The South Africa-Zimbabwe remittance corridor: an analysis of key drivers and constraints

A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the topic of migration and remittances over the last few years, but the literature on the South Africa-Zimbabwe remittance corridor remains scarce. Using a survey conducted in April 2010 of 347 Zimbabwean migrants living in the Western Cape Province, this paper is focused on three primary aims. The first is to gain an insight into the remittance-sending behaviour and patterns of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. The second is to apply the survey data to assess underlying dynamics of the drivers that influence migrants’ remittance-sending decisions. The third is to analyze and discuss the constraints to remitting that Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa are faced with and that shape the remittance-sending landscape. The survey results show that remittance flows in the South Africa-Zimbabwe remittance corridor are considerable, with more than 90 per cent of Zimbabwean migrants in the sample remitting on average almost a third of their income. The most significant driver of remittances was found to be the number of dependants that migrants have in Zimbabwe. Moreover, the great majority of remittances are sent through informal channels, despite the inefficiency and high costs of these. The paper concludes that there are significant market inefficiencies and impediments in South Africa that negatively impact the flow of remittances to Zimbabwe, both by driving up costs and by excluding the majority of migrants from formal remittance channels

Communication, Renegotiation, and the Scope for Collusion

We study the effect of communication in an experimental game where cooperation is consistent with equilibrium play if players share an understanding that cheating will be punished. Consistent with communication acting as a coordinating device, credible preplay threats to punish cheating are the most effective message to facilitate collusion. Promises to collude also improve cooperation. Credible threats do not occur in a treatment with a limited message space that permits threats of punishment. Contrary to some theoretical predictions, renegotiation possibilities facilitate collusion

Becoming large, becoming infinite: the anatomy of thermal physics and phase transitions in finite systems

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the anatomy of both thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, together with the relationships between their constituent parts. Based on this analysis, using the renormalization group and finite-size scaling, we give a definition of a large but finite system and argue that phase transitions are represented correctly, as incipient singularities in such systems. We describe the role of the thermodynamic limit. And we explore the implications of this picture of critical phenomena for the questions of reduction and emergence

Military Involvement in COVID-19 Responses: Comparing Asia and Latin America

Across the world, governments mobilised the military to support COVID-19 relief efforts. Especially in Asia and Latin America, where the military was extensively involved, this raised concerns about the negative implications for democratic quality and human rights. However, only in a few of the two regions' countries did the military hijack or supplant civilian politics during the pandemic. In both regions, militaries performed numerous tasks during the pandemic, staffing the health bureaucracy, producing medical equipment, providing healthcare services, delivering logistics, and enforcing public-security measures. The extensive reliance on the military's organisational resources, however, did not necessarily lead to the political ascendance of the armed forces or the erosion of democratic quality. Military participation in COVID-19 relief efforts undermined democracy and human rights only where the armed forces had been a pivotal actor in the context of institutionally weak democracies or militarised dictatorships already prior to 2020

Trilateral Arms Control? Perspectives from Washington, Moscow, and Beijing

With the end of the INF Treaty in 2019, trilateral arms control - meaning arms control between the United States, Russia, and China - has gained center stage. Only shortly after the U.S. withdrawal, U.S. President Trump declared that he wants a new nuclear pact to be signed by both Russia and China. Other U.S. administration officials have set the goal of including China in a future follow-on framework to the New START agreement, which expires in February 2021. Then again, could trilateral arms control be possible at all? What would be necessary conditions? Why should Washington, Moscow, and Beijing engage in an uncertain endeavor that promises to significantly affect their strategic relationships? The authors of this study address those and other questions

Prospects of a collective pitch control by means of predictive disturbance compensation assisted by wind speed measurements

A simple but robust and effective method to improve collective pitch control of variable-speed wind turbines given information on future inflow is proposed. The present paper focuses on the design and prospects of a control concept using predictive disturbance compensation. This feed-forward control structure is based on calculation of a future effective wind speed, on static disturbance compensation from steady turbine data and on estimation of the dynamic behavior. The control strategy is evaluated with regards to stability, robustness and performance in frequency and time domain. The required wind field information is currently not available for common control, but can in general be obtained from measurements with remote sensing technologies and wind modeling. Significant reductions of rotor speed variations, mechanical loads and pitch activity at fatigue and extreme operating conditions are demonstrated

Demokratisierung und zivil-militärische Beziehungen in Ostasien: Theorie und Empirie

In Ostasien vollzog sich die dritte Demokratisierungswelle vorwiegend in Staaten, in denen das Militär in der Vergangenheit eine herausragende politische Rolle spielte. In diesem Beitrag gehen die Autoren der Frage nach, wie und mit welchen Erfolgen es demokratischen Regierungen in der Region gelungen ist, die zivile Kontrolle über die Streitkräfte zu institutionalisieren und so ihre effektive Herrschaftsgewalt zu sichern. Ausgehend von Erkenntnissen der jüngeren Demokratisierungsforschung und Militärsoziologie entwickeln die Autoren einen theoretischen Analyserahmen, der die Institutionalisierung ziviler Kontrolle als Ergebnis von strategischen Akteursentscheidungen konzeptualisiert. Die anschließende empirische Analyse zeigt, dass die demokratischen Regierungen in der Region zum Teil noch immer erhebliche Einschränkungen ihrer effektiven Herrschaftsgewalt hinnehmen müssen. Darüber hinaus sind offene Militärintervention und das Entstehen neuer Militärregime weiterhin realistische Entwicklungspfade der zivil-militärischen Beziehungen in Ostasien.The recent wave of democratization in East Asia predominantly struck countries in which the armed forces had played a dominant political role under the authoritarian regimes. This article analyzes how and how successful governments in emerging East Asian democracies have crafted civilian control over the military. Starting from theoretical findings of recent research on democratic transition and in military sociology, the authors develop an analytical framework that conceptualizes the institutionalization of civilian control of the military as the result of strategic decisions made by rational actors. The following empirical analysis shows, that most of the emerging democracies in the region still have to cope with considerable constraints on their elected government’s effective power to govern posed by the armed forces. Furthermore, open military intervention and the emergence of new military regimes are still realistic paths in the development of civil-military relations in East Asia