How Much Does Geography Deflect Services Trade?

Abstract We estimate geographic barriers to trade in nine service categories for Canada's provinces from 1997 to 2007 with novel high quality bilateral provincial trade data. The border directly reduces average provincial trade with the US relative to interprovincial trade to 2.4% of its borderless level. Incorporating multilateral resistance reduces foreign trade relative to interprovincial to 0.1% of its frictionless potential. Geography reduces services trade some 7 times more than goods trade overall. Surprisingly, intra-provincial (local) trade in services and goods is equally deflected upward, implying that the border increases interprovincial trade much more in services than goods. JEL Classification Codes: F13, F14, F1

“Towards a Feminist Geopolitics”

The intersections and conversations between feminist geography and political geography have been surprisingly few. The notion of a feminist geopolitics remains undeveloped in geography. This paper aims to create a theoretical and practical space in which to articulate a feminist geopolitics. Feminist geopolitics is not an alternative theory of geopolitics, nor the ushering in of a new spatial order, but is an approach to global issues with feminist politics in mind. 'Feminist' in this context refers to analyses and political interventions that address the unequal and often violent relationships among people based on real or perceived differences. Building upon the literature from critical geopolitics, feminist international relations, and transnational feminist studies, I develop a framework for feminist political engagement. The paper interrogates concepts of human security and juxtaposes them with state security, arguing for a more accountable, embodied, and responsive notion of geopolitics. A feminist geopolitics is sought by examining politics at scales other than that of the nation-state; by challenging the public/private divide at a global scale; and by analyzing the politics of mobility for perpetrators of crimes against humanity. As such, feminist geopolitics is a critical approach and a contingent set of political practices operating at scales finer and coarser than the nation-state

Human Security from Paradigm Shift to Operationalization: Job Description for a Human Security Worker

This article shows how human security has functioned as both a paradigm-shifting and a bridging concept, with its most significant implications being, first, the shift from a focus on state security to one on human rights, and, second, the indivisibility of physical and material security. The article will argue that, despite attempts at narrowing and appropriation, human security has lost neither its radical edge nor its holistic character; however, the bulk of the literature on the subject is theoretical, and there has not been a serious enough effort to operationalize the term so as to enable a real shift in policymaking. The second half of the article is an attempt to operationalize human security while respecting its paradigm-shifting and holistic character. It discusses necessary connections with wider policy shifts before outlining ways in which current intelligence, development, military and ‘state-building’ practices would have to be transformed to serve human security. Finally, a sketch is drawn of the ideal ‘human security worker’ of the future and the contexts in which she might work