State and business in Taiwan’s economic diplomacy under the Lee Teng-hui administration and the implications for current cross-strait relations

This study suggests that a modified theory of new classical economics is useful in assessing Taiwan’s economic diplomacy during both the Lee Teng-hui and current administrations by means of a holistic perspective (levels of analysis). ‘Business‘ is the independent variable in the analysis. The theory of new classical economics implies that the utilities of Taiwanese investment are more effective than the contradictory political objectives of the Taipei government. The impact of business on the result of economic diplomacy is the unintentional easing of tensions across the Taiwan Strait while Taiwanese businesses have pursued profits. Collectively, businesses have strengthened the security of the Taiwanese state, while the Taiwanese government has pursued inconsistent policies (other variables) since President Lee took office. The holistic perspective is heuristic for understanding and explaining Taiwan’s economic diplomacy during the Lee Teng-hui administration. This approach produces the recommendation that the government provide disinterested and effective judicial systems and conclude investment guarantees, double taxation and free trade agreements to help Taiwanese businesspeople. In a wider context, Taiwan’s economic diplomacy aims not only to serve the interests of the government or state but also to further the interests of the Taiwanese state as a whole, including all residents of Taiwan.     

Conflicting Identities: French Economic Diplomacy between the State and Companies in the Twentieth Century

The question of diplomatic identity has rarely seen study from a specifically historical perspective rooted in the long term. This analysis explores the role and self-perceptions of an unknown and, yet, central actor in the French economic diplomacy: the commercial counsellor. It offers new and stimulating ideas on the entangled links between State and the business sphere in France. The fundamental ambivalence of the commercial counsellor’s identity illuminates the atypical nature of French commercial diplomacy from 1918 to the 2000s. Through assimilation into the Ministry of Economy and in a Janus-like role facing both the Quai d’Orsay and French companies, French commercial counsellors have had to endure a complicated situation whilst remaining the Cinderella of the diplomatic sphere. Deploying an historical analysis to enrich the contemporary debate on the state of diplomacy, this study explores the impact of interventions by non-state actors at the heart of the diplomatic machinery. Far from being an innovation of the 1990s, this intervention was a recurring theme throughout the twentieth century, and its examination sheds new light on the persistence of the neo-corporatist practice of commercial diplomacy in France.     

China''s Military Diplomacy

Since the end of the Cold War, China＇s military diplomacy has displayed an omni-directional and multi-level form, and with an increasing transparency which has increased trust and reduced doubt. China has enhanced its conventional military functions and strengthened its military soft power. This has helped China develop into a responsible state on the world stage. Through military exchanges with other countries, the Chinese military has gradually strengthened its ability to undertake a variety of tasks. The Chinese military has to make greater efforts to counter the perception of a ＂China threat.＂ There is also a need to establish a system of military spokesmen and to develop a theory of military diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.     

经济外交与中国—东盟区域合作:内涵、实践与效用

经济外交是中国—东盟自由贸易区建成后中国与东盟共同获取"正和"经济利益、化解地区内矛盾的一种新途径。本文从中国对东盟经济外交的实践着手,分析其对提升区域合作层次、构建中国和谐周边的作用,并探索性地指出中国在对东盟实施经济外交过程中几个值得关注的问题。     

国际安全视域下的网络文化与网络空间软实力

网络文化不是纯粹的文化问题和文化现象,而是与安全具有广泛的内在联系。在网络空间本身已经全球化的时代,有必要从国际安全的视角审视网络文化。理想的网络文化是一个能够维系自身运转、净化和完善的体系,具有三个与安全相关的功能:传递功能(以信息技术实力确保信息文化流动的顺畅和安全)、纠正功能(纠正错误信息和越轨行为)和塑造功能(塑造观念、行为方式和组织方式)。这三个功能分别对应三种类型的国家软实力:第一,以信息传播和文化内容为基础的网络空间软实力,主要是指信息传播实力和网络文化产品的吸引力。第二,以外交劝说和外交质量为基础的网络空间软实力,即运用传统外交和公共外交等方式纠正有危害性的信息和越轨行为的能力。第三,以国家利益和国际道义为基础的网络空间软实力,指建构国家文化、国家形象和国际声誉的能力。网络空间软实力是数字化时代国家综合国力的重要组成部分,也将成为未来国力竞争的焦点领域。     

胁迫式外交:战略竞争时代美国对外战略的转型

以特朗普政府2017年《国家安全战略报告》和2018年《国防战略报告》为标志,世界进入美国启动的战略竞争新时期,地缘政治争夺和大国竞争再度成为世界政治的突出主题。美国重振和维护世界主导地位的目标未变,但"胁迫式外交"成为特朗普政府推行对外战略的常态,美国对外行为出现了冷战结束以来最为显著的变化,表现为重新激活战略军事威慑以压制战略军事竞争对手、以贸易热战和科技冷战方式打压战略经济竞争对手、以政治勒索方式逼盟友承担义务、以极限施压方式压制地区敌对国家、以退群和搅局方式阻挠多边外交。美国推行胁迫式外交与特朗普个人的执政风格相关,但根本性的原因是国际政治权力结构的重大变化和战略竞争时代的来临,推动美国对外权力输出发生了转型性变化。这也意味着美国对外权力输出方式正在发生从软实力向硬实力、从依赖制度优势向依赖实力优势的巨大偏转。美国所谓国际"领导力"正加速蜕变为维护美国特权的"胁迫力",美国权力输出的这种变化可能代表着未来美国外交发展的一种长期趋势。     

Entering Through the Sport’s Door? Kosovo’s Sport Diplomatic Endeavours Towards International Recognition

ABSTRACT

In December 2014, the International Olympic Committee [IOC] granted full membership to Kosovo. For the young state, which had declared its independence only in 2008, this decision meant that it could take part in the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This analysis illustrates the significance of Kosovo’s full IOC membership. Arguing that IOC membership can be identified as both the “end” and “beginning” of Kosovo’s diplomatic endeavour towards international recognition, the role of sport within this process is illuminated. It mirrors the strategic value of representative sport for a nation-building process as well as its particular significance for public diplomacy in Kosovo. Kosovar political elites shifted their focus towards sport because “traditional” diplomatic efforts, despite being successful to a certain extent, could not break the seemingly cemented status quo considering its United Nations [UN] status. Inclusion in the “Olympic family” represents more than just a symbolic victory for Kosovar diplomacy. The Kosovar nation-building and -branding process, emblematised through the “soft power” of representative sport, could be increasingly used to create symbolic pressure on states that have not yet recognised Kosovo; its ultimate diplomatic goal remains to enter the UN, even if it has to be through “sport’s door.”     

Forms of state and European energy security: diplomacy and pipelines in Southeastern Europe

Focusing on natural gas and pipeline infrastructures, and adopting the concept of “forms of state”, the article examines the transformation of energy security politics in Europe. Three state models, with their related pattern of energy diplomacy, are sketched: the partner state, which describes the original politics of the European gas market; and the provider state and catalytic state, which describe two alternative possibilities of the emerging politics in the new institutional and ideational context promoted with the establishment of the internal energy market and the development of the EU’s external energy policy. By analysing the politics of pipeline in Southeastern Europe, the article argues that the catalytic state model with its related pattern of network energy diplomacy is more appropriate than the provider state model, supported by the market approach and its related pattern of multilateral diplomacy, to conceptualise the equilibrium emerging from the transformation of the previous system.     

中国网络外交的现状与对策研究

在当今信息时代,网络外交可以为软权力的实现提供技术信息支撑、文化价值观和身份认同支持以及外交信誉基础,是实现软权力的有力助推剂。然而,中国网络外交尚处于起步阶段,面临诸多问题。为有效应对挑战,中国要加强网络技术研究和信息资源的收集整理发布工作,积极推进民族文化网络化、产业化、现代化和世界化的步伐,强化国家核心价值体系和主流意识形态在网络的主导地位,同时还要通过加强与国外网络媒体的对话、改变国内网络管理思路与体制等方式来推动网络外交的发展。     

If Not Soft Balancing,Then What? Reconsidering Soft Balancing and U.S. Policy Toward China

Some scholars argue that soft balancing is a typical state behavior against the hegemon under unipolarity. Others contend that soft balancing against the hegemon is ineffective. We challenge both arguments and suggest that soft balancing is not only a product of specific configurations of the power distribution in the system, unipolarity, but also a rational behavior under another condition, economic dependence. We argue that the interplay between power disparity and economic dependence shapes a state's decision in choosing different balancing strategies. The higher the power disparity and economic dependence, the more likely a state chooses soft balancing to pursue its security. Using U.S. policy toward China after the Cold War as a crucial test, we suggest that the huge power gap and increasing economic interdependence between the United States and China shape U.S. soft balancing rather than hard balancing toward China. We conclude that future U.S.-China relations depend on whether the United States declines as a result of China's rise and on the degree of economic interdependence between the two countries.     

Rethinking Diplomatic and Development Outcomes through Sport: Toward a Participatory Paradigm of Multi-Stakeholder Diplomacy

Abstract

Sport diplomacy provides a challenging example of how diplomatic practice is changing in light of a proliferation of actors, agendas, and modes of communication. This context has inspired greater interest in techniques for managing the participation of others in the pursuit of desired outcomes, such as debates surrounding multi-stakeholder diplomacy, public diplomacy, and soft power. However, these debates often derive from an instrumentalist perspective of exerting influence and securing outcomes. Sport, on the other hand, involves sites and practices capable of supporting communities in the identification of their own goals, and of supporting the development of strategies and skills that can achieve those goals. Its participatory qualities challenge instrumentalist approaches to diplomatic objective setting, and potentially reveal some of the ways in which diplomacy can be more diffuse and inclusive. This article uses the example of sport diplomacy to question the basis for instrumentalist diplomatic objective setting and to explore the theoretical basis for participatory models of multi-stakeholder diplomacy.     

Mending the “Unhinged Alliance” in the 1970S: Transatlantic Relations, Public Diplomacy, and the Origins of the European Union Visitors Program

This article examines in depth the foundation of the EU's one explicit example of public diplomacy, the European Union Visitors Programme. The narrative covers the historical background to the EUVP, the main individuals involved, and its significance for the development of the EU as an international actor. Public diplomacy relies on personal contacts, and the intention here is to demonstrate the importance of this petit histoire. The contribution of the EUVP towards establishing a transatlantic “community of values,” as demonstrated by the support it received from the U.S. diplomatic representation in Brussels, is an important extra dimension. The article concludes that the EUVP, while offering a potential model for the EU to project its “soft power” and world-view internationally, remains limited in scope and unable to fulfill its potential.     

The Political Enforcement of Liberalism: Bargaining, Institutions, and Auto Multinationals in Hungary

The demise of communism triggered large flows of foreign direct investment into Eastern Europe. This article examines the impact of recent changes in the international environment—the transformation of world production systems and the rise of neoliberalism—on bargaining between multinational corporations and post-communist governments. It focuses on the Hungarian automobile industry, one of the region's largest recipients of FDI. The Hungarian case illustrates the ability of small, open, and geopolitically weak states to parlay shifts in the global environment into a bargaining asset. The ascent of lean production heightened pressure on auto MNCs to develop local supplier systems capable of fast delivery of components to East European subsidiaries. The pull of backward integration was particularly strong for Japanese producers, whose non-European status enabled Hungarian state authorities to secure commitments to raising domestic content. Transplanting Japanese-style production in Eastern Europe proved less vexing for European MNCs, whose status as EU-based companies freed them of local-content requirements and whose preexisting supplier networks obviated heavy investments in the Hungarian components industry. But while Western auto producers enjoyed highly favorable terms of entry into Eastern Europe, even they could not elude the paradoxical effects of global changes on MNC/host state relations. The very eastward extension of the European Union's nondiscriminatory rules that facilitated EU-based firms' entry into Hungary also permitted host state authorities to parry efforts by MNCs to obtain particularistic concessions after entry. The Hungarian case thus demonstrates that MNC/host state bargaining in the post–Cold War period hinges more on the global positions of multinationals than on the structural vulnerabilities of capital-importing states ( per dependency theory) or the internal capacity of host states ( per statist theories).     

When and How Parliaments Influence Foreign Policy: The Case of Turkey's Iraq Decision

Turkey's decision on its role in the Iraq war in 2003 illustrates the power—and limits—of parliaments as actors in foreign policy. Traditionally, assemblies are not seen as important players in the foreign policies of parliamentary democracies. Instead, cabinets are generally considered the chief policymaking authorities. If the government enjoys a parliamentary majority, legislatures typically support the cabinet, if they are brought into the process at all. The March 1, 2003 vote by the Turkish parliament to not allow the United States to use Turkey as a base for the Iraq invasion challenges this conventional wisdom on parliamentary influence (in addition to many interest-based explanations of foreign policy). This paper examines this decision in the context of the role of parliaments in foreign policies and explores the relationships between parliamentary influence, leadership, intraparty politics, and public opinion.     

Soft Power in a Hard Place: China, Taiwan, Cross-Strait Relations and U.S. Policy

Soft power, like so much else in relations between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, is asymmetrical and freighted with implications for U.S. policy and U.S.-China relations. For China, soft power largely serves—or strives—to reduce alarm (or at least reaction) among other states concerned about China's new-found hard power or, perhaps more realistically, the hard power that China's economic rise can underwrite. Much of the value for Beijing of soft power is—and is likely to remain for quite some time—its potential contribution to reducing the likelihood that other states will react to China's rising hard power in ways that could threaten China's interests.     

日本对非洲外交及其发展趋向

基于"政治大国"目标的总体考虑,日本对非洲外交逐步由注重经济利益转向全面介入,日本主要战略目标在于拓展经济权益、提升政治大国地位、增进软实力.为此,日本长期向非洲国家提供大量经济援助,积极创制关乎非洲和平与发展的多边合作机制,并适时推销日本发展模式和价值观念.未来日非关系在一定程度上会继续向前发展,日本对非洲外交的政治色彩还会有所增强,但重视程度仍将是有限的.     

Public Diplomacy and the International Paralympic Committee: Reconciling the Roles of Disability Advocate and Sports Regulator

Abstract

Whilst the link between international diplomacy and the Olympic movement has been the subject of extensive academic and journalistic enquiry, the experience of diplomatic discourse relating to the relatively youthful Paralympic movement has received little attention. It occurs not just in the context of state diplomacy, where for example the Paralympic Games may provide a conduit for the pursuit of specific policy objectives, but also in relation to the engagement of the International Paralympic Committee [IPC] as an evolving non-state actor in the diplomatic process. The idea of the IPC as an advocacy body engaged through public diplomacy in promoting disability rights needs exploration as an element of the contemporary politics of disability. This analysis considers the relationship between the activities of the IPC and wider lobbying by disabled people’s organisations as a means of leveraging change in domestic and international policy toward disability. In relation to the global development agenda, it also assesses IPC responses to the gulf in resourcing for para-sport as well as related health and education provision between high- and low-resource regions. It considers the response of the organisation from the perspective of public diplomacy and locates that response within the wider diplomacy of development.     

We will not Swallow This Bitter Fruit: Theorizing a Diplomacy of Anger

What does it mean to say a state is angry? To answer this question, this paper theorizes a diplomacy of anger. Specifically, the diplomacy of anger involves a vehement and overt state-level display of anger in response to a perceived violation. Although the diplomacy of anger threatens precipitous escalation in the face of further violations, it can be ameliorated by conciliatory gestures and will subside over time absent new provocations. What is more, the diplomacy of anger can also exercise a reciprocal influence on the emotional dispositions of those that practice it. The diplomacy of anger thereby contributes to constructing particular issues as sensitive and volatile, and thus outside the realm of standard bargaining interactions. To examine the analytical purchase of this approach vis-à-vis standard accounts of coercive diplomacy, this paper looks in-depth at the 1995–96 Taiwan Straits crisis.     

Bringing the Company Back In: A Firm-Level Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment

The industry standard for studying multinational corporations (MNCs) has been to evaluate patterns in aggregate country-level measures of foreign direct investment (FDI). Though certainly related, these data are at best a proxy for the actual commercial and productive activities of multinationals that most political scientists purport to be interested in. Simply put, this is a very indirect way of testing theories about the sociopolitical and economic factors that motivate MNCs’ choice of host countries. This article introduces a new firm-level data set designed to get around this problem by permitting more direct analysis of multinationals’ foreign operations. It then revisits the relationship between regime type and direct investment, finding evidence that MNCs are more likely to establish new subsidiaries in democracies than in nondemocracies. However, further analysis reveals that the strength of this relationship varies by context. Specifically, MNCs rely on regime type as an indicator of political risk when they lack an existing relationship with the host state. In addition, those operating in extractive industries are generally less responsive to political institutions than those operating in manufacturing or services. These results suggest that firm- and sector-specific factors deserve greater consideration than they have been given in the existing literature.     

试论中国对东南亚的公共外交

随着全球化和信息化的迅速发展,作为传统外交的补充形式,公共外交在塑造国家形象、建立国家间互信方面扮演了重要角色。本文从介绍公共外交理论开始,探讨中国对东南亚国家公共外交的实践,并就中国对东南亚的公共外交提出建议。