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Although violent threats are progressively more sophisticated, frequent, and deadly, this paper will argue that the root causes are not new. Ralph Bunche posited that to ensure peace, the principles and practice of true justice, equality, human rights, and democracy must be secured. However, instead of creating the foundation for enduring peace, we are witnessing the rise of inequality within and between nations. Indeed, even as the number of political regimes classified as ?democracies? increases, economic rights are deteriorating and social cleavages are growing within the current hegemonic order. Following Bunche?s intellectual tradition, which I argue is part of the historical materialist one, and using a critical realist method of analysis, I contend that the neo-liberal paradigm, now directing global transformation, is generating a complex supranational structure that compels states, competing in the global arena, to serve as conduit of global capital. States within this emergent global order move towards a common model, which consists of three mutually reinforcing elements. These are: a neoliberal economy, which aims at the ascendancy of market forces; a Weberian bureaucracy, reflecting processes of rationalization; and ?low-intensity democracy,? which focuses on formal electoral rights, with little consideration for the wider socioeconomic power structure. To elaborate, today?s global liberal market sustains a new strain of capitalism, one that concentrates an inordinate amount of power in the hands of corporations at the expense of ?democracy.? Contrary to what the neo-Marxist literature argues, the paper maintains that even though we will continue to witness opposition against this process, through different means, this will not result in the ?ultimate class struggle.? Instead we will see ?consensual? forms of social control with their mechanisms of ideological hegemony, and worldwide ?class warfare? among the poor, and between the poor and the middle class, whose members witness a decline in their standard of living. I argue that global capitalism, then, simultaneously creates integration at the structural level and fragmentation at the microlevel. Indeed, it exacerbates national, class, racial, and cultural disparities, interdicting the development of class solidarity. This study focuses on the emerging ?low-intensity democracy.? The research, through cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, which employ both quantitative and qualitative methods, will examine the level of democracy in ?developing? (Bolivia and Uganda) and ?developed? states (Germany and Britain). Each states? level of democracy is then compared to the relative condition to one another and against itself over the previous decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I seek to answer some basic questions about the process of globalization in the defense industry and the security considerations that result from it. I concentrate on two major groups of players; states and firms. In the first section I briefly lay out the definition of globalization that is commonly used in analyzing defense issues and then look at what the phrase really means in terms of the defense trade. The following section examines the manifestations of globalization in the defense trade, which are many and profound. There is a particular focus in this section on the effects of globalization on defense production, but there is also some discussion of the effects of globalization on the defense trade; the ?sharp end? of the issue. The next section examines the effects of globalization on security for the state and the firm Throughout this paper the phrase ?defense trade? is used rather than ?arms trade? this reflects the fact that much of what is now traded does not look like a defense good; it is a component, a software code, a training package or simulator, even a computer. Today?s trade is less in finished defense goods than in the components of a system. The phrase ?defense trade? captures this dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration has become a central issue for global social movements seeking alternatives to neoliberal globalization. Many critics of globalization argue that neoliberal capitalist relations contribute to the displacement of millions of people, especially in the Global South. At the same time, Western states have opted to securitize migration, implementing risk profiling technologies in order to further exclude and marginalize migrants. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that many campaigns on behalf of migrants subsume the experience of migration within a discourse of victimage, and fail to take into account migrants’ agency in the migration process. Recent developments, ranging from the refugee protests in Australia to the Migrants Assembly at the European Social Forum in Florence, suggest the emergence of a complex politics where migrants are positioning themselves as key players in global/local political activism. By challenging the state’s prerogative to distinguish between insiders and outsiders, political movements by and in support of undocumented migrants force the matter of sovereignty to the forefront of their political strategy. This paper examines the activism of politicized migrants and their relationship with the sovereign state system. Focusing in particular on the emerging movement of undocumented migrants in Canada, this paper assesses the implications of this activism in terms of how it is reshaping the possibilities for global political identity and practice today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the question of how the dominant free-market model of globalization-a model I call globalism-has been impacted by 9/11 and the war on terrorism. Can globalism survive in our post-9/11 world? The paper makes the case that it cannot--at least not in its pre-9/11 form. In order to save at least some of its original agenda, free-market globalization is currently being transformed into a globalism with an American face-a much more imperialistic and militaristic variant than its more economistic predecessor. Military operations and ideological propaganda maneuvers have become as important-or even more important-than global trade initiatives. The paper examines and analyzes some of these ideological maneuvers. Undermining the establishment of a multilateral global community, the new globalism with an American face is instead raising the specter of an American global empire unilaterally imposed on the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The name of the 45th Annual ISA Convention reminds of Joseph Stiglitz’s well-known book Globalization and its Discontents and makes one wonder whether globalization is synonymous, or is leading to, hegemony - of who, over whom, of what kind? The ongoing debates in the Russian social sciences are focusing on these issues, but the discourses they produce remain cloaked largely in mystery for much of the scientific maintream. This paper, based on the results of several large-scale research projects conducted at the initiative of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his Foundation for Socio-Economic, International and Political Studies and carried out by a prominent group of Russian scholars, analyses the responses Russian political sociology and sociology of international relations provide to the challenges of globalization considered in the context of the New World Order, the transformation of power relations in world politics, and the emergence of new centers of hegemony in global governance. The paper demonstrates that the main thematic lines of analysis of the complexities of globalization in Russia are influenced by the need for the country which used to be a former world superpower to reassess its current position and role and to adjust to the drastic global transformations of which it has been one of the major causes. It provides evidence in support of the claim that the concepts of national sovereignty, self-determination, and political self-determination in particular, are the key instruments in the analysis of Russia’s role and place in the globalizing world. Drawing parallels between the Russian globalization studies and the seminal writings produced by Western authors, it addresses the issues of academic preponderance and diversity, domination and exclusion in the currents of international political sociology, considering the ways in which relations of ruling shape scholarly discourses. The three parts of the paper outline the major questions, or thematic blocks, connected to the study of globalization in Russia. The first part presents how globalization is defined, how it is linked to the issues of power and hegemony in global governance, and what are its main characteristics and contradictions as perceived in Russian contemporary social thought. The second part reveals the theoretical reaction to the globalization challenges resulting in the development of the concept of Russia’s political and economic self-determination, which is applied to the analysis of the country’s behavior in the globalizing world. The third part presents the critical analysis of Russia’s role and place in globalization. It elaborates on the theoretical debates about the forced integration into the international economic, political and informational structures, making an enormous effort and jumping into the wagon of the current winners, versus a messianic attitude declaring Russia’s necessity to take the lead of the losers of globalization, the discontents opposing the trends of global hegemony. Stressing the increasingly significant role of corporations and corporatism, which in Russia takes the form of oligarchic rule, it considers the impacts of Russia’s choice of authoritarianism or democracy on the future world order according to various scenarios developed by the Russian scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abrupt switch from the Japanese economic miracle to the acute Bubble of 1985-1990 and to a deep financial crisis in the 1990s remains puzzling. This paper offers a novel interpretation for the end of the Japanese Miracle. It focuses on key political decisions taken before and during the Bubble regarding financial deregulation. It argues that the Japanese political economic system fell into a dysfunctioning state as a result of a process of financial deregulation without regulatory institutions beginning in the early 1980s. The Japanese government viewed financial deregulation as a solution of least domestic resistance to the US-Japan trade conflict. It was also driven by the new incentives of financial globalization. As in Korea in 1993-1996, linkages between vested interest groups and political parties precluded the parallel establishment of robust regulatory institutions. The paper presents a typology of financial deregulation outcomes in relation to the interaction between global pressures and the voice of vested interest groups in the political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of globalization, migration and new technologies creates the structural conditions for the emergence of transnational networks, non-state actors and other entities that form polities beyond the state. This paper examines this phenomenon and explores the implications for IR theories of national security. If non-state actors have the means to employ force and violence, including the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), what are the implications for our models of the international system as a system composed of states? The paper argues for conceptualizing the international system as a global society, and suggests that factors that factors that enhance security at the domestic level may also enhance security at the global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the politics of the social movement ?ATTAC? from a Gramscian perspective. It analyses the origins, organisational structure and political agenda of the movement in France and Germany and goes on to explore its relationship to the broader anti-globalisation movement. ATTAC is revealed as first and foremost a movement of critical, popular education. The paper employs the interrelated concepts of hegemony and ?historic bloc? to further scrutinise ATTAC’s political potential, in terms of both its rapidly expanding and diverse membership and its substantive policy positions. Acknowledging the enormous challenges faced by transnational civic opposition, the authors nonetheless conclude optimistically that ATTAC has a unifying, relatively coherent agenda among its diverse associations and as such may serve as the core movement around which transnational opposition can rally. They caution, however, that the continued success of the movement will ultimately hinge on how well ATTAC embodies Gramsci’s notion of the organic intellectual, dissolving the distinction between the ‘leaders and the led’, both locally and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging from the globalization debate, the second wave in comparative political economy literature (Hall and Soskice, Scharpf and Schmidt, Schmidt) has emphasized the resilience of divergent varieties of capitalism in the face of pressures of convergence. This paper contributes to this literature, while critically examining some its assumptions. Taking national response strategies to constitute the dependent variable and the pressures of international competitiveness as the independent variable, three questions are analyzed. First, are the divergent trajectories in macroeconomic policy since the 1970s indeed responses to external pressures? Second, what role does globalization play as compared to the role of foreign influence in the form of policy transfer and the diffusion of ideas through epistemic communities? Third, in assessing such response strategies, is it fruitful to distinguish between models and varieties of capitalism, or are there indications functional convergence on a redefined role of the state, a competition state model? Is the functional output of coordinated capitalist systems thus roughly similar to that of liberal capitalist systems? At the microlevel, this neo-institutionally inspired analysis examines the role of key actors, the institutional configuration of the political system, central politico-economic interest groups, and other civil society actors in the implementation of embedded liberalism. The analysis drawn on evidence from a diverse sample of previously understudied countries, including two countries that have embraced liberal market economics (Chile, New Zealand) and two others that have traditionally been associated with Social Democratic neocorporatist economic governance (Austria and Norway). While much effort has been previously devoted to sketching contours of globalization, relatively scant attention has been paid to such response strategies and the question as to whether some, if not most, of the impetus for change originates domestically, rather than at the global level. The paper addresses this set of issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining EU hegemony toward the Mediterranean: theory deficits through the negligence of natural resources In the mid 90s, as part of the globalization process, EU states started to intensify their efforts to create new opportunities for investment and trade in the Mediterranean region. To that effect they launched the so-called Barcelona process with its centerpiece of an Economic Free Trade Area between EU and Mediterranean Barcelona participants. According to neo-liberal theory the economic liberalization of the Mediterranean would be of mutual benefit to both parties involved: investment and free trade would foster the region’s economic development, would reduce poverty and generate stability. Particularly investment in the Maghreb countries would be very attractive for European business in view of the region’s availability of cheap labour, favorable investment conditions and access to new markets. Critics of globalization and neo-liberalism, however, in particular Neo-Gramscians, consider the EU Barcelona process as an instrument of the EU elite for incorporating the Mediterranean region in their hegemonic bloc, to the profit of the EU and Mediterranean elite and at the expense of the Mediterranean ordinary population. Now, eight years after the launching of this initiative, it seems that the critics of globalization got it right: the living conditions of the populations of most of the Maghreb countries have not improved, in some countries they even worsened. But a close look at the reasons for the worsening living conditions of some Maghreb countries suggests that the reality is more complex than the theory is capable to grasp. While there is no doubt that EU companies profit from the unilateral trade between both regions, and that deregulation and privatization programs have already had their devastating effects, investment in labor intensive sectors is not taking place and is not expected to start off any time soon. So far the biggest share of the otherwise little EU investment in the Maghreb is taken up by a sector which Neo-Gramscian have difficulties to explain: investment in Algerian and Egyptian energy sector with the prospect of significant expansion in future. But as a Marxist approach the neo-Gramscian one has little regard for the role of natural resources in the economic process and for the fact that in contrast to the abundant availability of cheap labor, we are confronted with the limits of some critical natural resources. Therefore, empirical research led by Neo-Marxist theory would miss important motives for the EU’s consolidation of a hegemonic bloc with the Mahgreb countries’ elites: EU governments’ concern about energy supply dependencies and European energy companies’ objective in accessing the region’s cheaply extracted natural resources. Recognition of such a different form of EU exploitation of the Maghreb countries’ wealth would be imperative for a successful political strategy to improve the conditions in these poverty-stricken countries. While a Neo-Marxist approach in principle is well suited to explain the dynamics of the Euro-Mediterranean process, this paper will argue that important undercurrents of this partnership are left unexplained by the Neo-Gramscian theory, if it does not shed its orthodox Marxist tenet of ignoring nature and the constrains set by the limits of nature. The paper will start to discuss the general negligence of nature in IR theory in the age of globalization and will discuss - as Daniel Deudney has put it - how to bring nature back in. The empirical part is going to highlight the importance of the role of energy in Euro-Mediterranean relations and in particular the energy import dependencies of the European Union from Maghreb countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many conceptions of global life assume a kind of distinction between the risks confronted by sovereign states in geopolitical relations and those encountered by ‘everyday’ individuals in the course of daily life. This apparent distinction is evident, for example, in stories of ‘globalization’ which ask individuals increasingly to bear a direct form of global risk by participating in global financial markets. This logic of individualized risk is often implicitly or explicitly conceived as separate from the kinds of geopolitical danger/risk assumed by sovereign states in accordance with Westphalian discourses of national security. ..ASA-In contrast, this paper argues that geopolitical danger often is (and for a long time has often been) inseparable from questions of individualized security. To accomplish this task, this paper reviews and analyzes the everyday culture (advertising images, narratives, advice literature) of several ‘popular financial’ initiatives from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This analysis draws upon archival material including the educational, advertising and public information campaigns organized by the New York Stock Exchange. The main point of this cultural analysis of earlier campaigns (which predate neo-liberal concerns with ‘personal finance’) is to underscore the ways in which, across different time periods, programs targeted at individual security have also often been self-consciously framed simultaneoulsy as constructions of geopolitical security. Both historical and contemporary programs of ‘popular finance’ have persistently represented individual and geopolitical security as mutually implicated and constituted. Such a cultural analysis could help provoke more historically-situated analyses of personal financial security and of the connections between conceptions of individualized and geopolitical security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that globalization has come to a crossroads in terms of political structure. Terrorism and the war on terrorism have led to an increasing militarization of global politics. An ominous but very possible outcome of this scenario is the emergence of a global or semi-global empire imposing order militarily from above. The paper pleads in favor of an other alternative: an order negotiated among societies and peoples in the shape of a cosmopolitan confereracy anchored in democratic principles and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist studies of Filipina domestic workers in various contexts has resulted in an extensive literature that has advanced considerably our understanding of this phenomenon. The great majority of this work has, rightly, focused on the gender effects of this sort of work. Regrettably, scholars of International Political Economy (IPE) have largely ignored these contributions. IPE has much to learn from this literature, and concomitantly, I argue that feminist studies of migrant domestic workers have too often overlooked aspects that are traditionally the domain of IPE. My paper attempts to bridge these differences in two ways. First, I demonstrate that the familiar understanding of this forced migration must be understood in terms of the explicit strategy of exporting governments adapting to changes in the global political economy. From a critical IPE perspective I argue that the focus on gender too often elides questions of class which can more fully inform our study of domestic workers. The second argument I present is based on a more pronounced focus on class. Utilizing Marx’s dual freedom thesis I demonstrate that while the conditions of employment for these women are indeed exploitative the dual movement from non-wage to wage labor and from domestic to overseas work produces surprising effects. Among these effects are a more pronounced sense of consciousness as women, workers, and agents of social change. My paper is based on research conducted in Hong Kong, including interviews with domestic workers, union activists, and NGOs involved in furthering the interests of domestic workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is portrayed by some analysts as forcing convergence to a liberal norm, while others argue for the continued efficacy of organized market forms of capitalism, to use Peter Hall’s description, despite globalization. Has there been a general move toward liberal market structures among European economies? And are there discernable differences in economic performance that can be traced to these transformations (or lack thereof)? This paper seeks to explore these questions empirically through an examination of institutional change and economic performance in six advanced industrial economies that offer a mix of liberal and coordinated economic structures (i.e., the United States, Britain, and Ireland on the liberal side; France, Germany, and the Netherlands as coordinated economies). The convergence question is often posed strictly in economic policy terms, an unfortunate limitation given that globalization reduces states’ ability to control economic change. The key question is how the broader institutions of economic and social regulation -- society rather than government -- respond to globalization. As such this paper first produces an empirical index based on capital mobility, labor relationships, economic regulation, and social attitudes for gauging whether markets in these states have largely liberalized or remain relatively coordinated. Comparative economic performance since 1989 (marking both the fall of the Berlin Wall and the introduction of the World Wide Web) will then be examined to see if there is any correlation between political-economic responses to globalization and economic outcomes. The hypothesis is that there will be more diversity among European capitalist economies than the mainstream reading of globalization would predict, but that more coordinated economies face rising opportunity costs that will comparatively hinder economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization encourages the erosion of governmental sovereignty, forcing governments to share their authority with other actors. The lines between foreign and domestic affairs are not distinct and sub-national actors have felt the impact of external influences. The nineteenth century was no different. While it does not surprise students of the era that Americans did not consider the national government as final arbiter in domestic disputes, it is often forgotten that a similar pattern emerged with American foreign policy. Numerous factors combined to enhance local power in nineteenth century foreign policy. The ambiguity of federalism and the doctrine of states’rights, for example, encouraged rivalry between local actors and the national government. It is my contention throughout the paper that factors appeared to enhance the power of localities in the nineteenth century, but ultimately the national government prevailed. The political capital possessed by localities did not stop the national government from consolidating its power and, despite some manipulation by local actors, the national government emerged as the dominant foreign policy actor. The paper will examine local activism in the nineteenth century using a case study approach. The cases analyzed include: the Caroline Affair; the Aroostook War; and and the Alexander McLeod Affair. While a case study approach naturally limits the generalizations that one can make, the paper hopes to lead the reader in new directions, raising significant questions and points about local activism in nineteenth century American foreign policy. In addition, the paper will hint at possible lessons for American foreign policy today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to retrieve an ethics of cosmopolitanism from contemporary Muslim reformist discourse. It begins by establishing a clear precedent for cosmopolitanism in Islam by identifying several key historical junctures that represent the negotiation of otherness by Muslims: the early community in Medina; the rich transnationalism of the 14th century Indian Ocean; and Muslim minority issues in the middle Ottoman and late Mughal periods. The paper then moves on to recover traces of this cosmopolitan ethos in what I term ‘critical Islam’?a term that seeks to capture the sense in which contemporary Muslim reformist discourse aims for an internal critique of Islamic dogmatism while simultaneously holding up a reinvigorated Islam as an alternative to the Western idiom of globalization. To this end I survey the work of a number of present day intellectuals and activists whose pragmatic orientation to the question of Islamic imperatives and correct practice produces particularly innovative solutions to the day-today problems associated with global life. I point in particular to the work of the Swiss-based philosopher Tariq Ramadan and interpret his work as, in part, a response to the decline in nation-state oriented identities. Likewise, I analyze the transnational social movement Women Living Under Muslim Law as an example of how non-state actors, linked through networks of communication and solidarity, are able to appropriate elements of globalization as tools of resistance. The paper concludes with some thoughts on how these various trends might represent routes towards a new practical ethics of coexistence and cosmopolitanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the reasons why certain remnants (the Papacy, the Duchy of Luxembourg, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of San Marino, and the Principality of Andorra) of the heteronomous medieval state system are treated and function as sovereign states in the current global order when they should have been eliminated from the European system by the selection-by-competition mechanism. The paper will seek to shed light on the selection-by- competition mechanism as an explanation for the formation of the state and the modern state system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that multinational corporations (MNCs) control the international political economy. This is not surprising given that various MNCs have annual sales exceeding the GDP of many countries and that MNCs spend billions of dollars shaping cultural preferences and political outcomes across the globe. Has economic power truly enabled multinationals to achieve political hegemony? On the one hand, realists argue that states remain preeminent in the international system. On the other hand, globalists assert that multinationals have become all powerful. In this paper, which represents part of a larger research project examining the power balance between corporations and states, I address this question in two ways. First, I present an analytical framework highlighting factors that shape the state versus multinational balance. Second, I present a case study that looks at the power of states versus MNCs during the HIV/AIDS crisis (when large pharmaceuticals confronted developing countries). My paper refutes the globalist argument by showing that the developed countries triumphed even though tangible factors would have led one to expect otherwise. Nevertheless, my study does not fully support the realists because it also demonstrates the importance of international norms, framing discourses, and transnational civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper conceptualizes global governance as a consequence of globalization and thereby deduces the necessity to analyze the opportunities and limits of actors to pursue their interests and exercise power in global governance. In order to conduct this analysis with respect to the role of business - the urgency of which becomes particularly apparent when looking at the current state of knowledge in this field - the paper develops a typology of political activities and dimensions of power. Based on this typology, the paper sketches developments in the role of business in global governance since the 70s. It highlights quantitative and qualitative changes in efforts to exercise instrumental, structural, and discursive power, describes variations in the different facets of the developments in the three dimensions, and discusses the problematic relationship between activities and influence. In the course of this endeavor, the paper also provides a more concrete picture of the transformations in the political role of corporations, to which the global governance literature frequently refers, but which it rarely analyzes systematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, a wide range of IPE scholars have argued that economic globalization, through both material and ideational constraints, has brought about a retreat of the state. Moreover, while many have debated the precise nature of this retreat, there is some consensus that it involves, at a minimum, the growing dominance of neoliberal ideas and the shift to more free market-oriented policies at both the domestic and international levels. However, in the last few years, there have occurred a number of crises that seem to pose a challenge to the neoliberal model. Reflecting these developments, the purpose of this paper is to examine how crises such as the Asian financial crises, the crash of the US stock market, September 11th, recent corporate scandals and a variety of crises relating to privatization and deregulation, are challenging the neoliberal model in both ideational and material terms. In doing so, this paper argues that, after two decades of retreat, we may now be witnessing a return of the state. To demonstrate this point, the first part of this paper will examine the retreat of the state debate in order to establish a methodology for determining what, precisely, constitutes a retreat. This methodology will then be applied to state and elite responses to recent crises in order to show that a return of the state is beginning to occur in both ideational and material terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The virtue of the ‘variety of capitalism’ approach (Hall & Sockice, 2001) is that it challenges the notion that capitalist globalisation apparently entails the growing impotence of nation states and the increasing homogenisation of social formations. There are, however, a number of analytic problems with this approach, which this identifies. Apart from an inadequate and misleading conceptualisation of the relationship between state and market in the era of globalisation, the most severe problem is to treat all the advanced capitalist states as equal units of analysis. This occludes the overwhelming power and penetrative capacity of the American state and capital vis a vis even the other leading capitalist states in the world today. On the basis of this critique, the paper argues that European capitalism must be theorised within the framework of American neo-imperialism. In this light, the paper critically examines various recent attempts to theorise the nature of American empire and points the way to a more adequate theorisation. The paper presents historical and empirical evidence that challenges the presumption that the material base for the maintenance of American hegemony has eroded. But this does not mean that contradictions for the American imperium and neo-liberal globalisation do not exist. But strategic advance for the left in this context will have to entail far more than defending or extolling existing European models of capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, the WTO witnessed its first demonstration. This paper seeks to explain from the liberal perspective of international relations and domestic politcs how they emerged. By concentrating on the question of why there was such a diverse group of protestors it is discovered that the protests were likely the result of how interest group responded to the pressures of WTO membership. This paper uses two Poisson regression models to test this theoretical interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that if social and political theory was shaped by the politics of difference in last two decades of the past century, it will and should increasingly become preoccupied with the question of global solidarity at the beginning of the 21st century. In the first part of the paper, I claim that this requires moving beyond the overly abstract, formal and proceduralist conceptions of solidarity found in the discourses of cosmopolitanism, universal human rights and liberal instititutionalism predominating in academic and public-policy circles today. The second part of the paper thus contends that global solidarity can be interpreted as a transnational mode of ethico-political practice, a form of normatively and politically driven social action that seeks to articulate the principles of difference and equality in the construction of social bonds with distant others. I will illustrate this point by analyzing the alternative globalization?or so-called ?anti-globalization??movement, which seeks to ground its solidaristic politics in an understanding of the multiple modernities of subordinate groups in different parts of the globe without falling back into the traps of radical particularism (othering) or false universalism (sameness). Such efforts have gained a new urgency in the post-September 11 world, where attempts to divide humankind along essentialized civilizational, religious and ethno-racial lines is gaining renewed favour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers both a theoretical critique of existing analytical frameworks for explaining how human rights norms evolve, and a practical discussion of specific new mechanisms central to cross-border advocacy on human rights in the context of international trade. It highlights two mechanisms ? blocking and backdoor moves ? that stand to enrich our understanding of how new normative understandings of human rights emerge. Empirically, the paper analyzes labor and economic rights advocacy in the context of the World Trade Organization’s Third Ministerial Meeting at Seattle (November 1999). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a "new international division of labour" and "triangle manufacturing" a voluntary, private, corporate-centred regulation of international labour standards is emerging. This paper analyses the effectiveness of this new "third way" to regulate international labour standards by assessing monitoring mechanisms used by Nike International. These include monitoring by international auditing firms, surveys of workers by the Global Alliance of Workers and Communities (an international NGO), and monitoring and enforcement by the Fair Labor Association, a multistakeholder monitoring agency. The relative merits of two other multistakeholder monitoring agencies, the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Worker Rights Consortium are also discussed. The paper concludes that more effective forms of regulation of international labour standards will require a greater role for states and independent unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper will address why developing countries remain segregated into area studies of IR and why at the same time Latin American IR remains so attached to a statist/realist methodology. Globalization has had an impact on policy in Latin America but hardly any impact on the way the policy process is conceived and understood, beyond simple assertions of perforated or porous sovereignty. The paper thus seeks to reinterpret dominant understandings of Latin American political economy in the light of the intellectual challenges posed by globalisation, and examine the light this in turn sheds on the ways key globalisation debates are conducted in IPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following E.P.Thompson in this paper I start from the position that while the rule of law is certainly a manifestation of political power, we should not forget that it is also one of the key instruments for protecting the weak and relatively powerless in (global) society. However, often when we examine the rule of law in the global political economy we find that law is itself reified and thus the politicised elements of its genesis are downplayed or obscured. In this paper I examine three key terms which are used to make sense of the global political economy and its regulation, arguing that each exhibits reification. Indeed, reification is symptomatic of, and a partial political response to, the anxiety many feel about global governance, the assumption of progress and the possibility of regulation in the new millennium. To excavate this issue, I start by briefly establishing the history of reification as critique before examining three key reified objects. Starting with the most obvious (and thus perhaps the most acceptable subject of such a critique) I set out the reification of globalisation in both academic and policy discourse. I then move to discuss the notion of the market(s) and law as reified institutions to argue that the problem with much of the global governance (and cosmopolitan democracy) discourse is a lack of appreciation of the underlying political power relations of economics and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the profound changes at work in the world, known commonly and somewhat opaquely as globalization, have altered the behaviors and orientations of those citizens who participate in the dynamics of globalization. The evidence of rapid and pervasive transformation seems to be everywhere as neoliberal economic policies, vast movements of people around the world, communications and transportation technologies, and a host of other dynamics have led to what has been called the death of time and distance. These changes are so profound that it calls into question the assumption that those who preside over economies, societies, and polities simply absorb these changes into traditional practices. Rather, we theorize that globalizing processes and the backlashes against them alter the lives, outlooks, practices and relationships of all people?rich and poor, leaders and followers, Northerners and Southerners. More than that, we suspect that some of the most extensive transformations have occurred in the lives of those elites in all walks of life who are on the cutting edge of the dynamics presently underway. Using two surveys of over 800 American elites conducted in the fall of 1999 and the winter of 2002-2003, this paper investigates the degree to which an individual’s participation in the processes of globalization transforms his or her loyalties to a nation-state, attitudes toward authority, and orientations toward other collectivities. It also measures whether protests against the WTO and World Bank, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the war in Iraq have affected the orientations of elites to globalization. To identify those respondents on the cutting edge of global processes, the authors develop an index to measure a respondent’s involvement in global processes. The authors then use this index to conduct chi-square tests that uncover significant attitudinal and behavioral differences between elites on the cutting edge and the other respondents. These tests find that an individual’s participation in the processes of globalization significantly affects his or her orientation toward both the nation-state and other authorities. Those respondents on the cutting edge viewed globalization significantly more favorably than the other respondents. They travel significantly more; use communications technologies more extensively; are more likely to place their employers’ or organizations’ interests before their governments’ interests; and feel significantly more empowered in the face of global processes. These findings support the argument that global elites today are developing political orientations that are incommensurate with traditional, state-centered notions of identity and loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States, Globalization and the National Security State The suicidal terrorist attacks of September 11 were an audacious demonstration of how the dark side of globalization could directly impact on the security of the US. According to President Bush, September 11th changed the strategic thinking of the US. But it is evident that a new strategic era actually began with the end of the Cold War. What happened on September 11 is that the intra-state violence of the post-Cold War period finally caught up with the US. This paper will seek to explore whether the Bush administration has really come to terms with a radical change of context in the global security environment. While acknowledging new developments in US thinking about security in the post-Cold War world, this paper argues that a Cold War phenomenon known as the national security state, in which defence and foreign policy interests essentially merged to protect the state from the threat of military force, remains largely intact. Indeed, the ideas of US global primacy and pre-emptive war, adopted by the Bush administration in 2002, have reinvigorated and extended the concept of a US national security state. It will be shown that the impact of globalization on the US worldview has been limited, amongst other things, by America’s sole superpower status, the re-positing of the Republican Party during the 1990s and the traumatic effect of September 11. As a result, President Bush’s America remains an old fashioned partisan great power, rather than a truly global power. And given the US’s enormous structural power in military and economic terms in the post-Cold War world, it could be argued that Mr Bush’s new exceptionalism is becoming a major obstacle to fashioning an international consensus on security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine the concept and process of globalisation in relation to the global marine environment. Globalisation both as a concept and as a process is a contested term - its usage has become generally accepted but there is no definition of what constitutes globalisation and there is no empirical evidence that it is an actually occurring process. Attempts at conceptualising or theorising about globalisation from an IPE perspective tend to sideline environmental and social consequences of globalisation as issues in the intellectual framework within which globalisation is analysed. These issues are usually treated as part of an analysis of global civil society and new social movements but in this context only transnational actors representing social and environmental issues are incorporated into the analysis rather than the structural and systemic forces and constraints within which actors operate. The global marine environment has not received much attention in the context of globalisation and this paper will examine why this is the case and what the salient issues are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role played by and the evolution of organised business interests in the Mercosur is a neglected area of study inside and outside the Southern Cone region. Existing research focuses primarily on states as actors. As a consequence, one of the main findings is that organised business has gained in importance in relation to the evolution of the Mercosur and that its role is generally underestimated in the existing literature. In addition to literature in English, Spanish and Portuguese, the research draws on interviews with representatives from both the business community and academia in the Mercosur. The first part of the paper will give a short introduction to the theoretical framework used to analyse the role played by organised business interests. Comparative Political Economy (CPE) is applied to the study of domestic interest representation and how these interests have changed and adapted to internationalisation, regionalisation and globalisation over time. International Political Economy (IPE) approaches are applied to study the emerging regional level of interest representation and to take into account theories of regionalisation, regionalism and globalisation. The aim is not a merging of CPE and IPE, but rather the need to highlight the important contributions of both disciplines to the study of organised business interests. The second part of the paper will focus on the chemical industry as one example of how organised business has changed and adapted to international, regional and global changes. The chemical industry is generally overlooked, as most studies focus on the automobile industry. The chemical industry is important, because co-operation between national business chambers in this industrial sector started well before the politically driven integration process. Consequently, the evolution of interest representation in relation to the chemical industry in the Mercosur points to the increasing linkages between the domestic level of interest representation and the regional level. These linkages are supported by global changes, which affect the domestic and the regional level. CPE and IPE approaches are therefore central for a theoretical understanding of these new forms of interest representation and the many ways they interact with the various levels of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the intersections between gender, ethnicity and culture in framing the forms of resistance to globalisation that take place within the workplace of the multinational firm. In studies of globalisation, labour is often regarded as the passive victim of corporate restructuring as MNCs play states off against one another in the search for ever cheaper sources of labour. Resistance to this form of corporate power is often viewed as taking the form of globalised networks of activists committed to worker rights or the struggles of trade unions in states committed to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). The argument presented in this paper, is that resistances to corporate globalisation are often much more locally specific and more complex than the global resistances literature would have us believe. By taking a perspective that identifies the dynamics of gender relations in the strategies of resistance that workers engage in, we are confronted with everyday forms of resistance that are embedded in workers’ identities. In order to illustrate this claim, case study research is presented from a TNC operating in Malaysia in which it was found that young female Malay workers are involved in spirit possession incidents which may lead to the closure of the factory - a trend that was first noted in the literature on Malaysian women workers in the 1980s. Within this case study firm, implicit assumptions amongst managers regarding the suitability of specific gender and ethnic groups to certain jobs have created a deeply segmented workforce in which Malay women are overwhelming constructed as a source of low cost, docile labour suited to repetitive assembly line production. Thus, in order to view spirit possession as a form of resistance to transnational capital we need to recognise that Malay women have few other avenues through which to voice their frustrations with the pressures of factory work and thus turn to a culturally-specific form of resistance. These forms of resistance amongst a largely powerless group demonstrate how specific identities based upon an intersection between gender, ethnicity, age, culture and religion are articulated in the development of localised forms of resistance. Such insights therefore, demonstrate the value of looking to women’s unique experiences of resistance in developing a gendered political economy approach to the politics of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and International Relations: A New Site of Knowledge? Despite a burgeoning literature in other social sciences, such as sociology and social anthropology, a casual glance at the indexes of the most widely used texts in international relations reveals an interesting fact: there are very references to the child or to children. Those that there are emphasize the role of children as victims: as labourers, soldiers, refugees and slaves. To acknowledge and then to contest this lack of reference is concomitant with the realisation that children may actually be a significant ‘site of knowledge’ in international relations. This paper argues that the fact that children are largely ignored in the mainstream literature is not because their contribution would be insignificant, but rather because the dominant system of knowledge is inadequate in being able to articulate the contribution that children may make. The inadequacy of many of the traditional themes and constructs, in the practice of international relations, is therefore highlighted. Section one examines the many roles of the child in international relations and in its sub-fields, including those in international political economy, in development studies, in questions of globalisation and integration, in conflict and its resolution, and in traditional notions of rights, citizenship, power and representation. Such an examination demonstrates that children appear ‘in invisible ink’ throughout international relations. Section two of the paper examines the reasons for the lack of insight on children in the mainstream literature. This lack of insight reflects the reliance of traditional IR approaches on a top-down as opposed to a bottom-up approach. As Schram notes: ‘Knowing how it is that some come to be seen as being on the margin or on the bottom can tell us much about how the discursive constitution of social relations contributes to deciding meaning and value, identity and other, inclusion and exclusion, ‘us’ and ‘them’.’ Thus, our view of the child, children and/or childhood forms our ideas regarding the nature and validity of knowledge. Feminist analysis has often critiqued traditional theoretical constructs from the point of view of the inherent masculinity of their standpoint. This paper criticises the traditional theoretical constructs from the point of view of the inherent adult-centred focus of their perspective. However, we only see events in one way (e.g. adult, male, Western, affluent) simply because we do not choose to look at them from another. If we invert IR, we gain an entirely different perspective: the subject becomes the object, the agent becomes the structure, the other becomes the self. The third section examines how taking account of the child would change the focus of the discipline. In particular it emphasises the conference theme by examining whether IR is indeed open to difference or whether the practice of international relations as a discipline itself reinforces the child’s inequality in world politics. This is not a call to have children at the conference table, but rather a plea to take account of a group of people who provide the international system with its continuity and as such are central to the development of the discourse as opposed to marginal to it. Children are present in other social sciences ? why not ours? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops the argument that hegemony in 21st century global society will be exercised not by the United States but by an emergent transnational configuration, in which the U.S. state plays the leadership role on behalf of an emergent global capitalist historical bloc. At the helm of this historic bloc is a transnational capitalist class grounded in new global circuits of accumulation. The paper provides new data on transnational capitalist class formation. It the goes on to critique state-centric conceptions of hegemony in extant literature, calling for a more faithful rendition of the Gramsian notion of hegemony as a relationship among social classes and groups, not states per se. Given the process of globalization, these classes and groups are increasingly transnational in character. The paper concludes with a discussion of alternative scenarios for world order in this post-nation-state phase of global hegemony, and the prospects for potential counter-hegemonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the growing internationalisation of renewable electricity issues, with particular reference to the transatlantic (or European Union - United States) relationship. The paper begins by identifying future trends on the internationalisation of electricity issues, the contribution of renewables and the importance of the transatlantic relationship. The potential for conflict and cooperation between the European Union and the United States on renewable electricity issues ? and the accompanying costs and benefits ? is then investigated. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of having an international institution with broad participation take a lead in investigating this issue further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on case studies of the local politics of global English in the United States, France, India, South Africa, and Nepal, this paper puts forward two claims about linguistic globalization. The first is that the more globally integrated the country, the more the issue of global English is politicized. The second claim is that global English is a defining characteristic of linguistic globalization and, in turn, linguistic globalization is an important dimension of globalization. In substantiating these claims, the author utilizes the concepts of hegemony and resistance, elites and subalterns, and liberalization and democratization. The analysis demonstrates the rather surprising ways in which the claims hold true. In particular, the paper suggests that the State is a critical site and actor for understanding linguistic globalization-from-above and ?from-below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine two emerging literature in the field of international relations ? globalization and transnational activism ? to determine how IR scholars are theorizing these challenges to the sovereignty of the nation state. My purpose is not to assess the empirical veracity of the claims that these scholars make, instead I am examining the unstated assumptions about the form of the international system that these authors are making. Scholars of these phenomena tend to claim that the emergence of transnational and global politics represents a fundamental shift in the nature of world politics. As I shall demonstrate in this paper, however, while explicitly trumping change to the shape of the international system, most of these scholars end up offering models of world politics that leave the basic unit of the international system ? the sovereign state ? and the principles behind it untouched. In the first part of this paper I examine the globalization literature to see how they theorize international order. I argue that while there is diversity in how these scholars describe globalization, their descriptions of world politics end up reinforcing the principles of state sovereignty upon which the westphalian system rests. I then turn to the transnational activist literature, to see if scholars in this sub-field have developed any alternative models for the international system. I argue that while scholars of transnational social movements do suggest that global social movements represent a new form of politics, this form of politics actually ends up reinforcing the principles of state sovereignty that it is supposedly transgressing. I conclude with some brief remarks about whether obstinacy of sovereignty in theories of globalization and transnational action represents a limit to the theoretical sophistication of our models of the international system, or is it proof that globalization and transnational activism do not represent significant challenges to the sovereignty of the state? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A puzzling inconsistency characterizes the attitudes of many developing countries toward globalization and the establishment of international rules governing the global economy. While countries have ceded sovereignty in monetary policy and trade policy, they have been much more reluctant to do so in the area of foreign direct investment (FDI). Agreeing to investment rules clearly does entail ceding sovereignty but not necessarily more so than in these other areas in which nations have agreed to comply with international regimes. In fact, there have been attempts ? some successful, some not ? to establish international rules on FDI. At the most recent round of trade talks in Qatar, nations once again battled over this issue with inconclusive results. Despite this and the failure of the talks on establishing the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment), there are several examples of established rules. Examples include the WTO rules on TRIMS (Trade Related Investment Measures), The GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) provisions on investment in service industries, regional and bilateral investment treaties, as well as less formal arrangements such as various codes of conduct that have been established. This paper will examine and explain the variation in the extent to which countries have been willing to cede sovereignty in the area of FDI regulations. The paper will explore when and under what conditions stronger regimes are established and thus help us to understand the prospects for FDI regulation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Social Forum (WSF) is a transnational coalition that brings together social movements, NGOs, transnational networks and social associations with the purpose of seeking out alternatives to hegemonic globalization processes. Given the diversity of participants, there are a large number of positions and proposals that are often similar, but at times divergent. Since 2001, when the first version of the WSF was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, this has become an important object of study from different disciplines in the social sciences. The majority of the existing literature has focused on the WSF's organizational structure, financial sources and its implications for global governance. However, it is unclear who the people involved in the WSF are and where They come from, both in geographic and ideological terms. The major objective of this paper is to map the movements and organizations at the WSF. With this goal in mind, the paper identifies the main actors, grievances and goals of these groups and the consequences of the actions within the Forum between 2001 and 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the politics of multilateral action by analyzing the supposed rise, decline, and subsequent re-rise of state sovereignty. In the 1990's a large literature grew around the topic of globalization's challenge to the nation-state, leading some to predict its demise. However, things began to shift after 2001 as the US pursued military interventions; China emerged as an economic powerhouse; Russia became newly assertive; and Latin America turned to the left, rejecting the Washington Consensus. This led to a sense that sovereignty had returned to its rightful place at the center of international affairs. And yet, today, the world faces numerous crises--including climate change, terrorism, financial collapse, etc.--that outstrip the capacity of any single sovereign state. Thus, the need for a strengthened capacity for multilateral action has become readily apparent. This paper argues that making such action effective depends upon an understanding of the complex nature of sovereignty. The concept of sovereignty must be disaggregated: distinct sovereignty concerns relate to distinct issues for different countries at different moments. An understanding of how the interplay among these elements affects the politics of multilateral action is necessary to achieve the best solutions to the worst problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polices and discourse on global development in recent years have increasingly centered on the instrumental role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in political development and change. The recent (2011) events in North Africa ensure that these inquiries will continue. At the same time, many initiatives and programs have emerged in developing regions featuring the implementation and use of ICTs for development. In the Andean region of South America, some of these are designed and promoted by national governments, some by the regional organization, the Andean Community, and others by external organizations such as the Canadian IDRC. This paper evaluates the outcomes of these initiatives, specifically focused on Internet use, in one Andean country, Ecuador, with an emphasis on the responses of civil society organizations. The research is based on the premise that the engagement of the civil society is a likely measurement of the outcomes of various initiatives to integrate ICTs into the development process, and address empowerment of marginalized groups and regions. The paper addresses a fundamental question: How do the activities of civil society organizations connect ICT policies to practice in ways that address political marginalization? We highlight the intersection of ICT for development policies and societal activities in a region that exhibits one of the highest levels of socioeconomic and political cleavages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subnational governments (such as provinces, states or regions) are largely ignored in international policy documents on sustainable development, and they are not recognized in multilateral decision-making. Nevertheless, many subnational governments have launched sustainable development policies. This paper examines to which extent they take global sustainable development governance into account when doing so. A theoretical framework is used that builds upon the literature of policy convergence. Two mechanisms of policy convergence are studied (international harmonization and transnational communication) and their theoretical insights are complemented with insights from regime theory and globalization scholars. That framework is then applied on a comparative policy analysis of five subnational governments: North Holland (the Netherlands), North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Wallonia (Belgium), Flanders (Belgium) and Quebec (Canada). The findings show that subnational governments with a distinct territorial identity react differently on international impulses than other subnational governments. Flanders and Quebec, the cases that have such an identity, follow the rules and decision-making procedures of the international sustainable development regime, and they translate the norms and principles into their policies. The paper also finds that the influence of international policies is determined by the active participation of subnational governments in multilateral decision-making. Finally, it is argued that the legitimacy pressures exerted by international organizations on lower-level governments to adopt certain policies, have a varying impact on subnational governments which depends on their domestic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the influences informing the voluntary initiatives undertaken by major mining companies to meet their environmental and social responsibilities. The framing by mining companies of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in terms of sustainable development, as reflected in their stand-alone CSR reports, is a noteworthy feature of the mining industry. This paper analyzes the process by which convergence occurred around the norm of sustainable development and examines the circumstances that led to the adoption of unilateral and collaborative corporate voluntary initiatives to promote sustainable development in the mining sector. It is argued that the interaction of institutional dynamics with managerial preferences are key variables which can best be explained by institutional approaches in organization theory and international relations theory that draw attention to the global context and the dissemination of global norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This very short paper is a "first cut" of a "work in progress," based on a summary prepared at the request of the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Staff in October 2010. It will be the basis for the paper I originally intended to prepare for the panel on Positive IR: New Creative Approaches for Studying International Relations in Times of Uncertainty and Change, Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Montreal, Québec, Canada, 15-19 March, 2011. A first version was presented as a keynote address at the conference of the Central and East European International Studies Association (CEE-ISA), St. Petersburg, Russia, 2-4 September, 2009, and various versions have been orally presented since then. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines democracy as an international norm of governance in international political theory and seeks to establish a connection between democratic governance and prevention of conflicts. It is the purpose of this paper to determine how significant the democratic governance as a source of global norm is for preventing international conflicts. The degree of the relationship between democratic governance and peace is tested on an analysis of democratic peace theory with its relationship to Finnemore and Sikkink.s (1998) framework of norm internationalization in order to analyze how democracy, global governance and peace have evolved to be accepted as an international norm. Democracy, the theoretical justifications for democracy, democratic peace and the historical onsets of democratic internationalism are investigated. It is proposed that the application and/or the misapplication of the international model of democracy onto those non-democratic states can lead to armed conflicts. This investigation leads to a discussion of internationalization of democratic norm and its impact on the structures of global governance. It is concluded that the efforts of the international community to foster democracy in the globe have led to a divide between Western (core) civilization and non-Western (peripheral) ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its introduction, in the late 1990s, Cosmopolitan or Comparative political theory (CPT) has seen phenomenal growth, as a subfield of political theory in North American Universities. Comparative theorists suggest that political theory may have originated as an academic discipline in the west but it should not be considered coterminous with it. This paper critically evaluates various methodological prescriptions put forward by comparative theorists. In particular, it focuses on comparativists' overwhelming tendency to rely on Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics and the construction of imaginary east-west dialogues, to achieve a fusion of horizons, as the preferred method to integrate non-western systems of ideas into mainstream western theorizing. As an alternate to this methodological orientation the paper suggests that CPT's objective, of finding a middle ground between Eurocentrism and Eurodenial, has the potential of introducing the likes of a Khunian paradigm shift within the academic discipline of political theory in the west. However, this is only possible if comparativists expand the scope of CPT to periods earlier than late modernity and detach it from the demands of the current wave of globalization. The paper ends by identifying avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the 'godfather' of the theory of democratic peace, Immanuel Kant's ideas continue to resonate in a range of conflicting ideological traditions. In particular, Kant's ideas have been invoked in the contemporary era by both liberal internationalists and neoconservatives as legitimating a moral obligation for powerful democratic states to intervene in authoritarian regimes in an attempt to broaden and to globalize the democratic peace. This paper interrogates the commonalities and differences in the ways in which Kant's ideas have directly or indirectly been employed by both liberal internationalists and neoconservatives in contemporary debates over the United States' foreign policy agenda and the legitimate use of US power in the international system. In short, this paper examines the Kantian legacy in contemporary ideological debates over the global role of the US, and argues that the attempt to realize 'ethical' goals through drawing on the legitimating power of the ideal of a democratic peace and the 'responsibility to protect' can also contribute to political instability and conflict when imposed from outside. The paper concludes that progressive goals pursued by non-progressive means, which attempt to draw upon a veneer of legitimacy by appealing to a Kantian legacy, inexorably lead to an inherent ambivalence towards the humanitarian costs of external intervention, in pursuit of an overarching and homogenous ethics of international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are some armed conflicts forgotten, while others are known the world around? The literature gives conflicting answers to these questions. This paper seeks to cast a fresh look by examining the case of the Darfur conflict, which was ignored at its outset but eventually became the subject of a global advocacy campaign. The paper first reviews three arguments that have been put forward to explain the 'globalisation' of Darfur: global civil society, the marketing of rebellion, and the war on terror. As an alternative approach, the paper then examines Darfur through the lens of "frame analysis". It identifies five frames constituting a narrative through which the Darfur conflict was relayed to the public, most importantly the portrayal of Darfur as genocide of "Arabs" against "Africans" and the association of Darfur with the Rwanda genocide. The third section of the paper considers a number of context factors that have fostered the exceptional resonance and diffusion of this narrative. This includes the historical representation of Sudan in the context of anti-slavery campaigns, the presence of a political constituency for South Sudan, and the growing acceptance of the idea of humanitarian intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the politicization of international institutions, that is, a process in which international institutions become salient and controversial on the level of mass politics. Differentiating between dissenting and supportive acts of politicization, the paper matches data on party manifestos from 26 OECD countries to test a number of alternative explanations for varying stances of parties on the internationalization of political authority. Results suggest that scholarly debate tends to overestimate the role of globalization for driving politicization, while institutional variables are too often neglected, although they are crucial to understanding the different levels of politicization. The results of the analysis support neofunctionalist expectations, according to which institutions attract societal awareness and demands in terms of "gravity of power." Nevertheless, a significant amount of dissent seems to be driven by legitimacy concerns. Additionally, I find strong evidence that parties operate differently depending on their ideological positioning across the political spectrum and their size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's (EU) involvement in high-profile and controversial competition disputes has raised questions about the Union's decision-making in the regulation of international business activity. Why does the EU decide to pursue such cases that hold the potential to destabilise bilateral and multilateral trading relations? This paper investigates the role of international and domestic factors that influence the EU's competition decisions as applied to foreign corporations. To explain the EU's decisions in external competition policy, the paper considers the causal influence of economic internationalization as well as the domestic pressures exerted by firms and politicians during the merger review process. Empirically, the paper analyses two merger disputes between the EU and the United States of America (US)�the 1997 Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger and the 2001 GE-Honeywell merger�that provide useful insights and lessons for practitioners and academics alike. The paper finds that, despite its destabilising potential, the EU decides to pursue a vigorous external competition policy primarily as the result of international economic pressures and domestic political dynamics. While the preferences and strategies of individual firms play only a limited role in the EU's decision-making in external competition policy, they seem to play a more significant role in US politicians' decisions to intervene in transatlantic merger review cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]