
July–September 2005, pp, 365–406.
Full text available upon request
"American foreign policy analysts have generally viewed World War
II as the most important of the six wars the country fought in
the twentieth century. By entering this war, so the argument
goes, the United States prevented the gravest geopolitical
threat to its security-German and Japanese hegemonies in
Eurasia-from materializing. Careful reexamination of the best
case for U.S. entry into World War II, made by Nicholas Spykman
in 1942, demonstrates that the traditional view is misplaced:
the United States could have remained secure over the long term
had it not entered the war and had it allowed Germany and Japan
to win. Its standard of living and its way of life, however,
would most likely have suffered. Avoidance of those two outcomes
was the real reason to have entered the war. The implications of
this analysis for balance of power theory and current American
grand strategy are spelled out." Robert J. Art is Christian
A. Herter Professor of International Relations at Brandeis
University, where he teaches international relations and
specializes in national security affairs and American foreign
policy. He is also research associate at the Olin Institute for
Strategic Studies at Harvard University, senior advisor at the
Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and director of MIT’s Seminar XXI Program.
AA15 Farrell, Theo. STRATEGIC CULTURE AND AMERICAN
EMPIRE. Sais Review, Summer-Fall 2005, pp. 3-18.
Full text available via ProQuest
"This article considers the ideational fabric of American
empire. Section one discusses why liberal democratic empires are
not particularly peaceful. Section two highlights the analytical
value of a focus on U.S. strategic culture in explaining U.S.
military practice. Section three looks more broadly at the role
of identity in giving meaning to the U.S. imperial project and
in giving reasons for the use of force in support of it.
Throughout, comparisons are made with the British Empire and
consideration is given to the meta-theoretical options and
methodological challenges for the social science of strategic
culture." Theo Farrell is reader in War in the Modern
World at King's College London.
AA16 Hakim, Peter. IS WASHINGTON LOSING LATIN AMERICA?
Foreign Affairs, January-February 2006, pp. 39-53.
Full text available upon request
"For nearly a decade, U.S. policy toward Latin America has been
narrowly focused on a handful of issues, such as China's growing
influence in the region and the power of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez. Latin Americans want economic ties with the United
States but feel slighted by Washington and uneasy about the U.S.
role in the world. The costs of the estrangement will be high
for both sides." Peter Hakim is President of the
Inter-American Dialogue.
AA17 Mandelbaum, Michael. DAVID'S FRIEND GOLIATH.
Foreign Policy, Jan/Feb 2006, pp. 50-56.
Full text available via ProQuest
"The US is the subject of endless commentary, most of it
negative, some of it poisonously hostile. Statements by foreign
leaders, street demonstrations in national capitals, and
much-publicized opinion polls all seem to bespeak a worldwide
conviction that the US misuses its enormous power in ways that
threaten the stability of the international system. The charge
that the US threatens others is frequently linked to the use of
the term 'empire' to describe America's international presence.
Unlike the great empires of the past, the US goal was to build
stable, effective governments and then to leave as quickly as
possible. The alternative to the role the US plays in the world
is not better global governance, but less of it -- and that
would make the world a far more dangerous and less prosperous
place. Never in human history has one country done so much for
so many others, and received so little appreciation for its
efforts." Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter
professor of American foreign policy at The Johns Hopkins
University's School of Advanced International Studies and author
of The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's
Government in the Twenty-First Century (New York: PublicAffairs,
2006), from which this article is adapted.
AA18 Dobbins, James. New
Directions for Transatlantic Security Cooperation.
Survival, Winter 2005–06 pp. 39–54.
Full text available upon
request (to addresses in Belgium only)
The main obstacles to transatlantic collaboration over the past
several years have been substantive differences, not
institutional deficiencies. Communication among the major
Western leaders began to break down in the heat of the 2002
German election campaign, and deteriorated further in the run-up
to the Iraq war. Intimate and confidential consultations among
the major transatlantic powers of the sort that had set the
Alliance’s direction through decades of Cold War and Balkan
peacemaking were discontinued and have yet to be reconstituted.
Setbacks in Iraq have chastened the American administration and
demonstrated the limits of unilateralism. French and Dutch
rejection of the European constitution has similarly dimmed
European aspirations toward multi-polarity. If these differences
can be bridged, if Washington, Paris, London and Berlin can
agree on the broad lines of Western policy, then Europe can have
a common foreign and security policy, and NATO a purpose. If
these capitals cannot agree, if the core cannot be
reconstituted, if the centre will not hold, then no
institutional fixes can repair the damage. James Dobbins is a
former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Ambassador to
the European Community, and American Special Envoy for Somalia,
Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. He is currently Director
of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the
RAND Corporation.
AA19 Graham, Thomas Jr.
Space Weapons and The Risk of Accidental Nuclear War
Arms Control Today, Dec 2005. pp. 12-17
Full text available via ProQuest
The history of the last 50 years teaches us that, if dangerous
weapons and technologies are to be controlled to the safety and
security of all, it must be done early, before the programs
become entrenched. That time may well be now with respect to
weapons in space. The United States does not have a secure
future in space without broad and sustained international
cooperation. The deployment of weapons in space, whether
offensive or defensive, would make this necessary cooperation
difficult if not impossible. There would likely be retaliation,
which would seriously degrade the progress that has been made
over the last five or six decades toward multilateral
international cooperation in space. Thomas Graham, Jr. is a former special representative of the
president for arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament.
AA20 Kelin, Andrei.
NATO-Russia cooperation to counter terrorism. NATO
Review, Autumn 2005, online article.
Full text available from publisher website
In the wake of July's London underground bombings, Russian
President Vladimir Putin lamented how little international
cooperation in combating terrorism takes place, in spite of the
scale of the threat and the extent of the atrocities. Although
progress has been made in this area in the years since 9/11, the
nature of the challenge is such that we are still only learning
how to combat terrorism on a global scale. This is definitely
the case as far as Russia is concerned, and most likely the case
for NATO as well, since this powerful political-military
organization was not originally designed to fight terrorists.
NATO and Russia have made considerable progress in developing
cooperation in the anti-terrorist field in recent years. This
cooperation is still in its early days, however, and its
practical dimension in particular needs to be enhanced. In spite
of the best international efforts, the threat posed by
international terrorism has not diminished. Our aim must,
therefore, be to foster genuine anti-terrorism cooperation in
the form of a strategic NATO-Russia partnership throughout the
Euro-Atlantic region. Andrei Kelin is a departmental director
at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
AA21 Omand, David.
Countering international terrorism: The use of strategy.
Survival, Winter 2005–06, pp. 107–116
Full text available upon
request (to addresses in Belgium only)
Recent attacks in London and Bali underline the dangers, actual
and potential, in the spread of international terrorism. The
stakes are getting higher for government as public expectations
of safety and security rise, but the absence of international
agreement on a longer-term and comprehensive counter-terrorist
strategy is an increasing weakness in our collective efforts to
match a developing threat. Reducing that threat, and society’s
vulnerability to it, will have to be important national
priorities for many nations for years to come. The deliberate
and positive use of strategic planning at national and
international levels can help governments reduce the level of
threat to their publics whilst helping engender public
confidence in the ability of government to rise to this
challenge. Sir David Omand was UK Security and Intelligence
Coordinator and Permanent Secretary in the Cabinet Office from
2002 to 2005. His previous UK civil service posts included
Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, Director GCHQ and Policy
Director of the Ministry of Defense.
AA22 Terzuolo, Eric R.
Combating WMD proliferation.
NATO Review, Autumn 2005, online article.
Full text available from publisher website
The initiative currently under way in NATO to improve the
quality of political dialogue is of vital importance. It must
not focus too exclusively on regional issues, and needs to look
seriously at what the Secretary General recently termed “the
cross-cutting issues, the horizontal issues, like terrorism and
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction”. Indeed, the basic
principles for action to help address such threats should be a
central element of NATO political dialogue. For this to work,
there is heavy lifting to be done by the heads of state and
government and ministers. Clearly, success in making NATO more
strategically effective depends on the political will of
individual member states to share information and analysis, but
even more importantly to create and sustain an atmosphere where
Allies talk to each other, not at each other. Eric R.
Terzuolo was NATO's Manfred Wörner Fellow for 2003-04 and is the
author of the forthcoming “NATO and Weapons of Mass Destruction”
(Routledge, 2006). A member of the US Foreign Service from 1982
to 2003, he holds a PhD from Stanford University and has taught
international relations and European history in Italy, the
Netherlands and the United States.
------------------------
AA Alani, Mustafa.
Arab perspectives on NATO. NATO
Review, Winter 2005, online article.
Full text available from publisher website
Even though NATO is a newcomer to what
is in any case an overcrowded Arab and Middle Eastern political
arena, its image is already poor. This is not the result of
anything that the Alliance per se has done in the
region, since it has hardly done anything. Rather, it is a
reflection of prevailing attitudes in the Arab world that are
themselves rooted in Arab historical experience and, above all,
Arab historical grievance. As a result, the policies and
objectives of the Alliance in the Middle East have effectively
been pre-judged, and the possibility of NATO playing a
constructive role in the region all but written off by the Arab
public. Mustafa Alani is senior adviser and director
of the Security and Terrorism Studies Program at the Gulf
Research Center in Dubai.
AA
Boureston, Jack and Charles D Ferguson.
Strengthening Nuclear Safeguards: Special Committee To the
Rescue? Arms Control Today. December
2005, pp. 17-23.
Full text available via ProQuest
In June, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board
of Governors created a special committee to further strengthen
its safeguards system-the inspections, accounting, and analyses
the agency uses to detect and deter diversion of nuclear
material and technology for weapons programs. The decision was
made under pressure from the United States following a February
2004 speech by President George W. Bush in which he proposed
creating the committee as part of a seven-point plan to combat
nuclear proliferation. Still, the United States had to
compromise to win backing for the decision, which many states
feared would hamper peaceful nuclear activities. China, for
example, said that the committee should serve only as an adviser
to the IAEA board and should not interfere with the board's
authority or role.1 The new committee will be fully advisory in
nature and wholly subordinate to the board. Also, the committee
will not intervene in the day-to-day operations of the
secretariat, although it could probably draw on the expertise of
the IAEA's safeguards department or other agency offices.
Comprehensive safeguards, as they are known today, can be
described as a set of internationally approved technical and
legal measures to verify the political undertakings of states
not to use nuclear material to manufacture nuclear weapons and
to deter any such use. Jack Boureston is managing director of
FirstWatch International, a private nuclear proliferation
research group in Monterey, California and Charles D. Ferguson
is a science and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations.
AA Steinberg, James.
Preventive Force in US
National Security Strategy. Survival, Winter
2005–06, pp. 55-72.
Full text available upon
request (to addresses in Belgium only)
It seems clear that despite the highly polarized debate
around the issuance of the 2002 National Security Strategy,
followed by preventive war in Iraq, the underlying logic in
support of accepting the carefully limited use of preventive
force in appropriate contexts is not only compelling, but had
already become entrenched in practice, if not in ‘black letter’
international law. All of the policy tools available in
international relations have costs as well as benefits, as the
rich literature on economic sanctions shows. It is appropriate
that the use of force under any circumstances should come only
after a very careful consideration of all the alternatives, and
in the case of preventive force, the arguments in favor of great
caution are particularly strong. The threat or use of preventive
force is neither a magic bullet nor anathema; but the Bush
administration is correct in asserting that some threats simply
cannot be addressed by waiting until they become actual or
‘imminent’ as traditionally understood. The stronger the
institutional mechanisms, and the broader the political support
for a given use of force, the more likely it will not only be
seen as legitimate, but also that the adverse consequences can
be limited. The unilateral use of preventive force therefore
truly should be seen as an in extremis policy choice. James
Steinberg has recently been appointed Dean of the LBJ School of
Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin; the
position will begin on 1 January 2006. Currently, he is Vice
President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at
The Brookings Institution.
AA Creveld van, Martin. NATO,
Israel and peace in the
Middle East. NATO
Review, Winter 2005, online article.
Full text available from publisher website
How do Israelis see NATO, and what role
may the latter play in helping resolve the Middle East conflict?
To answer these questions, one must start from the fact that
Israel's foreign policy and defense establishment has no great
liking for international organizations. The reasons are obvious.
For much of its history Israel has been a semi-pariah state. The
number of Arab states, of which there are 14, and Muslim ones,
of which there are dozens, means that every time an
international gathering takes place, Jerusalem is liable to find
itself in a minority of one. On the face of it, Israeli
relations with NATO ought to be better. Founded only a year
after Israel, NATO was made up of Christian states, with, from
1952, one exception – Turkey. No NATO member had a fundamental
quarrel with the existence of the Jewish state, and most had
voted in favor of its creation. Furthermore, Israel's own values
have always been liberal – albeit, initially with a strong
socialist twist – and democratic. Partly for this reason, partly
because Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion feared his country would
find itself isolated in the event of another World War,
Jerusalem took a pro-Western stance in the Cold War. For this,
of course, there was a price to pay. The more pro-Western
Jerusalem's position, the more problematic its relations with
the Eastern Bloc. Martin van Creveld is a professor at
the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and author of many classic
books on military history and strategy.
AA23 Alexander, Gerard. MAKING DEMOCRACY STICK.
Policy Review, December 2005 -January 2006, var. pages.
Full text available from publisher website
"An ambitious strategy of democracy promotion is poised to be a
major pillar of U.S. foreign policy for many years after 9/11,
just as Cold War containment, trade liberalization, and
development assistance were pillars of American policy in the
decades after 1945. The strategy of democratization must begin
with the moral proposition that 'the call of freedom comes to
every mind and every soul,' as President Bush said in his second
inaugural address. But if the strategy is to succeed, we have to
ask and answer some hard questions about what obstacles exist to
achieving stable democracies and how they can be overcome. That
the strategy faces challenges is not doubted, least of all by
some of its leading advocates. Bush acknowledged 'many
obstacles' to democratization and called it the 'concentrated
work of generations.' British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said
that 'democracy is hard to bring into countries that have never
had it before.' Even Natan Sharansky, author of a relentlessly
optimistic appeal for democratization, says that in places like
Iraq, democracy faces 'a very difficult transitional period.'
But these champions of democratization emphasize obstacles to
transitions to democracy rather than obstacles to the stability
of democracies afterward." Gerard Alexander is associate
professor of politics at the University of Virginia and author
of The Sources of Democratic Consolidation (Cornell University
Press, 2002).
AA24 Corrales, Javier. HUGO BOSS. Foreign
Policy, January/February 2006, pp. 32-41.
Full text available via ProQuest
"Just when you thought Latin America was safe for democracy,
along came Hugo Chàvez. The charismatic Venezuelan president
has amassed a stunning amount of power and become the
world's most strident anti-American. Chàvez is also a
political innovator who has created a playbook for
authoritarians in a democratic age -- and leaders everywhere
are taking notes." Javier Corrales is associate professor
of government at Amherst College.
AA25 Gelb, Leslie H. et al. THE FREEDOM CRUSADE
REVISITED. The National Interest, Winter 2005/06, pp.
9-17.
Full text available upon request
"The Fall 2005 issue of The National Interest included a
provocative contribution from Robert W. Tucker, a founding
editor of this magazine, and David C. Hendrickson. Entitled 'The
Freedom Crusade', this essay questioned whether making the
promotion of democracy around the world a central organizing
principle of U.S. foreign policy was in keeping with America's
diplomatic traditions and national interests. Readers of The
National Interest are well aware that there has been a vigorous
debate in these pages over the 'democracy question.' We
invited several distinguished commentators to offer their own
opinions about the points of view expressed in 'The Freedom
Crusade' and more generally on the relationship between
democracy and U.S. interests." By Leslie H. Gelb, president
emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Daniel Pipes,
director of the Middle East Forum, Robert W. Merry, president
and publisher of Congressional Quarterly and Joseph S. Nye, Jr.,
Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University.
AA26 Kurth, James. HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION AFTER IRAQ:
LEGAL IDEAS VS. MILITARY REALITIES. Orbis, Winter
2006, pp. 87-101.
Full text available from publisher website
"The theory of humanitarian intervention has received new
attention since the humanitarian crises of the 1990s and the United States’ becoming
the world’s sole superpower. The actual practice of humanitarian
intervention, however, has declined. It is difficult to forge the political will for it
when the countries composing the global organizations that could provide the
political legitimacy disagree on an intervention, and with so few countries—mainly
the United States and Great Britain—capable of providing the required
expeditionary forces. Moreover, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have diminished
the United States’ political will, military capability, and diplomatic
credibility to conduct future humanitarian interventions. In particular, those wars
precluded its intervention in the current genocide in Darfur. Regional bodies
such as the African Union may be the only entities that can, with aid and
training, undertake effective interventions." James Kurth is the Claude
Smith Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College
and editor of Orbis.
AA27 Cohen, Richard E. and Victor Kirk and David Baumann.
NO EASY REMEDIES. National Journal, December 17, 2005, pp. 3868-3874.
Full text available via ProQuest
Congressional Republicans are spending a lot of time these days
talking about how to address their lack of political direction
and the major fissures in their ranks. But no one has yet
articulated an agenda for 2006 that promises to unite GOP
lawmakers. At this point, Republicans seem to agree only
on the vague notion that they must take a "back-to-basics"
approach that somehow recaptures the momentum of their past
electoral successes.
AA28 Gibeaut, John. NEW FIGHT FOR VOTING RIGHTS. ABA Journal, January 2006,
pp. 42-49.
Full text available via ProQuest
The Rehnquist court's view of federalism could carry heavy
weight as precedent as some states seek to escape strict
conditions the Voting Rights Act has placed on all parts of
their electoral systems. The House overruled a Supreme Court
decision requiring some plaintiffs to prove not only
discriminatory effects of voting rights violations, but
discriminatory intent, which can be difficult if not nearly
impossible. A unanimous Supreme Court already had opened the
schoolhouse doors to desegregation with the milestone decision
in Brown v. Board of Education, holding that "separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal."
AA29 Prah, Pamela M. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. DO
TEENAGERS NEED MORE PROTECTION? CQ Researcher,
January 6, 2006, pp. 1-24
Full text available upon request (only available to addresses in
Belgium)
On a typical day in the United States, three women are
murdered by their spouses or partners, and thousands more are
injured. While men are also victims of domestic violence, women
are at least five times more likely to suffer at the hands of a
loved one. Young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are most
at risk. The victims include teens who are abused by their
parents as well as young parents who assault each other or their
children. Moreover, teen-dating violence touches more than 30
percent of young men and women. The good news is that domestic
violence against women has dropped dramatically in recent years.
Now Congress has just approved a measure that advocates say will
provide much-needed funding to try to stop domestic violence
before it starts. Meanwhile, some fathers'-rights and
conservative groups say too many domestic-violence programs
demonize men, promote a feminist agenda and do not try hard
enough to keep families together.
AA30 Singer, Paul. BEYOND A CATCHY SLOGAN.
National Journal, December 10, 2005, pp. 3792-3797.
Full text available via ProQuest
Under the banner of “cooperative conservation,” the White
House is driving significant changes through the federal
bureaucracy. The aim is to foster more cooperation among
government bodies and with regulated entities, and to generate
new ways of rewarding businesses and private-company owners for
limiting harm to the environment. But environmentalists worry
that the initiative is a cover for rolling back regulations,
neglecting enforcement, and undermining bedrock environmental
protections. Either way, the initiative is taking place with
little public discussion and without so much as a single public
statement from the president who enshrined it as official
doctrine more than a year ago.
AA31 Starobin, Paul. MISFIT AMERICA. The
Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2006, pp.
Full text available via publisher website
Many of the values and cultural attributes that once made the
United States unique have eroded; those that remain look
increasingly ugly to some foreigners. Is our evolving national
character a liability in our foreign relations?
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