Overcoming the weight of history: 'Getting to yes' in the Peru-Ecuador border dispute

This article presents and analyzes the elements of the Western Hemisphere's longest standing boundary dispute and the crucial role of the region's oldest multilateral conflict resolution mechanism in working out an historic agreement in October 1998. Other factors in combination were also critical for success: an existing international legal framework, multilevel bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, decisive leadership and statecraft, and public diplomacy. The analysis suggests that the final settlement is a significant milestone in international diplomacy, demonstrating that even the most deeply ingrained differences between states can be resolved by the patient and persistent efforts of all parties involved.     

Linking context and strategy in donor support for decentralisation: a diagnostic framework

International donors, long‐standing supporters of decentralisation reforms in developing countries, often face the challenge of aligning programme assistance to the great variety of country governance settings in which many operate. This article presents a framework for assessing the implications of governance and institutional context for a range of programming challenges, with particular reference to the challenge of decentralised programming. The framework has three conceptual steps. Country governance and institutional change environments are first described in terms of how enabling governance capacities are for decentralised programming, and how rapid and predictable the rate of institutional change is. Second, these environmental considerations are associated with overall assistance modalities of donors, in areas such as the type of partners sought and interventions selected. Third, a range of options concerning the aims, scope and extent of decentralising programming are reviewed and linked to the diagnostic framework above. The framework is broadly derived from organisational contingency theory, which it is argued has been relatively neglected in the study of development administration due to a preponderance of analysis based on single‐case studies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Progress in American Policing? Reviewing the National Reviews

This essay uses three publications—the 1967 President's Crime Commission report on police , The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society; the National Research Council's review of research on policing , Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence; and David Weisburd and Anthony A. Braga's edited collection , Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives —as reference points for reflecting on the extent to which the American police institution has moved toward a progressive and professional ideal over the past forty years. I argue that unless the scope and complexity of the policing function is more fully taken into account, and unless the causes of crime and disorder and the police role in controlling and preventing them are reconsidered, the ideals of police reform will remain elusive.     

Patronage and empowerment in the central Amazon

The shift from modern to post‐modern politics in the Central Amazon is critically evaluated. While considerable empowerment of previously marginalised. Amerindians, rubber tapers and frontier peasants has occurred, patronage networks remain top down in their decision‐making process, significant horizontal political mobilisation between different social actors has not emerged and grassroots political organisation has been stymied by authoritarian politics at the state level. Consequently, as empowerment is supposed to lie at the heart of building sustainable livelihoods in the Amazon, by this line of logic, the future of the region would seem to be seriously compromised.