Article Alert - April 2011

The U.S. Embassy's Information Resource Center is pleased to offer you Article Alert, the monthly current awareness publication of the Information Resource Center, U.S. Embassy Public Affairs, Bangkok, Thailand. It offers abstracts of approximately 25 current articles and policy briefs from leading American journals and think tanks in six thematic areas with an emphasis on East Asian regional affairs. The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect U.S. government policies.

Full Text Availability: Hyperlinks to full texts are provided for U.S. government documents. Full hard copy texts of non-U.S. government documents are available upon request to IRC service subscribers only. To request full texts, please contact us at irc@state.gov, tel: 02-205-4640; or fax: 02-650-8918, citing the article number(s). Current and back issues of Article Alert are also available in our homepage.  

Spotlight: Democracy Promotion

• “Nuclear Power is Worth the Risk”James M. Acton, Foreign Policy Online, March 14, 2011, 3 pages.

The ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station returns safety issues to the forefront of the nuclear power debate.  The author, an associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses the risks of nuclear power and how to balance them.

• “Consumption, Not CO2 Emissions: Reframing Perspectives on Climate Change and Sustainability”Robert Harriss and Bin Shui. Environment, November/December 2010, 8 pages.

The authors discuss the need for a reframing of the perspectives on climate change and sustainability, focusing on the complexities associated with how humans perceive sufficiency, consumption, and well-being.

• "Not as Easy as Falling off a Log: The Illegal Logging Trade in the Asia-Pacific Region and Possible Mitigation Strategies"Vanda Felbab-Brown. The Brookings Working Paper#5, March 2011, 70 pages.

The author, a fellow at Brookings Institution, analyzes the pervasiveness of illegal logging in the Asia-Pacific region, the numerous threats it generates, and the effectiveness of various policies adopted to mitigate it. 

Online Social Media in Journalism

• “The Zuckerberg Revolution”Neal Gabler. New Perspectives Quarterly, Winter 2011, 3 pages.

The author, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Norman Lear Center, profiles Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and how his “social inbox” transforms people's lives, not only how they interact but also how they think and feel.

• “Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media”James Fallows. The Atlantic, April 2011, 10 pages.

The author, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, discusses the role of online social media in 21st century journalism, arguing that the use of new media as a news source is evidence of changes in journalism and the news business in the U.S.

• “Navigating the Future”Larry Kramer. American Journalism Review, Winter 2010, 6 pages.

The author, a former editor of the San Francisco Examiner, discusses upheavals in the U.S. journalism industry brought about by the Internet and digital technology, and how news organizations might find profitable business models in the future.

• “The Fact-Checking Explosion”Cary Spivak. American Journalism Review, Winter 2010, 6 pages.

The author, an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, explores the growth of fact-checking features in the U.S. news media, especially regarding the claims of politicians during election campaigns.  Also discussed is whether the practice influences the behavior of politicians and voters.

U.S. Politics

• “The Road to (and from) the 2010 Elections”David W. Brady, et al. Policy Review, February/March 2011, 12 pages.

The authors, senior fellows at the Hoover Institution and political science professors at Stanford University, examine the elements that led to the results of the 2010 mid-term congressional elections in the United States and what they may portend for the nation.

• “The Next America”Ronald Brownstein. National Journal, March 31, 2011, 7 pages.

The author, an editorial director of National Journal Group, discusses the growing minority population in the United States and its implications for the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Democracy in Cyberspace

• “Is The Google World A Better Place?”Michael T. Jones. Journal of International Affairs, Fall/Winter2010, 14 pages.

That Google is changing our world is a well-known fact.  How exactly is this transformation taking place and where will it lead?  Google's chief technology advocate, Michael T. Jones, reflects on Google's global impact on the international democratization process, the nature of censorship, and the accessibility of the Internet and Google. 

Global Financial Crisis

• “Currencies Aren't the Problem: Fix Domestic Policy, Not Exchange Rates”Raghuram Rajan. Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011, 13 pages.

The author, professor of Finance, Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, argues that currency intervention is a zero-sum game, and discusses why governments in developing and developed countries should move to new domestic policies to address currency fluctuations.

• “A G-Zero World”Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini. Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011, 6 pages.

The authors examine the influence of the United States as the global economic force following the global financial crisis of 2008-09 and the era of a G-Zero world, one in which no single country or bloc of countries has the political and economic leverage--or the will--to drive a truly international agenda.

• “Crisis Management and Resolution: Early Lessons from the Financial Crisis”Stijn Claessens, et al. International Monetary Fund, March 9, 2011, 30 pages.

The authors compare policy choices adopted by various countries in the recent global financial crisis with those in past episodes, and draw some preliminary policy lessons focusing mainly on crisis management tools and techniques.

• "Rethinking the Great Recession"Robert J. Samuelson. The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2011, 9 pages.

The author, a columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post, discusses the recession that has hit the U.S. economy since 2007, focusing on the important lessons that Americans are missing about the future of the U.S. economy.

The United States and Asia

• “The U.S. Policy of Extended Deterrence in East Asia: History, Current Views and Implications”Richard C. Bush III. The Brookings Arms Control Series Paper#5, February 2011, 31 pages.

The author, Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, examines the U.S. extended nuclear deterrence policy towards East Asia, its implications and its challenges.

• “Asia in 2010; Continent Ascendant”Lowell Dittmer. Asian Survey, January/February 2011, 4 pages.

The author, a professor of Political Science at the University of California, surveys the political, social and economic conditions in a number of Asian countries during 2010.

U.S. Foreign Policy

• “The Paradox of American Unipolarity: Why the United States May Be Better Off in a Post-Unipolar World”Richard Maher. Orbis, Winter 2011, 16 pages.

The author, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Brown University, examines the relationship of unipolarity and the declination of U.S. power in world politics, focusing on how the United States can maintain its predominance and how best to position itself in the “post-unipolar” world.

• "The Role and Relevance of Multilateral Diplomacy in U.S. Foreign Policy"Brett D. Schaefer. The Heritage Foundation Lecture #1178, February 14, 2011, 6 pages.

The author, the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, examines the dynamics of multilateral diplomacy and the role of diplomacy to advance and promote the foreign policy objectives of the United States.

• “The Tea Party and American Foreign Policy”Walter Russell Mead. Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011, 17 pages.

The author, the James Clarke Chance Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard College, examines the rise of the U.S. Tea Party movement and its implications on U.S. foreign policy.

Education

• “Actually Going to Class, for a Specific Course? How 20th-Century”Jeffrey R. Young. The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 4, 2011.

The author examines how learning technologies which allow students to have access to information from any location are having an impact on the traditional structure of the college course.  He also discusses why traditional lecture-based instruction is the wrong approach to engage students.

• “Wanted: Ways To Measure Most Teachers”Stephen Sawchuk. Education Week, February 2, 2011, 6 pages.

In light of a debate about the use of value-added measures in U.S. education, the author, an assistant editor for Education Week, discusses an initiative to devise a system that measures the effectiveness of teachers of subjects including art, career education, and history.

• “Information Technology and Tomorrow's University”Jolene Koester. Educause Review, January/February 2011, 6 pages

The author, President of the California State University system, explores the importance of integrating information technology with higher education, and how it can improve the system of higher education.

Library trends

• “Digital Tidbits”Maha Kumaran and Joe Geary. Computers in Libraries, January 2011, 7 pages.

The authors offer tips to librarians on the use of various digital resources, focusing on free technology that they can use on a daily basis either to organize their lives or to help quickly answer questions from their users.

• “The Next Generation of Discovery”Judy Luther and Maureen C. Kelly. Library Journal, March 15, 2011, 6 pages.

The authors discuss some "discovery" tools that enable researchers and other library patrons to search all databases a library subscribes to with a single query.  They explain features that librarians should consider when selecting such a tool.

Inventing the City

• “How Skyscrapers Can Save The City“ Edward Glaeser. The Atlantic, March 2011, 12 pages.

Besides making cities more affordable and architecturally interesting, tall buildings are greener than sprawl, and they foster social capital and creativity.  The author, an economics professor at Harvard University’s Department of Economics, discusses the development of skyscrapers in cities throughout history.