Security,environment, and global governance

Abstract

Security, though an admirable objective, remains forever elusive. In common with all other forms of life, the human species is subject to the inherently chaotic behaviour of the earth system in which it exists. The idea of international security is rooted in a world in which cooperative communities of nation states are run by governments in broad control of their populations. But the relationship between these networks of states and the guarantee of security is made less certain by the continuing changes in the ways power and information are distributed. Perhaps even greater threats to security are posed by environmental degradation, whether deliberate or unwitting. This review discusses these threats and suggests that they will only be overcome by increasingly global systems of governance.     

Research on human subjects,exploitation, and global principles of ethics

Abstract

In 1997, 5.8 million people became infected with HIV, 30.6 million people were living with HIV/AIDS, and infection was running at about sixteen thousand new infections a day, of which more than 90% were in low income countries. Against this background the urgency and importance of the fight against HIV/AIDS can scarcely be exaggerated. While a cure for AIDS remains elusive research to discover more effective treatment and possible vaccines is vital. It is at this crucial moment that moral criticism has emerged of some of the most promising research towards treatments and vaccines for HIV/AIDS. This criticism has focused on, and purports to be justified by, the major current international principles and protocols on the ethics of research on human subjects. If this criticism is valid and no better ways of prosecuting successful research on AIDS can be found, the consequences, as the figures above indicate, are truly bleak. This paper will attempt to provide an appropriate framework for assessing the ethics of research on human subjects generally and in doing so will assess the relevance and force of the major ethical criticisms that have been levelled at current research on human subjects in the context of HIV/AIDS therapy and vaccines.     

Entrepreneurial industry structures and financial institutions as agents for path dependence in Southwest Norway: the role of the macroeconomic environment

ABSTRACT

Guided by an evolutionary perspective, we study how macroeconomic shifts as an exogenous factor contribute to the endogenous roles of financial institutions and the entrepreneurial industry structure as indicators for path extension or diversification in Southwest Norway. Path extension implies that new firm formation reproduces itself with limited variation. Path diversification implies a departure from existing paths, in that entrepreneurial activities expand into unrelated or related industries. Between 1992 and 1998, we observe a departure from path extension and an increase in entrepreneurial path diversification into unrelated industries, but this trend declines in the following years. The increase and decline are stronger for Southwest Norway than for the rest of the country. Throughout the whole period of observation (1992–2011), we observe a steady decline in path diversification into related industries. Thus, Southwest Norway, and the country as a whole, experiences an extension of an industry structure that increasingly reproduces itself, which implies stronger path dependence and decreasing diversification of related and unrelated entrepreneurial activity. Financial institutions mostly reinforce path extension, even in periods when abundant capital is available, but to some degree, they also induce related path diversification.     

Coalitions,institutions and big tents: the new strategic reality of armed intervention

Armed interventions of the past decades demonstrate that strategic leadership can give way to lofty campaign plans, conflicting strategic narratives and concern with tactical, as opposed to strategic, issues. The intervention debate rightfully emphasizes the need for both leadership and institution‐building to rectify this situation, but then breaks down into discord: some critics argue that stronger leadership by big nations is necessary, others that this type of leadership wrecks the collective institutions that are needed in a new age of multilateralism and interdependence. This article argues instead that strategic leadership grows out of the effort to connect the three distinct political arenas that have come to dominate armed interventions: coalitions, institutions and big tent diplomacy. Strategic leadership is not about choosing between coalitions or institutions; it is about building bridges among these political arenas. The article embeds this argument within the strategic literature and demonstrates how it emerges from an engagement with modern armed interventions. It engages in two in‐depth assessments of NATO's experiences in Afghanistan and Libya and then undertakes a more general discussion of the steps that can be taken to encourage strategic leadership.     

New technologies in cultural institutions: theory,evidence and policy implications

Publicly-funded cultural institutions such as theatre companies, symphony orchestras, museums, libraries and so on are increasingly engaging with new technologies as a means of improving their operational efficiency and extending the range of ways in which they pursue their cultural missions. For example, opera companies are broadcasting performances by satellite to cinemas, and art museums are using the Internet to show virtual exhibitions. These developments have implications for funding authorities who need to update their policy approaches to encompass a range of new technological phenomena. This paper provides a framework for assessing technological innovation in cultural institutions, and discusses the ramifications of such a framework for cultural policy. The paper is illustrated using the results of a recent research project that evaluated the UK National Theatre’s NT Live experiment and the Tate Gallery’s use of a web-based exhibition as strategies to expand their audience reach.     

Value chains, networks and clusters: reframing the global automotive industry

In this article, we apply global value chain (GVC) analysisto recent trends in the global automotive industry, with specialattention paid to the case of North America. We use the threemain elements of the GVC framework—firm-level chain governance,power and institutions—to highlight some of the definingcharacteristics of this important industry. First, nationalpolitical institutions create pressure for local content, whichdrives production close to end markets, where it tends to beorganized nationally or regionally. Second, in terms of GVCgovernance, rising product complexity combined with low codifiabilityand a paucity of industry-level standards has driven buyer–supplierlinkages toward the relational form, a governance mode thatis more compatible with Japanese than American supplier relations.The outsourcing boom of the 1990s exacerbated this situation.As work shifted to the supply base, lead firms and supplierswere forced to develop relational linkages to support the exchangeof complex uncodified information and tacit knowledge. Finally,the small number of hugely powerful lead firms that drive theautomotive industry helps to explain why it has been so difficultto develop and set the industry-level standards that could underpina more loosely articulated spatial architecture. This case studyunderlines the need for an open, scalable approach to the studyof global industries.     

Regional development and institutions in Hungary: past,present and future development

The author investigates what the transition from planned to market economy implies for regional development in Hungary. The focus is the role of institutional change to economic development of the regions. After 1989, new regional and local institutions were created, supported by the Poland and Hungary Action for Researching the Economy programme. The old three‐level regional administration was redefined, but resources are few and competences unclear. The new institutions’ ‘bottom‐up’ approach and their business‐orientation seem to match the conditions of the prosperous west, while they meet considerable difficulties in the depressed east. Alternatively, coordinated government action and cooperation between enterprises and administrators may represent a key to development.     

Global finance and the German model: German corporations, market incentives, and the management of employer-sponsored pension institutions

Where there was a settled political geography of state power and responsibilities, the remarkable growth of global finance has put enormous pressure on national economic, political and social institutions. Furthermore, the looming crisis facing many continental European social security systems has raised many doubts about the long-term viability of the German model compared to its Anglo-American rivals. In this context, large German corporations have sought ways of sustaining their global competitiveness by, in part, restructuring their national and regional commitments. To illustrate, in this paper we concentrate on the nature and organization of German employer-sponsored pension institutions in relation to Anglo-American management practice. Two issues drive the analysis. One has to do with an emerging coalition between corporate management and shareholders with respect to the market value of the firm. The second issue has to do with the allocation of risk and uncertainty between the social partners when negotiating the financing and final value of promised retirement income. The institutional framework of collective decision-making common to many of Germany's largest firms is under pressure; three models of investment decision making relevant to pension assets and liabilities are used to illustrate this point. In doing so, we suggest that the German model is more fragile than commonly realized. We also suggest that Anglo-American management practices have penetrated and affected German corporate (national and regional) institutions and regulations. The social market lauded by advocates of stakeholder capitalism is changing rapidly, at least in the sphere of large firms and global finance.     

Experts,publics and the environment in the UK: twentieth-century translations

Prompted by contemporary concerns in the West over a global vision of nature and society at risk, this paper builds on recent studies of expertise within a broader public culture. By focusing on earlier episodes of social and political uncertainty, the paper argues that there is scope to extend such analysis in terms of historical geographies of specialist knowledge. The paper examines the formative years of British ecology, a discipline which from its beginnings in the wake of urban industrialism more than a century ago, was centrally concerned with the relations of human well-being and the environment. In exploring when, where and how an ecological expertise became defined, it shifts the focus from familiar milestones in the discipline's public recognition. By tracing the discursive and material practices of those who sought to identify and define ecology as a specialism, the paper illustrates the importance of groupings within and beyond accredited expertise in giving it meaning and purpose. In doing so it highlights the fragility and fluidity of the boundaries around ‘expertise’, and the significance of geographical context and connections in shaping its conduct and content. In terms of broader historical geographies, the paper suggests that while ‘expert’ cultures may be projected as giving greater public reassurance, the sense of certainty that this implies disguises complex processes in which the boundaries are imprecise between specialist and lay knowledge and between scientific and public spaces.     

Pakistan's foreign and security policies after the 2013 general election: the judge,the politician and the military

This article examines the consequences of Nawaz Sharif ‘s electoral victory in Pakistan's 2013 general election on the country's foreign and security policies. It analyses the relationships the new government is likely to entertain with the military institutions and the judiciary, and tries to identify the potential vulnerabilities of the new authorities. It concludes that the security situation will improve marginally, at best, and that a relatively smooth working relationship with the US, dictated by the constraints of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, can be anticipated. Relations with India are likely to constitute the real test of the political freedom enjoyed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vis‐a‐vis the military. The difficulty will be to calibrate the relationship to avoid provoking a backlash with the military.     

Development and the environment: Perception and opinion in St Andrews,Scotland

In 2003, three proposals were being mediated through the planning system in the peri‐urban environment of St Andrews, Fife: a large housing development, a rail link, and a Green Belt. Using questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders, we investigate the ways in which diverse conceptions of ‘the environment’ shaped public reactions to these proposals, and evaluate the fit between these and the respondents’ stated environmental perceptions. 98% of local residents surveyed describe themselves as ‘concerned about the environment’. However, large majorities conceive of the environment as a local rather than a global phenomenon, and regard it primarily in terms of personal benefits (such as landscape aesthetics or traffic considerations). By exploring the environmental perceptions in the light of the planning proposals, the study supports the contention that the ‘local environment’ is a socially constructed phenomenon which can be fashioned and re‐fashioned according to local perceptions of threats and opportunities.     

Introduction: Transnational retail and the global economy

The fastest retail-system transformation in history has beensweeping across the emerging markets of East Asia, Central andEastern Europe, and Latin America over the past decade withprofound impacts on economies and societies in those regions.Conceptualized by researchers in development studies and agriculturaleconomics as the ‘supermarket revolution in developingcountries’ (see, for example, Reardon et al., 2003; Reardon,2005; Reardon and Hopkins, 2006; Humphrey, 2007; Reardon etal., 2007), that transformation has been driven not only bydemand-side forces such as urbanization and income growth inthe emerging markets, but also by supply-side forces such     

New states and old institutions: Pure and applied

David E. Apter, Some Conceptual Approaches to the Study of Modernisation, Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1968, pp. 380, $8.50 (also paperback $US2.95).

J. W. Davidson, Samoa Mo Samoa, Oxford University Press, London, 1967, $9.75.