Straightjacketing migrant rescuers? The code of conduct on maritime NGOs

In July 2017, Italy drafted an EU-sponsored code of conduct aimed at regulating non-governmental migrant rescuing NGOs offshore Libya. The code makes permission for NGO vessels to disembark migrants in Italian ports conditional on collaborating in the fight against smugglers and accepting the presence of law enforcement personnel on board. This article investigates the inception, content and likely consequences of the Code, arguing that most of its provisions are either redundant or counterproductive. As suggested by scholarship on civil–military cooperation and maritime rescuing, the code as it stands would only violate humanitarian principles without increasing existing rescuing capabilities.     

The evolution of European legal integration

This article contributes to the development of theories on European integration by testing and exploring statistical models on the long-term development of legislative activity of the European Commission. Drawing on legal information gained from the European Union’s PreLex database and analyzing it with the help of statistical analyses, we map out growth patterns of EU law between 1976 and 2003. We construct time-series models and models based on non-linear regression. While the performance of models based on the traditional theoretical approaches, intergovernmentalism and neo-functionalism, is rather poor, the analysis suggests that nonlinear dynamic models might be an interesting avenue for future conceptualizations of the EU integration process. This article is based on a paper presented at the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union Second Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, “Implications of a Wider Europe: Politics, Institutions and Diversity”, 24–26 June 2004, Bologna, Italy. We would like to thank the seminar participants for useful comments.     

Looking at U.S. Int‘l Status in the Perspective of Its Inner Institution

America's international status is the key factor that determines the overall international structure. This is an old as well as a new topic in the academia of international relations. The Iraq war in 2003 reveals America's strong points and weak points as well. On the one hand, U. S. military strength is unmatched in the world; on the other hand, America is incapable of doing anything in dealing with many problems. This paradox caused scholars to ponder over the issues such as how strong Am…     

Two Ways of Influence-building: The Eurasian Economic Union and the One Belt,One Road Initiative

Russia and China have been pursuing the Eurasian Economic Union and the One Belt, One Road initiative since the early 2010s, employing two distinct sets of practices in their respective influence-building endeavours. Russia is interested in creating an exclusive sphere of influence in the post-Soviet space, in order to bolster its great power status and secure regional primacy. China, in turn, is expanding its economic influence over a vast geographical area disguising economic expansion behind multilateralism. These differences make Sino–Russian competition in Central Asia less plausible.     

新中国70年国家安全观的演变:认知、内涵与应对

新中国成立以来，面对国内外安全环境的变化，中国实现了由传统安全观向总体国家安全观的演变，显著体现在安全环境研判、安全内容认知和安全维护手段三个方面。中共十八大以来，中国在安全方面频繁推出新理念、新方案和新举措，中国的安全能力不断增强，国际安全影响日益增加。在安全观方面，中国先后提出了总体国家安全观、亚洲新安全观、亚太安全观等理念，实现了安全观的变革与创新。安全环境研判方面，对国内安全的认知更加全面系统、对周边安全的认知更加统筹协调、对国际安全认知更加注重“中国作为”；安全内容认知方面，认知内容日益丰富，兼顾传统安全与非传统安全，统筹国家安全与人民安全；安全维护手段方面，不断完善国家安全体系、加强国家安全能力建设和推进国际安全合作。回顾新中国七十年国家安全观的演变，历经安全实践的锤炼，已经形成了一些基本经验，主要体现在安全环境研判需考虑内外因素并注重其联动性、坚持核心安全需求的底线和安全维护手段要以和为贵、文攻武备。展望未来，其重要启示在于中国的国家安全观要注重安全需求与安全能力之间的平衡，将安全能力建设视为至关重要的任务，不断促进安全维护手段的多样性和灵活性。     

柏拉图与大战略的历史源起

大战略是人类社会政治斗争的高级形式，无论在中国还是在西方，都可从历史深处发现某些大战略思想的源头。柏拉图是西方大战略思想史的一个重要起点，他不仅是历史上最伟大的哲学家、大战略家，也是当时地中海世界人文主义者集团的政治领袖。他用自己的知识论创立了人文主义大战略的纲要，并通过实践哲学加以检验，以证明其正确性和真理性。柏拉图最早揭示出人类的历史是理性发展的历史，理性是人和社会生存、进步乃至产生文化、文明和科学的源泉。但同时，人类的历史也是反理性的历史，理性与反理性的斗争是世界历史的主线。柏拉图所创建的“雅典学园”是青年政治领袖的培训基地，培养出了许多优秀的人文主义政治家。柏拉图去世后，马其顿国王亚历山大在“雅典学园”的指导下，按柏拉图“共和国”思想描绘的宏图远征波斯，写下了世界文明史上最光辉的一页。从战略学意义上说，柏拉图的大战略是对古代人文主义集团数百年的知识积累和结晶，是针对古代地中海世界统治集团的策略而制定的反制战略。亚历山大远征波斯，则是充分借助了统治集团的大战略而实施了人文主义大战略，从而取得了无与伦比的伟大成就。任何一项大战略，总会伴随着一项反制战略。在当今这个“大战略时代”，比以往任何时期都更需要深入研究、理解和认识大战略。     

International aid,trade and investment and access and allocation

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - The access to goods and their allocation (who gets what, when, where and how) is one of the analytical problems of the 2009...     

Negotiating normative premises in democracy promotion: Venezuela and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

ABSTRACT

This article analyses negotiations on democracy promotion by looking at the case of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It argues that Venezuela contested the concept of representative democracy during the Charter negotiations, advancing the notion of “participatory and protagonist democracy” and that, even if it was unsuccessful in its demands, the country contributed to deepening the debate on the concept of democracy, on which there is far from worldwide consensus. The article suggests that the main drivers of the negotiation process and the final agreement were domestic political changes in Venezuela, specific features of the negotiations, and the structural position of Venezuela in the field of democracy promotion in the global and regional contexts, which were, at the time, favourable to a compromising attitude to conclusion of the Charter, even if not to the concept of democracy.     

Contesting land grabs,negotiating statehood: the politics of international accountability mechanisms and land disputes in rural Cambodia

Abstract

In Cambodia, rural citizens embroiled in protracted land grabbing cases with the state and private companies are turning increasingly to international accountability mechanisms for resolution. This article applies the interlinked concepts of hybrid governance and legal pluralism to understand the prospects and limitations of ‘forum-shopping’ through appeals to international mechanisms for rural communities affected by land grabs. Drawing on interviews and using process tracing, it examines the outcomes of a mediation case filed with the International Finance Corporation’s Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) involving indigenous groups and a Vietnamese rubber company in north-east Cambodia. It argues that while international accountability mechanisms yield platforms for dispossessed groups to assert claims, they also reify choices between entitlements and attainability without circumventing the problems associated with justice delivery under Cambodia’s authoritarian regime. Overall, this study highlights the interaction, competition and collaboration between distinct forms of regulatory authority exercised by national and transnational actors involved in land grabbing cases in Cambodia, demonstrating their role in ‘negotiating statehood’ by governing local claims to land.     

The New Geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe is located between the East and the West.Big powers have traditionally competed for influence in the region and it has only enjoyed limited independence.After the Cold War,most of Central and Eastern Europe joined the EU and NATO and focused on political and economic transformations.Mostly these processes went smoothly and the region lost the world's attention.