Banking on Baghdad: Financial Change in Postwar Iraq; Strategic Insights, v. 3, issue 5 (May, 2004)
Abstract : April 2004 represents an important milestone in Iraqi history--the one year mark after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime. Assuming the insurrection and increased hostilities surrounding this date will abate, this represents a fitting time to assess the Iraqi government's likely strategy for restoring the country's economic health. That strategy was outlined in January 2004 by central bank governor Sinan Shabibi and finance minister Kamel Gailani. Their vision for Iraq is in accordance with the Bush Administration's neoliberal model and provides substance to some of the vague principles laid down by the Administration in the spring and summer of 2003. The strategy encompasses the creation of: (a) openness and transparency of Iraq's institutions; (b) strong incentives for private sector development; (c) close economic and financial integration with the international community, (d) international standards and best practices; and (e) a social safety net that addresses the needs of all Iraqis. While many factors within this framework will play a key role in the economy's recovery, emphasis on free markets and private sector investment suggest the creation of a viable efficient financial system will be the key to the country's economic recovery. In this regard, a recent United Nations' needs assessment notes that: With a dysfunctional financial system featuring a poorly organized regulatory framework and ineffective institutions, the task of rebuilding a sound and safe modern financial sector in Iraq is daunting. It should start with the banking sector, which is currently the essential component of the financial system and should cover the sector's legal and regulatory aspects as well as its main institutions. This would be a long term process that will require significant resources, technical as well as financial.
Autarky or Interdependence: U.S. vs. European Security and Defense Industries in a Globalized Market
Globalization theorists show how downward pressure to compete and/or save costs in global markets will lead producers and consumers to source goods and services in the cheapest and most efficient manner. However, in certain sectors, such as the defense industry, security concerns and politics can overshadow economic logic when it comes to making procurement decisions. These political and security concerns keep the U.S. defense industry from using the most cost-effective supply chains and manufacturing centers, whereas in Europe, post-Cold War socioeconomic and political realities allowed for more transnational cooperation on defense procurement. Three cases serve to illustrate the spectrum between autarky and interdependence in defense procurement and how fundamental political, legal, and structural constraints prevent the U.S. defense market from becoming fully efficient. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Beth Eisenfeld for her constant encouragement and interest in my academic endeavors. This article is available in Journal of Strategic Security: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol10/iss2/ 3
Letting Women in? Gender Mainstreaming in Regional Policies
Gender mainstreaming has over the last ten years become the dominant strategy of integrating gender issues in public policy. This article presents regional policy as a broad and increasingly important policy field to study, and analyses gender mainstreaming in this policy field in the Norwegian and the Swedish contexts. How do problem representations surrounding “gender equality” and “gender mainstreaming” produce meanings of gender as well as construct possibilities for change? The article shows that, despite some differences between the two countries, gender mainstreaming in regional policy can to a large extent be read as meaning “women”. Women are in this context given a narrow subject position and are constructed as lacking what it takes to produce sustainable regional growth. The concluding discussion highlights the relations between the implementation of gender mainstreaming and neo‐liberal political trends.