Communication Breakdown?: The Future of Global Connectivity After the Privatization of INTELSAT

In 1971, eighty-five nations (including the United States) formed the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), a public intergovernmental treaty organization. INTELSAT was charged with operating the world\u27s first global telecommunications satellite system, to guarantee the interconnectedness of the world\u27s communications systems and the availability of international telecommunications service to every nation on earth. By the late 1980s, however, INTELSAT\u27s operations began to experience substantial competition from the private sector. In 2000, the proliferation of privately-owned telecommunications satellites and transoceanic fiber-optic cables led the U.S. Congress to mandate the privatization of INTELSAT. That privatization process began in 2001, and was substantially completed on April 8, 2005, when the Federal Communications Commission approved the $5 billion sale of INTELSAT\u27s former satellite system to private investors

The Hidden Investment War: State Intervention and Relative Gains Seeking from Inward Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S. and China

This dissertation aims to analyze and compare the evolution of the regulatory regimes for inward foreign direct investments (IFDIs) in the U.S. and China. The theoretical-analytical framework combines the theory of relative gains-seeking and historical institutionalism. Since some cutting-edge technologies generate positive externalities across different industrial sectors and have both commercial and military applications, firms and countries that possess them can yield long-term relative gains from international economic cooperation and global value chains. As indigenous innovation demands long-term and large capital investments, especially in R&D-intensive sectors, a late developer such as China can accelerate the general process of technology diffusion by intervening in IFDI deals to promote the transfer of cutting-edge technologies possessed by foreign entities to domestic firms. For an early developed economy such as the U.S., its task is to protect the advanced technologies from being transacted or taken over by foreign firms – to defend relative gains from international economic cooperation. The comparative-historical analysis in this study first places the institutional origins and evolutions of the two regulatory regimes in the broader historical context. It gives special attention to the institutional origins of the contemporary IFDI regulatory regimes in the 1970s and 1980s in both countries, and illustrates how the institutions have evolved and effectively worked to serve states’ political goals. The empirical findings show that relative gains-seeking driven by the political logic of globalization – insecurity and competition – has enabled both countries to transform the domestic regulatory institutions. However, at some critical junctures, the historically constituted institutional relations within the two states also constrained the recasting of domestic institutions. In the U.S., even though capital and technology transfer had impaired its domestic productive capabilities and U.S. companies’ economic positions in strategic sectors in the 1970s and 1980s, the Treasury Department steered the institutional change of CFIUS and shielded it from the more politicized – yet also more democratic – site of decision-making in Congress. In China, institutional change and policy liberalization have also been mainly characterized with an elite-led process, which countered the demands of the greater conservative social coalition in the 1970s and impeded the legalization of a national security review regime for IFDIs amid the trade war. A comparison of the two cases shows that the state capacity to regulate IFDI for strategic goals increased in the U.S., while decreased somewhat in China. Today’s policy instruments are outcomes of long-term exposure to the changing international markets. Lastly, these findings also demonstrate that historical institutionalism and neorealism can complement each other in explaining change and continuity in world politics

Polish Communications Law: Telecommunications Takes Off in Transition Countries But at What Price Are They Becoming Wired?

Internationally, the urge to expand and improve telecommunications services is spreading. Transition countries, attempting the leap from Third World status to becoming world leaders, have caught the fever and have attempted to reform their regulations governing telecommunications. In large part these laws have induced slow liberalization of the communications sector with an intrusive regulatory agency guarding every step taken towards privatization. The World Trade Organization\u27s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) encourages transition countries to use privatization as a way to increase funding for communications equipment. Many transition countries signed the GATS agreement in the hope of attracting international capital, while they slowly reform their domestic communications laws. Poland, a signatory to the GATS agreement, is slowly refocusing its domestic communications law to allow some privatization. This Note examines the liberalization of the basic telecommunications sector in Poland and the role of GATS in this process. It includes a comparison of the legal reforms in Poland to those of other Eastern European countries. It also suggests ways in which transitional countries such as Poland can keep some domestic control over their telecommunications sectors, while continuing to comply with GATS objectives

The Ouachita Circle Fall 2007

U.S. News and World Report rated OBU #1 baccalaureate college in the South for academic quality, and #2 baccalaureate college in the Great Schools/Great Prices category Difference Maker: Mike Huckabee lecture on behalf of Ouachita\u27s new Center for Education and Public Policy BOOM-A-LACKA!: Tiger Spirit Makes a Comeback HOMECOMING 2007: Kappa Chi wins Tiger Tunes 2007, EEE and Tri Chi win second and third place Two Minds for Missions: Cindy McClain (\u2780) and Debbie Moore (\u2774) join the ABSC Mission Support Team Remembering: Dr. O. Fred Becker Building a Better Place to Call Home: Alumni Work Toward the Betterment of Clark County International Travel Admissions Recognized for Innovative Techniques Tiger Network Leadership Award Campus News Class Notes Faculty/Staff Notes Former Students Associationhttps://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/alumni_mag/1001/thumbnail.jp