The rise and fall of conservative reform in the United States: George W. Bush and the transformation of the Reagan legacy

Americans often remark that 9/11 changed their nation forever. Conservatives rarely note, however, that the attacks also changed the effort at conservative reform that began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Reagan preached strength in foreign policy but rarely used force to fight the Cold War. On the home front, Reagan pursued neo-liberalism within the limits of political prudence, under the influence of neo-conservative ideology among other factors. Reagan's Republican successor George W. Bush has used force in pursuit of democratic nation-building while expanding the American welfare state at a pace not seen since the 1960s. If elected, Bush's opponent, Senator John Kerry, might face a Republican Congress and thus gridlock on domestic policy. Kerry also favors a more realistic stance for the nation in foreign affairs. Ironically, the revival of the Reagan legacy of conservative reform may hinge on the defeat of the Republican incumbent, a defeat that could open the possibility of reclaiming Reagan's party for the cause of limited government and individual liberty.     

Winning and Losing in Investor–State Dispute Settlement

As tensions between investors’ rights and sovereign power escalate, investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) has become a focal point of backlash and controversy. As a result, ISDS now embodies two opposing currents in international law: (1) the erosion of sovereignty that accompanied economic globalization, trade frameworks, and investment treaties following the Second World War and (2) more recently, reassertions of sovereignty prompted by recent backlashes against the global economic order. This article measures and evaluates outcomes of the ISDS system for sovereign participants. Using the best available data, this article contributes more detailed assessments of sovereign winners (home states of claimants) and sovereign losers (respondent states) in the ISDS system. This article also considers the distribution and the proportional impact of outcomes for sovereign participants, both of which are fundamental in the legitimacy debates surrounding the ISDS system.