Amandla

Addressing the Global Tragedy of Needless Pain: Rethinking the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
Source: Georgetown University: O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Scholarship

The lack of medical availability of effective pain medication is an enduring and expanding global health calamity. Despite important medical advances, pain remains severely under-treated worldwide, particularly in developing countries. This article contributes to the discussion of this global health crisis by considering international legal and institutional mechanisms to promote wider accessibility to critical narcotic drugs for pain relief.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 196 KB)

Aviation and Climate Change (PDF; 590 KB)
Source: House of Commons Library Research Papers

Aviation is a growing industry. Government and the aviation industry recognise a link between aviation emissions and climate change, although there is uncertainty about the measurement of the exact effects. Given the predicted growth in the aviation sector, it seems likely that unless emissions are curbed, they will cancel out efforts made to reduce emissions in other sectors. This paper sets out to explain: the effects of emissions from aviation; the difficulties in making accurate calculations about how these emissions effect climate change; and what proposals and actions are beito reduce these emissions.

“Playing in the Doll’s House of Revolution”: White Students and Activists Involved in the Black Power Movement
Source: CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania

When Stokey Charmichael first uttered the words “black power” to a crowd of civil rights supporters during the “March Against Fear” on June 16th, 1966, it marked an important – and disillusioning – moment for white students and activists involved in the movement, a shift from a civil rights struggle fought not only through nonviolent methods but also through coalitions between whites and blacks. In the years that followed, many of these white activists struggled to find a place in the burgeoning black power movement that often shunned them and the more pacifist approach to rights struggles associated with them. Many dropped out of the movement following this shift, or transferred their energies to other causes; others, however, found themselves involved in Black Power organizations such as the Black Panthers, or supporting their activities despite qualms about their policies and often-violent actions. The question thus must be asked: why did many whites join and support a movement that often excluded or devalued them as a matter of policy? This paper explores the complex social and psychological reasons behind many of these activists’ support for Black Power – as well as the implications of their involvement for race relations to this day.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 160 KB)

SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

The first issue of SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control, on the latest developments in international security, arms control, non-proliferation and regional conflict, including recent activities and publications at SIPRI.

The Political Economy of “Natural” Disasters
Source: Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

With the onset of global warming, it is likely that the incidence of natural shocks will only increase in the years ahead. In addition, rising inequality between rich and poor countries combined with a commitment on the part of developed countries to increase foreign aid disbursements indicates that international relief in natural disasters will grow. Disaster relief is one of the most basic and important transfers of wealth between developed and developing countries. This paper argues that the relief enters and affects a highly political situation. It also argues that the political economy of natural disasters is understandable and predictable, and may be mitigated. Key concepts include:

• Managed correctly, disaster assistance can smooth shocks to poor countries that might otherwise be debilitating. Like all transfers of wealth, however, it can distort incentives or be manipulated by self-interested leaders.
• Policymakers ought to craft disaster relief to minimize these distortions and manipulations. Domestic policies and the actions of international relief should be designed to mitigate, rather than exacerbate, the wrath of nature.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 234 KB)
+ Full Paper (PDF; )

Lost & Found: A Smart-Practice Guide to Managing Organizational Memory (PDF: 8 MB)
Source: Canada School of Public Service

Loss of vital knowledge and experience is taking its toll on Canada’s cherished institutions– the Public Service of Canada in particular. Veteran employees are retiring in unprecedented numbers. Continual change and organizational churn are now the norm. New technologies allow us to generate and store vast amounts of information, but also to misplace vast amounts of information. We, as an institution, are forgetting important lessons from the past.

All of this is happening at a time when the Public Service is most dependent on “deep smarts” to best serve Canadians. The world is moving faster and becoming more complex. Citizens’ expectations have risen. Emergencies have tested our preparedness and ability to respond quickly. The Public Service must rely on its wits to seize the initiative and control its destiny. For these reasons, the Clerk of the Privy Council has launched a renewal exercise for the Public Service. Preserving organizational memory is a key part of this effort.

This guide was created to help you meet the challenge head-on. Preserving knowledge is a core responsibility of every manager. A wealth of actions are available, from simple tactics to large-scale initiatives. Here, you can learn to diagnose your own workplace and to develop a tailored strategy to follow through. You can immediately do your part to turn the tide. There are no longer any excuses for doing nothing.

Iraq: The War Card
Source: The Center for Public Integrity

President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration’s case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose “Duelfer Report” established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq’s nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

+ Keyword searchable database of transcripts and documents (380,000 words)

World Economic Forum Report Ranks Islam and West Relations
Source: World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Georgetown University, launched today the Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue. This first of its kind report is a systematic and thorough overview of how Muslim and Western societies perceive and relate to each other at the political, social, economic and cultural levels.

The report which is the result of in-depth research carried out by leading academics and experts in the field, finds that majorities in populations around the world believe that violent conflict between the West and the Muslim world can be avoided, but they also share a great deal of pessimism about the state of the relationship.

Among both Muslim majority and non-Muslim majority nations, the proportion who say they think the “other side” is committed to better relations rarely rises above a minority of 30%. Notwithstanding the prevalent sense of scepticism, majorities of residents in nations around the world say that better interaction between the Muslim and Western worlds is important to them.
…
The report features a Gallup Muslim-West Dialogue Index, which is a ranking of countries based on citizens’ degree of optimism about the state of relations between the West and the Muslim world. The Report also presents an analysis of the portrayal of Islam and the West in newspapers and television across 24 countries by Media Tenor; and a survey by Georgetown University of international, national and local efforts to improve Muslim-West relations.

An important finding of the report is the emergence of citizenship and integration as the second most powerful shaper of the state of dialogue after international politics.

+ Full Report (PDF; 2 MB)

OPEC Revenues Fact Sheet
Source: Energy Information Administration (EIA)

EIA estimates that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned $675 billion in net oil export revenues in 2007, a 10 percent increase from 2006. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $194 billion, representing 29 percent of total OPEC revenues. On a per-capita basis, OPEC net oil export earning reached $1,147, a 8 percent increase from 2006. Based on projections from the EIA January 2008 Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), OPEC net oil export revenues could be $850 billion in 2008 and $783 billion in 2009.

Is Iraqi Kurdistan a Good Ally?
Source: Middle Eastern Outlook (American Enterprise Institute)

On a strictly emotional level, U.S. support for Iraqi Kurdistan makes sense. In the wake of World War I, the Kurds missed their opportunity for statehood when other peoples gained their independence. Today, they remain the largest ethnic group without a country. They have suffered greatly at the hands of others. But while Iraqi Kurdistan has come far, the unreliability of its leadership makes any long-term U.S.-Kurdish alliance unwise. Rather than become a beacon for democracy, the current Iraqi Kurdish leadership appears intent on replicating more autocratic models. Rather than become a regional Nelson Mandela, Iraqi Kurdish president Masud Barzani now charts a course to become a new Yasser Arafat. Despite lofty rhetoric about its suitability as an ally, Iraqi Kurdistan’s actions suggest that it is far from trustworthy.

Also available in Kurdish and Turkish.

Pakistan and the War on Terror: Conflicted Goals, Compromised Performance
Source: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The United States must shift its counterterrorism policy towards Pakistan away from a reciprocal approach—requiring Islamabad to perform desirable actions to receive support—towards one encouraging Pakistan to enact effective counterterrorism policies, not for an immediate payoff, but to strengthen institutionalized trust with the U.S. over time, according to a new report from the Carnegie Endowment.

In Pakistan and the War on Terror: Conflicted Goals, Compromised Performance, Carnegie Senior Associate Ashley J. Tellis points to growing dissatisfaction in the United States with the Musharraf regime’s commitment to counterterrorism operations, given the influx of U.S. aid. But while Pakistan’s performance in the “war on terror” has fallen short of expectations, Islamabad’s inability to defeat terrorist groups cannot simply be explained by neglect or lack of motivation. U.S. policy makers must take into account the specific and complex counterterrorism challenges facing Pakistan and move away from their current unsustainable policies.

+ Full Document (PDF; 3.1 MB)

The Evolving Security Situation in Iraq: The Continuing Need for Strategic Patience
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies

Data are now available from MNF-I and the Iraqi government that provide a much clearer picture of the trends in violence and casualties in Iraq. The attached report provides maps and graphics on the levels of killings in Iraq, the levels of violence by type, and the trends in terms of violence in key provinces and in Baghdad. It presents both MNF-I and Iraqi data through early January 2008.

+ Full Report (PDF; 4.4 MB)

Managing a Cross-Strait Crisis
Source: National Security Outlook (American Enterprise Institute)

Nowhere in the world is the danger of a major war more serious in its potential consequences than in the Taiwan Strait. Policymakers both here and in the region are interested in finding ways to avoid a military confrontation between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). But should one begin, they will need to have available the tools to avoid a full-fledged conflagration. Naturally enough, security specialists have turned to the crisis management literature to devise strategies for addressing this latter problem. Are the literature and the strategies it has generated a good fit for the case of China and Taiwan–and, if not, what should be done to prepare for managing such a crisis?

Also available as PDF.

Decent Work with a Living Wage
Source: Global Labor Market: From Globalization to Flexicuity, Kluwer Law International BV (via SSRN)

The effects of globalization on employment justify augmenting the fundamental principles articulated in the ILO’s 1998 Declaration by including a global goal of decent work with a living wage. Adding the principle of decent work with a living wage can help keep labor law relevant because it can be the organizing principle for an array of unions and other groups interested in worker welfare to push for its implementation as a matter of international, regional and national law. The goal of decent work with a living wage can be a rallying cry to help overcome the prevailing neoliberal assumption that the present set of very limited regulations of the market is a natural law. Regaining the intellectual high ground for claims of worker rights to decent work with a living wage can be the product for, but also the cause of, organized action by those who share values in fair treatment at a global level. Unions, but also other NGOs, need to see that it is in their long term interest as well as the long term interest of the workers it claims to represent to reach across borders to work together to achieve this goal. Conflicting strategic interests and different legal and organizational cultures make this a daunting goal, but one worth pursuing.

Several options available for retrieval of full text (PDF; 108 KB).

Tsunami Reconstruction, Three Years Later
Source: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

In the days immediately following the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies launched a $656 million reconstruction program. The money was provided by Congress in May 2005 and signed into law by President Bush for the Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction Fund (including $31.3 million to combat avian influenza).

When added to the money spent by the Department of Defense on emergency recovery assistance and relief aid, as well as food aid provided by USDA, the United States contributed $841 million. Moreover, swift action by the United States, in cooperation with other donors and private organizations, prevented another disaster by ensuring critical water and sanitation needs were met.

Americans also responded in great numbers. According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, U.S. private tsunami donations, including both cash and in-kind donations, is more than $1.8 billion.

Press release with statistics.

Television and Political Persuasion in Young Democracies: Evidence from Russia (PDF; 316 KB)
Source: Centre for Economic and Financial Research, New Economics School

Governments control media in much of the developing world. Does this have an effect on political choices of voters? We address this question using exogenous variation in the availability of the signal of the only independent from the government national TV channel in Russia during the 1999 parliamentary elections. We find that the presence of an independent source of political news on TV significantly decreased the vote in favor of the government party and increased the vote in favor of the opposition parties. We find that the difference in TV coverage significantly changed voting behavior even controlling for voters’ inclinations just one month prior to the elections. The effects we find are larger than those found in established democracies.

Introduction to Global Citizen Media
Source: Global Voices

Rising Voices proudly announces the first in a series of outreach guides meant to explain the fundamentals of citizen media to a non-technical readership.

The first guide, An Introduction to Citizen Media, offers context and case studies which show how everyday citizens across the world are increasingly using blogs, podcasts, online video, and digital photography to engage in an unmediated conversation which transcends borders, cultures, and differing languages.

+ Full Document (PDF; 488 KB)

Also available in Spanish and Bengali.

How We Talk about the “War on Terrorism”
Source: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

The Working Paper How We Talk about the “War on Terrorism” by Daniel Heradstveit, G. Matthew Bonham, Michiko Nakano and Victor M. Sergeev, focuses on how leaders in Western countries talk about the “war on terrorism.” The paper discusses the difficulties of defining “terrorism,” because, unlike Marxism or capitalism, “terrorism” is not an ideology. Instead the term may be used to designate actions that are used by members of non-governmental organizations against civilian targets.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 325 KB)