Canada's GBA+ framework in a (post)pandemic world: Issues,tensions and paths forward

This article traces the theoretical foundations, evolution, and limitations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), which is the Government of Canada's primary framework for attending to diversity and inclusion in public policy. We argue that GBA+ is, in its current form, inadequate to guide ambitious and transformative policy in the post-pandemic years given four interlocking issues: (1) a weak integration of intersectionality; (2) insufficient attention to the power structures and socio-political context undergirding social relations and policymaking; (3) an instrumental understanding of policy; and (4) a misreading of identity. Drawing on feminist, intersectional and post-structuralist methods, we adjust the GBA+ framework with the aim of addressing the conceptual shortcomings identified in our analysis. Ultimately, we demonstrate how a more explicit engagement with notions of intersectionality, power and policy's instrumental and productive aspects can enrich the ways we think about public policy as both a mechanism and a venue for transformative change.     

Preparedness and crisis-driven policy change: COVID-19, digital readiness,and information technology professionals in Canadian local government

This article explores the pandemic-induced transition to electronic municipal council meetings in Ontario, Canada as an instance of crisis-driven policy change. Employing survey data of information technology (IT) professionals and a critical case study, this research probes the notion that crises, like pandemics, can not only create windows for policy change, but also draw attention to the many often overlooked operational elements of government, including the increasingly important policy role played by IT professionals.     

Debunking Brazilian Exceptionalism in its Africa Relations: Evidence from Angola and Tanzania

ABSTRACT

From 2003, President Lula heralded a new dawn in Brazil’s expanding African relations. Brazil was claimed to be unlike other exploitative powers because of its cultural, geographic and historic connections; Africa’s true brother. Despite the passing of two decades and a number of scandals, this narrative of exceptionalism remains. Studies on Brazil–Africa relations tend to focus on the Brazilian state as the key, essentially benign agent. Our analysis uses the case studies of Angola and Tanzania to debunk the idea of Brazilian exceptionalism. We demonstrate the significant, overlooked agency of corporations in shaping and implementing Lula’s Africa Policy, and determining its developmentally dubious outcomes. Additionally, the paper shows how political elites in Africa directed Brazilian government and companies into their political and business norms. Thus, Brazil–Africa relations replicated much of the typical economic patterns of the continent’s trade, with oft-controversial and corrupt investment in commodity extraction and infrastructure.     

The Color of Threat: Race,Threat Perception,and the Demise of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902–1923)

Race is understudied in International Relations generally and International Security specifically. To mitigate this omission, this article provides a racial theory of threat perception. It argues that, under certain conditions, racial prejudices embedded in racial identities shape threat perceptions and generate behavioral dispositions. In the first step, racial similarity deflates threat perceptions, while racial difference inflates them. In the second step, deflated threat perceptions facilitate cooperation among racially similar agents, while inflated threat perceptions facilitate discord among racially different agents. Using extensive archival and secondary sources, the article illustrates the explanatory value of the theory in the case of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-23).     

The new Middle East

Burma: The Struggle for Independence (2 Vols.) Ed. By Hugh Tinker. London H.M.S.O. 1983/84. £95.00 each Volume.     

The role of standardization and interoperability in copyright protection of computer software

Copyright protection for computer software often presents a contradiction between law and the desired public policy that is the law's inspiration. The law provides incentives to individuals to create intellectual property by protecting authors through monopolistic controls on copying and distributing the authors' work. Conferring too much protection, however, may reduce incentives to create competitive products in the same market, defeating the law's constitutional purpose of encouraging the “Progress of Science and the useful Arts.” Two characteristics of computer software, technical standards and interoperability, compound this contradiction. Using economic literature on standards and the recent line of Lotus v. Borland cases, this article examines the role of standardization and interoperability in copyright protection of computer software, and suggests a part for the fair‐use defense in such cases.