With endorsement by the Security Council, a powerful multi-national  fleet of warships patrols the seas off the coast of Somalia to protect the shipping lanes from local pirates.   But neither the Council nor the naval powers address other serious crimes in these waters – foreign illegal fishing and the illegal dumping of toxic wastes.  This GPF special report looks at how the fishing and dumping is related to the piracy and how the Security Council systematically ignores these issues, calling for further “studies” while ignoring the ample evidence.  The authors call for a coast guard to replace the warships, for immediate action on the fishing and dumping scandal, and for far stronger global regime to protect the world’s seas from abusive, criminal activities that harm coastal peoples.

Picture Credit: marcestes.com

The main difference between liberals and conservatives is often said to be the extent to which they are willing to interfere in the market to redistribute money. In this op-ed article, Dean Baker from the Center for Economic and Policy Research defies this view, arguing that the difference does not lie in the redistributive policies a government does or does not implement, but rather in the actions it takes to determine the initial distribution. The issue is not “leaving our neighbor by the side of the road,” Baker states, but the fact that our neighbor has been thrown out of the bus. The real battle is thus not over shuffling around a few crumbs, but over setting the rules. The first step “to get our neighbor back on the bus” is to say as clearly as possible what exactly happened.   

Photo Credit: pbs.org

Universal Jurisdiction allows national courts to pursue serious crimes against non-nationals, even if the crime takes place on foreign soil. The International Criminal Court (ICC) encourages national courts to exercise Universal Jurisdiction in order to complement the ICC and strengthen international law. In this Harper’s Magazine interview, US Ambassador David Scheffer praises the US for prosecuting war criminals, like Chuckie Taylor of Liberia. But embracing Universal Jurisdiction in national courts is not an excuse to ignore ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC. The US has continued to practice and manipulate international law under its own terms, and is not keen on other states using Universal Jurisdiction to prosecute its own nationals.

Picture Credit: Caravans End

The US State Department is considering halving the staff at its embassy in Iraq, the largest embassy in the world, with almost 16,000 personnel. As the New York Times points out, the huge expansion of diplomatic resources in Iraq “may have been ill-advised.” As US troops pull out of Iraq, the embassy’s capabilities have been reduced in the face of security concerns, as well as hostility from the local population and government toward the vast diplomatic staff and the larger still cohort of heavily armed private security contractors.

Photo Credit: untreaty.un.org

On June 29, 1944, German troops murdered 250 Italian civilians.  In 2008, an Italian court ruled that Germany needed to pay reparations to the victims’ families. The decision, however, was overruled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ upheld the principle of foreign state immunity on human rights cases and ruled that individuals have no right to seek reparations. What this means is that in the future, Iraqi, Afghani, and Ethiopian victims of human rights abusers from foreign nations will not be able to obtain legal justice through international law.

Picture Credit: spiegel.com

In an attempt to take advantage of low wages and expanding markets, multinational companies have shifted manufacturing operations and research from North America and Europe to Asia. Taking the French manufacturing industry as its case study, this YaleGlobal series offers ideas on how nations can design their policies to benefit from globalization. The first article examines how the lack of international market regulations leads to an uneven distribution of jobs. Economist Pierre-Noel Giraud argues that wealthy countries should keep their borders open and emerging countries should continue developing their domestic markets. The second article explores the promotion of labels that identify a product’s country of origin as a way to prevent the loss of manufacturing jobs. Author Alain Renaudin maintains that geographical labels are no solution, as values, expertise and innovation are more critical factors for economic success.