Volume 3, No. 1, Fall 1999
A Practitioner Reflects on Development
Peter Jon de Vos
Peter Jon de Vos is a distinguished American diplomat with diverse experiences in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Washington, D.C. Over the course of his foreign service career, de Vos held the top diplomatic post in Tanzania, Liberia, Mozambique, envoy for Somalia in 1992. Ambassador de Vos retired from the foreign service in October of 1997 and recently spent a year at the Harris School of Public Policy teaching classes and serving as a resource to faculty and students.
50 Years of Progress: Moving Toward Full Human Rights and Economic Empowerment for Women
Hillary Rodham Clinton
The First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton, critically examines the legal, economic, and social trends in human rights policies for women around the world. Mrs. Clinton's assessment of global progress in the field of human rights during the past fifty years is a synthesis of her own reactions to meeting with thousands of women and the findings from a number of United Nations conferences on women's issues. Countries and regions that have made significant efforts to improve the physical, psychological, and economic well being of their female citizens are detailed. Countries that have failed to progress are also analyzed.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been an advocate of women and children's rights for most of her public life. She is also a proponent of micro-lending as a means of achieving economic development and self-sufficiency. Mrs. Clinton is a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School, and the author of "It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us".
A Blueprint for U.S. Sanctions Policy Reform
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
This article provides a critical assessment of current United States sanctions policy. Examples of the use of sanctions as foreign policy are described and the issues central to the current debate are examined. The economic costs as well as the diplomatic costs of U.S. sanctions policy are also considered. The author concludes that U.S. sanctions policy must provide the President with flexibility to modify or waive sanctions to meet changing circumstances. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 contains a number of provisions that provide for increased presidential flexibility. Policy makers should continue to work to ensure that U.S. sanctions policy promotes foreign policy objectives with minimal damage to national economic interests.
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has served in the United States Senate since 1973. He is the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and was Co-Chairman of the Senate Task Force on Economic Sanctions. He is widely recognized as one of the Senate's leading foreign policy experts, and has published numerous editorials and articles, nationally and internationally, on international relations.
America's China Policy and Human Rights
Peter R. Moody, Jr.
Although President Clinton had indicated that a concern for human rights would be a major element in American China policy under his administration, by the late 1990s, this concern, and, virtually any politically thought-through strategy, seemed to have been displaced by a concern for economic relations. The Chinese leadership has historically interpreted American concerns with human rights as deliberate expressions of hostility. There are, however, indications that the Chinese government is itself moving, at least on the surface, toward greater acceptance of international standards for human rights. It may be open for the United States to encourage these trends, as part of a better thought-through, more systematic political orientation toward China.
Peter R. Moody, Jr. is a professor at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Government and International Studies. Since receiving his Ph.D. from Yale in 1971, Professor Moody has written on Chinese politics, Asian international affairs, Chinese political thought, international relations theory, and theory of political parties. His more recent books include "Tradition and Modernization in China and Japan" (1994), "Political Change in Taiwan" (1991), and "Political Opposition in Post Confucian Society" (1988). He is editor of "China Documents Annual" and book review editor for the "Review of Politics".
From Endgame to N-Game: Competition vs. Economies of Scale in the Military Aircraft Industry
Kenneth Flamm
Given the dominant role of economies of scale in the production of modern weaponry, global defense downscaling has put pressure on nations to close off national markets to foreign competition and dramatically increase exports. This has implications for U.S. relations with its allies and for the stability of contentious regions around the world. This article addresses the natural tension between government goals to increase competition and innovation among defense contractors and the desire to achieve cost-savings due to economies of scale. The author first describes U.S. trends in defense industry consolidation since 1982 and posits that the role of economies of scale in defense industries has increased due to the massive increase in research and design investment required to design leading edge military equipment. Next, through a stylized model of the U.S. fighter aircraft industry, the author shows how effort to support more than just a few firms can make the aircraft product virtually unaffordable. This may in turn decrease the peace dividend that could accrue from overall defense downscaling. The author concludes by discussing design houses and innovative international cooperation as options for reducing the incentives for defense companies in other nations to consolidate and increase defense product sales to marginal nations.
Kenneth Flamm is the Dean Rusk Chair at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Professor Flamm served as Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program of the Brookings Institute before taking a position at the LBJ School. In 1995 he was awarded the Defense DepartmentŐs Distinguished Public Service Medal for his work as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Economic Security. Flamm, who received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been a professor of economics at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and George Washington University.
Agriculture and Economic Development
G. Edward Schuh
Traditionally, agriculture has not been viewed as a tool for promoting economic development. However, investment in agriculture can spur growth in GDP while benefiting the poorest income groups. In the following essay, G. Edward Schuh provides the case for agricultural investment in developing countries.
G. Edward Schuh is the Regents Professor of International Economic Policy at the University of Minnesota, and Orville and Jane Freeman Professor of International Trade and Investment Policy at the University's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He has served as senior staff economist on President Ford's Council of Economic Advisers and as director of agriculture and rural development in the World Bank. Dr. Schuh was professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University from 1959 through 1979, after receiving a Master of Science degree from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts and doctorate from the University of Chicago.
The Politics of Knowledge: Technology Transfer and the Development Imperative
Devashree Gupta
The possession of advanced technologies enables developing nations to address persistent commercial and social challenges that, left unattended, diminish the ability of such states to compete economically and provide an adequate quality of life for its citizens. Formal transfer mechanisms that disseminate technology and know-how from advanced developed states to developing states attempt to correct the imbalance in technological capability. However, these mechanisms suffer from flaws that reduce the impact and utility of technology transfers. This paper examines four significant weaknesses of current transfer mechanisms - incorrect transfer agents, inappropriate technologies, transfer costs and poor implementation and support - and suggests policy remedies to improve the efficiency of transfer mechanisms and the effectiveness of transferred technologies.
Devashree Gupta is a master's candidate in International Relations at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include globalization, identity politics, and citizenship.
Rural Land Reform in the Brazilian Amazon: A Strategy for Maximizing Productivity
Karin Berardo
Over the past thirty years a growing trend has emerged in political and economic policy reforms in Latin America: a shift away from prior goals of rural sector land reform toward more capital intensive and export oriented rural production models. This has caused increased landlessness among rural populations leading to rural conflict, urban migration, and increased poverty in both rural and urban sectors. Studies in the Brazilian Amazon show that the productivity of intensively cultivated small farms can exceed the productivity of carefully managed cattle ranching, commercial agriculture, or logging operations. The trend, however, has been for economic and land tenure policies, as well as private capital, to favor large-scale agro-industry, logging, and mining over small farming enterprises. If this productivity studies are true, then an economic argument can be made to prioritize legal and institutional reforms that will improve the land tenure and land security of small farmers. Formal land title and tenure security are general requirements for tenants to access rural credit from both private and public sources. Access to capital and the appropriate application of such capital by small farmers will benefit a large rural population and reduce urban growth, underemployment, and poverty, while boosting the region's and the nation's gross domestic product.
Karin Berardo is pursuing an International MBA and a Master of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. She has conducted research in the Brazilian Amazon on agricultural practices of migrant small-farmers, rural social movements, and sustainable development.
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