VOL. 4, NO. 1 – SEPTEMBER 2008
EDITORS’ NOTE
Over recent months, we have all paid witness to a series of events which have subverted and
undermined the authority of national governments to manage the challenges facing the world
today. A surge of riots have marked the rising food and fuel prices that have impacted most
severely on the poorest countries, while the breakdown of the international financial regulatory
framework has starkly demonstrated the power of private business over national economic
stability. Multilateral diplomacy was unable to prevent the outbreak of inter-state warfare
between Russia and Georgia, piracy reigns off the Somali coast, and the UN declared GuineaBissau the world’s first ‘narco state’. As we approach 2015, the commitments of the Millennium
Development Goals appear worryingly unfeasible in many countries. These have served both to
highlight the importance of multilateral, cross-national approaches to governance and to paint a
dim picture of it as it stands today. They have also, however, forced the well-worn debates of the
globalisation research project to spill over into the centre of public discourse.
Following in the footsteps of previous editions, this fourth volume of the International Public
Policy Review serves as a space for students, academics and civil society to pursue and advance
these debates. While the authors in this journal touch upon a range of subjects, each exhibits a
strong desire to address the complex, multi-faceted economic, social and security issues of our
time.
In our opening article, ‘New Labour, New Aid?,’ Alan Webster examines the changes in British
aid policy in the years prior to and following the election of the Labour government in 1997. This
is followed by “Motivating Altruism: Multinational Enterprises and Corporate Social
Responsibility”, in which Victoria Weininger seeks to identify the main drivers behind American
multinational corporations’ pursuit of ethical and sustainable business practices.
The second half of this journal explores some of the most protracted civil conflicts of recent
times. In “An Analysis of the Power-Sharing Experience in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka”,
Ayesha Zuhair takes a timely look at the armed conflict in Sri Lanka through a comparison with
the case of Northern Ireland. Nicola Solomonides’ “One State or Two? The Search for a Solution
to the Cyprus Problem” then evaluates why power-sharing mechanisms have so far proven
ineffective in solving the ‘Cyprus problem’.
Taken together, these articles bear out the widespread and intrinsic problems at the heart of our
global system. Political will, power-sharing, development assistance and business culture all
present significant and unique challenges to the underlying assumptions that order society
today. We hope that these insights contribute to the many tasks and challenges that lie ahead.
On behalf of the General Editors,
Tony Daly
Leila Reid
Karl Smyth
London, June 2008
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