Strategic considerations in the US–China relationship and the role of European soft power

This paper analyses strategic considerations within the conceptual, the policy and the systemic dimension of US–Sino relations. Furthermore, the role of the EU’s soft power in the context of US–China relations will be assessed. It will be argued that current US–China relations are mainly a function of the current US foreign policy towards China, which doesn’t take into account that an engagement policy towards China needs to be paralleled by an engagement policy towards the East Asian region. A functional equivalent of the EU’s soft power and its approach of bilateral and multilateral engagement of East Asian actors is a missing element in US–China relations. The thinking on China affairs in the USA can be broadly structured into two different schools of thought. On the one side there are those who favour an engagement policy vis-à-vis China. The engagement school argues that bilateral and multilateral cooperation with China needs to be intensified. Traditionally members of this school are found in the Department of State and the Bureau of the US Trade Representative. On the other side there are those who think of China as a threat that needs to be contained. The politicians and experts that belong to the threat school (e.g. in the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute) emphasize their fears of China’s future role on the regional and global level. Though China has supported the US’s “war on terrorism” after the attacks of 9/11, Beijing’s increasing military budget, its neglect of non-proliferation agreements (e.g. in its relations with Pakistan) and its behaviour within the Six-Party Talks are taken as examples of the China threat. Security policies do not solely determine the relationship between the USA and China. The US China policy is a function of both the US’s economic and security interests. This explains why Washington follows a dual policy of simultaneous engagement and containment, i.e. a policy of hedged engagement. But the current state of affair of the Sino–US relationship does not reflect the rise of China as a de facto hegemon of an East Asian community. It is the inherent danger of the current US China policy that the missing regional component in US–China relations could facilitate the formation of a fortress Asia. Since Beijing holds the key to Asian regionalism, China should be the main target of European soft power in Asia by exporting the principles of regionalism and multilateralism to Asia. To what extent the EU and its model of intraregional cooperation and integration can influence the objective and trajectory of Asian regionalism will demonstrate partly the extent of Europe’s soft power in the international system.

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Kapitalismus und Gender. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit der kapitalismuskritischen Intersektionalitätsforschung

In intersectionality research capitalism is often analyzed as a social order that systematically produces social inequalities. Particularly the feminist literature describes capitalism as a set of gendered institutions that enforces patriarchal control structures. This paper does not engage in a critique of capitalism. Instead, it follows a strictly analytical perspective in order to discuss the basic structure, the culture and the institutions of modern capitalism with respect to gender equality. The paper argues that modern capitalism in general is neutral in respect of gender issues. Discriminations against women are caused by traditional gender stereotypes and concrete institutional settings that can be changed without tearing at the very fabric of modern capitalism.     

Decaying Mouse Volatiles Perceived by Calliphora vicina Rob.‐Desv.

Volatiles emitted by decaying human remains are in the focus of recent research. The identification of core volatiles in this field is of high importance, because cadaveric volatiles generally show high variation. In this study, the volatile profiles of five mice (Myodes glareolus) were sampled with charcoal filter tubes from their time of death until advanced decay. Eleven compounds were quantitated by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Electroantennographic experiments with female Calliphora vicina antennae led to the identification of dimethyl trisulfide, dimethyl disulfide, nonanal, hexan‐1‐ol, 1‐octen‐3‐ol, 3‐methylbutan‐1‐ol, and heptanal as electrophysiologically active compounds. When these were compared, dimethyl trisulfide (17 ng/μL) and dimethyl disulfide (11 ng/μL) were found to be emitted in higher concentrations. The roles of these compounds and nonanal as core volatiles for cadaver detection or postmortem time determination and their correlation to the stages of decay and the accumulated degree days are discussed.     

"Legal highs"-Toxicity in the clinical and medico-legal aspect as exemplified by suicide with bk-MBDB administration

The easily available "legal highs", which are products containing psychoactive substances, such as cathinones, piperazines and synthetic cannabinoids, are abused by adolescents in Poland and in the world as alternatives to classic drugs, such as amphetamines or marijuana. The majority of these potentially dangerous substances are still legal and they are associated with a risk of severe poisoning or even death, and provide new challenges in clinical and forensic toxicological practice. Investigations in the field of "designer drugs" may be well illustrated by the case of a suicide of a 21-year old male who ingested a specified dose of a preparation called "Amphi-bi-a" that contains bk-MBDB, chemically 2-methylamino-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl) butan-1-one, which belongs to the cathinone group, as a synthetic euphoric empathogen and psychoactive stimulant that is chemically similar to MDMA. It is one of more common components of "legal highs" examined in Poland and other countries. The documentation of the case includes a clinical assessment of the patient's health status performed during his almost 4-h hospitalization before death, autopsy and histological examinations supported by toxicological findings revealing bk-MBDB at extremely high concentrations (at 20mg/l in the blood and 33mg/kg in the liver); hence, this body of evidence contributes to knowledge in the field of "designer drugs". Inventions of designers of new psychoactive xenobiotics, which are much in demand, especially in view of the dynamic Internet marketing, which drums up narcobusiness, must be balanced by a national strategy developed by medical, legal and educational circles in the modern civilized world in order to prevent the spreading of the phenomenon.     

Marketization reforms and co-production: Does ownership of service delivery structures and customer language matter?

In public services that are tax funded, public goods are sometimes marketized by being delivered using private companies instead of public organizations. In addition, marketization reforms can entail service users being described as customers for the service rather than as citizens. We assess the effects of these aspects of marketization reforms on users' willingness to co-produce public services. First, service delivery using private companies risks reducing users' willingness to co-produce because firms cannot commit ex ante to not appropriate donated labour for private gain. Second, using customer-oriented language risks reductions by priming individualistic market norms that lower prosocial motivation compared to citizen-oriented language priming citizenship duty. Using three survey experiments in the United States, we find that delivery structures are not neutral. Private firms delivering local public services reduce users' willingness to co-produce, although similar effects are not evident from primimg customer rather than citizenship thinking.     

Ganging up on Trump? Sino-German Relations and the Problem with Soft Balancing against the USA

Journal of Chinese Political Science - Soft balancing has recently been framed as a general foreign policy strategy that is basically open to any state. However, what coalitions can actually engage...     

Transnational cooperation: a network analysis of town twinning in the Baltic Sea region

The patterns of cooperation between regions and urban spaces are no longer influenced, to the same extent, by national borders. Political integrative events changed the extent of transborder urban cooperation in the Baltic borderlands, a region that has undergone extensive changes. A social network analysis of cooperative ties in the form of town twinning indicates that the end of the Cold War strongly changed the network of town twinning in this region, whereas the effect of the various EU enlargement rounds seems to be more nuanced.     

Who Represents the Constituency? Online Political Communication by Members of Parliament in the German Mixed-Member Electoral System

Members of parliament (MPs) are elected via two different tiers in mixed-member electoral systems—as winners of a seat in a constituency or as party candidates under proportional rules. While previous research has identified important consequences of this “mandate divide” in parliaments, questions remain how this institutional setup affects MPs' political behavior in other arenas. Analyzing more than one million social media posts, this article investigates regional representation in the online communication of German MPs. The results show that MPs elected under a direct mandate refer approximately twice as often to their constituencies by using regionalized wording and geographic references than MPs elected under the proportional tier. The substantive findings provide new evidence for the benefits of mixed-member electoral systems for political representation while the methodological approach demonstrates the added value of social media data for analyzing the political behavior of elites.