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FACULTY & EXPERTS
16 December 2024

Winter Readings: A Selection of New Faculty Books

This semester saw the publication of a selection of books by Geneva Graduate Institute faculty, covering a wide range of topics from global education governance to  human rights and undocumented migration.

The Rise of Knowledge Brokers in Global Education Governance cover

 

The Rise of Knowledge Brokers in Global Education Governance

Edited by Chanwoong Baek and Gita Steiner-Khamsi

How has the surplus of “evidence”in the digital era affected the dictum of evidence-based policymaking? There is no shortage of studies,
toolkits, databanks, and compilation of good practices that await update by policymakers. Given the limited uptake, however, many international organisations moved from producing and disseminating knowledge to communicating and brokering knowledge. Their metamorphosis has now become an object of academic curiosity and scrutiny.

The book editors invited scholars in the social sciences and policy analysts in international organisations, such as the OECD, Jacobs Foundation, International Development Research Centre and Global Partnership for Education, to reflect on institutional knowledge brokerage in education. How do they establish credibility and trust, in a crowded space of knowledge brokers? The edited volume attempts to remedy the overemphasis on individual brokers and replace it with investigations of institutional knowledge brokerage used by international organisations as a new tool of global governance.

Malheur à la ville dont le Prince est un enfant couverture

 

Malheur à la ville dont le Prince est un enfant
De Macron à Le Pen ?
2017-2024

Jean-François Bayart

Ce livre est une démonstration de sociologie historique et comparée du politique. Certes, l’auteur prend pour focale la personne et la politique d’Emmanuel Macron. Mais il s’attache à dégager les logiques de situation dont ce dernier est le jouet consentant, à les replacer sous l’éclairage de l’historicité propre de la société politique française, et à en souligner la commensurabilité avec d’autres situations, passées ou présentes.

La France se pique d’universalité. En l’occurrence celle-ci prend surtout la forme de son ralliement à un mouvement de fond global, souvent qualifié d’« illibéral » ou, plus justement, de « libéral-autoritaire », de « national-libéral ». À son corps défendant, Emmanuel Macron est en passe d’enclencher une révolution conservatrice à la française à force de dévitaliser les corps intermédiaires, de donner des gages à l’extrême-droite identitariste, d’adopter un ton belliqueux. « Nous ne céderons rien », répète-t-il à tout propos. Au risque de devoir céder l’Élysée à Marine Le Pen.

Demystifying Treaty Interpretation cover

 

Demystifying Treaty Interpretation

Andrea Bianchi and Fuad Zarbiyev

Demystifying Treaty Interpretation doesn’t just tell you how treaties are commonly interpreted. It helps you understand the process of treaty interpretation and its outcomes. The idea that rules of treaty interpretation can guide us to the meaning of treaty provisions, in a
simple and straightforward manner, is a myth to be dispelled. This book aims to capture some of the complex and nuanced processes involved in treaty interpretation. It spurs further reflection about how interpretation takes place against the background of concepts, categories, and insights from other disciplines.

A useful tool for scholars, practitioners, and researchers engaging with treaty interpretation at all levels, the book aims to enhance the readers’ knowledge and mastery of the interpretive process in all its elements, with a view to making them more skilled and effective players in the game of interpretation.

Missing Dollars cover

 

Missing Dollars
Illicit Financial Flows from Commodity Trade

Edited by Gilles Carbonnier, Fritz Brugger, Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi, Fred M. Dzanku and Sthabandith Insisienmay
 

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) associated with commodity trade erode the tax base of resource-rich developing countries. Curbing IFFs and reforming taxation stumbles over enhanced North-South tensions but remain crucial to help poorer countries mobilise domestic resources for development. Missing Dollars examines this key part of the wider agenda to restore trust in the multilateral system, calling for a more transparent, effective and equitable trade and tax framework. Its theoretical and empirical contributions shed new light on issues such as addressing push and pull factors through domestic and international policy measures, the preferences of key stakeholders for short-term fixes versus long-term policy reforms, and prescriptive approaches and other options to address tax base erosion in resourcerich developing countries.

Human Rights A Very Short Introduction Chinese cover

 

Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction

Andrew Clapham

The second edition of Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction is now available in Chinese, thanks to a translation by Li Bingqing, Lecturer
in Law from Shantou University School of Law, and Wei Zhang, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute for Human Rights, China University of Political Science and Law. The book covers the history and philosophy of human rights and details developments concerning rights related to torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, freedom of expression and discrimination. Issues related to lethal force through the use of drones and the so-called “right to be forgotten” are discussed, and there are sections on the rights of persons with disabilities. 

The book has also been translated into Turkish, Swedish, German, Korean, Thai, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The Forever Crisis

 

The Forever Crisis
Adaptive Global Governance for an Era of Accelerating Complexity

Adam Day

This book is an introduction to complex systems thinking at the global governance level. It offers concepts, tools, and ways of thinking about
how systems change that can be applied to the most wicked problems facing the world today.

More than an abstract argument for complexity theory, The Forever Crisis offers a targeted critique of today’s highest-profile proposals for improving the governance of our environment, security, finance, health, and digital space. It suggests that we should spend less effort and resources on upgrading existing institutions, and more on understanding how they (and we) relate to each other.

The volume will be essential reading for public policymakers, NGOs and think tanks, foreign policy experts, government officials, and global decision-makers.

Achieving Equitable Education cover

 

Achieving Equitable Education
Missing Education Data and the SDG 4 Data Regime

Edited by Marcos Delprato and Daniel D. Shephard

We have passed the midpoint of the Sustainable Development Goal agenda, but the achievement of Goal 4 (SDG 4) on “inclusive and equitable quality education” for all remains uncertain. Gaps in the education data regime are one driver of this uncertainty. Such missing data often affect contexts and groups that are being left furthest behind on the various targets outlined in SDG 4.

The chapters of this book provide a nuanced understanding of education data gaps across regions, themes, and levels of education systems. Achieving Equitable Education contributes to envisioning a more effective global education data regime that can better support the achievement of quality education for all.

Economics of Undocumented Migration cover

 

Economics of Undocumented Migration

Slobodan Djajić and Alexandra Brausmann

Undocumented international migration is an increasingly important political, social and economic issue. The articles collected in this volume provide a framework for the study of some key decisions that potential migrants are confronted with when considering a move abroad, such as the timing of departure, the method of financing the move, the choice between documented and undocumented modes of entry, the optimal duration of the stay abroad, or how much to save.

The various chapters illustrate how decisions of migrants are shaped not only by immigration policies and enforcement measures of the
host country, but also by their own personal characteristics and the economic environment they face at home and abroad.

At the macroeconomic level, the focus is on the analysis of the effectiveness of immigration policies in controlling the inflow and the stock of undocumented aliens. The question of international cooperation between the host and transit countries is also examined.

Histoire de l'Iran contemporain

 

Histoire de l’Iran contemporain

Mohammad-Reza Djalili et Thierry Kellner

Étrange pays que cet État chiite qui n’a jamais rompu avec son passé préislamique et qui, malgré son particularisme, a toujours exercé un rayonnement culturel bien au-delà de ses frontières. Curieux destin que celui de ce vieil empire aujourd’hui entouré de jeunes États, objet, pendant le XIXe siècle et le début du XXe, de rivalités entre puissances russe et britannique, et qui est aussi la première nation du Moyen-Orient à s’être dotée d’une Constitution moderne à la suite d’une révolution dès 1906.

Précurseur dans la nationalisation de ses ressources pétrolières, l’Iran est également le premier pays à avoir connu une révolution islamique qui a provoqué un séisme politique à travers le monde musulman et au-delà. Aujourd’hui, les Iraniens et les Iraniennes cherchent la voie pour sortir d’un régime despotique et misogyne sourd à leurs revendications. Le présent ouvrage a pour ambition d’initier les lectrices et les lecteurs à l’histoire foisonnante de l’Iran des deux derniers siècles (1796-2023), laboratoire politique et nation à part, du point de vue identitaire et historique.

L'Occident et l'altérité couverture

 

L’Occident et l’altérité: Fractures, valeurs, déclins et convergences

Sous la direction de Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou

Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, professeur d’histoire et politique internationales et directeur adjoint de l’Institut, a invité d’éminents spécialistes, historiens, politologues, sociologues, philosophes, journalistes et écrivains à se pencher sur la double question de la place de l’Occident dans le monde et de son rapport à l’autre. Leurs réflexions, parues dans une série d’articles du Temps en août 2023, sont reproduites dans la présente publication conjointe de l’Institut et du Temps. « Cerner les dynamiques contemporaines entre l’Occident et l’altérité n’est pas affaire de mise sous infrarouges réductionnistes et clivants, de hâtives formules d’une époque impatiente ou de bons mots essentialistes et éphémères. Il s’agit plutôt de chercher, patiemment, modestement et difficilement, à démêler les fils d’une relation étagée qui a été et demeure problématique », précise le professeur Mohamedou.

La publication s’ouvre par un éditorial de Marie-Laure Salles, directrice de l’Institut, suivi d’une préface de Madeleine Von Holzen, rédactrice en chef du Temps.

The Peace Fomula cover

 

The Peace Formula
Voice, Work and Warranties, Not Violence

Dominic Rohner

Economic forces play a major role in the outbreak and perpetuation of violence, but they also hold the key for positive change. Using a non-technical and accessible style, The Peace Formula attacks a series of misconceptions about how economics has been used to foster peace. In place of these misconceptions, this book draws on rich historical anecdotes and cutting edge academic evidence to outline the “peace formula” – a set of key policies that are crucial ingredients for curbing armed conflict and achieving transition to lasting peace and prosperity. These policies include providing jobs (work), democratic participation (voice), and guaranteeing the security and basic functions of the state (warranties).

Investigating specific political institutions and economic policies, the book provides the first easily accessible synthesis of this work and explains how “smart idealism” can help us get the incentives of our leaders right. The stakes could hardly be higher.