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Carnage and despair: Iraq five years on
Source: Amnesty International (via ReliefWeb)

Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the country is still in disarray. The human rights situation is disastrous, a climate of impunity has prevailed, the economy is in tatters and the refugee crisis continues to escalate.

A new Amnesty International report, Carnage and Despair: Iraq five years on, says that, despite the heavy presence of US and Iraqi security forces, Iraq is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed every month.

Armed groups, including those opposed to the Iraqi government and the US-led Multi-National Force (MNF), have been responsible for indiscriminate bombings, suicide attacks, kidnappings and torture.

Since early 2006, violence has intensified and become more sectarian, with Sunni and Shi’a armed groups targeting followers of opposite faiths and driving whole communities out of mixed neighbourhoods. This has contributed to the displacement of over four million people. Two million of these are now refugees in Syria and Jordan.

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Index of State Weakness in the Developing World
Source: Brookings Institution

Since September 11, 2001, the United States and other governments have frequently asserted that threats to international peace and security often come from the world’s weakest states. Such countries can fall prey to and spawn a host of transnational security threats, including terrorism, weapons proliferation, organized crime, infectious disease, environmental degradation, and civil conflicts that spill over borders. Accordingly, the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States maintains that weak and failing states “pose as great a danger to our national interest as strong states.”

The Index of State Weakness in the Developing World was designed to provide policy-makers and researchers with a credible tool for analyzing and understanding the world’s most vulnerable countries. Co-directed by Brookings Senior Fellow Susan Rice and Center for Global Development Research Fellow Stewart Patrick, the Index ranks and assesses 141 developing nations according to their relative performance in four critical spheres: economic, political, security and social welfare.

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Global Tuberculosis Control 2008
Source: World Health Organization
From UN Pulse:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the twelfth annual report entitled, Global Tuberculosis Control: Surveillance, Planning, Financing. This report is based on data reported to WHO via its standard data collection form by 202 out of 212 countries and territories in 2007, and the series of data collected from these countries annually since 1996. In short, the report presents an overview of progress in reducing the burden of TB worldwide. The report is available for download in full from the website with key findings available in six languages.

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Conference Report: Nonstate Actors: Impact on International Relations and Implications for the United States
Source: National Intelligence Council

Participants in a series of NIC-Eurasia Group seminars in late 2006 and early 2007 discussed how the proliferation in recent years of nonstate actors—primarily multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, and super-empowered individuals—is transforming international relations.

• A globalization-fueled diffusion of finance and technology has enabled nonstate actors to encroach upon functions traditionally performed by nation-states, facilitating their evolution into forms unheard of even a few years ago. For example, “philanthrocapitalist” charities such as the Gates Foundation have greatly expanded notions of what a charitable NGO should look like.
• Estimates of their impact should be made cautiously, however, for few nonstate actors are completely independent of nation-states, and they do not have uniform freedom of movement. Although nonstate actors have a great deal of latitude in both weak and post-industrial states, modernizing states such as China and Russia—home to the bulk of the world’s population—have been highly effective in suppressing them and in creating their own substitutes, some of which have demonstrated their power to counter US objectives and even to challenge global rules of engagement.
• Most benign nonstate actors originate in the developed world, work within the framework provided by Western institutions and regimes, and act as propagators of “western values” such as free markets, environmental protection, and human rights. From that standpoint, a key concern for the United States may be not that these actors have become too powerful, but that in many parts of the world their influence is limited—a factor that is contributing to the tilting of the global playing field away from the United States and its developed-world allies.

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Conference Report: Democratization in Africa: What Progress Toward Institutionalization? (PDF; 1.2 MB)
Source: National Intelligence Council

The NIC was the originator and principal driver behind a recent conference held in Accra, Ghana, from 4-6 October 2007. The conference—titled Democratization in Africa: What Progress Towards Institutionalization?—was co-sponsored by the US State Department/US Embassy Ghana and the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), a research and democracy promotion organization based on Ghana. The conference was co-chaired by the Director of the CDD, I. Gyimah-Boadi, and Larry Diamond, from the Hoover Institute at Stanford and a NIC Associate.

The purpose of the conference was to review and assess the trajectories of African states toward, or away, from increased institutionalization of democratic processes and practices. The conference was designed so that the review and assessment would be based on interactions among a diverse set of players—including African researchers and practitioners of democracy, ranking US academic experts on political change in Africa, US democracy promotion professionals, and US Government analysts and diplomats. The conference was unprecedented for its combination of diversity of expertise and depth of investigation into the causal factors and constraints affecting democratization and democratic backsliding in Sub Saharan Africa. With about 50 participants and 15 African countries represented, the conference deliberations occurred for two days, at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, in Accra.

Financing lifelong learning
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers

This paper describes and analyzes different financial schemes to promote lifelong learning. Considered are financial instruments to stimulate successful early learning, financial aid schemes and subsidization mechanisms. Theoretical analyses about funding of early learning have mainly focused on vouchers. Yet, the available empirical evidence is more ambiguous about the effects of vouchers than about the effects of conditional cash transfers and financial incentives for pupils and teachers. Positive effects of financial incentives to pupils are not restricted to high ability pupils, as low ability students also seem to benefit. The evidence regarding the effects of subsidy forms is limited. The most prominent knowledge gaps regarding the effects of various financing schemes related to lifelong learning are the effects of vouchers in compulsory education; financial aid schemes for students; and entitlements and individual learning accounts.

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Can cost-benefit analysis guide education policy in developing countries?
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers

Cost-benefit analysis in education is an important tool in the economists’ arsenal. However, it is essential that research, especially on the social benefits of education, make further progress to make cost-benefit more analysis. There is a need for more research on the effects of policy interventions on outcomes beyond access to a year in school and what they earn as a result, such as on what children actually learn. Such research should focus on ensuring that the interventions are attributable to outcomes. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to go through the discipline of noting the benefits and costs, even if social rates of return cannot be calculated robustly.

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What Makes Ethics Practical
Source: Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, Faculty Research Working Papers Series

The place of ethics in the curriculum of schools of public management and policy is not a settled matter. One common approach, called applied ethics, relies primarily on the work of academic philosophers and follows a two-stage process: first, work out the guiding principles (in the academy, where one is protected from worldly pressures), then apply them to the real world (where they are inevitably compromised). This essay defends an alternative approach, practical ethics, which follows John Dewey’s admonition to be guided by problems of life and practice, rather than academic disputes or disciplinary methods. The essay identifies the basic features of practical ethics, and proposes an agenda for future research. It emphasizes, above all, that practical ethics is strategic and depends crucially on the ability to exercise contingent judgment. Practical ethics takes into account the powers, opportunities, and constraints, as well as the interests (including moral interests), of human agents in particular circumstances. The picture of practical reasoning is thus at odds with the prevailing approach. The essay also addresses the peculiar position of the classroom teacher of ethics, who is not confronted by ineluctable features of real decision making, including the necessity to act and the contingencies involved in acting both effectively and well. Suggestions are offered on how the teaching of practical ethics can be improved.

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Motivating Politicians: The Impacts of Monetary Incentives on Quality and Performance
Source: Institute for the Study of Labor

Recent studies have emphasized the importance of the quality of politicians for good government and consequently economic performance. But if the quality of leadership matters, then understanding what motivates individuals to become politicians and perform competently in office becomes a central question. In this paper, we examine whether higher wages attract better quality politicians and improve political performance using exogenous variation in the salaries’ of local legislators across Brazil’s municipal governments. The analysis exploits discontinuities in wages across municipalities induced by a constitutional amendment defining caps on the salary of local legislatures according to municipal population. Our main findings show that increases in salaries not only attracts more candidates, but more educated ones. Elected officials are in turn more educated and stay in office longer. Higher salaries also increase legislative productivity as measured by the number of bills submitted and approved, and the provision of public goods.

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Iran, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Source: The Brookings Institution

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has been one of the world’s most active sponsors of terrorism. Tehran has armed, trained, financed, inspired, organized, and otherwise supported dozens of violent groups over the years. Iran has backed not only groups in its Persian Gulf neighborhood, but also terrorists and radicals in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Bosnia, the Philippines, and elsewhere. This support remains strong even today: the U.S. government regularly contends that Iran is tied to an array of radical groups in Iraq.

Yet despite Iran’s very real support for terrorism for more than the last 25 years and its possession of chemical weapons for over 15 years, Tehran has not transferred unconventional systems to terrorists. Iran is likely to continue this restraint and not transfer chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons for several reasons. First, providing terrorists with such unconventional weapons offers Iran few tactical advantages as these groups are able to operate effectively with existing methods and weapons. Second, Iran has become more cautious in its backing of terrorists in recent years. And third, it is highly aware that any major escalation in its support for terrorism would incur U.S. wrath and international condemnation.

This article begins by reviewing how Iran has used terrorism in the past and how this has changed over the years. The article then assesses U.S. attempts to press Iran with regard to terrorism and why they have met with little success. With this assessment in mind, the article argues that, while the author believes Iranian terrorism remains a threat, Tehran is not likely to pass chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons to terrorists. The article concludes with recommendations for decreasing Iran’s use of terrorism in general and the chances of it transferring chemical or other unconventional weapons to terrorists in particular.

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The Political Context Behind Successful Revolutionary Movements, Three Case Studies: Vietnam (1955-63), Algeria (1945-62), and Nicaragua (1967-79)
Source: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College

Following the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the new world order did not bring about a closure of revolutionary warfare. In fact, the Soviet-inspired wars of liberation against imperialism have been eclipsed by reactionary, jihadist wars. By all indications in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Somalia, and Iraq, Islamic militants have embraced revolutionary warfare, although not Mao’s People’s War model. Therefore, a study of revolutionary warfare is apt because the conflict between the West and radical jihadism will continue to take place in dysfunctional, collapsing, or failed states. The author examines the political-military lessons from these conflicts and suggests that the United States should minimize the level and type of assistance to states fighting in an insurgency because these states possess greater advantages than previously supposed.

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Current Trends in Islamist Ideology — Volume 6
Source: Hudson Institute

This special volume of Current Trends in Islamist Ideology is addressed to a most important subject—the subject of the organization, or group of organizations, known as the

Current Trends in Islamist Ideology — Volume 6
Source: Hudson Institute

This special volume of Current Trends in Islamist Ideology is addressed to a most important subject—the subject of the organization, or group of organizations, known as the Muslim Brotherhood. The importance of this subject partially derives from the importance of another related subject: the worldwide Islamic phenomenon and move ment variously known as Islamism, Salafism, radical Islam, militant Islam, political Islam and the like. Since the events of 9/11, we have all learned that understanding this movement properly—broadly, deeply and accurately—is a very great necessity. It is a necessity if we are to understand the present-day world situation and crisis and if we are to devise sensible policies to address them. To this end, an understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood is absolutely essential and arguably more important than anything else. Nevertheless, over the past few years the Brotherhood has not stood in the foreground of discussion and reflection. The purpose of this volume is to address—or rather, to begin to redress—that oversight or neglect.

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Previous volumes also available here.

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Social Security Programs Throughout the World: The Americas, 2007
Source: Social Security Administration, Office of Policy

This fourth issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of the Americas. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region.

Scroll down for earlier volumes.