International Relations

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ReviewofWeblinksassigmentINTR3000-Juarez.docx

INTR 3000: International Relations

REVIEW OF WEB SITES (Paper #1)

The assignment calls for students to review a wide selection of web sites related to global political economy. The list below includes web sites in ten different categories.

The paper should summarize and review a selection of web sites – at least two sites from at least six (6) different categories; that is, a minimum of at least twelve (12) web sites reviewed -- and offer some personal reaction/commentary.  Which sites did you find useful or interesting?  Where any of them particularly user-friendly, or perhaps not so?  Would you recommend any site?  Why?  What did you learn that surprised you?  Which sites are you likely to go back to in the future? Each entry site should be a brief paragraph summary/description, and another brief paragraph with personal analysis/commentary.

Please note: you can include a different web site that is not included in the list below, as long as it has clear relevance to the study of global politics.

The paper should be single-spaced, 11-12 point font.

1. International organizations

www.bis.org Bank for International Settlements (BIS): "the central banks' central bank": international banking statistics; data on indebtedness.

www.financialstabilityboard.org The Financial Stability Board was established to coordinate at the international level the work of national financial authorities and international standard setting bodies and to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies.

www.ilo.org International Labour Organization

www.imf.org International Monetary Fund (IMF): data on debt, balance of payments, international reserves; analysis of structural adjustment programs; staff working papers are online as are the Fund's fortnightly newsletter, IMF Survey and its biannual World Economic Outlook.

www.unctad.org United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD): Trade and Development issues; annual comprehensive survey of Foreign Direct Investment trends.

www.undp.org United National Development Programme (UNDP)

www.unido.org United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) focuses on providing solutions for the sustainable industrial development of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Some useful industrial statistics are accessible online.

www.worldbank.org World Bank: data on development; major reports (including annual World Development Report) and staff working papers are available online.

www.wipo.org The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the use and protection of intellectual property. It is one of the 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations system of organizations.

www.wto.org World Trade Organization (WTO): data on trade, impediments to trade, dispute settlement mechanisms & panel reports.

1. Regional organizations, free trade agreements and bilaterals

www.apec.org Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping (APEC): Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Vietnam.

www.aseansec.org Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.

www.aseanregionalforum.org www.dfat.gov.au/arf/ ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF): Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States, Vietnam.

www.comunidadandina.org Andean Community (CAN): Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela.

www.caricom.org Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM): Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Monserrat, Trinidad & Tabago, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, Surinam.

www.sice.oas.org/sica/cacm_e.asp Central American Common Market (CACM): Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.

http://www.dfat.gov.au/fta/anzcerta/index.html http://mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/2-Trade-Relationships-and-Agreements/Australia/index.php Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (CER): Australia and New Zealand.

www.cis.minsk.by Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyrz Republic.

www.comesa.int Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA): Angola, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

www.ecosecretariat.org Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO): Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

www.efta.int European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland.

www.europa.eu European Union (EU)

www.ftaa-alca.org Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA): consist of 34 member countries.

www.gcc-sg.org Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.

www.unctadxi.org/gstp Global System of Trade Preferences Among Developing Countries (GSTP): membership includes over 40 countries.

www.aladi.org Latin American Integration Association (LAIA): Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.

www.mercosur.org.uy Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR): Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay.

www.nafta-sec-alena.org North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA): Canada, Mexico, United States.

www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1982/31.html South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement (SPARTECA): Australia, Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa.

www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/region_e/region_e.htm For the WTO's gateway to material on regional trade agreements.

1. Other inter-governmental associations

www.brics.utoronto.ca/ BRICS Information Centre, University of Toronto, Canada. BRICS is a group of five emerging economies/powers: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

www.thecommonwealth.org The Commonwealth is an association of 53 countries who share a common history in the British Empire.

www.g8.utoronto.ca G7/G8 – a group of major industrial democracies that meet regularly to deal with major economic and political issues facing their domestic societies and the international community.

www.g20.org The Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999 to bring together systemically important industrialised and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.

www.g77.org The Group of 77 (G-77) is the largest Third World coalition in the United Nations. The coalition provides the means for the developing world to articulate and promote its collective economic interests and enhance its joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues in the United Nations system, as well as promote economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

www.nam.gov.za Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

www.oecd.org Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): data on development aid, foreign investment, economies of member states. Staff working papers and other reports online.

www.southcentre.org The South Centre is an intergovernmental body of developing countries intended to meet the need for analysis of development problems and experience, as well as to provide intellectual and policy support required by developing countries for collective and individual action in the international arena.

www.afdb.org African Development Bank

www.adb.org Asian Development Bank

www.ebrd.com European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

www.iadb.org Inter-American Development Bank Group

www.isdb.org Islamic Development Bank

go.worldbank.org/F3REECOMB1 The World Bank's page on multilateral development banks

www.opec.org Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

1. Other useful governmental/international agencies/organizations

www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_e.htm WTO's International Trade Statistics provides comprehensive, comparable and up-to-date statistics on trade in merchandise and commercial services for an assessment of world trade flows by country, region and main product groups or service categories.

www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1465 The World Investment Report focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development.

www.wider.unu.edu/research/Database/en_GB/database/ The UNU/WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID) collects and stores information on income inequality for developed, developing, and transition countries.

www.ustr.gov United States Trade Representative (USTR)

www.meti.go.jp/english/index.html Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

www.federalreserve.gov US Federal Reserve Board

www.bankofengland.co.uk Bank of England

www.ecb.int European Union Central Bank

www.boj.or.jp/en/ Bank of Japan

aric.adb.org/index.php Asia Regional Information Center: a knowledge and information portal on regional cooperation and integration in Asia and the Pacific.

1. Think tanks and research centres

www.brookings.edu The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions.

http://www.bwpi.manchester.ac.uk/ Brooks World Poverty Institute is an international centre established to create and share knowledge to end poverty.

www.cato.org The Cato Institute was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane. It is a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C.

www.cgdev.org Centre for Global Development is an independent, non-profit policy research organization that is dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality through a combination of research and strategic outreach.

www.chathamhouse.org.uk Chatham House, officially known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is one of the world's leading organizations for the analysis of international issues.

www.cfr.org The US Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan and independent membership organization that holds a variety of meetings at which world leaders, government officials, academics, and other foreign-policy specialists discuss and debate world affairs. The Council is also home to a highly regarded think tank, whose fellows conduct research on international subjects ranging from national security to children's education.

www.onlinecic.org The Canadian International Council (CIC) is a non-partisan foreign policy council established to strengthen Canada's foreign policy. It promotes research and dialogue on international affairs issues through a national network that crosses academic disciplines, policy areas and economic sectors.

http://www4.carleton.ca/cifp/ The Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) project represents an on-going effort to identify and assemble statistical information conveying the key features of the political, economic, social and cultural environments of countries around the world. The cross-national data generated through CIFP was intended to have a variety of applications in government departments, NGOs, and by users in the private sector. The data set provides at-a-glance global overviews, issue-based perspectives and country performance measures.

www.gdnet.org The Global Development Network is an international organization of developing and transition country researchers and policy and research institutes dedicated to the generation, sharing and application of multidisciplinary knowledge for the  purpose of development.

www.globaleconomicgovernance.org The Global Economic Governance Programme was established at University College, Oxford in 2003 to foster research and debate into how global markets and institutions can better serve the needs of people in developing countries.

www.nber.org The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works.

www.iie.com The Peterson Institute for International Economics is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy.

pewglobal.org/ The Pew Global Attitudes Project conducts public opinion surveys around the world on a broad array of subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day.

www.twnside.org.sg The Third World Network is an independent non-profit international network of organizations and individuals involved in issues relating to development, the Third World and North- South issues.

1. NGOs and non-governmental institutions/organizations

www.brettonwoodsproject.org The Bretton Woods Project works as a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

www.brettonwoods.org The Bretton Woods Committee is a bipartisan group of distinguished citizens dedicated to increasing understanding of the vital role the international financial institutions play in promoting growth and stability for the U.S. and global economy.

www.weforum.org The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. The Forum is under the supervision of the Swiss Federal Government.

www.transparency.org Transparency International (TI) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to combating corruption. Through its International Secretariat in Berlin and its 99 independent National Chapters around the world, TI works at both the international and national level to curb the supply and demand of corrupt practices.

www.pipa.org The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) studies public opinion on international issues.

www.eurodad.org Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development, is a leading non-governmental organization based in Europe that addresses international financial issues relating to poorer countries.

www.iif.com The Institute of International Finance (IIF) is the world's only global association of financial institutions. Members include most of the world's largest commercial banks and investment banks, as well as a growing number of insurance companies and investment management firms.

www.globalpolicy.org Global Policy Forum's mission is to monitor policy making at the United Nations, promote accountability of global decisions, educate and mobilize for global citizen participation, and advocate on vital issues of international peace and justice.

www.ictsd.org The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) seeks to contribute to a better understanding of development and environment concerns in the context of international trade. 

www.citizen.org/trade/ Public Citizens' Global Trade Watch provides a gateway to resources on trade politics.

www.focusweb.org Focus on the Global South is a program of development policy research, analysis and action with three offices in Bangkok, Mumbai, and Manila.

www.seatini.org The Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) is an African initiative to strengthen Africa's capacity to take a more effective part in the emerging global trading system and to better manage the process of Globalization. It deals specifically with issues and debates around the World Trade Organization and Africa's relationships to it.

www.consumersinternational.org Consumers International (CI) supports, links and represents consumer groups and agencies all over the world.

www.polity.co.uk/global Good site for the globalization debate with links

www.ifg.org The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) is a North-South research and educational institution composed of leading activists, economists, scholars, and researchers providing analysis and critiques on the cultural, social, political, and environmental impacts of economic globalization.

1. Journals, bulletins

muse.jhu.edu/journals/asean_economic_bulletin/ ASEAN Economic Bulletin

http://www.brill.com/asian-journal-social-science Asian Journal of Social Science

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/current Australian Journal of International Affairs

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bap Business and Politics

web.gc.cuny.edu/jcp/ Comparative Politics

muse.jhu.edu/journals/csa/ Contemporary Southeast Asia

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ev The Economists’ Voice

www.foreignaffairs.org Foreign Affairs

www.foreignpolicy.com Foreign Policy

www.rienner.com/viewbook.cfm?BOOKID=1310 Global Governance

www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/ia/ International Affairs

www.ia-forum.org International Affairs Forum, a publication of the Center for International Relations, presents all-partisan, global perspectives on today's most important issues in International Affairs, Economics, and Intelligence.

journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=INO International Organization

www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0020-8833 International Studies Quarterly

jia.sipa.columbia.edu/ Journal of International Affairs

www.aspenpublishers.com/Product.asp?catalog_name=Aspen&category_name=&product_id=SS10116702 Journal of World Trade

www.newleftreview.org/ New Left Review

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cnpe20/current New Political Economy

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpre20/current Pacific Review

www.psqonline.org Political Science Quarterly

www.roie.org Review of International Economics

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rrip20/current Review of International Political Economy

www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 The World Economy

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ctwq20/current Third World Quarterly

www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev World Development

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=WPO World Politics

1. Environment

www.unep.org United Nations Environment Programme

www.thegef.org Global Environment Facility outlines projects and programmes to finance protection of the global environment in developing countries.

www.wri.org World Resources Institute is a source of scientific environment research and non-governmental policy proposals.

www.iisd.org International Institute for Sustainable Development monitors the proceedings of global environmental negotiations and conferences.

www.worldwatch.org WorldWatch Institute is a source of data on the global environmental ‘crisis’. It challenges some of the data and interpretations of the United Nations, World Bank and governments.

1. Subject-specific sites and other useful data

www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=gls Glossary of Economic Terms

www.anz.com/edna/dictionary.asp An online financial dictionary

gametheory.net/ A resource for educators and students of game theory

eh.net/encyclopedia/ EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History

www.polsci.ucsb.edu/faculty/cohen/inpress/bretton.html Bretton Woods System by Benjamin Cohen, prepared for the Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy

www.actionaid.org/ The WTO made easy

www.internationalecon.com International Economics Study Center

www.paulhensel.org/data.html   Paul Hensel's International Relations Data Site

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm Country profiles compiled by the BBC

www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html    CIA World Factbook

utip.gov.utexas.edu/ University of Texas Inequality Project

www.columbia.edu/~sr793/ Monitoring global poverty

www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty/ Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research