The Nation-State (also see Countries)

In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, we characterize the nation-state as the central rule-maker in the relations between the consumer, the laborer, and the capitalist.  We suggest also that one of the prime functions of the nation-state is to ensure the economic integration of all those within its borders.  The following sites address issues of the nation-state: they include sites on organization of nation-states, conflict between states, issues involving human rights and the abuse of citizens by nation-states, and the relationship between nation-states and NGOs, many of whom are assuming functions once fulfilled by states.  (also see information on countries)

Academic Council on the United Nations (ACUNS) [.pdf]

www.brown.edu/Departments/ACUNS/

Text-only version:
www.brown.edu/Departments/ACUNS/homepage.txt.shtml

The Academic Council was established in 1987 and defines itself as "an international association of scholars, teachers, practitioners, and others who are active in the work and study of international organizations." They share a "professional interest in encouraging and supporting education and research which deepen and broaden our understanding of international cooperation." In implementing its goals, "the Council focuses special attention on the programs and agencies of the United Nations system and other inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations."  At their Website you will find their newsletter, reports and papers on international governance, the journal Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, and an extensive set of links to other sites dealing with such topics as diplomacy, Disarmament and Non-proliferation, Environment and Development, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and Non-governmental Organizations.

Action Without Borders
http://www.idealist.org/

If you need information about NGOs, this is a good place to start.   "Action Without Borders is a nonprofit organization that promotes the sharing of ideas, information and resources to help build a world where all people can live free, dignified and productive lives. We currently do this by: Maintaining Idealist, the most comprehensive directory of nonprofit and volunteering resources on the Web. Publishing Ideas in Action, a bi-weekly email newsletter with news and pointers to useful resources for volunteers and nonprofit professionals around the world. Sending out daily Job and Internship Alerts with information about jobs and internships posted in Idealist during the previous 24 hours. Training nonprofit and community"

African Conflict
www.synapse.net/~acdi20/welcome.htm

A wonderful source on conflict managment in Africa, as well as globally.   While recognizing that competition for resources is natural, "The problem, therefore, is not the eradication of conflict but the limitation on those forms of conflict that utilise violence. The challenge is about how to manage this competition without plunging  a society into a spiral of violence and how to build patterns of development, institutions, and political cultures that can mediate such competition peacefully and routinely."  The site provides information on various issues, as well as definitions of relevant terms and concepts, along with links to other organizations.

Center For Migration Studies
http://www.cmsny.org/index.htm

The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS), a nonprofit institute founded in 1964, "is committed to facilitating the study of sociodemographic, historical, economic, political, legislative and pastoral aspects of human migration and refugee movements." Their Website features an online catalog of the CMS Documentation Center (Library and Archives), a subject-specific library of over 24,000 volumes, reported to be one of the most comprehensive available on migration, refugees, and ethnic groups. The site also includes tables of contents with abstracts for _The International Migration Review_, "a refereed interdisciplinary quarterly journal," and for _Migration World_, a bimonthly magazine offering news and analysis of recent immigrant and refugee issues. An online newsletter provides information on upcoming conferences, publications, and collaborative projects. (The Scout Report for the Social Sciences), 8/10/99)

The Center for Strategic and International Studies—CSIS
http://www.csis.org/

"The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)--a public policy research institution that covers every major geographic region in the world—generates strategic analysis, brings together important policymakers, and develops policy action commissions. This extensive CSIS Website provides institutional information, a directory of CSIS experts, analysis of international current events, summaries of numerous research projects, a list of publications, and Washington Quarterly, the full-text journal of the CSIS. (The Scout Report for Social Sciences, Oct 20, 1998)

Children of Conflict [RealPlayer]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/childrenofconflict/

"Presented by BBC Worldservice with the assistance of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) and the Human Rights Fund of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, this site features the harrowing tales of children caught in war zones across the world, told in their own words. Divided into sections which explore the different experiences of the children of conflict (child soldiers, wounded children, lost children, child-headed households, child workers), the site offers brief explanatory notes, numerous quotes, RealAudio selections in a variety of languages, transcripts, and letters from children. Links are provided throughout the site to sources for more information." (Scout Report. 4/2/1999)

Concise Guide to Human Rights on the Internet
http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/manual.htm

An excellent source for finding information on human rights on the Web.   "Among the most common human rights documents online are treaties and conventions, reports on human rights violations on specific countries, death penalty information, human rights news and actions on behalf of victims of human rights violations. You can also find decisions and reports by international bodies and tribunals, national legislation and jurisprudence, articles on human rights issues, and issue-specific information (e.g. women's rights, indigenous people's rights). "   For example, go to the University of Minnesota's Human Rights Library; what are some of the resources available for human rights education?

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997--USDOS

www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1997_hrp_report/97hrp_report_toc.html

The U.S. Department of State's yearly summary of human rights violations in nation-states.  The report also contains a listing of global conflicts.  It is an interesting exercise to compare the countries and violations listed here with those in the 1998 Report from Amensty International.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998 http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/98hrp_report_
toc.html

"The US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices to the US Congress on February 26. Composed from evidence and data gathered by embassy staff, government officials, military sources, human-rights monitors, journalists, and others, the reports are designed to serve as a resource for shaping policy, conducting diplomacy, and determining international resource allocations. Reports are offered for nearly every country, grouped by region. Each report contains a brief overview of the country’s political and economic systems and a detailed review of its record on respecting "internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Appendixes include a list of International Human Rights Conventions, the 54^th UNHRC (UN Commission on Human Rights) Voting Record, and the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." (Scout Report, 3/5/99)

"The Cornell Institute for Digital Collections (CIDC) recently launched a new Website exploring the "socio-political fallout that followed the death of six 20^th-century patriarchs," including Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, Germany’s Adolph Hitler, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, the Soviet Union’s Josef Stalin, and Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito. The site provides information about the "fathers" and the rise and fall of their regimes, including chronologies, maps, archival images, and a glossary of terms. In the near future, the site plans to post a book of essays and a video related to the project. Death of the Father was created by a production team at Cornell led by John Borneman, associate professor of anthropology, and Linda Fisher, Web designer and media artist." (Scout Report for Social Sciences, 5/18/99)

Death Squad Dossier and Relevant Declassified US Documents from the National Security Archive’s Guatemala Collection http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB15/index.html

On May 20, the Washington Office on Latin America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Human Rights Watch, and National Security Archive (NSA) released a 54-page logbook obtained from the Guatemalan military. The logbook, labeled the Death Squad Dossier, documents, in coded detail, the executions of 183 people at the hands of the Guatemalan security forces between August 1983 and March 1985. The NSA has made the dossier available online along with declassified US documents related to Guatemalan death squad activity. [AO] (Scout Report for Social Sciences, 6/1/99)

East Timor Action Network/US

etan.org

East Timor represents a good case study in the violence of the nation-state against its own citizens.  When Indonesia gained its independence from the Dutch in 1949 (see pp. 110ff in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism), East Timor, a colony of Portugal, demanded its own independence.  However in 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, incorporating it, by force, into its nation-state.   East Timorese have, since then, fought for their independence.  You can find out more about the historical background and present state of the struggle here.

East Timor International Support Center

www.easttimor.com/

Another excellent site on East Timor with additional information and background.  You will find ethnographic backgound of the people of East Timor, and much more.

For the Record 1997: The UN Human Rights System

www.hri.ca/fortherecord1997/

A six volume description of the role of the United Nations in defending human rights.  The first volume is a general description of the role of United Nations in human rights, and various international conventions under which it operates.  Each of the other volumes explores an area of the world and the countries in it, describing United Nations evaluations and reports of human rights abuses in that country.  However the reports are often limited, since they are based on information submitted by the member country.

Forced Migration Projects—OSI
http://www.osi.hu/fmp/fmp2/index.html

"The Forced Migration Projects (FMP), operating under the auspices of the Open Society Institute (OSI), monitor developments in the Americas, the former Yugoslavia, and the former Soviet Union to identify the social, political, and economic conditions that cause the forced dislocations of people. This Website provides background information about the projects as well as full-text access to several FMP publications including _The Forced Migration Monitor_, a series of special reports on refugees and migration, recent news and articles on germane issues, and FM Alert, an electronic bulletin service. In addition, the site compiles a list of refugee-related links and hosts a discussion forum." (Scout Report for Social Sciences, 5/4/99)

Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rummel/

Rudolph Rummel's site that focuses on his proposition that " the more freedom, the less violence. Conversely, the more power at the center, the more violence. In short: power kills.  The purpose of this web site, then, is to make as widely available as possible my theory, work, results, and data that empirically and historically, quantitatively and qualitatively, support this conclusion about freedom."  Rummel has written extensively on and documented the killing by nation-states of their own citizens. 

The Great War: 80 Years On—BBC [RealPlayer] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/newsid
_197000/197437.stm

"November 11 marks the 80^th anniversary of the armistice that ended "the war to end all wars," a conflict which took as many as ten million lives, wiped out a generation of young men in Europe, and helped to spark a revolution in Russia. This new site from the BBC commemorates the war and offers users a number of interesting resources. Multimedia offerings include a ten-minute video collage of photos and newsreel footage produced by the Imperial War Museum and a selection of fascinating and poignant audio interviews of veterans, including one man who was just fourteen when he left to fight in France. The site also contains a selection of soldiers’ letters home, overviews of four major battles (Gallipoli, Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele), and a number of topical articles." (The Scout Report, 11/6/98)

Humanities Interactive Border Studies [frames]

www.humanities-interactive.org/borderstudies/index.html

One of the issues we explore in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism is the trend towards transnationalism, as more and more people who are citizens of one country, work in another.  A consequence is the dissolving of geographical borders and a resulting attempt by citizens to reinforce social boundaries.   It also creates unique cultural interfaces along the borders of the states, as between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico. 

"Both the U.S. side and the Mexican side replicate the political, economic, social, and cultural systems of their respective nation-states. At the same time, borderlanders have blended the structures, institutions, and life expressions of the two societies to create something novel and entirely theirs—the ambiente fronterizo or borderlands milieu. Today the area stands as a prime example of binational interdependence, providing striking evidence of the trend toward closer ties among the world's nations and societies."

Human Rights Watch World Report 1999
http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/index.html

"Human Rights Watch (HRW) has just released its ninth annual review of human rights around the world in advance of Human Rights Day, December 10, 1998, the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The report covers events and developments in 68 countries from December 1997 through early November 1998. The report is generally well-written, offering excellent overviews of the conditions of human rights on regional and selected national levels. Users in the US may be particularly interested in the detailed critique of American policies on human rights both internationally and within its own borders. The Report also provides information on selected campaigns and thematic concerns, such as arms, and the rights of women and children." (The Scout Report, 12/4/98)

Human Rights Watch World Report 2000
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k/

Impact of Armed Conflict on Children--United Nations Children's Fund
www.unicef.org/graca/

The following statement comes from the United Nations report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children:

"In 1995, 30 major armed conflicts raged in different locations around the world. They took place within States, between factions split along ethnic, religious or cultural lines. These conflicts destroyed crops, places of worship and schools. Nothing was spared, held sacred or protected - not children, families, or communities. In the past decade, an estimated two million children have been killed in armed conflict and three times as many seriously injured or permanently disabled. These conservative estimates hide the large numbers of children whose deaths are concealed or unrecorded, children erased from the memory of humankind when whole families and communities are wiped out. In addition, many impacts of armed conflict on children are immeasurable and often, invisible. There is no way to measure the impact on a child who sees her family killed, or to quantify the emotional and psychological toll on children who live for years in fear of bombings, mutilation or death. And when figures reach millions, it is too easy to forget that these statistics represent individual children, children betrayed by adult failure to give the protection and care that all children deserve."

This Website contains the full report, specific recommendations to remedy the situation, an excellent report on Children in War, the problems of land mines, along with other resources.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
http://www.iwpr.net/

Founded in 1991, the Institute provides information on conflict and conflict resolution for  the Balkans, the Caucasus and other areas in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  Much of the information on the site is about the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the war crimes tribunal in the Hague established to try persons accused of war crimes.  Check out particularly the weekly updates on the tribunal.

Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity

www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/cds/countries/index.html

The place to go if you want background and up-to-date information on present global conflicts.  While the project does not contain information on all current conflicts (e.g. Chiapas and East Timor were missing), their conflict map current identifies 33 problem areas.  Not only will you find links to sources on current conflicts (such as the one in Kosovo), but links to thematic guides such as children and conflict, women and conflict, and religion and conflict.  You will also find information on email discussion lists in for each   area. 

Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation

www-igcc.ucsd.edu

This University of California site seeks to build "bridges between the theory and practice of foreign policy by establishing the intellectual foundations for effective policy-making, by injecting fresh ideas into the policy process, and by providing opportunities and incentives for UC faculty and students to interact with government officials at home and abroad. Through collaborative research, conferences and publications, the Institute serves as a unique resource for the state of California, the nation, and the international community."  At the site you will find many policy papers on subjects related to international conflict.  For example, if you want to learn more about international migration, check out the paper by Jeanette Money on The Management of International Migration.

International Crisis Group
http://www.crisisweb.org/

"The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational organisation committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community to understand and respond to impending crises. Teams of political analysts based on the ground in countries at risks of crisis, gather information from a wide range of sources, assess local conditions and produce regular analytical reports containing practical policy recommendations targeted at key international decision-takers."  At the site you will find reports on global trouble spots such as Bosnia, Kosovo, and the democratic Republic of Congo.

Internet Resources on Genocide and Mass Killings
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide.htm

"Internet Resources on Genocide and Mass Killings is an extensive compilation of primary materials and annotated links related to "twentieth-century genocidal and mass man-made killing occurrences." Divided into fifteen sections, subject coverage includes topics such as The Jewish Holocaust, War Crimes and Criminals, Yugoslavia and Kosovo, among others. Most of the original documents in the compilation have been uploaded to the site, facilitating navigation and research. Documents not residing at the site are linked via succinct annotations. The compilation is searchable and updated continuously by its creator Dr. Stuart D. Stein, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of West England." (The Scout Report for Social Sciences, 1/26/99)

Inter-Parliamentary Union

www.ipu.org/

The Inter-parliamentary Union is based in Geneva, Switzerland.  Among other things you can find links to parliamentary sites of most of the over 100 members of the organization.

MoJo Wire Action Atlas on US Arm Sales
http://motherjones.com/arms/

"This new atlas from MojoWire, the online version of _Mother Jones_, highlights the United States’ dominance in the international arms trade, paying special attention to the large-scale expansion in arms sales under the Clinton administration. As the introduction indicates, sales more than doubled in the President’s first year in office, and from 1993 to 1997 "the US government sold, approved, or gave away $190 billion in weapons to virtually every nation on earth," often with little regard for the buyer’s record on human rights or their involvement in current conflicts. The easy-to-use Atlas offers reports on recent US arms sales to 46 countries, with details on what has been bought, how it has been used, and information on the country’s human rights record. Users will also find profiles of the twelve largest US arms exporters; an interactive map of arms customers involved in conflicts or insurgencies, accused of rights violations, or reselling US weapons; and a collection of links and contact information for arms-trade activists." (Scout Report, 3/5/99)

Meta Search Engine for Searching Multiple Human Rights Sites http://www.innovamedtech.com/lawform.html

Recently unveiled by the Human Rights Library of the University of Minnesota (originally reviewed in the January 5, 1996 Scout Report), this new search engine will be welcomed by researchers and activists in human rights. Searchable by keyword and several optional operators (Boolean, proximity, truncation), the engine retrieves data from any or all of the 23 different rights-related sites that users select. Interestingly, returns are presented "as is" from the source pages (with page header, images, and unique formats) but combined into a single results page. A test search for "Northern Ireland" on four selected sites returned over 40 results. Direct links to the featured databases and, in some cases, their search tips pages are also provided. [MD] (Scout Report, 7/2/99)

National Institute for Money in State Politics
http://www.followthemoney.org/

US Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov/

The National Institute for Money in State Politics is devoted "to accurate, comprehensive, and unbiased documentation and research on campaign finance at the state level." At the core of the Institute’s Website is the Follow the Money database. The extensive, searchable database allows users to determine the names and contribution amounts of specific individuals, businesses, or political interest groups who have invested in statewide elections from 1990 to 1998. Follow the Money permits users to generate a bevy of customized statistical reports that clearly present requested data via interactive graphs and tables. This information-rich database is definitely the best resource for citizens interested in state-level campaign financing. For information on federal campaign financing, citizens should visit the US Federal Election Commission’s Website (see the November 1, 1996 Scout Report). [AO] (Scout Report for Social Sciences, 6/29/99)

NY Times Political Sites on the Web

www.nytimes.com/library/politics/polpoints.html

Lots of links to governmental bodies and representatives, political organizations, and media and commentary.

Political Resources on the Net

www.agora.stm.it/politic/

An extensive listing of political sites on the Internet; the list is sorted by country, with links to political parties, organizations, governments, and media.  If you are looking for information on a specific or a number of specific political parties, just select the country that you are interested in, and you will find a list of major and minor political parties.

Public Campaign
http://www.publicampaign.org/index.html

In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we discuss the ways in which corporations influence public policy and government legislation.  One of the most important, of course, is through financial contributions to political office holders.   Public Campaign highlights the problem and suggests ways that the financial power of corporations can be curbed.   Particularly interesting is their Golden Leash Awards, given to congressional legislators whose actions are tied closely to those from whom they receive money.

Search for Common Ground
http://www.sfcg.org/mainbur.htm

"Search for Common Ground was founded in 1982 in Washington, DC, and the European Centre for Common Ground was established in Brussels in 1995. Both organizations share a vision of transforming how the world deals with conflict -- away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions. To implement this vision, we carry out programs that aim to resolve conflict, and prevent violence."

The violation of human rights is not just something that occurs in "other" countries; it occurs also in the United States.  One of the forms it takes, as it does in other countries, is the illegitimate use of force by members of the military or the police.  This site documents instances of police abuse in the United States.  As the report states, "The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses."

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
http://www.sipri.se/

One of the points made in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism was that most armed conflict in the world consists of force used by nation-states against its own citizens.  The 1998 Yearbook of the SIPRI reinforces this point; of the 25 major armed conflicts it reports in 1997, only one - between India and Pakistan - was interstate. All the others were internal conflicts.  This is a wonderful site to get information on global conflict; there is state by state information on military expenditures, information on arms production and arms transfers, along with summaries of the SIPRI Yearbooks.  Which, for example, have been the thirty greatest suppliers of arms to countries around the world?

Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/

The award winning site on the Holocaust contains a wealth of information for students and teachers.  There is a bibliography page, a list of film and video resources, photographs, paintings and drawings, and, perhaps most useful, a collection of primary documents that include excerpts from Hitler and Himmler, Nazi decrees against the Jews, Nazi descriptions of the concentration camps and the gassing of prisoners, and the opening address at the Nuremberg Trials.  Go to the The Wannsee Protocol; how many Jews were involved in "the final solution"?  How were people of "mixed blood" to be treated?

Transnational Foundation for Peace and Futures Research
http://www.transnational.org/sitemap.html

An excellent site for information on global conflict and peace initiatives.   Up-to-date articles (particularly the ones by Jonathan Powers) on global issues with some excellent background material illustrating the relationship betwen economic instability (e.g. debt crisis) and global conflict.  The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research "expresses a vision and is an experiment in applied peace research and global networking. We believe that alternatives to the main world trends are desirable and possible -- indeed, necessary for humankind to survive and live with dignity in a less violent future."

Transparency International
http://www.transparency.de/index.html

Truth and Reconciliation Committee: Final Report
http://www.truth.org.za/final/index.htm

The historic and chilling report on the violence committed by the apartheid state of South Africa against its own citizens.  The report, released on Oct. 30, 1998, consists of six volumes, the first including the history and mandate of the committee established to uncover the crimes committed by members of the apartheid regime.   Check out the second chapter of volume three, that includes the murder of Steve Bilko.  You can also get information at the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, a South African NGO.

United Nations
http://www.un.org

A good source of information for international agreements and law, information on human rights, and a list of the present 185 member states of the United Nations.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.earthwins.com/udhr.html

1998 is the fiftieth aniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; this is the full text to which member states are supposedly committed.

U.S. State Department: Freedom of Information Act
http://foia.state.gov/

War, Peace, and Security Guide
www.cfcsc.dnd.ca:80/links/index.html

"The War, Peace and Security WWW Server is administered by the Information Resource Centre at the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College. The College is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The War, Peace and Security Guide offers bilingual access to Internet resources on the following subjects: armed forces of the world, contemporary conflicts, international relations, military art and science, military history, peace, disarmament and arms control, and peacekeeping."  Check out the map of contemporary conflicts .

World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers 1996

www.acda.gov/wmeat95/wmeatlst.htm

This link to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, provides information on global military expenditures by country.  Most of the information in in pdf. format, and will require Adobe Acrobat to download.