International and Area Studies Commons^™

Nationalism And The Rule Of Law: Lessons From The Balkans And Beyond, Joseph L. Derdzinski

International Dialogue

The “classic” debate in contemporary comparative politics is over what matters more in shaping political behavior: culture or institutions. The clear answer is that both are important, it’s just that their relative import depends to a large degree on contextual, temporal factors. Iavor Rangelov seeks to straddle—or bridge?—the two theoretical orientations, demonstrating the iterative lives between institutions and society. Rangelov addresses the eternal (or, at least, for the past couple of decades) question: do institutions really matter in emerging democracies? Or, do other intrinsic factors determine democracy’s course? Privileging the rule of law, Rangelov, through three cases from the Balkans, …

Global Gender Issues In The New Millennium, Mary Ann Powell

International Dialogue

Global Gender Issues in the New Millennium is a valuable resource for understanding how gender and gendered processes are broadly influential in our global world. Runyan and Peterson provide clear explanations of terminology needed to participate in meaningful conversations about gender, and they make a strong case for examining the world through a gendered-lens.

Islamism And Islam, Dale Stover

International Dialogue

This book offers a concerted effort to provide a comprehensive and unmistakable definition for Islamism, whereas the other term in the title, Islam, is simply what is traditional or classical or taken for granted since little attention is given to defining it. The author lays out six features he considers to be characteristic elements of those contemporary Muslim movements associated with extremist beliefs and behaviors. A separate chapter is devoted to each of these six features of Islamism. They are described by the author in the preface as “its deeply reactionary vision of the world political order, its embrace of …

Policing Democracy: Overcoming Obstacles To Citizen Security In Latin America, Pablo Policzer

International Dialogue

Latin America is more democratic today than in the recent past, yet in places also far more violent. Parts of the region suffer the world’s highest crime rates, and a widespread sense of insecurity fuels calls for tougher policing. Understanding the origins of this problem, and suggesting ways out of it, is Mark Ungar’s aim in this ambitious and insightful book.

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Table of Contents for Volume 5

Majority Rule: A Dysfunctional Polity Consensus: An Inclusive Democracy, Peter Emerson

International Dialogue

Numerous electoral systems have been devised over the years but, in decision-making, many forums still rely on the same procedure that was used in ancient Greece: majority voting. Hence, majority rule. In many plural multi-ethnic and/or multi-religious societies, the effects have often been negative. This article considers voting procedures in three inter-related contexts: decision-making, elections, and governance. With regard to conflicts in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and Ukraine, it shows, both in decision-making and in elections, how simplistic win-or-lose ballots have exacerbated tensions. And it then suggests a more inclusive polity in which win-win voting systems might help to alleviate …

The Mapuche In Modern Chile: A Cultural History, Ramón J. Guerra

International Dialogue

In Joanna Crow’s cultural exposition of Chile’s largest indigenous population, The Mapuche in Modern Chile: A Cultural History, she makes a concerted effort to highlight the cultural components of the group’s identity and presence both in negotiation with and in resistance to the larger Chilean state throughout history. As a primary target of her research, the post-colonial approach illuminates the agency-driven Mapuche as being continuously reimagined in the nation’s history—not necessarily restructured but more to the point of being reconsidered. In order to elicit this type of reconsideration, Crow exposes the prominence of the “historic Mapuche” image as the dominant …

Making Human Rights A Reality, Debra L. Delaet

International Dialogue

Emilie Hafner-Burton’s Making Human Rights a Reality offers an accessible and informed analysis of the significant gap between the normative universalism of international human rights law and its limited effects in practice. The book’s primary purpose is to offer a pragmatic, strategic alternative to global legalism for promoting the progressive realization of fundamental human rights. In Hafner-Burton’s view, the cause of human rights promotion would be better-served by relying on states with strong human rights records (both in terms of respecting rights at home and commitment to promoting them abroad) to use foreign policy as a tool for changing the …

Africa In World Politics: Engaging A Changing Global Order, Manfred Wogugu

International Dialogue

The issue of central concern for the editors and contributing authors of this book is whether Africa’s emergence on the world political scene will usher in the enabling environment for sustainable broad-spectrum development in the political, socio-economic, cultural and environmental spheres. The authors also make an attempt to address the issue of economic growth for the region. The underlying assumption is that the spread of economic growth to all countries in the continent, if it prevails, will reduce poverty and inequality and ultimately improve the quality of life for Africans. Against the backdrop of the global economic and political order …

Absolute Recoil: Towards A New Foundation Of Dialectical Materialism, Robert Sinnerbrink

International Dialogue

Slavoj Žižek continues his idiosyncratic critique of global capitalism, democratic culture, and neoliberal ideology in his latest 400+ page tome, Absolute Recoil: Towards a New Foundation of dialectical Materialism, which promises to provide, much like his Less than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism (Verso, 2012), a resolutely idealist “new foundation” for dialectical materialism. This is a promise that Žižek has made for some years now, since what we might call his “system” turn became manifest in the publication of a series of major books (In Defense of Lost Causes [Verso, 2008]; Living in the End Times, Less …

Identity And Security In China: The Negative Soft Power Of The China Dream, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Joseph Nye concentrates on the positive attractive aspects of soft power as a foreign policy tool. This article will argue that the Chinese discussion of soft power is interesting because it does the opposite: soft power is negative rather than positive, and is employed as a tool in domestic policy more than in foreign affairs. It will use Chinese President Xi Jinping's new ‘China Dream’ discourse to explore China's ‘negative soft power’ strategy. Rather than take for granted that we understand what the ‘Chinese values’ are that inform the PRC's soft power, it argues that soft power discourse is a …

Frontmatter, Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

-Religious Diversity and the Macedonian Secularist Model
-The Study of Religiosity in Belarus
-St. Jovan Bigorski—a Cultic Place in Macedonia
-Bishop Prohászka’s ‘Hungarism’
-Documentation: Hungarian Church Law at Variance with OSCE Standards

Hungary: Amended Church Law Remains At Variance With Osce Standards And The European Convention On Human Rights, Aaron Rhodes, H David Baer

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The statement was submitted by FOREF (Forum for Religious Freedom Europe) at the 2015 OSCE Human Dimension Implementation meeting held this past September in Warsaw, Poland. The statement calls attention to continuing concerns with the state of religious freedom in Hungary. As readers of OPREE will most likely recall, Hungary's anti-liberal government, led by Viktor Orbán, introduced a law on the "legal status of churches" in 2011 which, among other things, stripped numerous minority religious groups of legal status. In 2014 the European Court of Human Rights found that, in implementing this new law, Hungary had violated the right of …

Urbanisation, Technology, And The Growth Of Smart Cities, Parag Khanna

Asian Management Insights

The dual trend of rapid urbanisation and sophistication of technology will eventually give rise to smart cities around the world. As new challenges emerge, what are Asian cities doing to ensure their success in the future?

Real Estate Investments In Asia: More Than A Place To Call Home, John Lim

Asian Management Insights

Real estate investment in Asia is currently trending. But what does the future hold?

Educational Attainment In The United States And Six Major Metropolitan Areas, 1990-2010: A Quantitative Study By Race, Ethnicity, And Sex, Lawrence Cappello

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines educational attainment rates among racial/ethnic groups in the US and New York City metro area between 1990 and 2010.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The data indicate that the percentage of the population with a B.A. or higher in the U.S. has steadily increased across all races and ethnicities for both sexes. This trend was apparent in …

Multi-Dimensional Cross-Confessional Approach To The Study Of Religiosity In Belarus: Need And Conceptualization, Svetlana Karassyova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Construction of a cross-confessional model for studying religiosity is proposed based on a widened definition of religion and its interpretation as a two-part phenomenon including experience (inner part) and a system of presentation of the experience (outer part). The system of religion is understood as a three-dimensional unity of beliefs, activity, and institutions; religiosity as involvement into the system of the named dimensions. Each dimension of involvement is marked with empirical features. Each feature is scaled in a range from formal (outer) involvement to transforming (inner). The combination of involvement into each dimension (set by the features) gives a degree …

Humility And Compassion: The Pre-Requisites Of Moral Leadership, José Ramos-Horta, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

The Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Timor-Leste, Dr. José Ramos-Horta talks about ethical leadership and Timor-Leste’s post-independence development in this interview with Havovi Joshi.

Transforming The Traditional Indian Retailer, Ashish J. Jha, Varun Jain, Vridhi Chowdhry, Indranil Bose

Asian Management Insights

Connecting the unconnected ‘kirana’ stores through social supply chain innovation can help small Indian businesses draw more benefits from the increasing purchasing power of consumers.

Mediation Goes Global In Singapore, George S. C. Lim, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore has positioned itself as an international dispute resolution hub in Asia by providing a complete suite of services for international arbitration, international litigation and mediation through the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”), the Singapore International Commercial Court (“SICC”) and the Singapore International Mediation Centre (“SIMC”). SICC and SIMC build on Singapore’s reputation for quality legal services, including its status as the most preferred seat of arbitration in Asia and the third most preferred seat of arbitration in the world.[1] They bring more options to parties facing cross-border disputes who need tailored solutions that meet their needs.

Singapore: Reflecting On The Development Of The Domestic Mediation Scene, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Amidst all the attention that Singapore has attracted as an international dispute resolution hubwith the recent launches of the Singapore International Mediation Centre (“SIMC”), SingaporeInternational Mediation Institute (“SIMI”) and the Singapore International Commercial Court,it is appropriate to pause to reflect on how far the domestic mediation scene has come in orderto support these global ambitions.

Contemporary Daoist Tangki Practice, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Since 1979, China has seen a renaissance of indigenous belief systems, including Daoist tangki spirit-medium practice. Tangki traditions have Neolithic roots. The founding myth is of a man who magically battled flood demons to save China. In imperial times, ordinary people, disenfranchised by the state religion and pawns of dynastic wars, created a soteriology of self-empowerment. Ordinary people would transform through spirit pos-session into warrior gods who would save the community. Millennia-old tangki traditions have diffused into the modern Chinese quotidian. With a remote Central Committee of the Communist Party recalling distant emperors, village temples, many led by tangkis, have …

Saint Jovan Bigorski - A Macedonian Orthodox Cultic Place, Ruzica Cacanoska, Maya Angelovska-Panova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The subject matter of this paper is the socio-historical analysis of the cult1 life of the Saint Jovan (John) Bigorski Monastery. This subject matter will be elaborated by developing a historical frame wherewith the sociological research element will be merged; this element will specifically emphasize the impact of the miraculous icon on the promotion and cultic life of the Saint Jovan Bigorski Monastery.

The Genesis Of 'Hungarism': Bishop Ottokár Prohászka And The Extremist Right In 1920s Hungary, Csaba Fazekas

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Ottokár Prohászka (1858–1927) was a famous and well-known Hungarian Catholic cleric, starting from 1905, when he became bishop of Székesfehérvár. His life and works often got into the center of discussions, not only among historians and ecclesiastical circles, but also among politicians. At the beginning of the 20th century, Prohászka was also extremely popular with liberals, as his activities represented a promise to renew and modernize Catholicism. Prohászka imagined this modernization on the basis of the social principles of Catholicism, and considered the spread of a “Jewish” mentality, alien to the Hungarian nation, as the fundamental problem.

Mediation Goes Global In Singapore, George S. C. Lim, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore has positioned itself as an international dispute resolution hub in Asia by providing a complete suite of services for international arbitration, international litigation and mediation through the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”), the Singapore International Commercial Court (“SICC”) and the Singapore International Mediation Centre (“SIMC”). SICC and SIMC build on Singapore’s reputation for quality legal services, including its status as the most preferred seat of arbitration in Asia and the third most preferred seat of arbitration in the world.[1] They bring more options to parties facing cross-border disputes who need tailored solutions that meet their needs.

Religious Diversity And The Macedonian Model Of Secularism, Aleksandar Spasenovski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The geographical position of the Republic of Macedonia continues to shape its religious landscape as dramatically as in the times of Byzantium or communism. Taking into account the aforementioned, this paper will encompass the legal, political and sociological aspects of the Macedonian model of secularism. In this respect, the content of the constitutional provisions suggests that Republic of Macedonia most broadly defines the right to equality, guaranteeing the same rights, independently from the religious determination of its citizens, among other things. The state also guarantees the freedom of religion, allowing its citizens to freely practice their religion either alone or …

Luxury And Gender In European Towns, 1700–1914. Deborah Simonton, Marjo Kaartinen, And Anne Montenach (Eds), Fiona Williamson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The concept and consumption of ‘luxury’ was at the heart of many preconceptions about gender, status and identity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Acting as a determinant of—yet also blurring the boundaries of—social class, luxury was a fundamental component of identity for both men and women. Towns operated as hubs in the luxury goods trade and urban inhabitants were the main producers and consumers of the newest fashions. This collection of essays, stemming from the pan-European Gender in European Towns Network launched in 2006, seeks to explore how luxury connected to, and shaped, urban senses of self and status …

The Experiment Must Continue: Medical Research And Ethics In East Africa, 1940–2014, Melissa Graboyes

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

The Experiment Must Continue is a beautifully articulated ethnographic history of medical experimentation in East Africa from 1940 through 2014. In it, Melissa Graboyes combines her training in public health and in history to treat her subject with the dual sensitivities of a medical ethicist and a fine historian. She breathes life into the fascinating histories of research on human subjects, elucidating the hopes of the interventionists and the experiences of the putative beneficiaries.

Historical case studies highlight failed attempts to eliminate tropical diseases, while modern examples delve into ongoing malaria and HIV/AIDS research. Collectively, these show how East Africans …

On The Edge Of Disruption, David K. C. Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The financial system is on the verge of massive disruption. Innovative competitors operating on sleek business models and offering new alternative services are entering at the bottom of the market, where gross margins are low and latent demand is high. As these new entrants scale and progress through higher market segments, they will erode incumbent pricing power.

Remittances Without Borders, Tan Swee Liang, S. N. Venkataramanan, Anil Kishora

Research Collection School Of Economics

A Pan-Asian Mobile Remittance Platform might just be the next big disruption in global remittances. One out of every 28 people lives in a country that they were not born in. As migrants, they are estimated by The World Bank to send home US$636 billion in 2017, with three-quarters remitted to developing countries. These remittances form a significant percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of many of these developing countries. Given their magnitude and contribution to national economies, even a small reduction in remittance cost adds billions to these local economies. Mobile-to-mobile cross border remittances have recently shown that …