Stanford University Press Blog

The Fight Against Female Genital Mutilation

The New York Times reported today on the growing movement against female genital mutilation in Egypt. This practice, also known as genital cutting, excision, or female circumcision, is performed within a number of African cultures, mostly lying in the triangle between Egypt, Kenya, and Senegal. Its roots lie in antiquity, provoking the conflict between opponents of excision, who argue that it is a dangerous infraction on basic human rights, and supporters, who point to its cultural history and significance.

In her recent book, Between Rites and Rights, Chantal Zabus gives us unprecedented access to women’s writing about the experience of excision. Presenting texts from throughout Africa, Zabus shows how women have found spaces outside of their traditional cultures within which they can voice their experiences. Their writing is eye-opening, often chilling, and always moving.

An Economist Looks at the Politics of Reconstruction

It’s a common observation these days that U.S.-led reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are not going as well as predicted and that the mission is far from accomplished. Are efforts to export democracy by military intervention doomed to failure, i.e., economic failure? If so, should we consider other ways of fostering democratic reforms?

In After War (forthcoming in November 2007) Chris Coyne takes up these questions by bringing an economic mindset to a topic traditionally tackled by historians, policymakers and political scientists.  Economics focuses on how incentives influence human action. According to an economic point of view, successful social change require finding and establishing a set of incentives that would make citizens prefer a liberal democratic order over any available alternatives.  These opportunities might include the ability to vote, open a business, worship freely, or utilize the legal system, among other possibilities. However, in his forthcoming book, Coyne spells out that efforts to foster liberal democracy through foreign intervention--from Haiti to Somalia and Iraq-- have been unsuccessful in large part because of flaws inherent in the politics of such interventions. After War is a fascinating study of the distortions that politics introduces.

For instance, instead of giving incentives to citizens of occupying countries the political process that gets underway puts the bureaucracy (with the competing goals of its various agencies)  and special interests  in charge.   It fosters situations in which corporations that provide the most in campaign contributions receive the largest contracts (yes, think Halliburton).  As a result, ordinary citizens (and their leaders) don't perceive any advantages in cooperating with their "liberators." In a recent discussion in the Economist, Coyne discusses how conflicts between various government agencies compromised the reconstruction program.

Fires, Droughts, and Battles Over Water

As California fights two fires—one southeast of San Francisco and one in Plumas National Forest west of Reno—we are once again reminded of the dryness of the climate in most of the western United States.  This is on the heels of a major fire in Lake Tahoe and the state’s second largest fire on record near Santa Barbara.

Those of us who live in the West’s large urban areas know that we depend on limited water reserves, and that much of it is brought from far away, but it often takes the raging fires of the summer months to remind us of just how precious our water is.

We divide our limited water supplies between many important uses: agriculture, urban amenities, recreation (parks, pools, golf courses, etc.), preserving ecosystems, and fighting fires, among others. Every time we divert water to meet a new demand, we are taking it away from somewhere else: for example, when LA built an aqueduct to bring the water it needed from Owens Valley, the environment in the Valley was forever altered.

In Owens Valley Revisited, Gary Libecap explores the conflicting demands for water in Southern California throughout the last century, showing that the transfer was both a benefit and detriment to everyone involved.  Fire is necessary in the lifecycle of a forest, but each of the fires currently burning are the result of human action—one was even sparked by equipment being used to repair a water pipe—and severe environmental strain resulting from over-development and drought. 

As the population of the West grows, and the search for the water to support that population continues, Libecap offers an interesting perspective on our priorities and values.