A number of southern African countries have experienced food crises during recent years. The fact that the scale of these crises has been disproportionate to the apparent triggers of climatic adversity or production decline has led to the suggestion that they are more closely related to the AIDS...

This article surveys the process of implementing the World Bank's market-led ‘agrarian reform’ model in Brazil and analyzes some of its consequences and effects. It places the model in a recent political context (the Cardoso administration, 1995–2002), explaining the opposition and...

This article compares and contrasts three groups of faith–based development organizations (FBDOs). The first group consists of community–based FBDOs. The second are intermediaries acting as a bridge between larger donors and community organizations. Last, there are missionary...

Like military might and financial resources – the conventional forms of political influence – information is an important source of influence in international relations. International organisations disseminate vast amounts of information, which shape how social problems are...

For the purpose of this article, humanitarian diplomacy is defined as: the use of International Law and the humanitarian imperative as complimentary levers to facilitate the delivery of assistance or to promote the protection of civilians in a complex political emergency.Based on field research...

Austrian Economics tries to minimize the role of the state. International institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), seen under this perspective, often try to fulfil functions of states which are not necessary, for instance, fixing exchange rates or...

The international community's response to reconstructing Afghanistan, following the US-led regime change invasion post-11 September 2001 (9/11), brought actors such as the military and private corporations more fully into the humanitarian sphere. As a result, the Non-Governmental Organizations...

World Trade Organization (WTO) Green Room meetings are small gatherings of representatives from up to 30 member countries, invited by the Director-General. They are designed to provide the basis for a consensus on critical negotiating issues that can be brought to the WTO membership as a whole....

The US choice of a misdirected target of priority concern, a ‘War on Terror’, combined with the use of hard power to the absolute detriment of soft power has undermined the enlightenment values that had begun to flourish in the form of humanitarian policies, values and laws which...

Electronic commerce may be a great equalizer that helps to reduce, or even to eliminate, distance-related barriers to trade, but it can also exacerbate a so-called ‘digital dividend’ vis-à-vis countries with technological and infrastructural deficiencies, especially developing countries. In...