Winning Hearts and Minds for Rebel Rulers: Foreign Aid and Military Contestation in Syria

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Allison Carnegie ◽  
Kimberly Howe ◽  
Adam G. Lichtenheld ◽  
Dipali Mukhopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Rebel Governance ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Military Control ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Abstract A primary objective of foreign aid in conflict zones is to help political actors win citizens’ ‘hearts and minds’. Previous studies have focused on assistance provided to state actors; however, this article examines aid's impact on rebel governance. It argues that aid only bolsters opinions of rebel governors where military control is uncontested. In contested areas, rebels lose credibility if they cannot offer protection, and they have difficulty delivering – and receiving credit for – services in insecure environments crowded with competitors. Using novel data from the Syrian civil war, this article shows that aid improves opinions of opposition councils in uncontested areas but not in communities experiencing intra-rebel conflict. It also explores the underlying mechanisms using in-depth interviews with residents of Aleppo City and Saraqeb. The findings reveal a more nuanced relationship among aid, military competition and governance than prior studies have suggested, which has implications for both scholars and policy makers.

Financial Reporting Regulation and the Reporting of Pro Forma Earnings

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary M. Entwistle ◽  
Glenn D. Feltham ◽  
Chima Mbagwu
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ◽  
Pro Forma Earnings ◽  
Sarbanes Oxley ◽  
Evidence For Policy ◽  
Pro Forma

A primary objective of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is to bolster public confidence in the U.S. capital markets. The SEC aims to achieve this objective in part by regulating the use of alternate earnings measures (colloquially referred to as “pro forma” earnings) that differ from generally accepted accounting principles. This paper examines whether firms change their reporting practice in response to pro forma regulation. Specifically, it examines whether the use, calculation, and presentation of pro forma measures by S&P 500 companies changes between 2001 and 2003. We document three significant shifts in pro forma reporting in this period. First, the proportion of firms reporting pro forma earnings declines from 77 to 54 percent. Second, by 2003, pro forma is used in a less biased manner. Not only is the proportion of firms using pro forma earnings to increase reported income smaller than in 2001, but also the magnitudes of these increases are reduced. Third, in 2003, firms present pro formas in press releases in a much less prominent and less potentially misleading manner. These results suggest a strong impact of the recent regulation of pro forma reporting and provide important empirical evidence for policy makers.

The effects of foreign aid on rebel governance: Evidence from a large‐scale US aid program in Syria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Carnegie ◽  
Kimberly Howe ◽  
Adam Lichtenheld ◽  
Dipali Mukhopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rebel Governance

Concealing Conflict Markets: How Rebels and Firms Use State Institutions to Launder Wartime Trade

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Rachel Sweet
Keyword(s):  
State Agencies ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
State Recognition ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Rebel Governance ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Border Trade ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Trade Deals

Abstract Although rebel groups are players on the international stage, little is known about their financial strategies at this scale. Existing research suggests that rebels succeed in cross-border trade by using informal networks that evade state authority. Yet rebels face a critical challenge: they operate in a normative environment that values state recognition and penalizes their illegitimate status. New evidence reveals that rebels can overcome this barrier and better connect to global economies not by evading the state but by infiltrating its institutions. Drawing on unprecedented data—the internal records of armed groups and their trading partners—I examine how rebels use state agencies in conflict zones to manufacture a legal cover for wartime trade. By using state agencies to provide false certification, rebels can place the stamp of state on their trade deals. This strategy of legal appropriation is a fundamentally different model of how conflict markets skirt sanctions and connect to global buyers. I develop a framework for how this strategy works that traces how international sovereignty norms and sanctions regimes create incentives for rebels, firms, and bureaucrats to coordinate around this legal veneer across the supply chain. The framework and evidence contribute theoretical and policy understandings for rebel governance, state building and fragmentation, and illicit global markets.

scholarly journals Measuring fisheries performance using the “Goldilocks plot”

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Hilborn
Keyword(s):  
Primary Objective ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Fishing Mortality ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Stock Status ◽  
Realistic Information ◽  
Rate Threshold ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Most reporting of stock status accumulated at a national or regional level gives statistics on what proportion of the stocks are below some abundance threshold or above some fishing mortality rate threshold. This approach does not convey useful information on the performance of the fisheries management system in maximizing long-term sustainable yield, which is the primary objective of most national and international fisheries legislation. In this paper, I present a graphical approach for representing how much yield is being lost as a consequence of current suboptimal abundance and fishing pressure. Using the EU stocks assessed by ICES as an example, I show how traditional criteria for overfished and overfishing fail to display realistic information about the performance of the fishery. This approach provides much more useful information for the public and policy makers.

scholarly journals The Macro Economic Management Challenges of Foreign Aid in Developing Countries

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-170
Author(s):  
U Arabi ◽  
Nagendra
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Global Integration ◽  
Economic Management ◽  
International Consensus

Foreign aid is one of the most powerful weapons in the war against poverty.  Many people equate aid with charity as one way act of generosity directed from high income countries to their low income counterparts. Foreign aid is indispensable for the development of less developed countries. It flows in the form of loans, assistance outright grants from various governmental and international organizations. It spreads the benefits of global integration and shared prosperity by enabling poor people and countries to overcome the health, education and economic resources barriers that keep them in poverty. There is an international consensus that human development should be the primary objective. Hence aid budgets are raising despite the several fiscal and public debt problems facing some of the donor countries.

scholarly journals Russian Cyber Information Warfare: International Distribution and Domestic Control

MCU Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-127
Author(s):  
Lev Topor ◽  
Alexander Tabachnik
Keyword(s):  
Information Warfare ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Informational Influence ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Foreign Influence ◽  
International Distribution ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Cyber information warfare (IW) is a double-edged sword. States use IW to shape the hearts and minds of foreign societies and policy makers. However, states are also prone to foreign influence through IW. This assumption applies mainly to liberal democratic societies. The question examined in this article is how Russia uses IW on other countries but protects itself from the same activities. The authors’ main argument is that while Russia executes influence operations and IW in cyberspace, it strives for uncompromising control over its domestic cyberspace, thus restricting undesirable informational influence over its population.

Rebel Jurisdiction, Due Process, and Tamil Tiger Justice

2021 ◽  
pp. 219-354
Author(s):  
René Provost
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
International Law ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Court System ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Rebel Governance ◽  
Law And Courts ◽  
The Government

Chapter 3 examines the implication of a broad requirement of due process for rebel courts, taking as a case study the judicial system put into place by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. The LTTE launched an armed insurgency against the government of Sri Lanka in the early 1980s, eventually controlling nearly 40 percent of national territory. The LTTE developed an independent civil administration which included a state-like court structure with seventeen distinct courts at trial, appeal, and supreme court levels. The group also enacted comprehensive civil and criminal codes, as well as other important pieces of legislation. The chapter takes this exceptionally sophisticated insurgent court system to interrogate the concept of rebel jurisdiction, exploring the foundations in public international law of the extent and limits of territorial, subject-matter, and personal jurisdictions of rebel law and courts. The analysis then turns to the thorny issue of due process requirements that must be met under international humanitarian and human rights law to consider as fair a trial before a rebel court. The precise content of the requirement of a fair trial under international law does vary in situations of emergency like international and non-international armed conflicts. In addition, legal standards must be adjusted to reflect the nature of non-state courts and the particular contextual challenges faced by rebel governance in conflict zones. On that basis, each applicable due process guarantee is analysed to determine the precise requirements it imposes on rebel justice.

Women as Policy Makers and Donors: Female Legislators and Foreign Aid

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Hicks ◽  
Joan Hamory Hicks ◽  
Beatriz A. Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Female Legislators

The Åland Example as Norm Entrepreneurship

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Wigell
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Territorial Dispute ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Successful Solution ◽  
International Attention

The Åland Example has generated considerable international attention as a successful solution to a complicated ethno-territorial dispute. This article looks at how it has been used as a basis for norm entrepreneurship by political actors in both Åland and Finland. For Åland itself, the Åland Example provides normative capital that is used to influence domestic politics. As such, the article shows how norm entrepreneurship may provide a useful political device for a minority or an autonomous region as it strives to preserve or develop its status and identity vis-à-vis the majority and host country. Herein the case of the Åland Example also shows how norms are a strategic asset that can be used for different political purposes and how this may create conflicting agendas between domestic interests with a stake in the international advocacy of the norm. For Finland, the Åland Example provides a potential asset when constructing its foreign policy profile. Yet, it has been used relatively sparingly as such a brand-enhancing device in Finnish foreign policy. The article finds two main reasons for this. First, being a minority solution, it does not generate the sort of emotional attachment that would get Finnish policy-makers to invest in its full potential. As such, it is being somewhat ignored. Second, from the perspective of state diplomacy, the Åland Example has its drawbacks. Under some circumstances, visibly marketing it can do more harm than good for Finnish diplomacy, which is why Finnish foreign policy-makers choose to tread carefully with promoting the Åland Example. The article thus provides a glimpse of the partly overlapping, partly conflicting agendas between majority and minority actors in their international advocacy of norms.

The Politics of Pension Reform in Latin America

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARMELO MESA-LAGO ◽  
KATHARINA MÜLLER
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Legal Constraints

Latin America has been a world pioneer of neoliberal, structural reform of social security pensions (‘privatisation’). This article focuses on the diverse political economy circumstances that enabled such reform, analysing why policy makers have chosen such a costly strategy and how they have managed to implement it. First, in nine countries with diverse regimes (authoritarian and democratic) it examines the internal political process that led to the adoption of reform. There tends to be an inverse relationship between the degree of democratisation and that of privatisation, but the political regime alone cannot fully explain the reform outcomes in all cases. To expand the search for explanatory variables, other key factors that might have influenced the reform design are studied, among them relevant political actors (driving and opposing forces), existing institutional arrangements, legal constraints, internal and external economics and policy legacy.

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