bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Offshore Outsourcing
Authors: Lair Craig D.
Published: March 2012

Offshore outsourcing is a specific type of outsourcing. While outsourcing in general can be defined as when a company or some other entity purchases goods or services once performed within its organizational structure (i.e., “in house”) from an outside supplier, offshore outsourcing refers to those cases where this external supplier is located
in a different country
. In other words, it is outsourcing that occurs
in an international context
. Offshore outsourcing is often confused with another practice – offshoring – that, while having some similarities to it, is nevertheless a conceptually distinct process. Offshoring is generally defined as cases where “a multinational company moves or expands some of its operations and jobs to overseas locations” (Hira & Hira 2005: 201). In a more general sense, it can be said that offshoring occurs when an entity moves some of its activities to a foreign country, but where all of this movement takes place
within
the confines of the entity's organizational structure. For example, many multinational corporations (e.g., General Electric, American Express) have made use of so‐called “captive” centers; that is, company‐owned and operated facilities that are located in a foreign country (Lampel & Bhalla 2008: 434). Since offshoring involves no external supplier, it, by definition, is
not
a case of outsourcing.
Paris Club
Authors: Lavelle Kathryn C.
Published: March 2012

The Paris Club is an informal group of creditor countries. It meets to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries threatened by, or in an actual state of default. The first meeting of the Paris Club was held in 1956 when Argentina met with its creditors. Since that time, the Paris Club has focused on medium‐ and long‐term debt owed by sovereign states to other sovereign states. A similar organization, the London Club, meets from time to time to restructure sovereign debt to commercial lenders such as banks, usually after an agreement has already been reached in the Paris Club and coterminous with a standby arrangement with the IMF. Debt to multilateral creditors such as the IMF and the World Bank is likewise handled in other forums. As an agreement in one forum affects what happens in another, these groups constitute important meeting‐places in the governance process associated with sovereign debt.
Political Globalization
Authors: So Alvin Y.
Published: March 2012

This entry focuses on how the state is transformed by the forces of globalization. Before the era of globalization, polity took the form of
statism
, which refers to a condition where societal governance is more or less equivalent to the regulatory operations of territorial bureaucratic national government.
Popular Music
Authors: Seago Alex
Published: March 2012

The comment (Attali 1985) that music is prophecy because it makes audible a new world that will gradually become visible appears particularly germane when considering the roles played by popular music in globalization processes. Perhaps the most mercurial form of cultural expression, popular musical genres have demonstrated characteristics of cultural hybridization and cross‐fertilization for many hundreds of years. Good examples of this are the complex fusions of Arabic, Sephardic, Christian andGitanotraditions that shaped the music of Andalusia during the period of early European colonialism and its fusion with the music of Central Africa in the creation of a multitude of Cuban musical genres during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The profound influence of Cuban popular music upon the development of the music of postcolonial Africa exemplifies the complexities of sonic interchange across the “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy 1993).
Public relations
Authors: L'Etang Jacquie
Published: March 2012

Public relations comprises a range of activities conducted by organizational agents (employees or temporary consultants) that are designed to contribute to the effectiveness of the organizations they represent by improving organizational relationships with stakeholders and the media. Although public relations is probably best known for its media relations work, some work is less well‐known, such as employee relations and community relations. Public relations work involves persuasive communication and advocacy, lobbying, source–media relations, reputation and relationship management and issues and crisis management. Public relations has a remit for corporate social responsibility through its issues management function and responsibility for reputation. Public relations supports organizational goals employing a range of interpersonal, online and off‐line targeted and mass communications, contributes to the facilitation of public conversations and debate on issues important to the organization and therefore may be seen as “discourse work.”
Racism
Authors: Law Ian
Published: March 2012

The many different ways in which race has been coupled with negative associations and linked to social action is at the core of understanding how racism works. Racism comprises two core elements in all historical and geographical situations, it presupposes that some concept of race is being mobilized and involves negative attribution of a specified racial group. Identifying how race is being utilized and represented and how negative attribution is being articulated in particular situations are the two central problems that social scientists face in establishing the existence of racism across the globe.
Rape
Authors: Rudrappa Sharmila
Published: March 2012

Laws regarding crime are not derived from some universal truth, but are socio‐historically specific, expressing the collective consciousness of societies. Laws regarding rape are a fundamental example of such collective consciousness. From not being a recognizable crime for much of Western history, to now being considered a crime against humanity in certain cases, to the differences that we see that in some nations where victimizers are perceived as perpetrators and therefore criminals, to others where those victimized are held responsible, the legal recognition of rape as a crime is an exegesis on social movements, changing social norms and the processes by which legal reforms emerge. Rape is currently defined as a type of sexual assault, usually involving sexual penetration of the victim without her/ his consent. While the prevalent notion has been that a rapist is some unknown, terrifying man who accosts a woman in some dark alley, the reality is that most perpetrators of rape and sexual violence are known to the victim. That is, perpetrators tend to be acquaintances, family members, or friends of the victims. It is estimated that three out of four American adolescents who were sexually assaulted were victimized by someone they knew (National Institute of Justice 2003).
Rationalization
Authors: Brändle Gaspar
Published: March 2012

Human beings are endowed with the ability to reason, a specific feature that has been highlighted throughout the history of eminent thinkers and philosophical movements that have emphasized reason over all other human capacities. From Aristotle in Ancient Greece and his many influences throughout the Middle Ages (for example the vision of faith in rational terms characteristic of the thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas), to the more radical positions of Descartes and Spinoza that do not support sensory knowledge as true, it has been argued that the only source of human knowledge is reason or, ultimately, the philosophical rationalism of the Enlightenment itself, whose base is the omnipotence and independence of human reason.
Refugees
Authors: Kivisto Peter
Published: March 2012

Migration scholars distinguish between labor immigrants and refugees, the former being considered voluntary migrants while the latter are deemed involuntary migrants. It is often difficult to empirically ascertain the extent to which movement either within or across international borders is a matter of choice, or one determined by external forces that are to a large extent beyond the control of the individuals involved. However, a cursory consideration of concrete cases readily reveals a wide range of degrees of freedom. Thus, the IT person leaving the high‐tech sector in Hyderabad for Silicon Valley has a high degree of freedom, while the Tutsi fleeing the genocidal massacres initiated by extremist Hutu nationalists in Rwanda is a forced migrant. Given this reality, the distinction is useful both analytically and at the policy level, for at both the national and international levels immigration policies and refugee policies are treated as distinct. Nevertheless, as will be discussed later, many situations are not nearly so clear‐cut. To recognize this reality, some demographers have sought to introduce interstitial categories to capture those migrants somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, going back to William Petersen's (1958: 261) suggestion that a category called “impelled migration” be introduced to describe situations “where the migrants retain some power to decide whether or not to leave.”
Religion, World
Authors: Beck Ulrich
Published: March 2012

What is religion's role in the “global age” (Albrow 1996)? How do different religions (or individualized religiosities) deal with the global religious other in our midst?
Remittances and Development
Authors: Ratha Dilip , Mohapatra Sanket
Published: March 2012

Remittances provide the most tangible link between migration and development. Remittances have proved to be a large and stable resource flow for developing countries. Recorded remittance inflows to developing countries are estimated to have reached $325 billion in 2010, three times the size of official development assistance (Figure 1). The true size of remittances including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels is likely to be even higher. In many developing countries, these flows exceed foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio equity and private debt flows. In Egypt, remittances exceed the revenue from the Suez Canal; in Morocco and Nepal, they exceed tourism revenue; and in Sri Lanka, they exceed tea exports.
Reproductive Tourism
Authors: Martin Lauren Jade
Published: March 2012

Reproductive tourism refers to a contemporary practice in which people cross political and geographic borders – usually national – in order to access assisted fertility services and reproductive technologies. Such services and technologies includein vitrofertilization (IVF), egg donation, surrogacy, sex selection, and the diagnostic technology called pre‐implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). These services enable people with infertility issues, single people, and gay and lesbian couples to conceive and bear biologically related children with the assistance of medical technologies and third parties. Some of these services also enable intended parents to reduce the chances of having children with genetic conditions, or to select for certain traits such as sex. Technically, reproductive tourism can also refer more broadly to any kind of cross‐border reproduction or reproductive health care, including adoption, contraception, and abortion. However, in its most popular usage by scholars and in the mainstream media, it typically refers to services involving medically assisted conception, and is often framed as a subset of medical tourism, or travel to obtain health care.
Ressentiment
Authors: Tzanelli Rodanthi
Published: March 2012

The termressentimentoriginates in Friedrich Nietzsche's (Leipzig, 1969/1887) historical analysis of morals and describes a constraining sociocultural condition that brews a feeling directed against powerful agents. Nietzsche's French terminology reflects the context in which he developed his theory (nineteenth‐century European concerns about civilization decline, and the nationalization of Franco–German political conflict). The German and French models ofhabitusrationalization served as an ideal type in Elias'sCivilising Process(1982) that forms part of the history of European modernity.Ressentimentcombines an awareness of powerlessness vis‐à‐vis hierarchical power with the hope of an imaginary vengeance to compensate for this impotence. The latter allows space for “transvaluation” to happen, as resentful subjects convince themselves that the desired values of those they resent are worthless. Nietzsche used the example of the Palestinian Jewish rabbis whose “divine role” clashed with the political and physical power of their Roman conquerors. To compensate for this status dissonance, the Jewish nobility constructed their own spiritual values as superior to the material power of their Roman masters.
Romance Tourism
Authors: Williams Erica L.
Published: March 2012

Romance tourismis a term that some scholars have used to highlight the romantic, emotional, and intimate connections cultivated between foreign tourists and local men and women in tourist destinations (which are usually in developing countries). Most of the literature on romance tourism is based in the Caribbean. D. Pruitt and S. LaFont (1995) first introduced the concept of romance tourism to distinguish heterosexual male sex work from other prostitution relations in the Caribbean (Kempadoo 1999). The distinction between romance tourism and sex tourism is often split along gendered lines. Sexual/romantic encounters between tourist women and local men are more likely to be referred to as romance tourism, while similar encounters between tourist men and local women are often referred to as “sex tourism.” Men who exchange sexual services for monetary gain in tourist destinations often do not self‐identify as sex workers. These men are referred to as beach boys, island boys, players, gigolos, sanky pankys, hustlers, and other local terms. These terms create a separate discursive space for male actors in Caribbean sex work and a strategy to distance men from the stigma of prostitution. These men's sexual practices are consistent with the construction of Caribbean masculinity in terms of sexual prowess, womanizing, and hypersexuality. For instance, Jacqueline Sanchez‐Taylor (2006) emphasizes how Caribbean men draw upon the stereotype of the “black stud” in their sexual‐affective encounters with foreign women.
Sex Tourism
Authors: Williams Erica L.
Published: March 2012

Sex tourism is a phenomenon that occurs in various parts of the world, most visibly in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and the Philippines, as well as Latin American and Caribbean countries such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia, and Brazil. Media coverage generally depicts sex tourists as older, heterosexual, European or North American men who travel to developing countries to have sexual relations with poor women of color, some of whom may even be underage. However, the emergence of scholarly research on sex tourism within the fields of anthropology, sociology, and women's studies has shed new light on the multiple dimensions of this phenomenon. For instance, some research moves beyond a focus on Western men and “third world” women to also include gay sex tourism and female sex tourism; and it also emphasizes concepts such asambiguityandliminalityin sex tourism.
Slave Trade
Authors: Vergès Françoise
Published: March 2012

If we accept the definition that globalization describes the changes in societies and the world economy that are the result of dramatically increased cross‐border trade and cultural exchange, and that it refers to a process whereby an increased portion of economic or other activity is carried out across continental borders, we can subsequently argue that through the slave trade (from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries), a form of globalization operated. Indeed, slave trading implied the connection between different branches of economy (maritime, weaponry, other manufactured goods, agriculture) between continents across the Atlantic Ocean, and in a less intense form in the Indian Ocean. Very diverse cultural and social systems came into contact. The organization of the slave trade had impacts on law, on money, on agreements between powers, on commerce and on culture. Finally, the slave trade led to the circulation of ideas (either justifying this commerce or attacking it), and of cultural practices, beliefs, knowledge and techniques. Its legacies still weigh on the territories on which it developed. It is also still, in the twenty‐first century, an area of debate and controversy on shared responsibility, extent of the crime, and forms of redress and reparation.
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
Authors: Polillo Simone
Published: March 2012

Over the past decade or so, critics have been simultaneously fascinated and preoccupied by the rise of “electronic money.” For one, Benjamin Cohen ponders whether the multiplication of what he calls “non‐territorial monies,” monies made possible by the electronic revolution, represents a “direct threat to the traditional authority of states” (2006: 179), as the ability of private actors to use new technologies of accounting for and storing value directly challenges the monopoly over money historically enjoyed by the state. Anthropologist Keith Hart (2001), while not dismissive of the destabilizing challenge to state power posed by e‐money, stresses instead its emancipatory potential. Hart thinks that the communication revolution has radically changed the very nature of money: because it is increasingly created outside the purview and control of not just states, but corporations as well, electronic money can thus be “personalized,” turning from an external, alienating object to an expression of one's (credit) history, something over which, potentially, one can exercise some degree of control. Political scientist Eric Helleiner (2003) joins this discussion by cautioning against hasty pronouncements on the replacement of national currencies by e‐money. Yet, because he proposes a theory of money that locates its power in the reduction of transaction costs it makes possible, Helleiner is open to the possibility that new technologies will make private e‐currencies sustainable, widespread, and challenging to state authority.
Sovereignty
Authors: Ieven Bram , Korsten Frans‐Willem
Published: March 2012

Although intricately related, the concepts of sovereignty and power should be kept apart. Sovereignty designates a distinct form of political power characterized by its own institutional structures and historical development as well as by its discordant relationship with religion. For this reason one single and concise definition of sovereignty is difficult to provide. Understanding sovereignty means unfolding the historical, conceptual, and institutional components that shaped its meaning and determine its force; and to understand how the concept and practice of sovereignty is being reshaped today under the impetus of globalization we first need grasp the historical emergence of the concept and its different components. Modern political sovereignty has served as a catalyst that regulated the dominant power structures of modernity and with every change in political structures we can see the concept of sovereignty evolving with it (Sassen 2006).
Sport
Authors: Andrews David L. , Mower Ron L.
Published: March 2012

As a multifaceted cultural, social, political, economic, and technological phenomenon, sport has experienced a complex relationship with globalization. This is particularly true at the elite level of sporting endeavor – the focus of this discussion. While the practice of physically‐based, competitive, and expressive game forms has been manifest – albeit in different forms – within virtually all human civilizations, over the past 150 years what were previously highly localized activities have become transformed into a global system of competing sporting spectacles and bodies. Variously described as achievement, corporate, or prolympic sport, the elite sport complex is truly global in scale and scope; efficiently and effectively inserted into the workings of the consumption‐oriented and media‐propelled global capitalist order. Nonetheless, even in its most commercialized, spectacularized, and globalized forms, elite sport retains a capacity to resonate with, and thereby come to represent, the cultures of the local. Although the same local effect can sometimes be discerned within the workings of the music and cinema industries, it is accentuated within the sporting industry largely because sport is a cultural form centered on (physical) contests between individuals or teams, who literally come to embody the constituency they represent every time they enter the playing field. Indeed, it is oftentimes through the formations of the sporting global, that city, regional, and particularly national commitments and affiliations become most materialized in the hearts and minds of the local populace.
Structural Adjustment
Authors: Babb Sarah
Published: March 2012

Structural adjustment refers to a set of related economic policy reforms implemented by developing countries, beginning in the 1980s, with the support of international financial institutions (IFIs), particularly the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The term is usually used to refer simultaneously to two distinct types of reforms: short‐term fiscal and monetary policies designed to control inflation and stabilize domestic currencies; and long‐term structural reforms designed to open national economies to market forces, such as removing trade barriers and privatizing state‐owned industries.
Sufism
Authors: Vogel Ann
Published: March 2012

Sufism (Arabic
al‐tasawwuf
, meaning purification of the self, and after
suf
, which refers to the wool cloak worn by wandering mystics) is a mystical movement, which emerged around 700–800 in the context of vibrant intellectual networks of theology and philosophy and the political‐religious split that produced Sunni and Shia Islam. Like other mysticisms, Sufism focuses on immediate experience of the divine. Although not generalizable to all Sufi practice, Sufism has come to be associated with ecstatic religious performance and a unique poetic form of mysticism. Sufi mysticism aims at a reunion with Allah, the god of Islam, as a personal religious experience and often asceticism and pilgrimage, including the
hajj
. From its early history onward, it has been both ritualistic (“sober mysticism”) and anti‐ritualistic (“intoxicated mysticism”). But it is mainly in this latter form that Sufis have challenged official Islamic rule and provide a seedbed for popular mobilization particularly where other types of political mobilization are difficult to achieve under the pressure of authoritarian regimes. Sufism has often been incorrectly portrayed as “folk Islam” despite the fact that Sufi mysticism has been part of intellectual and theological discourse and has been embraced by political and social Muslim elites.
Tourism
Authors: Weaver Adam
Published: March 2012

Tourism is a global industry to the extent that it involves large international movements of people, and is responsible for generating an enormous volume of expenditures on goods and services. It has grown rapidly at a worldwide scale and, as a result, an activity that is typically associated with levity and frivolity deserves serious consideration when the concept of globalization is discussed and analyzed. Between 1950 and 2007, international visitor flows increased from 25 million to more than 900 million (Holloway 2009). It is expected that this number will exceed one billion in the near future. Tourism has been conceptualized as a global process of commodification and consumption characterized by unprecedented time‐space compression, de‐territorialization, and flows of people, images, and information across borders (Meethan 2001; Shaw & Williams 2004; Sheller & Urry 2004). For some commentators, the paradigmatic post‐modern experience is that of mobility and travel, often over long distances and for reasons frequently related to pleasure and play (Hall 2005; Sheller & Urry 2004).
Kyoto Protocol
Authors: Rhomberg Markus
Published: March 2012

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement, which for the first time establishes legally binding limits for 37 industrialized countries on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG). Over the five‐year period from 2008 to 2012, these amount to an average limit of 5 percent against 1990 levels. As of February 2011, 192 states have signed and ratified the Protocol (UNFCC 2011). This Protocol is linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was opened for signature during the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The main objective of the Convention was to stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference within the climatic system. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997 and entered into force in 2005. While the Framework Convention “encouraged” industrialized countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Kyoto Protocol “commits” them to do so (UNFCC 2011). Thus it provides legally binding emission targets for ratifying countries – targets that are based on a five‐year budget period. It contains commitments in three areas: binding emission reduction targets for industrialized countries; a requirement for these countries to implement or further elaborate appropriate policies and measures; and provisions that reaffirm and seek to advance the implementation of certain commitments that pertain to all Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) parties. And it also allows for flexibility mechanisms in the international context by “providing for the use of emissions trading and other market‐based mechanisms, including a mechanism for cooperative projects between developed and developing countries” known as the Clean Development Mechanism (Breidenich et al. 1998: 319).
Nuclear arms control
Authors: Blanton Shannon Lindsey , Dickson Drew D.
Published: March 2012

Nuclear arms control is the regulation of arms levels, with limitations on the spread of weapons or restrictions on their use. As 2010 began, there were approximately 7560 operational nuclear weapons. Of these, the United States maintained 2468; Russia, 4630; France, 300; China, 200; Great Britain, 160; Israel, Pakistan, and India maintained some number between 60 and 80 (SIPRI 2010). Although some believe the continued spread of nuclear weapons may produce global peace akin to the stability maintained by Cold War superpower nuclear arsenals, others worry that the threat of nuclear confrontation only increases as the number of nuclear‐armed actors grows (Sagan & Waltz 2002; Rosen 2006).
Protectionism
Authors: Chorev Nitsan
Published: March 2012

Protectionism refers to the principles and practices that restrict the entry of imported commodities into the local market in order to shield domestic industries from foreign competition. Common protectionist practices include tariffs, which make imported goods more costly than their domestically produced counterparts, and quotas, which restrict the amount of volume or value of imports allowed. Policies such as subsidies or licensing requirements, which give advantage to local products and create “non‐tariff barriers to trade,” are also considered protectionist. Some believe that trade restrictions based on environmental, health or social considerations also fall under the category of protectionist policies.
Public Debate
Authors: Rhomberg Markus
Published: March 2012

Research on public debates is especially interested in the interpretation of rules in the public sphere, the behaviors and arguments of certain actors, constellations of actors (for example discourse‐coalitions), and the issues that are discussed in the public arena. This holds true for the nation‐state concept of public debates as well as for the idea of a global public debate. Ideas on how to transfer the original nation‐state model to a transnational and even global scale are widespread and heterogeneous: the common core concept is that public spheres in modern societies are no longer differentiated by national borders but by issues and the debate of certain issues in specific arenas. On the one hand, such issues could be located on a smaller level (local, regional); on the other the hand, some issues are predestined to integrate different nations or a continent in one debate, for example the European debate about the enlargement of the European Union or the Lisbon‐Contract. These examples show that issues dealing with the institutions of the EU in particular have the ability to establish a transnational debate within that continent.
War on Terror: Humanitarian and Human Rights Issues
Authors: Nagan Winston P. , Haddad Aitza M.
Published: March 2012

After World War I the status of former German colonies was negotiated, and the colonies were placed under the League of Nations Mandate System. This was intended to ensure the well‐being of their peoples and expanded the idea of an international obligation to protect the rights and well‐being of dependent people. After World War II, the processes of decolonization and self‐determined independence further affirmed this trend. A central postwar issue was the radical depreciation of human rights and humanitarian values that had taken place during the war and was seen in the rise of the idea of unlimited sovereignty. Unlimited sovereignty betokened an abuse of sovereignty. This was reflected in the practices of totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany, which abused its sovereignty in seeking to industrialize the business of mass murder. The Nazis were not the only abusers. Professor Rudi Rummel (1994: 9) has indicated that in the twentieth century, as many as 170 million people were murdered by sovereigns, political groups, and claimants to sovereignty. State absolutism fueled by authoritarian, totalitarian, or chauvinist ideologies has indeed created a crisis of legitimacy for the paradigm of international relations and legal order based on the juridical artifact symbolized by the treaty of Westphalia: the sovereign nation‐state. Sovereignty is not a license to kill, to make war, to commit crimes against the peace, to disparage essential, basic human rights, to despoil the ecosystem, to reduce human aspirations to the whims of caprice, avarice, or arbitrary expedience flowing from the barrel of a gun, or to strip human beings of all vestiges of essential dignity. This entry focuses on the problems of the war on terrorism and its implications for the integrity of humanitarian values and values based on human rights.
Diseases, Borderless
Authors: Ali S. Harris
Published: March 2012

Borderless diseases refer to those infectious disease agents that exhibit considerable global mobility. In particular, the increased speed of travel, a greater degree of human migration, intensified urbanization, and increasing human encroachment on untouched natural habitats have all enhanced the potential for pathogens to spread internationally in very short periods of time. In common with other transboundary issues, such as environmental pollution, international terrorism, and the international trade in narcotic drugs, the management of infectious disease spread is challenging because programs and policies aimed at disease containment necessarily implicate a myriad of other issues, especially those related to the ability of sovereign states to govern autonomously, border regulation, the tension between ensuring free trade while protecting public health, and balancing the rights of the individual versus those of the collective.
War
Authors: Mabee Bryan
Published: March 2012

War is in many ways a neglected dimension of globalization. Despite a chapter dedicated to military power in Held et al.'s (1999) pioneering book on globalization, and Giddens' (1990) incorporation of the military into one of the “four institutional dimensions of modernity,” there has been little integration of the military side of globalization into popular or scholarly thinking about the subject in comparison to other elements (especially the cultural, political, and economic).
War Crimes
Authors: Murphy Ray
Published: March 2012

War crimes are crimes committed in violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) or the laws of war applicable during armed conflict. The laws of war originated in the early efforts made to limit the violence that was a necessary part of confrontation between armed forces engaged in hostilities. The expression dates back to when it was customary to make a formal declaration of war before initiating an armed attack on another state. Among the equivalent and interchangeable expressions – the “laws of war,” the “law of armed conflict,” and “international humanitarian law,” the first is the oldest.
Water crisis
Authors: Subramaniam Mangala , Whitlock David , Williford Beth
Published: March 2012

Several countries around the world are facing a severe water crisis. Water‐abundant regions have become water‐scarce and water‐scarce regions face water famines. It is important to consider both supply and demand factors, combined with the effects of neoliberal policies, in order to understand the water crisis. While knowledge of patterns of water use is scattered, it is estimated that about 4000 cubic kilometers of fresh water are used each year globally. Irrigation for agriculture accounts for about 70 percent of this usage, industrial use consumes 20 percent, and domestic use accounts for the remaining 10 percent. About 20 percent of this water is drawn from groundwater sources, the use of which increased fivefold in the twentieth century (World Water Assessment Programme 2009). This has led to a rapid drawdown of aquifers in some areas, and the sustainability of such usage has become the focus of much international attention. Overpumping of aquifers and falling water tables have affected northern China. India, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan, as well as California in the United States, also face major water shortages.
Web 2.0
Authors: Birdsall William F.
Published: March 2012

Web 2.0 denotes a movement that appeared around 2005 with the object of exploiting technological innovations that expand the global economic potential of the World Wide Web (WWW), popularly known as the Web. Although derided as a buzzword, marketing hype, and jargon, the term is associated with technical and software applications that have altered conceptions of the Web and of the place of individuals and organizations in the globalization phenomenon. The ambiguity of Web 2.0 is such that for Tim Berners‐Lee, inventor of the Web, it is simply the continuing development of the Web's capability of connecting people. Others claim that it is among the major forces driving globalization. While debate continues, by 2010 the advent of Web 3.0 was already being heralded as the new “app economy.”
WikiLeaks
Authors: Yagatich William A.
Published: March 2012

Julian Assange launched a Web site,WikiLeaks.org, in December 2006. Since its inception, WikiLeaks has been at the center of intense scrutiny by nation‐state governments and corporations alike. WikiLeaks is a Web site that posts confidential and sensitive information. The aim is captured by the slogan “We open governments,” and the Web site states that “Publishing improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people. Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and stronger democracies in all society's institutions, including government, corporations and other organizations. A healthy, vibrant and inquisitive journalistic media plays a vital role in achieving these goals” (WikiLeaks 2010). The administrators of WikiLeaks have a clear goal: information that is deemed secret by nation‐states should be open to the public, and this will lead to the strengthening of democracy. WikiLeaks depends upon individual users to submit information, documents, and various files to a drop‐box on its Web site. The drop‐box is meant to allow users to remain anonymous and submit information, just as it keeps WikiLeaks from being involved in obtaining the information directly.
World Cultural Heritage
Authors: Elliott Michael A. , Schmutz Vaughn
Published: March 2012

World cultural heritage (WCH) represents a vast array of societal achievements and natural wonders that are considered to have exceptional value for humanity as a whole and, therefore, to be worthy of official recognition, protection, and preservation. The development of WCH is linked to cross‐national efforts to protect the heritage or cultural property of national societies that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century and found sustained momentum in the League of Nations system after World War I. The articulation of a
world
cultural heritage, however, took shape primarily under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) after World War II. Since the late 1970s a rapidly growing list of official World Heritage sites has been formalized and managed by UNESCO, in cooperation with other international organizations and state parties to the World Heritage Convention of 1972. Recent assessments of the World Heritage List have sought to broaden the diversity of inscribed sites and encourage greater representation from developing countries.
World Economic Forum
Authors: Lim Hyun‐Chin
Published: March 2012

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva‐based nonprofit organization (NPO) well known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, at which top business leaders, political leaders, crucial intellectuals, and journalists gather to discuss emerging hot issues facing the world including economic development, the environment, and health.
World Environment Organization
Authors: Biermann Frank
Published: March 2012

A “world environment organization” does not exist. Yet proposals to create an international agency on environmental protection have been debated for over 40 years now (overviews in Biermann & Bauer 2005). More than 50 countries, including all the member states of the European Union, presently support the upgrading of the United Nations Environment Programme to a “United Nations Environment Organization.” This policy position is likely to form a major element in the negotiations around the 2012 international summit that will mark the twentieth anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
World Intellectual Property Organization
Authors: May Christopher
Published: March 2012

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialist agency of the United Nations that is responsible for overseeing support for intellectual property legislation alongside the development of new agreements governing intellectual property rights (IPRs). The organization's origins stretch back to the nineteenth century and the secretariats set up to administer the first major international agreements on cross‐border recognition of IPRs: the Berne and Paris conventions. In 1970, some 80 years after these secretariats had been established and subsequently joined together (to manage these and other IPR‐related treaties), the WIPO was launched. In 1973 it became an agency of the UN.
World Trade Organization
Authors: Krueger Anne O.
Published: March 2012

The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into being in 1994 as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It encompasses the activities of the GATT and incorporates some new ones. As the international organization that oversees the international trading system, currently with 153 members, it has rules negotiated and agreed by member countries for the treatment of exports and imports of goods and services, a dispute‐settlement mechanism used when a country believes that its trading partner has violated the agreed rules, and facilities for support and coordination of multilateral negotiations for reductions in tariffs and trade barriers. A secretariat in Geneva of about 625 staff – much smaller than most other international organizations – supports these functions.
Trade‐Related Intellectual Property Rights
Authors: Bedirhanoglu Nazan
Published: March 2012

The agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, commonly referred to as TRIPS, is to date the most comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property rights. Signed in 1994, TRIPS is one of the establishing agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This treaty, for the first time, rendered intellectual property rights a part of the multilateral trading system and became a milestone in the globalization of intellectual property rights.
Transborder Activism
Authors: Massicotte Marie‐Josée
Published: March 2012

The notion of transborder activism has emerged mostly since the beginning of the 1990s, with the growing visibility of advocacy networks and mass protests against neoliberal policies (Seattle 1999; Quebec 2001; Cancun 2003) promoted by states and interstate financial institutions (International Monetary Fund, World Bank), and with the implementation of free trade agreements (North American Free Trade Agreement, World Trade Organization (WTO)). Nonetheless, the nineteenth century anti‐slavery and women's suffrage advocates were active across borders. Their strategies and emphasis on reclaiming rights and dignity also re‐emerged on a regular basis and nurture new forms of cross‐border activism, as with the numerous campaigns and networks for peace, human rights and anti‐apartheid. More recently, United Nations conferences have also fostered activism across borders that simultaneously strengthen, for instance, grassroots feminist groups locally. Transnational feminist networks have indeed been among the early attempts to recognize and value diversity in terms of cultures, races, gender and classes (horizontality and relationality among sectors) as a basis for solidarity and a globalizing praxis that respects local contexts and varied experiences (Conway 2008).
Transnational State
Authors: Sprague Jeb
Published: March 2012

The theory of an emergent transnational state (TNS), as coined by sociologist William I. Robinson (2001), claims that through globalization a nascent political, juridical and regulatory network is coming into existence worldwide. This notion rests upon the idea that a dominant social force, a transnational capitalist class (TCC), propels globalization through transnational corporations (TNCs) (Robinson & Harris 2000). The TCC, to promote and ensure its power, requires a concomitant political project. Such a political project would involve, for example: (i) promoting investor confidence in the global economy, (ii) setting up mechanisms and institutions for responding to economic, political, and military crises that threaten the stability necessary for global markets, and (iii) establishing a degree of macroeconomic policy uniformity across borders.
US–Mexico Border
Authors: Sarabia Heidy
Published: March 2012

The US–Mexico international border was officially established in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It extends 1960 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, with four US states (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) bordering six Mexican states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas). There are 14
sister‐cities
that are paired and interdependent on each side of the border, separated only by the international boundary – most famously, San Diego–Tijuana and El Paso–Ciudad Juarez. There are 42 official crossing points along the US–Mexico border. It is estimated that it is one of the most transited borders in the world, second only to the US–Canada border. Populations along the US–Mexico border also include many indigenous tribes who live on both sides of the border and are separated by the international boundary. There are 26 federally recognized indigenous tribes on the US side, and seven officially‐recognized indigenous tribes on the Mexican. Conflict over indigenous sovereignty and immigration law enforcement has emerged recently. Most notably, the Tohono O'odhma people, mostly settled in northern Sonora, Mexico, and in north to central Arizona, have complained that the US Border Patrol has detained and deported members of their nation traveling through their own traditional lands. With the Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area, signed in 1983 in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico, both the United States and Mexico designated the
border region
as 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) on each side of the international boundary. Today, 12 million people live in this
border region
, 90 percent of whom reside in the 14
sister‐cities
. The population is expected to reach 19.4 million by 2020 (EPA 2009). One of the most important issues, that has actually brought about cooperation among both the United States and Mexico, has been the pollution along the border. Rapid population growth coupled with industrial development and waste has created environmentally unsound air and water quality for the population living in the 14 metropolitan areas along the US–Mexico border. Population growth, as well as migration, unemployment and underemployment, along the border has been closely linked to the emergence and expansion of the
maquiladoras
– outsourced assembly plants. In 1965, the Mexican government launched the Mexican Industrialization Program (BIP) to provide economic incentives for US and international companies to establish assembly plants in the border region. In 1994, the US–Mexico border was opened up further to trade and assembly plants with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
United Nations Environment Programme
Authors: Lawrence Kirk S.
Published: March 2012

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) was created on December 15, 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2997 (XXVII): Institutional and financial arrangements for international environmental cooperation. The recognition of a need for UNEP was one of the outcomes of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in June of the same year in Stockholm, Sweden, which represented the first major international environmental conference attended by representatives of a large number of the world's nations. UNEP was created as the formal arm of the UN responsible for focusing international attention on the environment and safeguarding it from harm in both the present and future. Operating within the framework of the United Nations, UNEP is charged with handling international issues, while respecting the UN Charter, national sovereignty, and international law.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Authors: Elliott Michael A.
Published: March 2012

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a non‐binding, international legal instrument that was drafted within the United Nations system immediately after World War II. It was intended to spell out the basic, fundamental rights that all human beings should be entitled to irrespective of political affiliations or personal attributes (e.g., citizenship, language, religion, race/ethnicity, gender, etc.). Like many human rights instruments, the UDHR is comprised of an introductory preamble that expresses general beliefs and values on the subject, followed by numerous articles or clauses that translate these generalities into concrete rights and entitlements. Drafted as “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations” (Preamble), the historical legacy of the Declaration has been part of a larger debate about the degree to which human rights reflect a Western ideological bias and whether efforts at universal implementation constitute ethnocentrism on the part of Western nations. Nevertheless, since its debut in 1948 the UDHR has become the most prominent and celebrated human rights document in history, and arguably one of the most influential moral documents of the twentieth century.