East Asian Security: Two Views
SUMMARY: In the post-Cold War era and in the early 21st century, the region of Northeast Asia remains one of the most unstable areas in Asia and in the world compared with other regions of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Southern Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
And it could become a harsh strategic confrontational area between major powers in Asia and in the world in the future, if those major powers like the United States, China, Japan, and Russia do not manage their relationships well. It can also become a place of hot war or new Cold War in the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, if the two Koreas and two sides of the Taiwan Strait problem cannot manage the unresolved issues in their relations.[Download]
Understanding China's New Sovereign Wealth Fund
Given the stakes involved for the United States and China, as well as for the global economy, it is important that the policy community is as well informed as possible about sovereign wealth funds in general and the Chinese SWF in particular.
To that end, The National Bureau of Asian Research is pleased to present Michael Cognato’s research on CIC. His paper provides an analysis of the political and economic debates that led to the formation of CIC, outlines what is known about the corporation’s investment objectives and management structure, and details the domestic and foreign investments that CIC has undertaken to date. He also examines some of the specific concerns that have been raised about the potential risks posed by CIC to U.S. national interests and draws some preliminary conclusions about their validity.[Download]
Iran’s Political, Demographic, and Economic Vulnerabilities
Iran is one of the United States' most important foreign policy concerns. It has also been an extraordinarily difficult country with which to engage. Ironically, while the leadership has been hostile to the United States, Iranian society has evolved in ways friendly to the United States and US interests. This monograph assesses current political, ethnic, demographic, and economic trends and vulnerabilities in Iran. For example, the numbers of young people entering the Iranian labor force are at an all-time high. The authors then provide recommendations for US policies that might foster trends beneficial to US interests. For example, greater use of markets and a more-vibrant private sector would contribute to the development of sources of political power independent from the current regime. The authors finally note a need for patience. Even if favorable trends take root, it will take time for them to come to fruition. [Download]
Can Europe and China Shape a New World Order?
CER | 2008 | ISBN 978 1 901229 83 7 | English | 59 pages | PDF | 1 MB
The world order in the 20th century is not the same with the world order of this century. If in the 20th century the USA and for a time USSR were the ones holding the centers of power, in the 21st century many centers of power are emerging. We have the European Union and we have China who is slowly but surely getting a big share of the power hold in the world, be it political or commercial. What lies in the future? Would there be multi-lateral distribution of power, with governments accepting global rules and institutions? Will the strongest states assert their interests unilaterally, without regard to international law? Will the USA stay as strong as it is now? The relationship between the EU and China could determine the outcome. If the Europeans can persuade China that multilateralism serves its interests, the international system may tilt towards co-operation rather than competition. [more...]
China-Europe Relations: Implications and Policy Responses for the United States
China-Europe Relations: Implications and Policy Responses for the United States
CSIS | May 2008 | ISBN 978-0-89206-533-2 | English | 61 pages | PDF | 1 MB
China's growth and influence could not be denied. As the European Union moves to strengthen its position as a more cohesive and effective voice in international affairs, it is all the more critical for U.S. policy leaders to take careful stock of China-Europe relations and their implications for U.S. interests. Europe-China relations have become increasingly regularized, institutionalized, and mutually beneficial, encompassing a broadening range of political, economic, military, scientific, technological, educational, and cultural ties. The China question has arisen as an area of potential transatlantic disagreement, especially over the arm embargo issue, but also on broader concerns of global order, multipolarity, balancing U.S. power, and economic competition.
Given the political, economic and security-related importance of China and Europe to the United States, and their steadily improving relationship, these developments pose important challenges and opportunities for U.S. interests. These developments may not only challenge the U.S. position vis-à-vis China and Europe; they also could contribute to an increasingly competitive, confrontational, and ultimately detrimental deterioration in traditionally strong transatlantic relations, while also further exacerbating persistent mistrust in U.S.-China ties.
Were U.S.-Europe-China relations to deteriorate, Washington could lose out on the enormous strategic opportunities that would encourage positive political, economic, and security-related outcomes in China, which favor U.S., European, and Chinese interests over the longer term. [more...]
Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict: Ideological and Structural Aspects
Oxford University Press | 2008 | ISBN 978–0–19–953355–8 | English | 200 pages | PDF | 1.7 MB
This thought-provoking book challenges the conventional discourse on—and responses to—contemporary terrorism. It examines the synergy between the extremist ideologies and the organizational models of non-state actors that use terrorist means in asymmetrical conflict. This synergy is what makes these terrorist groups so resilient in the face of the counterterrorist efforts of their main opponents—the state and the international system—which are conventionally far more powerful.
The book argues that the high mobilization potential of the supra-national extremist ideology inspired by al-Qaeda cannot be effectively counterbalanced at the global level by either the mainstream secular ideologies or moderate Islam. Instead, it is more likely to be affected and transformed by radical nationalism. Unless the political transformation of violent Islamist movements in specific national contexts is encouraged and the transnational ideology of violent Islamism is ‘nationalized’, it is unlikely to be amenable to external influence or to be destroyed by repression. [more...]
Are You Being Served? New Tools for Measuring Service Delivery
Are You Being Served? New Tools for Measuring Service Delivery
Publisher : The World Bank
Publication year : 2008
ISBN : 978-0-8213-7185-5
Language : English
Pages : 454
Format : PDF
Size : 1.9 Mb
This book presents and evaluates the tools for measuring the quality of service to the poor provided in the area of health and education. This book aims at improving the quality of service of the public sector. The authors vast experience in the area is highlighted by how they have deployed these methods of measuring the quality of service in 12 countries. The results show that the data could be a powerful tool for effecting changes in the policy for service. [more...]
Science In Flux: NASA's Nuclear Program at Plum Brook Station 1955-2005
NASA History Division|1ST edition (2006) | ASIN: B000KE1O4M | English | 197 pages | PDF | 3.1 MB
This book traces the history of one of the most powerful nuclear test reactors in the US and th only nuclear facility ever built by NASA. The history of Plum Brook reveals the perils and potentials of that nuclear technology.
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Beyond al-Qaeda: The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe
Beyond al-Qaeda: The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe
RAND | 2006 | ISBN-13: 978-0-8330-3932-3 | English | 216 pages | PDF | 1 MB
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the U.S. response—the global war on terrorism—have changed the world, and the terrorist enterprise that we know as al-Qaeda has changed with it.
The current status of al-Qaeda’s network remains unclear, but it is certain that it and other terrorist groups continue to threaten the lives and well-being of Americans, at home and abroad, and the security of our friends and allies. This continuing danger leads to ongoing U.S. and international efforts to monitor, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist groups before they can cause large-scale destruction to our people or our interests.
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Analytic Culture in the US Intelligence Community: An Ethnographic Study
CSI, Central Intelligence Agency | 2005 |ISBN: 1-929667-13-2 | English | 173 pages | PDF | 1.5 MB
It is a rare season when the intelligence story in the news concerns intelligence analysis, not secret operations abroad. The United States is having such a season as it debates whether intelligence failed in the run-up to both September 11 and the second Iraq war, and so Rob Johnston’s wonderful book is perfectly timed to provide the back-story to those headlines.
The CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence is to be commended for having the good sense to find Johnston and the courage to support his work, even though his conclusions are not what many in the world of intelligence analysis would like to hear.
He reaches those conclusions through the careful procedures of an anthro-pologist—conducting literally hundreds of interviews and observing and participating in dozens of work groups in intelligence analysis—and so they cannot easily be dismissed as mere opinion, still less as the bitter mutterings of those who have lost out in the bureaucratic wars. His findings constitute not just a strong indictment of the way American intelligence performs analysis, but also, and happily, a guide for how to do better.
Johnston finds no baseline standard analytic method. Instead, the most common practice is to conduct limited brainstorming on the basis of previous analysis, thus producing a bias toward confirming earlier views. The validating of data is questionable—for instance, the Directorate of Operation’s (DO) “cleaning” of spy reports doesn’t permit testing of their validity—reinforcing the tendency to look for data that confirms, not refutes, prevailing hypotheses.
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Ten Big Ideas for a New America
New America Foundation | 2007 | PDF | 69 pages | 1.1 MB
The recent turnover in Congress, combined with a wide open presidential election cycle, creates a rare opportunity to bring new ideas into the political process.
The spirit of this new era will be captured by those—from either party or no party—who embrace innovative yet pragmatic solutions to the foremost challenges facing our nation. We offer this collection of Big Ideas as fuel for an overdue bipartisan debate about how to update our national policies for the common good.
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China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead
China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead
Columbia University Press | 2004 | ISBN 0-231-13084-8 | English | PDF | 315 pages | 1 MB
This book is an optimistic prediction from a journalist with more than a decade's experience reporting for the Far Eastern Economic Review. Gilley argues, against Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, that China's culture is not alien to democratic possibilities and that democratization will result not from popular overthrow of the existing Communist one-party state but through gradual reform from above. He anticipates a "revolution in values" through which the elite will becomes more public-spirited and less self-interested.
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High-Performance Government - Structure, Leadership, Incentives
RAND Corp. | 2005 | ISBN 0-8330-3805-2 | English | 136 pages | PDF | 1.8 MB
In this book, RAND experts in public policy and management suggest practical ways to implement the recommendations and define a research agenda for the future. This volume comprises thirteen essays that address the primary problem areas identified by the Volcker Commission, along with the text of the commission report itself.
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The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
Cambridge University Press (2005) | ISBN-13: 9780521791403 | English | 362 pages | PDF | 1.8 MB
Since September 11, Al Qaeda has been portrayed as an Islamist front united in armed struggle, or jihad, against the Christian West. However, as the historian and commentator Fawaz A. Gerges argues, the reality is rather different and more complex. In fact, Al Qaeda represents a minority within the jihadist movement, and its strategies have been vehemently criticized and opposed by religious nationalists among the jihadis, who prefer to concentrate on changing the Muslim world rather than taking the fight global. It is this rift that led to the events of September 11 and that has dominated subsequent developments. Through several years of primary field research, the author unravels the story of the jihadist movement and explores how it came into being, the philosophies of its founding fathers, its structure, the rifts and tensions that split its ranks, and why some members, like Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, favored international over local strategies in taking the war to the West. This is an articulate and original book that sheds light on the tactics used by the jihadis in the last three decades. As more alienated young Muslims are seduced into joining, the author asks where the jihadist movement is going and whether it can survive and shed its violent character.
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On Suicide Bombing - by Talal Asad
Columbia University Press (2007) | ISBN-13: 9780231141529 | English | 142 pages | PDF | 1.8 MB
Like many people in America and around the world, Talal Asad experienced the events of September 11, 2001, largely through the media and the emotional response of others. For many non-Muslims, "the suicide bomber" quickly became the icon of "an Islamic culture of death"—a conceptual leap that struck Asad as problematic. Is there a "religiously-motivated terrorism?" If so, how does it differ from other cruelties? What makes its motivation "religious"? Where does it stand in relation to other forms of collective violence?
Drawing on his extensive scholarship in the study of secular and religious traditions as well as his understanding of social, political, and anthropological theory and research, Asad questions Western assumptions regarding death and killing. He scrutinizes the idea of a "clash of civilizations," the claim that "Islamic jihadism" is the essence of modern terror, and the arguments put forward by liberals to justify war in our time. He critically engages with a range of explanations of suicide terrorism, exploring many writers' preoccupation with the motives of perpetrators. In conclusion, Asad examines our emotional response to suicide (including suicide terrorism) and the horror it invokes.
On Suicide Bombing is an original and provocative analysis critiquing the work of intellectuals from both the left and the right. Though fighting evil is an old concept, it has found new and disturbing expressions in our contemporary "war on terror." For Asad, it is critical that we remain aware of the forces shaping the discourse surrounding this mode of violence, and by questioning our assumptions about morally good and morally evil ways of killing, he illuminates the fragile contradictions that are a part of our modern subjectivity.
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