Does violence pay? : the effect of ethnic rebellion onovercoming political deprivation

Studies have found that politically deprived groups are more likely to rebel. However, does rebellion increase the likelihood of achieving political rights? This article proposes that rebellion helps ethnic groups to overcome deprivation. I illustrate this by using a “typical” case (the Ijaw’s struggle against the Nigerian government) to demonstrate how ethnic rebellion increases the costs for the government to a point where granting political rights becomes preferable to war. Further, I exploit time‐series‐cross‐sectional data on deprived ethnic groups to show that rebellion is significantly associated with overcoming deprivation. The statistical analysis shows that democratic change is an alternative mechanism

International cooperation and development: a conceptual overview

Any credible claim to implement an agenda for global development – such as currently discussed in the post-2015 process – will require integrating the broader framework of international cooperation into this effort. A wide, but vague consensus that global framework conditions matter for development has already existed in past development debates. However, good resolutions such as MDG 8 for a global partnership have shown insufficient progress in practice. This paper reviews key aspects of the relationship between international cooperation and development at a conceptual level. Drawing on a distinction between domestic and global public goods as enablers and goals of development, the paper first illustrates the role of international cooperation and its interdependence with domestic action. The framework identifies contact points in the relationship between global and domestic action and goals with the categories of provision, support, access and preservation. The second part of the paper reviews key concepts of patterns of international cooperation that represent the elements of the global governance framework to which a broadening development agenda needs to link up more strongly. Overall, the conceptual review underlines that the question of how international cooperation works has moved to the centre of development studies. Yet, an even bigger challenge than achieving cooperation in the first place might be to steer the complex architecture and processes of international cooperation towards contributing to a global agenda for development

Friends or foes? Interactions between Indonesia’s international investment agreements and national investment law

Developing countries regularly conclude international investment agreements with the objective of attracting foreign investment. Such agreements form commitments to far-reaching international rules on investment issues, and usually allow foreign investors to sue countries for compensation in cases of non-compliance with treaty provisions. This study argues that such non-compliance is a result of inconsistencies between national investment laws and measures and international treaty commitments. Through an in-depth empirical examination of Indonesia’s investment law, the study analyses the complexities of managing this interaction between national investment law and international investment agreements, and identifies appropriate strategies and governance mechanisms to enhance coherence between these two areas. The implications for national policy space and economic development are considered throughout