Search results

The topics of the books published in this series not only relate to peace and international relations but also to conflicts in other areas such as the environment, development, and physical and human resources. However, all of these subjects are interrelated. Past and present financial crises are a case in point. Regionalism as against globalization has been proposed in this volume to minimize the probability of such a crisis in the future and manage the conflict. This book links crisis management to regionalism and presents a strategy (regional financial management) to reduce conflict. The author formulates a set of strategic criteria to maximize the net short and long-term benefits. In the short term, financial cooperation, more risk taking, macroeconomic coordination, avoidance of currency-cum-maturity mismatch, etc., may be the appropriate policy. Examples of long-term benefits are diversifying risks and stronger regulation. Examples of short-term costs are coordination failures and moral hazard. The long-term cost is the reduced degree of compliance. Control standards need not be the same for every case particularly for the domestic standards, e.g., rural vs. urban. The question of trade-off arises not only in the concepts of financial crisis but also in the formation of regional cooperation. This regionalism to manage conflict is seen as a contradicting force to the globalization and liberalization process. To make this strategy more applicable to most situations, the author uses a quantitative model which can be empirically estimated.

This chapter examines the trend towards regionalism upon stock market returns for a sample of Asian countries. We find that stock markets are becoming regionally integrated at a faster rate than globally. This finding reflects the growing co-operation between Asian countries. This study focuses upon Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. These markets suffered severe contagion effects in relation to the Asian financial crisis that occurred during 1997. In addition, this study reports on the significant economic and political events that occurred in Asian economies from 1980. This study concludes that increases in liberalization coupled with stronger ‘regionalism’ in South East Asia contributed to the Asian financial crisis in 1997, in addition to the structural weaknesses in their financial systems. Policy setters may consider reducing the amount of intra-regional dependence in order to reduce the impact of financial crises and improve stability of the financial system.

Advocates of the role of city‐regions in economic development seek lessons from other countries to boost the case. But processes of lesson learning raise many challenges and the purpose of this paper, therefore, is to argue that it is necessary to shift from descriptive comparison to a better understanding and explanation of what works where.

The approach taken in the paper is to review recent debates about the design of comparative studies and suggests a range of comparative questions.

The paper draws on insights from the ESRC Research Seminar and other papers in this issue and helps clarify some of the issues that may be involved in developing a better comparative understanding of the emergence and impacts of new “experimental”, time‐limited regional institutions.

The paper argues for more rigorous comparative research.

Questions are raised about current lesson learning concerning the governance of city regions.

The paper contributes to new debates about the potential of comparative study.

The economic success of East Asia was due to an export-led growth strategy, which was heavily dependent on the global trading system underpinned by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In recent years, however; East Asian countries have shifted their trade policy focus to regional agreements and made Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) among themselves arid with other regions. Government organization has been restructured to increase FTA activities. Generally, the current literature predicts that FTA activities of East Asia would help to increase the welfare of the region. In this paper; we offer a critical assessment of East Asia FTAs. We note that East Asia FTAs provide incomplete coverage of sectors and are likely to lead to an inefficient resource allocation. FTA movements are not matched with actual trade flows. The benefits of East Asia FTAs are fairly limited and potential benefits, if any, would not likely be materialized in the near future. Our overall assessment is that the recent policy shift in East Asian countries from multilateral trade orientation or unilateral action to regionalism or a parallel multilateral and regional trade approach will not produce much gain. The governments should increase their efforts at economic reform and reduce barriers to trade and investment, rather than to allocate more resource and manpower to FTA activities.

Africa faces an unanticipated ‘second chance’ at the start of the second decade of the 21st century: how many ‘developmental’ versus ‘fragile’ states by 2020? The interrelated prospects for both BRICs & the continent are being transformed by the current global financial crisis: as the South expands & the North contracts, what S‐N relations in future? The EU of 27 now includes the PIIGS: a disincentive to African regions to sign EPAs unlike the Caribbean? African political economies are now located in second, third & fourth worlds: will they identify with the G20 and/or the G192 (G193 once Southern Sudan independent at start 2011?). Half the dozen fastest growing countries identified in the Economist’s World in 2011 are African (Economist 2010a): from Ghana to Liberia; the CGD in DC now suggests that 17 African countries are ‘leading the way’ & the BCG has identified 40 African corporations as global ‘challengers’. To maximize its development & security, Africa would need to advance ‘network’ or ‘public’ rather than traditional ‘club’ diplomacy, involving civil society & private companies as well as states & intergovernmental agencies. But climate change may yet emerge as the spoiler, hence the importance of COP17 in Durban before the end of 2011! This paper has four parts which stake out paths to a brighter future for the continent, including its myriad diasporas. First: post‐Washington Consensus, ODA from the OECD is of declining importance or attraction. Rather, a range of ‘innovative sources of finance’ are appearing, encouraged by the ‘Leading Group’: global solidarity fund, currency transaction tax, carbon taxes/trading, climate change funds, controls on money laundering & remittance taxes etc. Plus emerging donors like the BRICs & Gulf states, some with SWFs; FBOs; & new private foundation like Gates, Clinton & Ibrahim leading to GAVI etc.Second, Africa has generated an innovative range of ‘new regionalisms’ involving non‐state actors: from Maputo Corridor & Kgalagadi trans‐frontier peace‐park to Nile Basin Initiative/Dialogue; and from International Conference on the GLR to corporate supply chains.Third, ‘new multilateralisms’ or ‘transnational governance’ with African dimensions, from ICBL & Ottawa Process & PAC/GW & Kimberley Process & now DDI to EITI, FCS & MCS to IANSA & ATT; yet coalitions over SALW & children/women’s security are stalled due to US vetoes. And finally, fourth, what implications of this trio of novel directions & players for our analyses & policies, state & non‐state: who are the ‘drivers’, innovators & animators? How to transit from dependency & neoliberalism towards a Beijing Consensus? Where ACBF & its partners in 2030/2040/2050?

The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the historic ways of reviewing patterns of regional engagement, with special attention to how the emergent concepts of higher education (HE) regionalization stand in relationship to regionalism. Additional implications are spelled out for governance, citizenship and university transformation.

This conceptual essay is meant to appear in conjunction with more discrete, case‐oriented examinations of Asia Pacific HE regionalization.

Discussions of regionalism in Asian HE are being replaced by those focused on regionalization; the former is a nation‐state and geographic policy framework whereas the latter tends to refer to emergent empirical relationships. Regionalization itself can be further distinguished in terms of its “older” forms, focused on geographic proximities and exchanges defined and carried out within those proximities. New regionalization is increasingly linked to global circuits of exchange in which the currencies of such exchanges are closely linked to the emergent dynamics of the knowledge society and economy. These dynamics in turn are closely linked to patterns of migration and mobility in HE and the efforts of higher education institutions (HEIs) and regional governments to develop new governance structure structures appropriate for this style of regionalization. These regional dynamics reflect tensions that draw institutions and nations together (centripetal forces) and those that keep them apart (centrifugal forces). These processes are marked by governance dynamics, those of affinity and affiliation, transnational innovation, and redefinitions of the responsibilities and promises of citizenship.

Use of these modal concepts can be used to promote and extend a region‐wide discussion and related research relevant to HE transformation within the region.

Drawing on assemblage theory (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; DeLanda, 2006), this conceptual chapter seeks to provide an analytical lens for examining the power and capacity of Big Data analytics to exercise territorializing and deterritorializing effects on compound polities and supranational organizations. More specifically, the modern massive agglomeration of data streams and the accelerated computational power available to sort and channel them in effecting actions, decisions, and reconfigurations in contemporary assemblages, necessitate new exploratory tools to examine the impact of such trends on educational phenomena from a comparative perspective. In the first part, the chapter builds an analytical instrumentarium useful in theoretically elucidating the effects of Big Data on complex assemblages and serves as a methodological extension in investigating the ramifications of these effects on educational systems, spaces, and policyscapes. The second part sets out to illustrate how assemblage theory can explain the tension between the formal use of large official statistical data sets as a type of “regulated” Big Data, and the informal use of social media, as a type of “unregulated” Big Data, to construct or deconstruct, respectively, interlacing/interlocking components of assemblages, such as supranational organizations or compound polities. The European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are taken as examples of complex assemblages in which the long-standing utilization of EU’s Eurostat and CARICOM’s Regional Statistical Database have served as territorializing forces in consolidating policy logics and in legitimizing decision-making at the supranational level, while the emergence of “loose” social networking technologies appears to have deterritorializing effects when employed deliberately to delegitimize or subvert socio-political processes across supranational polities.

The integration of religion and democracy in the Kuwait National Assembly (KNA) produced definitions of democracy distinct from others in the region as well as from Kuwait's own national history. The uniqueness of Kuwait's democracy in the Arabian Peninsula is primarily due to the establishment of its parliament and constitution, which make it a constitutional rather than an absolute monarchy. The development of Kuwait's democracy relied heavily on the construction of its monumental national assembly building, designed to mix symbols of democracy as understood in Western discourse (see, for instance, the columniation inspired by the Greek Pantheon) with images inspired by local elements (like the tent): this combination allows the building to produce an image of democracy and independence that resonates with local as well as international populations.

The initial plan for the development of a national assembly building in Kuwait included a mosque that would have become part of the assembly complex. The mosque building was later replaced by a prayer hall inside the KNA building, and at the same time a decision to build a state mosque in a different location within the old city of Kuwait was confirmed. The separation of the two structures can be read, at first glance, as an important symbolic action expressing the separation of the church and state; yet an in-depth analysis of the KNA's design suggests different conclusions. This chapter explores how the design of the KNA building is apparently rooted in universal laws of spirituality and religion; on a related note, the tent-inspired building reveals a reliance on ancient religious traditions and proportions.

Through the ideas of and within Oceania that we outline, and within which we locate architecture and institutions for CIE regionally, we illustrate the identified turning points through analysis of dynamic and intersecting trajectories of the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society (OCIES), formerly the Australia and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society (ANZCIES), and the Vaka Pasifiki, formerly the Rethinking Pacific Education Initiative for and by Pacific Peoples (RPEIPP) project. We offer initial responses to an over-arching theme in posing the question: how, and through what processes, have these groups influenced understandings of ‘regionalism’ for CIE within Oceania? This involves examining the conferences, financing, membership, the Society journal/publications and aspects of CIE education of the two bodies.

This chapter reviews the evolution of thinking about regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the policy developments reflected in three waves of RTAs during the last half century. Desirable and undesirable features of RTAs can be identified, but the central message concerns the ambiguity of outcomes. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of the nation state and of multilateral institutions and the scope for intermediate levels of organization created by RTAs.