ORBIS articles from March 1996

ORBIS archives from March 1996

The legends of Bretton Woods. (monetary system)(Economic Myths Explained)
March 22, 1996... Did the Bretton Woods monetary system really provide for economic stability and international cooperation over the quarter century following World War II? That is certainly the conventional wisdom among statesmen, foreign-policy analysts, and...

National prosperity is no mystery.(Economic Myths Explained)
March 22, 1996... Throughout the twentieth century, many countries have recovered suddenly from rapid inflation and economic stagnation, and have then begun to enjoy years of noninflationary prosperity. The results have often been called "economic miracles" -...

What became of the Japanese "miracle." (economic development in Japan)(Economic Myths Explained)
March 22, 1996... The Japanese economy is at a crossroads. Forty years of superlative economic expansion have been followed by more than four years of severe stagnation. Japan seems mired in a bog, weighed down by a series of financial crises unprecedented in...

Japan's abiding sakoku mentality. (seclusion from other countries)(Economic Myths Explained)
March 22, 1996... Japan embarked on internationalization (kokusaika) as a national objective more than a decade ago. As advertised, this open-door policy (kaikoku) was to involve, not only liberalization of trade and the opening of markets to foreign goods, but...

The continued primacy of geography. (A Debate on Geopolitics)
March 22, 1996... Because "geopolitics" is a word - as well as a basket of associated ideas - that all but begs to be abused by the unscrupulous, the following definition may prove useful: geopolitics refers to "the relation of international political power to...

The emerging primacy of information.(A Debate on Geopolitics)
March 22, 1996... Thanks to cyberspace - which may be understood as the sum of the globe's communications links and computational nodes - any piece of data can show up anywhere almost instantly. Will cyberspace kill geography? Colin Gray's excellent article...

A rejoinder. (response to article by Martin Libicki in this issue, p. 261)(A Debate on Geopolitics)
March 22, 1996... Martin Libicki is always interesting, is frequently correct, but ultimately fails to persuade. The same difficulty attends appraisal of the writings of Robert Jervis; he poses the right questions, often conducts brilliant analyses, but somehow...

The new moralists on the road to hell.
March 22, 1996... Among its other unexpected effects, the end of the cold war posed anew several moral dilemmas in U.S. foreign policy that had previously been subsumed in the larger struggle: how to respond to ethnic violence in marginal, nonstrategic areas;...

After Mexico: emerging markets, emerging crises?
March 22, 1996... In December 1994, Mexico shocked world Financial markets with a sharp devaluation of the peso. Huge outflows of capital from Mexico before and after the devaluation seriously depleted its international reserves and threatened default on the...

The "great game" in the Cold War era.
March 22, 1996... Why has this book not received more attention? Did it simply get lost in the tumble of cold war post-mortems? Did the handful of editors who make or break books choose to ignore one whose central thesis is that U.S. resistance to communism...

More Precious Than Peace: The Cold War and the Struggle for the Third World.
March 22, 1996... Why has this book not received more attention? Did it simply get lost in the tumble of cold war post-mortems? Did the handful of editors who make or break books choose to ignore one whose central thesis is that U.S. resistance to communism in...

On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace.
March 22, 1996... The primary problem of international relations remains keeping the peace, given the human propensity for war. The post-World War II era has been characterized by unprecedented prosperity within the industrial and newly industrialized...

The War Puzzle.
March 22, 1996... The primary problem of international relations remains keeping the peace, given the human propensity for war. The post-World War II era has been characterized by unprecedented prosperity within the industrial and newly industrialized nations,...

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity.
March 22, 1996... In Henry V, William Shakespeare suggested, "Trust no one; for oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, and hold-fast is the only dog." Recent books by Francis Fukuyama and Robert Putnam argue that Shakespeare may have had a blind...

Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy.
March 22, 1996... In Henry V, William Shakespeare suggested, "Trust no one; for oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, and hold-fast is the only dog." Recent books by Francis Fukuyama and Robert Putnam argue that Shakespeare may have had a blind spot,...

Human bonds and social capital.
March 22, 1996... In Henry V, William Shakespeare suggested, "Trust no one; for oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, and hold-fast is the only dog." Recent books by Francis Fukuyama and Robert Putnam argue that Shakespeare may have had a blind spot,...

La longue Duree. (Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milosevic's provocative actions in Yugoslavia)
March 22, 1996... One widely held account places the principal blame for the Yugoslav civil war on German chancellor Helmut Kohl. In late 1991, it is noted, he pushed the European Community to recognize the former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia as...

Auguries. (creation of a Union of Slavic Socialist Republics)
March 22, 1996... Towards a New USSR Much has been written about the emergence of nationalist socialism throughout the former Soviet empire, and a good deal more about a possible re-constitution of the Soviet Union. Rather less has been heard about the rise...