The sovereignty cartel: what citizenship for sale schemes tell us about the nature of sovereignty

What makes sovereignty possible? Drawing on the example of citizenship for sale programmes, J. Samuel Barkin argues that sovereignty is built on state collusion – states work together to privilege sovereignty in global politics because they benefit from its exclusivity

Brief 8: International Fisheries Governance that Works: The Case for a Global Fisheries Organization

International fisheries are being overexploited, and the current institutional structure in place to manage them is not working effectively. Presently, two sets of intergovernmental institutions oversee global fishing. The first comprises roughly three dozen regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), approximately 19 of which are charged with regulating fishing in the areas they oversee. The second set consists of global organizations that touch on but do not directly regulate fisheries issues, such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This management patchwork is inadequate to the task, and needs to be supplemented by a new global fisheries organization. Such an organization would most usefully serve three core functions: Coordinating the various existing institutional participants in international fisheries governance; Addressing the crisis of overcapitalization and overcapacity in the fishing industry driven by widespread government subsidies; Overseeing a system of international individual transferable quotas (ITQs). This policy brief outlines the nature of the problem and discusses these three functions in greater depth

A tale of two cognitions: The Evolution of Social Constructivism in International Relations

Abstract Constructivism in International Relations (IR) is popular, but constructivists seem disappointed. Allegedly something has been lost. Such criticisms are misplaced. There was never a uniform Constructivism. Since constructivism is socially constructed, to argue that constructivism has evolved “wrongly” is odd. This paper explains the dissatisfaction with constructivism followed by a second reading of its evolution as a tale of two cognitions. These two cognitions distinguish genera in the constructivist “family”. A criticism against one genus based on the cognition of the other is unfair. A focus on cognitions and the use of genera helps in perceiving constructivism’s future evolution

"Hegemony without Motivation: Domestic Policy Priorities and the Management of Exchange Rate Stabilization"

This article will first develop the concept of financial motivations, presenting first the relevant variables and then the logic suggesting why they should be linked. Then it will look at monetary policy behaviour in four international monetary systems; the gold standard at the beginning of this century, the gold exchange standard of the interwar period, the Bretton Woods system in the 1960s, and the European Exchange Rate Mechanism of the past decade. In each case, the behaviour of the core state in the monetary system will be examined, except in the interwar system, for which both British and American policy will be addressed, as both countries were crucial to the system. This set of cases represents the universe of major functioning market-driven exchange rate systems this century. The case studies will trace the relationship between financial motivation and monetary policy in these core countries. Finally, the conclusion will suggest some implications of these findings for the construction of new systems for exchange rate stabilization