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CIAO DATE: 03/04
IAI Library Notes
By Maritza Cricorian
Governing global finance : new challenges, G7 and IMF contribution / edited by Michele Fratianni, Paolo Savona, John J. Kirton. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2002. - xx, 313 p. - (Global finance). - ISBN 0-7546-0880-8
The first of another series by Ashgate on the G-8 summits, this book is the result of three research projects, bringing together contributors from various geographic and disciplinary backgrounds. Starting out from the preparatory work for the 2001 Genoa G-7 meeting, it studies the methods for generating global growth, analyses the need to build a new international financial order to prevent crises, and deals with structural matters, assessing the effectiveness of the G-7, IMF and other international institutions in meeting the new challenges posed by globalisation.
Divided into four parts plus two appendices, the first looks at the coordination of monetary polices, exchange rates and financial regulation; the second examines the economic policies that can promote economic growth in the world; the third deals with crisis prevention, with particular attention to ex ante/structural conditionality, the harmonisation of globalisation and monetary policy, and the non-participation of the United Kingdom in the European Monetary Union.
The appendix presents statements by G-7 Ministers in 2001.
New directions in global political governance : the G8 and international order in the twenty-first century / edited by John J. Kirton, Junichi Takase. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2002. - xvi, 368 p. - (The G8 and global governance series). - ISBN 0-7546-1833-1
The eighth of the Ashgate series dedicated to global governance, this book, essentially centred on the Okinawa summit of July 2000, enlarges the series’ focus to aspects of international order and security. In particular, it studies the effects of globalisation on the management of the political and security order, highlights the new principles and processes in the political and security sphere, presents the Japanese point of view on the G-8 summit and globalisation in the field of security policy, takes into consideration new post-Cold War security aspects ((human security, nuclear proliferation and civilian nuclear reactors), and analyses the challenges posed by globalisation to the main institutions and actors of global governance in the field of security (UN, G-8 and the US.
The book is broken down into five parts, of which the first assesses the role of the G-8 in setting the new directions of governance, the second turns to the Asian and Japanese context; the third is dedicated to the main issues of the international community’s security agenda; the fourth studies the methods for management of those issues and the role of the UN, G-8, the United States and civil society in the process; the fifth and last represents the conclusions which recapitulate the opinions and proposals of the authors of the various chapters.
Although no attempt was made to uniform the many opinions expressed in a single interpretative key, there is a generally shared conviction that new trends are under way in the global security system, that new global governance approaches are required and that the G-8 is in need of reform.
The new economic diplomacy : decision-making and negotiation in international economic relations / Nicholas Bayne and Stephen Woolcock. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2003. - xiv, 314 p. - (The G8 and global governance series). - ISBN 0-7546-1832-3
This book de facto makes official the birth of a new discipline - economic diplomacy - as taught for the second year (2000-2001) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Born on the urging of Prof. Michael Hodges, it combines the analysis of academics with the experience of “practitioners”. The book’s structure reflects this genesis. In fact, the first part is composed mainly of contributions by the two co-editors, while the second is made up of chapters edited by experienced professionals in economic diplomacy. More in detail: chapters 2 to 9 deal with the nature of economic diplomacy - theoretical aspects, actors, decision-making processes, new requirements and new strategies - all illustrated by two case studies, the multilateral trade regime and the G-7/G-8 summits, seen from an historic and a contemporary point of view (chapters 6-9). Chapters 10 to 17, instead, deal with various levels of economic diplomacy - bilateral, multilateral, regional - also illustrated by case studies: US-Japan economic relations, developing countries, international financial institutions, the world trading system.
The crisis that was not prevented : lessons for Argentina, the IMF, and globalisation / edited by Jan Joost Teunissen and Age Akkerman. - The Hague : FONDAD, c2003. - xiv, 150 p. - ISBN 980-74208-20-7
This book is the outcome of an international project, the Global Financial Governance Initiative, and in particular the work of one of its working groups - Crisis Prevention and Response - led by Fondad.
It suggests ways to prevent financial crises by means not only of a reorientation of national development polices, but also a reform of global institutions. Following an initial chapter introducing the reader to the economic analyses of the Argentine crisis that have appeared to date, the book offers seven chapters edited by two experts from the IMF, three experts from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), two Argentine economists and an economist from Harvard.
The second chapter argues that developing countries have to be more attentive to real local needs than to the flattery of foreign creditors; the third chapter reconstructs the incubation of the Argentine crisis; the fourth analyses its specific aspects and the resources required to re-establish macroeconomic and financial stability; the fifth highlights the Argentine crisis’ regional spillovers; the sixth examines the evolution and characteristics of Argentine debt; the last two chapters present the points of view of two representatives of the IMF and illustrate the lessons learned from the Argentine crisis.
A regional approach to financial crisis prevention : lessons from Europe and initiatives in Asia, Latin America and Africa / edited by Jan Joost Teunissen. - Tha Hague : FONDAD, c2002. - 208 p. - ISBN 90-74208-19-3
The possible effectiveness of regional financial/monetary agreements in preventing financial crises is the subject of this book, the offshoot of a conference held in Prague in June 2001. It is divided into ten chapters, grouped into four parts.
The first chapter and first part of the book deal with the European experience in fixed exchange rates; the second part looks at the economic convergence and financial stability of Central and Eastern Europe, underlining the dichotomy between real and nominal convergence and between “bad” and “good” crises; the third part examines regional economic integration in Eastern Asia and South America and, in particular, the need for and possible effectiveness of regional financial/monetary agreements; the fourth and last part of the book presents the points of view of five officials from international organisations: ECLAC, UNCTAD, the Canadian Dept. of Finance, IMF and the Bank for International Settlements.
International security
Expanding global military capacity for humanitarian intervention / Michael E. O'Hanlon. - Washington : Brookings Institution Press, c2003. - xiv, 125 p. - ISBN 0-8157-6441-3
Starting out from the assumption that the containment of civil wars is no less important in this time of fighting against international terrorism and that the military forces currently deployed by countries - not only the United States - for humanitarian purposes are inadequate, this essay offers an agenda for strengthening the international military capability for rapid intervention - an assessment of the real need for troops is that double the current number is required - without weighing down defence budgets, through burden-sharing and the involvement of countries that traditionally do not contribute to this kind of humanitarian intervention (e.g. Japan).
French interventionism : Europe's last global player? / Adrian Treacher.- Aldershot : Ashgate, c2003. - viii, 173 p. - ISBN 0-7546-3179-6
The aim of this book is to verify how French leaders’ traditional and continuous promotion of national grandeur and a high global profile (rang) has been maintained even in the post-Cold War period, adapting it to the new reality and new instruments.
After an introductory paragraph setting out the main concepts involved, the remaining chapters take a kind of chronological trip through the Fifth Republic. Thus, the second chapter retraces de Gaulle’s perceptions and tactics to expand the “French exception” (singularité). The third chapter describes the tactical revision undertaken by his successors, especially Mitterrand, in relation to the changed domestic and international conditions, when French ambitions were simply transferred to the European level and the EU became the new French strategic objective. The fourth chapter illustrates the years immediately following the Cold War and the ability of French leaders to re-invent the country’s global mission, dedicating the armed forces to multinational peacekeeping and humanitarian operations and making the UN the main instrument of French security policy. Chapter five examines Paris’ reassessment in the nineties of the European security architecture, aiming above all at the shaping of a European security and defence identity in the framework of the Atlantic Alliance. The sixth chapter deals with the tactical adaptations - greater military cooperation with European partners, denationalisation of defence industries and the professionalisation of armed forces - to changes in the economy, domestic politics and the global geopolitical context. Chapter seven enlarges the perspective to the former colonies and, above all, sub-Saharan Africa, showing how, even in this field of French security policy, there has been an - albeit slight - tactical revision with the transfer of French ambitions to the multinational level. The eighth chapter concludes that there has been substantial continuity and consistency in the French leadership’s pursuit of national grandeur and rang.
The illusion of control : force and foreign policy in the twenty-first century / Seyom Brown. - Washington : Brookings Institution Press, c2003. - xiv, 196 p. - ISBN 0-8157-0263-9 (pbk)
Quite different from the preceding book by the Brookings Institution, this essay focuses on the recent trend in the US, stimulated by circumstances and supported by policy-makers and public opinion, to consider resorting to the use of force/the military as an instrument of diplomacy and foreign policy, in the illusion - hence the name of the book - to be able to control the course of conflict anywhere and at any time. Basically, the author identifies a vicious circle in which this greater tendency towards the use of force stimulates military technological innovations which, in turn, incite greater use of force.
The thesis is put forward in six chapters: the first is an introduction, the second tries to show that the recent trend in the US is only the fourth in a series of "broad shifts in national security strategy" after the Second World War; the third chapter pin points the origin as the changing structure of world politics; the fourth chapter puts the latter in relation to the changes in warfighting; the fifth reviews the traditional theory of a “just war”, showing how the current political and technological trends are changing the precepts; the sixth and last chapter formulates a number of guidelines for a “judicious” use of force which resorts to this extreme resource only after an accurate evaluation of the risks and the possible outcomes and as the “lesser evil” in the interests of the country.
NATO's 'peace-enforcement' tasks and 'policy communities': 1990-1999 / Giovanna Bono. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2003. - xx, 177 p. - ISBN 0-7546-0944-8
This essay, based on a PhD thesis, tries to identify the reasons for NATO’s survival and transformation into a peacekeeping/peace-enforcement organisation.
To this end, the author examines and describes the inadequacy of the theories and explanations usually provided by neo-realists, institutionalists and supporters of humanitarian intervention. Instead, she develops - starting out from “transgovernmental relations” and “epistemic communities” approaches - the hypothesis of a policy community, formed by the staff of international organisations and sectors of national governments (officials and politicians) who, in the nineties, managed to obtain the transformation of the Alliance. This hypothesis is backed by two case studies: the first examines NATO’s role and intervention in the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1990-95), the second illustrates NATO’s role in the Kosovo crisis (1998-99). Intra-institutional and national factors contributed to the success of the strategies of this policy community aimed at solving the question of transatlantic burden-sharing.
The Nordic peace / edited by Clive Archer, Pertti Joenniemi. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2003. - x, 217 p. - ISBN 0-7546-1417-4
This two-author essay analyses the specific "peacefulness" of the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).
Following an introductory chapter that gives a substantiated definition of the region as a “zone of peace” and even as a “security community”, explaining the reasons for this peacefulness, the successive chapters shed light on some aspects - the birth of new states, border conflicts, competition for environmental resources, linguistic pluralism and the minorities - that in other parts of Europe generate conflicts and that have been peacefully resolved in this region.
In particular, chapters 2 to 6 recount a number of revealing events such as the separation between Norway and Sweden in 1905, the independence of Iceland in 1944, Greenland’s transition to “home rule”, the case of the Aland islands. Chapters seven and eight analyse the territorial disputes and competition for natural resources such as over the island of Hasselo/Hesselo and the fisheries in the North Atlantic. The ninth to eleventh chapters deal with social aspects of the ethnic minorities (for example, Germans in Denmark and Swedes in Finland). Finally, the last chapter presents a constructivist point of view on the Nordic peace which interprets the phenomenon in terms of the Nordic states’ development.
Rethinking the national security of Pakistan : the price of strategic myopia / Ahmad Faruqui. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2003. - xxx, 190 p. - ISBN 0-7546-1497-2
In this book, the author, a Pakistani scholar, analyses the causes of his country’s economic and political difficulties from various points of view - the economic, political, strategic and sociological - in the search for a alternative to the current national security policy.
After a brief “historical backdrop”, the prologue basically provides an update to the most recent and significant facts of 2001 - the Agra summit in July and the terrorist attack in the United States in September - and their impact on Pakistan.
The remaining fifteen chapters are ideally divided into two parts: the first reconstructs the problems the country encountered in building its security, the second looks at alternative political solutions. Apart from the introductory chapter, the first part analyses the clash between India and Pakistan in Kashmir in 1999, the political economy of Pakistan’s militarism in the last fifty years, the premises of Pakistan’s national security policy, the country’s military might, the performance of General Niazi, the security policy and military might of India, the relations - in crisis - with China, and the nuclear question. The chapters in the second part present an integrated approach to national security, a possible five-stage solution to the conflict in Kashmir, a proposal for reform of the armed forces, another for the reduction of military spending and, in support of the latter, a review of the main international experiences with disarmament.
State failure and state weakness in a time of terror / Robert I. Rotberg, editor. - Cambridge [MA] : World Peace Foundation ; Washington, D.C. : Broookings, c2003, . x, 354 p. - ISBN 0-8157-7573-3
This book is the product of a multi-year study (1998-2002) carried out by Harvard University and the World Peace Foundation on the phenomenon of failure and collapse of states in the post-Cold War period - a phenomenon seen not only as a humanitarian emergency within the countries themselves, but also as a threat to humanity beyond their borders.
The first chapter of the book establishes the framework for the subject and establishes the parameters for distinguishing between weak and failed states, and between failed and collapsed states - parameters on which the following chapters are based. These parameters essentially involve the nation state’s ability to provide the political goods that its citizens expect; they are given a certain ranking: first, national security, then the solution of internal disputes and the codification of norms and procedures, open political policies, public health and education, infrastructure, the monetary and banking, fiscal and institutional systems.
On the basis of these criteria, the next chapters identify, in the last decade, seven weak states at various degrees of weakness (Colombia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Fiji, Haiti, Lebanon), three failed states (Congo, Sierra Leone and Sudan) and one collapsed state (Somalia).
A second book by the same editor containing the rest of the research data is to be published by Princeton University Press in 2003.