Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing: Can states reduce the risk of armed conflict by banning census data on ethnic groups?

Håvard Strand,Henrik Urdal 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2014 International Area Studies Review Vol.17 No.2

Can states reduce the risk of violent political conflict by simply refusing to collect or publish dataon their ethnic makeup and change? This study addresses a neglected aspect of the ethnic conflictliterature and provides the first systematic empirical study of the significance of recording ethnicaffiliation in censuses for the risk of armed conflict. A general empirical regularity noted in theethnic heterogeneity and civil war literature is that ethnicity is associated with a somewhat higherrisk of conflict in bipolar societies. However, few quantitative studies focus on how changes in therelative strength of groups may affect the risk of civil war. Some recent literature indicates thatdifferential growth may destabilize heterogeneous democracies internally. In democratic societies,political power is distributed according to popular support in elections. A changing balancebetween groups may thus alter the distribution of power in regimes where ethnic, linguisticor religious divisions to a certain extent determine voting behavior, and this may potentiallylead to political instability and ultimately civil conflict. We argue that the relationship betweendifferential growth and instability and violence may be even more important in semidemocracieswith electoral systems, but with weak and inconsistent political institutions. We start from thepremise that, for differential growth to become a potential driver of instability and violent conflict,information about such change has to be recorded with a national census and actually published. In a cross-national time-series study we investigate whether countries publishing identity datafrom censuses are at a greater risk of experiencing low-intensity armed conflict. We find thatthe effect of publishing data on group size is indeed mediated through political institutions. Incountries with stable institutions, publication of population identity data is associated with alower risk of conflict, whereas unstable institutional arrangements are associated with an increaseconflict risk when publishing such data.

Qatar's multi-actors sports strategy: Diplomacy, critics and legitimisation

Søyland Håvard Stamnes,Moriconi Marcelo 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2022 International Area Studies Review Vol.25 No.4

Drawing on official documents and empirical examples, this article analyses Qatar's sports strategy to gain attraction and generate soft power globally. The paper shows how the country based has efficiently used sport as a mean for modernisation, diplomacy and soft power, through a strategy based in the participation of national and foreign actors and institutions. While Qatar's sports diplomacy has been very ambitious, the newfound global attention has led to an increased scrutiny regarding national internal policies. This has resulted in massive criticism regarding corruption allegations and several reports of labour abuses towards the migrant workers in the country. In consequence, critics consider Qatar as an example of sportswashing, which is understood as a deliberate use of sports soft power in seeking to alter a tarnished global reputation. We claim that the Qatari strategy, even having a bit of both, can be used to generate a positive context for social development and we describe how the county has managed to engage foreign actors and institutions to counter external denounces. The context created by successful sports diplomacy strategies and evidence-based external critics might generate an adequate ecosystem to promote substantial cultural and political changes, respect for human rights and individual freedom. In this context, western countries, sport institutions and external actors play (or not) a crucial legitimator role, and so does money.

Do human rights violations increase the risk of civil war?

Kjersti Skarstad,Håvard Strand 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2016 International Area Studies Review Vol.19 No.2

Despite the fact that there are strong assumptions surrounding the effects of human rights violations on the risk of civil war, very few researchers have tested the relationship in an empirical and systematic manner. By drawing on both human rights- and civil war research, this article presents an integrated human rights peace and conflict theory. The effects of rights violations are tested by applying quantitative research methods. The main finding is that violations of economic and social rights and physical integrity rights increase the risk of civil war, while violations of other civil and political rights play only a minor role.

Ethno-political favouritism in maternal health care service delivery: 3 Micro-level evidence from sub-Saharan Africa, 1981–2014

Ole Magnus Theisen,Håvard Strand,Gudrun Østby 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2020 International Area Studies Review Vol.23 No.1

It is commonly held that political leaders favour people of the same ethnic origin. We test this argument of ethno-political favouritism by studying variations in the usage of maternal health care services across groups in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). More specifically, we link geo-referenced individual-level data from the Demographic and Health Surveys on 601,311 births by 399,908 mothers in 31 countries during the period 1981–2014 with data on the settlement of ethnic groups and their political status. Our results indicate that women benefit from the shift that brings co-ethnics into power, increasing the probability of receiving maternal health care services. The effect strengthens with increased competitiveness around elections. We advance the current literature in four important ways. Firstly, we undertake the first analysis that utilizes shifts in ethno-political status for the same individual, effectively eliminating competing time-invariant explanations to that of shifts in ethno-political status. Secondly, since SSA governments often incorporate multiple groups, we test the effect of patronage on being co-ethnic with cabinet members in general, and not only the president. Thirdly, health services constitute the public good most desired by citizens of SSA. Our measure captures a vital health service that is highly desired across groups. An increase in usage likely reflects genuine trickle-down effects of having co-ethnics in power, a crucial ingredient in building popular support for ethnic patrons. Fourthly, we show that electoral competition is an important conditioner of ethno-political favouritism.

Towards implementation of sustainable development goals (SDG) in developing nations: A useful funding framework

Temidayo Olabode Akenroye,Håvard Mokleiv Nygård,Ama Eyo 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2018 International Area Studies Review Vol.21 No.1

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is impressive in its breadth. However, the extensive nature of the agenda presents countries with a set of challenges. In particular, few if any countries will be able to focus on all goals in parallel, yet the agenda offers little clear guidance on how each country can determine their priority areas of focus and funding arrangements for such priority areas. Presently, few efforts have been made to analyse and examine the significance or importance of each sustainable development goal (SDG) and target for individual countries. More importantly, there is the challenge that governments would need to find the finances to fund the goals. Inevitably, politicians and policy makers in financially constrained countries are asking: what levers can we actually use to implement the SDGs efficiently and effectively? In this paper, we develop a simple framework that can help countries in leveraging existing budget resources to guide funding for the implementation of SDGs

High Production of Recombinant Norwegian Salmonid Alphavirus E1 and E2 Proteins in Escherichia coli by Fusion to Secretion Signal Sequences and Removal of Hydrophobic Domains

Anne Tondervik,Simone Balzer,Tone Haugen,Håvard Sletta,Marit Rode,Karine Lindmo,Trond E. Ellingsen,Trygve Brautaset 한국생물공학회 2013 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.18 No.4

The Norwegian salmonid alphavirus (NSAV)infects farmed Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout, causes pancreas disease and leads to economic losses and fish health issues for the aquaculture. Vaccines are available,but recurring infection outbreaks at Norwegian fish farms have led to endeavours in finding solutions for increased prevention. The NSAV E1 and E2 envelope proteins are potential targets for production of recombinant subunit vaccines and for generation of antibodies for diagnostics. Efficient expression of target proteins is necessary for these applications, and here we present a new strategy for expressing this kinds of viral proteins. We show that 5'-terminal fusion of signal sequences OmpA and CSP to the e1 and e2 genes and removal of the C-terminal hydrophobic interaction and transmembrane domains of E1 and E2 leads to significantly increased expression levels. Recombinant Escherichia coli strains for high-level production of E1 and E2 harbouring these modifications were established using the inducible XylS/Pm expression cassette. Furthermore,reduction of temperature to 16oC after induction leads to 4-fold increase in production for E1, and under high-celldensity cultivations we obtained production levels up to 2.3 g/L. We also show that these proteins can be purified from inclusion bodies by affinity chromatography. This demonstrates the present approach as promising for large scale production of such viral proteins.