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"International relations -- Statistics -- Political aspects -- Case studies"
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Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts
Big, attention-grabbing numbers are frequently used in policy debates and media reporting: \"At least 200,000-250,000 people died in the war in Bosnia.\" \"There are three million child soldiers in Africa.\" \"More than 650,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.\" \"Between 600,000 and 800,000 women are trafficked across borders every year.\" \"Money laundering represents as much as 10 percent of global GDP.\" \"Internet child porn is a $20 billion-a-year industry.\"
Peter Andreas and Kelly M. Greenhill see only one problem: these numbers are probably false. Their continued use and abuse reflect a much larger and troubling pattern: policymakers and the media naively or deliberately accept highly politicized and questionable statistical claims about activities that are extremely difficult to measure. As a result, we too often become trapped by these mythical numbers, with perverse and counterproductive consequences.
This problem exists in myriad policy realms. But it is particularly pronounced in statistics related to the politically charged realms of global crime and conflict-numbers of people killed in massacres and during genocides, the size of refugee flows, the magnitude of the illicit global trade in drugs and human beings, and so on. InSex, Drugs, and Body Counts, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and policy analysts critically examine the murky origins of some of these statistics and trace their remarkable proliferation. They also assess the standard metrics used to evaluate policy effectiveness in combating problems such as terrorist financing, sex trafficking, and the drug trade.
eBook
The Sustainable Development and Economic Impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Ethiopia
The purpose of this research is to assess the economic growth and sustainable development of Ethiopia. To what extent does the Chinese investment contribute to the overall economic development of Ethiopia after the Belt Road Initiative (BRI)? What are the main focus areas for development in the region and how does the BRI initiative connect people in the country? This research examines the development process through the use of a case study and discursive analysis to know the result of the investigation. The study is deeply elaborated and the technique adds analytical and qualitative methods. Furthermore, this research attempts to highlight the key approaches and concepts of Chinese engagement in Ethiopia as it attains development in several sectors through the BRI. The BRI is successfully pioneering transport systems, roads, railways, small industries, automotive sectors, and health development programs in Ethiopia. As result, the Chinese investments bring changes to the country after the successful launch of the BRI. Furthermore, the study concludes that there is a need to initiate numerous projects to improve human, social, and economic life in Ethiopia because the country is suffering from many internal problems and China has to work to eradicate recurring problems in the country. As an external actor, the role of China gains importance in Ethiopia in the context of the New Silk Road economic engagement in the African Continent.
Journal Article
Unraveling the Belt and Road Initiative: China’s “Building Out” Strategy
Scholars and analysts have sought to clarify the Chinese Communist Party’s motives for carrying out the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a series of infrastructure investments in countries across the globe. While many emphasize Beijing’s geopolitical interests, this paper argues that the BRI should also be understood as a large-scale effort to create business activities for Chinese companies and workers outside of China. We define the contours of this “building out” strategy by analyzing the stages that typify BRI projects: project selection, project financing, project construction, and post-construction operation and management. Our analysis draws, in large part, on data that we have compiled from a sample of BRI projects. After showing macro-level trends in the data, we offer three in-depth case studies to clarify the underlying mechanisms at work. Our findings suggest that BRI projects are engineered to direct finance and construction bids to Chinese companies, which are typically state-owned.
Journal Article
The Correlates of Change in International Financial Regulation
With which political and economic variables is change in international financial regulation robustly associated? I undertook multivariate regression analysis of this question using a quantitative measure of the regulation of international financial transactions. The measure was created by coding the laws of 64 nations. The associations between change in international financial regulation and measures of long-run economic growth, corporate taxation, government expenditures, and income inequality are estimated, using the models, methods, and data of Batro (1991), Deininger and Squire (1996a), Leamer (1983, 1985), and Levine and Renelt (1992). The findings point to a new agenda for research on international financial regulation.
Journal Article
Immigrant Incorporation and Sociocultural Transnationalism
This article analyzes sociocultural transnational linkages among Colombian, Dominican, and Salvadoran immigrants in the United States. It emphasizes the importance of comparative analysis and yields three main findings. First, participation in any particular transnational activity is low, but participation over all the different forms of transnational practices is extended. Second, the process of incorporation does not weaken transnational participation. Third, there is more than one causal path that can account for the rise of transnational sociocultural practices. The different paths can be explained by reference to the context of reception and the mode of incorporation of each group.
Journal Article
Why Countries Transition? The Case of Brazil, 1964–2016
Economic and political development are contextual. Nevertheless, there are some general elements in the process of institutional persistence and change. We present a framework that goes beyond the standard institutional analysis and adds the concepts of beliefs, leadership, and windows of opportunities in a dynamic process of change. Beliefs of the dominant network may lead countries to choose institutions that do not promote growth and prosperity, even in cases where those in power seek to pursue the common good. Leadership during windows of opportunity helps to determine when, how, and why beliefs change over time. Although each of these concepts alone is not novel in the literature, our major contribution is the evolutionary dynamic. To illustrate the framework, we flesh out the dynamics with a case study of Brazil from 1964 to 2016.
Journal Article
Another Seat at the Board: Russia's IMF Executive Director
Created in 1944 as part of the postwar strategy to prevent another great depression, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was ideally meant to coordinate financing and technical advice to member countries experiencing economic imbalances. Today, however, the IMF is frequently criticized for its failure to be accountable and legitimate in the eyes of its own members. Recently, many prominent policymakers across the world have argued that the IMF's legitimacy crisis can only be resolved by reallocating the 24 seats on its executive board in a way that gives greater voice to countries that are seen to be underrepresented. Specific proposals involve decreasing and consolidating European representation and making the executive directors of Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China-which do not represent any other members and therefore have sole constituency-free seats-absorb other fund members in their constituencies. Ideally, this could free up seats at the executive board and allow quota increases for those deemed underrepresented or unheard, namely emerging market economies and less developed countries. While policymakers have been discussing how to recompose the executive board, little academic attention has been devoted to this important organ of international monetary decision-making.
Journal Article
