Fellowships: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
Carlos Oscar Arteta, Economics: An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Multilateral Assistance to Developing Countries during Currency Crises. After the Mexican crisis of 1994, the rapid response of the international financial community successfully averted a major international financial crisis and diminished the extent of contagion to other countries. Such response was based on an orthodox, IMF-style stabilization program. During the 1997 Asian crisis, a similar response did not succeed. Why did the multilateral efforts of 1997 fail to stop the "Asian Flu"? Given existence of contagious effects -- and since the authorities of the country that suffers the initial attack have little incentive to internalize the contagion externalities -- multilateral intervention appears to be justified. However, the necessary economic policy responses during a currency crisis are largely context-specific, and, as a consequence, IMF-style stabilization programs might be counter-productive. This project will focus on the economic effectiveness of multilateral assistance within the current institutional framework -- based on the policy guidelines of the IMF -- and on the prospects of institutional reform.
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Lea Borkenhagen, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management: Ms. Borkenhagen will study the relationship between nation building and identity politics by examining the effect of increasing flows of international capital on the ability of ethnic minorities to manage natural resources. Her research will focus on how multilateral trade agreements among states may open new avenues for capital investments and may allow for the development of new regulatory policies. She posits that by changing how natural resouces can be appropriated and managed, such trade agreements will also change how the communities and individuals who rely upon those resources will identify themselves culturally, ethnically, and as a nation. Ms. Borkenhagen's focus is on the Bunaken National Marine Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia, which is the site of intense capital investment under a multilateral trade agreement between Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia. As the recognized epicenter of fish and coral reef diversity in the world and a popular destination for scuba divers, this park can play an important role in the development of the tourism industry in the region.
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Mark Harris, Jurisprudence and Social Policy: The Pursuit of Human Rights Goals by Multilateral Institutions. Mr. Harris will study the implementation of human rights policy -- the attempt by policymakers and legislators, NGOs, and other actors to translate international norms into political and institutional reality. Current understanding of human rights organizations' work limits discussion about the evolution of multilateral actors toward human rights golas. Although some multilateral institutions are formed with human rights goals at their core, many are founded for other purposes -- the promotion of trade, for instance -- and later change their organizational goals so that they are newly or more strongly directed toward human rights agendas. Concrete analyses of the political context in which these successes and failures occur might, in the end, yield a list of factors that account for success or failure and thereby provide insight for future strategy.
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