Regions and Cohesion

The European Union’s (EU) 2015–2016 “migration/asylum crisis” gave discussions over the relationships between migration, security and development renewed prominence in global affairs. In response to record migratory flows, the EU, like the United States (US), has implemented security responses to migration aimed at protecting territorial integrity. This article addresses the migration–security–development nexus through the lens of policy coherence for development (PCD). It compares EU and US migration policies within the framework of the “transformative development” associated with the Sustainable Development Goals. It contends that these donors have undermined transformative development through the regionalization of development aid, which has contributed to the securitization of both development and migration policies. Thus, the article contends that new mechanisms for change need to be identified. It introduces the notion of “normative coherence” and proposes a potential role for regional human rights courts in fostering migration-related PCD.

This is a comparative study of development policy behavior, testing the Europeanization hypothesis and the idea of sub-regional identification. It examines development policies of three Benelux countries and four Nordic countries. The comparison was partly quantitative, drawing from OECD data, and partly qualitative, based on policy analysis of similarities and differences in development policies of the countries under examination. The examination provides some evidence in support of the Europeanization hypothesis as far as the EU goals towards growth in member states’ aid volume and commitment to policy coherence for development were concerned. The alternative explanation was found to be stronger in helping understand performance in multilateral aid and allocation of bilateral aid. Common to the countries under examination is that they approximate a corporatist type of political economy, which helps in understanding identification and norm diffusion within sub-regional schemes. Neither explanation proposed here succeeded in explaining commitment to donor coordination.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es estudiar los impactos socioculturales del emprendedor en el polo de desarrollo turístico del estado de Quintana Roo, que se ha conformado por flujos migratorios a lo largo de sus 47 años de existencia. Se trata de una zona atractiva por distintos motivos en particular para personas que buscan mejorar su calidad de vida, y que al desarrollar sus actividades productivas generan diferentes ventajas competitivas. Esta investigación se plantea desde un enfoque territorial que abarca una perspectiva heurística considerando al territorio como el escenario construido. Utiliza herramientas de tipo cualitativo y desarrolla un análisis de los comercializadores de artesanías además de incorporar estudios realizados por Centros de Investigación del estado de Quintana Roo. Identifica los impactos socioculturales del emprendedor, la generación de redes y la manera en que se conforma el territorio en un destino turístico.

This article focuses on the United States (US), looking at the American culture war specifically as it relates to environmental issues. Looking at the US today is a reminder that the culture wars are as overtly political as they are culturally motivated, and they diminish social cohesion. The term “culture wars” is defined as increases in volatility, expansion of polarization, and obvious conflicts in various parts of the world between, on the one hand, those who are passionate about religiously motivated politics, traditional morality, and anti-intellectualism, and, on the other hand, those who embrace progressive politics, cultural openness, and scientific and modernist orientations. The article examines this ideological war in contemporary environmental management debates. It identifies characteristics of environmental leadership and discusses how networks can act as environmental leaders.

This article looks back at the 2011 Arab Spring where the movements that brought hope to the region and beyond seem to have gone astray. The military has taken over in Egypt, while Libya, Syria and Yemen have descended into civil strife with tremendous human costs. Bahrain has witnessed repression that has overwhelmed the opposition, and while Tunisia, the country where Arab Spring began, has avoided the violence characterizing the aforementioned states, change has remained rather limited. As for other countries that rode on the same wave of mobilizations, hopes for democratic transformation have been subdued in some-what less violent contexts but with varying degrees of pressure from the state. This article examines what has happened to the Arab Spring countries, why and what is required to democratically transform the region.