Towards A Global Consensus Against Corruption

Corruption has long been identified as a governance challenge, yet it took states until the 1990s to adopt binding agreements combating it. While the rapid spread of anti-corruption treaties appears to mark a global consensus, a closer look reveals that not all regional and international organizations move on similar trajectories. This book seeks to explain similarities and differences between international anti-corruption agreements. In this volume Lohaus develops a comprehensive analytical framework to compare international agreements in the areas of prevention, criminalization, jurisdiction, domestic enforcement and international cooperation. Outcomes range from narrow enforcement cooperation to broad commitments that often lack follow-up mechanisms. Lohaus argues that agreements vary because they are designed to signal anti-corruption commitment to different audiences. To demonstrate such different approaches to anti-corruption, he draws on two starkly different cases, the Organization of American States and the African Union. Contributing to debates on decision-making in international organizations, this work showcases how global governance is shaped by processes of diffusion that involve state and non-state actors. The book highlights challenges as well as chances linked to the patchwork of international rules. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of IR theory, global governance, international organizations and regionalism.

Recent research demonstrates that the quality of public institutions are crucial for a number of important environmental, social, economic, and political outcomes, and thereby human well-being. The Quality of Government (QoG) approach directs attention to issues such as impartiality in theexercise of public power, professionalism in public service delivery, effective measures against corruption, and meritocracy instead of patronage and nepotism in the hiring of public sector employees.This handbook offer a comprehensive, state of the art overview of this rapidly expanding research field and also identifies viable avenues for future research. The initial chapters focus on theoretical approaches and debates, and the central question of how QoG can be measured. The remainingchapters examine the wealth of empirical research on how QoG relates to democratization, social cohesion, ethnic diversity, human wellbeing, democratic accountability, economic growth, political legitimacy, environmental sustainability, gender quality, and the outbreak of civil conflicts. Thesechapters bring evidence to bear to examine, for example, questions of the effect of QoG on subjective well-being (i.e. happiness), social trust and inequality. A third set of chapters turns to the perennial issue of which contextual factors and policy approaches, both national, local andinternational, have proven successful (and not so successful) for increasing QoG.The Quality of Government approach both challenges and complements important strands of inquiry in the social sciences. For research about democratization, QoG adds the importance of taking state capacity into account. For economics, the QoG approach shows that in order to produce economicprosperity, markets need to be embedded in institutions with a certain set of qualities. For development studies, QoG emphasizes that issues about corruption are integral to understanding development writ large.

By engaging with the ongoing discussion surrounding the scope of cross-border regulation, this expansive Research Handbook provides the reader with key insights into the concept of extraterritoriality. It offers an incisive overview and analysis of one of the most critical components of global governance.

This engaging new textbook presents a comprehensive, nuanced and multidimensional perspective on global crime and its governance. As global criminal activity becomes increasingly sophisticated and elusive, so the means to counter it must adapt. Every day our news media is dominated by incidents that span countries and continents, often presented as an all-encompassing threat orchestrated by societal outsiders. If not in the news, global crime is sensationalised in our film and television industry, and it can be difficult to gain a true understanding of what global crime is and how it is combated. Featuring the latest research and informed by a wide range of theoretical perspectives, this text masterfully makes sense of a range of issues from global environmental crime and human trafficking, to the global trade in drugs and cybercrime. This pathbreaking text analyses why global crime is important, the obstacles faced in countering it and accounts for the difficulties in securing cooperation across states. Comprehensive and accessible, this authoritative textbook is the perfect companion for students and scholars who are interested in the still evolving issue of international relations and global politics.

Humanitarians operate on the frontlines of today’s armed conflicts, where they regularly negotiate to provide assistance and to protect vulnerable civilians. This book explores this unique and under-researched field of humanitarian negotiation. It details the challenges faced by humanitarians negotiating with armed groups in Yemen, Myanmar, and elsewhere, arguing that humanitarians typically negotiate from a position of weakness. It also explores some of the tactics and strategies they use to overcome this power asymmetry to reach more favorable agreements. The author applies these findings to broader negotiation scholarship and investigates the implications of this research for the field and practice of humanitarianism. This book also demonstrates how non-state actors – both humanitarians and armed groups – have become increasingly potent diplomatic actors. It challenges traditional state-centric approaches to diplomacy and argues that non-state actors constitute an increasingly crucial vector through which international relations are replicated and reconstituted during contemporary armed conflict. Only by accepting these changes to the nature of diplomacy itself can the causes, symptoms, and solutions to armed conflict be better managed. This book will be of interest to scholars concerned with conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation, as well as to humanitarian practitioners themselves.

Conflict and disaster have been part of human history for as long as it has been recorded. Over time, more mechanisms for responding to crises have developed and become more systematized. Today a large and complex ‘global humanitarian response system’ made up of a multitude of local, national and international actors carries out a wide variety of responses. Understanding this intricate system, and the forces that shape it, are the core focus of this book. Daniel G Maxwell and Kirsten Gelsdorf highlight the origins, growth, and specific challenges to, humanitarian action and examine why the contemporary system functions as it does. They outline the main actors, explore how they are organised and look at the ways they plan and carry out their operations. Interrogating major contemporary debates and controversies in the humanitarian system, and the reasons why actions undertaken in its name remain the subject of so much controversy, they provide an important overview of the contemporary humanitarian system and the ways it may develop in the future. This book offers a nuanced understanding of the way humanitarian action operates in the 21st century. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in international human rights law, disaster management and international relations.

Providing a comprehensive overview of two centuries of international civil servants and international secretariats, this book reveals how international secretariats have emerged and evolved, focusing on both structures (international public administrations) and the practitioners (international civil servants). Reinalda explores the history and development of international secretariats and international civil servants, starting with the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), when the first international organization was established in the form of a river commission for the navigation of the Rhine. Charting the development of international secretariats through the nineteenth century – the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the United Nations System with its many specialized agencies, the author explains why NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) have strong, rather than weak, international secretariats, and shines a light on the registries of international courts and tribunals. The book fills a gap in the literature by exploring the full evolution of international secretariats, covering global and continental developments as well as regional integration practices around the world. Secretariats have become the leading actors in multilateral diplomacy particularly for dealing with complex issues, and this book will be of interest to all scholars of global governance and practitioners working for a range of international organizations.