U.S.-Taiwan Relations: A Study on the Taiwan Relations Act

The relationship between the United States and Taiwan is of great importance to both parties. Taiwan offers certain strategic opportunities for the promotion of American national security interests, and the U.S. accordingly provides Taiwan with support of both a defensive and diplomatic nature. The official U.S. policies regarding relations with Taiwan are enumerated in the Taiwan Relations Act (United States Code Title 22 Chapter 48 Sections 3301 - 3316). The act, approved by the U.S. Congress in 1967, stipulates the terms of the bilateral relationship with regard to national defense and diplomatic relations among other factors. This paper seeks to obtain a more developed picture of sentiments on both sides of this relationship in order to understand better the U.S.'s influence and power in Taiwan and in the region.

Analysis of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Its Effects on Giant Panda Conservation

The giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca is an endangered species that is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Numerous factors have led to a decline in giant panda populations in China including habitat loss from human activity, poaching, panda inbreeding and a low reproductive rate. This capstone analyzes the effects of CITES and ESA as policies for the protection of panda populations and their habitat. CITES and ESA provide some protection for panda populations in the United States. However, these policies do not address panda habitat protection in China.

The Effect of the Farmer Assurance Provision of the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 on Biodiversity and Global Food Security

A rider to a US law, the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, encourages the large-scale genetic modification and global distribution of agricultural crops, thereby undermining the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' determination that food security rests on biodiversity. The rider blocks the US Department of Agriculture's mandate to prohibit farmers from growing crops from biotechnological seeds where the courts have found that this farm practice may cause damage to human health and/or degrade the environment. Despite genetically modified organisms (GMOs) reducing unwanted traits in plants, the paper supports the UN's mission for biodiversity and that more long-term testing was (and is) needed for GMO products, developed from 1994 on, before a hasty piece of Congressional legislation as was made in this case.