CIAO DATE: 03/03

International Affairs

January 2003

• American power: from ‘compellance’ to cosmopolitanism?  by Kaldor M.

  This article argues that the Bush strategy of ‘spectacle war’ is caught in an earlier Cold War paradigm primarily aimed at influencing American public opinion and that it fails to take into account the reality of the current global context, especially with regard to changes in the nature of sovereignty and in the role of military force. The United States, in its current posture, has the capability to be very destructive but is much less able to do ‘compellance’, that is to say, to impose its will on others. In particular, the current strategy cannot defeat terrorism.

  The article draws up a typology of different visions of how American power is, or should be, exercised based on different assumptions about sovereignty and military power. It concludes that American power can only be exercised constructively within a cosmopolitan framework. Such a framework is best suited to the containment, and possibly, the defeat of terrorism. It would contribute both to global economic growth and to American democracy.

• Getting out of the Iraq trap  by Hollis R.

  The Iraq crisis has been variously defined as a problem of local leadership, regional security, culture clash, arms control, neo–imperialism, transatlantic relations and international legitimacy. The competing definitions reflect the worldviews of different actors with a stake in the outcome of the crisis. Each perspective has validity for its proponent and none of them can be expected to triumph to the exclusion of the others. Consequently, it is argued here, whatever the goals of UN and/or military intervention in Iraq, at the receiving end, the experience will be at odds with what is meant or sought by such intervention. A way to understand the problem and thence to address it is ventured which combines local, regional and international perspectives and calls for a multitiered, multilateral approach to rethinking Iraq and the region. The intention is to take on ‘the hawks’ who claim that the United States can deliver democracy to client states, challenge their logic and propose an alternative vision that would require all parties, international and local, to take shared responsibility not only for Iraq but for Palestine too.

• Executive diplomacy: multilateralism, unilateralism and managing American power  by Schuller F.C. and Grant T.D.

  The clash between unilateralists and multilateralists dominates contemporary debate, with many assuming that American foreign policy must result from nothing more or less than a tug of war between the two. The practicalities of diplomacy at a juncture of competing viewpoints on American power reveal, however, that this old dichotomy simply has lost steam as a policy–making engine. Springing straight from today’s front pages and centred in the transatlantic conversation over America’s role in the world, this article throws into question how America and its allies grapple for international initiative.

  Managing American power demands a new conceptanchored as much in the social arena of consensus formation described by Jürgen Habermas as in the experience of corporate officers leading a large business. The article argues that the real world challenges facing America as unrivalled superpower have strained the old approach, and asks if managing American influence has to continue as an either/or choice between ‘going it alone’ or waiting for others to recognize new threats. Or might it instead transform into a quest for integrating key constituencies behind practical action?

• Reform from above: the politics of participation in the oil monarchies  by Ehteshami A.

  The oil monarchies of the Middle East have usually been portrayed as patriarchal autocracies dominated by traditional tribal families who have come to encompass the modern states, its institutions and economy. The focus of much discussion about these states since the oil boom of the 1970s has been that oil income has provided their tribal elites with an economic boom and an ability to use ‘rent’ as their primary tool for the pacification of their citizens and for resisting demands for reform. In the light of significant political changes and reforms introduced in the oil monarchies since the late 1990s, it is time to reevaluate our assessment of the oil monarchies’ ability to change, to adapt. Empirical data not only supports the view that the oil monarchies are introducing reforms, albeit at a varied speed, but that it is the elites themselves who are emerging as the greatest agents for change.

• Saudi Arabia: The politics of education  by Prokop M.

  Since 11 September Saudi Arabia’s religious education system and its underlying ideology have been accused of contributing to anti–western sentiments and of providing fertile ground for Islamic extremism. While recognizing the economic necessity for educational reform, many Saudis have come out to defend their school system and officials adamantly reject any link between their curriculum and extremism. This article looks at the extent to which the Saudi education system has been shaped and used by religious, political and socio–economic forces and the factors that are undermining the current system. It also examines the content of the message propagated in the kingdom’s schools and abroad and to what extent it may encourage anti–western sentiments.

• Afghanistan: the reconstruction process  by Marsden P.

  In this article the author focuses initially on the degree of support provided by the international community to the interim administration of Afghanistan and notes that the pledges made at the Tokyo Conference do not equate to the per capita levels of funding made available for other recent emergencies. He draws attention to the inter–relationship between security and funding for reconstruction and comments that the recent decision of the US government to join with others in agreeing to finance work to upgrade the major highway system is very timely in shoring up the regime in the wake of the recent assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai. He stresses that the international community needs to provide sustained support to the new government if it is to survive. He also analyses the complex relationship between the administration and the aid community and reports on the calls by the government to be given the major part of the resources allocated by international donors and to be supported to take the lead in determining policy and strategy.

  The author notes the nature of the Afghan economy and the potential for reconstruction, taking account of the economic impact of the conflict, the progress made by the aid community since 1992, the humanitarian crisis arising from the drought of 1999–2001 and the large scale, mainly involuntary, return of refugees from Pakistan and Iran since March 2002. He comments on the fact that the agricultural economy cannot support its population, on the need for economic safety valves in the form of migration to Pakistan and Iran, on the availability of camps for internally displaced people, and on urbanization. In concluding the author is both optimistic and cautious, noting the fragility of the situation, but also acknowledging that the international community is taking timely action to address it through reconstruction assistance although it remains reluctant to give sufficient priority to security provision.

• Global health ethics: the rationale for mutual caring  by Benatar S.R., Daar A.S. and Singer P.A.

  Despite spectacular twentieth century scientific and technological progress, the world is more inequitable than it was fifty years ago. This is evident both in terms of access to health care for individuals, and in relation to the health of whole populations. Disparities in wealth and health within and between nations are widening inexorably and the rapidly expanding global economy has failed to reduce poverty among those with little if any access to health care. In this context the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains an unrealized aspiration for the majority of the world’s people. Given these realities, no single discipline, or body of knowledge is likely to make much difference. For example, approaches based only on neo–liberal economics, as exemplified by the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank, have not been successful in promoting health equity. The authors believe that an interdisciplinary approach is required, and that bioethics, an interdisciplinary field, can make a contribution towards improving health globally. To do this, the scope of bioethics should be expanded towards a results–oriented global health ethics, based upon widely shared and foundational values that could be carried forward through five transformational approaches.

• Patents and medicines: the relationship between TRIPS and the human right to health  by Cullet P.

  The question of access to drugs in developing countries is at present largely influenced by the TRIPS Agreement. TRIPS compliance in the field of health requires substantial changes to existing patent laws in some countries. These changes must be analysed in the context of the spread of epidemics like HIV/AIDS and in relation to other international obligations that states have, for instance, with regard to the human right to health.

  Intellectual property rights treaties today have significant impacts on the realization of some human rights like the right to health. This article examines the extent to which TRIPS encompasses flexibility for developing countries to be able to foster better access to medicines. It also examines these issues from the point of view of human rights and considers, in particular, the ways in which the relationship between human rights and intellectual property can be improved in international law.

• Post–conflict administration and reconstruction  by Baskin M.