寻找银河知音

地球之外是否存在文明世界?除了地球上的人类,宇宙其他星体上有没有生命?这个问题早就引起人们的重视。许多科学家推测,在宇宙其他星体上是有生命的。为了验证这些推测,各国科学家都进行了探索和研究工作,不少国家还为此建立了一些官方的民间的团体。“地球之声”20世纪70年代,美国发射了两艘宇宙飞船,“旅行者”1号和2号,它们在对木星和土星进行测试以后,原定1989年左右飞出太阳系。作为地球上的人类送出太阳系的第三、第四名“使者”,它们经过漫长的旅程,或许竟有可能到达另一个文明世界。鉴于这种可能性,总得托它们给外太空的文明世界捎…     

应对气候变化的全球攻略

气候安全是一个事关各国发展和人类生存的重大全球热点问题,引起国际社会的高度关注与重视。为了遏制日益加剧的温室效应势头,中国和其他各国积极采取防范措施和应对行动。但在国际合作层面,由于发达国家态度较为消极,进展不大。解决地球气候变暖问题任重道远。     

印度古代哲学关于世界形成理论的基本模式

人类自从有了初步的思维能力后,就开始在观察、改造外部世界的过程中思考世间一切是如何出现或产生的。对这一问题的思考是人类早期哲学学说形成和发展的基本表现形式。在印度哲学几千年的发展中,无数哲人对世界形成问题提出了种种看法或猜想。归纳、总结这些看法或猜想对把握印度哲学的基本线索无疑有重要意义。笔者认为,印度古代哲学关于世界形成的理论虽然极为丰富,但最基本的理论模式却是四种,即:转变说、幻变说、积聚说     

全球新的经济社会发展模式——“绿色新政”

地球变暖是历史上迄今为止人类所遇到的最大范围的公共问题，也是当今国际社会普遍关注的重大全球性问题。以地球气候变暖为主要特征的气候安全问题，给人类的生存与发展、给经济社会的可持续发展带来了严重的挑战，直接影响公众生命财产安全，深度触及生态安全、粮食安全、卫生安全和全球安全。为了妥善应对和减缓气候变暖，克服当前的经济衰退，世界各国正在开创一种具有可持续发展前景的新的经济社会发展模式——“绿色新政”（Green New Deal）。这一新政旨在把应对气候变化方面的投入和经济社会发展结合在一起，这既是应对地球暖化、维护气候安全、化解当前经济危机的必要举措，也将为全球经济社会可持续发展奠定坚实的基础。     

解读《拯救人类的哲学》

稻盛和夫的哲学立足于企业经营,但又不局限于具体的管理方法。他的哲学涉及人类面临的很多问题,例如环境保护、国际关系、文明的延续等。《拯救人类的哲学》一书是根据2009年稻盛和夫与哲学家梅原猛对谈的记录汇集成的。该书集中体现了稻盛和夫在21世纪对人类文明、国际关系、企业管理的最新看法。本文将全面解读这本书,系统地梳理稻盛和夫的文明观和政治观。     

日本的“哲学小道”

在日本有两条小道给我留下了深刻的印象。它们是京都的＂哲学小道＂和宝塚市的＂花的小道＂。 ＂哲学小道＂由来是因为曾经有一位日本的近代哲学家经常在这条小道上一边散步一边思考哲学问题而得名。     

印度应对气候变化的政策

全球气候变暖在印度表现得非常明显,对印度的影响也比较大。为了应对气候变化,印度出台了《国家行动计划》,在国内重点实施八项计划,并辅以其他计划。在国际上,面对发达国家不断施加的强制减排压力,印度一方面积极通过＂清洁发展机制＂项目参与国际节能减排合作,另一方面在气候谈判问题上坚持自己的立场,捍卫国家利益。由于立场相近,印度与中国在气候谈判问题上总体上保持的是一种协调与合作的关系。     

最高的诗意

“鲸波接天,浩浩无涯”的海洋,覆盖着地球表面为的领土,在太空中转动的地球,因之散发着蔚蓝色的光芒。海洋是世界上所有生物的发源地,“一切生命都是从海里诞生的,当然人类也不例外”--宇宙学家、生命科学家卡尔·萨根博士如此推论。大海是人类永远的家园,浩瀚的海洋壮大了人们的梦想:当今世界,谁拥有海洋,谁就拥有未来。为打造新的经济增长极,人类将目光由有限的陆地转向无垠的海洋。     

凝聚更多黄大年式的新侨

正著名地球物理学家黄大年同志英年早逝,令人备感哀痛。黄大年同志秉持科技报国理想,把为祖国富强、民族振兴、人民幸福贡献力量作为毕生追求,为我国教育科研事业作出了突出贡献,他的先进事迹感人肺腑。同为归侨科技工作者,我尤为痛惜和不舍。黄大年同志是我国新归侨的杰出代表。他1992年公派英国,2009年受母校吉林大学召唤,毅然放弃国外优渥生活,成为第一批回国的"千人计划"专家。回国     

《西方国际关系理论思潮》专题之六 全球公益论

冷战结束后,南北差距扩大、民族矛盾加剧、地区冲突此起彼伏、生态环境恶化、金融危机泛滥等问题都给国际社会带来了新的不安定因素。全球化浪潮引发了反全球化运动,区域合作和国际合作激发了极端民族、宗教组织的崛起。在各国利用联合国等国际组织共同探索解决上述全球问题的同时,人们看到的却是更多全球问题的出现。可以这样说,地球在空前变“小”的同时,我们面临的全球性问题却在空前地变大。 如果地球是一个“理想国”,只有一个“全球政府”来“治理”(Governance)的话,诸多全球性问题的解决就会容易得多。但目前民族国家仍是国际社会的主体,各国国家利益相互交错冲突,“丛林法则”仍在发挥重大作用。有识之士指出,要真正遏制全球性问题的增长趋势,需要世界各国在全球范围内利     

Grand Strategy of ‘Restrainment’

With the end of the Cold War, the subsequent global war on terror, the global economic recession, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, one would think that the United States would have formulated a grand strategy for dealing with these problems. This, however, is not the case. This article advances a grand strategy of “restrainment,” as a guiding concept for our approach to international politics. It builds from the principle that U.S. policy must seek to restrain—individually and collectively—those forces, ideas, and movements in international politics that create instability, crises, and war.     

(后)殖民/解殖民的原乡(朝圣):《大河尽头》论

《大河尽头》作为李永平迄今为止最气势磅礴、结构井然、首尾呼应的长篇力作,呈现出李长于结构、精于布局、善于把握大叙事的独特优势。如果结合"殖民主义"词根展开思考,他既再现出大历史视野下的殖民主义乱象,又立足于个体,呈现出个体成长/自我教育,自我清洗之后的重生,这其中自然也包含了解殖民或去殖民。当然,在这部长篇中,一贯书写"旅行本土"的李永平更加重了台湾元素的砝码,而显示出其可能落地生根的倾向。     

Mixing Grand Strategies: Trump and International Security

ABSTRACT

When a new President is elected in the United States, the first thing analysts do is define that President’s grand strategy; yet, naming Donald Trump’s grand strategy was a difficult task as his pre-election speeches often contradicted traditional US foreign policy norms. Trump’s ambiguous grand strategy combines two US foreign policy strategies: nationalism in the sense that his preference is for unilateral policies prioritising American interests, and a traditional foreign policy approach, as seen in the moves taken against China and Iran. Surprisingly, this grand strategy unintentionally contributes to cooperation in Eurasia, as actors like Russia, China, Turkey, India and the European Union continue to try to balance the threat from the United States instead of competing with each other, while smaller countries are reluctant to challenge the regional powers due to mistrust towards Trump.     

Dueling Security Stories: Wilson and Lodge Talk Strategy

Perhaps the most consequential effort to expound a grand strategic narrative was Woodrow Wilson's campaign to persuade the American people, the US Senate, and world public opinion to embrace his concept for making the world safe for democracy. Wilson and his interlocutors in grand strategy illustrate the role of rhetoric and narrative in managing two kinds of complexity in discussions of grand strategy: the conceptual integration of facts and values (of “is” and “ought”) in strategic persuasion and the political integration of diverse perspectives among partners in a strategic coalition. In particular, I explore the hypothesis that rhetorical and narrative persuasive devices permit grand strategists to obfuscate internal contradictions in their vision, facilitating persuasion in the short run but producing characteristic patterns of eventual policy failure and thereby serving as an engine of change in grand strategy.     

Explaining Changes in U.S. Grand Strategy: 9/11, the Rise of Offensive Liberalism,and the War in Iraq

This paper proposes a model for explaining shifts and variations in U.S. grand strategy. The model is based on a distinction between four ideal-type grand strategies or ideational approaches to security according to the objectives and means of security policy: defensive and offensive realism, and defensive and offensive liberalism. While the four approaches are continually present in the U.S. policy community, it is the combination of two systemic conditions—namely the distribution of capabilities and the balance of threat—that selects among the competing approaches and determines which grand strategy is likely to emerge as dominant in a given period. Great power parity is conducive to realist approaches. In contrast, a situation of hegemony encourages the emergence of ideological grand strategies, which focus on ideology promotion, according to the ideology of the hegemon. In the case of a liberal hegemon, such as the United States, liberal approaches are likely to emerge as dominant. In addition, a relative absence of external threat encourages defensive approaches, while a situation of high external threat gives rise to offensive strategies. Thus, various combinations of these systemic factors give rise to the emergence of various grand strategies. This model is tested in two cases of the two most recent shifts in U.S. grand strategy following 1991. In accordance with the expectations of the model, a change in the distribution of capabilities with the end of the Cold War made possible a change from realist to liberal strategies. In the benign environment of the 1990s the dominant strategy was defensive liberalism, while the change in the balance of threat after 9/11 gave rise to the grand strategy of offensive liberalism.     

“Under the Influence of Mahan”: Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and their Understanding of American National Interest

This article explores links in the grand strategic outlook of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, with particular reference to the influence upon both men of Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. It focuses upon an episode during Franklin Roosevelt's tenure as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, when he was in direct correspondence with both Theodore and Mahan on matters of grand strategy and naval policy. The paper argues that Theodore Roosevelt proved a crucial conduit in the formulation of Franklin Roosevelt's grand strategic outlook, both through his promulgation of Mahanian thought and his support of Franklin's correspondence with the Admiral. This in turn would be important later during Franklin Roosevelt's leadership of the United States.     

Systematic Procedures for Operational Code Analysis: Measuring and Modeling Jimmy Carter's Operational Code

In this article we introduce a new scoring system for doing operational code analysis and test its reliability and validity by measuring and modeling President Jimmy Carter's operational code. Using speeches from the public record, we construct indices for the elements of the operational code construct. Based upon the valences and scaled intensities of verbs uttered in the speeches, President Jimmy Carter's views of the political universe and approaches to political action in different issue areas are identified and compared. The results of the analysis provide reasonable support for the face, construct, and content validity of the operational code indices. We find that Carter's view of the political universe and approach to political action were consistent across issue areas during the first three years of his term as president. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan President Carter's support for human rights remained steadfast. Statistically significant shifts occurred in his views of the Soviet Union and others in the political universe and in his approach to political action regarding the conduct of U.S.-Soviet relations and other issues.     

Small states and the ‘throughput’ legitimacy of international organizations

Abstract

The unequal participation of member states in international organizations (IOs) undermines IOs’ legitimacy as global actors. Existing scholarship typically makes this assessment by referencing a combination of input—the interests IOs serve—and output—the decisions they take. This scholarship does not, however, pay enough attention to how IOs have responded to these concerns. We argue that IOs have used the participation of small states—whose membership most studies typically ignore—as an important means of generating what Vivian Schmidt calls ‘throughput’ legitimacy for their operations. We organize our analysis of ‘throughput’ legitimacy in IOs around four institutional mechanisms—(1) agenda setting; (2) leadership (s)election; (3) management and operation; and (4) service delivery—in which all states seek to exert influence. What emerges is an account of IOs seeking to balance ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ by way of ‘throughputs’. We conclude by arguing for an expanded focus on the means by which IOs generate ‘throughput’ legitimacy in future research.     

Fanon,Camus and the global colour line: colonial difference and the rise of decolonial horizons

I focus here on the political stances of Frantz Fanon and Albert Camus regarding the Algerian War of Independence. By examining their reflections on this violent anticolonial struggle, I seek to highlight the role of colonial difference and of racial hierarchies in the constitution of global politics. Fanon's position relies on an ethos of decolonization and on an ethics of difference that—while specific to the Algerian context—also reverberated profoundly among other societies caught in the violence of imperial encounters. Camus' conciliatory approach, however, and his moral equalization of the violence perpetrated by both sides enunciate the inherent racial hierarchies underpinning liberal narratives. I argue that the limits inherent in Fanon's thought—but also its latent potentialities for decolonial thinking—become apparent when examined through the lens of the contemporary activism among North African migrants and their descendants in France. The emergence of self-proclaimed decolonial movements constitutes an attempt to enact a decolonial transnational citizenship, which contests the racial boundaries of French Republicanism. But it also signals a different vision of the universal—one that is entrenched in a terrain of historical specificity and which holds more promise in contesting the global colour line.