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Conflict Studies / nota bene

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Brambila Martinez F. A Federalism-Based Comparative Analysis to Diminish National Security Threats in Contemporary Policy Transfer // Conflict Studies / nota bene. 2023. № 1. P. 82-87. DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2023.1.39642 EDN: KPDIRN URL: https://en.nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=39642

A Federalism-Based Comparative Analysis to Diminish National Security Threats in Contemporary Policy Transfer

Brambila Martinez Francisco Javier

Postgraduate student, Institute of Civil Service and Administration, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

119571, Russia, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo, 82

francisco.brambila@mail.ru

Other publications by this author

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0617.2023.1.39642

EDN:

KPDIRN

Received:

20-01-2023

Published:

04-04-2023

Abstract: This essay reviews the source of national security threats embedded in contemporary policy transfer processes. The subject of this research are the processes within policy transfer tied to NGO’s and international organizations. The goal of this exercise consists on designing a replicable framework to policy transfer to be implemented by the state in all its stages in the absence of external entities as a mean to diminish the threats to national security. This essay begins by analyzing the worldwide demand for knowledge under the Dolowitz-Marsh approach to review the role of NGO’s and other international organizations involved in the contemporary processes of policy transfer. The author analyzes Stone’s concept of methodological nationalism according to evaluation of policy results in relation to international standards. Under this framework is concluded that NGO’s and international organizations can contribute to the production of knowledge, however their relationship with the state typically expands beyond the results of activity thereafter increasing the risks to national security by their influence beyond accountability and control. In order to achieve the set research goal, this essay provides a novel framework to policy transfer based on federalism-base comparative analysis due to the availability of multidimensional data. The author concludes on the need to disassociate external entities from policy transfer processes according to a federalism-based comparative analysis and provides a series of steps to perform it. In this manner, the state will remain interconnected to global sources of information and processes while retaining its sovereignty in a contemporary setting.

Keywords:

International Organizations, Production of Knowledge, Global Governance, Transnational Administration, Government Performance, Globalization, Government Accountability, National Security, Non-governmental organizations, International Law

The national security implications of policy transfer

As policy makers increasingly rely on policy transfer amid great competition, there is a large demand for information in the fields of political science and international studies Dolowitz and Marsh (2000). Policy transfer is not a new phenomenon, however the globalized world has changed its fundamental dynamics. On the basis of Parson’s (1996) definition of a global space in which transnational corporations and institutions have displaced the state in different ways, technological advances allowed policy-makers to communicate with each other at greater speeds (Hadjiisky, Pal & Walker, 2017). Subjecting countries to similar conditions and expanding the amount of information available leads policy-makers to look to other political systems for knowledge and ideas regarding institutions, programs and policies to increase the capacity of their own states (Dolowitz & Marsh, 2000).

The appearance of a global consensus in the aftermath of the Cold War led to the designation of policies as carriers of best practices, whose transfer would be curated by diverse international organizations regardless of their various contextual conditions that originally defined their purpose and outcomes (Peck, 2011). However, the negative outcomes of the Washington Consensus led to significant transformations of global policy development characterized by constant experimentation and corrections (Rodrick, 2006).

Under this framework, transferred policies are directed to a specific field through the coordination and combination of resources on a horizontal level (Peck, 2011). Trans-governmental networks of government agencies operate with substantial autonomy within focused policy areas, combining expertise, exchanging information, implementing agreements and often generating operational agreements (Nay, 2014). The transnational nature of this setting involves non-estate / governmental organizations, private sector firms and associations, epistemic communities in both policy development and administration within different realms of non-state regulation (Woods, 2006).

Contemporary policy transfer practices carry a wide array of national security implications, as there is an increasing tendency for the rise, influence and role of NGOs in global politics directly related to networking, organizing social movement organizations as well as the diverse mechanisms of accountability and legitimacy. Diverse approaches are used to diminish national security threats in this context, for example, Stone (2004) refers to methodological nationalism by adapting measures to avoid bias through an analytical approach and performance.

A federalism-based comparative analysis applied to policy transfer

Along the guidelines of methodological nationalism, this exercise proposes a new approach to policy transfer in the absence of policy brokers in the form NGO to diminish the threats to national security.

This new form of policy transfer is proposed for developing nations to enhance their state capacity according to dedicated mechanisms and goals in absence of direct institutional reforms and societal changes beyond a determined political dimension in a medium to long term basis. Regional powers are incentivized to embrace this new form of policy transfer methods by interregional competition and shared goals.

As the new approach to policy transfer relies on a comprehensive assessment of the local conditions during the processes of selection, adaptation and implementation of transferred policies, a dedicated method to source and classify a wide array of data and information is required. Considering that a contextual assessment of nations should consider multiple conditions that range from the general composition of state to the type, hierarchy and interactions of its elements, the required information can be obtained through existing studies on the peculiarities of different federal systems with emphasis on legal, economic and budgetary considerations.

The performance of determined policies can be analyzed through comparative studies in order to complement the contextual review of nations on the basis of their federal systems. The main causes for the success and failure of determined policies can be determined by the extrapolation of multidimensional data provided by this framework, while different hypothesis can be made around the outcomes of potential changes to aid the policy transfer process.

A multidimensional comparison of federal systems to be applied to the policy transfer process follows three steps. First, selected nations are compared according to common transferred policies of a specific historic period. Second, nations with different political systems that share common features such as geographic conditions to population size with one or many similar economic indicators are selected. Third, the influence of transferred policies determining the role of nations in a global order is analyzed.

A comparative analysis is proposed according to the peculiarities of federal systems and a wide array of economic performance indicators. For the first section general comparisons between both political systems are made with an emphasis on the federal and presidential systems and the overall structure of the country in terms of power distribution among federal subjects and regions. Special attention is made towards the general constitutional framework as to the context and amendments according to transferred policies in both nations.

For the second section economic performance indicators are analyzed by a wide array of metrics, including to their complexity and government actions. A further review of political and economic conditions is made by analyzing territorial and demographic considerations, the distribution of economic power by cities, wealth and productivity as well as in relation to other cities worldwide with similar indicators. Lastly, detailed comparisons between both nations are made on the basis of administrative divisions through which the population development and productivity of federal subjects and regions are analyzed and compared. In order to further assess the impact of transferred policies, the evolution of the HDI index, the GINI coefficient and the GDP PPP per capita are analyzed.

General conclusions

As a general conclusion, this essay agrees on the effectivity of Stone’s nationalization of policy results for its emphasis on careful domestic analysis along performance-based tools derived from policy transfer according to international standards and trends. However, to diminish the threats of political interference in the context of national security, a federalism-based comparative analysis to be integrated in the policy transfer process is suggested. This method involves available data to reduce the load on government entities and decreasing the participation of external entities amid a wide array of national security implications. The universality of this model is achieved by its assessment of governmental processes according to the national interest while remaining interconnected to global sources of information and processes that prevent the isolation of the state in a contemporary setting, for what multiple iterations can be applied to a wide array of nations regarding their different levels of development.

References

1. Dolowitz D. P., Marsh D. Learning from abroad: The role of policy transfer in contemporary policy-making. Governance, 13(1), 2000-5-25 pp.
2. Hadjiisky M., Pal L., Walker C. Public Policy Transfer: Micro-Dynamics and Macro-Effects. Cheltenham, 2017-12-35 pp.
3. Peck J. Global policy models, globalizing poverty management: International convergence of fast-policy integration? Geography Compass, 5(4), 2011-165-181 pp.
4. Woods N. The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2006-22-35 pp.
5. Rodrik D. Goodbye Washington consensus, hello Washington confusion? A review of the World Bank's economic growth in the 1990s: Learning from a decade of reform. Journal of EconomicLiterature, 44(4), 2006-973-987 pp.
6. Pal L. Standard-setting and international peer review: The OECD as a Transnational Policy Actor. In Diane Stone and Kim Moloney, Oxford University Press, 2017-12-33 pp.
7. Nay O. International organisations and the production of hegemonic knowledge: How the World Bank and the OECD helped invent the Fragile State concept. Third World Quarterly, 35(2), 2014-210-231 pp.
8. Stone D. Transfer agents and global networks in the “transnationalization” of policy. Journal of EuropeanPublicPolicy, 11(3), 2004-545-566 p

Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

It is no secret that at the present stage, not only various experts – political scientists, sociologists, economists – but also ordinary observers note a serious aggravation of international relations, which, among other things, leads to an increase in threats to national security. Indeed, the expansion of local conflict zones and the intensification of the activities of terrorist and extremist organizations leads to an increase in tension in various regions of the world. Recall, however, that the concept of national security is quite broad: This is "a set of officially accepted views on the goals and state strategy in the field of ensuring the security of the individual, society and the state from external and internal threats of a political, economic, social, military, man-made, environmental, informational and other nature, taking into account available resources and capabilities." The ways to reduce threats to national security are quite contradictory, which makes it important to study the influence of various actors in this direction. These circumstances determine the relevance of the article submitted for review, the subject of which is the possibility of using the modern experience of various political systems by national states. The author aims to show the role of transnational corporations and institutions in the transnationalization of politics, to consider ways to reduce threats of political interference in the context of ensuring national security. The work is based on the principles of analysis and synthesis, reliability, objectivity, the methodological basis of the research is a systematic approach, which is based on the consideration of the object as an integral complex of interrelated elements. The author also uses a comparative method in his work. In his research, the author relies on the approach of D. Stone with the ideas of "methodological nationalism", in which "the national state is the natural social and political form of the modern world." The scientific novelty of the article lies in the very formulation of the topic: the author seeks to characterize the consequences of the transnationalization of politics for national security. Considering the bibliographic list of the article as a positive point, we note the attraction of foreign English-language literature, which is determined by the very formulation of the topic. The list of references is not too extensive (8 sources), but generally meets the requirements for this kind of work. Among the studies attracted by the author, we note the works of D. Rodrick, N. Woods, O. Ney and, especially, D. Stone, which focus on various aspects of the participation of external organizations in the conditions of the formation of the global world. Note that the bibliography is important, both from a scientific and educational point of view: after reading the text of the article, readers can turn to other materials on its topic. In general, in our opinion, the use of various sources and research to a certain extent contributed to the solution of the tasks set. The style of writing the article can be attributed to a scientific one, at the same time understandable not only to specialists, but also to a wide readership, to everyone who is interested in both globalization in general and ensuring the national security of states in the context of the transnationalization of politics. The appeal to the opponents is presented at the level of the collected information received by the author during the work on the topic of the article. The structure of the work is characterized by a certain logic and consistency, it can be distinguished by an introduction, the main part, and conclusion. At the beginning, the author defines the relevance of the topic, shows that the modern world is characterized by the transfer of political experience, including to developing countries. The author emphasizes that the emergence of a global consensus after the end of the cold war led to the fact that the experience of certain political systems should be broadcast by various international organizations, regardless of goals and results. In this regard, it seems important, as the author points out, to minimize the influence of various NGOs in this process, which in general may threaten the national security of states. The study of local conditions calls for a comparative analysis of political institutions, the methodology of which is proposed by the author of the reviewed article. The main conclusion of the article is that the author generally agrees with the position of D. Stone, aiming to reduce the threat of political interference in the context of national security. The article submitted for review is devoted to an urgent topic, written in English, will arouse readers' interest, and its materials can be used both in training courses and in the framework of political science research. In general, in our opinion, the article can be recommended for publication in the journal "Conflictology / nota bene".

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A Federalism-Based Comparative Analysis to Diminish National Security Threats in Contemporary Policy Transfer