Reconceptualizing International Intervention: Statebuilding, ‘Organic Processes’ and the Limits of Causal Knowledge

This article examines the transformation in the conceptual understanding of international intervention over the last two decades. It suggests that this conceptual shift can be usefully interrogated through its imbrication within broader epistemological shifts highlighting the limits of causal knowledge claims: heuristically framed in this article in terms of the shift from policy interventions within the problematic of causation to those concerned with the management of effects. In this shift, the means and mechanisms of international intervention have been transformed, no longer focused on the universal application of Western causal knowledge through policy interventions but rather on the effects of specific and unique local and organic processes at work in societies themselves. The focus on effects takes the conceptualization of intervention out of the traditional terminological lexicon of International Relations theory and instead recasts problems in increasingly organic ways, suggesting that artificial or hubristic attempts at socio-political intervention should be excluded or minimized.     

主权财富基金性质相关问题研究

近年来,主权财富基金一直是公众关注的焦点。中外学者对于主权财富基金的研究多从公司治理入手,鲜有学者对主权财富基金的性质属性进行论述。主权财富基金的性质关系到其发展方向以及治理模式,具有重大的现实意义。本文以主权财富基金的性质为出发点。重点阐述其“新型国家资本主义属性”与“理性经济人”属性,在此基础上指出二者存在的逻辑悖论。文章通过分析认为主权财富基金应当坚持“理性经济人属性”优先原则,采用“去主权化治理模式”,推动主权财富基金海外投资的商业化,避免附带过多的政治主权色彩。     

Problem of early elections and dissolution power in the Czech Republic

Theory of parliamentary regimes presumes that parliament can express vote of no confidence in government. On the other hand executive power (government or head of state) is endowed with right to dissolve the parliament. However, these “doomsday devices” are not in balance in many parliamentary regimes, including the Czech Republic. On the basis of a comparative analysis of dissolution provisions in the constitutions of European states the article argues that the government in the Czech Republic should be given the right to dissolve the lower chamber at least in case that the latter expresses vote of no confidence in the former.     

Islamic reformation discourses: popular sovereignty and religious secularisation in Iran

Disputes over the outcome of the June 2009 presidential election in Iran rapidly developed into a contest about the legitimacy of the Islamic state. Far from being a dispute between religious and non-religious forces, the main protagonists in the conflict represented divergent articulations of state–religion relations within an Islamic context. In contrast to the authoritarian legitimisation of an Islamic state, the Islamic reformation discourse is based on secular-democratic articulations of state–religion relations. This article focuses on the ideas of four leading Iranian religious scholars who advocate a secular-democratic conceptualisation of state authority. Disputing the religious validity of divine sovereignty, they promote the principle of popular sovereignty based on Islamic sources and methods. This reformist conceptualisation is rooted in the notion that Islam and the secular-democratic state are complementary.     

The Concept of the Supremacy of the Constitution

The article compares and assesses the idea of the supremacy of the constitution found in Germany with the competing British tradition of parliamentary sovereignty. It concludes by examining the need for a supreme constitutional law in the European Union.     

国家经济主权原则析论

经济主权作为国家主权在经济方面的重要体现,是由发展中国家在争取民族独立的进程中提出的。经济主权原则最终于20世纪70年代通过联合国的系列决议等文献在国际社会得以确立。经济主权的内涵包括狭义和广义两个层面。     

Mind the Values Gap

Minds the Values Gap, a report published by The UK in a Changing Europe, highlights the poor alignment of the values expressed within the major parties by their MPs and their activists, with those voters who support them. Voters as a whole tend to the left on economic values, and to the authoritarian on social values. Although the data imply that it is the social authoritarianism that defines both Leave voters and Labour–Conservative switchers, this response argues that issues of national identity, democracy and sovereignty are neglected in that analysis.     

Reply to my critics

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an overview of the central argument of my book, Territorial Sovereignty, and replies to four critics.     

国际组织法律人格探源

随着国际组织日益成为国际关系的重要参与者 ,国际组织的法律人格得到了国际法的承认。国家在加入国际组织时往往对部分主权作出一定的让渡 ,但国家主权与国际组织的法律人格在根本上并不冲突 ,两者是相互统一、相互促进的。     

论全球化进程中的国家主权

全球化进程给传统国家主权理论带来了全方位和深刻的冲击 ,对主权理论和实践提出了挑战 ;但全球化加速下国家主权受到挑战甚至削弱这一基本事实不能成为否定主权国家存在和发挥作用的理由 ;主动参与全球化进程 ,加强合作与交流 ,建立国际政治经济新秩序 ,采取灵活、切实可行的方式维护国家主权和利益是发展中国家在全球化进程中的理性选择。