Home > Themes > Global Social Justice
Global Social Justice
Transcript
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Craig Charney,
Nikolas K. Gvosdev,
Parag Khanna,
Stephen B. Young,
David C. Speedie,
Devin T. Stewart
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03/17/10
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This panel focuses on global governance since the financial crisis, in particular on climate change, energy security, and issues of consensus, common ethics, and trust.
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Darrel Moellendorf,
John Tessitore
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03/16/10
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Darrel Moellendorf (author of "Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation") discusses what happened in Copenhagen and what it means for future negotiations on climate change.
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David Arkless,
David Denoon,
Maria Jepsen,
Raymond Torres,
Devin T. Stewart
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02/26/10
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A panel of experts from the International Labour Organization, business, academia, and the EU discuss the actions taken to address this multi-faceted crisis, and give suggestions for further ways to generate jobs.
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Lee C. Bollinger,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/19/10
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Now that U.S. news outlets can instantaneously disseminate information across the world and foreign media have immediate access to the American market, what does press freedom really mean?
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Joel Kotkin,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/19/10
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How will the enormous projected growth of the U.S. population in the next four decades change the face of America? Will it make the U.S. weaker, or even more diverse and competitive?
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Alexandra Harney,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/26/10
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Harney (author of "The China Price") and Stewart discuss the human and environmental costs of China's cheap prices; Google in China; fake and dangerous Chinese products; U.S.-China relations; and the latest trends in Japan.
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Ian Bremmer,
Georg Kell,
Art Kleiner,
Thomas Stewart,
Michele Wucker,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/20/10
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What's next? Using Eurasia Group's Top Risks as a starting point for identifying the major global challenges in 2010, the panelists identify what they see on the horizon and discuss the ethical issues involved.
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Christopher Heath Wellman,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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11/03/09
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From education and health care, to access to credit and the rule of law, a host of factors that influence quality of life depend simply on which side of a border a person is born on. Yet what could be more arbitrary, morally speaking, than where a person happens to be born?
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Carmen M. Reinhart,
Kenneth S. Rogoff,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/30/09
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Financial crises are not random events, say Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. Looking at the the data on boom and bust cycles that have occurred over the past 800 years, a clear pattern emerges. Why can't we learn from history?
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D.A. Henderson,
Devin T. Stewart
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10/28/09
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Real-life hero D.A. Henderson reveals how a small but fiercely dedicated team under his direction succeeded in eliminating smallpox, a disease which had killed over half a billion people in the preceding 100 years.
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Amartya Sen,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/08/09
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The traditional theory of social justice is out of touch with practical realities, says Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. Instead he proposes a theory of comparative justice that is applicable to the real world.
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Hilary Charlesworth,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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10/07/09
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What does a country gain by enacting a bill of rights? Do countries that lack bills of rights, like Australia, protect human rights as well as those, like the United States and Canada, that have them?
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Bert Koenders,
Jose Antonio Ocampo,
Devin T. Stewart
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09/30/09
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The spread of the financial crisis from a few developed countries to the entire global economy provides tangible evidence that the international trade and financial system needs to be profoundly reformed, says Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
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Alex S. Jones,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/22/09
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"Internet culture values speed over accuracy, edge over fairness and balance, and above all, entertainment value above importance and significance. We can be overfed but undernourished in terms of news, and that's what's happening as newspapers scramble to stay in business."
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Richard L. Kauffman,
Julia Kennedy
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09/14/09
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"There is really nothing quite as essential, both in the developed and the developing world, as energy. You literally cannot have economic development without energy."
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Julius Walls, Jr.,
Julia Kennedy
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09/03/09
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Greyston Bakery was started on the premise of bringing the unemployed into the workforce. In fact the company's motto is, "We don't hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people."
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Robert S. Harrison,
Julia Kennedy
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08/25/09
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"I hope that CGI is able to serve as the catalyst for action, the group that is essentially creating a market between companies and governments and NGOs to create the difference that moves the ball on each of these great global challenges."
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Michael Selgelid,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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08/22/09
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Can we infringe individual rights to promote public health? Should, say, people be allowed to decide for themselves when they are too infectious to get on a plane?
Do immigrants help or hurt America? Closed borders cut off the world's best and brightest, while open borders may invite the world's desperate, criminal, and crazy. Should we err on the side of opening doors or building walls?
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Seth Merrin,
Julia Kennedy
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08/18/09
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Seth Merrin is the CEO and founder of Liquidnet, a successful investment firm which gives 1 percent of its pretax income to philanthropic initiatives. Here Merrin discusses Liquidnet's key role in a Youth Village for orphans in Rwanda, modeled on similar ones in Israel.
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Michele Wucker,
Julia Kennedy
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08/11/09
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"People should be able to pursue whatever helps them to fulfill their greatest potential, and that's what migration is about," says World Policy Institute's Michele Wucker.
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Alice Korngold,
Julia Kennedy
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07/23/09
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Consultant, author, and blogger Alice Korngold talks about her work connecting corporate executives with nonprofit boards, and the transformation that takes place, person after person, as executives come up with new ways to help.
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Alissa Wilson,
Christine Bader
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07/16/09
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How can you help change the world, and get paid for doing it? Alissa Wilson shares what she learned from interviewing scores of practical idealists, including international development workers, lawyers, business people, and artists.
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Kevin Bales,
Ron Soodalter,
Devin T. Stewart
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07/01/09
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Slaves are all around us, from the dishwasher in your local restaurant, to kids on the corner selling cheap trinkets. Bales and Soodalter provide a blueprint on how to recognize slavery and how to finally put an end to this horrific practice, which still flourishes here in "The Home of the Free."
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Christine Bader,
Julia Kennedy
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06/19/09
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"Increasingly, human rights is the lens through which people view how business impacts them," says Christine Bader, formerly of BP and now Advisor to the UN Special Representative on business and human rights.
Fairness is a universal concept, but its application depends on time and place. The three pillars of ethical choice—pluralism, rights and responsibilities, and fairness—are thus codependent, and balancing them demands dialogue among people.
Balancing rights and responsibilities is one of the pillars supporting ethical choice. How far do our rights extend? Do responsibilities diminish our entitlements?
How do we celebrate differences without falling into the trap of cultural relativism?
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Robert Moossy,
Roger Plant,
Maria Suarez,
William C. Vocke Jr.
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05/26/09
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The Carnegie Council and the International Labour Organization (ILO) present a unique look at modern slavery from the personal, policy, and enforcement perspectives, to shed light on an insidious practice that has become part of today's labor markets.
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Michelle Goldberg,
William C. Vocke Jr.
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05/26/09
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Michelle Goldberg exposes the global war on women's reproductive rights and its disastrous and unreported consequences for the future of global development.
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Nicholas Stern,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/15/09
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Renowned economist Lord Nicholas Stern estimates that it will cost only about 2 percent of global GDP to control climate change at manageable levels by 2050. But we cannot delay. The cost of inaction is far greater and more perilous.
According to Dambisa Moyo, large foreign aid flows to Africa disenfranchise Africans and prop up corrupt African leaders. If we follow Moyo's advice and cut off aid, what happens to the millions whose survival depends on it?
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David Singh Grewal,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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04/03/09
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To explain how power can be at work in apparently voluntary processes, Grewal introduces the concept of "network power." He argues that this dynamic drives many key aspects of globalization.
How should we reward experts and how much? When the experts fail, should populist outrage be directed at those individuals or the system?
Can public discussion of issues acknowledge gray areas despite being polarized by the media and single issue groups?
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David A. Hamburg,
David C. Speedie
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03/23/09
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David Speedie interviews David Hamburg on the prevention agenda of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and its legacy of preventing interstate conflict, genocide, and threats to global health.
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Peter Singer,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/23/09
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It wouldn't take much to rescue those living in extreme poverty, says Peter Singer. If the top 90 percent of Americans gave at least 1 percent of their income we could reach the Millennium Development Goals.
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Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/10/09
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Economist Jeffrey Sachs focuses on the financial crisis, both in the U.S. and worldwide. He concludes that we should look at it as a wakeup call that we were not on a sustainable path, and as an opportunity to invest in the future.
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Ann Florini,
John Tessitore
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03/10/09
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Florini discusses the difference between "global government" and "global governance," intergovernmental organizations such as the UN, and the role and achievements of civil society and transnational networks, particularly on environmental issues.
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Fiona Robinson,
John Tessitore
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03/05/09
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Care is not only a moral issue, but also a feminist one, says Robinson, noting that two-thirds of care around the world is done by women, for little or no pay. She also discusses the evolving concept of human security.
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Stephen Lewis,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/03/09
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The UN's record on women's issues has been abysmal, declares Stephen Lewis, particularly in dealing with HIV/AIDS. In order to give 52 percent of the world's population the representation they deserve, it's time to create a special UN Women's Agency.
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H.E. Mr. Heraldo Muñoz,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/27/09
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In his first-hand account of the brutal Pinochet years and their aftermath, H.E. Mr. Heraldo Muñoz asks, "The agonizing question is: Was Pinochet necessary? Could Chile have reached its present prosperity without him?"
A Colombian immigrant was recently denied her investor's visa, forcing her to shut down her U.S. company and fire her six employees. Does immigration help or hurt American workers?
Should foreign companies fudge a commitment to free speech to gain early market access? Is some information better than none, or is censorship a black and white issue?
Less than one percent of the earth's water is consumable, and many parts of the world may be heading toward water bankruptcy. Should private ownership of water rights and delivery systems be encouraged, rejected, or better managed?
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Ian Bremmer,
Art Kleiner,
Michele Wucker,
Thomas Stewart,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/26/09
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What dangers are lurking for 2009? Taking Eurasia Group's list of Top Risks as a starting point, this lively discussion examines the ethical aspects of these issues.
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Siddharth Kara,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/21/09
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"The exploitation of sex slaves for commercial sex generated profits of $35.7 billion in 2007," says Siddharth Kara. "This makes slavery second only to drug trafficking in terms of global illicit enterprises."
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Seth Kaplan,
Devin T. Stewart
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12/16/08
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Seth Kaplan looks at how weak states can promote and leverage "social cohesion" to help build development from the bottom up.
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Christian Barry,
Meg Boulware,
Laura Herman,
Maggie M. Kohn,
Rohit Malpani,
Lisa Oldring,
Devin T. Stewart
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12/16/08
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The international community has begun to consider the "highest attainable standard of health" as a fundamental component of the human rights agenda, alongside related issues of poverty and adequate access to water and sanitation.
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David Singh Grewal,
Christian Barry,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/12/08
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How can we understand the dynamics of globalization? The idea of network power supplies a coherent set of terms and concepts, which are applicable to individuals, businesses, and countries alike.
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Michael Kinsley,
William Easterly,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/11/08
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Michael Kinsley and William Easterly discuss Bill Gates's controversial proposal for "creative capitalism," in which big corporations integrate doing good into their way of doing business.
Will people associate U.S. power with "global misery" or with the opportunity and pluralism that Obama's victory represents? There is clearly a need to reflect on the future of market capitalism.
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Raymond Fisman,
Devin T. Stewart
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11/17/08
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From the scapegoating of "witches" in Africa, to the pitfalls of speed-dating, to the cultures that foster corruption, Raymond Fisman explores the economics and psychology behind the choices we make.
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John Ruggie,
Devin T. Stewart
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11/07/08
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UN Special Representative John Ruggie presents his conceptual framework for business and human rights, and his plan to develop practical recommendations for all relevant stakeholders.
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James Farrar,
Gerhard Pohl,
Emily Polk,
Devin T. Stewart,
Andrew Zolli
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10/30/08
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This lively panel examines the intersection of Web 2.0 technologies and the effort to hold corporations to account for both the harms and benefits they create.
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Heather Grady,
Norine Kennedy,
Jill Kubit,
Peter Poschen,
Michael Renner,
Sean Sweeney,
Devin T. Stewart
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10/16/08
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A panel including Peter Poschen, International Labour Organization and Michael Renner, Worldwatch Institute, discuss the new report "Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World."
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Leif Wenar,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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10/07/08
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There is a powerful case that corporations and countries that buy natural resources from bad actors in developing countries are violating the property rights of the people of those countries.
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Thomas Pogge,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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09/02/08
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Thomas Pogge explains his proposal for dealing with the thorny intersection of public health, property rights, and poverty. As he sees it, the patent system doesn't work as well for medicines as it does for, say, consumer electronics.
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Geoffrey Heal,
Devin T. Stewart
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06/03/08
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Geoffrey Heal examines how social and environmental performance affects a corporation's profitability and how the stock market reacts to a firm's behavior in these areas.
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Jan Egeland,
Shashi Tharoor,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/18/08
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"In spite of being stingy, and in spite of being late, and in spite of being half-hearted, we are making progress," says Egeland. But we must respond to all disasters, not just those that hit the headlines.
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Peter Ackerman,
Larry Diamond,
Arch Puddington,
Jennifer L. Windsor,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/15/08
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Freedom House representatives and Larry Diamond discuss the findings of the FH annual survey, "Freedom in the World 2008," which shines a light on the decline in freedom around the world.
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Srgjan Kerim,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/10/07
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We need to involve individuals more and give a lot of what we call our sovereignty to the individual, says Kerim. Shared responsibilities should be the value of such a new culture of international relations, together with freedom, equality, tolerance, and respect.
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John Bowe,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/17/07
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Do labor abuse and outright slavery still exist in the United States? Yes, says John Bowe, who travels from Florida to U.S.-owned Saipan to investigate modern global slave labor.
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Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/02/07
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The 57-member OIC has embarked on an ambitious 10-year plan, which includes setting up a 10-billion-dollar fund for poverty alleviation and eventually establishing an independent body on human rights.
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Philippe Legrain,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/10/07
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It's inevitable that more and more people will move across borders, says Philippe Legrain, and rather than put obstacles in their way, we should welcome them. They do the jobs we can't or won't do and their diversity enriches us all.
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Dr. Federico Macaranas,
Devin T. Stewart
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07/11/07
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Dr. Federico Macaranas uses the exodus of Philippine health professionals as a case study to show the ill effects of the brain drain on poor countries.
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Marcus Noland,
Devin T. Stewart
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04/16/07
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According to Marcus Noland, "a demographic imperative to create jobs, a questionable track record on globalization, and some deep uncertainty about political transitions--all work to create a very serious set of challenges for the [Middle East] region over the next decade or so."
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Jill Shankleman,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/12/07
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How can and should oil and gas companies work with governments to counteract the destabilising effects of drilling and international pipelines?
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Fabrice Weissman,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/04/07
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The Darfur crisis is one of the most serious in the world, says Weissman of MSF.
But contrary to many reports, it is neither a racial war, nor genocide. "The war
in Darfur is better characterized as a very nasty civil war which is in the
process of spiraling out of control."
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Christine Bader,
Joanne Bauer,
David M. Schilling
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03/22/07
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Christine Bader, Joanne Bauer, and David Schilling discuss corporate social responsibility.
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Kenneth Roth,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/07/07
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With Washington's reputation as a leader on human rights gravely damaged by abuses committed in its five-year-old "global war on terror," who will fill the vacuum?
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Ethan B. Kapstein,
Joel H. Rosenthal
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11/01/06
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In a lively session, Ethan Kapstein proposes just what the international community can reasonably do to build a global economy that will be fairer to all.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/05/06
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Stiglitz offers new thinking about the questions that shape the globalization debate, including a plan to restructure the global financial system, ideas for how countries can grow without degrading the environment, and a framework for free and fair global trade.
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Shashi Tharoor,
Ruth Wedgwood,
James Traub,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/12/06
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Is the UN "I" for irrelevant, or "I" for indispensable, as Shashi Tharoor would have it? While conceding that the UN is relevant, Ruth Wedgwood argues that "competing multilaterals" should also play a role in solving the world's problems. This witty but deeply serious debate will give both sides of the argument food for thought.
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Jan Eliasson,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/07/06
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H.E. Mr. Jan Eliasson discusses recent steps forward at the U.N., such as the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission, the Central Emergency Fund, and the Human Rights Council.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/03/06
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In a new book (co-authored with Andrew Charlton), Stiglitz details what a trade agreement might look like if based on principles of economic analysis and social justice for the world economy. He points to how less developed countries are disadvantaged in the negotiating process.
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Jere Van Dyk,
Joseph E. Stiglitz
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04/03/06
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"I firmly believe that aid and trade have to work together," says Dr. Stiglitz. "If we provide assistance to help people to take advantage of the new opportunities, we can get real growth, and they won’t need the handouts as much as in the past."
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Stephen Lewis,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/28/06
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Lewis offers his personal, often searing, insider's account of the plight of Africa and Africans with AIDS--and the wealthy world's betrayal.
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Sir Emyr Jones Parry,
Joanne J. Myers
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01/12/06
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The UK ambassador to the UN describes the positive rethinking of development policy that occurred in 2005 and the need to make 2006 the year for action. He touches on the issues of aid, trade, UN reform, harmonization among donor organizations, and the struggle against corruption.
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Philip J. Hilts,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/29/05
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Hilts warns that the emergence of new diseases and the resurgence of old ones has put the world on the brink of a global health crisis. Yet we have more than enough technology and funds to bring about a golden age of public health. What's the missing element?
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Otto Schily,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/21/05
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Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior Otto Schily addresses the problems of integrating immigrants into German society and talks about the progress made, which includes overhauling the Nationality Act for the first time since 1913 and introducing integration courses for new arrivals.
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Moisés Naím,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/09/05
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The counterfeit trade is worth 630 billion dollars a year, including fake airplane parts, medicines and even gas stations, and growth in trading people, arms and drugs is equally staggering.
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Benjamin M. Friedman,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/27/05
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Friedman argues that economic growth is a prerequisite for the creation of a liberal, open society. He contends that periods of robust economic growth encourage tolerance, democracy and generous public support for the poor, while economic stagnation and insecurity result in the very opposite.
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Mary Robinson,
Kemal Dervis,
Stephen Macedo,
Gideon Rose
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10/26/05
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A distinguished panel outlines the problems of growing inequality caused by globalization and proposes practical solutions.
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Andrew Kuper,
Peter Singer
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09/19/05
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Who has the responsibility to alleviate poverty and uphold human rights in a globalized world where corporations often wield more power than nation-states?
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William Easterly,
Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Michael M. Weinstein,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/08/05
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The panelists discuss the main features of globalization, asking what is new, what drives the process, how it changes politics, and how it affects global institutions like the UN.
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Clyde Prestowitz,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/01/05
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Prestowitz believes that the United States is sliding toward economic decline under globalization, arguing that these trends are creating not only increased economic strength in Asia, but also geopolitical power.
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Melissa Young,
Mark Dworkin,
Madeleine Lynn
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05/11/05
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At the end of 2001, after years as the poster child for corporate globalization, the Argentine economy collapsed. Film-makers Dworkin and Young were there. In the midst of disaster, they found a resurgence of grass-roots democracy, and a spirit of community.
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Thomas L. Friedman,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/06/05
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Globalization, particularly outsourcing, is leveling the playing field around the world, says Friedman, making India a major player.
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Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/30/05
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Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the New Millennium Project, proposes ways to end extreme poverty all over the world within the next twenty years.
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Sebastian Mallaby,
Joanne J. Myers
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01/27/05
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Will the World Bank survive? Despite its shortcomings, Mallaby believes we need it badly, as there is a serious lack of strong institutions to manage the challenges created by globalization and transnational threats.
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Bjorn Lomborg,
Joanne J. Myers
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01/19/05
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According to Lomborg, the $50 billion that will be spent on development assistance over the next four years ought to be focused on realistic goals such as ending malnutrition and communicable diseases—not on reducing global warming.
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Lou Dobbs,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/02/04
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The loss of numerous jobs to outsourcing harms the middle class and presents a grave threat to the U.S. economy, argues Lou Dobbs.
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Jagdish Bhagwati,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/28/04
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While a leading free trade proponent, Bhagwati does not advocate total laissez-faire economics. Instead he argues that continued globalization needs to be "managed."
The success of the war on terror will ultimately depend on optimal respect for fundamental rights at home and abroad, not on curtailing them in the name of security, says William Schulz of Amnesty International.
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Elsa Stamatopoulou,
Joanne Bauer
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09/23/04
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Stamatopoulou discusses the destructive trends facing the world's 370 million indigenous peoples, as outlined by the Human Development Report 2004, concluding that it will take more than democracy and equitable growth to preserve their traditions.
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John Micklethwait,
Adrian Wooldridge,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/10/04
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How did conservatism achieve the extraordinary dominance of American politics it enjoys today? Among other reasons, by being better organized and more in tune with core American values, say John Micklethwait and Adrian Woodridge.
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Robert B. Reich,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/19/04
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Robert Reich is optimistic about John Kerry’s victory in the presidential elections, because his research shows that most Americans adhere to fundamental liberal principles.
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Antonio Vitorino,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/14/04
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Vitorino says that a massive migration from east to west within the EU is unlikely and in any case, an influx of third-country nationals might help the EU to address population aging.
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James Gustave Speth,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/22/04
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Speth's recommended steps for transitioning into sustainability range from creating a world environmental organization with the requisite power to make treaties with teeth, to encouraging innovative measures at the local level—what he calls "green jazz."
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Anne-Marie Slaughter,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/15/04
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Slaughter describes a vision of a world order where international institutions are embedded in an increasingly dense web of networks spanning the globe.
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Rony Brauman,
Christian Barry
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04/12/04
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Brauman insists that the goals of peace processes should not be mingled with the goals of humanitarian aid.
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John Scott,
Joanne Bauer
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01/14/04
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John Scott, of the Secretariat for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, discusses the challenges in achieving international protection of indigenous rights.
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Lester R. Brown,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/15/03
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An in-depth look at human damage to the natural environment and the social and technological possibilities for remedying such degradation.
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Keith Slack,
Mary-Lea Cox
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04/28/03
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Carnegie Fellow Keith Slack discusses Iraq using its oil wealth to sustain prosperity and democracy. But there are reasons to proceed with caution: Does cultivation of natural resources create wealth for the many or for the few? If for the few, how does this affect a nation’s prospects for political stability?
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Maude Barlow,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/12/02
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Many developing countries are now privatizing their water industry, and as a result many poor people cannot afford clean water and must turn to polluted water sources instead, says Barlow. "Leaving water in the hands of private companies—which are driven by commerical concerns and are not accountable to anyone—is socially and environmentally immoral."
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Nitin Desai,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/12/02
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Larger United Nations' goals such as eliminating poverty and addressing health issues are inextricably linked to environmental concerns, says Nitin Desai.
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Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/06/02
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Markets alone will not solve the problems of Africa and other poor parts of the world, says Sachs. "Markets will not stop mosquitoes from transmitting malaria, nor can they stop, or even diminish, the transmission of HIV/AIDS."
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Peter Singer,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/29/02
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If we agree with the notion of a global community, then we must extend our concepts of justice, fairness, and equity beyond national borders by supporting measures to decrease global warming and to increase foreign aid, argues Singer.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/15/02
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There will be a strong backlash against globalization unless the international institutions that govern it become more democratic, says Stiglitz.
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Hernando de Soto,
Christian Barry
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05/08/02
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Carnegie Council's Christian Barry follows up with Hernando de Soto on
several of the issues he had raised in his Morgenthau Lecture, focusing on
questions concerning the fairness, equity, and legitimacy of de Soto's property
rights thesis.
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Christian Barry,
Nicolas de Torrenté,
Elizabeth Neuffer,
Omar Noman,
Robert L. Bach
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03/06/02
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How should nation-states and other actors balance responsibilities to mitigate unnecessary suffering worldwide with obligations to promote security and ensure justice for victims of terrorist crimes?
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Mark Malloch Brown,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/19/01
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The "real lesson of September the 11th was that states don't have the right to fail," asserts Brown. The international community should place priority on addressing the three principal reasons for state failure--democracy deficits, failing educational systems, and stagnant economies.
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Louise Fréchette
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09/20/01
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Will the "new war" on terrorism usurp resources that might otherwise have gone to causes such as the global fight on AIDS? UN official Louise Fréchette presents the case for spending $7-10 billion per year on a global AIDS prevention campaign.
Audio
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John Kampfner,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/18/10
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Today, many nations are disproving the idea that capitalism and democracy are inextricably linked. Emerging middle classes have proven themselves all too willing to sacrifice certain democratic rights in exchange for prosperity. What can be done to counter this trend?
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Craig Charney,
Nikolas K. Gvosdev,
Parag Khanna,
Devin T. Stewart,
Stephen B. Young
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03/12/10
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This panel focuses on global governance since the financial crisis, in particular on climate change, energy security, and issues of consensus, common ethics, and trust.
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Darrel Moellendorf,
John Tessitore
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03/12/10
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Darrel Moellendorf (author of "Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation") discusses what happened in Copenhagen and what it means for future negotiations on climate change.
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David Arkless,
David Denoon,
Maria Jepsen,
Raymond Torres,
Devin T. Stewart
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02/22/10
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A panel of experts from the ILO, business, academia, and the EU discuss the actions taken to address this multi-faceted crisis, and give suggestions for further ways to generate jobs.
How do we balance the short-term interests at stake in the energy debate with our long-term needs?
Can you hold to ethical standards and serve a government that makes mistakes? Does becoming a diplomat mean, "my country right or wrong?"
Is U.S. foreign policy determined by individual policy-makers and core values, or by external threats and domestic pressures?
Has pluralism in America emphasized private interest over public good? Does the market for ideas need more supervision, or should the market rule?
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Alexandra Harney,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/22/10
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Harney (author of "The China Price") and Stewart discuss the human and environmental costs of China's cheap prices; Google in China; fake and dangerous Chinese products; U.S.-China relations; and the latest trends in Japan.
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Ian Bremmer,
Georg Kell,
Art Kleiner,
Thomas Stewart,
Michele Wucker
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01/15/10
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What's next? Using Eurasia Group's Top Risks as a starting point for identifying the major global challenges in 2010, the panelists identify what they see on the horizon and discuss the ethical issues involved.
Is climate change a common public burden, or should individuals make their own choices? Globally do modernized countries have an obligation to developing countries?
Are we responsible for the well-being of children around the globe, millions of whom die every year from preventable causes? Or does charity begin at home?
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Vali Nasr,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/08/09
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The real key to bringing economic and political change to the Muslim world is capitalism, says Vali Nasr. Entrepreneurial middle classes the world over have a stake in the system and are more interested in economic success than religious extremism.
Should there be formal or informal standards for compensation? Can you ever earn too much?
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Bill Baue,
Marcy Murninghan,
Jane Nelson
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11/20/09
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In July 2009, the Harvard Kennedy School's Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative launched a six-month project on Web 2.0 and corporate accountability. This expert panel discusses the project's preliminary findings and which avenues look most promising for the future.
Inequality in America has been accelerating rapidly since the 1980s. But capping income levels could put liberty and competitiveness at risk. Regarding income, what is the right balance between liberty and equality?
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Alice Korngold,
Karthik Krishnan,
Cheryl Rosario,
Mitchell G. Taylor,
Devin T. Stewart
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11/09/09
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Joining a nonprofit board of directors is a tremendous opportunity to help an organization advance a mission that is important to you. Alice Korngold leads this session of nonprofit board experts.
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Christopher Heath Wellman,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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11/03/09
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From education and health care, to access to credit and the rule of law, a host of factors that influence quality of life depend simply on which side of a border a person is born on. Yet what could be more arbitrary, morally speaking, than where a person happens to be born?
When balancing life's complex tensions, how do you know when you've crossed a line?
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Thomas J. Miller,
David C. Speedie
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10/30/09
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President and CEO of the UN Association of the USA, Ambassador Miller discusses the U.S. role in the world and the power of grass roots commitment. Citizens can change policy by reminding leaders of their obligations on issues such as climate change.
Real-life hero D.A. Henderson reveals how a small but fiercely dedicated team under his direction succeeded in eliminating smallpox, a disease which had killed over half a billion people in the preceding 100 years.
When choosing Nobel Peace Prize winners, should the Nobel Committee think of the future, using the Nobel's prestige to encourage
peace-making? Or should they identify achievements over time, rewarding
those shown worthy?
By 2050 some estimate that climate change will displace 150 million people, but the displaced won't qualify as refugees under international law. What should be done about relocation?
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Hilary Charlesworth,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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10/07/09
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What does a country gain by enacting a bill of rights? Do countries that lack bills of rights, like Australia, protect human rights as well as those, like the United States and Canada, that have them?
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Amartya Sen,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/05/09
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The traditional theory of social justice is out of touch with practical realities, says Amartya Sen. Instead he proposes a theory of comparative justice that is applicable to the real world.
Should cultural treasures, acquired under dubious circumstances, be returned to their places of origin?
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Peter Maass,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/02/09
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From Ecuador to Nigeria, in most oil-producing countries oil has not brought any benefits to the poor and has often damaged people's health and ruined the environment, says Peter Maass. As for Iraq, although the war was not "all about oil," oil certainly played an important role.
Can we regulate international space like the oceans? Pollution and illegal or unregulated fishing plague international waters. How can the problem be managed to maintain the health and beauty of our seas?
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Bert Koenders,
Jose Antonio Ocampo
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09/24/09
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The spread of the financial crisis from a few developed countries to the entire global economy provides tangible evidence that the international trade and financial system needs to be profoundly reformed, says Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
The global circulation of goods is a major source of both prosperity and carbon emissions. Can trade be regulated to maximize development and reduce environmental harm?
Who pays to stop global warming? How to allocate emissions allowances? If people are entitled to an equal share of the world's resources, should national allowances be allocated on a per capita basis? How about the billionaire in India who pollutes more than a poor person in urban Paris?
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Richard L. Kauffman,
Julia Kennedy
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09/08/09
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"There is really nothing quite as essential, both in the developed and the developing world, as energy. You literally cannot have economic development without energy."
How do we put value on the forests as an indispensable element of our survival? Can we balance market mechanisms with regulations and consumption with sustainability?
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Julius Walls, Jr.,
Julia Kennedy
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09/01/09
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Greyston Bakery was started on the premise of bringing the unemployed into the workforce. In fact the company's motto is, "We don't hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people."
Do states have a responsibility to protect the planet? If so, who would decide when environmental protection is a legitimate reason to interfere in the affairs of another state?
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Robert S. Harrison,
Julia Kennedy
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08/25/09
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"I hope that CGI is able to serve as the catalyst for action, the group that is essentially creating a market between companies and governments and NGOs to create the difference that moves the ball on each of these great global challenges."
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Michael Selgelid,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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08/21/09
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Can we infringe individual rights to promote public health? Should, say, individuals be allowed to determine for themselves when they are too infectious to get on a plane?
Do immigrants help or hurt America? Closed borders cut off the world's best and brightest, while open borders may invite the world's desperate, criminal, and crazy. Should we err on the side of opening doors or building walls?
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Seth Merrin,
Julia Kennedy
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08/18/09
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Seth Merrin is the CEO and founder of Liquidnet, a successful investment firm which gives 1 percent of its pretax income to philanthropic initiatives. Here Merrin discusses Liquidnet's key role in a Youth Village for orphans in Rwanda, modeled on similar ones in Israel.
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Michele Wucker,
Julia Kennedy
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08/11/09
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"People should be able to pursue whatever helps them to fulfill their greatest potential, and that's what migration is about," says World Policy Institute's Michel Wucker.
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Joseph M. Cahalan,
Julia Kennedy
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08/04/09
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"The more Xerox found out about the value of inclusion--" says Joseph Cahalan of Xerox, "that good talent comes in all colors, genders, religions, and sexual orientation, that the company became stronger and stronger because of it--the more we consider diversity a competitive strategy."
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Alice Korngold,
Julia Kennedy
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07/21/09
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Consultant, author, and blogger Alice Korngold talks about her work connecting corporate executives with nonprofit boards, and the transformation that takes place, person after person, as executives come up with new ways to help.
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Sarah Greenberg,
Devin T. Stewart,
Julia Kennedy
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07/14/09
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Sarah Greenberg of RiskMetrics discusses the social and environmental risks that companies sometimes take and how these can affect the bottom line. Tobacco is a prime example. In the long run, a product that kills its consumers is not as viable as one that is sustainable.
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Hans W. Decker,
Julia Kennedy
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07/07/09
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"Money-making is the base for good business," says Columbia University's Hans Decker, "but we all intuitively know that there's more to it." Julia Kennedy talks to the former Siemens president about stakeholder value.
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Guy Sorman,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/25/09
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In the 20th century, privatization and market capitalism have reconstructed Eastern Europe and lifted 800 million people out of poverty. What can be understood by this increasing embrace of a "free market" around the globe?
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Kevin Bales,
Ron Soodalter
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06/25/09
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Slaves are all around us, from the dishwasher in your local restaurant, to kids on the corner selling cheap trinkets. Bales and Soodalter provide a blueprint on how to recognize slavery and how to finally put an end to this horrific practice, which still flourishes here in "The Home of the Free."
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Sujeesh Krishnan,
Euan Murray,
Julia Kennedy
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06/23/09
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Julia Kennedy talks to Carbon Trust staff about the journey to discover the biggest sources of emissions for businesses, and finds that sometimes the answers are not what you might expect.
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Christine Bader,
Julia Kennedy
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06/16/09
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"Increasingly, human rights is the lens through which people view how business impacts them," says Christine Bader, formerly of BP and now Advisor to the UN Special Representative on business and human rights.
Fairness is a universal concept, but its application depends on time and place. The three pillars of ethical choice—pluralism, rights and responsibilities, and fairness—are thus codependent, and balancing them demands dialogue among people.
Balancing rights and responsibilities is one of the pillars supporting ethical choice. How far do our rights extend? Do responsibilities diminish our entitlements?
How do we celebrate differences without falling into the trap of cultural relativism?
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Michelle Goldberg
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05/19/09
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Michelle Goldberg exposes the global war on women's reproductive rights and its disastrous and unreported consequences for the future of global development.
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Robert Moossy,
Roger Plant,
Maria Suarez
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05/18/09
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The Carnegie Council and the International Labour Organization (ILO) present a unique look at modern slavery from the personal, policy, and enforcement perspectives, to shed light on an insidious practice that has become part of today's labor markets.
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Nicholas Stern,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/07/09
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Renowned economist Lord Nicholas Stern estimates that it will cost only about 2 percent of global GDP to control climate change at manageable levels by 2050. But we cannot delay. The cost of inaction is far greater and more perilous.
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Randy Charles Epping,
Steven Greenhouse,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/24/09
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How is globalization affecting the economies of developed and developing nations? What should government, business, and labor do to alleviate the global economic crunch?
According to Dambisa Moyo, large foreign aid flows to Africa disenfranchise Africans and prop up corrupt African leaders. If we follow Moyo's advice and cut off aid, what happens to the millions whose survival depends on it?
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Dambisa Moyo,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/06/09
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In the past 50 years, Africa has received more than $1 trillion in development-related aid. Has it improved Africans' lives? No, says Dambisa Moyo. In fact, aid has made the situation much worse.
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David Singh Grewal,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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04/03/09
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To explain how power can be at work in apparently voluntary processes, Grewal introduces the concept of "network power." He argues that this dynamic drives many key aspects of globalization.
How should we reward experts and how much? When the experts fail, should populist outrage be directed at those individuals or the system?
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Michael Rea,
Scott Kaufman,
Evan O'Neil
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04/02/09
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Evan O'Neil talks with the COO and the U.S. Project Manager of Carbon Trust, an independent company set up by the U.K. government that works with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.
Can public discussion of issues acknowledge gray areas despite being polarized by the media and single issue groups?
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Peter Singer,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/19/09
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It wouldn't take much to rescue those living in extreme poverty, says Peter Singer. If the top 90 percent of Americans gave at least 1 percent of their income we could reach the Millennium Development Goals.
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Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/05/09
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Economist Jeffrey Sachs focuses on the financial crisis, both in the U.S. and worldwide. He concludes that we should look at it as a wakeup call that we were not on a sustainable path, and as an opportunity to invest in the future.
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Ann Florini,
John Tessitore
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03/03/09
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Ann Florini discusses the difference between "global government" and "global governance," intergovernmental organizations such as the UN, and the role and achievements of civil society and transnational networks, particularly on environmental issues.
A Colombian immigrant was recently denied her investor's visa, forcing her to shut down her U.S. company and fire her six employees. Does immigration help or hurt American workers?
Should foreign companies fudge a commitment to free speech to gain early market access? Is some information better than none, or is censorship a black and white issue?
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Stephen Lewis,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/27/09
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The UN's response to women's issues has been abysmal, declares Lewis, particularly in dealing with HIV/AIDS. In order to give 52 percent of the world's population the representation they deserve, it's time to create a special UN Women's Agency.
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Fiona Robinson,
John Tessitore
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02/25/09
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Care is not only a moral issue, but also a feminist one, says Robinson, noting that two-thirds of care around the world is done by women, for little or no pay. She also discusses the evolving concept of human security.
Less than one percent of the earth's water is consumable, and many parts of the world may be heading toward water bankruptcy. Should private ownership of water rights and delivery systems be encouraged, rejected, or better managed?
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Ian Bremmer,
Art Kleiner,
Michele Wucker,
Thomas Stewart
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01/15/09
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What dangers are lurking for 2009? Taking Eurasia Group's list of Top Risks as a starting point, this lively discussion examines the ethical aspects of these issues.
Drawing on his background in finance and economics, Siddharth Kara investigates the mechanics of the global sex trafficking business and takes stock of its devastating human toll.
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David Singh Grewal
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12/05/08
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How can we understand the dynamics of globalization? The idea of network power supplies a coherent set of terms and concepts, which are applicable to individuals, businesses, and countries alike.
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Michael Kinsley,
William Easterly,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/05/08
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Kinsley and Easterly discuss Bill Gates's controversial idea he calls "creative capitalism," in which big corporations integrate doing good into their way of doing business.
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Christian Barry,
Meg Boulware,
Laura Herman,
Maggie M. Kohn,
Rohit Malpani,
Lisa Oldring
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12/04/08
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The international community has begun to consider the "highest attainable standard of health" as a fundamental component of the human rights agenda, alongside related issues of poverty and adequate access to water and sanitation.
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Seth Kaplan,
Devin T. Stewart
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11/30/08
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Seth Kaplan gives an in-depth look at how weak states can promote and leverage "social cohesion" to help build development from the bottom up.
We are harming our children--and almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form--with a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable "hybrid economy."
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Andrew J. Nathan,
Yun-han Chu,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/11/08
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Nathan and Chu report on surveys in five new democracies (Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Mongolia), one established one (Japan), and two nondemocracies (China and Hong Kong).
From the scapegoating of "witches" in Africa, to the pitfalls of speed-dating, to the cultures that foster corruption, Raymond Fisman explores the economics and pyschology behind the choices we make.
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Laurent Cohen-Tanugi
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11/03/08
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French intellectual Laurent Cohen-Tanugi argues that economic globalization exists in a complex dialectic with the traditional geopolitics that it has, ironically, helped to revive.
UN Special Representative John Ruggie presents his conceptual framework for business and human rights, and his plan to develop practical recommendations for all relevant stakeholders.
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James Farrar,
Gerhard Pohl,
Emily Polk,
Steve A. Rochlin,
Devin T. Stewart,
Andrew Zolli
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10/27/08
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This lively panel examines the intersection of Web 2.0 technologies and the effort to hold corporations to account for both the harms and benefits they create.
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Leif Wenar,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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10/07/08
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There is a powerful case that corporations and countries that buy natural resources from bad actors in developing countries are violating the property rights of the people of those countries.
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Walter Russell Mead
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09/03/08
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In this 2004 talk, Mead discusses America’s future role in the world, explaining why he believes things have gone so terribly wrong and suggesting what needs to be done to get U.S. foreign policy back on track.
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Thomas Pogge,
Christian Barry,
Matt Peterson
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08/27/08
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Thomas Pogge explains his proposal for dealing with the thorny intersection of public health, property rights, and poverty. As he sees it, the patent system doesn't work as well for medicines as it does for, say, consumer electronics.
Geoffrey Heal examines how social and environmental performance affects a corporation's profitability and how the stock market reacts to a firm's behavior in these areas.
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Barry Herman,
Lydia Tomitova,
Jonathan Shafter
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03/31/08
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Barry Herman, Lydia Tomitova, and Jonathan Shafter of the joint Carnegie Council–New School Ethics and Debt Project present the new book, Dealing Fairly with Developing Country Debt.
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Cesare P. R. Romano,
Stephen M. Schwebel,
Daniel Terris,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/25/08
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Who are the judges that sit on the International Court of Justice; what are the issues and challenges they face; and what is their approach to international law?
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Jan Egeland,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/12/08
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From the tsunami to Darfur, Jan Egeland has been at the frontline of many humanitarian crises, and he calls on rich nations to do more to help.
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Edward J. Lincoln,
Sam Natapoff,
Devin T. Stewart
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03/07/08
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Foreign trade policy can be an agent for political change and stronger international economic ties increase global stability, says Edward Lincoln.
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Marcus Noland,
Michele Wucker,
Devin T. Stewart
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02/05/08
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One strategy to improve the economies of the Middle East would be to reverse the brain drain, a development that contributed to the blossoming of the high tech sector in economies such as Taiwan and India. Can public policies contribute to this process?
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Paul Collier,
Joanne J. Myers
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01/08/08
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The plight of the bottom billion is often viewed by ordinary citizens in the West as an issue too remote--and too intractable--to be solved. In reality, however, this is far from the truth. What can and should we do to improve the situation?
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Srgjan Kerim,
Joanne J. Myers
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01/03/08
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What are the immediate challenges being addressed by the 62nd Session of the General Assembly? And how can the UN transform shared values into individual commitment and collective action?
Kevin Gallagher finds that Mexico's post-NAFTA experience of foreign direct investment in its information technology sector, particularly in the Guadalajara region, did not result in the expected benefits.
Brian Levy discusses the dilemmas of addressing corruption in the context of development work, since the World Bank's primary mission is poverty reduction. New community-driven funding projects produce quality infrastructure and put developing countries more in the driver's seat.
Bringing capital into play is the pragmatic and profitable response to climate change, says Fulton. Governments are creating a price for carbon, explicitly through emissions trading and implicitly through taxes, subsidies, and standards.
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Nikhil Chandavarkar
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12/17/07
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Developed countries focus on mitigation and absolute emissions levels, whereas developing countries cite their low per capita emissions and their need for adaptation, technology, and finance. Negotiators must reconcile these concerns to craft a fair successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.
Is trade the best tool to achieve human rights objectives? Which human rights and for whom? Do trade agreements enhance or undermine the process? Susan Aaronson explores these questions and offers recommendations.
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Michael E. Conroy
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12/07/07
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Michael Conroy discusses how certification systems, market campaigns, and champions within corporations are driving a major shift in global corporate accountability on social and environmental issues.
Deflecting asteroids, eradicating polio, coordinating international time, mitigating climate change--Scott Barrett explains the different incentives and actors needed to supply these global public goods, where everyone benefits and none can be excluded.
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John Bowe,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/17/07
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Do labor abuse and outright slavery still exist in the United States? John Bowe travels from Florida to U.S.-owned Saipan to investigate modern global slave labor.
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Sebastian Mallaby,
Joanne J. Myers
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08/30/07
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Mallaby says he is somewhat pessimistic about the World Bank's chances of survival, pointing out that its loan portfolio has been declining in response to NGO pressures.
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Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Joanne J. Myers
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07/19/07
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In this 2005 talk, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the New Millennium Project, proposes ways to end extreme poverty on the entire planet by 2025.
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Jill Shankleman,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/12/07
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What do Western oil companies need to do to sustain both profits and peace?
This talk was part of the event "Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights: Policies and Practices," cosponsored by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Carnegie Council.
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David M. Schilling
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03/22/07
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This talk was part of the event "Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights: Policies and Practices," cosponsored by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Carnegie Council.
This talk was part of the event "Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights: Policies and Practices," cosponsored by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Carnegie Council.
With Washington's reputation as a leader on human rights gravely damaged by abuses committed in its five-year-old "global war on terror," who will fill the vacuum?
David Shinn describes the background, perceived values, and current diplomatic and human rights issues surrounding the growing economic relationships between China and African nations.
Christian Barry sketches a theoretical framework for what an account of fair trade would look like and suggests what progressive governments might do to ensure that human rights--as far as labor standards are concerned--are fulfilled worldwide.
Andrew Kuper discusses non-state actors as part of a new balance of powers. Kuper offers alternative methods--through demonstration rather than remonstration--for dealing with problems associated with international trade.
Junji Nakagawa argues in favor of greater participation and substantive fairness, including development assistance, for developing countries in trade negotiations.
David Dell explores how we can move from an economy that is based on burning fossil fuels to one that is based on an exchange of electrons or kilowatt hours that are not combustion-based.
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Michael E. Conroy
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12/07/06
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Michael Conroy argues that while the multilateral trade regime is not designed for fair, moral, or sustainable trade, global civil society has created mechanisms that are moving trade toward fairer, more sustainable bases. He describes those efforts in the realms of forestry, fisheries, and mining.
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Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
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12/07/06
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Sakiko Fukuda-Parr focuses on human rights obligations across borders and the problem of sanctions as the instrument for human rights objectives.
Mathias Risse talks about how fairness issues arise around export subsidies and concludes that, from a domestic policy point of view, subsidies are similar to other ways in which states support their people.
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Edward J. Lincoln
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12/07/06
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Edward Lincoln traces and assesses trends that have made economics more important since the 1960s and the forces in business, technology, and government that have driven those trends. He also offers suggestions on how economics can advance foreign policy goals.
Sanjay Reddy offers a skeptical view on the association in economic literature of natural resource export dependence and low economic growth.
Rodin discusses how private businesses can reconcile the tensions between the stake-holder approach and the shareholder approach.
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Ethan B. Kapstein
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11/01/06
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What can the international community do to build a global economy that will benefit all?
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/05/06
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Stiglitz offers new thinking about the questions that shape the globalization debate, including a plan to restructure the global financial system, ideas for how countries can grow without degrading the environment, and a framework for free and fair global trade.
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Nikolas K. Gvosdev
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07/18/06
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What was really accomplished at the St. Petersburg G-8 meeting? Can the G-8 really cope with the pressing issues of the day, from energy security to stemming the spread of WMD, or is it fated to end up as little more than a photo op for world leaders? Gvosdev gives his firsthand impressions.
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Christopher L. Avery,
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07/17/06
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Christopher Avery and Devin Stewart discuss the evolution of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a group dedicated to promoting greater awareness of corporate misconduct, as well as best practices. Learn what inspired Avery to establish this innovative group and about its recent successes.
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Shashi Tharoor,
Ruth Wedgwood,
James Traub,
Joanne J. Myers
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06/12/06
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Is the UN "I" for irrelevant, or "I" for indispensable, as Shashi Tharoor would have it? While conceding that the UN is relevant, Ruth Wedgwood argues that "competing multilaterals" should also play a role in solving the world's problems. This witty but always deeply serious debate will give both sides of the argument food for thought.
H.E. Mr. Jan Eliasson discusses recent steps forward, such as the creating of the Peacebuilding Commission, the Central Emergency Fund, and the Human Rights Council.
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Stephen Lewis,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/28/06
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Lewis offers his personal, often searing, insider's account of the plight of Africa and Africans with AIDS - and the wealthy world's betrayal.
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Philip J. Hilts,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/29/05
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Hilts warns that the emergence of new diseases and the resurgence of old ones has put the world on the brink of a global health crisis. Yet we have more than enough technology and funds to bring about a golden age of public health. What's the missing element?
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Benjamin M. Friedman,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/27/05
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Friedman argues that economic growth is a prerequisite for the creation of a liberal, open society. He contends that periods of robust economic growth encourage tolerance, democracy and generous public support for the poor, while economic stagnation and insecurity result in the very opposite.
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Mary Robinson,
Kemal Dervis,
Stephen Macedo,
Gideon Rose
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10/26/05
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A distinguished panel outlines the problems of growing inequality caused by globalization and proposes practical solutions.
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Andrew Kuper,
Peter Singer
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09/19/05
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Who has the responsibility to alleviate poverty and uphold human rights in a globalized world where corporations often wield more power than nation-states?
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Jagdish Bhagwati,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/28/04
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While a leading free trade proponent, Bhagwati does not advocate total laissez-faire economics; rather, that continued globalization needs to be "managed."
Video
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John Kampfner,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/19/10
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Today, many nations are disproving the idea that capitalism and democracy are inextricably linked. Emerging middle classes have proven themselves all too willing to sacrifice certain democratic rights in exchange for prosperity. What can be done to counter this trend?
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David Arkless,
David Denoon,
Maria Jepsen,
Raymond Torres
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03/17/10
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A panel of experts from the International Labour Organization, business, academia, and the EU discuss the actions taken to address this multi-faceted crisis, and give suggestions for further ways to generate jobs.
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Craig Charney,
Nikolas K. Gvosdev,
Parag Khanna,
Stephen B. Young,
David C. Speedie,
Devin T. Stewart
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03/09/10
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This panel focuses on global governance since the financial crisis, in particular on climate change, energy security, and issues of consensus, common ethics, and trust.
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Lee C. Bollinger
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03/03/10
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Now that U.S. news outlets can instantaneously disseminate information across the world and foreign media have immediate access to the American market, what does press freedom really mean?
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David Arkless,
David Denoon,
Maria Jepsen,
Raymond Torres
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02/18/10
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A panel of experts from the International Labour Organization, business, academia, and the EU discuss the actions taken to address this multi-faceted crisis, and give suggestions for further ways to generate jobs.
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Ian Bremmer,
Georg Kell,
Art Kleiner,
Michele Wucker,
Thomas Stewart,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/21/10
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What's next? Using Eurasia Group's Top Risks as a starting point for identifying the major global challenges in 2010, the panelists identify what they see on the horizon and discuss the ethical issues involved.
The real key to bringing economic and political change to the Muslim world is capitalism, says Vali Nasr. Entrepreneurial middle classes the world over have a stake in the system and are more interested in economic success than religious extremism.
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Alice Korngold,
Karthik Krishnan,
Cheryl Rosario,
Mitchell G. Taylor
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12/02/09
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Joining a nonprofit board of directors is a tremendous opportunity to help an organization advance a mission that is important to you. Learn who nonprofit boards are looking for, what is expected of board members, and how people and boards connect.
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Bill Baue,
Marcy Murninghan,
Jane Nelson
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11/19/09
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In July 2009, the Harvard Kennedy School's Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative launched a six-month project on Web 2.0 and corporate accountability. This expert panel discusses the project's preliminary findings and which avenues look most promising for the future.
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Ichiro Aoyagi,
Max Cuellar,
Scott Kaufman,
Katsutoshi Konuma,
Edward J. Lincoln,
Michael Mendenhall,
Takejiro Sueyoshi
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11/04/09
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See the highlights from this panel discussion on sustainable branding, with participants from the U.S. and Japan. They address customer engagement, supply chain management, investor relations, and the impact of the economic crisis.
From Ecuador to Nigeria, in most oil-producing countries oil has not brought any benefits to the poor and has often damaged people's health and ruined the environment, says Peter Maass. As for Iraq, although the war was not "all about oil," oil certainly played an important role.
The traditional theory of social justice is out of touch with practical realities, says Amartya Sen. Instead he proposes a theory of comparative justice that is applicable to the real world.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Bert Koenders,
Jose Antonio Ocampo
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09/21/09
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The spread of the financial crisis from a few developed countries to the entire global economy provides tangible evidence that the international trade and financial system needs to be profoundly reformed, says Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
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Robert Moossy,
Roger Plant,
Maria Suarez
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07/15/09
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The Carnegie Council and the International Labour Organization (ILO) present a unique look at modern slavery from the personal, policy, and enforcement perspectives, to shed light on an insidious practice that has become part of today's labor markets.
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Simon Dalby,
John Tessitore
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06/17/09
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"Peace-building is literally about building now," says Dalby. "It's about constructing buildings that don't need large quantities of energy, both because of climate change and so that they are not dependent on supplies from the other side of the planet."
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Jeffrey D. Sachs
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06/10/09
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Economist Jeffrey Sachs focuses on the financial crisis, both in the U.S. and worldwide. He concludes that we should look at it as a wakeup call that we were not on a sustainable path, and as an opportunity to invest in the future.
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Heather Grady,
Norine Kennedy,
Jill Kubit,
Peter Poschen,
Michael Renner,
Devin T. Stewart,
Sean Sweeney
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06/03/09
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A panel including Peter Poschen, International Labour Organization and Michael Renner, Worldwatch Institute, discusses the new report "Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World."
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Michelle Goldberg
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05/14/09
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Michelle Goldberg exposes the global war on women's reproductive rights and its disastrous and unreported consequences for the future of global development.
Renowned economist Lord Nicholas Stern estimates that it will cost only about 2 percent of global GDP to control climate change at manageable levels by 2050. But we cannot delay. The cost of inaction is far greater and more perilous.
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Randy Charles Epping,
Steven Greenhouse
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04/22/09
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How is globalization affecting the economies of developed and developing nations? What should government, business, and labor do to alleviate the global economic crunch?
Does the symbiotic relationship between China and America--"Chimerica" as Niall Ferguson calls it--give reason to hope that America's present economic situation will turn out to be not a crash, but a correction?
In the past 50 years, Africa has received more than $1 trillion in development-related aid. Has it improved Africans' lives? No, says Dambisa Moyo. In fact, aid has made the situation much worse.
It wouldn't take much to rescue those living in extreme poverty, says Peter Singer. If the top 90 percent of Americans gave at least 1 percent of their income we could reach the Millennium Development Goals.
The UN's response to women's issues has been abysmal, declares Lewis, particularly in dealing with HIV/AIDS. In order to give 52 percent of the world's population the representation they deserve, it's time to create a special UN Women's Agency.
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Fiona Robinson,
John Tessitore
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02/16/09
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Care is not only a moral issue, but also a feminist one, says Robinson, noting that two-thirds of care around the world is done by women, for little or no pay. She also discusses the evolving concept of human security.
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Ann Florini,
John Tessitore
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02/16/09
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Florini discusses the difference between "global government" and "global governance," intergovernmental organizations such as the UN, and the role and achievements of civil society and transnational networks, particularly on environmental issues.
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Joel H. Rosenthal,
Ian Bremmer
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01/15/09
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Is the financial crisis going to force us to take our eye off the big global issues like poverty and the environment?
Drawing on his background in finance and economics, Siddharth Kara investigates the mechanics of the global sex trafficking business and takes stock of its devastating human toll.
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Christian Barry,
Meg Boulware,
Laura Herman,
Maggie M. Kohn,
Rohit Malpani,
Lisa Oldring
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12/02/08
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The international community has begun to consider the "highest attainable standard of health" as a fundamental component of the human rights agenda, alongside related issues of poverty and adequate access to water and sanitation.
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Michael Kinsley,
William Easterly
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12/02/08
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Michael Kinsley and William Easterly discuss Bill Gates's controversial proposal for "creative capitalism," in which big corporations integrate doing good into their way of doing business.
Lawrence Lessig discusses how creative users of new technologies can be protected from copyright laws and reveals solutions to the "hybrid economy" evident in such websites as Wikipedia and YouTube.
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Andrew J. Nathan,
Yun-han Chu
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11/18/08
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Nathan and Chu report on surveys in five new democracies (Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Mongolia), one established one (Japan), and two nondemocracies (China and Hong Kong).
From the scapegoating of "witches" in Africa, to the pitfalls of speed-dating, to the cultures that foster corruption, Raymond Fisman explores the economics and psychology behind the choices we make.
UN Special Representative John Ruggie presents his conceptual framework for business and human rights, and his plan to develop practical recommendations for all relevant stakeholders.
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Laurent Cohen-Tanugi
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10/24/08
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French intellectual Laurent Cohen-Tanugi argues that economic globalization exists in a complex dialectic with the traditional geopolitics that it has, ironically, helped to revive.
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James Farrar,
Gerhard Pohl,
Emily Polk,
Steve A. Rochlin,
Devin T. Stewart,
Andrew Zolli
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10/03/08
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This lively panel examines the intersection of Web 2.0 technologies and the effort to hold corporations to account for both the harms and benefits they create.
Geoffrey Heal presents a comprehensive examination of how social and environmental performance affects a corporation's profitability and of how the stock market reacts to a firm's social and environmental behavior.
"There are not six million Tibetans in China," says Guy Sorman. "There are one billion." If the many Chinese who are not beneficiaries of economic development could express themselves, they would say the same things as the Tibetans.
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Cesare P. R. Romano,
Stephen M. Schwebel,
Daniel Terris
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03/19/08
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Who are the judges that sit on the International Court of Justice; what are the issues and challenges they face; and what is their approach to international law?
"In spite of being stingy, and in spite of being late, and in spite of being half-hearted, we are making progress," says Egeland. But we must respond to all disasters, not just those that hit the headlines.
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Marcus Noland,
Michele Wucker
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01/29/08
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One strategy to improve the economies of the Middle East would be to reverse the brain drain, a development that contributed to the blossoming of the high tech sector in economies such as Taiwan and India. Can public policies contribute to this process?
Global poverty is falling, but a minority of developing countries are stagnant and diverging from the rest of mankind, says Collier, which is a danger to global stability. He identifies four poverty traps and in this talk focuses on one of them--resource riches.
Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discuss the success of the Montreal Protocol in limiting ozone depletion. They also reflect on scientific certainty, public policy, and the relevance of the precautionary principle for remedying climate change.
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Charlayne Hunter-Gault,
Warren Hoge
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06/21/06
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Journalist (and South Africa resident) Hunter-Gault gives a surprisingly optimistic assessment of modern Africa, revealing that there is more to the continent than the bad news of disease, disaster, and despair.
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Charlayne Hunter-Gault,
Jere Van Dyk
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06/21/06
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Veteran correspondent Hunter-Gault counters what she calls "the four D's of the African apocalypse: death, disease, disaster, and despair," with news about the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which is working towards "African solutions to African problems."
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Shashi Tharoor,
James Traub,
Ruth Wedgwood
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06/12/06
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Is the UN "I" for irrelevant, or "I" for indispensable, as Shashi Tharoor would have it? While conceding that the UN is relevant, Ruth Wedgwood argues that "competing multilaterals" should also play a role in solving the world's problems. This witty but always deeply serious debate will give both sides of the argument food for thought.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz
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04/03/06
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In a new book (co-authored with Andrew Charlton), Stiglitz details what a trade agreement might look like if based on principles of economic analysis and social justice for the world economy. He points to how less developed countries are disadvantaged in the negotiating process.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Jere Van Dyk
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04/03/06
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"I firmly believe that aid and trade have to work together," says Dr. Stiglitz. "If we provide assistance to help people to take advantage of the new opportunities, we can get real growth, and they won’t need the handouts as much as in the past."
Lewis offers his personal, often searing, insider's account of the plight of Africa and Africans with AIDS, and the wealthy world's betrayal.
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Benjamin M. Friedman
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10/27/05
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Friedman argues that economic growth is a prerequisite for the creation of a liberal, open society. He contends that periods of robust economic growth encourage tolerance, democracy and generous public support for the poor, while economic stagnation and insecurity result in the very opposite.
Symposium on Global Democracy
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Eugene P. Deess,
John Gastil,
Colin J. Lingle
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03/11/10
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Juries could bolster the ICC's legitimacy by promoting public trust, increasing procedural fairness, foregrounding deliberative reasoning, and embodying democratic values. ICC juries would present novel logistical, philosophical, and legal problems, but these could be overcome.
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Kate Macdonald,
Terry Macdonald
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03/11/10
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Global democratization cannot be achieved by simply replicating familiar democratic institutions on a global scale. We must explore alternative institutional means for establishing democratic institutions at the global level within the present pluralist structure of global power.
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Terry Macdonald,
Raffaele Marchetti
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03/11/10
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If global democratization is to advance beyond the current point, it is necessary to confront the practical challenge of institutional design: How might ideals of global democracy be put effectively into practice given the many constraints imposed by the existing global political order?
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
This book provides not only an exhaustive treatment of the benefits and drawbacks of cosmopolitan democracy, but also the most detailed statement to date of how some form of cosmopolitan democracy could be realized, writes reviewer Luis Cabrera.
Steffek advocates a return to a conception of public accountability as accountability to the wider public. He investigates the prospects for this beyond the state, which depends on the emergence of a transnational public sphere, consisting of media and organized civil society.
In a book full of thought-provoking questions for theorists of human rights, Ackerly presents an "account of the normative legitimacy of human rights" that is distinctive in several respects.
This book is highly recommended to anyone who wants to know what development ethics has to offer, or who wants to engage with arguments on the role of the capability approach and ideas of deliberative democracy in development ethics.
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
Risse is concerned with humanity's common ownership of the earth, which has implications for a range of global problems. In particular, it helps illuminate the moral claims to international aid of small island nations whose existence is threatened by global climate change--such as Kiribati.
In this critique of Michael Goodhart's "Human Rights and Global Democracy," Eva Erman argues that Goodhart has reconceptualized democracy and therefore does not offer a better understanding of the relationship between human rights and global democracy.
Miller builds on his seminal work on national identity and special duties to co-nationals to carve out a position on such issues as global poverty and immigration that is distinct from both the recent stream of cosmopolitan theories and a narrow "citizens-only" account of obligations.
Drawing on his own UN experience and studying it from outside, Weiss clears away a lot of the debris of superficial critiques to uncover the deeper explanations for why the more world problems become interconnected and global in scope the less the UN seems able to cope with them.
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Doris Schroeder,
Thomas Pogge
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09/11/09
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By legislating for a system of justice-in-exchange covering nonhuman biological resources in preference to a free-for-all situation, the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a small step forward in redressing the distributive justice balance.
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Darrel Moellendorf
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09/11/09
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UNFCCC norms tightly constrain the range of acceptable agreements for the distribution of burdens to mitigate climate change. Therefore any legitimate treaty must put much heavier mitigation burdens on industrialized countries. Of the various proposals, two in particular stand out.
Is more money for global health always good news? No, argues Esser, who suggests that many of the problems that plague decision-making in global health assistance lie not in the global South but in the North, where the monetary flows originate and where most policies are conceived.
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
In order to participate effectively in international relations, this essay argues that international actors of all kinds, including states, international organizations, corporations, and individuals, have to acquire the skills necessary to protect freedom and diversity in the modern world.
Kymlicka extends his well known and widely respected defense of a liberal conception of multiculturalism to all states of the world, and asks causal questions about why liberal multiculturalism is spreading internationally.
Jung offers a normatively informed and empirically grounded critique of approaches that justify minority rights on the basis of the need to protect culture.
Bohman notes the extensive interdependence that characterizes the new circumstances of global politics, and argues that states have reacted either by strengthening state boundaries and increasing centralized authority or by delegating political authority.
Barry and Reddy challenge us to envision a world where workers everywhere can make a living wage in safe conditions and globalization does not drive us to compete in a desperate "race to the bottom."
According to Grewal, we need to understand globalization as a process in which we participate by choice but not necessarily voluntarily—one in which common standards allow more effective coordination, yet also entrap us in their pull for convergence.
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Francisco Panizza,
Romina Miorelli
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03/26/09
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The populism that is sweeping Latin America seeks, like democracy, to enact the sovereign rule of the people. Nevertheless, democrats and populists diverge over how to establish a just and enduring political order.
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Michael Goodhart
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12/30/08
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This essay argues that human rights are a necessary condition for global democracy. Human rights constrain power, enable meaningful political agency, and support and promote democratic regimes within states, all of which are fundamental elements in any scheme for global democracy.
William Korey has done a great service for both those who champion and follow the realization of human rights internationally and those who wish to understand the potential and limitations of foundation strategies to bring about real change.
This volume is political theory at its best, providing an invaluable review of the contemporary literature, subverting traditional political categories and distinctions, and suggesting new directions for politics and policy.
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Alexandru Grigorescu
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10/08/08
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Many intergovernmental organizations have recently established offices of internal oversight. Yet scandals have revealed serious flaws in the design of these institutions. This study argues that this is due, in great part, to the initial use of an imperfect domestic model.
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Ryan Pevnick,
Philip J. Cafaro,
Mathias Risse
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10/08/08
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Writing in EIA 22, no. 1, Mathias Risse presented a novel way to think about the problem of immigration in the context of global justice, adopting the standpoint of the common ownership of the earth. The following Exchange is in response to that essay.
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Olga Martin-Ortega
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10/08/08
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Can current policy and legal responses make businesses part of the solution rather than part of the problem? And can companies be held accountable—socially, legally, or by some other means—for whatever negative actions they might have taken in situations of armed conflict?
Part of what makes Roberts and Parks's argument unusual and original is not the end point—that ultimately we will all need to radically cut carbon output—but the causal role that they think fairness and talk of fairness play in getting there.
All the contributors to this impressive volume agree that freedom from poverty is a basic human right, but they differ in how best to argue in its support. In general, there are two ways. One is to ground the right in a negative right, while the other is to ground it in a positive right.
Clark seems caught not just between two concepts—international and world society—but between his two goals: the historical goal of recovering the politics of world society, and the analytical goal of specifying the concept.
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Marit Hovdal Moan
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07/07/08
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Carens's use of 'immanent critique' to ground his moral prescriptions on the not yet realized normative purposes of the immigration policies of liberal democratic states meets with only partial success.
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Bridget Anderson
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07/07/08
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Carens's discussion of the work-related rights of irregular migrants fails to consider the differentiated employment rights of legal temporary migrants, permanent residents, and citizens.
While accepting Carens's view that irregular migrants can rightfully claim from the state protection of human rights, Miller disagrees that such migrants can claim rights of citizenship.
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Christina Boswell
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07/07/08
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Carens's suggestion for a so-called firewall protecting irregular migrants' basic rights creates serious problems of coherence and feasibility for the legal and political systems of host countries.
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Joseph H. Carens
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07/07/08
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Irregular migrants are morally entitled to a wide range of legal rights, including basic human and civil rights. Therefore, states ought to create a firewall between those charged with protecting and enforcing these rights and those charged with enforcing immigration laws.
This book sets out to address the concepts of the right to development as well as the human rights-based approach to development. It includes contributions of economists, legal scholars, and philosophers presented at the 2003 Nobel Symposium on the Right to Development and Human Rights in Development.
The core of Mike Davis's book "Planet of Slums" is that the contemporary Third World urban poor are doubly cursed in ways that echo the two major upheavals of the nineteenth century: industrialization and imperialism.
Lynn Hunt's "Inventing Human Rights" develops an intriguing meditation on the relationships among art, morality, and political change. Hunt also raises questions of profound importance to the contemporary human rights movement.
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
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William Smith,
James Brassett
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04/23/08
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This paper develops a critical analysis of deliberative approaches to global governance. After first defining global governance and with a minimalist conception of deliberation in mind, the paper outlines three paradigmatic approaches: liberal, cosmopolitan, and critical.
This essay makes a plea for the relevance of moral considerations in debates about immigration. It offers a standpoint that demonstrates why one should think of immigration as a moral problem that must be considered in the context of global justice.
Eckersley's arguments for pre-emptive ecological-humanitarian intervention and ecological defense are intriguing. However, the delicacy of these scenarios requires careful attention to the feasibility and overall benefits of the usage of military force in the prevention of crimes against nature.
Kosovo captured the attention of policy makers, ethicists, journalists, peace and human rights activists, military analysts, and international relations scholars. Something new happened there. This review covers books by Noam Chomsky, Howard Clark, Michael Ignatieff, and others.
Arguing that issues of both emissions and subsistence should be comprehended within a single framework of justice, the proposal here is that this broader framework be developed by reference to the idea of "ecological space."
This article claims that it is not mutual benefit but mutual risk that grounds compatriot preference. Exposure to risks such as state abuse provide us with a reason to take our compatriots' interests seriously. The same
argument, however, displays the limits of this reasoning, and also grounds a demanding obligation to aid other societies.
Woods is an insightful and thoughtful authority on the Bretton Woods institutions. In this book she examines their activities and focuses on their engagements with Mexico, Russia, and the sub-Saharan African nations.
At a time when many international relations scholars are qualifying their premature predictions of the withering of the state, Daniel Drezner's new book makes a compelling case for the continued centrality of the state in the process of globalization.
This book is an attempt to collect some of the little known about Rule-of-law (ROL) reform, and it does this creditably. Although the book's contributors are rather pessimistic about the theory and practice of ROL reform, they do point to ways to improve its prospects.
These two recent works by Roger C. Riddell and Carol Lancaster display a sober understanding of aid challenges, present a balanced view of the context within which aid operations take place, and provide valuable insights about the workings of aid organizations.
Though there is much to engage with throughout the article, I shall only focus on one
small part of it: the viability of military or legal intervention, in cases
that are tentatively described as "crimes against nature." This is due to the difficulties posed by a non-anthropocentric and non-instrumental
approach.
Robyn Eckersley's elegant and eloquent argument concerning the limits of "ecological intervention" is constrained by the scope of what is included in her definition of environmental emergency, by what might be in need of protection, and also by what is conventionally understood by notions of intervention related to states and sovereign territory.
"I am sympathetic to Eckersley's assessment of the importance of these problems, but there are certain implications of her (albeit qualified) endorsement of ecological intervention that are worth exploring."
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Alessandra Arcuri
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09/26/07
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This essay contributes to the debate on the precautionary principle in two ways: 1) it clarifies what is entailed by a mild formulation of the principle and 2) it identifies a number of misconceptions underlying some of its main criticisms.
In perpetuating and exacerbating restricted access to essential medicines, current trade-related intellectual property rules on medicines may violate core human rights to health and medicines. In this light, there should be serious questions about their necessity, and their justification should be critically assessed from the perspective of human rights standards.
Poverty eradication has been identified as the largest challenge facing international society in its quest for a peaceful, prosperous, and just world. Kokaz responds to this challenge by proposing a global poverty eradication principle.
This essay seeks to extend the already controversial debate about humanitarian intervention by exploring the morality, legality, and legitimacy of ecological intervention and its corollary, ecological defense.
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John W. Dietrich
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09/26/07
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In his January 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush called for the U.S to commit $15 billion over five years to address the international HIV/AIDS epidemic. For several reasons, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) caught many people by surprise. The surprise quickly was followed by excitement, tempered by skepticism.
Between 2002-2005, the UN University and the City University of Hong Kong organized a series of "dialogues" about the ethical challenges facing international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs). The result is this fascinating and timely volume, which addresses not only human rights narrowly construed, but also humanitarian aid and development.
"Economic Justice in an Unfair World" is a stimulating, well-researched book combining economic analysis, political philosophy, and contemporary policy, all focused on one key question: What does one mean by economic justice in a world cut through by inequalities of income, bargaining power, and human poverty?
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Barbara Crossette
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09/26/07
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With a new secretary-general now in charge and the memories of the bitter final years of his predecessor still vivid, a timely procession of books on the UN has been appearing to offer some fresh appraisals and insights into how things got this way and what, if anything, can be done.
Although the focus of "Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights" is practical, Gould does not shy away from hard theoretical questions, such as the relentless debate over cultural relativism, and the relationship between terrorism and democracy.
Catharine MacKinnon's fundamental claim is that the violence and abuse routinely inflicted on women by men is not treated with the same seriousness accorded to a human rights violation, or torture, or terrorism, or a war crime, or a crime against humanity, or an atrocity.
Suprastate policy formation in such bodies as the WTO remains fundamentally exclusive of individuals within states. This article critiques the "don't kill the goose" arguments commonly offered in defense of such exclusions.
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Jonathan Shafter
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03/23/07
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Odious debts are debts incurred by a government without either popular consent or a legitimate public purpose. There is a debate within academic circles as to whether the successor government to a regime that incurred odious debts has the right to repudiate repayment.
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Alexander W. Cappelen,
Rune Jansen Hagen,
Bertil Tungodden
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03/23/07
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The Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is the largest multilateral effort aimed at providing debt relief. this essay, we address the question of whether this program is consistent with a view of justice commonly known as liberal egalitarianism.
This essay analyzes why risk and liability are necessary mechanisms of well-functioning markets, and discusses how risk can be handled. In the U.S., inappropriate regulatory norms hindered providing against risk in the case of sovereign debt. The absence of liability has produced debts no decent legal system would recognize as legitimate domestic debt.
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Elizabeth A. Donnelly
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03/23/07
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Since the late 1970s, an increasingly global coalition of churches and nongovernmental organizations has pressed for reduction if not outright cancellation of the foreign debt of highly indebted poor countries, because of its deleterious impact on poor people. The movement achieved limited yet
substantial success in the Jubilee 2000 campaign.
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Thomas J. Trebat
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03/23/07
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The Argentine debt crisis of 2001–2002 and its aftermath are examined in the light of the moral framework of Catholic social teaching on the debt problems of poor countries.
This essay characterizes the main actors and how they operate during a buildup of government foreign debt.
Modified rules for the accumulation and discharge of international sovereign debt can codify the moral and legal basis for existing ad hoc deviations and present a justifiable framework within which international lending and borrowing can take place.
This collection of resources relate to the topics addressed in "Ethics and
International Affairs", Spring 2007, Volume 21.1, a special issue on sovereign
debt.
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Will Kymlicka,
Keith Banting
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09/22/06
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This article gives a review of the welfare state and analyzes whether it is being undermined by the impact of increasing ethnic and racial diversity.
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James A. Goldston
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09/22/06
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This essay explores how human rights norms—particularly the body of law that forbids discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin—can be deployed to combat the worst effects of citizenship denial and ill-treatment of non-citizens.
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Nancy E. Soderberg
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07/28/06
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Most Americans would say the most significant threat the world faces today is terrorism. For citizens of developing countries who live in conflict and poverty, the concerns are more about peace, and about addressing poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the burden of sovereign debt.
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David Singh Grewal
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07/28/06
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Two of the most creditable responses in the spate of pro-globalization
literature are Why Globalization Works, by the financial journalist
Martin Wolf, and In Defense of Globalization, by the economist Jagdish
Bhagwati. This article is a review of these two books.
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Roland Pierik,
Mijke S. Houwerzijl
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07/28/06
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Child labor evokes deep emotions and is cause for growing international concern. Most recent global estimates show that 186 million children are engaged in full time economic activity.
Last year’s G-8 meeting in Gleneagles marked a major political commitment to cancel the debts that nineteen poor, heavily indebted countries owe to the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank.
Goodhart does not advocate that democracy is a human right that should be protected and promoted as such, but reconceptualizes democracy itself as "human rights".
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Jeffrey K. Olick
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07/28/06
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What is the proper role for courts of law in confronting mass crimes?
Concerns over aid effectiveness have led to calls for greater accountability in international development aid. This article examines the state of accountability within and between international development agencies: aid NGOs, international financial institutions, and government aid ministries.
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Arun Agrawal,
Joanne Bauer
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11/11/05
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Agrawal's carefully constructed arguments create a framework for environmental policy analysis. One only wishes the message were in a language and form that would draw in policy and advocacy readers, not just scholars.
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Michael Kremer,
Rachel Glennerster
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11/11/05
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The authors suggest creating a scheme that offers new incentives for research on diseases disproportionately affecting the poor, with the goal of making development of neglected disease vaccines a lucrative endeavor for pharmaceutical companies.
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Alison M. Jaggar
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11/11/05
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Western moral and political theorists have devoted much attention to the victimization of women by non-western cultures. But, conceiving injustice to poor women in poor countries as a matter of their oppression by illiberal cultures yields an imcomplete understanding of their situation.
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Paul Wapner,
John Willoughby
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11/11/05
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Environmentalists argue that we need to reduce population and consumption to protect the environment, and that this is something we can all do by individually choosing to have smaller families and buying fewer products. This article questions the ecological impact of such choice.
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Sebastian Mallaby,
Peter Rosenblum
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07/13/05
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During James Wolfensohn's tenure, the Bank broke with a discredited history of structural adjustment, overcame resistance to facing critical issues of debt relief and corruption,adopted the language of participation and local ownership, and brought its critics into the discussion.
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Norbert Anwander
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03/30/05
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Anwander questions "the role that Pogge assigns to benefiting from injustice in the determination of our duties toward the victims of injustice. . . challenging his claim that there is a negative duty not to benefit from injustice."
In this article, Satz critiques "both Pogge's use of the causal contribution principle as well as his attempt to derive all of our obligations to the global poor from the need to refrain from harming others."
In this article, the last in the symposium on world poverty and human rights, Pogge replies to his critics Mathias Risse, Alan Patten, Rowan Cruft, Norbert Anwander, and Debra Satz.
"Thanks in part to the rationalizations dispensed by our economists, most of us believe that severe poverty and its persistence are due exclusively to local causes. Few realize that severe poverty is an ongoing harm we inflict upon the global poor," declares Thomas Pogge.
Risse asserts that the global order "can plausibly be credited with the considerable improvements in human well-being that have been achieved over the last 200 years. Much of what Pogge says about our duties toward developing countries is therefore false."
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William T. Barndt
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03/30/05
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In the 1990s, the "neo-Tocquevilleans" argued that robust civil society was universally good for democracy. Ariel Armony challenges this theory and questions the value of international development aid constructed on neo-Tocquevillean foundations.
This set of essays on various themes in the study of ethnicity and nationalism contains all the virtues of Brubaker's early work: theoretically informed analysis, a sure grasp of comparative European history, and a willingness to explore new fields of enquiry.
According to what Patten calls the "need-based" view, "we have a very strong and extensive set of duties to come to the assistance of the global poor: duties that are grounded in the neediness of the poor."
What kind of duties (positive or purely negative?) would we be subject to in a just global society where everyone fulfilled their duty and there was no significant risk of injustice? And what kind of duties (positive or purely negative?) do we face in a global society that falls short of the just society?
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Arnab K. Acharya
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12/16/04
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"In this article, I argue that under current resource constraints, institutional
arrangements seeking to ensure commonly accepted egalitarian goals would
engender the decrease of health status of many who do not currently enjoy
particularly high levels of health."
In an era when truth commissions are at the fulcrum of "transitional justice," soliciting the testimony of victims and commanding that of perpetrators in forums other than criminal trials may achieve a dimension of justice lost in traditional juridical proceedings.
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Ethan B. Kapstein
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10/21/04
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Kapstein offers three models that seek to capture some of the normative concerns expressed by critics of economic globalization—communitarian, liberal internationalist, and cosmopolitan prioritarian.
In the short story that opens Lebow's sobering and provocative book, Richard Nixon has gone to hell. There, the devil, inspired by human innovation, has set up an Auschwitz-Birkenau-style concentration camp to torment mass murderers, including Nixon and Pope Pius XII.
The overriding challenge faced by policy-makers in the post–Cold War era is not, as many would have us believe, the achievement of integration of humanitarian action into the prevailing politico-military context. It is rather the protection of its independence.
This essay presents the idea of financial accountability, showing how easily reforms making IFIs (International Financial Institutions] financially accountable could be implemented. The market mechanism and its beneficial
incentive system must finally be brought to IFIs.
Rather than squandering our resources on such questionable endeavors as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we should lift up poor people in the developing world. This is an important message that many Americans need to hear.
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Elizabeth R. DeSombre
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02/03/04
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Those who are concerned about the weakness of the Kyoto Protocol should first focus on persuading the United States to join, since this is the best way to let the process work and avoid a tragedy of the commons.
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Stephen M. Gardiner
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02/03/04
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Gardiner insists that the Kyoto agreement, far from being too demanding, does too little to protect future generations.
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Peter Singer,
Thomas Pogge,
Leif Wenar
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09/22/03
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The main impact of both books may be to unsettle what Pogge has called everyone’s favorite prejudice—that the way in which citizens of rich countries currently live their lives is, on the whole, morally acceptable.
The collapse in Argentina and the enormous cost paid by so many people in that country—as well as by the creditors of Argentina—from the massive financial and economic dislocation and disruption was not inevitable.
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Arturo C. Porzecanski
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09/15/03
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Policy-makers in Washington and other capitals of G-7 countries have been flogging the idea that the functioning of the world’s financial markets must be improved by making it easier for insolvent governments to obtain debt relief.
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Thomas I. Palley
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09/15/03
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Regarding the problem of sovereign borrower insolvency, two factors must be considered in this discussion: The impact on economic efficiency, in particular the price of credit for developing countries, and a regard for considerations of justice and procedural fairness.
If global economic justice is to be achieved, debt crises must be assessed within the broader context of the international financial system. But this system has fostered instability and recurrent financial crises that have severely harmed poor countries and their people.
The contributors to this roundtable investigate the broader question of how to structure sovereign debt negotiations so as to help prevent countries from falling into financial crises and indebtedness, and to enable those that do to avoid imposing unacceptable costs on other parties.
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Vivien Collingwood
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03/02/03
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This article explores the extent to which it is morally defensible to attach good governance conditions to aid and loans in international society, arguing that the use of conditionality should be limited.
How can governments and peoples better hold to account international economic institutions, such as the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF? This article proposes an approach.
International monetary arrangements currently appear to have consequences that are incompatible with a global egalitarian conception of distributive justice. How can we create alternatives?
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Joseph H. Carens
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03/02/03
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This article explores normative questions about what legal rights settled immigrants should have in liberal democratic states. It argues that liberal democratic justice, properly understood, greatly constrains the distinctions that can be made between citizens and residents.
Most literature on the ethics of global warming focuses on the obligations of industrialized states to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and to help poor countries do likewise. These books are no exception, arguing that the issue is a matter of international justice and equity.
Alexander Laban Hinton, a Cambodia specialist, divides this fine edited collection into five parts: genocide and indigenous peoples; the role of anthropology in National Socialism; three case studies of genocide; instances of post-genocidal reckoning; and “critical reflections” on the chapters.
The problem with the politics of victimhood, as conducted by revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries engaged in ideological conflict, is that it creates a morally arbitrary hierarchy of victims that can then be used to justify the worst moral transgressions against the "other."
In the aftermath of violence and oppression, social justice and moral regeneration must begin with institutions of moral accounting, such as trials and truth commissions, that, however imperfectly, revitalize notions of individual, social, and political responsibility.
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Joel H. Rosenthal
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11/25/02
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The persistent strength of nonstate actors in world politics makes it necessary to rethink or at least elaborate on the state-centered model of international affairs. If ethics is about choice and responsibility, then who or what entity should be the target of our analysis?
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Christian Barry,
Kate Raworth
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11/25/02
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In Africa fewer than 50,000 people—less than 2 percent of the people in need—currently receive ARV therapy. These facts have elicited strongly divergent reactions, and views about the appropriate response to this crisis have varied widely.
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Samantha Power,
Peter Ronayne
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11/25/02
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In her Pulitzer Prize winning book, Samantha Power reveals with forceful, regretful, and even angry prose, the stark record: the United States has rarely missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to stand against genocide.
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Gopal Sreenivasan
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11/25/02
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Sreenivasan examines obligations of international distributive justice, arguing that the major seven OECD countries each have an obligation to transfer at least one percent of their GDP to developing countries.
Meister argues for a renewal of the politics of victim and beneficiary that avoids moral pitfalls of the revolutionary project. These pitfalls inhere in a politics of victimhood.
Singer responds to Andrew Kuper: "I reiterate the central ethical claim of my argument and argue that, if we don’t know how to make deep structural changes that will end desperate poverty, it is still better to help some people rather than none."
Contrary to Singer's view, Kuper asserts that there is no "royal road" to poverty relief, but intersecting roads that may take us to a place without poverty. Drawing on the works of Rawls and Marx, Kuper examines how an effective political philosophy of this kind might be developed.
In response to Kuper's article Singer writes, " I show that his counter-examples are often irrelevant to what I am advocating, and he has not substantiated his extraordinary claim that the approach I advocate would 'seriously harm the poor'."
In response to Singer Kuper suggests that only a wider range of institutional reforms and political strategies can generate sustained inclusion in governance and the global economy.
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Daniel Somers Smith
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12/13/01
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Although American environmentalism has had considerable success in addressing threats to particular places and resources, this well-organized and enormously popular social movement has not resulted in effective action on the problem of global warming.
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Rebecca DeWinter
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12/04/01
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Through the use of rhetoric linking private economic transactions and international labor and human rights standards, the movement has successfully challenged corporate practices that were previously considered unremarkable.
Many industrialized countries, developing countries, and countries that have recently made the transition from communism to market-oriented economies are characterized by high and increasing income inequality.
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Daniel M. Weinstock
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12/04/01
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Many of the problems that would be faced in setting up transnational institutions mirror problems that have already been addressed by appropriate institutional mechanisms in the establishment of the modern nation-state.
To claim that institutions can act as relevant moral agents in international relations, we must consider the disparate circumstances within which states—those that exercise positive sovereignty and those that are sovereign only in name—are expected to act.
Some have argued that the UN or the Security Council can exercise agency on behalf of IS, but in view of the "underinstitutionalization" of IS in the UN, groups of states may authorize themselves to act on the behalf of IS as "coalitions of the willing."
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Paul G. Harris,
Patricia Siplon
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12/04/01
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Those with the ability to help can do so without significant sacrifice. Hence, those countries with the means to provide solutions to the HIV/AIDS crisis, and give succor to those now suffering from it, have a moral obligation to act.
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David A. Crocker
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11/06/01
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Both authors describe the variety of tools - national and international trials, investigatory bodies, memorials, reparations, and constitutional changes - that societies and international bodies have employed to address human rights violations.
The language of human rights is increasingly used as a framework for policy dialogue. But, indicators must be developed that may hold the state accountable for its policies, guide and improve policy, and acknowledge both local contexts and the universality of rights. Possible?
Fledgling democracies may improve their stability through constitutional amendments that bar future unconstitutional governments from borrowing in the country's name or conferring ownership rights to public property, thus reducing the rewards of coups d'état.
Universal jurisdiction and the existence of an International Criminal Court (ICC) under the Rome Statute provide a framework through which true reconciliation can be achieved simultaneously with truth and justice.
Although retribution for past human rights violations has its place in post-conflict processes of transition and reconciliation, there are many present and foreseeable circumstances in which the case may be made for immunity, amnesty, or sheer forbearance.
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Alexander W. Cappelen
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05/04/01
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A country's right to levy taxes is a fundamental aspect of its sovereignty. Without the power to tax, a government would be unable to redistribute resources among its citizens and provide public goods.
"The Law of Peoples" has been extended into a monograph with the same title,which is the main focus of this essay. Brown includes a sketch of Rawls’s project as a whole as a necessary preliminary.
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David A. Chandler
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12/04/00
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A procedure targeting a few Khmer Rouge leaders seems likely in 2000, but Cambodian government control of the proceedings means that nothing like a truth commission or a wide-ranging inquiry will result.
Two types of Judeo-Christian perspective stress the imperative to act to relieve suffering and transcend violence: liberation theology and the "religious humanitarian perspective." Both link ethics and action; both influence political debate.
IOs are suffering a loss of legitimacy, and both social and technological changes associated with globalization will make it harder for IOs to recapture the power to affect the behavior of other actors in world politics.
In the long term, it will be surprising if states do not address the problem of growing economic gaps through international regimes, although the likely adequacy of their responses is open to question.
Brenda Almond examines different countries' policies and ways of attempting to deal with AIDS, focusing on their positions in regard to rights.
Third World debt, seen as distant from the realm of international affairs and ethics, is often subject to abstract economic analysis. Bauer argues that the way in which debt is addressed by debtors and lenders is heavily politicized and should be subjected to ethical scrutiny.
Global Ethics Corner (Multimedia )
How do we balance the short-term interests at stake in the energy debate with our long-term needs?
Has pluralism in America emphasized private interest over public good? Does the market for ideas need more supervision, or should the market rule?
Is climate change a common public burden, or should individuals make their own choices? Globally do modernized countries have an obligation to developing countries?
Are we responsible for the well-being of children around the globe, millions of whom die every year from preventable causes? Or does charity begin at home?
Within society there seems to be a general public disdain for excess and a private commitment to excess. Should there be formal or informal standards for compensation? Can you ever earn too much?
Inequality in America has been accelerating rapidly since the 1980s. But capping income levels could put liberty and competitiveness at risk. Regarding income, what is the right balance between liberty and equality?
When balancing life's complex tensions, how do you know when you've crossed a line?
By 2050 some estimate that climate change will displace 150 million people, but the displaced won't qualify as refugees under international law. What should be done about relocation?
Should cultural treasures, acquired under dubious circumstances, be returned to their places of origin?
Can we regulate international space like the oceans? Pollution and illegal or unregulated fishing plague international waters. How can the problem be managed to maintain the health and beauty of our seas?
The global circulation of goods is a major source of both prosperity and carbon emissions. Can trade be regulated to maximize development and reduce environmental harm?
Who pays to stop global warming? How to allocate emissions allowances? If people are entitled to an equal share of the world's resources, should national allowances be allocated on a per capita basis? How about the billionaire in India who pollutes more than a poor person in urban Paris?
How do we put value on the forests as an indispensable element of our survival? Can we balance market mechanisms with regulations and consumption with sustainability?
Do states have a responsibility to protect the planet? If so, who would decide when environmental protection is a legitimate reason to interfere in the affairs of another state?
Do immigrants help or hurt America? Closed borders cut off the world's best and brightest, while open borders may invite the world's desperate, criminal, and crazy. Should we err on the side of opening doors or building walls?
Fairness is a universal concept, but its application depends on time and place. The three pillars of ethical choice—pluralism, rights and responsibilities, and fairness—are thus codependent, and balancing them demands dialogue among people.
Balancing rights and responsibilities is one of the pillars supporting ethical choice. How far do our rights extend? Do responsibilities diminish our entitlements?
How do we celebrate differences without falling into the trap of cultural relativism?
According to Dambisa Moyo, large foreign aid flows to Africa disenfranchise Africans and prop up corrupt African leaders. If we follow Moyo's advice and cut off aid, what happens to the millions whose survival depends on it?
How should we reward experts and how much? When the experts fail, should populist outrage be directed at those individuals or the system?
Can public discussion of issues acknowledge gray areas despite being polarized by the media and single issue groups?
A Colombian immigrant was recently denied her investor's visa, forcing her to shut down her U.S. company and fire her six employees. Does immigration help or hurt American workers?
Should foreign companies fudge a commitment to free speech to gain early market access? Is some information better than none, or is censorship a black and white issue?
Less than one percent of the earth's water is consumable, and many parts of the world may be heading toward water bankruptcy. Should private ownership of water rights and delivery systems be encouraged, rejected, or better managed?
Will people associate U.S. power with "global misery" or with the opportunity and pluralism that Obama's victory represents?
Carnegie Ethics Online
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James Farrer,
Devin T. Stewart
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01/06/10
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Beyond the ethical and practical arguments for immigration reform, the strongest case for an internationally recognized right to move may arise out of the "worst-case scenarios" of global climate change.
The 2008 taxpayer bailout and a long string of corporate restructurings and downsizings have shifted risk from corporations to individuals. Most Americans were caught in a high-stakes Monopoly game where they didn't know the rules.
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Elizabeth A. Cole,
Madeleine Lynn
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06/03/09
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What has changed in China since 1989, and what are Chinese looking for from their government today? Health and safety issues are paramount for many, especially for their children.
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Sakiko Fukuda-Parr,
Margot E. Salomon
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05/04/09
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The global economic crisis and its impact on the poor are issues of international human rights law, in particular of state obligations to take collective action to create a global economic system amenable to the fulfulment of basic rights to subsistence, security, and freedom.
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Matthew Hennessey
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03/04/09
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Obama is in a unique position to make a difference in Africa, but will he fulfill his campaign promises? Matthew Hennessey has some suggestions for Obama and his Africa team.
Fighting the climate crisis will be as much about new incentives as about new technologies, and there are few incentives as reliable as price. Will Obama miss a crucial opportunity?
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Matthew Hennessey
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11/11/08
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Globalization is an attitude of openness, and whether in cultural attitudes or economics, openness improves the lives of citizens by expanding opportunities for choice.
Although microfinance has helped millions of individuals to survive, it doesn't create much real economic growth. But some organizations are moving beyond microfinance to create more substantial rural enterprises.
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Zornitsa Stoyanova-Yerburgh
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06/10/08
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Those who question the moral significance of borders often invoke the EU as a model of post-national belonging. Yet for asylum-seekers, "Fortress Europe" remains a more accurate description.
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Devin T. Stewart
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04/04/08
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From Africa to Southeast Asia, China's economic diplomacy carries risks. A case in point is Cambodia, where many believe that China's projects are harming the country, both physically and in the realm of human rights and democracy.
Many human rights and labor rights leaders argue that the U.S. should not reward Colombia with a permanent free trade agreement right now because it has not made sufficient progress in labor rights and basic human rights. But if not now, when?
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Devin T. Stewart
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02/09/07
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For the U.S. to justify and prolong its international leadership, it must ensure that the rest of the world can access the benefits of globalization. It can start by promulgating a more thoughtful approach to trade--one that is neither protectionist nor free market fundamentalist.
While the World Bank has greatly reduced its loans for large dams, the Chinese are going full-speed ahead with a spate of dam projects, both at home and in Africa. But the ill effects may outweigh the benefits.
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Devin T. Stewart,
Joshua Eisenman
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10/13/06
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China's authorities have recently come under fire from foreign governments and human rights groups for Chinese business practices in other countries. Eisenman and Stewart delve into the foreign policy issues arising from China’s new-found wealth.
Articles, Papers, and Reports
As they rush to save lives in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, aid workers also must address myths about disaster relief among the American public. Edward Brown, relief director for World Vision, advises what works and what doesn't.
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Martin Luther King
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01/15/10
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Dr. King gave this speech just a few months before his assassination and it is
his last thorough evaluation of the movement. Still sadly relevant, he discusses
U.S. racism, injustice, and militarism, and despite all, reaffirms his
committment to non-violence.
Katie Carns, winner of the Carnegie Council/Semester at Sea Student Competition, reflects on what she learned about other countries--and the U.S.--on her voyage through the Mediterannean.
Wenar argues that a trust-and-tariff mechanism could be used against countries that insist on buying resources from the worst regimes. The revenues would go to repressed peoples such as the Sudanese.
Calculations show that oil companies illicitly transport into the U.S. over 600 million barrels of oil each year. This is 12.7 percent of U.S. oil imports--more than one barrel in eight.
Customary practices left over from the era of absolute state sovereignty still give property rights to whoever can exert coercive control over a population. This might-makes-right rule contradicts the movement toward citizen ownership of natural resources.
Because of a major flaw in the international trade system, consumers in rich countries unknowingly buy stolen goods every day. The raw materials used to make these goods are taken from the poorest people in the world, by stealth and by force.
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Matthew Taylor,
Matt Prescott,
Christopher Kelly,
Nikhil Chandavarkar,
Mark Fulton
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11/13/07
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This rapporteur's summary from the third Workshop for Ethics in Business features discussion of the social aspiration gap, personal carbon trading, building megacommunities to solve collective problems, fair negotiating with developing countries, and a carbon price for the financial sector.
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Steve A. Rochlin,
Alice Eldridge,
Katy Choo,
Brian Levy
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09/24/07
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This is a rapporteur's summary from Global Policy Innovations' second Workshop for Ethics and Business. The speakers include representatives from AccountAbility, GE, Lockheed Martin, and the World Bank.
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Robin J. Thompson,
Joel H. Rosenthal,
Devin T. Stewart
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08/09/07
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Thompson argues that we have reached a tipping point on climate change. Consumers are showing their concern over this issue, and some government officials have taken notice. What are the most effective next steps for individuals and for governments?
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Joel H. Rosenthal
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07/20/07
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Addressing climate change is a common interest, says Joel Rosenthal, and thinking in terms of individual responsibility and the liability of specific actors is insufficient. We need to think in terms of social connection as well.
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Francesco Oddone
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08/18/06
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The Paris Club celebrated its 50th anniversary in July 2006. This is a suitable opportunity for rich creditor governments to acknowledge the deeply rooted ethical shortcomings of the present international debt architecture that stand in the way of justice and development.
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Christian Barry,
Sanjay G. Reddy
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07/25/06
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Poorer countries can avoid a trade-off between enhancing labour standards and taking full advantage of job-creating production and trading opportunities if current international trade rules are reformed so that they reward instead of punish countries that improve labour standards.
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Christian Barry,
Kamal Malhotra,
Sanjay G. Reddy,
Robert C. Hockett,
Todd Tucker
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04/05/06
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On April 5, 2006, the Carnegie Council’s Global Social Justice program brought together five distinguished panelists and asked them to give their views on the question of justice with respect to international trade. This is a summary of their remarks.
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Christian Barry,
Sanjay G. Reddy
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03/31/06
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The WTO's celebrated rule-based system can be used to promote labour standards in a manner that does not penalise developing countries that improve the lot of their workers, say Sanjay Reddy and Christian Barry.
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Christian Barry,
Barry Herman
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01/16/06
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Herman's "The Players and the Game of Sovereign Debt" describes arrangements that guide the interactions of actors involved in this issue. Barry's "Ethical Issues Relevant to Debt" discusses some of the principled disagreements underlying present disputes about sovereign debt resolution.
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Uché U. Ewelukwa
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08/02/05
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What accounts for the underutilization of the WTO dispute settlement process by states in Africa? What structural factors currently inhibit the ability of states in Africa to use the DSM to their advantage? What can African states learn from the experience of the developing countries that have used the system?
Wenar examines the concept of accountability, surveying the general state of it in development agencies. He proposes greater accountability in international development, and concludes with a specific proposal to increase accountability in development aid.
The offer by the G8 to cancel the debts of some of the world's poorest countries is a welcome step forward. Yet, referring to it as 100 percent debt cancellation is misleading since the deal, despite its promise to cancel significant amounts, is far from a comprehensive solution.
By most accounts within and beyond Italy today, the Rockefeller Foundation freed
Sardinia of malaria, catalyzing the island's subsequent economic miracle. Yet malaria is an environmental issue as well as a health concern.
International environmental justice presents difficulties for courts and advocates seeking to characterize problems at this intersection of environmental, human rights, and anti-discrimination law. Osofsky draws from U.S. environmental justice advocacy to propose a model for approaching the application of international human rights law to instances of environmental injustice.
Much attention is paid to prosecutions implemented by countries transitioning to democracy--but little to their efforts toward reparations. Yet from the standpoint of the victims, reparations programs are the most visible efforts of a state to remedy the harms they have suffered.
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John Ruggie,
Charles Kolb,
Dara O'Rourke,
Andrew Kuper
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05/07/04
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In this report of the Empire and Democracy Project three leading corporate social responsibility (CSR) experts discuss the growing influence of corporate power on democratic governance.
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Iris Marion Young
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03/23/04
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Who should take responsibility for the global labor injustices that are manifested in the existence of sweatshops in the apparel industry? And, what is the best means for determining the nature and scope of such responsibility?
The first MDG and its public celebration among the affluent hides the largest (though not the gravest) crime against humanity ever committed, argues Thomas Pogge in this paper presented at the Carnegie Council in November 2003.
Over a billion people currently lack access to safe water and other basic services. Should these services be privatized? Will the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) affect the ability of governments to pursue social and developmental objectives.
The conference considers possibilities of additional sources of finance either for disposition through multilateral agencies or bilateral aid for global priorities, or as additional own resources for developing countries.
"A commonly held notion among Western liberals is that Asian, African, and Arab perspectives on human rights are the greatest challenge to universality—the implication being that once the international human rights community reckons with the countries of these outlier regions, it will have eliminated the obstacle to universal human rights. This idea is mistaken."
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Terry Collingsworth
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02/06/03
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Collingsworth describes the problems of human rights enforcement with respect to corporations conducting business abroad through a detailed description of the operations of the Unocal oil company. (Report on a February 2003 Global Social Justice Seminar)
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Shiv Visvanathan
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12/10/02
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Many think that Indian environmentalism arose in opposition to an anti-environmental government (as well as, at an earlier point, British colonial rule), leading to "a backward-thinking anti-ecological state and a pro-environmental civil society." In fact, what is really taking place is "a battle between two [strands] of environmental discourse," argues Shiv Visvanathan.
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Jan Vandemoortele
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12/09/02
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Paper presented at the workshop on Social Policy Principles and The Social Development Agenda, Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, December 3-5, 1999
The general question organizing this paper concerns the impact of economic globalization on the territorial jurisdiction, or more theoretically, the exclusive territoriality of the nation state.
How many poor people are there in the world? Are their numbers increasing or decreasing? Professor Sanjay Reddy argues that the answers we give to these apparently simple questions can be of great practical significance. (Report on a December 2002 Global Justice Seminar)
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Joel H. Rosenthal
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10/20/02
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"One unintended danger of our hedgehog-like focus on the war against terrorism is that it squeezes the public space available to air other issues, increasing [our] risk of being blindsided by events that we might otherwise have taken steps to prevent."
How can multilateral economic institutions tackle the crisis of effectiveness and the crisis of legitimacy they face today? (Report on a 2002 Global Social Justice Seminar)
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Thomas Pogge,
Sanjay G. Reddy
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08/16/02
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The method that the World Bank uses to calculate severe income poverty--its global extent, distribution in space, and trend over time--is seriously flawed, according to philosopher Thomas Pogge and development economist Sanjay Reddy. In this 8/16/02 paper, they propose an alternative method, linked more explicitly to the basic requirements of human beings.
International development aid practice has received serious condemnation over the past few years. How can donors address need in a way that does not exacerbate the problem?
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Michael Thompson
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10/10/00
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At this Environmental Values Project seminar, Thompson argues that the key to environmental policy is to put the decision making power in the hands of "clumsy institutions," institutions that cultivate a plurality of views and approaches.
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Georg Kell,
John Ruggie
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02/25/00
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Globalization has increasingly disconnected one single element—networks of production and finance—from an overall system of institutional relations. The resulting disequillibria in the world political economy will persist until the economic sphere rejoins frameworks of shared values and institutionalized practices.
States and citizens within the European Union are now far along in a vast experiment involving an attempt to use the dynamism of market-capitalism to secure fundamental social and political objectives. Those states began that experiment as democracies. A key question for the imminent future is whether their citizens will find themselves still in democratic systems if that experiment succeeds.
Paper presented at the Workshop on Social Policy Principles and The Social Development Agenda Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund December 3-5, 1999.
Over the past quarter-century, in most of the world, liberal democracy has flourished and the status of women has improved. Yet, during the same period income inequality among occupational classes and among different regions of the world has increased more rapidly than in any period about which we have reliable knowledge. What accounts for this difference?
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Will Milberg,
Ellen Houston
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10/09/99
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Is there an alternative to wage- and benefit-cutting in the face of the heightened competitive pressure created by globalization?
Report based on a workshop on Ethics, Actors, and Global Economic Architecture at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, June 3-5, 1999.
#20 (2000): Shell in Nigeria: Corporate Responsibility and the Ogoni Crisis
Using the response of Shell to the attacks on its record in Nigeria, this study examines the way in which one transnational corporation has reacted to demands that it accept responsibilities beyond maximizing profit.
This study considers the "limits of obligation," and the rights and responsibilities of the sovereign governments involved in this crisism, and the roles of private banks and multinational institutions.
The East German revolt of 1989 raised a variety of ethical issues. What does it mean to be a citizen in the absence of choice? How does this relate to human rights? What can and should nations do to promote "the freedom of movement?"
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Nicholas Negroponte,
Joel H. Rosenthal
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11/03/05
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Negroponte's latest venture, One Laptop per Child, is a non-profit organization that manufactures and distributes inexpensive laptops to children worldwide.
Osofsky notes that, unless advocates can convince courts to accept a characterization of these problems as violations of international law, victims of severe environmental harm will be limited to domestic law and non-legal strategies for obtaining redress.
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Folabi K. Olagbaju,
Stephen Mills
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04/27/04
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Folabi K. Olagbaju and Stephen Mills detail how two leading American grassroots organizations -- Amnesty International USA and Sierra Club -- joined hands to protect those who advocate for the environment.
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Maurizio Farhan Ferrari,
Dave de Vera
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04/27/04
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When an indigenous community is determined to protect its natural resources and rights, when a legal framework supports their rights, and when assistance is available from NGOs, effective action can obtain recognition of existing rights and protect local ecosystems.
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Sayyed Nadeem Kazmi,
Stuart Leiderman
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04/27/04
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Saddam Hussein drained Iraq's southern marshlands as part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the lives of the region's indigenous inhabitants. As Sayyed Nadeem Kazmi and Stuart M. Leiderman explain, restoring this fragile ecosystem should be a fundamental imperative in the new Iraq.
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Abigail Abrash Walton
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04/27/04
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Walton describes Freeport McMoRan's devastation of the Amungme and Kamoro people in Papua in what has become one of the best known cases of environmental injustice perpetrated by a multinational extractive industry.
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Jorge Daniel Taillant
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04/27/04
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As Taillant writes, recently in Latin America the enforcement of human rights and environmental legislation has been making headway.
Monti Aguirre describes the tragedy of the Maya-Achi people of Guatemala, victims of a World Bank-funded hydro-electric dam, and their efforts to reclaim their lives.
Sánchez is a survivor of massacres perpetrated against the Maya-Achí community of Rio Negro, Guatemala, and one of the Chixoy Dam-affected people. He is president of the Peasant Association of the Community of Rio Negro Maya-Achí and sits on the board of the Association of Chixoy Dam Affected Communities.
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Alison Dundes Renteln
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04/23/04
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As Alison Dundes Renteln demonstrates, protecting cultural rights and endangered species requires a delicate balancing act.
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Peter G. Veit,
Catherine Benson
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04/23/04
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In much of Africa, write Peter G. Veit and Catherine Benson, efforts to safeguard wildlife have violated human rights.
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Kelly D. Alley,
Daniel Meadows
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04/23/04
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According to Kelly D. Alley and Daniel Meadows, India's judicial efforts to protect the "right to life" by shutting down and relocating polluting industries in Delhi have marginalized, displaced, or dispossessed thousands of the city's working poor.
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Sheila Watt-Cloutier
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04/22/04
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For the Arctic's Inuit, climate change is having very real human rights effects. Sheila Watt-Cloutier describes their creative efforts to hold governments accountable.
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Michael Kilburn,
Miroslav Vanek
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04/21/04
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Kilburn and Vanek describe how widespread environmentalism propelled the human rights agenda of a generation of young activists in the former Czechoslovakia.
These essays collectively explore the definition, status, and relevance of the concept of environmental rights in law and politics around the world, and the extent to which a human rights lens is a helpful tool through which to view environmental issues.
Ratner points out that, for Cambodia's fishing communities, whose livelihoods depend on access to fishing grounds, human rights and the environment are "related in every way."
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Aimée Christensen
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04/20/04
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Environmental justice in the U.S. has historically related to the need to redress the disproportionate effects of pollution on low-income and minority communities. Today, the effects of mounting pollution go far beyond these communities.
"I [spoke] with a Chinese environmentalist who was a high school student at the time of Tiananmen. He said he had watched the democracy demonstrations from his window and decided there must be a better way to achieve political change. This is why he went into environmental work."
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Francisca Kellett
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06/30/03
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Unmonitored development projects can lead to unfettered natural resource exploitation, ignoring the fact that indigenous peoples’ communal lands are the sources of their livelihoods and are crucial to their identities.
In an interview with Dialogue, Flavia Barros discusses her work with the network of social organizations in Brazil that has been monitoring projects funded by international financial institutions.
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Argentina Santacruz,
Juana Sotomayor
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06/19/03
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Argentina Santacruz and Juana Sotomayor illustrate the different ways that their organization is attempting to hold the Ecuadorian government accountable for undermining economic and social rights by devoting much of the country’s resources to debt repayment.
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Carolina Quinteros
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06/19/03
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Acknowledging that the international anti-sweatshop movement has been effective in achieving higher labor standards for workers in the South, Carolina Quinteros contends that transnational alliances are a mixed bag for activists working at the local level.
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Marcela Olivera,
Jorge Viaña
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06/19/03
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Olivera and Viaña recount how Bolivians mobilized a successful campaign to overturn the government’s decision to privatize their local water system.
The IMF may sometimes prescribe the wrong medicine to countries experiencing a financial crisis. Right now, the IMF’s support for the Lula government in Brazil is looking pretty good. By contrast, the medicine Mr. Barry proposes to cure Brazil’s debt problem looks more like snake oil.
On October 27, 2002, former factory worker Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (popularly known as “Lula”) achieved a landslide victory in the Brazilian presidential election. His platform included pledges to lower Brazil’s domestic interest rates (which, at 21%, remain among the highest in the world), revive national industry, invest in public infrastructure, and establish a “zero-hunger” program that will include food stamps for the poor.
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Hernando de Soto
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05/08/02
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Developing countries stand to realize $10 trillion in "dead capital" if they transform their political and legal practices into systems compatible with Western norms. AVAILABLE IN SPANISH.
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Freeman Dyson,
Joel H. Rosenthal
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11/25/97
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Professor Dyson wrestles with the question of whether science and technology and their applications can be ethical. Introduction by Joel H. Rosenthal.
Human rights are neither a uniquely Western phenomenon nor a hindrance to economic development, the charges usually leveled against those who seek to implement human rights in Asia. Sen points to intellectual strands within Asian thought that value human rights.
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Rachel M. McCleary
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01/12/90
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This case study focuses on the development policies of successive Brazilian administrations beginning with the Vargas presidency in the mid-1950s, leading up to the administration of President Sarney in the late 1980s.
Famed Indonesian intellectual Soedjatmoko says that the time has come for man to “develop the international legal infrastructure that will enable us to manage our globe peacefully, equitably, and effectively at a time when in many countries internal contradictions are eroding the moral consensus on which respect for law is based."
Resource Picks
These resources on world poverty look at our moral obligations; root causes and possible solutions; the problems of aid; development through trade; and the effects of the financial crisis.
Wiley-Blackwell has just issued its 2008 report on the Council's journal, Ethics & International Affairs. The following is a list of the top ten downloaded articles on the Blackwell Synergy site in 2008.
Should nations restrict the flow of newcomers? What rights should immigrants have? The Carnegie Council presents a selection of essential resources on the dilemmas and effects of international migration.
Since bad news always grabs the headlines and positive stories don't get the attention they deserve, this selection of resources features instances of change for the better.
In recent times, the issue of reparations for slavery, long on the fringe of political thought, has come increasingly to dominate mainstream discussions about racism, colonialism, and poverty.
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