Balance of Payments Support Aid in Japan:

Summaries The paper presents an overview of the historical evolution of BOP support aid in Japan, including changes in its policies and modalities. Organizational set?up and evaluation methodologies of official donor agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, OECF and EXIM are explained. The methodologies are analyzed in the following two ways: items covered in the evaluations and analytical methods. Lessons and suggestions from their evaluations are as follows: objectives of structural adjustment programmes should be clearly defined; direct indicators for impact should be selected in correspondence with policy measures categorized; and the impact of other factors than structural adjustment, especially project aid, should be separated

TOWARDS AN ITALIAN STRATEGY FOR THE ARCTIC NATIONAL GUIDELINES STRATEGIA DEL GOVERNO ITALIANO PER L ARTICO

Italy is about to reach the milestone of a century of scientific presence in the Arctic. Our footprint has been consolidating over time, thanks to the size and quality of the activities conducted by scientific institutions like CNR, ENEA, INGV and OGS, together with many Universities and other research centers. Accordingly, Italy is set to get increasingly involved in all avenues of Arctic cooperation, be it on a multilateral level (in the Arctic Council and in other relevant fora) or bilaterally, with each of the Arctic States

The West against the rest? Democracy versus autocracy promotion in Venezuela

Venezuela provides a strong test case for the weakening of democracy and the strengthening of autocracy promotion. External actors are a key part of the domestic political game: the European Union and the United States (EUUS) promote ‘democracy by coercion’ and recognised Juan Guaidó as president, whereas China, Cuba and Russia (CCR) bolster the regime of Nicolás Maduro. A comparative foreign policy analysis argues that, firstly, EUUS sanctions have resulted in strengthening CCR's autocratic leverage and linkage; and secondly, the division ‘between the West and the Rest’ has posed an additional obstacle for a transition to democracy and national reconstructio

Rights-based Approaches and Bilateral Aid Agencies: More Than a Metaphor?

It could be argued that the rights based approach … is no more than ametaphor; a concept that catalyses a set of values into a phrase that many people can adopt and adapt. It is a general statement in favour of equitable development, involving widespread participation of those with no direct control of, or access to, the power of the state … If we still take rights as a legal concept then much of what passes as rights based is unlikely to be successful because there are often no state bodies committed to meeting the obligations implied. There is also a sense in that the “emperor has no clothes ” as there are too many people arguing about the details of what a rights approach should be and how it should be operationalised.Meanwhile, this is happening in the absence of any clear idea of what it is they are engaging with. (Pratt 2003: 2)