Constitutionalism as a solution to despotism and imperialism: the Iranian Constitutional Revolution in the Ottoman-Turkish press

This article contributes to the growing scholarship on the connections between the Ottoman and Iranian revolutions by exploring Ottomans’ reactions to and portrayal of the constitutional struggle in Iran. Based on an examination of primary sources that have not been utilized before, it reveals how an ideologically diverse group of intellectuals tried to link the two revolutions together in the Ottoman-Turkish press, focusing on shared problems and ideals. It demonstrates that undergoing a revolutionary process themselves, these intellectuals interpreted the events in Iran through the prism of their own experiences and used them to garner support for the constitutional regime at home. Through their depictions of the Iranian revolution, they not only portrayed the 1908 Revolution as part of a broader struggle against despotism and imperialism with significant implications for the Islamic world, but also conveyed the message that the Ottoman constitution needed to be supported and protected so that it did not fail like the one in Iran.     

Inter-parliamentary relations in the United Kingdom: devolution’s undiscovered country?

Since 1997, the United Kingdom’s territorial constitution has undergone an immense process of change and has resulted in the establishment of separate legislatures and governments for the peoples of Scotland, Wales and, when Stormont is operational, Northern Ireland. These changes have spawned a whole series of relationships between the institutions of the devolved UK, at executive, legislature and civil service levels. However, while intergovernmental relations has been the subject of repeated debate, there has been little attempt to document and examine the way in which the UK’s four legislatures interact with one another, post-devolution. To the extent that these interactions, otherwise known as inter-parliamentary relations (IPR), have been the subject of scrutiny, it has been largely to bemoan their modest state and/or to suggest that stronger, albeit occasionally rather unelaborated, mechanisms be established. This article seeks to correct this deficit and provide a first step towards a clearer understanding of IPR in the UK, post-devolution. The article breaks the different levels of IPR down into three main strands: (1) parliament-parliament, (2) committee-committee and (3) official-official, and suggests that the main interactions that take place at each of these levels. Following this audit, the article concludes by highlighting the role that shared policy competence (a field that is set to grow with the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union) has played in driving IPR in the UK, post-devolution, and suggests some steps that may be taken to enhance IPR in the future.     

Conceptualising and tracing the increased territorialisation of politics: insights from Argentina

The territorialisation of politics is a crucial transformation in state–society relations that has implications on how contemporary politics works. Defined here as the dispute for the physical control of space, be it a municipality, province or portion of land, within one or more politically constituted entities. It does not mean the emergence of a new regime type, but the process through which the territory re-emerges as a new cleavage after neoliberal reforms and authoritarian regimes have weakened/dissolved neo-corporatist arrangements for the resolution of socio-political conflicts in society. It is a cleavage because central political divisions are produced as a result of the physical encounter of or distance between political actors and of the dispute for the control of a territory for sociopolitical goals and causes that are not always territorially defined. Departing from this definition, I also raise potential explanatory hypotheses for the transformations that favoured this transformation in Argentina.     

防范化解政治领域重大风险探析

政治安全是国家安全的根本。维护国家政治安全,是新时代进行伟大斗争的必然要求,是实现中华民族伟大复兴中国梦的重要保障。当前,我国政治安全形势总体保持稳定、向好的基本态势,但同时面临的风险与挑战也是前所未有的,影响政治安全的不利因素日趋复杂。必须坚持底线思维,增强忧患意识,认真贯彻落实总体国家安全观,加强有针对性的防范打击,坚决消除一切影响国家政治安全的隐患,确保党的执政安全和中国特色社会主义制度安全。     

The Taliban: a new proxy for Iran in Afghanistan?

Abstract

Iran has pursued a highly contradictory policy towards Afghanistan. On the one hand, it became a significant beneficiary of the overthrow of the Taliban regime by the US-led military intervention in 2001 in Afghanistan. The new Afghan government established cordial ties with Iran, allowing it to expand its political, economic and cultural influence in the country. Yet Iran has also provided significant support to the Taliban in its campaign to violently upend the political, social and economic processes in the country. This article examines the underlying domestic and regional security dynamics that contribute to this contradictory behaviour. It offers an assessment of how tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic, as well as Tehran’s growing threat perception following the rise of the Islamic State – Khorasan in 2014, impact on Iran’s policy towards the Taliban. The paper argues that Tehran views the Taliban as an instrument to disrupt the influence of other actors in Afghanistan. The instrumentalisation of the Taliban, however, is likely to be counterproductive for Iranian security in the long run as it contributes to Afghanistan’s instability and insecurity and undermines Iran’s own long-term interests.     

The Error in “Error Rate”: Why Error Rates Are So Needed,Yet So Elusive

Establishing error rates is crucial for knowing how well one is performing, determining whether improvement is needed, measuring whether interventions are effective, as well as for providing transparency. However, the flurry of activities in establishing error rates for the forensic sciences has largely overlooked some fundamental issues that make error rates a problematic construct and limit the ability to obtain a meaningful error rate. These include knowing the ground truth, establishing appropriate databases, determining what counts as an error, characterizing what is an acceptable error rate, ecological validity, and transparency within the adversarial legal system. Without addressing these practical and theoretical challenges, the very notion of a meaningful error rate is limited.     

战略、安全与国防财政治理

国家财政治理能有效推动国家经济建设与国防能力建设的协调发展。当前,我国外部环境正面临着复杂变化,要想改变“修昔底德陷阱”等固有观念,需要通过国防财政治理来提升财政在国防建设规划中的职能定位,持续强化财政战略规划统筹经济和国防的能力,及时消除潜在威胁,稳定地缘政治安全。国家战略、安全与国防财政治理天然地具有统一性,国防财政治理的效能越高,国家规划战略应对潜在安全威胁的选择性就越多,就越能巩固国家经济发展取得的成就。     

比利时养老模式对我国养老体系建设的启示

比利时作为典型的欧洲发达国家,在养老体系和长期照护制度建设上积累了较为成功的经验。本研究归纳和分析比利时养老模式、相关养老法规政策、养老经费筹集以及服务提供方的资质等,意在为进一步完善我国的养老体系提供参考。当前,比利时形成了居家养老、短期照护、老年公寓、养老院、老年护理院和老年病房等6种养老模式,并具有完善的法规和政策来指导照护床位数设置、养老经费使用、社会保险缴纳以及服务提供者的资质确定。借鉴比利时经验,研究认为,我国可以加强养老保障制度顶层设计,促进多元养老模式和谐发展,并发挥社会组织力量,培养老年健康专业人才,以不断完善我国的养老体系。     

有效治理的双重实践逻辑——浙江T市“最多跑一次”改革分析

地方政府发起的治理实践在行动方向上有两种倾向：强推动与弱推动；在行动结果层面，又存在两种面向：无效与有效；在行动过程中为确保有效治理，常常需要整合正式制度与非正式制度的各自优势。浙江“最多跑一次”改革中综合运用规划政治、干部考核、小组机制、情感治理、一把手负责等策略，党政体系、正式制度与非正式制度、正式权力与非正式权力被整合调动，有效治理呈现出别具特色的双重实践逻辑。有效治理的双重实践逻辑，确保了政府行动的合法性，同时为制度自信与治理现代化提供基础性保障。     

总体国家安全观视域下的算法安全与治理

随着算法的不断演化及其在计算、通信、仿真、数据分析、信息管理、信号处理及指挥控制等领域的不断优化,有关算法所引发的一系列安全问题也开始引起人们的关注。算法安全源自于人工智能相关技术在社会生活各个领域的深度嵌入所带来的安全问题,从国家安全视角来看,算法安全具有逻辑操纵的政治性、行为影响的颠覆性、场域渗透的隐蔽性等显著特点,并且会深度影响国家安全的各个维度。具体而言,算法安全对国家安全的挑战表现在深刻改变国家间权力结构对比、导致隐性算法依赖和逆向算法攻击等方面。近年来,随着算法安全风险逐渐显现,加强算法安全治理已经成为国际社会的共识。在结合算法安全的特点和世界各国有关算法安全的应对举措的基础上,我国可以通过提高算法风险意识、培养算法专业人才、完善算法监督体系等方式来进行有关算法安全的秩序重构,以强化人工智能时代的国家安全治理。