https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/56464 2026-04-16T07:26:22Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/45088 Title: Book review : Weaving intellectual property policy in small island developing states Abstract: This book tackles the area of intellectual property and intellectual property policy as it relates to the smaller independent Pacific Island countries. It starts with a basic definition of intellectual property and intellectual property rights, and goes on to illustrate how these relate to the customs, culture, education, business and the general development of these islands. In particular, it looks at how the global intellectual property regimes that are often imposed on these countries not only effect their economic and political development framework, but also have strong implications on the norms, realities, and intrinsic knowledge and beliefs of the populations of these islands. Arguments and criticisms made in the text are supported by empirical case studies specifically relating the patent regime to issues of health and medicine, and the copyright regime to education and access to educational material. 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/44922 Title: Book review : The influence of small states on superpowers : Jamaica and U.S. foreign policy Abstract: For scholars of small states and their foreign policies, this book is a must read. The text is theoretically, empirically and bibliographically rich. Bernal’s primary aim is to challenge the received wisdom of international relations theory that small states cannot effectively influence the foreign policies of superpowers like the United States. To mount this challenge, Bernal provides an in-depth examination of what he claims were successful attempts by Jamaica to influencing US foreign policy in the areas of foreign aid, debt relief, narcotics cooperation, and trade related to expanding the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/44918 Title: Book review : Democracy in small states : persisting against all odds Abstract: The book provides a thorough analysis of a neglected field in political science, small state studies and international relations. I purposefully include international relations due to the wide scope of this research encompassing all parts of the world. This book is theoretically rich. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the established literature and use it to examine their cases. At the same time, they engage in theory-building. I would also argue that the book is radical. It offers a powerful challenge to the existing precepts of democratisation theory. The authors do so by arguing that small states are exceptional and that is not enough to study or collect information about formal institutional setups and rules. They challenge the standard theoretical explanations that economic growth, cultural diversity, colonial legacy and institutional design, the presence of an institutionalized party system and geographic location have explanatory power when it comes to explaining why small states are more democratic than large states. These variables, according to the authors, explain neither the democratic successes nor failures, according to the findings. Description: The three reviews of this book appearing here were presented at its launch, held at the Centre for Small State Studies, Queen Mary’s University of London, UK, on 18th October 2018. 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/44912 Title: Book review : Corse et Sardaigne : îles autonomes? Un regard croisé Abstract: In this short book, Jean-François Ferrandi, an economist in the employ of the European Commission, sets out both to compare Corsica and Sardinia and to analyze the relationship between them. At its narrowest point, the Strait of Bonifacio that separates the two islands is only eleven kilometres wide, exactly half the shortest distance between New Zealand’s South Island and North Island on the two sides of Cook Strait. And yet, Corsica and Sardinia are never imagined as the archipelago they objectively constitute (together with a few smaller islands that surround them.) Any map of Italy that included Corsica would conjure up suspicions of Italian irredentism (and justifiably so, for Mussolini did occupy the island during World War II), while maps of metropolitan France typically put Corsica in an inset because of its distance from the Hexagon (p. 16), rendering its propinquity to Sardinia irrelevant. Straits may separate islands, but they connect populations, and the Strait of Bonifacio is no exception (pp. 18-20). 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z