Tasting the Bitter Pekmez: Causes of Turkey's Instability

Marcus A. Templar

Turkey is experiencing an existential fight. The Western perspective that Turkey is an island of stability is proving to be false because Turkey is awash with instability. The reality that haunts the Turkish Republic from its inception is dangerously revealing itself. Kemal's dream was to Europeanize Turkey, but the foundations he forcibly set have remained stagnant while Europe keeps developing. Government institutions in Turkey look back to Kemalism fearing that deviation from Kemalist ideals could bring the end of their state. Turkey has been built on the principles of Pan-Turkism that are no longer acceptable in Europe and, as she is not an ethnically and racially homogenous country, this alone is the cornerstone of its instability. It is the reason for its political upheaval, social discontent, lack of human rights, and military and police constant supervision. The old philosophies that held the citizens of Turkey together are no longer valid.

The Regulation and/or Taxation of Transnational Corporations: Is it Possible? Is it Likely?

Michael J. Reimer, Esq.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss why and how TNC's have avoided both regulation and taxation thus far. To date, much of the work in this area has involved Offshore Financial Centers (OFC) or "tax havens." TNC's cooperate with the governments of OFC's, their accountants and lawyers to devise better plans to avoid taxation more than they do with any other government for any other purpose. The greatest level of cooperation between governments and TNC's is between the governments of the OFC's and the TNC's, their accountants and lawyers, when devising better plans. Only the TNC's working through the Business and Industry Advisory Council (BIAC) and the International Chamber of Commerce have the funds and personnel to attend every session of every meeting and to influence every proposal and lobby every government.

Is Global Financial Governance Possible? In The Ungoverned World of Global Finance: Caveat Emptori!

Mark C. Foley

In the new world of global finance, specific and systemic risks are more than ever shaped by market forces and technology, and financial innovation aimed to circumvent regulatory barriers. While it is argued that national and perhaps supranational regulators have increasingly important roles to play, it must be realized that regulators, like generals, are doomed to re-fight the last war and ill-equipped to fight the next. Even if the international political consensus required to harmonize and enforce financial regulations could be achieved (which seems unlikely) regulation will never be an adequate substitute for market discipline and the principle of 'Caveat Emptor'. In this new world the cognitive challenges are simply too great for regulators to anticipate everything. While new regulatory structures which are better aligned to the world of global finance are needed, common sense is the only reliable principle for individual risk managers and the genuine risk of loss to market participants remains the most reliable mechanism to reduce systemic risk.

A Patchwork View of Global Finance

Arthur Eisele

It is largely through the interplay between money and digital technologies, complex financial instruments, private knowledge networks, and other phenomena that I believe global financial markets have been able to overgrow the centripetal pull of governmental frameworks, whether national or international. As with other social structures becoming transfixed by globalization, the emerging architecture of global finance lets us peer into a medieval-like future of overlapping authority, competing allegiances, and a diffuse patchwork of social dynamics.

“Shocking” an Established Genre

Jen Kosakowski

Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York, New York: Metropolitan Books 2007).

Singing the State in all Its Forms

Jen Kosakowski

Judith Butler and Gayatri Spivak, Who Sings the Nation-State? (London, New York, Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2007).

Israel’s Once and Future Wars

Michael J. Reimer, Esq.

David Rodman, Defense and Diplomacy in Israel's National Security Experience: Tactics, Partnerships, and Motives (Sussex Academic Press:  Portland, Oregon 2005).