Potential Areas of Useful Expertise or Interest: Criminology, Sociology, Criminal Justice, Public Policy, Psychology Maximum Number of Projects: 3 == == == == Project 11 Kuwaiti Land Use: Understanding a Distorted Market and Improving Efficiency in Land Allocation U.S. Embassy Kuwait, Economics Section Overview: In Kuwait, 95% of land is by the government or controlled by the oil and gas sector. Less than five percent of the country’s land is available for other uses. With only a small fraction of the country’s land area available for building, competition is fierce and prices are astronomical. A 400 square meter (4500 square foot, 0.1 acre) residential lot can cost more than $1 million, even in outlying areas. Larger plots can sell for more than $10 million per acre. At the same time, Kuwait is littered with old and abandoned buildings serving no productive purpose. With no land taxes, property owners can let a valuable plot of prime land sit undeveloped for decades, further restricting the limited supply of usable land. Disinterest in selling land makes it difficult to assemble larger parcels needed for commercial and industrial use. This makes it more difficult for the non-oil parts of the economy to grow and substantially raises costs for large construction projects. Questions: What can be done to make the Kuwaiti land market more efficient? Could property taxes provide the impetus to return unproductive land to the market? How can the government extract hydrocarbons without limiting access to the land above them? a more efficient land ownership system increase investment and GDP? Would such a system lead to lower costs for residential land? Format of Final Product: The final product would be a package of documents, including an analysis of pricing under various simulations (Excel workbook); a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the findings for an audience; a policy paper of 10-20 pages; and an executive summary of less than two pages. Potential Areas of Useful Expertise or Interest:
The final product format should be a memo of 10-15 pages that highlights different potential fundraising options for CSOs and describes the pros and cons of each option. The memo should also provide specific, real-world examples for the different options (i.e., CSO X used a crowdsourcing platform in Colombia that generated XX in monthly revenue and built the CSO’s number of regular donors by XX percent), which would include analysis on why the real-world examples were successful or not. Potential of Useful Expertise or Interest: This project is open to any academic discipline. Comments: Suggested reading: Rachel Hayman, “Civil society sustainability: Stepping up to the challenge,” International NGO Training and Research Centre. Douglas Rutzen, “Civil Society Under Assault,” Journal of Democracy 26.4 (October 2015): 28-39. Human Rights Watch, “Ecuador: Clampdown on Civil Society.” Maximum Number of == ==
== == Project 22 Identifying Islamic Extremism in the South Caucasus Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Caucasus and Regional Conflicts (EUR/CARC) Overview: A study that examines extremist attitudes and how people become radicalized across the South Caucasus. Recently, there have been numerous verified cases about Muslims from Georgia and Azerbaijan traveling to Syria and joining the Islamic State. There has not been an anthropological study to identify specific issues in at-risk communities that are factors in radicalization. Due to South Caucasus’ proximity to both Syria and Chechnya, this problem will only increase if it is not addressed. This research would be helpful in directing counter-radicalism initiatives and aid. Moreover, it would also be useful given the current wave of extremists in neighboring Syria, Chechnya and Dagestan. Notably, the Caucasus Emirate has made statements about expanding into Azerbaijan and the Islamic State has announced that Georgia is one of its targets. The study would explore susceptibility in specific South Caucasus areas, providing useful data for preventing radicalization or de-radicalization projects (such as in prisons where detainees become radicalized). The research would identify key communities, religiosity, education level, economic lives, ethnicity and political attitudes in the interview data set. In turn, the project would help counter future terrorist threats by, for example, knowing what counter-terror education programs would work better in a particular region of the country. Format of Final Product: 20-30 page research Potential Areas of Useful Expertise or Interest: This research could be conducted by students with anthropology, political science or sociological educations. Comments: