The Power of Proximity: Strategic Decisions in African Party Politics

Recent publications suggest that exclusively ethnoregional parties are as rare in sub- Saharan Africa as elsewhere. At the same time, the idea that ethnicity is a very special feature of African party politics persists. The paper acknowledges the general relevance of ethnicity in party competition but emphasizes the level on which it becomes important. It develops a microbehavioral approach which pays particular attention to the strategic choices of party elites in order to supplement the dominant structuralist thinking in party research on Africa. An in-depth evaluation of detailed election data from Burkina Faso shows that strategies which rely on personal proximity between the voter and the candidates influence the parties’ success to a great extent. Parties maximize their chances of winning seats if they concentrate their limited resources on the home localities of leading party members. Hence, African party politics are less dependent on ethnic demography than is often implied but more open to change through elite behavior.political parties, Burkina Faso, elections, local mobilization, resource efficiency, son of the soil

Syria: power sharing as an alternative to regional conflagration

On 21 August 2013, an estimated 1,400 people died in a poison gas attack in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus. As a result, the United States and its allies were faced with the decision of whether to use direct military intervention in Syria, 30 months after the outbreak of the uprising and two years after it had escalated into bloody civil war. An external military strike against the Syrian regime would have permanently shifted the complex nexus of local, regional and international actors and interests in Syria. Such an action would have been unlikely to resolve the conflict, but would have quite possibly exacerbated it. In the third year of the uprising in Syria, there is no sign of a solution. Neither the regime nor the broad spectrum of opposition forces appears capable of winning this destructive power struggle. There are strong indications that there will (almost) only be losers in the end. There are numerous external actors involved in the Syrian conflict who financially, diplomatically and militarily support either the regime or the various opposition camps. This is what saw the initial insurrection turn into a civil war; and the civil war, into a proxy war. Today, Syria is center stage of the struggle for the reconfiguration of the Middle East after the Arab Spring. An alternative to military intervention would be to exert political pressure on the participants to resolve their conflict through nonmilitary means and to develop a negotiated power-sharing arrangement. The accession of Syria to the Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 October 2013 has presented an opportunity for further negotiated solutions by bringing the previously isolated Bashar al-Assad regime back to the international negotiating table. Now, regional and international actors must push both the regime and the opposition to engage in serious talks. Achieving this in the context of Geneva II negotiations (for which have been scheduled for 22 January 2014) may be unrealistic considering the extensive preconditions of both sides. Without a negotiated compromise, however, the most likely outcome will be regional conflagration

Civilizing the world order? The scope and potential of transnational norm-building networks

Civil society organizations, epistemic communities, and lobby groups -what we call transnational norm-building networks - are influencing the global economy and global politics more than ever before. We argue that such transnational norm-building networks, in contrast to the dominating executive intergovernmental elites and democratically deficient supranational bodies, hold the scope and potential for a more civilized world order. They are - together with states and international governmental organizations - creating new norms; they are setting standards. They associate the voice of stakeholders with decision-making processes, thus leading to an increase in legitimate world governance. (GIGA

Digital interconnectivity as a driver for port and logistics competitiveness: the case of husbandry services as a cloud service

Creating an innovative tool that takes advantage of digital interconnectivity between shipping agencies and husbandry services suppliers was the starting point. But the main purpose of this paper is to figure out if that represents a business opportunity. It describes the preliminary stages undertaken, as the connections with the main potential providers of the husbandry services. This was carried out as a qualitative research, based on interviews given by shipping agencies that contributed as a source of data about their activities but also to survey their acceptance of the concept that could change the way of doing business in this area.At the same time, inquiries have been made to build financial scenarios that show the costs and revenue streams allocated to this project. Considering the data collected from the main players in husbandry services and the different outcomes, the feasibility of this project is assessed. Even though the paradigm was well received by all the firms contacted, the development costs turn out to be the main threat to the project so further steps are advised

The Power of Proximity : Strategic Decisions in African Party Politics

Recent publications suggest that exclusively ethnoregional parties are as rare in sub- Saharan Africa as elsewhere. At the same time, the idea that ethnicity is a very special feature of African party politics persists. The paper acknowledges the general relevance of ethnicity in party competition but emphasizes the level on which it becomes important. It develops a microbehavioral approach which pays particular attention to the strategic choices of party elites in order to supplement the dominant structuralist thinking in party research on Africa. An in-depth evaluation of detailed election data from Burkina Faso shows that strategies which rely on personal proximity between the voter and the candidates influence the parties’ success to a great extent. Parties maximize their chances of winning seats if they concentrate their limited resources on the home localities of leading party members. Hence, African party politics are less dependent on ethnic demography than is often implied but more open to change through elite behavior.Die neuere Literatur legt nahe, dass exklusive ethnoregionale Parteien im subsaharischen Afrika ähnlich selten sind wie andernorts. Zugleich besteht die Vorstellung fort, dass Ethnizität für afrikanische Parteiensysteme besonders wichtig sei. Dieser Beitrag stellt deshalb nicht die grundsätzliche Bedeutung von Ethnizität im Parteienwettbewerb in Frage, sondern widmet sich der spezifischen gesellschaftlichen Ebene, auf der Ethnizität wichtig wird. Der hier entwickelte mikrobehaviorale Ansatz, der strategischen Entscheidungen von Parteieliten besondere Beachtung schenkt, soll die vorherrschende strukturalistische Herangehensweise der Parteienforschung zu Afrika ergänzen. Eine exemplarische Untersuchung detaillierter Wahldaten aus Burkina Faso zeigt, dass Strategien, die auf der persönlichen Nähe zwischen Wähler und Kandidat aufbauen, den Parteierfolg stark beeinflussen. Parteien maximieren ihre Wahlchancen, wenn sie ihre begrenzten Ressourcen auf die Heimatorte führender Parteimitglieder konzentrieren. Infolgedessen ist der afrikanische Parteienwettbewerb weit weniger an die ethnische Demographie gebunden als häufig unterstellt wird, sondern durch Elitenverhalten wandlungsfähig

Zeitenwende in der internationalen Politik?

Am 18. und 19. Juni 2012 fand im mexikanischen Los Cabos der siebente G20-Gipfel statt. Im Zentrum der Diskussionen standen die internationale Finanzkrise, die Lage der EU und die Entwicklung der Weltwirtschaft. Die internationale Finanzkrise verdeutlicht die gewachsenen Interdependenzen und transnationalen Verflechtungen innerhalb des internationalen Systems. Die westliche Staatengemeinschaft und die sogenannten Regionalmächte, insbesondere die Gruppe der BRICS-Staaten (Brasilien, Russland, Indien, China, Südafrika), müssen gemeinsam an der Lösung globaler Fragen arbeiten. Die Finanzkrise hat eine Debatte zur Neuregulation der internationalen Institutionen angestoßen. Dadurch eröffnet sich ein Window of Opportunity für „neue“ Akteure, ihre eigenen normativen Grundprinzipien und Forderungen in die Debatte einzubringen. Vor diesem Hintergrund finden Spekulationen über die Neuausrichtung der globalen Machtstrukturen statt – verglichen mit dem Jahr 1989, als vom "Ende der Geschichte" die Rede war, allerdings unter umgekehrtem Vorzeichen: Das westlichliberale System fungiert nicht länger als alleiniges Vorbild. Die Diskussion über den Übergang zu einer neuen, bipolaren Machtstruktur des internationalen Systems (G2: China, USA) illustriert, dass der VR China eine Schlüsselrolle für die zukünftige Ausgestaltung der Weltpolitik zugeschrieben wird. Die VR China lehnt jedoch bipolare Szenarien, die möglicherweise auf einen neuen Systemkonflikt hinauslaufen könnten, ab. Stattdessen plädiert sie für multipolare Strukturen und positioniert sich als Anwältin der Gruppe der Entwicklungsländer. Es ist zu erwarten, dass eine Umverteilung von Stimm- und Mitspracherechten in internationalen Organisationen zugunsten der aufsteigenden Staaten erfolgt; dies impliziert jedoch noch keine unmittelbare Substitution der bestehenden internationalen Institutionenordnung