Παρασκευή 17 Ιανουαρίου 2014

Elections Don't Matter, Institutions Do

Many years ago, I visited Four Corners in the American Southwest. This is a small stone monument on a polished metal platform where four states meet. You can walk around the monument in the space of a few seconds and stand in four states: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. People lined up to do this and have their pictures taken by excited relatives. To walk around the monument is indeed a thrill, because each of these four states has a richly developed tradition and identity that gives these borders real meaning. And yet no passports or customs police are required to go from one state to the other.

Well, of course that's true, they're only states, not countries, you might say. But the fact that my observation is a dull commonplace doesn't make it any less amazing. To be sure, it makes it more amazing. For as the late Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington once remarked, the genius of the American system lies less in its democracy per se than in its institutions. The federal and state system featuring 50 separate identities and bureaucracies, each with definitive land borders -- that nevertheless do not conflict with each other -- is unique in political history. And this is not to mention the thousands of counties and municipalities in America with their own sovereign jurisdictions. Many of the countries I have covered as a reporter in the troubled and war-torn developing world would be envious of such an original institutional arrangement for governing an entire continent.

Donor-Driven Technical Fixes Failed South Sudan: It’s Time to Get Political

What has gone wrong in South Sudan? As the country today marks the ninth anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended decades of conflict between southern insurgents and the government of Sudan and paved the way to independence, South Sudan is experiencing another wave of violence and conflict – this time within its own borders.
The South Sudanese flag flies at independence in 2011. Photograph by Arsenie Coseac.

Over the last few weeks we have seen what was ostensibly a political tussle for power in the world’s newest country descend into shocking violence, leaving over a thousand people dead and around 200,000 displaced. While commentators can argue about who or what is most at fault in this terrible turn of events, one fact is clear: the international community – the many regional and international players who have been supporting the transition in South Sudan − shoulders some of the responsibility.

Analysts Pick Australia for Next Shale Boom

While China, Russia and Argentina have topped the list of potential venues for the next shale boom, a new analytical report says all eyes should be on Australia as the most attractive venue for shale and tight oil and gas.
While huge reserves elsewhere have massive potential, Australia and the infrastructure and experience to make drilling in shale plays more attractive and easier to recoup costs, according to analysis released earlier this week by Lux Research.

Climate policies are more important than targets

The European Commission is due to publish its proposals for a 2030 climate and energy framework on 22 January. The European Council will discuss the Commission’s proposals in March. European institutions should be commended for focussing on climate policy at a time when the Eurozone crisis is not over, MEPs face elections and the commissioners are in their last year. However, there is too much focus on targets – whether there should be one or three, how ambitious the they should be, and whether they should be legally binding. Well-constructed targets can play a useful role in guiding subsequent policy making.  But effective policies are more important, and could be crafted even without targets.

Climate policies are more important than targets

The 2030 framework will replace the 20-20-20 targets: that there must be a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 20 per cent of total energy must be from renewables and there should be a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency, all by 2020. For 2030, the Commission favours three targets, again on greenhouse gases, renewables and energy efficiency. The European Parliament also supports three. The Czech Republic, Poland and the UK argue for one, on greenhouse gas reductions. Commission officials say that it is the pro-nuclear member-states which oppose a renewables target.  But Paris has joined seven other governments in calling for a 2030 renewables target, proving that it is quite possible to be pro-nuclear and pro-renewables.

Η Ρωσία «αδειάζει» άσχημα την Ελλάδα για να πλήξει την ΕΕ

Τη χώρα μας «αδειάζει» εντελώς η Ρωσία σε μια προσπάθεια να απαντήσει στις κατηγορίες που δέχεται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση για τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα, σε έκθεση που εξέδωσε το υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, η οποία περιέχει ξεχωριστό κεφάλαιο για την Ελλάδα.

Με άξονα κυρίως το θέμα της Χρυσής Αυγής, ούτε λίγο ούτε πολύ την κατηγορεί για ρατσισμό, ξενοφοβία, ενώ «κλείνει το μάτι» προς την Τουρκία, υποστηρίζοντας ότι παραβιάζονται τα δικαιώματα «της λεγόμενης μουσουλμανικής μειονότητας στη Θράκη»…

How Banks Are Watering Down Financial Reform Now

Money


Banks have won again. The recent news that the new international banking regulations (known wonkily as Basel III) have been watered down by the banking lobby to allow them to continue doing daily business with nearly as much borrowed money as in the past is a real disappointment.

Yes, a minimum wage boost will reduce poverty. Here's the evidence.

Marco Rubio
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), claiming last week to have compassion for the poor but not really proposing anything that will help. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
 
The push is on in Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, and so too is the conservative counterattack.

In the vanguard of the pushback is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who dismisses the minimum wage as a "stale" weapon in the war on poverty -- worse, an ineffective one.

What a Transportation Revolution in China Looks Like

 
 
JINAN, China—A shower of sparks and the crackle of electricity mark the beginning (or end) of a trip on a partially electrified bus in the capital of Shandong Province. "Spring City" lacks a subway system (due to its eponymous artesian springs) and so relies on buses to move its more than four million people across a city that now sprawls some 20 kilometers east to west. And those buses move thanks to everything from ammonia to electricity.

Transition from traditional peacekeeping: Interview with Major General Patrick Cammaert

Kitgum IDP camp from the air, Uganda
A camp of internally displaced persons (IDP) in Kitgum, Uganda.\

New types of UN peacekeeping brigades could compromise the United Nations’ basic principle of impartiality and put UN personnel, their families, and other organizations at risk, said Major General Patrick Cammaert, the former military advisor to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and former Eastern Division Commander to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.