The Transition to Majority Rule in Southern Africa and the Exceptional Case of Botswana
Botswana is an exceptional example of a Southern African country which appears to have successfully negotiated the pitfalls inherent in the perilous journey to democratic, majority rule.
Men and Women’s Support For War: Accounting for the gender gap in public opinion
Both at the outset and during the course of recent military operations, commercial polling companies and academic surveys have endeavoured to record public attitudes towards conflicts. The data reveals a significant ‘gender gap’ in public opinion.
Cultural symbols, biocolonialism and the commodification of rural and indigenous bodies
The world’s most powerful institutions and corporations are now interested in subaltern people, because they represent a commercial “opportunity”.
Review – Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet
Klare’s analysis is timely, well written, and intriguing considering its central thesis that the world’s reliance on fossil fuels will eventually lead to increased geopolitical tensions. While other books offer a more thorough account, this is a welcome read.
A Fledgling Movement: Women and the Iranian election
This round of Iran’s pre-election politics was marked by the full-force entry of the Iranian women’s movement onto the political scene with a well-thought-out strategy that has mobilized many change-seeking individuals and groups within civil society.
The Transition to Democracy in Spain and Portugal
During the 1970’s, Spain and Portugal made the political transition from corporatism to democracy. Spain is often viewed as the paradigm case for the transition to democracy model. If Spain’s experience was the generalizable case for the transition to democracy, wouldn’t Portugal’s path to democracy be similar because of the two nations’ similarities? Both countries shared a common geographical setting, history, religion, and corporatist dictatorships. However, markably different factors caused the political changes, producing different government and social structures in each society. Spain and Portugal may have similarities, but these factors cloud the very different processes that occurred in each country’s transition to democracy, bringing the appearance of correlation when in fact there is little.
Food Security and the Role of NGOs
In 1996, leaders came together at the World Food Summit in Rome to address the rising level of malnutrition throughout the world. They feared that if no action were taken, the amount of hungry people in the world in 2010 would reach 680 million, and set a commitment to halve the amount of undernourished people by 2015. Yet ten years after the summit, the World Food Program reported[1] the amount of hungry people has surpassed the 2010 estimate of 680 million and is already at 842 million.
The US is Not a Climate Outlaw?
n all, the US record on climate change is very far from perfect. On the other hand, imperfect states are not generally viewed as outlaws. The US has long been engaged with the international community on climate negotiations, it has been reducing emissions growth for more than a decade, and has pursued a number of domestic policy initiatives.
Avoiding a Zero-Sum Water-Energy End Game: Bring It to Rio+20
It seems that there is an inverse relationship between water and energy security, but is this scenario real or imagined? Although it is only one step, the incorporation of the water-energy nexus into the Rio+20 agenda would help to improve our understanding of sustainability.
Brazil’s Mercosur Economic Strategy: From Destiny to Impairment
Today, Mercosur is more of a dysfunctional set of rules, decision-making procedures and abstract principles rather than a well-functioning case of open regionalism. Mercosur’s inoperativeness condemns its member countries to remain relatively isolated from the dynamic developments taking place in the global economy.
