September 20, 2010 AASU Faculty Senate Agenda

September 20, 2010 AASU Faculty Senate Agend

The 2008 Newsletter of the International Association of Labour Inspection

: The IALI newsletter reflects on the organization’s activities in 2008, which included involvement in a number of conferences and reports addressing workplace monitoring, forced labor and human trafficking, workplace stress, migrant workers, and health and safety issues. The newsletter gives a summary plan for the organizations 2009 goals

October 18, 2010 AASU Faculty Senate Agenda

October 18, 2010 AASU Faculty Senate Agend

Towards a Eurasian economic Union: the challenge of integration and unity

otherwise – without the prior permission of CEPS

Russian-Moldovan Relations after the Collapse of the Soviet Union

After the break-up of the Soviet Empire a newborn Republic of Moldova faced a series of challenges, one of which was creating the political and economic foundations that would allow it to become the sustainable European country. It proved to be an extremely difficult task. Indeed, at the beginning of the 1990\u27s Moldova was widely known as the poorest and the least economically stable country on the old continent. During the first years of independence the Moldovan leaders realized that the greatest challenge would be to limit Russian influences on the domestic and foreign policy of the country. Since the Russian Federation, the principal successor state of the Soviet Union, considered Moldova to be of the highest strategic importance it wanted to ensure that Moldova would remain under the Russian sphere of vital interests. Unfortunately for Moldova it also meant that Kremlin wanted it to remain impoverished and divided, and thus, easier to control. Support for the self-proclaimed Dniestrian Moldovan Republic became one of the effective tools of Moscow in pursuing its own vision of Kishinev\u27s position on the European scene.;The current study presents the Russian foreign policy strategy toward the Republic of Moldova after the collapse of the Soviet Union and shows how the weak and small country had to struggle with outside influences on its domestic affairs. It also argues that it has been in Russia\u27s best interests to maintain the current Moldovan status quo in order to be able to prevent it from strengthening cooperation with Western players, particularly NATO and the EU. The study examines in detail the various mechanisms of Russian foreign policy that were aimed at balancing the Western influences in Moldova. Finally it argues that for over the past twenty years the Kremlin has not hesitated to use blackmail, especially on trade issues, which has significantly inhibited the Moldovan process of transformation into a democratic and sustainable state

Kean University\u27s 2011 Self Study Report February 17, 2011

Kean University\u27s 2011 Self Study Report February 17, 201

Effects of Leadership and Trauma on Grassroots Community Development in Post-Conflict/Genocide Societies: A Rwandan Case Study

This research paper is an analysis of a grassroots, agricultural project carried out from 2010 to 2011 in Gitarama Cell, a rural community in Rwanda, East Africa, during my United States Peace Corps Volunteer service (2009-2011). The project began as the Twizere Agriculture Club at Gitarama Primary School. The goal of the club was to increase food security among community members through rabbit and chicken husbandry, and the study of such agriculture techniques as composting, double digging, and the establishment of microgardens. Despite the acknowledged need for this club, the Twizere Agriculture Club project met multiple constraints that affected its outcomes. Discussing them with community members, club participants, and local leaders, and analyzing the constraints provided valuable insight on the psychological and social effects of trauma emanating from domestic conflict and genocide. The primary findings of the analysis manifest the totalitarian, hard-version Theory X leadership style the current ruling party uses to control the public, as well as corruption and Stockholm syndrome conceivably among the local leader project stakeholders. Evidence revealed appeasement and post-traumatic stress likely within many of the project stakeholders, in addition to divided relationships, showing fear, anger, and mistrust among the project beneficiaries—being probable effects of the 1994 Genocide. The data also illustrated possible dependency syndrome in the project stakeholders. The analysis led way to the formation of a hypothesis called The Post-Conflict/Genocide Development Hypothesis. This hypothesis and the analysis’ primary findings may be useful to development workers implementing projects at the grassroots level in post-conflict/genocide societies by preventing some or all of the same constraints that transpired in the Twizere Agriculture Club Project

Why Was Mongolia Successful? Political and Economic Transition in 1990-1996

Mongolia's historical, geographical, political, and economic circumstances seem to be closest to those of the Central Asian states. Yet, unlike these states, Mongolia was able to successfully transition to a democratic political regime and introduce far-reaching economic reforms. This dissertation analyzes this puzzle by focusing on the early transition period in Mongolia. The dissertation provides detailed account of political and economic processes during the ten years from 1987 to 1996. The account of events is based on primary data drawn from government and party documents, cabinet minutes, daily newspaper accounts, memoirs of the participants, and detailed interviews with the participants of the events. In addition to the detailed description, the dissertation provides alternative theoretical frameworks - as opposed to the structural explanations provided thus far - which could be useful in explaining why things happened the way they did in Mongolia. Namely, the dissertation brings in two groups of political economy theories - institutions and constitutional design and special interest and collective action theories -and attempts to explain the events in Mongolia through the lens of these theoretical arguments. The first chapter provides a comprehensive literature review on Mongolia's political and economic transition and places it in a comparative perspective. The second chapter describes and analyzes the nature and extent of the partial economic and political reforms that were implemented in the late communist period. The third chapter describes in detail the political events that led to the collapse of the long-standing communist regime and the subsequent radical political changes that took place following the peaceful "democratic revolution". The fourth chapter deals in detail with the economic shock the country faced with the withdrawal of the Soviet financial assistance, the first policy response, and the overall politics of economic decision making. I pay special attention to privatization, the cornerstone of early reform attempts. The last chapter summarizes, classifies, and prioritizes the variety of factors - historical, external, political, institutional, and cultural - that were identified as having contributed to the successful political and economic transition

The Visible Effects of an Invisible Constitution: The Contested State of Transdniestria\u27s Search for Recognition through International Negotiations

Most scholars agree that modern states share several defining characteristics: a population, territory, government, and the capacity to enter into international relations. More recently, this list has expanded to include the criteria of democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights. These traditional and contemporary criteria for statehood are likewise essential for settling the status of de facto states, entities that seek international recognition yet are rebuffed by the world community. By examining the criteria for international recognition from the perspective of constitutional law, this dissertation reveals the existing but overlooked relationship between the recognition process and constitutionalism. As is shown, a constitution performs more than its usual functions of organizing and regulating a polity, limiting the government, and ensuring individuals protection. It also plays a key role in asserting and realizing both the traditional and contemporary criteria for state recognition. This linkage between constitutionalism and the recognition process is then tested on the case study of Transdniestria, an entity within the Republic of Moldova that has all the attributes of a state and seeks recognition of its statehood. As one of the first analyses of unrecognized foundational legal frameworks, this dissertation offers insight into how an “invisible” constitution affects the recognition process and the political status of an unrecognized state. It shows that, while the Transdniestrian constitution has not influenced the entity’s search for recognition, it has had other important effects on the negotiation process, such as consolidating Transdniestrian statehood, hardening the entity’s position in negotiations, and influencing the nature of its interactions with international actors. These outcomes broaden the understanding of the contemporary criteria for recognition and the functions of a constitution with respect to their application in unrecognized states. They also demonstrate the limitations of the prevailing approach in the literature that democratization is necessarily beneficial for the purposes of conflict resolution. In such a way, this research additionally helps to present a more nuanced picture of post-Cold War politics, law, and international relations in Europe