Mar 28, 2014 | Research dissemination, Théorie En Marche
This collective and interdisciplinary work treats the reformulation of social and cultural fabrics brought about by globalization. It also underscores the transformations of the living environment and the methods of securing populations.
It has a five-part structure. The first analyzes the consequences of the process of globalization, on societies marked until now by a traditional lifestyle. The second is about the social effects of climate change. The third, centered on the shifts that interfere with peoples’ daily lives, underlines the social inventiveness of these individuals. The fourth addresses the reformulation of the relations between states and their institutions. Finally, this book dwells shortly on the transformations of the imagination. In doing so, it examines the ruses of identity put into place by populations to symbolize space and time, while these two dimensions are irreversibly distended.
Bréda Charlotte, Deridder Marie, Laurent Pierre-Joseph (Éds.), La Modernité insécurisée, anthropologie des conséquences de la mondialisation, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013, 467 p.
Mar 19, 2014 | environment, European Union, Passage au crible (English)
By Florian Hévelin
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°109
Pixabay
On January 30, 2014, the fishing fleet of the French group Intermarché – la Scapêche – committed itself to no longer plunge its nets beyond 800 meters depth. Moreover, protection associations of marine diversity have access to data of Scapêche’s nine large trawling boats which fish in deep water. Intermarché amplifies the wave of private initiatives launched by large logos of the French distribution such as Casino, Auchan or Carrefour. Paradoxically, this commitment in favor of the conservation of deep-sea life takes place after Scapêche celebrated the European Parliament’s rejection on December 10, 2013, of a proposed law formulated beginning in July 2012, which aimed to ban bottom trawling. Defeated on the European front, environmental NGOs have nevertheless been able to force certain leaders to regulate their activities to prevent the destruction of the seabed. Sensitizing consumers to the environmental stakes, however, has become as important to NGOs as lobbying with European institutions.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
The conservation of the halieutic resource makes sense within the framework of the CFP (Common Fisheries Policy). In the 1970s, the first European regulations adopted on this topic did not attribute an ecological function to the CFP. In fact, they primarily concerned the creation of a sectorial organization, modeled on the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), the financing of the modernization of production tools and the mutualization of national maritime spaces. While the exhaustion of fish reserves has attracted much attention since the 1960s, the CFP did not speak to the subject until 1938 in a text that has barely been altered since. Country by country, the dated texted fixes quotas of capture and imposes technical fishing norms on mesh size, the size of the catch or the motorization of ships.
The current debate on the ban on deep see fishing and the techniques associated with it does not, however, appear unprecedented. In a political context marked by the opening of European institutions to civil society, exchanges had resulted in 1998 in the ban of the usage of driftnets. The European Union aligned itself with the UN’s resolution carrying out Greenpeace’s international campaign in favor of dolphin protection. On the same occasion, private initiatives anticipating European legislation had emerged. Recall as an example, that Unilever had proposed to the WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) in 1997 – that is to say one year before the ban on driftnets took effect – the creation of a Marine Stewardship Council or MSC. But charged with delivering eco-labels, this authority has supposedly entered into direct competition with the European Commission that delivered the same labels. Today the eco-label that it will develop, MSC, monopolizes the market of ecological certification of fishing and paralyzes the European Union’s initiatives in this sector. From now on, the existing state of the balance of power within the European system obliges green NGOs campaigning for the ban on deep sea trawling, to guide their strategies primarily towards private governance of oceans.
Theoretical framework
1. The existence of an epistemic community. The expertise of green NGOs, recognized by the European Commission, expedites their lobbying and the placing on the agenda of their political propositions.
2. The privatization of policy. The regulation of bottom trawling takes the form of informal contracts between NGOs and producers/distributors of deep-sea fish in order to relieve the European governance deficit in the matter.
Analysis
The representation of environmental interests within the European Commission coincides with the creation of a branch dedicated to the environment (1973) and with progress of European law in this domain (Single European Act, 1986). The elevated cost of lobbying in Brussels has permitted the structuring of two types of networks. On the one hand, federative groups which bring together multiple national environmental associations working on common themes. In the framework of the fight against deep sea trawling, more than seventy of them are thus regrouped within the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. On the other hand, since 1991, Green 10 coordinates the activity of lobbying of the 10 largest European and international NGOs (WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Birdlife International, etc.). From now on, consider them to be simple “non governmental organizations” (Nielson 1) that risk obscuring the “epistemic community” (Haas) that they represent for the European Commission. Responding to the need to better understand the current transformations of public action (internationalization and transnationalization) in general and the influence of environmental groups on public policy in particular, the concept of epistemic community is perfectly suited to the analysis of canals by which new ideas have been able to circulate from NGOs towards the current commissariat of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Amongst these organizations, the French association Bloom illustrates the manner in which private scientific production can gain recognition from the European Commission and gain legitimacy from placing political propositions on the agenda. The efficiency of its contribution indeed resides in the multidimensional critique of deep sea fishing, considered from the angle of sustainable development. Bloom has shown that: 1) This activity was not profitable and depended – notably in the French case – on subsidies given by States. 2) Employment in the fishing sector is only concerned for a fraction because only 2% of ships operating in the Northeast Atlantic remain stakeholders. 3) This fishing technique, considered “the most destructive in history”, drains ecosystems while it ultimately only catches three targeted fish species – roundnose grenadier, black saber and blue ling – and tosses hundreds of dead fish overboard.
The field of European lobbying is proving to be deeply asymmetrical. These NGOs take action in a terrain dominated by economic interest groups that dispose of considerable means including the ability to produce rival expertise. Yet, the majority of European parliamentarians and States targeted by the deep see trawling ban (France, Spain, Great Britain, Portugal) rallied to industrialization of fishing. Consequently, in the institutional impasse, ocean-defending NGOs have reinforced their investments to force the offer to conform oneself to a consumption ethic. The diffusion of best practices in the matter passes by the vulgarization of their knowledge. In this logic, Bloom organized a filmed conference, popularizing a cartoon (Pénélope Bagieu) and also established the ranking of the primary French supermarkets, Intermarché being awarded the dunce cap. Faced with the success of this strategy of show and shame, which reveals the strength of advertising, the big logos have had to negotiate with NGOs in order to recover their credibility. These NGOs have then symbolically paid back the voluntary commitments in favor of the protection of marine biodiversity. WWF, for example, published an article on its official site entitled “NGOs salute the engagement of Intermarché’s fleet”. This strategy of increasing companies’ brand image as proof of societal responsibility (show and fame) seems to be an integral part of the repertory of action of these non-State actors. But the privatization of European governance of oceans, considered in a temporary manner, could very well last in an international context characterized by anomie. In other words, oceans appear more than ever to be menaced public goods.
References
Berny Nathalie, « Le lobbying des ONG internationales d’environnement à Bruxelles », RFSP, 58 (1), 2008, pp. 97-121.
Haas Peter M., « Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination », International Organization, 46 (1), 1992, pp. 1-35.
Le Monde, « Pêche en eau profonde : Intermarché ne pêchera plus au-delà de 800 mètres », January 31, 2014.
Lequesne Christian, L’Europe bleue. A quoi sert une politique communautaire de la pêche ?, Paris, Sciences Po, 2001
Mar 10, 2014 | Digital Industry, Globalization, Passage au crible (English)
By Adrien Cherqui
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°108
Source: Flickr
February 19, 2014, marked the end of mediation between Apple and Samsung Mobile Communications during which the directors were supposed to negotiate an agreement. Let us recall that the attempt to compromise launched in January 2014 by the San Diego court, had incited the two groups to find an arrangement to avoid a new trial.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
According to the research firm IDC, more than one billion smartphones were sold in 2013, which is to say 38% more than in 2012. Three firms currently occupy the podium of global sales. In terms of parts of the market held in 2013, Samsung holds 31.3%; with 313.9 million units sold; Apple, which sold 153.4 million iPhones, conquered 15.3%. As for the third, the Chinese firm Huawei, it still fell far behind the latter with only 48.8 million sales or 4.9%.
Appearing on March 6, 1983, with the first cordless communication device offered by Motorola, the mobile technology sector built itself on innovation and development of new technical norms. The popularization of mobile telephones during the 1980s and the appearance of innovative standards like GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), the 3G and from now on 4G, have made innumerable services possible such as the utilization of audiovisual content, applications and web surfing. These components are now fully operational in smartphones. Deeply transformed by these multiple changes, the telecommunications domain was historically organized around a few manufacturers. Several of them such as Nokia, Huawei, Samsung, LG and more recently Apple – with the 2007 release of the first iPhone which democratized these products – currently makes up a veritable oligopoly. The latter is characterized by exacerbated competition, notably in research and development. In this context, competitive dynamics result in an illegal use of patents belonging to rival groups.
The two giants, Samsung and Apple, have been confronting one another in court since April 2011 in several dossiers. The most emblematic ruling remains that of August 2012 during which a jury sentenced the South Korean Samsung to pay one billion dollars to Apple for the violation of patents relative to iPads and iPhones. In the course of these judicial proceedings, Samsung primarily blamed Apple for using technologies and technical norms that it had patented. For its part, Apple estimates that Samsung plagiarized the design of its iPads, as well as their user interface with the models Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab. But beyond competition which one could consider restricted to these two companies, the ongoing case is also targeting one of the competitors of Apple’s operating systems iOS: Google’s Android, used largely by Samsung.
More recently, in June 2013, the legal battle between the two major companies in mobile telephony, were brought before the USITC (United States International Trade Commission), a federal agency competent in matters of trade litigation. This authority recognized that the American company Apple had violated one of the property titles essential to Samsung. The USITC then prohibited importation, the sale and distribution by Apple of wireless communication tools and portable music devices. However, this decision was never carried out. In fact, on August 3, 2013, President Barack Obama and his administration censured the measure, a reaction that set off a strong response amongst Korean authorities.
Theoretical framework
1. The transnationalization of the mobile technology market. Transnational firms follow a distinctive production logic that allows room for cooperation in research and development. But the mutualization of resources, the reduction of costs and the growth of productivity condemn these competitors to more integration.
2. The structural power of transnational firms. Major actors of the global scene, certain high tech brands have the capacity to reconfigure themselves in a distinct sector, all the while imposing some of their choices. This structural change – to borrow Susan Strange’s expression – shapes and determines the structures of global economy within which other groups develop.
Analysis
Mobile telephony presents itself as a dynamic industry within which numerous economic operators interact. They possess resources that allow them to be at the point of convergence of three industries: mobile telephony, hardware and software. Globalization and the rise of new technologies cause companies to turn towards new economic models. Yet, such models imply the optimization of their growth, better reactivity and larger competiveness. Let us, however, note a production initially conceived for national markets, transformed today into a global market organization. This structural change encouraged by globalization has driven this industrial branch to its transnationalization and to the complex relationships that Samsung and Apple maintain.
Armed with experience superior to that of Apple, Samsung operates in all the stages of development of computers, tablets or smartphones. From the processor to the screen, passing by the software, it has the necessary production resources available to it for the protection of high tech devices and largely dominates the entire industry. While the South Korean group is showing itself to be a major competitor to the American Apple, logics of cooperation are paradoxically put into place. Let us recall that the A5 processor, designed by Apple and produced by Samsung, remains a central piece of the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S. Besides the A8 microchip that the upcoming Apple devices will be equipped with will be made by the TSMC group (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).
However, the American firm is not for as much abandoning the South Korean group, which in the future will remain responsible for 30% to 40% of the production of this component, in order to prevent any shortage.
Interdependence currently characterizes the production of computer equipment used for the design of mobile telephones and tablets. In other words, Samsung delivers its technical know-how and its industrial capacities to Apple, while the latter offers Samsung a new market. This is alliance capitalism, a phenomenon well characterized in its time by John Dunning. Put another way, the duo rivalry-cooperation will from now on structure new inter firm relationships.
This production logic is accompanied by a circulation of the technologies that pertain to the redistribution of power within mobile telephony. The highly competitive characteristics of this sector have indeed driven to the use of certain patented standards, which have in turn become indispensable. From now on, this now common usage has been institutionalized. During the first lawsuit in which Samsung was opposed to Apple, the former made particular reference to patents linked to 3G transmissions, considered standard essential patents. Still, this practice resembles what sociologist Ulrich Beck called private law and which here applies to technical norms, which shows the relative powerlessness of the state actor and defies the concept of the Legislator State.
References
Balzacq Thierry, Ramel Frédéric (Éds.), Traité de relations internationales, Paris, Presses de Science Po, 2013.
Laroche Josepha (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2012, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013. Coll. Chaos International.
Le Monde, «Brevets : Apple et Samsung échouent à s’entendre aux États-Unis», Feburary 23, 2014
Mosca Marco, «Les tops et les flops du marché des smartphones en 2013», Challenges, January 28, 2014
Strange Susan, Stopford John, Henley John S., Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Strange Susan, Le Retrait de l’État. La dispersion du pouvoir dans l’économie mondiale, trad., Paris, Temps Présent, 2011.
Strange Susan, « States, Firms and Diplomacy », International Affairs, 68 (1), 1992, pp. 1-15.
Mar 6, 2014 | Digital Industry, International commerce, Passage au crible (English)
By Robin Baraud
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°107
Pixabay
On Wednesday, January 29, 2014, Google announced the sale of Motorola to Lenovo for only 2.91 billion dollars, while the group had acquired it in 2012 for 12.5 billion. This resale of a pioneer of mobile telephony, which has not been corrected despite the significant job cuts, at first seems therefore to be an ill-fated transaction. But this observation must be tempered since only 2,000 of the 17,000 patents held by Motorola will ultimately be ceded to Lenovo. Besides, the latter will benefit from use agreements for part of the 15,000 others.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
Lenovo acquired international renown with its purchase of IBM’s laptop computer department in 2005. The cost of the operation proved to be equal to more than two times its own value. After having achieved the integration of this service and having changed directors – both with difficulty – in mid-May 2013, Lenovo attained the status of first producer in the world in this sector. From the beginning of this acquisition, the company was seeking a transfer of technologies as well as of the IBM image, in part thanks to the name ThinkPad, already well implanted in western markets.
About 70% of smartphones sold in the world today are equipped with an operating system developed by Android. Google makes this system available to its manufacturers as a software base; manufacturers are then able to make a certain number of modifications, which allow for adaptation to the needs of their products. Google’s partners – including the Taiwanese company HTC, the Japanese company Sony or the South-Korean company Samsung – were worried about the purchase of Motorola in 2012, fearing that the brand would eventually become the lone distributor of their products. In 2010, Google had begun to release in partnership with its manufacturers – first of all HTC, then Samsung, Asus and LG – a line of top-end model smartphones and tablets at low prices, using a non-modified operating system by Android. It was therefore logical for these firms to see Google’s strategy as a way to exclude them.
In the war that Google waged against its principal competitors, it nonetheless used the patents that it had acquired with Motorola. On February 27, 2012, it lost a major lawsuit against Apple. In the proceedings, it asked for the removal of the iPad and the iPhone, since Apple had used certain industrial properties belonging to Motorola. It clearly understood, however, the power of their control. With the sale of each one of its Android terminals, manufacturers must pay Microsoft a sum of 5 to 15 dollars to pay back the use of inventions patented by Microsoft.
From now on, thanks to the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Lenovo has passed from the fifth to the third rank of world smartphones producers, behind Apple and Samsung. Already well-established in China on the low-end market, it currently foresees also investing in the mid-range market in order to make its appearance in American, or even European markets, starting in 2014. In this situation, Motorola’s brand image and its already-significant presence could facilitate its access. In other words, the technology transfer seems to be of secondary importance in this transaction. While on the other hand it had determined on Thursday, January 23, 2014, the purchase of an aging server farm for 2.3 billion dollars. For reasons similar to those of the Motorola Mobility dossier, Lenovo had shown Blackberry ambitions in November 2013. However, Canadian authorities had forbidden these aims, fearing that the company may become Chinese.
Theoretical framework
1. Intellectual property as a weapon of transnational competition. The deregulation of world trade was realized in parallel to the homogenization of national legislation in matters of protection of intellectual property. This concept allows firms that hold patents to legally prohibit their competitors from producing goods – material or immaterial – equivalent to theirs.
2. Research by transnational firms for a return on their monopoly. For an economic actor finding itself in a situation of monopoly, by definition no competition in its business sector is to be feared. Hence, it no longer seeks to win comparative advantages, but rather strives to unilaterally perpetuate its dominance. In fact, resisting the toughness of competitive logic always proves to be costly; this is why it appears rational to establish a monopoly to bolster its profits.
Analysis
The regime for the protection of intellectual property defended by the WTO authorizes the establishing of monopolies on patented technology. The objective involves assuring remuneration to companies on their investments in research and development. This regulatory measure of the global economy, which attempts to encourage innovation and progress, confirms the nonexistence of the ideal type of perfect competition. In the mobile telephone sector, these provisions have favored the emergence of an oligopoly composed of transnational firms. They benefit from such financial means that they hold or negotiate the utilization of numerous indispensable patents for the development of competitive products. These titles of industrial property useful for the production of portable telephones can be classed into two main categories. On the one hand, those which concern the physical part of the device, on the other hand, those relative to the software assuring their operation. However, the current competition between smartphones primarily concerns this second group. Despite the marginal contributions to existing technology – unlocking by tactile recognition by Apple for example –, the improvement of performances of the material components of the telephone remain limited due to battery life, an aspect difficult to develop.
Google has positioned itself exclusively in the realm of software development and therefore makes use of the situation. In order to set themselves apart, smartphone manufacturers using Android have developed more and more elaborate accessories. Proposed by certain smartphones, the suspension of the telephone’s sleep mode while the user is looking at the screen is an example one such strategy by Samsung. But this practice progressively hides the software base Android which becomes difficult for the consumer to recognize. This appears problematic for Google, since the products that assure its collection and analysis of personal data (Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, etc.), which make its economic model viable, cease, consequently, to be highlighted. Its principal objective continues to be the establishing of a norm around which its products, like Microsoft was able to do with its computer operating systems. The interest in a global framework of this type is linked to the fact that it would be difficult to compete in so far as a large majority of users have adopted it. In other words, the conditions for a return on monopoly have been brought together.
By acquiring the Motorola patents, Google has reinforced its monopolistic capacity on the development of smartphone operating systems. Its advantage appears to be twofold. First of all, from now on, it holds the possibility of putting its primary competitors in a difficult situation by rendering innovation efforts more difficult and more costly. Otherwise, it accentuates the dependence of its partners on its Android operating system. Beyond the Motorola brand, Lenovo also possesses precious technological knowledge and benefits from the good integration of its new branch into the American market. As China is a member of the WTO, it is indeed indispensable for companies currently in China to purchase their entrance into protected markets by numerous patents, like with mobile telephony.
References
Andreff Wladimir (Éd.), La mondialisation, stade suprême du capitalisme ? Mélanges en hommage à Charles-Albert Michalet, Paris, PUN, 2013.
Chiu Justin, “Worldwide Anarchy in the Mobile Phone Market Patent War between Smartphone Manufacturers”:
Le Monde, « Google revend Motorola au chinois Lenovo mais garde les brevets », January 30, 2014, [March 2014].
Feb 22, 2014 | Articles, Fil d'Ariane, Publications (English)
Written by: Florent Bédécarrats, Research Coordinator, CERISE, France ; Silivia Baur, Research Fellow, CERISE, France ; Cécile Lapenu, Director, CERISE, France. With Assistance from: Mathias, Ph D Candidate, Ecole polytechnique, CREST, France
2011 Global Microcredit Summit
Commissioned Workshop Paper November 14-17, 2011 – Valladolid, Spain
Télécharger l’article Combining Social and Financial Performance: A Paradox?
Feb 21, 2014 | Digital Industry, Globalization, International commerce, Passage au crible (English)
By Justin Chiu
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°106
Pixabay
On February 4, 2014, Satya Nadella succeeds Steve Ballmer and thus becomes the third general manager of the American giant Microsoft. As for the group’s founder, Bill Gates, he is leaving his position as president of the board of directors stating that he wishes to devote more time to the company as a technical advisor. In all reality, observers were expecting an outsider to come on board in order to overhaul the company’s current strategies. Clearly, this internal nomination is evidence of the desire to go beyond the PC industry since S. Nadella had been directing the division known as Cloud and Enterprise until his recent promotion. This division has been the sole branch within the company posting positive growth. However, in recent years, the major weakness of Microsoft as dwelt precisely in its inability to surprise and in its slow decision-making.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
In 1981, the firm IBM produced the first successful personal computer – IBM PC – selling millions of units. By choosing Microsoft and Intel and its operating system (DOS/Windows) and its microprocessor (Intel 8088), IBM furthermore contributed to the rapid growth of both companies. With respect to their products, Microsoft and Intel collectively control the structure of the PC. Since the 1980s, they have developed common strategies, simultaneously launching their new efforts. In so doing, the component manufacturers have no choice but to continuously increase their standards. According to this logic, the Wintel alliance has permitted the PC industry to be completely innovative all the while allowing Microsoft and Intel to maintain their monopoly. On the other hand, the component manufacturers must constantly lower their production costs due to competition. As a result, it is equally important that a PC running Windows software cost less than an Apple computer which keeps the entire chain of production. This in turn reinforces Microsoft’s dominance.
If Microsoft was able to make use of its software in the world market, the American government also played a significant role. In point of fact, at the beginning of the 1980s, Washington defended the protection of intellectual property, in a multilateral framework, as for example with the TRIPS Agreement (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) finalized in 1994 in the framework of the WTO (World Trade Organization) or on a bilateral level with China in order to obtain more strict regulations in this matter.
Thanks to its dominant position, we shall recall that nine out of ten computers in the world today are still equipped with Windows – Microsoft grants colossal benefits assessed at nearly 27 billion dollars in 2013. But even so the company has lost its innovative image with the emergence of social networks which have put at end to its instant messenger service MSN. Moreover, its search engine Bing, in competition with Google, has proved to be a financial catastrophe (a cumulative 9 billion dollars lost between 2005 and 2011). For that matter, in the cloud computing division, it’s Amazon that until now has taken the upper hand. Ultimately, Google and Apple have succeeded in developing their own smartphone and tablet ecosystems, while Microsoft and Intel are struggling to penetrate this market.
Theoretical framework
1. The creative destruction of digital innovation. Created by Schumpeter, the concept of creative destruction designates a process of industrial change during which the creation of new economic activities brings about the disappearance of more obsolete activities in a given domain. According to the economist Schumpeter, several types of innovation can trigger this process, including the manufacturing of innovative products, previously unseen production or management methods, the opening of untapped markets, etc.
2. The control of the production structure. For two decades, the alliance between Microsoft and Intel has dominated the world PC market along with the norms and standards created jointly by the two groups. Yet, the structural power – concept dear to Susan Strange – exercised by the coalition Wintel on the digital component manufacturers is today largely weakened. Admittedly, the two firms are no longer capable of dictating their personal production rules to the rest of the world. This is even truer for Microsoft which has lost its reputation as an innovative leader following its series of failures.
Analysis
Begun in the 1980s, the convergence of information technology and telecommunications has facilitated the arrival of smartphones and tablet computers, goods intended for the global market. If the PC industry continues to resist this digital wave, its stakeholders will have to innovate more and diversify their activities in order to slow down the decline of this sector which henceforth has become the traditional activity of the high-tech industry.
Undoubtedly, the first objective of S. Nadella’s nomination will be the reinforcement of the cloud-computing division. This will include a host of online information technology services dedicated to companies and public administrators. This new manager will then be able to realize the buyback of Nokia’s cellular division, a deal sealed by S. Ballmer in December 2013. However, it appears difficult to imagine that the combination of the two fallen stars of the high-tech world will be able to produce attractive smartphones. These tiny handhelds lie at the heart of our daily lives and have become so personal and intimate that we must also take into consideration the symbolic value that consumers give them. Moreover, in order to increase its share of the market, Microsoft will certainly not allow itself to produce low-end models. Thus, with a price deemed too high, the tablet that Microsoft created in 2012 – the Surface – does not seem to have been met with definite success. Ultimately, the delay that it endured with Intel in its smartphone and tablet industry hindered Microsoft from taking initiative.
Additionally, the Windows 8 operating system on the market since October 2012, has elicited neither enthusiasm nor replacement of computing hardware. This new phenomenon has disappointed its manufacturers. Acer’s manager was even quoted as saying, “The Wintel era is over” because some manufacturers now prefer to collaborate with other Internet giants like Amazon or Google. Case in point, Google has created products with Asian firms, formerly faithful allies of Microsoft: here we can name the assortment of portable PCs known as Chromebook developed by the Korean Samsung and the Taiwanese Acer, or else the series of Nexus smartphones created with the Korean LG and the Taiwanese Asus.
At any rate, even if Microsoft has lost its reputation as an innovator as well as its structural power in the information technology sector, it should be noted that the other American Internet giants continue to insure that the United States will maintain its global supremacy. Until now, only Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook have been able to create their own ecosystems based on new technologies and have shown themselves capable of moving closer to manufacturers from around the world.
References
Chiu Justin, « L’anarchie mondiale dans la téléphonie mobile », in : Josepha Laroche (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2012, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013, pp. 117-122.
Kim Sangbae, Hart J. A., « The Global Political Economy of Wintelism: A New Mode of Power and Governance in the Global Computer Industry », in : Rosenau James, Singh J. P. (Éds.), Information Technologies and Global Politics, The Changing Scope of Power and Governance, Albany, State University of New York Press, 2002, pp. 143-168.
Laroche Josepha, « L’Économie politique international », in : Balzacq T., Ramel F. (Éds.), Traité de relations internationales, Paris, Presses de Science Po, 2013, pp. 631-659.
Le Monde, « Avec Satya Nadella, Microsoft mise sur l’après-PC », 5 fév. 2014.
Reich Robert, The Works of Nations. Preparing Ourselves for 21st-Century Capitalism, New York, Vintage Books Edition, 1992.
Schumpeter Joseph, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, [1943], Londres, Routledge, 2010. Stopford John, Strange Susan, Henley John., Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. Strange Susan, States and Markets: An Introduction to International Political Economy, Londres, Pinter, 2e éd, 1994.
Feb 17, 2014 | Global Public Health, North-South, Passage au crible (English), UN
Pixabay
By Michaël Cousin
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°105
Since 1988, World AIDS Day is observed every year on December 1st. Upon the occasion of this event, public and private stakeholders publish, inform and mediatize the latest developments and the newest decisions relative to the AIDS pandemic.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
In 2011, “Getting to Zero” became the watchword. Launched by the committee, the ambitious project of the World Aids Campaign, is leading financial backers to consider for 2015, “zero new infections, zero discrimination [and] zero AIDS-related deaths”. Theoretically, the conditions exist to make this possible. Scientists have not stopped thinking about therapy and prevention techniques like antiretroviral gel and post-exposure treatment. Ultimately, the costs of triple therapies are decreasing, either because of the expiration of medical patents, or thanks to the implementation of innovative financing like the UNITAID tax set between 1 and 40 levy dollars per plane ticket.
Yet, only a few months remain to attain these results. Among them, the thorough reexamination of discriminations seems difficult to carry out. In this case, depending on geographical zone or country, international cooperation confronts gender inequality more or less seriously, and touches on – or even avoids – the problems that sexual minorities, prostitutes and drug users encounter. However, faced with these difficulties, inter-state organizations are not giving up in matters of finding financing.
In this state of mind, UNAIDS – joint HIV/AIDS program cosponsored by the United Nations and the World Bank – is announcing the 2014 creation of a new Zero Discrimination Day to be celebrated on March 1st, whereas other institutions are targeting youth (between 10 and 19 years of age). The WHO (World Health Organization) hopes, for example, to improve the prevention, treatment and care for adolescents next year. For its part, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is committing to raise the awareness of a minimum of 95% of youth concerning sexual health, notably this thirty-year-old virus, as the United Nations recommends. For all that, each year international endowments are eroding while nationally they are growing.
Theoretical framework
1. The efficiency of official development assistance (ODA). It can be analyzed more and more based on performance indicators. This orientation mostly drives financers to favor results-based management. Nonetheless, this method more so favors the resolution of a program – will the predicted solutions be attained? – than its necessity for beneficiaries.
2. The erosion of aid. The inefficiency of cooperation policies also provokes a decrease of investments. Despite several decades of financial contributions, the persistence of difficulties within developing countries indeed results in a certain weariness among lessors, which in turn translates into a deterioration of benefits.
Analysis
Since the 1980s, inter-state organizations are increasing programs directed towards specific objectives. As an example, the World Bank launched the “War Against Poverty” at the beginning of the 2000s, to conform to first of the United Nations’ eight MDGs (Millennium Development Goals). As for the seventh goal, it plans to contain the spread of HIV. The mobilization “Getting to Zero” also feeds this point by two other ambitions: the break down of discrimination and the eradication of deaths.
Besides the fact that these world campaigns guide internal and international institutions, each of their competencies differentiates their public aid policies. However, that does not determine the way in which they will then be led, because these authorities chose and attribute their financial flows differently according to the country. Thus, certain young homosexuals from sub-Saharan Africa will not benefit from UNESCO’s HIV/AIDS prevention plan, despite the fact that they are the population intended for these categories.
Results-based management produces even more harmful effects. In this situation, the acquisition of a loan can simply depend on a dominant vocabulary, which has become fashionable, such as discrimination against women, good governances, or maternal seroconversion. This logic affects project managers and their collaborators as much as it does beneficiaries. In the case of recipients, it is often about representatives seeking to divert funds in favor of other actions that they consider more necessary, even to assure their personal enrichment.
Despite the attempts of selectivity, the inefficiency of aid demotivates investors. The reactivation of their interests therefore assumes a renewing of discussions. However, the UN is still striving to attain its MDGs which will most likely fail. To do this, it is organizing “1,000 Days of Action”, in other words, the time remaining to “act and assure” the accomplishment of the eight objectives. Otherwise, it is also intending to renew this plan beyond 2015, concentrating the next time on equality.
In a similar process, the multiplication of International or World Days radically changes their function. It is no longer fitting to develop a day with the intention of providing the public with knowledge about a problem of transnational importance – AIDS, women, etc. – but rather to create a symbolic event to target and mobilize certain players. One can indeed wonder about the opportunity to transform this December 1st into a day dedicated by UNAIDS to discriminations, even though several dates already exist, centered on homophobia and transphobia, persons with disabilities or racism. But these modes of renewal are not sufficient to fight against the disinvestment of silent partners, especially as the recent victories won over this epidemic remain fragile and cannot handle an erosion of loans. Indeed, even if above all these contributions permit access to care, such reductions would affect research because these treatments continue mostly to be intended for a population bearing few financial resources, pharmaceutical industries would therefore experience a loss of income.
Certainly, the curve of new infections has leveled off since 2010. Yet, in 2009, the sums allocated to this pandemic dropped by 8.7 billion dollars and in 2010 by 7.6 billion dollars; suffice it to say that the situation is very worrying.
References
Bourguignon François, Sundberg Mark, «Aid Effectiveness», The American Economic Review, 97 (2), 2007, pp. 316-321.
Charnoz Olivier, Severino Jean-Michel, L’Aide publique au développement, Paris, La Découverte, 2007. Coll. Repères.
Gabas Jean-Jacques, Sindzingre Alice, « Les Enjeux de l’aide dans un contexte de mondialisation », Les Cahiers du GEMDEV, 25, 1997, pp. 37-71.
ONU, « Lancement de la campagne “Zéro discrimination” à l’occasion de la Journée mondiale de lutte contre le sida, 1er décembre 2013 », http://www.un.org/fr/events/aidsday/2013/zerodiscrimination.shtml.
OMS, « Campagnes mondiales de santé publique de l’OMS : Journée mondiale du sida », http://www.who.int/campaigns/aids-day/2013/event/fr/index.html.
UNESCO, «Journée mondiale de lutte contre le SIDA : Objectif zero », http://www.unesco.org/new/fr/unesco/events/.
Jan 30, 2014 | Research dissemination, Théorie En Marche
Giving priority to a multidisciplinary approach, the author clearly shows that global warming confers a new dimension of international politics on the arctic world. Certainly, shipping routes still seem far from permanent. But, still freshly etched out, they are already leading to concerns which are upsetting State relations. It is a question of five neighboring countries – Canada, Denmark, the United States, Norway, and Russia – and wherever there is a question of China or the European Union, the wealth of the fishing industry and raw materials arouses serious tensions. As for the exponential growth in tourism, this sector presents an equally serious case.
Thierry Garcin does not limit himself to an inter-state analysis. He also discusses non-state figures while putting the situation of native populations into perspective. In the future, one will have to expect this “overlay of cultures” to rise about thirty.
Thierry Garcin, Géopolitique de l’Arctique, Paris, Economica, 2013, 186 p., [Bibliography and analytical index. This work also contains 16 maps and 20 boxed texts].
Jan 27, 2014 | Global Public Health, North-South, Passage au crible (English), Poverty, UN
By Clément Paule
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°104
Source: Chaos International
On January 12, 2014, the Republic of Haiti commemorated the fourth anniversary of the destructive earthquake that devastated the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and the immediate surrounding region. Yet, another catastrophe, this one sanitary, arose in the country at the end of 2010. It concerns the cholera epidemic which to date has cost the lives of nearly nine thousand people on the island of Hispaniola. Despite the united efforts of international aid operators and Haitian authorities for more than three years, centers of Vibrio cholerae remain active in twenty locations, according to a recent communiqué produced by the MSPP (Haitian Ministry of Public Health and of the Population). While the uncertain battle against this lethal poison is being organized, the controversy on the origin of the contamination reached a major scale when the suspicions were directed towards a Nepalese contingent of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti), the multilateral peacekeeping force present in Haiti since 2004. The responsibility of the United Nations in triggering the worst contemporary cholera epidemic is now a major debate.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
The sanitary crisis began in autumn 2010 in the Center county of the country, not far from Mirebalais, a city located sixty kilometers northwest of Port-au-Prince. Until then unknown in Haiti, the disease spread very rapidly, to such an extent that in November 2010, an official of the MSPP alluded to a concern for national security. The humanitarian response by stakeholders in international assistance came together under the leadership of the WHO (World Health Organization), of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and of NGOs (Non-governmental organization) like MSF (Doctors Without Borders) with the extension of centers and treatment units in the entire country. Otherwise, authorities seemed overloaded by a series of emergencies, particularly the landfall of Hurricane Tomas on the island at the beginning of November, which complicated an already unstable situation. Several hundreds of thousands of people, categorized under the label IDP (internally displaced people), are still living in tents within the capital traumatized by the January 12 earthquake. In this case, the scourge quickly spread to the entire Haitian territory before striking the Dominican Republic – tens of thousands of cases – and to a lesser extent Cuba.
But the question of the introduction of Vibrio cholerae was immediately the subject of persistent rumors designating a MINUSTAH military base situated in the Mirebalais region. In this instance, the investigations carried out on the pathogenic strain of the bacteria permitted the determination of its Asian origin – of serotype O1 El Tor Ogawa -, therefore imported. Beginning in December 2010, the publication of an epidemiological study lead by a French doctor seemed to confirm the trail of the UN peacekeeper camp whose deficient drainage system – confided to a Haitian subcontractor – supposedly set off the contamination of a tributary of the Artibonite, the largest river in Haiti. After several weeks of controversy, other studies strengthened this hypothesis and definitively rejected the alternative theories of a spread beginning on the coast due to the climate situation.
For the moment, more than 6% of the Haitian population is allegedly concerned by the illness – that’s more than 700,000 cases, likely an under-valued assessment – which continues to kill by recurrent outbreaks, in particular in remote areas where medical personnel remains insufficient and access to water nonexistent. In this regard, we can cite the statistics by the MSPP from the third week of January 2014: 75 people were hospitalized, and three of them succumbed to Vibrio cholera. If from now on the threat appears relatively contained, the country remains in a state of permanent wakefulness and the eradication should spread for years – even decades – while international emergency programs are closing, for lack of financing.
Theoretical framework
1. The irresponsibility of an international organization. If the SNU (United Nations System) has firstly ignored the controversy, its representatives have progressively developed rhetoric centered on the technicalization of the problem and the implicit refusal of all forms of accountability.
2. The timid mediation of an outdated State. For a long time unmoving in this sociotechnical controversy, the Haitian government recently attempted to regain control by proposing a series of initiatives aiming to find a political solution to the health crisis.
Analysis
Adding to a national context that since 2004 is already affected by the presence of foreign troops, the mobilization of victims is organized around movements such as the COMODEVIC (The Collective Solidarity with the Victims of Cholera) or the MOVIK (People Who are Cholera Victims). Several protests have taken place in the country – and in New York – in order to demand symbolic compensation from the United Nations – in the form of a public apology – and material compensation, namely indemnities for mourning families. Note that these protesters activities have been passed onto the legal field, in particular with the filing of a complaint in November 2011 in the name of five thousand people represented by two sister organizations: the IJDH (Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti) – an NGO founded by an American lawyer and human rights expert – and the BAI (Bureau des Avocats Internationaux) [International Bureau of Lawyers], its legal counterpart. Two years later, a new measure has been undertaken against the UN by Haitian legal experts in New York in order to demand compensation for the population. Finally, we can cite the publication from the end of 2013 of an overwhelming report drafted by researchers from Yale University, which incriminates the MINUSTAH, both in terms of public health and law.
However, during the first weeks of the epidemic, UN leaders were limited to a strategy of systematic denial: moreover, executive staff of the WHO and the CDC, opting for the technical treatment of a health problem, affirmed that the investigation of the origin of the scourge did not constitute a priority. Let us recall that at that time the country was in an electoral period, and that financial backers had strongly supported the precipitated organization of a presidential election judged essential to the reconstruction process. For all that, the series of experts challenging the MINUSTAH drove the United Nations to conduct a mediatized and legal counter-offensive. In order to reject the claims of Haitian lawyers invoking the SOFA agreement (Status of Forces Agreement) signed in 2004 between the UN and the Haitian government – which most notably provided for the setting up of a claims commission -, in February 2013, the Organization resorted to section 29 of the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. In this respect, the requests for damages were judged unacceptable: note that the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke out insisting on the 140 million dollars of multilateral funds invested against cholera, all the while implicitly refusing to recognize any responsibility in the health crisis.
Facing the magnitude of the controversy, the Haitian state limited itself to many months of silence, which testifies to its dependence on the international community, but equally the incessant conflicts between the new President and Parliament. The Foreign Minister even declared in October 2012 that he had no proof implicating the UN force in the propagation of Vibrio cholerae. In autumn 2013, however, the Haitian Prime minister began a reversal as he alluded to the “moral responsibility” of the UN before proposing, during the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations, the creation of a mixed structure in charge of finding a compromise. Let us highlight how much this timid way out relies especially on a year plan of eradication of 2.2 billion dollars, which aims to construct an efficient network of water and sanitation all the while containing the epidemic by campaigns of oral vaccination. For as much, this late initiative will only receive 1% of its funding from the United Nations which prefers to appeal to the private sector and to philanthrocapitalism. So the implicit strategy of impunity chosen by the United Nations appears to have to be paid by its complete discredit. In this case, the cholera scandal in Haiti shows the limits of an approach focused on a population who needs treatment while neglecting the necessary accountability to the people.
References
Paule Clément, « La gestion capitaliste d’une catastrophe naturelle. Le deuxième anniversaire du séisme haïtien, January 12, 2012», Fil d’Ariane, Chaos International, Feb. 2012.
Transnational Development Clinic, Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, Yale Law School, Global Health Justice Partnership of the Yale Law School and the Yale School of Public Health, Association Haïtienne de Droit de l’Environnement,
« Peacekeeping Without Accountability. The United Nations’ Responsibility for the Haitian Cholera Epidemic», August 2013, available at : http://www.yaleghjp.org [January 11, 2014].
Dec 24, 2013 | Research dissemination, Théorie En Marche
Those responsible for this authoritative publication have brought together nearly sixty contributing writers in order to fill a flagrant absence. Until now, there has been no defining work on International Relations for the French-speaking world. From now on, this ambitious and exhaustive work will remedy that problem. Appropriately refusing to abandon this discipline to the Anglo-Saxon world, which has dominated the IR scene for more than a century, the authors leave nothing out as they paint a complete panorama of all there is to know on this subject. Accommodating both scholarship and simplicity, the authors underscore a research-based approach, analyze the different fields which make up IR and consider how to spread this knowledge while maintaining a concern for both expertise and pedagogy. Already this multi-author brainchild reveals itself to be an indispensable tool for a large readership of students, researchers, politicians, and diplomats lest we leave out the enlightened reader who will find in this resource a way to think about the world.
Thierry Balzacq, Frédéric Ramel, Traité de relations internationales, Paris, Presses de SciencesPo, Date, 1228 p., [In addition, this work contains maps, boxed text, graphics and charts as well as an index].
