Enduring trade disputes: Disguised protectionism and duration and recurrence of international trade disputes

Why do some WTO trade disputes endure and recur while others do not? States have difficulty resolving trade conflicts when they involve certain types of trade-restrictive domestic regulations. While such regulations vary in their extent of legitimacy—fulfilling non-trade domestic regulatory objectives and availability of less trade-restrictive options—complainant states cannot always distinguish legitimate barriers from illegitimate ones. In such scenarios of disguised protectionism, which I argue is most prevalent with policies involving WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement, disputants confront difficulties concluding their disputes. Disputes last longer and are more likely to recur. I test the argument against a data set of WTO disputes structured in an innovative manner—one that links together related and recurring disputes into single conflicts. Both an event history analysis of conflict duration and a count analysis of conflict recurrence using this data strongly support this argument.     

Resolving Conflict Across Languages

English is increasingly used as an indispensable interlanguage, the commonthird language of non-native speakers, in international negotiations.In technical or commercial talks, where interlocutors share a stock ofexpert knowledge, semantic problems are relatively easily overcome. Inemotive and complex negotiations to resolve protracted international conflict,however, intriguing problems of interpretation arise. Though interlocutorsspeak in English, they are unlikely to think or work in English.Back home the political debate is conducted in the mother tongue. Thus thesemantic fields, the full range of meanings and connotations, of keyabstract concepts at the heart of the negotiation may not be conveyed intranslation. The ill-fated Syrian-Israeli peace talks are drawn upon to exemplifythe argument.     

Dyadic effects of democratization on international disputes

I explore the dyadic, as opposed to monadic, effect of democratizationon war. Using a simple repeated game of interstate interaction,I show that, as a state shifts towards democracy, its citizensaquire more opportunities and become more willing to removethose leaders that they expect will reduce their welfare. Rationalleaders anticipate this consequence, and their incentives tomaintain cooperative relationships with other democracies increaseas their states become democratic. The hypothesis drawn fromthe model predicts that democratization will have a pacifyingeffect in a dyadic relationship between democracies. Empiricaltesting is designed to isolate the dyadic effect from the monadicand to distinguish among competing hypotheses. The predictionsare tested with widely used data on political institutions andmilitarized interstate disputes. The result shows that democratizationindeed reduces the likelihood of waging war. However, this pacifyingeffect is largely attributed to the dyadic effect with a democraticopponent; the risk of war remains unchanged when facing a non-democraticopponent.     

Mediating public disputes: A response to the skeptics

Conclusions There are more than 75 well-documented cases of successful dispute resolution in the public sector (and a great many more that are less well-documented). The evidence attesting to the merits of non-adjudicatory approaches to dispute resolution is mounting rapidly.While there are some public disputes that do not lend themselves to informal resolution (i.e., disputes involving fundamental freedoms or rights), many involving conflicting interests and values have proven resolvable in a win-win fashion. The most important preconditions for success have been the presence of a credible nonpartisan facilitator or mediator, parties in an undeniably interdependent situation and pressure created by a decision maker who has promised to act (using traditional decision-making methods) in the absence of a consensus. In short, given these preconditions, there are a number of good reasons to forge ahead with efforts to employ mediation and other forms of dispute resolution on a more regular basis. Lawrence Susskind is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Executive Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass. 02138. Co-author ofResolving Environmental Regulatory Disputes (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman, 1984), he has served as a mediator of public disputes at the local, state and federal levels.     

Uzbekistan's Role in Resolving the Situation in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan problem is one of the world s most pressing issues.It extends beyond Afghanistan and its neighbors to affect entire global security.Military operations over the past three decades have destroyed the country's economic and social infrastructures,creating the conditions for permanent tensions in Afghanistan.Unfortunately,measures taken by the international community,including by the coalition forces,to bring peace have not worked.Furthermore,Afghanistan is one of the main centers of the intemational drugs trade.Given this,the Afghan govemment urgently needs to secure control of the whole country and bring stability to the nation.     

Militarized disputes,incidents, and crises: Identification and classification

The Militarized Interstate Dispute (MID) dataset was generated as part of the broader data‐generation efforts of DDIR. The paper (1) briefly lays out the underlying rationale and procedures used in developing the MID dataset, (2) highlights some conceptual and empirical problems associated with the dataset, (3) discusses the conceptual and empirical distinctions made among incidents, disputes, crises, and wars, and (4) offers suggestions for updating and expanding the MID dataset.     

非政府组织在解决非洲冲突中的作用与影响

非洲冲突的解决是非洲国家和国际社会都十分关注的重大课题。近年来,在参与非洲冲突解决的所有行为体中,各种非政府组织的作用与影响日益凸显。非政府组织广泛参与到非洲各类冲突的解决活动中,从事冲突预警、人道主义救济、促进冲突解决,以及冲突后的和平建设等活动,为非洲冲突的解决与冲突后的社会和经济重建起到了积极作用。同时,由于各方面的限制,非政府组织的活动也产生了一些消极后果。由于所掌握的资源有限,以及自身缺乏权威性,非政府组织不可能成为在解决非洲冲突中起主导作用的行为体。     

Sanctions and public opinion: The case of the Russia-Ukraine gas disputes

The Review of International Organizations - Economic sanctions usually fail, sometimes even provoking the opposite of the intended outcome. Why are sanctions so often ineffective? One prominent...     

The impact of leader turnover on the onset and the resolution of WTO disputes

When national leaders are replaced, the incoming leader often represents different interests to those of his predecessor. Such shifts in national priorities affect both the onset of WTO disputes and the resolution of ongoing disputes. In particular, leader turnover increases the likelihood that a nation will be involved in a WTO dispute as either plaintiff or defendant, and, if a dispute is ongoing, then leader change in a defendant state increases the likelihood of significant concessions by the defendant. The impact of leader change on both the initiation and settlement of disputes is greater in non-democratic states than democratic states.     

Widows' and orphans' property disputes: the impact of AIDS in Rakai District,Uganda

The 1991 census identified 44,000 orphans in the Rakai District of Uganda. The Child Social Care Project (CSCP) in the district helps ensure that orphaned children under 18 years who have lost one or both parents to AIDS receive the property rights to which they are entitled. The property rights of widows are also championed by the CSCP. The project has enjoyed considerable success in settling individual disputes. The CSCP has also had some success in enabling communities to deal appropriately with the conflicts without recourse to experts. The author notes that while it is important to promote the empowerment of women, the phrase is so overused that it is in danger of becoming meaningless. That said, a vital aspect of empowerment is economic independence. The CSCP helps women claim the right to own property, land, and housing, as well as to care for their children in the attempt to give them some degree of economic control over their destiny and that of their children. The paper discusses widows' and orphans' property disputes in sections on wills, customary law, and statutory law. The CSCP is described followed by a case study and consideration of gender and legal reform.