The North Korean abduction issue: emotions,securitisation and the reconstruction of Japanese identity from ‘aggressor’ to ‘victim’ and from ‘pacifist’ to ‘normal’

Abstract

After Kim Jong-il's confession in 2002 that North Korean agents had abducted thirteen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea has become the most detested country in Japan, and the normalisation of bilateral relations has been put on the back burner. The abduction issue has taken precedence in Japan even over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. It has also grossly overshadowed the atrocities for which Imperial Japan was responsible in the 20th century. Why has there been such strong emphasis on an issue that could be disregarded as comparatively ‘less important’? This article understands the ascendency of the abduction issue as the epitome of an identity shift under way in Japan – from the identity of a curiously ‘peaceful’ and inherently ‘abnormal’ state, to that of a more ‘normal’ one. The differentiation of North Korea as ‘abnormal’ emphasises Japan's own (claim to) ‘normality’. Indeed, by incarnating the perils of Japan's own ‘pacifist’ ‘abnormality’, which has been so central to the collective sense of Japanese ‘Self’ in the post-war period, the abduction issue has become a very emotional argument for Japan's ‘normalisation’ in security and defence terms. The transformation from ‘abnormal’ to ‘normal’ is further enabled by Japan trading places with North Korea in the discourse, so that Japan is defined as ‘victim’ (rather than former aggressor) and North Korea as ‘aggressor’ (rather than former victim). What is at stake here is the question whether Japan is ‘normalising’ or ‘remilitarising’, and the role of the abduction issue discourse in enabling such foreign and security policy change.     

Japan’s approach toward Asian regional security: from ‘hub-and-spoke’ bilateralism to ‘multi-tiered’

This article argues that Japan’s growing activism in promoting multilateral regional security arrangements since the early 1990s stems from the country’s adoption of the ‘multi-tiered approach’; a new policy perspective that packages different types of coordination among region states, including bilateral, multilateral, and minilateral or subregional, in a layered, hierarchical manner. The significance of the approach explains why Japan has retained its enthusiasm for promoting multilateral arrangements, despite continuous criticism of their effectiveness and significance, as well as the marked decline in Japan’s economic power to support financially the country’s activism in regional institution-building. Meanwhile, the multi-tiered approach also explains Japan’s effort to maintain and strengthen its bilateral security relationship with the United States during the last decade. Four factors – a perceived change in the regional security order, growing self-recognition of major-power status, the legacy of history, and constitutional constraints – worked essentially to lead Japanese policy-makers to settle on a multi-tiered approach as a desirable policy choice in shaping the country’s security policy in post-Cold WarAsia.     

Introduction to special issue on ‘professional insecurities’

Introduction

Introduction to special issue on professional insecurities     

‘放下便是’与‘放不下’

‘放下便是’与‘放不下’黄福群老舍先生生前创作时，曾经自己规定任务每天写两千字左右。但就这样的指标他还是不能很好地完成，有时候三天连一个字也写不出，面对着稿纸不知如何下笔。写不出东西往往使作家痛苦万分，同样，一旦文思泉涌来不及写时；也会使作家烦恼不安...     

孙亮的‘问’与‘破’

《三国志·吴志·孙亮》里记述了这样一件事: 孙亮有一次要吃生梅,让宦官到内库去取蜜浸梅。蜜取来后,孙亮发现蜜中有鼠屎,就召来管内库的官吏查问。管库的官吏一见蜜中的鼠屎,吓得体如筛糠,连连叩头,回答不出一句话来。对君主的事情如此马虎,这还了得,管库官吏限看就要大祸临头了。     

Parties under pressure: Challenges to ‘established’ French parties

This article seeks to analyse recent trends in party politics in France that point to two complementary phenomena, electoral demobilisation and volatility. Four indicators are presented that demonstrate the extent of them in contemporary France; (1) the rise of ‘new politics’ organisations, (2) the emergence of small parties and protest movements, (3) the haemorrhage of party members, and (4) the growth of electoral dissidence. Various institutional and environmental explanations are proposed. The article concludes that established parties in France today are experiencing a major challenge to their hegemony.     

What ‘Space Security’ Means to an Emerging Space Power

The term ‘security’ connotes in a comprehensive sense ‘human security’. Space, by virtue of its inherent characteristics, contributes significantly to different aspects of security – be it for food, education, water, health, environment, energy or defense. The term ‘spacepower’ is used normally with the meaning of ‘might’. However, here it is appropriate to describe it as the demonstrated ability to use the power of space for human welfare. India, in the last 40 years, has conceived, demonstrated, nurtured and put to use the tremendous power of space in various forms for the benefit of human beings, society and country. With the contribution made by space to the sustainable developmental process, there are many more emerging applications in the horizon. Hence there is a continuous need to innovate through advances in technology and applications. When such societal commitments are made with space infrastructure, the main security concern is to maintain continuity of services without any impediment and interference.     

From the ‘old’ to the ‘new’ policy design: design thinking beyond markets and collaborative governance

Policy design as a field of inquiry in policy studies has had a chequered history. After a promising beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, the field languished in the 1990s and 2000s as work in the policy sciences focused on the impact on policy outcomes of meta-changes in society and the international environment. Both globalization and governance studies of the period ignored traditional design concerns in arguing that changes at this level predetermined policy specifications and promoted the use of market and collaborative governance (network) instruments. However, more recent work re-asserting the role of governments both at the international and domestic levels has revitalized design studies. This special issue focuses on recent efforts in the policy sciences to reinvent, or more properly, ‘re-discover’ the policy design orientation in light of these developments. Articles in the issue address leading edge issues such as the nature of design thinking and expertise in a policy context, the temporal aspects of policy designs, the role of experimental designs, the question of policy mixes, the issue of design flexibility and resilience and the criteria for assessing superior designs. Evidence and case studies deal with design contexts and processes in Canada, China, Singapore, the UK, EU, Australia and elsewhere. Such detailed case studies are necessary for policy design studies to advance beyond some of the strictures placed in their way by the reification of, and over-emphasis upon, only a few of the many possible kinds of policy designs identified by the 1990s and early 2000s literature.     

Vernacular rights cultures and the ‘Right to Have Rights’

We use a case study of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil and the Via Campesina network of which they are part to develop the concept of ‘vernacular rights cultures’. Vernacular rights cultures calls attention to the way in which demands for the right to have rights call on particular cultures, histories and political contexts in a manner that can transform the rights inscribed in constitutions and political imaginaries. What Ranciere (1999) and Balibar (2002) call the democratisation of democracy, we therefore argue, does not just involve a logic of equality and inclusion through which dispossessed groups demand already existing rights. Rather, it also occurs as mobilisations alter the means through which rights are delivered and transform the content and meaning of the rights demanded.     

浅议干部‘用’‘管’脱节问题

很长一段时间以来,在不少地方出现了一种对干部重用轻管,“用”“管”脱节的怪事,严重地腐蚀了干部队伍,贻误了一些能力很强,培养潜力很大的干部的健康成长,在一定程度上阻碍了各项事业的发展。 怪事一,明知不对,也不过问。一些领导同志,对一些干部身上存在的不良现象,看在眼里,记在心中,但就是打不开情面,不敢理直气壮地开展批评,总是采取事不关己,高高挂起的态度。一是明知不对,不敢过问。因为是熟人,有的甚至关系比较密切,对待他们身上的缺点和不足,刚开始时还会很委婉地进行劝说,一旦当事人没有什么反映,就再也不敢去提醒,怕伤了和气。二是明知不对,不去过问。很多同志,自我要求“较严”,对发生在别人身上的问题,总有一种好也好,歹也好,都是别人的事,与自己没有任何关系,不去管为妙,     

新‘官’上任先‘拾柴’

新‘官’上任先‘拾柴’江西王水宝领导干部到了新的工作单位，想把工作干好，并干出政绩来，于是上任伊始便革新图治，方案措施频频出台。这种做法于情于理无可厚非。但也有些新“官”，上任伊始，情况还不熟悉，便盲目地烧起了不切实际的“三把火”，结果适得其反。前段...     

International and domestic challenges to Japan's postwar security identity: ‘norm constructivism’ and Japan's new ‘proactive pacifism’

Abstract

Japan today is widely portrayed as on the verge of a significant identity shift that could lead to dramatic new security policies. Yet, Japan's first formal national security strategy, adopted in December 2013, proclaims repeatedly Japan's long-standing ‘peace-loving’ policies and principles. Why does a conservative government with high levels of popular support not pursue policies more in line with views widely reported to be central to its values and outlook? The answer lies in Japan's long-standing security identity of domestic antimilitarism, an identity under siege to a degree not seen since its creation over 50 years ago, but – as evidenced in Japan's new national strategy document – one that continues to shape both the framing of Japan's national security debates and the institutions of Japan's postwar security policy-making process. Relational approaches to identity construction illuminate challenges to Japan's dominant security identity, but a focus on domestic institutions and electoral politics offers the best course for modeling identity construction and predicting its future resilience.     

‘实绩’质疑

这些年,各级党委及组织人事部门在用人上都强调注重实绩,注重实绩成为社会共识。然而,就在这一片强调实绩声中,也弹出了几许不和谐的音符,这就是越来越严重的实绩个人功利化倾向和建树实绩中的走样变形问题。 一个时期以来,干部队伍中出现了像一些体育运动员单纯追求金牌一样的实绩观偏转观象,把建树实绩完全看成是一种求取功利的官场个人行为,甚至把实绩当作在个人升迁留转中向组织讨价还价的敲门砖和筹码。个别领导干部,为了达到这种个人目的,不惜杀鸡取卵,饮鸩止渴,牺牲长远利益;不惜以邻为壑,转嫁负担,损人利己,从而造成大量的短期行为、违法乱纪行为和消极腐败现象,给改革开放和经济建设以及人民群众的根本利益带来极大的破坏和损害。 一些领导干部的实绩观和建树实绩的手段,严重背离中央当初强凋“注重实绩”的初衷,这是有其多方面原因的。首先,是个别领导干部本身思想政治素质较差,革命事业心不强,为人民服务的思想树得不牢,小资产阶级个人主义的世界观没有得到彻底改造,经不住市场经济条件下各种名利权     

An introduction to Charles Bettelheim, ‘State property and socialism’

Both Weber and Baudrillard have been concerned with the influence of chance on social outcomes. Their interest in serendipity ties in with the postmodern problem of living with uncertainty and reflexively engaging with risk. However, Weber's interest as reflected in his idea of elective affinity focuses on meaning production as a vital component of non-causal connections, whereas Baudrillard's notion of fatalism is derived from a non-rational approach to the connection between cause and effect. This comparison reveals a tension between the understanding of chance in the world of interpretation and the irony of chance in the world of symbols.It poses a further question concerning the fate of reason in an unfolding contest between the sociology of postmodern and a postmodern fatal sociology.     

‘He's snooty ‘im’: exploring ‘white working class’ political disengagement

Using a small pilot qualitative study conducted in the North of England prior to the 2010 general election, we seek to understand why our respondents might feel actively disengaged from mainstream politics. It is argued that one major reason is because politicians are seen as lacking understanding of the local contexts in which these low-wage workers live. The gulf between represented and representative is widened if politicians fail to communicate in a ‘down to earth’ way. This indicates that social inequality between represented and representative is a factor in disengagement, but that such disengagement is not the result of apathy on the part of citizens. Further research is required, but our study suggests that if politicians fail to recognise their privilege and politics fails to address economic disadvantage across ethnic groups then disengagement from mainstream politics is likely to worsen.     

‘直起’‘旁起’‘逆起’——文章与逻辑漫谈(三)

整篇文章的结构可以分为提出论题、论证论题和归结论题三个基本部分,但每个部分如何构造?它与逻辑有什么关系?这需要分别加以讨论。先说提出论题部分的问题。文章之所以要有这个部分,其目的是为了使读者对文章所论述的问题或论题有一个总的认识。它的作用有两个:一是引起读者的注意和兴趣,其次是把读者的思想集中到文章所论述的问题上来。提出论题部分居于文章之首,它负有引导读者的思想进入证明之路的责任,使之能与作者一起去思考和研究所讨论的问题,走一条共同的思考之路。为此要善于引导,要有一种好的介绍方法。没有好的介绍方法就不可能把读者的思想集中到文章所讨论的问题上来。     

‘I am an American’: protesting advertised ‘Americanness’

How are citizenships and nationalisms constructed, connected, and contested in the post-9/11 USA – performatively, affectively, and visually – and how do their relationships figure ‘Americanness’? This article takes up this question (1) by tracking how Americanness was advertised in the American Ad Council's ‘I am an American’ campaign and (2) by introducing the multimedia project ‘I am an American’: Video Portraits of Unsafe US Citizens, which engages the Ad Council's campaign as a practice-based protest of the Ad Council's advertised ‘Americanness’. The article traces how the Ad Council's campaign advertises what Evelyn Alsultany calls ‘diversity patriotism’. It also constructs a complex, mobile system of differentiation that marks some citizens as ‘safe’ and others as ‘unsafe’, which runs counter to the idealized notion of a unified ‘Americanness’ that it advertises. The article then examines how the practice-based protest project ‘I am an American’ takes these ‘unsafe citizens’ – US citizens who either will not or cannot make their differences normatively conform to the national ideal of the ‘One’ composed of the ‘Many’ propagated by the Ad Council's campaign – as its point of departure to reflect upon how citizenship protests function for and against citizenship, nationalisms, and various figurations of Americanness.     

Parity in France: A ‘Dual Track’ Solution to Women's Under-Representation

As the world's first country to adopt a ‘parity’ quota, France could be considered an example of the growing phenomenon of quotas as a ‘fast track’ solution to the problem of women's under-representation. French universalism had impeded a more ‘incremental track’ to gender equality whilst placing a constitutional ban on quotas. The design of ‘parity’ as a means of overcoming these hurdles was both normative and pragmatic. Parity could be considered an example of a symbolic policy, where grand claims were made early on but the corresponding legislation only became effective over time. While the practical constraints on parity have delayed its impact, the recognition of the need to ‘legislate equality’ has had a more profound impact, leading to the creep of parity into other areas such as ethnic minority representation and parity in the workplace. This broader societal change is indicative of a ‘dual track’ to gender equality.     

Theorizing identity: beyond the ‘us’ and ‘them’ dichotomy

ABSTRACT

Yuval-Davis discusses three interconnected questions relating to identity. She first examines whether and in what ways the notion of identity should be theorized, on the one hand, and empirically researched, on the other, focusing on the opposing views of Stuart Hall and Robin Williams. She then examines the contested question of what is identity, positioning it in relation to notions of belonging and the politics of belonging, and in relation to several influential schools of thought, especially those that construct identity as a mode of narrative, as a mode of performativity or as a dialogical practice. Her third interrelated question concerns the boundaries of identity and the relationship between self and non-self. She explores both social psychological and psychoanalytical approaches to that question, and deals with questions such as reflexivity, identifications and forced identities. The last part of the article explores several types of relationships between self and non-self, such as: ‘me’ and ‘us’; ‘me/us’ and ‘them’; ‘me’ and other ‘others’; ‘me’ and the transversal ‘us/them’. Yuval-Davis's basic argument here is that dichotomous notions of identity and difference, when theorizing boundaries of individual and collective identities, are more misleading than explanatory.