‘Listening to the rice grow’: the local–expat interface in Lao-based international NGOs

Generally speaking, NGO studies have focused their attention on the organisational unit and its role in shaping development outcomes. With few exceptions, the analysis of development partnerships, in which NGOs play a crucial role, has largely been confined to examination of ‘donors’ and ‘receivers’ and not the dynamics within organisational settings. This article is concerned with the interface between local and international staff operating within Lao-based international NGOs. The research relied on interviews with local and international staff and sought to examine how staff themselves interpreted the process of ‘localisation’ in the context of their own professional experience.     

What are levels of analysis and what do they contribute to international relations theory?

The objective of this article is to clarify the significance and usefulness of levels of analysis, a central IR concept, but one often used unproblematically. I argue that a level of analysis should be defined as a social structure that is examined for its effects on another social structure, or on the same social structure. Therefore, levels of analysis are also relational, meaning that one is defined, in part, in terms of its associated unit of analysis. Because this definition conceptualizes levels of analysis as methodological tools rather than ontological postulates, it is consistent with a wide range of positions on the agent-structure debate. More specifically, I show that the methodological issue of which levels of analysis a researcher employs is separate from the ontological issue of whether the theoretical lens is atomistic (reductionist) or holistic at any given level. One implication of this definition is that researchers need not view their ontological commitments as overly methodologically constraining. This article also addresses some questions raised by this conceptualization, among them the possibility of multiple social structures existing at a single level.     

Examining international responses to illicit arms trafficking

Concerns about illicit trafficking in small arms andlight weapons have moved rapidly up the internationalagenda since 1996. Within about three years a rangeof international responses to this problem, and to theclosely related issue of small arms proliferation,have developed at sub-regional, regional andinternational level – in Africa, Europe and theAmericas as well as globally. This article examinesthe development and design of each of the maininitiatives in this issue area. It analyses thedifferent ways in which the problems have been framedin each agreement or programme, and the significanceof linkages between them. These recent developmentsare judged to be substantial. Despite the regional andinstitutional variations, the shared normative andprogrammatic elements appear to be sufficient tosupport the development of winning global coalitions– able to establish a co-ordinated internationalaction programme even if not actually to preventillicit trafficking in the foreseeable future.     

Disclosure in insurance law: a comparative analysis

Disclosure or non-disclosure is one of the key issues in insurance contract. This paper compares laws on remedy for no-disclosures in European and other major jurisdictions. It concludes there are generally two different approaches on remedy for non-disclosure—(1) the strict disproportionate approach; and (2) the proportionate approach. The paper introduces an asymmetric information model to elaborate on the ongoing debates over the various normative issues of fairness with respect to the two different approaches. It confirms that the proportionate approach serves better the goal of fairness, in particular for the insured who acts honestly but carelessly provides bad information to the insurer. The model provides a statistical tool for a correct range of remedy on non-disclosure.     

With Revolutionary Battery Tech,We Can Shift Global Energy To Renewables

Inventor and investor Bill Joy describes a breakthrough technology that can speed the de‐carbonization of the planet.