Soviet economic and technical cooperation with developing countries: The Turkish case.
This is a study of Soviet relations with developing countries up to the mid-1980s. The focus of the research is on the Soviet development assistance programme, or 'economic and technical cooperation' as it is called in the Soviet Union. Cooperation has been used to build over 2,000 industrial and agricultural enterprises in over eighty countries. In most developing countries, economic and technical cooperation is the major form which the Soviet presence takes. The Soviet Union's main way of combating what it sees as the negative effects of trade, private investment and aid from the West is economic and technical cooperation. With the central belief that true political independence and the ability to overcome backwardness does not come while economic dependence still exists, the Soviet Union has sought to build up the economies of developing countries through economic and technical cooperation. The stated goals of this programme have been: to create and develop the economic, scientific and technical potential of the emerging nations, to expand equal and mutually beneficial relations on a stable and long-term basis, and to help the young countries to overcome backwardness and develop without any form of dependence, exploitation or interference in their internal affairs regardless of their social and state system. Soviet cooperation, it is claimed, offers a positive alternative to Western assistance because, unlike the West, the Soviet Union's goal is to increase the independence of developing countries. The intention of this study is to 'go inside' Soviet development cooperation and, with particular reference to one case, that of Turkey, to analyse and evaluate its actual performance. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Soviet assistance and why do developing countries choose cooperation with the Soviet Union instead of involvement with the West. Does Soviet development cooperation at the factory level match the claims that are made. What is the quality of Soviet economic and technical cooperation as it is judged within enterprises in which it is used. Is development cooperation extended without demanding in return economic, political or military concessions. Does the Soviet Union meet the needs of individual developing countries in terms of their own specified development goals. Or, as an external supplier of technological and economic resources, does it impose its own goals. Soviet cooperation is also compared to Western involvement. The issues addressed in this study are discussed in depth in the Soviet literature both at the theoretical level and at the policy level. The claims made in this literature are central to this research. A major aim is to test empirically explicit Soviet claims against actual practice. In addition to measuring Soviet behaviour against the standards set-out in the Soviet development literature, actual practice is also measured against: 1.) the demands of the South as expressed in the UN Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology, 2.) the development objectives of the case study country, and 3.) 'sound' practice as discussed in the Western technology and development literature.
Ideologies and the Western Question in Turkish Foreign Policy: A Neo-classical Realist Perspective
Growing anti-Western sentiments around the world are currently manifesting themselves through divergent ways ranging from peaceful resistance movements to various forms of political violence. In the Middle East, unlike the earlier partially secular and nationalist Cold War anti-Americanism, the current popular anti-Western political movements are heavily equipped with Islamism, which appears to be an all-inclusive ideology and political movement for almost all dissidents. This applies to Turkey as well, despite its relatively long history of secularisation. This research particularly aims therefore to discuss the role of nationalism and Islamism on anti-Western sentiments in Turkish foreign policy through the lens of neo-classical realism and a new, broader conceptual framework: The Western Question. The research examines the contours, contents, and consequences of the problem through comparing two cases, namely the Cyprus problem of the 1970s and the crisis with the West that has surfaced after Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
Complexity, Network-Decisions And Alternative Risk Premia: Some New Theories Of Structural Change And Portfolio Decisions.
Structural Change is the basis for many decisions such as government fiscal and monetary policies, government interventions, corporate-expenditure decisions, corporate strategic decisions, portfolio management decisions in finance; household allocation decisions, etc.. Structural change in industries and national economies is increasingly more difficult to detect partly because of the growth and dominance of Complex Systems and “Networks” in modern industries and economies – such Networks and Complex Systems include GVCs (global value chains), retail store networks; franchising networks; internet networks; services networks; credit-chains in industries; online social networks; etc.. The relationship between Complexity and Structural Change is well established in the physics, applied math and economic dynamics literatures. Traditional definitions and modeling of structural change have erroneously focused on changes in labor, technological progress, market share, and or capital – which are grossly inadequate in the new economy and post- global financial crisis (as confirmed by changes in the global retailing and housing industries and other industries). Also the modeling of structural change seems to be constrained by the availability of data, and often omits the relationship between structural change on one hand, and globalization, financial stability and international financial contagion. This article: i) introduces the Operations Strategy Model of structural change, explains how it differs from the Lewis Model of Structural Change; and explains the often omitted relationship between operations strategy (of companies and government agencies) and structural change; ii) introduces other new Complexity-based models/theories of Structural Change in industries; iii) reviews the relationships among Operations Research, Complexity and Structural Change; iv) explains the symbiotic relationship between structural change on one hand, and economic growth, financial stability, financial contagion and globalization; v) discusses the significant gap between academic research and practice and explains some issues and factors that should be considered in the development and testing of structural change models; vi) explains how alternative risk premia can be generated from new models of Structural Change.