The Global Trade in Live Cetaceans: Implications for Conservation

Cetaceans—small whales, dolphins and porpoises—have long been popular performers in oceanaria. Captive cetaceans have also been used for research and employed in military operations. In some jurisdictions cetacean display facilities have been phased out or prohibited, and in the US and Hong Kong a high proportion of the whales and dolphins now in captivity have been captive-bred. A large, growing and increasingly opportunistic trade in dolphins and small toothed whales nevertheless exists, its centres of supply having shifted away from North America, Japan, and Iceland to the Russian Federation and developing nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. Demand for live captures is being driven by: a new wave of traditional-type oceanaria and dolphin display facilities, as well as travelling shows, in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean; increasingly popular programs that offer physical contact with cetaceans, including the opportunity to feed, pet, and swim with them; and the proliferation of facilities that offer ‘dolphin assisted therapy’ to treat human illness or disability. Rigorous assessment of source populations is often lacking, and in some instances live capture is adding to the pressure on stocks already at risk from hunting, fishery bycatch, habitat degradation, and other factors. All too often, entrepreneurs appear to be taking advantage of lax (or non-existent) regulations in small island states or less developed or politically unstable countries to supply the growing global demand for dolphins and small whales. The regulation of trade in live cetaceans under CITES is fraught with problems, not least the poor quality of reporting and the lack of a rigorous mechanism for preparation, review, and evaluation of non-detriment findings.     

The illusory leader: natural resources, taxation and accountability

This paper proposes and tests a mechanism through which natural resources can affect democracy. I posit that, in the presence of high natural resource rents, leaders lower the burden of taxation on citizens in order to reduce the demand for democratic accountability. The theory is corroborated using micro-level data from public opinion surveys across 15 sub-Saharan countries, in addition to country-level data on natural resource rents. Results are robust to a range of alternative specifications. A supplementary analysis reveals that, consistent with the two-period model proposed, the effects are more acute closer to national elections.     

The Politics of Restitution: The 1964–66 Labour Government’s Policy Towards Ireland

This article analyzes Harold Wilson’s policy towards the Republic of Ireland during the first eighteen months of his government. This article will demonstrate that the Labour government embarked upon a concerted effort to improve Anglo-Irish relations. In particular, the Labour government acceded to the Irish government’s time-honoured request to repatriate the remains of Roger Casement, and returned the flag that had flown over the General Post Office during the 1916 Rising. How successful these gestures were is a moot point. In the short-term it almost certainly did create a climate of goodwill between the British and Irish governments. In the longer-term, however, it could be argued these gestures served to stimulate republican sentiment in Ireland, and perhaps contributed to heightening the tensions within Northern Ireland in the late 1960s.     

From Intervention to Retrenchment: Poland's Strategic Culture and the 2011 Libyan Campaign

Abstract

The willingness of successive Polish governments to support and participate in US-led multilateral military interventions—such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq—has been explained in terms of Poland's prevailing strategic culture. Yet in 2011 Poland opted to exclude itself from participating in the NATO campaign against Libya. It is argued that this was not a counter-cultural decision, but was instead a case of one strategic subculture supplanting another. The support that the government received from opposition politicians and the press can be taken as evidence that the policy did not represent a radical departure from Poland's strategic culture.     

The Politics of Restitution: The 1964-66 Labour Government's Policy Towards Ireland

This article analyzes Harold Wilson's policy towards the Republic of Ireland during the first eighteen months of his government. This article will demonstrate that the Labour government embarked upon a concerted effort to improve Anglo-Irish relations. In particular, the Labour government acceded to the Irish government's time-honoured request to repatriate the remains of Roger Casement, and returned the flag that had flown over the General Post Office during the 1916 Rising. How successful these gestures were is a moot point. In the short-term it almost certainly did create a climate of goodwill between the British and Irish governments. In the longer-term, however, it could be argued these gestures served to stimulate republican sentiment in Ireland, and perhaps contributed to heightening the tensions within Northern Ireland in the late 1960s.     

Imperialism and the Middle Kingdom: the Xi Jinping administration’s peripheral diplomacy with developing states

This article applies the Nexon/Wright concept of ideal-type empire to the study of China’s post-2012 peripheral relations to demonstrate that the Xi administration is engaged in a concerted imperialist policy towards its developing neighbour states. Using the Nexon/Wright framework, the article demonstrates how the establishment of a China-centric regional network structure undergirds the Xi administration’s key foreign policy concepts and how these concepts, in turn, inform China’s bilateral relations with its peripheral states. To demonstrate how China employs imperialist tactics to its pursuit of a regionally based order, the article examines China’s bilateral relations with the developing states on its periphery: Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam.     

The Nature of Contracting Hazards in Public–Private Partnerships—Evidence from Ireland

The use of public–private partnerships (PPP) for the procurement of infrastructure and related services can be a complex and challenging process. This article adopts a transaction cost regulation perspective to examine two PPP cases from Ireland that encountered significant obstacles to successful procurement. It finds that both procurements met hazards including uncertainty about the viability of the bids and opportunistic behavior by preferred bidders that held quasi-monopoly positions. The public nature of both cases provided a fertile ground for opportunistic behavior by political opponents and other “interested” parties. The analysis shows how the governance of PPPs is shaped by the attributes of the transactions and the interaction of economic and political hazards that create transaction costs.     

The Public Cost of Unilateral Action

Scholarship on democratic responsiveness focuses on whether political outcomes reflect public opinion but overlooks attitudes toward how power is used to achieve those policies. We argue that public attitudes toward unilateral action lead to negative evaluations of presidents who exercise unilateral powers and policies achieved through their use. Evidence from two studies supports our argument. In three nationally representative survey experiments conducted across a range of policy domains, we find that the public reacts negatively when policies are achieved through unilateral powers instead of through legislation passed by Congress. We further show these costs are greatest among respondents who support the president's policy goals. In an observational study, we show that attitudes toward unilateral action in the abstract affect how respondents evaluate policies achieved through unilateral action by presidents from Lincoln to Obama. Our results suggest that public opinion may constrain presidents' use of unilateral powers.