Democratization Vs. Liberalization in the Arab World: Dilemmas and Challenges for U.S. Foreign Policy

The author looks at the political origins and dynamics of liberalized autocracy in the Arab world. Liberalized autocracy is a system of rule that allows for a measure of political openness and competition in the electoral, party, and press arenas, while ultimately ensuring that power rests in the hands of ruling regimes. This mix of control and openness has not only benefited ruling elites, but oppositions as well. It gives them room to let off steam, to criticize regimes, and occasionally to affect public policy. Moreover, given the absence of consensus in many Arab states over national identity, liberalized autocracy has provided an umbrella by which competing groups--Islamists, secularists, Kurds, and Berbers--can achieve a measure of peaceful coexistence precisely because no group actually wields power. The United States largely has supported such hybrid systems, a fact of political life that has not changed dramatically under the Bush administration despite its rhetorical commitment to democracy. Whether the gap between words and deeds should or can be closed or narrowed is a complex question, since a sudden move from state-managed liberalization to democracy could open the door to Islamist power.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1743/thumbnail.jp

The Persistent Problem: Inequality, Difference, and the Challenge of Development

This report highlights the complex, multidimensional nature of inequality in the era of globalization. It documents that despite the impressive strides by nations like China and India, absolute inequality between the richest and poorest countries is greater than ever before in history. It demonstrates that the rise of China and India creates a new dimension to the persistent problem of inequality

Gender comparisons of fat talk in the United Kingdom and the United States

This study compared different forms of body talk, including "fat talk," among 231 university men and women in central England (UK; n = 93) and the southeastern United States (US; n = 138). A 2 (gender) by 2 (country) repeated measures ANOVA across types of body talk (negative, self-accepting, positive) and additional Chi-square analyses revealed that there were differences across gender and between the UK and US cultures. Specifically, UK and US women were more likely to report frequently hearing or perceiving pressure to engage in fat talk than men. US women and men were also more likely to report pressure to join in self-accepting body talk than UK women and men

Democratization, Quality of Institutions and Economic Growth

There are two innovations in the paper as compared to the previous literature on democracy and growth. First, we consider not only the level of democracy, but also changes in this level in the 1970s-1990s as measured by increments of Freedom House political rights indices. Second, the distinction is made between democracy and law and order (order based on legal rules); the latter is measured by the rule of law, investors' risk and corruption indices. We discuss two interconnected threshold hypotheses: (1) in countries where law and order is strong enough, democratization stimulates economic growth, whereas in countries with poor law and order democratization undermines growth; (2) if democratization occurs under the conditions of poor law and order (so that illiberal democracy emerges), then shadow economy expands, quality of governance worsens, and macroeconomic policy becomes less prudent. We adduce a number of stylized facts to support our hypotheses. However our econometric findings are mixed: we report results that support the hypotheses as well as regressions that contradict them

U.S.-Turkey Strategic Dialogue

PASCC ReportThis report summarizes a track II U.S.-Turkish dialogue organized by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) in Istanbul, Turkey, on February 26–27, 2015. While addressing a range of issues affecting U.S.-Turkish strategic cooperation and the role of Turkey in NATO, the discussions focused on the challenges and opportunities that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the dynamics of nuclear weapons proliferation pose to U.S.-Turkish strategic cooperation.This report is the product of a collaboration among the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, Istanbul, the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center on Contemporary Conflict, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

End of a brief affair? : the United States and Iran

Daniel Brumber