Partnerships for the Goals
Preventing crisis and conflict: Women’s role in ongoing peace processes
This fall will mark 17 years since the adoption of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women and peace and security. This agenda includes specific provisions for peace negotiations and agreements, as does the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). While there have been achievements in women’s access to and participation in peace processes, there is still much to be done. Unfortunately, women continue to be largely excluded from participating in and mediating peace processes. As a result, gender perspectives are absent from emergent peace agreements. This occurs despite the tremendous role that women play in promoting peace, peaceful dialogue and ending hostilities in many armed conflicts. A 2012 UN Women study of 31 peace processes between 1992 and 2011 illustrates well this marginalization of women: only 4 per cent of signatories, 2.4 per cent of chief mediators, 3.7 per cent of witnesses and 9 per cent of negotiators were women.
Research methods in international business by Lorraine Eden, Bo Nielsen and Alain Verbeke
The ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation and its role in preventing crises
In addressing the question of the role of the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) in preventing crises, one must look beyond the confines of its mandate and examine the issue in practical, albeit indirect, terms. In so doing, one should not separate the role of AIPR in preventing crises from the unique position afforded by its traditional governance structur.
At the nexus between reducing inequality and realizing global citizenship. Bristol: A global city
As a historic trading city, Bristol, United Kingdom, has always looked outwards and connected globally. Of course, we are not alone in this. In this globalized age, all cities in the world interact with places beyond their national boundaries. But in Bristol, we are set on understanding both the local and the global, ensuring that a mentality of global citizenship brings increased equality across the whole of the city.
The Mauritius Convention on Transparency and the Multilateral Tax Instrument: models for the modification of treaties?
The investment treaty network and the tax treaty network comprise more than 3,000 treaties each. The provisions of these treaties generally are highly customized on the basis of the investment flows and economic interests of the contracting States. The number of treaties in force and their customization potentially turn the amendment of these treaty networks in their entirety into a cumbersome and long process. To modify the treaty networks in a swift and coordinated manner, the investment treaty makers and the tax treaty makers almost contemporaneously developed the idea of implementing treaty changes through a single multilateral convention. On 10 December 2014, the United Nations adopted the Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor–State Arbitration, also known as the Mauritius Convention. In addition, on 24 November 2016, the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), commonly referred to as the Multilateral Tax Instrument, was concluded under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Mauritius Convention and the Multilateral Tax Instrument share the object and purpose of modifying an extensive number of treaties. However, due to their novelty, little research has been done until now on their common characteristics and differences. The article aims at filling this gap by comparing both multilateral conventions. It also aims at drawing lessons from the analysis of both multilateral conventions that might be of benefit for future modifications of an extensive number of treaties through a single instrument.
Poverty, malaria and the right to health
Transforming settlements in Africa
International tax, regulatory arbitrage and the growth of transnational corporations
This paper traces the history of international corporate taxation, discusses how transnational corporations (TNCs), through their tax advisers, have helped to shape the system, and suggests that this is important in understanding the development of TNCs. It argues that a key competitive advantage of TNCs is their ability to exploit differences in corporate tax rules, as a form of regulatory arbitrage, which is facilitated by the inadequate coordination of those rules. It focuses on the divergence between the understanding in business, economics and international studies that TNCs are unitary firms and the principle which has increasingly hardened in international tax rules, especially on transfer pricing, that the various affiliates of TNCs in different countries should be treated as if they were independent entities dealing with each other at arm’s length. It argues that this facilitates tax avoidance, which is one of the strategies of the exploitation of regulatory differences, or regulatory arbitrage, which has contributed to the growth and oligopolistic dominance of large TNCs. While claiming that they merely obey the laws of each country where they do business, TNCs have taken advantage of their global reach to mould laws and normative practices, and develop structures taking maximum advantage of the loose coordination of global governance regimes.
The new urban agenda's road map for planning urban spatial development: Tangible, manageable and measurable
The relevance of soft infrastructure in disaster management and risk reduction
Sustainable urban energy is the future
The Post-Haiyan Shelter Challenge and the Need for Local, National and International Coordination
The Scope and Limits of Humanitarian Action in Urban Areas of the Global South
Global citizenship: Imagined destiny or improbable dream
It is increasingly likely that the graduates of American schools and universities either will supervise or be supervised by someone of a different ethnic, national or racial background. It is also likely that the work of their employers and activities of their families will be influenced in profound ways by suppliers, customers, clients and others who are of a different cultural background. In addition, in many parts of the world it is likely that neighbours, or the schoolmates of their children, will be of a different heritage. Thus, we can expect that the lives of school and university graduates will be affected directly by an increasingly diverse society and interdependent world community.
Neighbours with different innovation patterns: The implications of industrial and FDI policy for the openness of local knowledge production
This article shows evidence that FDI policies during the catch-up process may leave a trace in the openness of innovation activities in latecomer economies, based on a comparative analysis between the Republic of Korea and China. The past industrial policies of the Republic of Korea favoured creating local technological competence based on the transfer of foreign knowledge in codified form, leading to a low level of global connection in local knowledge creation. By contrast, Chinese policies encouraged the entrance of foreign firms in the Chinese market, leading to a higher level of global interaction in innovation activities. Based on the findings, the article presents policy recommendations and suggests avenues for future research.