UNESCO: Between Sectoral Fragmentation and Budget Crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 164-179
Author(s):  
Ronny Patz ◽  
Klaus H. Goetz
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Core ◽  
Vertical Fragmentation ◽  
Cutback Management ◽  
The Us ◽  
Budget Crisis ◽  
International Bureaucracies ◽  
Formal Rules

Chapter 7 examines the case of UNESCO and the effects of the sectoral and vertical fragmentation of the organization. The case is particularly pertinent since the US stopped its contributions after Palestine was admitted as a member in 2011, resulting in a major financial crisis for the organization. Despite the need for rigorous cutback management, budgeting procedures and budgeting administration have remained highly routinized. While this highlights the important procedural role of international bureaucrats and their ability to ensure the continued functioning of IOs, these solutions also show the limits to the substantive influence of international bureaucracies in budgeting. In essence, UNESCO remains an organization that is highly fragmented along policy lines, horizontally and vertically, and both among member states as well as inside its own bureaucracy. This results in budgetary segmentation and increased proceduralization well beyond the core budgeting stages regulated by formal rules.

scholarly journals New Measures of Workforce Skills in the EU

2012 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. R17-R28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili Kang ◽  
Mary O'Mahony ◽  
Fei Peng
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Workforce Training ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Member States ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
New Member States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Workforce Skills ◽  
The Eu

This paper presents new data series designed to yield a more complete picture of the growth in average skill levels embedded in the EU workforce, comparing with competitor countries such as the US and China. Harmonised data from EU surveys are employed to extend coverage in existing databases to more countries, to cover the period of the financial crisis, and to skills acquired through informal workforce training. The results indicate growth in labour quality in the EU15 marginally below the US, convergence of the group of new member states to the EU15 but no sign of convergence of China to more developed regions. There is evidence of a pronounced rise in labour quality in most countries after 2007, consistent with theories of labour hoarding, but with some notable exceptions. Expanding the conventional measures of labour quality to include informal training leads to small but significant increases in the growth of human capital in some EU15 member states.

scholarly journals Creation of Armed Forces in NATO Member States: Promising Models of Germany and Norway

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Andrey Manoilo ◽  
◽  
Elena Ponomareva ◽  
Philipp Trunov ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Potential Growth ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Military

Introduction. One of the key tendencies of modern international development is the growing importance of the “factor of power”. In this context, the initiated long process of the potential growth of the armed forces of the countries participating in NATO, which is of particular importance in the growth of new unconventional threats (one of the triggers of the Alliance transformation including through the strengthening of national units has become a global pandemic) is important from scientific and practical points of view. Methods and materials. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is the theory of building armed forces. The basic sources for the analysis are official documents of military departments, as well as materials from related information centers, which reveal the parameters of the prospective appearance of the armed forces of the countries under study. NATO’s statistical and summit reports also occupy a special place. Analysis. The goal of the article is the research of the armed forces building processes in Germany and Norway for the future until the mid-2030s. These case countries can show the tendencies of military development of NATO European member states in the whole taking into account the differences between Germany and Norway in terms of the geographical location, the population as the main human resource of the armed forces, as well as the transformation of leadership and dynamics of relations between the “historical West” and the Russian Federation, which allows us to characterize the overall trends in the military and political development of European NATO member states. Results. It is proved that the growth of military potential is based on two main groups of reasons. The first is due to the strategic deterioration of relations between the West and Russia since the mid-2010s. The second is that the armed forces of the European member States of NATO have reached the “bottom” position in terms of almost all quantitative parameters. The continuing trend of decreasing numerical indicators (people and technology) threatens to reduce the role of the state on the world stage. Therefore, it is natural to see Germany’s desire to become a “framework nation” in the recruitment of NATO rotation groups in Europe, as well as in the deployment of peacebuilding and peacekeeping missions outside the area of responsibility of the Alliance, which inevitably leads to a large-scale increase in the number of armed forces and the cost of their modernization. In the case of Norway the transformation of the armed forces occurs in the conditions of refusal to increase included human resources and enhance the value of the military presence of NATO partners (primarily the US) first of all in the process of reorganizing the national system of territorial defense. In both cases, there are still tendencies to transform the role of the US in Europe and to consolidate the confrontation with the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals Whither neoliberal penality? The past, present and future of imprisonment in the US

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sappho Xenakis ◽  
Leonidas K Cheliotis
Keyword(s):  
State Regulation ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Considerable Doubt

Debates about the trajectory of prison rates in the US, on one hand, and about the prospects of the neoliberal international order, on the other hand, suggest the time is ripe for a reappraisal of penological scholarship on the relationship between neoliberalism and imprisonment. With the aim of responding to this challenge, this article considers the relevance of the so-called ‘neoliberal penality thesis’ as a framework through which to interpret recent and ongoing developments in US imprisonment. We first set out the core propositions of the thesis and engage with a range of critiques it has attracted regarding the role of crime and government institutions, the evolution and functions of state regulation and welfare provision, and reliance on imprisonment as an indicator of state punitiveness. We then outline the principal arguments that have arisen about the direction of contemporary prison trends in the US, including since Donald Trump was elected to the presidency and took office, and proceed to distil their commonly opaque treatment of the intersections between neoliberalism and imprisonment, also clarifying their respective implications for the neoliberal penality thesis in light of the main critiques levelled previously against it. In so doing, we go beyond the penological field to take into account concerns about the vitality of neoliberalism itself. We conclude that international politico-economic developments have cast considerable doubt over the pertinence of neoliberalism as an organising concept for analysis of emergent penal currents.

scholarly journals David Parish, Alexander Baring and the US Loan of 1813: The Role of Nationality and Patriotism in the Transatlantic Mercantile Community in Times of War

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Lentz
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Government Bonds ◽  
The Core ◽  
Public Expectations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Financial Transactions

The War of 1812 was a very expensive conflict for the United States. In 1813, three foreign-born investors, among them David Parish from Hamburg, Germany, saved the US government from bankruptcy by providing a sixteen-million dollar loan. This article focuses on the reasons why Parish – who strongly opposed the war – agreed to take a major share in the loan. At the same time, it examines the ways in which the Hamburg merchant tried to sell a large share of his US government bonds in Great Britain – America’s wartime enemy. Parish’s actions make it obvious that he promoted the idea of a supranational mercantile community that was not bound by patriotic considerations even during war times. Consequently, it was the British merchant banker Alexander Baring who stood at the core of Parish’s plans to sell US bonds in London. By contrasting Baring’s room for manoeuvre during these financial transactions with that of Parish this article shows that in the British context public expectations of loyalty and patriotism could indeed limit the abilities of local merchants in financing the opponent of war. Thus, the comparison of Parish’s and Baring’s experiences highlights the importance of local factors such as a consolidated public opinion and a strong nation state in setting the limits of the sphere of activity for internationally operating merchants in times of war.

scholarly journals The Regional Role of the Eurasian Development Bank in the Post-Coronavirus World

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-32
Author(s):  
A. V. Kuznetsov
Keyword(s):  
Financial Policy ◽  
Payment Systems ◽  
Member States ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Technology Markets ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

Until now, the processes of global regionalisation have not been adequately reflected in the formation of systemic approaches to the management of financial relations within the Eurasian Economic Union. It leads to the search for new financial policy mechanisms necessary to stimulate the economies of the EAEU countries in the context of emerging economic and geopolitical constraints, as well as the creation of the necessary prerequisites for industrial cooperation in the context of anti-Russian sanctions and de-globalisation trends intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the vulnerability of the economies of the EAEU member states is due to their extreme dependence on external extra-regional demand, international capital and technology markets, as well as international settlement and payment systems based on the US dollar. The study is based on a dialectical approach. In conducting the research, we used general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, generalisation, as well as methods of systemic, historical-logical and comparative analysis. The contradictory nature of the development of the world economy at the present stage was revealed. The role of the EDB in creating conditions for sustainable development of the EAEU member states has been substantiated. Changes in the structure of the EDB’s investment portfolio were analysed. The advantages and disadvantages of the EDB’s current activities in the context of the implementation of the Bank’s Strategy for 2018–2020 were summarised. Comparative characteristics of financing of EDB member countries through multilateral development banks were presented. The impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on the current and future activities of the EDB was shown.

Budgeting in the UN System: A Comparative Analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 73-131
Author(s):  
Ronny Patz ◽  
Klaus H. Goetz
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Level ◽  
Formal Rules

Chapter 4 constitutes the core comparative data chapter presenting two novel datasets. The first compares budgeting procedures in twenty-two UN organizations, with a focus on the actors involved and the timelines prescribed by formal rules and drawing also on previous analyses on UN budgeting from the 1980s and 2000s. The second dataset reveals, with few exceptions, a high level of routinization of budgeting procedures in the UN system. This finding is based on the analysis of the timing of budget proposals and budget adoptions in twenty of the twenty-two UN organizations included in the first dataset. Both the stability of budgeting procedures and the routinization of budgeting, even in times of a global financial crisis, run against theoretical expectations. Four organizations (UN, ILO, UNESCO, WHO) with highly routinized budgeting procedures are selected (studied individually in Chapters 5–8) to better understand the causal mechanism identified in the theoretical chapter.

scholarly journals The Role of China's Bureaucracy in its No-Devaluation Policy during the Asian Financial Crisis

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEONG H. LIEW
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Exchange Rate Regime ◽  
Asian Financial Crisis ◽  
Exchange Rate Policy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Rate Policy

Analysts have generally offered two explanations for China's no-devaluation policy during the Asian financial crisis. The first is China's good economic fundamentals and the renminbi is not fully convertible. The second is China's foreign relations' imperative. China was endeavouring to seek favourable entry conditions into the WTO and improve relations with its Asian neighbours. At the same time it sought to exploit the undercurrent of resentment in Asia towards the role played by the US during the crisis. Policy making in China has become more institutionalized in the post-Deng era, but these explanations ignore the role of China's domestic bureaucratic actors in exchange rate policy making. This paper examines the exchange rate regime preferences of China's key economic ministries and their influences in exchange rate policy making and argues that Party leaders were able to adopt a no-devaluation policy throughout the crisis because China's key economic ministries actively supported or acquiesced to that policy.

The Global Insurgency

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Lake
Keyword(s):  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Dominant Strategy ◽  
State Building ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Us ◽  
Global War ◽  
Core Problem

The Pax Americana has produced remarkable political order in Europe and Northeast Asia. For decades, the US has sought to expand this international order into the Middle East. This effort, however, has sparked a backlash against the US, globalisation, and Westernisation. With state elites now largely co-opted into the Pax Americana, opposition takes the form of ‘private’, non-state actors using terrorist methods. The US response to the global insurgency has included counterterrorism and regime change, but state-building has become the dominant strategy. The core problem in state-building, however, is that though the US and its allies seek legitimacy for the states they build, they also aim to appoint local leaders willing to cooperate in the global war on terror and other elements of the Pax Americana. These ‘loyal’ leaders can govern only autocratically in ways that foment further opposition. State-building as counterinsurgency strategy is counter-productive. The first section of this chapter explains the spread of the Pax Americana; the second briefly describes the reaction to this expansion, focusing on the current global insurgency; the third probes the counter-reaction, highlighting the role of state-building; the Conclusion argues that given a choice between expansion or retrenchment, the US should lean towards the latter.

EU Financial Crisis Management and Containment

2020 ◽  
pp. 199-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalvinder Singh
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Deposit Insurance ◽  
National Level ◽  
Bank Risk ◽  
Banking Union ◽  
Insurance Scheme ◽  
Member States

This concluding chapter explores the decentralized and centralized mechanisms to support financial crisis management. The decentralized mechanisms reside at the national level. Meanwhile, the centralized mechanisms reside at the Eurozone level for participating and Eurozone Member States. The chapter first addresses the role of national powers to provide assistance through recapitalization initiatives and/or liquidity assistance. It then examines the formal centralized mechanisms to fund resolution as well as the proposal for the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS). The EDIS is critical to the success of the Banking Union, especially if liquidation is the option of first resort. Indeed, the EDIS and the Single Resolution Fund (SRF) are considered as principal measures to address home and host dilemmas. The funding of these initiatives through private means is an important contributing factor. It is an important step to minimize moral hazard risks through levies calibrated according to bank risk.

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