http://scannerclearly.org/blog Global and local politics viewed from New Zealand Thu, 28 May 2009 23:41:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en (This is the 4th and final part of a series of posts on this topic) Are there any institutions that reduce the ability of a relatively peaceful public majority to counter the influence of the relevant special interests? I discuss three institutions here – lack of democratic accountability; the poor performance ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2009/05/28/systematic-pressures-behind-us-military-and-covert-action-part-4_23/ Are there any institutional features that increase the likelihood of a significant component of military and covert intervention in US foreign policy? There are three institutional factors to discuss – the proliferation of US military bases abroad, US training of foreign militaries and pressure from the defense industry. The US ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2009/05/28/systematic-pressures-behind-us-military-and-covert-action-part-3_22/ Through which institutions are these interests able to have disproportionate influence on foreign policy? (This post follows on from the discussion in Part 1 of this four part series) This is a matter of the means by which a special interest group X identified in Part 1 can influence the relevant foreign ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2009/05/28/systematic-pressures-behind-us-military-and-covert-action-part-2_21/ A military or an intelligence agency embodies a concentration of power. At times, concentrations of power and their deployment may be necessary. However, a cautionary acknowledgement is that there is a potential for concentrations of power being used for unjust purposes. I take it to be an uncontroversial precautionary principle ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2009/05/28/systematic-pressures-behind-us-military-and-covert-action-part-1_20/   By 2006 alone, over 655,000 Iraqi civilians are estimated to have died in excess of normal death rates (Burnham et al. “Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey”, Lancet vol 368, Oct 2006). One of the initial reasons given for the invasion involved members of the ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2009/01/06/how-did-us-mass-media-perform-in-assessing-the-bush-administrations-case-for-invading-iraq_19/ [The one year anniversary is fast approaching for the media-grabbing arrests of October 15 2007. In connection with that, here is an article written around that time (almost a year ago) summarising some of the issues. The article originally appeared at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0711/S00330.htm and appears here with the author's permission] The Solicitor-General’s ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2008/10/08/october-15-2007-arrests-in-aotearoa_18/ The IMF and WB launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in 1996 to reduce the debt burden of bilateral and multilateral debt for some of the poorest and most heavily indebted countries. Forty one countries are eligible for debt relief under the program. Another program, the Multilateral Debt Relief ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2008/10/08/debt-relief-programs-for-the-highly-indebted-poor-countries-hipcs_17/ There are some specific historical factors behind the large debt of developing countries today. Let me note some of these. Several factors in the 1970s contributed to a substantial rise in sovereign debts owed by developing countries. Non-oil producing developing countries experienced a rising overall trade deficit. The largest share of ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2008/10/08/why-are-so-many-developing-countries-in-such-substantial-debt_16/ Types of lenders and of loans in sovereign borrowing The external debt burden of a country is the money owed by private debtors (companies) and by the government to foreign creditors. Roughly 62% of external debt in 2004 was owed publicly and 38% owed privately (CADTM 2005). There are various reasons ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2008/10/08/the-basics-of-sovereign-debt-debt-acquired-by-countries_15/ The WTO was established in 1995 as the successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which was created in 1947. Much of the GATT agreements on trade were carried over into the WTO, though there have been changes and additions in rounds of negotiations since then. Let ... http://scannerclearly.org/blog/2008/10/08/basics-of-the-world-trade-organization_14/