抗战时期陕甘宁边区对外交往活动及其历史意义

抗战时期,陕甘宁边区在党中央的直接领导下,顺应历史发展的特点和需要,采取多种举措积极开展广泛的对外交往活动,取得了辉煌成就,有力地加速和推动了抗日战争的胜利。这一时期陕甘宁边区在对外交往活动过程中形成的实践经验,对新中国外交战略的构架和发展也产生了深远影响。     

中国多层外交论刍议

在全球化的背景下,尤其是经济全球化的深入发展,众多非国家行为体的出现,说明对外交往已不再只是国家的专利。中国是一个单一制国家,外交由中央政府统一管辖。地方政府、政党以及民众出于自身利益的需要,不断加强对外交往、扩大国际合作,日益活跃在国际舞台上,形成了在中央外交框架内的分层现象。然而性质决定行动,这些利益体的对外活动都是也必须是服务于国家整体外交,不得与国家利益相抵触的。     

军事外交与维护国家利益

国家利益在国际政治中的基础地位已是当代国际政治学者和符国政治家们的共识.国家利益是决定国家外交政策和对外行为的根本因素.军事外交也不例外.所谓军事外交,是指主权国家的国防部门及武装力量旨在增进和实现国家利益和国家安全,尤其是国防安全目标,与其他国家、国家集团或国际组织进行的交往、交涉和活动,是一国对外关系和总体外交的-个重要方而和组成部分,同时又是该国国防政策在对外关系中的体现.对一国而言,其军事外交的基本目标,无疑在任何时候都是要维护本国的围家利益.     

全球视野下的中国城市外交北大核心CSSCI

近年来,伴随着中国融入全球化进程的逐步深入,城市外交在实现中国城市国际化发展战略和国家总体外交布局中开始发挥越来越重要的作用。全球化与城市化的发展为中国城市的对外交往提供了广阔的舞台。中国的城市外交既存在着进一步发展的机遇,需要我们更好地加以把握,也面临着一系列体制机制上的障碍需要加以克服。     

第一国际与社会主义政党对外交往的历史起源

作为人类历史上第一个无产阶级政党性国际联合，第一国际的实践活动昭示着社会主义政党政治的历史性出场，赋予了无产阶级政党国际联合新的实践形态，开启了社会主义政党对外交往的历史序幕。它在支持和声援各国被压迫民族解放和革命的斗争中，在争取工人阶级思想、组织和行动的独立自主权利中，在处理内部成员间以及宗派利益团体的关系中，在反对欧洲帝国主义列强争夺世界霸权的斗争中，所孕育和凝结的理论观点与历史遗产，在核心价值、根本保证、实践准则、理论自觉与价值引领等方面，对社会主义政党对外交往乃至社会主义国家政党外交的创新发展都具有奠基意义。     

全球视野下的中国城市外交

近年来,伴随着中国融入全球化进程的逐步深入,城市外交在实现中国城市国际化发展战略和国家总体外交布局中开始发挥越来越重要的作用。全球化与城市化的发展为中国城市的对外交往提供了广阔的舞台。中国的城市外交既存在着进一步发展的机遇,需要我们更好地加以把握,也面临着一系列体制机制上的障碍需要加以克服。     

新中国曲线外交二三事

新中国成立后,直到20世纪80年代初,一直都处在东西方冷战的大背景下。为了更好地服务国家利益,新中国的领导人抓住一切机会、采取一切必要的手段发展对外交往。下面这些外交故事,不仅体现了我国外交的原则性与灵活性兼备的特点,也反映出我国领导人坚定不移维护国家利益、灵活处理外交事务的立场和谋略。     

1994:中国外交获得成功的一年

1994年,我国党和国家、全国人大和全国政协领导人频频出访,举世瞩目,开拓了共和国外交工作的新局面。海外舆论评论中国刮起了“外交旋风”:有的说1994年是“中国的外交年”;也有的说1994年是“中国外交获得成功的一年”。的确,过去的一年是新中国外交空前活跃、也是硕果累累的一年。 在这一年里,中国同美国等西方国家的关系得到了进一步改善和发展,双方高层往来增加,两国经贸关系发展,两国军队交往得到恢复。1994年3月美国国务卿克里斯托弗访华。5月26日,克林顿宣布延长对中国的最惠国待遇,并且决定将最惠国待遇与人权     

中国与西方国家对外援助比较分析——基于附加政治条件的研究

对外援助历来为西方国家对外关系中不可缺少的重要组成部分。随着综合国力的不断增强,对外援助作为有效的外交手段,在中国对外交往中同样日益受到重视。但与西方国家不同,中国的对外援助不附加任何政治条件,由此也与西方援助国产生了矛盾,并招致大量的批评。本文首先分析了中国与西方国家对外援助的现状,其次对中西方关于附加政治条件的不同理解进行了深入探讨,并尝试将附加政治条件进行"中性化"处理。     

人民政协公共外交的“五维”审视与职能优化思路

随着中国公共外交时代的到来,人民政协公共外交职能优化的重要性日益凸显。对公共外交内涵的共识涉及到公共外交的主体、客体、方法、价值、目标"五维"。从公共外交"五维"的视角优化人民政协公共外交职能的思路如下:在主体维度,要从制度上明确人民政协和各级人民政协委员参与公共外交的角色和身份;就客体维度看,要提升政协委员的国际知识和公共外交能力,使他们能真正"讲好中国故事";就价值维度来看,人民政协可以通过参与公共外交充分展示中国协商民主的魅力和中国特色社会主义政治制度的独特价值;就方法维度来说,借鉴公共外交方法,改进和提升人民政协对外交往技能和积极性;就目标维度来说,明晰人民政协公共外交服务于国家利益的基本要求。     

中国特色大国外交的传承与创新:命运共同体的视角

新中国成立70年来,中国外交经历了革命外交、经济外交、和谐世界外交到命运共同体外交等不同时期,这一过程同时也显示了从道义共同体、利益共同体、区域发展共同体到人类命运共同体的逻辑发展。党的十八大以来,中国特色大国外交全面铺开,构建人类命运共同体成为新时代中国外交的新旗帜、新任务和新目标。构建人类命运共同体既是对前几任领导人外交思想的传承和延续,更是新一代领导人奋发有为的开拓与创新:开启了大国外交新时代,开垦了全域外交新空间,开发了主场外交新形式,开辟了“一带一路”外交新平台,标志着中国外交的跨越性升华,彰显了新时代大国外交的中国特色、中国风格和中国气派。     

Sub-State Diplomacy in Malfunctioning States: The Case of the Republika Srpska,Bosnia and Herzegovina

Diplomacy is no longer the preserve of the state. It is increasingly used by sub-state actors to contest state-level authority. In malfunctioning states like Bosnia and Herzegovina, where lengthy state-building efforts have not alleviated the risk of instability, this possibility is a cause for concern. This article builds on paradiplomatic and state-building studies to examine specific aspects of the Republika Srpska's (RS) bid for diplomatic actorness. Based on the content analysis of official documents and interviews, it assesses the level of diplomatic actorness of the RS in four dimensions (legal authority, external presence, internal presence, autonomy) and examines whether this has grown in collaboration or competition with state-level diplomacy. The article shows that the development of the RS's paradiplomatic activities is driven by ethno-political competition, facilitated by state and sub-state actors’ mutual disregard, and that it both echoes and amplifies the systemic malfunctioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina.     

To Scrutinise or Not to Scrutinise? Explaining Variation in EU-Related Activities in National Parliaments

There is an on-going debate in the literature as to whether national parliaments can and do play an active role in EU policy-making. The main reason for persistent disagreement is the lack of comparative empirical data on parliamentary behaviour in EU affairs. The article aims to contribute to this debate by presenting the first comparative quantitative data on European affairs activities of national parliaments and by explaining the empirical variation. The development of a unique dataset including all 27 national parliaments allows a series of explanatory variables to be tested for the level of parliamentary activity at both the committee and the plenary levels. The analysis shows that institutional strength in EU affairs plays an important role. Overall, however, EU activities can be better explained with a mix of institutional capacities and motivational incentives. The specific combinations vary for different types of activities.     

The concept of flexible engagement and the practice of enhanced interaction: Intramural challenges to the ‘ASEAN way’

Abstract

This article examines the challenges to the diplomatic and security culture of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as posed by Thailand's spurned proposal for ‘flexible engagement’ and the pursuit of ‘enhanced interaction’ by some ASEAN members in intramural relations. It asks whether these challenges should be understood as turning points in the way in which regional leaderships in Southeast Asia interact. The article argues that while the ‘ASEAN way’ is indeed changing, this change, at least for the moment, focuses mainly on extending the range of issues and contexts traditionally defined as internal affairs in which other ASEAN governments may now legitimately become involved. Considerations about ASEAN cohesion, regime security and regional influence do not suggest an imminent or complete abandonment of ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture. The likelihood that enhanced interaction will continue to be pursued by ASEAN leaderships should therefore not be seen to imply that principles such as quiet diplomacy or restraint have already become obsolete.     

Strategies of Influence: How Interest Organizations React to Changes in Parliamentary Influence and Activity1

Research has shown that interest organizations seeking influence on public decision making pay increasing attention to parliamentary actors. No distinction has, however, been made between attempts to affect law-making directly and attempts to gain influence on other parliamentary activities such as agenda setting and control of bureaucracy. Drawing on data about organizational approaches to the Danish parliament, this article demonstrates that interest organizations’ influence strategies in relation to different parliamentary activities show dissimilar patterns. Strategies in regard to law-making fluctuate with the strength of parliament vis-à-vis the government, while strategies concerned with more general parliamentary activities depend more on the level of these activities and secondarily on increases in parliamentary resources. The analysis thus confirms that organizations react to changes in the political role of parliament, but takes the understanding of this a step further by emphasizing that changes in direct parliamentary influence on law-making and in more general parliamentary activities affect different aspects of organizations’ influence strategies.     

Beyond committees: parliamentary oversight of coalition government in Britain

Abstract

A legislature’s ability to engage in oversight of the executive is believed to derive largely from its committee system. For example, powerful parliamentary committees are considered a necessary condition for the legislature to help police policy compromises between parties in multiparty government. But can other parliamentary instruments perform this role? This article suggests parliamentary questions as an alternative parliamentary vehicle for coalition parties to monitor their partners. Questions force ministers to reveal information concerning their legislative and extra-legislative activities, providing coalition members unique insights into their partners’ behaviour. In order to test our argument, we build and analyse a new dataset of parliamentary questions in the British House of Commons covering the 2010?2015 coalition. As expected, government MPs ask more questions as the divisiveness of a policy area increases. Legislatures conventionally considered weak due to the lack of strong committees may nevertheless play an important oversight role through other parliamentary devices, including helping to police the implementation of coalition agreements.     

The Limits of Regulation: Indirect Party Access to State Resources in Australia and the United Kingdom

The way in which political parties use state resources indirectly (e.g., parliamentary expenses) receives substantial attention in public debate, particularly when surrounded by perceptions of misuse. However, scholarly studies of resources indirectly available to parties through their functions in the state, how they are used and regulated, are rare. This article presents an analytical framework that identifies and categorizes the range of indirect resources linked to parties' institutional roles. It locates these resources within a four‐fold matrix of regulation, distinguishing regimes that vary in their detail and whether compliance is externally monitored. Undertaking comparative case studies of parliamentary resource use in the United Kingdom and Australia, we argue that the blurring of party‐political and parliamentary roles can impede the effectiveness of regulatory regimes that democracies adopt, regardless of detail and external enforcement. These findings have important implications for regulatory reforms that seek to constrain parties' behavior to depoliticize democratic governance.     

Orientalism and Intelligence Analysis: Deconstructing Anglo-American Notions of the ‘Arab’

Despite revived notions of a ‘cultural divide’ between East and West, Edward's Said's ‘Orientalism’ has received little attention from scholars of intelligence and diplomacy. This article brings to light for the first time a number of recently declassified documents of a different nature to usual assessments produced by Anglo-American analytic bodies: those focussed primarily on the issue of ‘national character’. Using and critiquing Said's thesis of Western ‘Orientalism’ it reveals some critical and enduring conceptualizations articulated by the diplomatic and intelligence community about Arab culture such as the role of Islam, rhetoric, political motivation and notions of ‘honour’. Such a critical approach demonstrates how diplomatic and intelligence history can also be a history of culture, ideas and institutional mentalité.     

The Final Frontier: China,Taiwan, and the United States in Strategic Competition for Central America

China’s rise as a global power corresponded with a diminution of Taiwanese diplomacy, which has left Central America as the last region to host a continuous bloc of countries that recognize the ROC. In this article, we argue that China’s success in gaining diplomatic recognition from Taiwan’s former allies has largely resulted from China's economic policy, specifically its promises of large-scale infrastructure projects and the integration of Central American economies with Chinese markets. However, there are limits to how far China has advanced in gaining full recognition from the region. The competing political and economic interests of China, Taiwan, the United States, and the Central American countries themselves, continue to influence patterns of diplomatic switching. More specifically, we argue that the threat of punitive measures from the United States combined with a turn in Taiwanese diplomacy toward assistance efforts to combat Covid-19 may deter future switching in the short to medium-term. Our analysis offers case studies of four Central American countries (Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua) to illustrate the multi-year processes by which China’s economic strategy leads to diplomatic switching and examine the paths ahead for the remaining holdouts facing the prospect of economic and political penalties by the United States.

     

Communicative Diplomacy for the 3rd Millennium

Abstract

In today's world of revolution in communications and information as well as of global interdependency, a medialised politics became a general reality. One can observe such a trend specifically in the field of international and foreign affairs where state and other actors use communication channels and public relations to a large extent to improve on the content and in particular, on the image of their policies. Here one can also argue that a major share of bilateral and multilateral relations among states is shaped by the international media, or vice versa, that all major “wars” are “fought” through the media.

This article explores the increasing inter-relation between state foreign affairs on one side, and media and public relations, on the other. The article starts off with basic concepts of a “new/democratic diplomacy” (Nicholson, 1988) and a “public diplomacy” (Signitzer in Combs, 1992), and compares them with definitions of “international public relations” (Kunczik, 1997). It attempts to build the general analytical framework on the basis of comparative case studies of developed countries with an established diplomatic tradition and of new democracies still proving themselves on the international fora. In this context, particular attention is given to communication in relation to international organisations like NATO and the EU.