Posts of March 2012

Globocop No More: United States After Unipolarity

♠ Posted by Emmanuel at 3/29/2012 09:34:00 AM

LSE IDEAS has been churning out special reports at such a furious pace that I almost forgot to mention this one concerning The United States After Unipolarity. The title pretty much sums up what the contributions here say, although the various contributors do question the extent to which the--pardon the phrasing--globocop role will be outsourced to other nations or regions if not relinquished altogether. In the latter sense, what we may have is not a "changing of the guard" but rather the removal of guard duties not only in security matters but also in global economic governance and so on. While some folks such as yours...

Tired of the World Bank? Enter BRICS Dev't Bank

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Africa,China,Development,Latin America,Russia at 3/28/2012 11:58:00 AM

You hoped that the IMF and the World Bank would reflect more of the changes in the world economy by giving more input and leadership to major emerging economies. But, as the IMF succession process proved and the current World Bank "search" (stitch-up is the more accurate term) is proving, Western dominance is still on the cards at these institutions. What can I say? Some people resist change. There has been much lip service from them about including new voices, but at the end of the day, nothing's really changed. So, if you're tired of poor countries lending to rich countries for things other than what institutions like...

Did Global Financial Crisis Curb Carbon Emissions?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Americana,China,Development,Energy,Environment at 3/27/2012 12:23:00 PM

In a rather disappointing word, no. Intuitively, you may have expected worldwide carbon emissions to drop given a slowdown in global economic activity. However, it is a tale of two different worlds--the Global North (developed nations) and the Global South (the developing nations). While the likes of North America and Europe did experience fairly significant slowdowns in both economic activity and corresponding carbon emissions, that pattern did not hold in the developing world. While searching for material on global environmental governance for my IPE class--I am the very model of a modern IPE instructor--I came across a...

World Bank Boss: Kim, Okonjo-Iweala or Ocampo?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Africa,Bretton Woods Twins,Health,Latin America at 3/26/2012 05:30:00 PM

I'd like to say the competition to become the next World bank president is heating up if it weren't for the common understanding that it will be another American stitch-up. While I'd have preferred the term "whitewash," the White House has thrown those of us who are critical of Western domination of these institutions a curveball by nominating an Asian-American candidate in Jim Yong Kim. Thinking it over, I can offer a number of pros and cons. Starting with the good stuff I can think of--I am a charitable lad, yes... Global health is one of the areas where multilateral development institutions have actually made significant strides. Disease prevention is usually a large-scale intervention, and it is here where top-down efforts have shown promise. Witness the eradication of smallpox and the near-eradication of river blindness for instance. Since Kim's global advocacy is more on TB and HIV/AIDS, the more tentative results there are not really indicative of a lack of skill...

'The World Economy Reeks Again, So Buy Yen'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Currencies,Japan at 3/23/2012 09:53:00 AM

I have an avowed love-hate relationship with newswire coverage of various financial markets. With regard to currencies, one of the things I am most cautious about is the need to constantly provide explanations of why currency movements occur. I suppose having to provide a laundry list of reasons is a necessary task in the news business. Yet, the ephemeral nature of the task makes it subject to no small amount of improvisation and, dare I say it, conjecture. Something that's fascinated me as of late are movements in the Japanese yen. Despite the continuing deflationary situation, the aftermath of the terrible tsunami and their...

Why the US Ain't in the Inter-Parliamentary Union

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Americana,Governance at 3/22/2012 08:43:00 AM

Here's another factoid you can use to embarrass even the most vaunted international relations pooh-bahs alike my blogging colleagues (especially of the garden-variety American sort): Ask them whether the United States is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union composed of nations that have legislatures. The response you'll probably get involves something along the lines of (1) "I didn't even know there was such as thing" and (2) "as a global promoter of democracy, the US is probably a member of it." Both responses are embarrassing in the sense that, (1) even if the Inter-Parliamenary Union is obscure--hence my fondness...

Tracing Chinese (Linguistic) Hegemony in Asia

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Culture at 3/22/2012 06:45:00 AM

For all the debate we have around here and practically everybody else especially those in policy circles about the meaning of China's rise--is it peaceful, is it developmentally beneficial for others, is it rising in such a way that it will eventually eclipse Western powers, etc--this sort of talk elides an important thing. That is, China has already had a profound influence on its neighbours for a very long time. Particularly through trade came the diffusion of several aspects of Chinese culture such as language. A new feature from our friends over at World Policy Journal provides an example of China's enduring, multi-millennial...

Where's the Pork? US, Taiwan Fight Over Additives

♠ Posted by Emmanuel at 3/19/2012 03:31:00 AM

I am generally sympathetic to American agricultural techniques that others are squeamish about, but not with heavy-handed US trade advocacy that gives such techniques a bad name. Today we have another case in point in Taiwan .For one reason or another, erstwhile allies of the United States in the Asia-Pacific have vociferously contested the United States' attempts to sell what they believe are meat products of suspect safety. Witness the mass protests in 2008 against imports of older US beef into South Korea that are, by virtue of age, more susceptible to mad cow disease. Lest you think these were fringe protests, they almost...

Mobile Phones 4 Everything, Water Security Edn

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Africa,Development,Security at 3/16/2012 08:39:00 AM

By now I'm probably known to longtime readers as the information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) skeptic guy due to my Foreign Affairs contribution casting doubt on the US state department's digital diplomacy efforts as well as the MIT Media Labs' One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. Well, that's not entirely correct, I must say. For instance, I have been following the cutting-edge innovations in sending remittances through these very technologies. As with most things, ideas to harness ICT for development differ in the quality of execution. Many will fail, but some will succeed. So it is with quite...

Iceland Considers Dollarization (Canadian $ That Is)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Credit Crisis,Europe at 3/14/2012 11:21:00 AM

More so in years long past, many countries used to adopt the US dollar as their own to assume the benefits conferred by the world's standard currency. Among other things, these included liquidity, price stability and being a reasonable store of value. While an independent monetary policy was forsaken--or at least "outsourced" to the Fed--many smaller economies came to the conclusion that adopting the US dollar outweighed the benefits. In recent years, of course, the dollar's uncertain status has begun to erode its advantages and hence the lure of dollarization. For some time now, the small, open economy of Iceland has...

Jackson-Vanik, Cold War US-Russia Trade Irritant

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Economic History,Migration,Russia,Trade at 3/13/2012 04:55:00 PM

I recently visited Singapore and was given a quaint reminder of days gone by when, while checking into my hotel, I noticed a separate registration section needed to be filled by unmarried guests sharing the same room. Quibble if you will with the moralistic tone of this practice, but it's definitely not in tune with the times. In a similar vein, I came across yet another practice that seems to have been lifted from antiquity concerning the application of the Jackson-Vanik amendment against Russia which dates from the heyday of one Leonid Brezhnev. In 1974, Senator Henry Jackson (D-WA) and Congressman Charles Vanik (D-OH)...

Boeing Flies High With Chinese Over EU Carbon Cap

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Environment,Europe,Trade at 3/12/2012 02:35:00 AM

For all the trade conflicts going on between China and the US, here's something that goes against the grain.Think of the US being a beneficiary of a trade conflict involving China and some other country.. That is exactly the sort of thing going on here. To be sure, China and the EU have at least as much trade conflict going on as China and the US. However, that this particular PRC-EU spat redounds to the benefit of the US is remarkable. A few moons ago I discussed the possibilities for the EU initiating a nasty trade row over it extending its carbon emissions regulations to cover aircraft emissions in 2012 [1, 2]. It's...

Yanks Never Learn: US Imports Hit Record High

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Cheneynomics,Credit Crisis at 3/10/2012 12:18:00 PM

This has to be the most ridiculous story I've seen all week long. One that once again demonstrates that you don't have to go much further than the Yahoo! News front page for IPE-relevant material. For all the hot air about "global rebalancing," the Yanks seem to be repeating the Bushite formula for Guaranteed Economic Disaster, with PIGs' pork seasoning for added flavouring to keep things current. We already know that after having run massive fiscal deficits which did not nothing other than make things ripe for a crisis, the US have upped the ante by running trillion dollar budget deficits for four straight years with no end in sight. Others said, "well at least the current account deficit is getting under control." Which, unfortunately, is not really happening. The trouble with these people is that they do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Just as a consumption binge was driving US "growth" in the run-up to the crisis, so we have another one going...

India Isn't a Superpower (and May Never Be)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in India at 3/09/2012 01:58:00 PM

It's once again time to feature an LSE IDEAS publication as I sometimes do. Although hosting Niall Ferguson was something of an event for us--he is in many respects a one-man travelling circus of his own--we now have another Phillip Roman chairholder in Ramachandra Guha. Although he is somewhat less well-known to Western audiences than the aforementioned economic historian, Guha nevertheless brings some unique perspectives on modern India. For a research centre that purportedly concerns itself with grand strategy, IDEAS is of course particularly interested in what's up with China and India as well as what role they will...

The Kids Ain't Alright: Bahrain GP On In 2012?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Middle East,Sports at 3/08/2012 10:53:00 AM

With the Formula One circus about to commence in 2012, I though it would be interesting to revisit the plight of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Famously cancelled, rescheduled, and then recancelled due to public uproar over holding an event in an "Arab Spring" state--the ruling regime survived anyway--similar concerns arise over the race's fate in 2012. Meanwhile, wags have now dubbed it the "problem race" for 2012 given unresolved issues over holding such a race in what remains an absolute monarchy bent on keeping the status quo intact. Who says that the race will go on? None other than multibillionaire F1 impresario and ringleader...

Masters of the Game: Vatican Diplomacy in Cuba

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Latin America,Religion at 3/06/2012 12:18:00 PM

By far one of the most underresearched areas in IPE I would argue is the role played by religious institutions as diplomatic actors. Not only were the imperial conquests of earlier European colonizers usually phrased in terms of enlightening the unwashed masses, but religion remains a very significant phenomenon even in today's world which is becoming secularized only in certain respects. Imagine a nation whose diplomatic tradition stretches back centuries to when Saint Peter took up the mantle of leadership in spreading the Christian faith. Wait a minute...there is no need to imagine such a nation since it already...

Celebrating the IPE Zone's Five-Year Anniversary

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Service Announcement at 3/05/2012 04:09:00 AM

Five Years of Fearless Blogging Unbeknownst to me, the IPE Zone just turned five in February.. Belatedly, then, it's time to celebrate! I once had a nearly octogenarian boss who morbidly observed that her peers were all retired and many dead besides. With blogging the very model of a throwaway medium, the cycle of existence is much, much shorter than that. I too observe that most of the peer blogs I started out with are by now inactive or have since moved on to the Great IP Address in the Sky. There also have been a lot of changes in where I draw readers from. I have been through all the fads and fashions cycling in and...

White Man's Burden 2012: World Bank Succession

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Bretton Woods Twins at 3/05/2012 03:16:00 AM

Take up the White Man's burden-- Have done with childish days-- The lightly proferred laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers! Well here is more discouraging news for those wishing for more diversity and better representation of LDCs at key international organizations. Just a few months back, the unexpected departure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the IMF revealed the hollow rhetoric behind calls for change in the tradition of Europeans having discretion over choosing the IMF head. While perhaps sudden, the unceremonious departure of le grande seducteur showed that when the opportunity finally came for change at that IO, none was forthcoming. The excuse then was that having several European nations in dire financial straits made it only natural to have a tried-and-tested European figure as IMF managing director. Again, PIGS countries...

'The DNA of Human Rights'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel at 3/02/2012 08:12:00 AM

Here's an interesting counterpoint to the "Asian values" argument that prioritizes collective well-being over individual rights. While I to a certain extent buy into that argument, it is at this point in time largely due to objections to how Western nations that are usually loudest about blathering about human rights are hypocritical about them. Witness Bush minor's Guantanamo Ghraibing, or Obama's refusal to disavow himself of this taint by shutting down the American extralegal detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. So it was kind of refreshing to hear someone argue for human rights in this day and age--especially when it is becoming increasingly passe among developing nations keen on developmental authoritarianism and its offshoots. The LSE's own Professor Conor Gearty argues for two things: (a) human rights are not necessarily a "Western" invention in being innate and that (b) human rights abuses committed in the name of preserving cultures ostensibly dedicated to such principles...

German Apprenticeship vs US/UK Uni-Jobless System

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Americana,Education,Europe,Labor at 3/01/2012 11:39:00 AM

It is no big secret that there is a lack of good employment prospects for young people in Anglo-Saxon economies at the present time.* As I have illustrated, wages for US college graduates have been on a steady downward trend. At the same time, tuition fees are rising at a rate far outstripping the rate of inflation. This phenomenon is said to be driven by various (virtually broke) US states now charging the bejesus out of the students in their university systems--including those who previously could avail of significantly lower in-state tuition rates. Combine these two and you see that US higher education is a really...