FDI in small states and unattractive markets: the case of São Tomé and Príncipe

ABSTRACT

Studies on Small States, ‘unattractive’ markets, namely those from Africa, are very scarce. São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), a Small State, insular economy, has had considerable momentum in attracting FDI in the last decade albeit its geographical and demographic constraints and relative weak economic growth. The current study uncovers the potential determinants of FDI in unattractive markets using STP as a case study. Based on (robust) logistic estimations on a sample of 56 Portuguese companies that have trade relations with African countries, we show that in the case of Small States economies and unattractive markets, the relevance of institutional factors and resource seeking strategies surpass internalisation and location factors related to market size and dynamics. We further uncovered that foreign companies’ characteristics, namely size and (general) human capital, are critical in explaining companies’ likelihood to invest in an ‘unattractive’ market.     

Victim compensation for acts of terrorism and the limits of the state

Little academic attention has been directed towards the victims of terrorism. This article begins to do so by interrogating how victims get compensated, and for how much, in North America and Western Europe. This article examines compensation from three vantage points. First, attention is directed to the variety of state programmes that have been mobilised over the last several decades to build individual and state resilience. I will suggest, however, that many of these programmes fall short, as they fail to meet victim needs. Indeed, as I subsequently illustrate, public and private philanthropy are playing an increasingly important role in providing victim support, sometimes superseding state contributions. Yet while they speak to an affective response that emerges out of and reinforces community building, they are also highly uneven and can entrench existing social inequalities. I then turn to examine the turn to the courts as a means both for recouping further compensation and for achieving some kind of accountability. Notably, the drive to provide victims with other mechanisms for compensation has led to new legislative mechanisms that are reshaping geopolitics by reworking the principle of sovereign immunity. Together, these examples of compensation trouble simplistic characterisations of victimhood while also illustrating how both victims and terrorism are being made governable, often with chilling consequences. They also expose the limits of the state and of state sovereignty.     

国际语境中的政治安全与弱国的治理困境

国际语境中的政治安全日益呈现出一种以国家主权为核心,既分门别类又相互联结的"多流模式"。在全球化时代背景下,弱国对国际安全的整体影响愈益提升,弱国政治安全动态以其对政权安全的追求及其与公共安全间的张力为核心,关涉"统治精英及其支持机制的统治免于主要来自内部的威胁"的"政权安全"遂构成弱国政治安全的特定称呼。弱国政治安全的核心逻辑形成于弱国政权对"短期政权安全追求与长期国家建设间的深刻矛盾"的"弱国政治安全治理困境"的应对。弱国政治安全困境的治理离不开对政权安全与人的安全的智慧融合。此种困境具有长期性,在其驱动之下,弱国政治安全的理论探索表现出弱国联盟与安全区域主义等议题的演进,而其进一步的发展则离不开对弱国语境的领会,围绕弱国政权安全的模式和相关的内外政策,探索弱国政治安全对"软权力"的追求、弱国政治安全对特定国家安全观的推动等问题。     

Health not Wealth: Enlarging the EMU

Economic health not wealth should be the decisive criterion when considering the prospects of the Central and East European (CEE) candidates for EU membership and the capacity of the EU to enlarge. Viewed this way the outlook is promising. The CEE countries are still very poor, compared to most of the existing EU members, but they are also much more dynamic. Growth rates are generally expected to remain around 4-5 per cent in CEE for the foreseeable future, compared to about 2-3 per cent for the EU. This still implies that full catch-up in terms of GDP per capita will take decades, rather than years, but full catch-up is not the relevant criterion if one is concerned about enlargement. Experience in the EU has shown that problems are much more likely to arise from established rich member countries with stagnant economies (Belgium in the 1980s and Germany today) than poor, but more dynamic states (such as Portugal and Ireland today). The fact that most of the so-called 'periphery' is now growing more strongly than the 'core' confirms that EU integration benefits poorer countries even more.     

“So,the Killings Continued”: Wartime Mobilization and Post-War Violence in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

ABSTRACT

Many post-war states experience continuous low-intensity violence for years after the formal end of the conflict. Existing theories often focus on country-level explanations of post-war violence, such as the presence of spoilers or the nature of the peace agreement. Yet, post-war violence does not affect all communities equally; whereas some remain entrenched in violence, others escape the perpetuation of violent conflict. We argue that communities where wartime mobilization at the local level is based on the formation of alliances between armed groups and local elites are more likely to experience post-war violence, than communities where armed groups generate civilian support based on grassroots backing of the group’s political objectives. We explore this argument in a comparison of three communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which have experienced different levels of post-war violence. The analysis supports the main argument and contributes to the research on the microdynamics of civil war by outlining the implications of certain strategies of wartime mobilization and how these may generate localized legacies.     

失地农民社会权保障的宪法分析

社会权作为失地农民的一项基本权利,由于制度性根源、法律根源和公共政策根源造成了失地农民社会权的贫困,并且未得到宪法等法律的有效保护。从构建和谐社会角度看,加强失地农民社会权的宪法保障,以人为本是失地农民社会权宪法保障的哲学伦理学基础,阶层平等是失地农民社会权宪法保障的法理基础,人格尊严与个人自治是失地农民社会权宪法保障的人权法价值。失地农民社会权的宪法保障离不开宪法本身的完善和宪政制度构建的支持,实现失地农民社会权宪法保障是国家应尽的义务。     

Reinventing ‘new’ Europe: Baltic perspectives on transatlantic security reconfigurations

This article examines the self-positioning of the three Baltic states in international politics in relation to the major structural pressures challenging the status quo of the transatlantic security configuration. The constitutive role of the Russia-Georgia war of 2008, the global economic recession, the debt crisis in the eurozone, and the shifting policy preferences and force projection of the United States towards Asia are explored as the key sources of the emerging Baltic security predicament. The empirical conclusions of the poststructuralist discourse analysis conducted for this study demonstrate how the Baltic states, in particular Estonia, have recently come to redefine the contents of ‘new’ Europe, thereby shifting the extant fault lines within the European Union.     

Development in the Commonwealth Caribbeans after a half-century of independence: insights from transnational and regional perspectives

After 50 years of formal independence in the anglophone Caribbean, this article suggests gains for both analysis and policy may be made by something of a paradigm shift towards a focus on transnational and regional relations. This is especially so for the myriad small, particularly island, states which have always been relatively ‘open’ especially as contemporary governance demands proliferate as indicated in the first section below. And it holds potential for island communities in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well as the Caribbean, especially for those associated with inter- and non-state Commonwealth networks; these now include not only the original established ‘Dominions’ of Australia, Britain and Canada but also 2/5 BRICS, or 25% of the G20. A focus on the transnational and regional helps to transcend the old binary of ‘vulnerability’ versus ‘resilience’.     

The Mechanism of State Charter School Policy Adoption: The Case of American States

This article concentrates on charter school policy that is regarded as the fastest growing innovative policy in America. Its adoption is more impressive than other innovative policies in the public educational area. By 2008, 40 states among 50 American states have passed charter school law since Minnesota became the first pathfinder to create charter school law about two decades ago. However, 10 states have not adopted charter school law. Based on this dichotomous policy phenomenon, the primary research question of the study focuses on clarifying what factors drive American states to adopt charter school policy. To obtain answers for this research question, the study dedicates to analyzing main hypotheses from the regional diffusion model and state characteristics, using event history analysis. The results demonstrate that the three predictor variables—regional diffusion, similar innovation, and gubernatorial political tendency—positively have significant effects in explaining the adoption of American state charter school policy.     

All the world is a stage: global governance,human resources,and the ‘problem’ of smallness

Abstract

The involvement of small island states (SISs) in a growing number of international organisations (IOs) has placed increased pressure on domestic bureaucracies and political systems. Rapid turnover among SIS leaders, combined with generational change and decreased local support, has amplified disadvantages. Growing complexity has therefore further exposed the long-standing vulnerabilities of SISs. They can play a creative role at the margins, and on certain issues in certain IOs, but in general asymmetries prevail. The lesson is that national sovereignty does not always equal control, and what might superficially appear to be equal access is constrained by the availability of technical expertise to the detriment of SISs.