International and Area Studies Commons^™

The Transformation Of China’S Agriculture System And Its Impact On Southeast Asia, Phoebe Mingxuan Luo, John A. Donaldson, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The increased role for agribusiness and larger scale production in China’s agricultural system is limited by China’s severe lack of arable land. The Household Responsibility System provides farmers a measure of power, hampering agribusiness from acquiring land needed for expansion. Some Chinese companies have sought cheaper and often more accessible land in nearby regions, including Southeast Asia. While such investments have the potential to deliver benefits, including increased productivity, structural constraints such as weak land ownership and environmental laws, highly unequal distribution of land and underdevelopment of peasant organizations prevent many poorer farmers from benefiting from these investments.

Federal University Of Technology Owerri, Nigeria: A Case Study Of The Perceived Relevance Of Individual/Career Development Planning., Uchenna Njoku

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Individual/Career Development Plans and resulting Individual/Career Development Programs are essential in outlining career goals to be accomplished and steps or resources needed to achieve those goals. Lack of planning and engagement in development activities is seen as one of the factors affecting job fit which further affects performance and productivity resulting in a skills gap. Bailey (2005), suggests that career planning and ongoing skills development is essential so young professionals should be generalists, as well as specialize in at least one area. The good news is that, in all professions, all of these efforts on career development is often rewarded. …

Oral History Interview With David Montgomery: Conceptualising Smu, David Montgomery

Oral History Collection

The interview covered: first involvement with SMU, business school dean, school re-organisation, faculty recruitment, Wharton School, balanced excellence, Centre for Teaching Excellence, first SMU graduates, conferences, future of tertiary education.

Biography:

Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU, 2003–2005

Professor David Montgomery served as the second dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business from 2003 to 2005. It was a period of rapid growth for the school—hiring faculty, building a research atmosphere, developing professional degrees, and continuing to make SMU better known in the academic community. Professor Montgomery is known for his use of the phrase 'balanced …

Geopolitics Of The Kaliningrad Exclave And Enclave: Russian And Eu Perspectives, Alexander Diener, Joshua Hagen

Geography Faculty Research

Two U.S. political geographers examine a range of geopolitical issues associated with the shifting sovereignty of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast (a part of the former German province of East Prussia) during the 20th century, as well as the region's evolving geopolitical status as a consequence of the European Union's enlargement to embrace Poland and Lithuania. They argue that Kaliningrad today can be considered a "double" borderland, situated simultaneously on the European Union's border with Russia as well as physically separated from Russia, its home country, by the surrounding land boundaries of EU states. Although technically neither an exclave nor an enclave, …

Blair Balden, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

A visiting professorship at the University of Passau in Passau, Germany for Dr. Blair Balden, a WMU associate professor of aviation, provided an excellent opportunity to share ideas and information about teaching aviation law with professors from Germany and Austria.

No. 24: South Africa's Two Diasporas: Engagement And Disengagement, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

The African diaspora is increasingly viewed as a key to realizing the development potential of international migration. At the same time, there remains considerable confusion about who exactly constitutes the diaspora and which groups should be targeted for “diaspora engagement.” For some, the diaspora consists of all migrants of African birth living outside Africa. The African Union’s definition of the African diaspora, for example, “comprises people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality.” The World Bank goes a step further to distinguish between an involuntary and a voluntary, a historical and a contemporary, component …

Are Small And Medium States Superior To Large? The Role A State’S Size Plays In Regional Integration, Jerome Marston

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

This study examines the relationship between a state’s size and regional integration. Specifically, this study empirically focuses on whether a particular size of state plays a disproportionate role in establishing regional institutions. This paper undertakes research in an attempt to settle a dispute that has arisen within the literature. Expressly, whether it is small, medium, or large states that encourage regional integration and furthermore whether the former two in fact resist the latter’s attempts to do so. In an effort to resolve this debate, the paper explores critical time periods in the establishment of the European Union and MERCOSUR. This …

Trips Implementation And Strategic Health Policy In India And Brazil, Sarath K. Ganji

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

In both the economic and political realm, India and Brazil exhibit similar interests and policies. Yet, in the area of intellectual property rights (IPRs)—in particular, generic production of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS—these nations’ policies differ. India, for example, has exercised a policy of strategic cooperation with the United States and pharmaceutical companies, while Brazil has pursued a policy of strategic restraint. Why is this so? These differing approaches can be attributed to the manner in which these two nations initially implemented the defining IPR agreement, the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). India’s …

Do Democratic Candidates Suffer ‘Audience Costs’?, Lionel Beehner

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

The literature on “domestic audience costs” focuses mainly on threats made by democratic leaders to signal credible commitments. Yet it largely ignores pledges made by democratic candidates along the campaign trail. Candidates often engage in a rhetorical “arms race” with each other to project resolve to voters on issues of international relations, whether it is protecting the country, fighting terrorism, or standing up to foreign aggression. Yet, unlike other audience costs, candidates face a conflict of preferences based on competing time horizons. That is, the short-term incentives (winning votes) for taking more hard-line stances can outweigh the long-term costs (getting …

How Transnational Advocacy Networks Mobilize: Applying The Literature On Interest Groups To International Action, Christina Kiel

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) receive increasing attention in international relations, but little has been written so far about the initial formation of networks and the ways concerned organizations or individuals build a transnational coalition. Difficulties of group mobilization pose a particular puzzle: Why do actors in one country organize around an issue in another country, especially when the resolution of the issue apparently benefits only local actors? When do national/international groups become active and how do local actors facilitate their mobilization? In this paper I argue that in order to get support from international organizations, local groups acting as entrepreneurs …

Sustainability Series: Creating Student Sustainable Practices Within Sfs And Beyond, Staci Hagen

Capstone Collection

The School for Field Studies (SFS) is a non-profit environmental research based study abroad program that integrates academic, research, social and community activities in a holistic education model. One of the six SFS centers is the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) in Baja California Sur, Mexico. At CCS, students take courses that explore local and regional environmental, social and economic problems and they have the opportunity to design their own research project. Even though students study these problems and come up with sustainable solutions, it does not mean that they make personal choices with the least impact on the environment. …

From Boom To Doom To Boom: Offshore Financial Centres And Development In Small States, Richard Woodward

Articles

During the 1990s tax havens and offshore financial centres (OFCs) were subject to a string of initiatives designed to raise their tax and regulatory regimes to accepted international standards. Many commentators forecast that this would lead to the demise of OFCs, a worry for the many small states whose economic well being depended heavily on the provision of offshore financial services. Despite this regulatory onslaught many small state OFCs have prospered in the new millennium. This paper seeks to explain this apparent paradox by arguing that (1) international initiatives were riddled with loopholes and exceptions that have been gleefully seized …

Intercultural Competency Training For Semester At Sea, Leah Charbonneau

Capstone Collection

Semester At Sea, a comparative education study abroad program, is a unique experience that provides participants an opportunity to challenge their worldview. Semester At Sea cultivates opportunities beyond the classroom to explore issues of culture and identity. However, little training is provided to give participants the tools to navigate in intercultural contexts.

The proposed Semester At Sea (SAS) Intercultural Competency Training (ICT) program will offer a semester-long intensive training program with the purpose of providing participants with a foundation in intercultural competency and sensitivity. The purpose of the SAS ICT design is to incorporate experiential educational practices and classroom learning …

Emerging Youth Leaders: A Redesign Of A Two-Way Youth Exchange Between The Us And Senegal, Aspen L. Felt

Capstone Collection

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is increasingly focused on youth exchange programs to build bridges of understanding between peoples and address ongoing social, environmental, and political challenges in an increasingly globalized world. The Emerging Youth Leaders program is a unique Department of State exchange program that brought a group of thirty Senegalese and American students together for 6 weeks in Dakar and the San Francisco Bay Area in the summer of 2010 around the themes of democracy and governance in civil society. Over the course of the U.S. based portion of the program I …

The Absent Empire: The United States And The South American Regional Subsystem, Carlos Gustavo Poggio Teixerira

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The United States often acted in Latin America as an empire. Nevertheless, there has been an obvious dissimilarity between US actions in South America and US actions in the rest of Latin America, which is illustrated by the fact that the United States never sent troops to invade a South American country. While geographic distance and strategic considerations may have played a role, they provide at best incomplete explanations for US relative absence south of Panama. The fact that the United States has had a distinct pattern of interactions with South America is thus not captured by the typical concept …

Social Trust In Contemporary Rural China: Its Sources And Impacts On Public Goods Provision, Narisong Huhe

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Social trust, as an essential element of political culture, is assumed to strongly affect the effectiveness of political institution. However, such studies in non-democratic settings are scarce, and even scarcer in the Chinese context. This dissertation, using data drawn from an original survey in rural China, examines the extent, sociopolitical origins, and political consequences of social trust in China. The results suggest that China has a unique pattern of social trust owing to its dual Confucian and Communist heritages. While trusts in relatives, neighbors, kinsman, and other villagers (i.e., particularized trust) are extensive, trust in strangers (generalized trust) is scarce. …

Pengantar Redaksi, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

The Final Twist In Common Intention? Daniel Vijay S/O Katherasan V. Public Prosecutor, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It was only in 2008 that the Court of Appeal made a seminal restatement of the law on common intention, particularly with respect to liability in so-called ‘twin crime’ situations. The question posed then was posed again recently in Daniel Vijay: what exactly is the required mens rea for the secondary offender in such situations? In 2008, the Court of Appeal said that the secondary offender had to subjectively know that one in his party might likely commit the collateral offence in furtherance of the common intention of carrying out the primary offence. Now, in Daniel Vijay, the Court …

Explaining Contractual Remoteness In Singapore, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Court of Appeal (the Court of Appeal) has in MFM Restaurants Pte Ltd v Fish & Co Restaurants Pte Ltd rejected Lord Hoffinann's assumption of responsibility test (articulated in The Achilleas) to determine whether damages are too remote in a contractual claim. The Court of Appeal, however, retained assumption of responsibility as a concept to explain the orthodox test for remoteness as embodied in Hadley v Baxendale. To that extent, it expressly accepted Lord Hoffmann's approach in The Achilleas in so far as the concept of assumption of responsibility is already incorporated or embodied in both limbs of …

The Incompatibility Of Materialism And The Desire For Children: Psychological Insights Into The Fertility Discrepancy Among Modern Countries, Norman P. Li, Lily Patel, Daniel Balliet, William Tov, Christie N. Scollon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We examined factors related to attitudes toward marriage and the importance of having children in both the US and Singapore. Path analysis indicated that life dissatisfaction leads to materialism, and both of these factors lead to favorable attitudes toward marriage, which leads to greater desire for children. Further analysis indicated this model"We examined factors related to attitudes toward marriage and the importance of having children in both the US and Singapore. Path analysis indicated that life dissatisfaction leads to materialism, and both of these factors lead to favorable attitudes toward marriage, which leads to greater desire for children. Further analysis …

Holding To A Moral Compass Against The Pull Of Profits, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Assistant Professor Eugene Tan writes that as Singapore society becomes more complex, our law schools cannot just produce good legal technicians but are challenged to produce lawyers who are innovators and can utilize the law creatively to produce effective and efficient outcomes, and solutions infused with social justice and fairness. Today, the first batch of SMU law students comprising 106 LLB and 17 Juris Doctor degree students graduates.

The Lines Are Starting To Blur, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Eugene Tan, Assistant Professor of Law at SMU, argues that the public service and civil society are beginning to collaborate more. This co-creation creates better quality solutions that benefit society as a whole.

Growth, Opportunity, And Inequality: Some Empirics From Singapore, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

While the strategy of openness had earned Singapore rapid economic growth, upward social mobility, and possibly decreasing inequality in the early years of development, the more recent years has seen increasing inequality. With this inequality comes an underlying possibly diminished upward inter-generational mobility, due to skill-biased growth processes, skill-biased parental influence, liberalisation in the education industry, and structural changes in the society, which hurt the human capital accumulation of children in families under economic and intra-household stresses. In particular, paternal influence on educational aspirations and attainment is more pronounced than maternal influence. Non-Chinese and youths from disrupted families are worse …

Oral History Interview With Howard Hunter: Conceptualising Smu, Howard Hunter

Oral History Collection

The interview covered: first involvement with SMU, roles and responsibilities, tuition fees, autonomous university, law school, Juris Doctor program, undergraduate education, marketing, SMU pedagogy, curriculum, university library,

Biography:

Professor of Law, SMU, 2004–present
President, SMU, 2004–2010

Described as a passionate educator who truly believes in multidisciplinary education, Professor Howard Hunter served as SMU’s third president from September 2004 to August 2010. During the course of his presidency the university continued its rapid growth—moving to the city campus, opening the law school, expanding postgraduate programmes, building the endowment, and doubling the number of students and faculty. While at SMU he emphasized …

Evidence For A Peak Shift In A Humoral Response To Helminths: Age Profiles Of Ige In The Shuar Of Ecuador, The Tsimane Of Bolivia, And The U.S. Nhanes, Aaron D. Blackwell, Michael D. Gurven, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Felicia C. Madimenos, Melissa A. Liebert, Melanie A. Martin, Hillard Kaplan, J. Josh Snodgrass

ESI Publications

Background: The peak shift model predicts that the age-profile of a pathogen’s prevalence depends upon its transmission rate, peaking earlier in populations with higher transmission and declining as partial immunity is acquired. Helminth infections are associated with increased immunoglobulin E (IgE), which may convey partial immunity and influence the peak shift. Although studies have noted peak shifts in helminths, corresponding peak shifts in total IgE have not been investigated, nor has the age-patterning been carefully examined across populations. We test for differences in the agepatterning of IgE between two South American forager-horticulturalist populations and the United States: the Tsimane …

Geopolitics: A Guide To The Issues, Bert Chapman

Libraries Research Publications

Provides overview of how geography influences international relations and international politics including climate change, energy security, international economics, and international security.  Introduces key figures in geopolitics development as a discipline such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Halford Mackinder, covers the geopolitical interests of individuals countries, describes disciplinary divisions within geopolitics, details international geopolitical crisis areas and provides maps of some of these areas, emphasizes geopolitics information resources, and stresses the critical importance of geography in studying international politics and security.

The 6th International Conference On The State Of Africa: Challenges And Opportunities For Sustainable Development And Peace In Africa In The 21st Century, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Using The Theory Of Reasoned Action And Planned Behavior To Create A Point-Of-Use Water Treatment Behavior-Change Campaign Within The Safe Water System, Kelly Fenson-Hood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the summer of 2010, formative field research was collected in Kibera, Africa’s largest urban informal settlement, located in Nairobi, Kenya. Research explored how a Western-developed behavior-change theoretical model could be applied in a developing country. Data was collected through focus groups, a case study and direct observations. Recommendations were made for an intervention to reduce the incidence of childhood diarrhea. A campaign was proposed that promoted consistent and sustainable use of the Safe Water System, that is, point-of-use drinking water treatment and safe drinking water storage. Results revealed that it was indeed feasible to apply the Western model, Theory …

Book Review: Religion Crossing Boundaries: Transnational Religious And Social Dynamics In Africa And The New African Diaspora, Akanmu Adebayo

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Review of Religion Crossing Boundaries: Transnational Religious and Social Dynamics in Africa and the New African Diaspora, by James Spickard and Afe Adogame. (2010). Leiden: E.J. Brill; ISBN-I0: 90-04-18730-8

The New African Diaspora: Engaging The Question Of Brain Drain-Brain Gain, Akanmu Adebayo

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The literature on the New African Diaspora is growing. One of the latest is the volume co-edited by Isidore Okpewho and Nkiru Nzegwu, published by Indiana University Press in 2009. A common thread in the literature is the identification of the "brain drain" as a major consequence of the establishment of the New African Diaspora. Another common postulation is that the "brain drain" can be turned into "brain gain" through the concerted efforts of African governments, international organizations, and members of the diaspora themselves. This paper interrogates popular and intellectual assumptions about diaspora, brain drain, and brain gain. The paper …