|
|
Click on cover for details of paper or digital version.
Click on title for details of contents.
ISBN Categories: HB Hardback; PB Paperback; CD CD-Rom; EB Ebook
|
 |
Regulating Bioprospecting: Institutions for Drug research, Access and Benefit Sharing
Publisher: United Nations University Press
Author: Pradmashree Gehl Sampath
Published: October 2005
ISBN: PB 9 28081 112 6
Subject: development economics
Bioprospecting, or the search for useful biochemical compounds and genes in nature, has been the focus of international negotiations for more than a decade, yet the debate on the terms for access to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and benefit-sharing is far from settled.
This book examines the optimal property rights structures and institutional mechanisms for regulating bioprospecting for drug research. Focusing on the economics of contracts, it shows that the rights exchanged are complementary at each stage of drug discovery and the development of genetic resources.
Defining and enforcing rights for access to genetic resources and traditional medicinal knowledge should not be attempted in isolation from the realities of drug discovery and development; otherwise the potential of bioprospecting for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in source countries will not be achieved. This analysis is substantiated by examples of bioprospecting collaborations in several countries and a critique of the institutional and contractual factors that led to their success or failure.
This is one of the first books to address the contractual complexities of bioprospecting for drug research and is thus a key text for policy makers, practitioners and scholars in the areas of law, economics, ethnobotany, anthropology and environmental sciences.
"The author examines, with outstanding analytical capabilities, complex economic issues of particular importance to developing countries and the drug industry. The book offers stimulating insights in a rigorous and accessible manner. It will be of great value for researchers, policy makers, managers and all those concerned with the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity.?Ebr> Prof. Carlos M. Correa, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
"Dr Gehl Sampath's book is a welcome contribution to an important but highly polarized debate. It offers an objective and academically rigorous treatment of what is a highly complex subject, and in doing so should contribute to fairer and more effective bioprospecting regulation.?E
Graham Dutfield, Senior Research Fellow, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, University of London, UK.
|  |
The WTO and Sustainable Development
Publisher: United Nations University Press
Author: Gary P. Sampson
Published: August 2005
ISBN: PB 9 28081 115 0
Subject: environment
The WTO has evolved into a World Trade and Sustainable Development Organization and many issues now on its agenda are far from traditional trade policy matters. Some have already proven to be particularly controversial and there is much more controversy to come.
"The WTO simply cannot ignore the need to promote and preserve the environment. The priority must be to re-balance the international trade system in favour of developing countries. [This book] is a crucial first step in identifying and exploring the issues that fall under the umbrellas of sustainable development and the expanded agenda of trade policy. A crucial question is whether a clearer mission for the WTO in support of sustainable development implies major institutional reforms. I do not think so. To surmount the difficulties confronting the WTO, it must adapt. But the fundamental objective of the WTO has to remain the construction of fair trade rules to guarantee better, more long-lasting, more predictable and more transparent trade opening."
- From the Foreword by Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General and former European Union Commissioner for Trade (1999-2004)
"Professor Gary Sampson
identifies an inventory of policy issues that fall within the overlap between trade and sustainable development, and analyses the implications of this overlap. He also presents policy options that are both ambitious and realistic, the pursuit of which could contribute to more coherent and mutually supportive action on the part of governments to both trade and sustainable development. This book is a useful contribution to the literature and should be of interest to a large part of the international community, including government officials, academics, the business community, and both intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations."
- Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, UNCTAD Secretary-General and former WTO Director General (2002-2005)
"For trade to contribute to sustainable development, it is pertinent that the WTO must shift. I welcome Professor Gary Sampson's book and hope that it will stimulate intellectual discourse for changing our mindset by putting fair trade in the mainstream of sustainable development and poverty alleviation."
- Emil Salim, former Indonesian Minister of Population and Environment and former Chairman of the WSSD Preparatory Committee
"Professor Gary Sampson's analysis
is sharp and his suggestions are full of wisdom. I regard this book to be a very important contribution to the study of the WTO."
- Mitsuo Matsushita, founding member of the WTO Appellate Body
|  |
Medical Biotechnology: Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions
Publisher: United Nations University Press
Author: Albert Sasson
Published: August 2005
ISBN: PB 9 28081 114 2
Subject: technology, medicine
For many people, biotechnology means genetically modified organisms, alien species, toxic weapons, or hormone-treated beef. Yet it is also a tool to control plant and animal pests, preserve species, utilize genetic resources for health and nutrition, and protect the environment. Society's ability to manage, share and regulate advanced biotechnology offers many opportunities and raises many challenges and risks.
This book explores the issues of advanced biotechnology and examines the progress made in recent years. It looks at the drivers of medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology development in the United States, the European Union and Japan. It describes the biotechnology tools to fight major global health concerns such as Ebola fever, the human immunodeficiency virus, the SARS virus, and the Avian flu virus, as well as regulatory concerns and public perceptions.
Professor Sasson also provides a state of the art analysis of the progress of selected developing countries in fostering their own bio-industries. He examines some of the most controversial areas of medical biotechnology, including issues such as stem cell research and gene therapy and some of the ethical issues they raise.
"The findings of this book are a valuable contribution to the state of our knowledge about modern biotechnology, to UNU-IAS efforts to raise awareness among policy makers and stakeholders, and to educating the public at large about the greater implications and prospects concerning the advances of this rapidly growing new technology."
From the Foreword by A.H. Zakri, Director of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies
|  |
Mothers of the Nation: Right-Wing Women in Weimar Germany
Publisher: Berg
Author: Raffael Scheck
Published: January 2004
ISBN: HB 1 85973 707 2 PB 1 85973 712 9
Subject: history;politics;sociology;
What role did right-wing women play in the Nazi rise to power?Mothers of the Nation analyzes the work of women in the German Peoples Party and the German National Peoples Party - parties that covered the range from the moderate to the radical right.
|  |
Security Sector Reform and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
Publisher: United Nations University Press
Author: Edited by Albrecht Schnabel and Hans-Georg Ehrhart
Published: January 2006
ISBN: PB 9 28081 109 6
Subject: peace, goverence
Military and police forces play a crucial role in the long-term success of political, economic and cultural rebuilding efforts in post-conflict societies. Yet, while charged with the long-term task of providing a security environment conducive to rebuilding war-torn societies, internal security structures tend to lack civilian and democratic control, internal cohesion and effectiveness, and public credibility. They must be placed under democratic control and restructured and retrained to become an asset, not a liability, in the long-term peacebuilding process. External actors from other nations, regional organizations and the United Nations can be of assistance in this process, by creating a basic security environment, preventing remnants of armed groups from spoiling the fragile peacebuilding process, and by facilitating reform of the local security sector.
This book offers analyses of an international group of academics and practicioners with direct experiences with security sector reform programmes in different parts of the world.
"This book includes a diverse mix of international scholars and practitioners, which gives it a richness and variety that will appeal to serious observers of peacebuilding in post-conflict settings. The case studies offer the reader a useful laboratory in which comparisons can be made and observations tested. It will be useful to policymakers interested in understanding the complexity of addressing security sector reform and civil-military relations. It should appeal to military, peacekeeping, and police forces who are increasingly being asked to insert themselves in conflict zones to bring a level of stability so that peace can be built and sustained."
Dr. W. Andy Knight, McCalla Research Professor, University of Alberta, Canada.
|  |
Home/Front: The Military, War and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany
Publisher: Berg
Author: Edited by Karen Hagemann & Stefanie Schöler-Springorum
Published: December 2002
ISBN: HB 1 85973 665 3 PB 1 85973 670 X
Subject: sociology;history;
We are all acutely aware of the devastation and upheaval that result from war. Less obvious is the extent to which the military and war impact on the gender order. This book is the first to explore the intersections of the military, war and gender.
|  |
Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience: The Social Organization of Normality
Publisher: Berg
Author: Elizabeth Shove
Published: July 2003
ISBN: HB 1 85973 625 4 PB 1 85973 630 0
Subject: sociology;art
Over the past few generations, expectations of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have altered radically, but these dramatic changes have largely gone unnoticed.
|  |
Ecological Debt: The Health of the Planet and the Wealth of Nations
Publisher: Pluto Press
Author: Andrew Simms
Published: April 2005
ISBN: HB 0 74532 405 3 PB 0 74532 404 5
Subject: Environmental Studies/Ecology |Globalization |Current Affairs |
'Creative and compelling.' Guardian One-stop guide to environmental problems and what we can do about them.
|  |
Global Governance in Question: Empire, Class and the New Common Sense in Managing North-South Relations
Publisher: Pluto Press
Author: Susanne Soederberg
Published: February 2006
ISBN: HB 0 74532 070 8 PB 0 74532 069 4
Subject: Globalization |International Relations |
Introduction to global governance -- a key aspect of globalisation studies -- presenting a critical approach.
|  |
The State of U.S. History
Publisher: Berg
Author: Edited by Melvyn Stokes
Published: March 2003
ISBN: HB 1 85973 596 7 PB 1 85973 502 9
Subject: history;
Historians are very much aware of the variety of national and international trends that have shaped historical inquiry in recent decades. Americanists, in particular, have been conscious of the growing importance of gender issues.
|
|
|
