Monthly Archives: February 2013

S.E.C. Inquiry Into China Film Trade Unnerves Hollywood

An interesting crossover between two of my interests, securities law and Hollywood. The film business has been enjoying a renaissance overseas what with Bollywood and all. Of course China remains the ultimate new market for the industry. But the industry has to realize that without free speech or the rule of law it is not like moving into India. True cultural expression remains suppressed, just ask the Tibetans. And the reach of US securities law is long as this article on an investigation into possible bribery cases indicates.

S.E.C. Inquiry Into China Film Trade Unnerves Hollywood – NYTimes.com.

A Geo-spatial look at African conflict

Determinants of Territorial Conflict in Africa

hotspotsThis paper, by Ken Schultz at Stanford, was the final stimulus that pushed me to set up this new category so it is appropriate that it is the basis of my first post.

Here is how Ken describes his work:

“This paper explores the determinants of territorial conflicts among African states using a novel geospatial data set that maps disputed and undisputed borders. The geospatial approach helps eliminate problems of aggregation and selection on the dependent variable in studies of territorial conflict, as well as permitting fine-grained analysis of the local determinants of disputes. The data are used to test several hypotheses pertaining to the partitioning of ethnic groups, the presence of natural resources, natural vs. artificial borders, and state power. We find that border segments that partition ethnic groups are at higher risk of conflict only when the ethnic group is dominant, politically and demographically, within the state or has a high level of political centralization and that these effects are most pronounced early in the life of the state. The presence of oil or mineral deposits does not systematically increase the risk of a dispute, while river borders are less likely to be contested. The results suggest that territorial claims were, in large part, a tool for governments in newly-independent states to build support among politically important groups and to build ethnically-based national identities in relatively homogeneous states.”