Studying Peace in and with Central Eurasia: Starting from Local and Trans-Local Perspectives

ABSTRACT

In view of a crisis of liberal universalism peace research must reflect on how it is perceived, how peace is constructed in other places and how it can cope with diversity in ordering and peacebuilding. This Special Issue is an attempt to search starting points for peace research in and with Central Eurasia. The introductory concept clears a path through current research questions, normative problems and barriers of knowledge production. Considering ethnographic methodologies, it starts from the local everyday and takes an interest in how actors and institutions in concrete places and multiple socio-spatial configurations navigate conflict and peace.     

Peace-building Through Space-making: The Spatializing Effects of the African Union’s Peace and Security Policies

ABSTRACT

This article is discussing how the peace-building practices of the African Union have distinct ordering and space-making effects. Taking a socio-spatial perspective, it is argued that the peace and security projects through which the African Union, as a spatial entrepreneur, is addressing the scourge of ‘terrorism and violent extremism’ are geared towards (re-)establishing sovereignty that member states have lost in the past over their territories. While the African Union is favouring a spatial format that could be called ‘multiple networked regionalism’, the actual socio-spatial orders that are emerging around Africa’s transregional conflicts are far less clear cut.     

Critical Misunderstandings: Ineffective International Governance and the UK Nuclear Industry

In 2017, significant media and political interest was sparked by the UK decision to leave Euratom, the European Atomic Energy Community. While such interest in nuclear matters has to be welcomed, the apparent lack of knowledge displayed in the regulatory governance of the UK nuclear industry is disquieting. This article therefore offers an overview of the publicly funded UK nuclear industry and its regulatory governance including its links with European and global nuclear agencies to inform the debate and to identify critical issues in need of resolution.     

论恐怖主义的社会解构

作为一种极端的解构力量，恐怖主义对于国际秩序的威胁和损害不仅在于通过制造恶性事件以破坏国际社会的安全稳定，更在于借助销蚀主流价值而削弱国际秩序的观念基础。因此，国际社会有必要将评估和应对恐怖主义的社会解构纳入反恐治理的基本范畴。其中，以“伊斯兰国”组织为代表的恐怖主义力量进行社会解构的行为策略，可以分为以动摇当代领土政治、颠覆主流生命伦理和创设替代政治秩序为主要构成的重释再造，以动员恐怖袭击、滋长恐怖气氛和催生仇恨敌对为主要构成的“木马”植入，以“黑色经济”“黑色宣传”和“黑色技术”为主要构成的反向利用。目前，国际社会的反恐路径注重结合预防恐怖主义的内向防御逻辑与打击恐怖主义的外向进攻逻辑。沿着这一思路，国际社会可以综合采取加强反恐实践中的逆向战略、修正反恐叙事中的敌意话语和联通反恐治理中的不同系统等多种举措以应对恐怖主义的社会解构。     

构建中美核战略稳定性框架:非对称性战略平衡的视角

权力转移导致中美战略竞争加剧，维护中美战略稳定成为攸关中美关系发展以及世界和平与稳定的重大问题。构建中美核战略稳定性框架是实现中美战略稳定的基石。传统战略稳定理论主要基于美苏两大对称性阵营的敌对关系，对于不对称性和动态权力转移背景下的中美核战略稳定性的理论解释力和实践指导性不足。基于非对称战略平衡视角，中美核战略稳定性框架应以保证中国第二次核打击能力为基础。在机制层面，中美要加强交流、协商和谈判以建立相关机制，逐渐形成中美核战略关系的共识，推动达成稳定中美核战略关系的协议、条约等法律性承诺，从而构建稳定中美核战略关系的政治框架。在结构层面，中国无需谋求与美国对等的核力量。统筹考虑军事效用和政治效果，构筑包括核实力、核威慑决心和核威慑信息传递的完备核威慑战略，确保处于弱势的中国拥有对美国进行核反击造成美不可承受损失的能力，是实现中美核战略稳定的关键。     

民法典编纂对财产犯罪法益保护的影响

在民法之外，重新构建一个仅适用于刑法中财产犯罪法益保护的判断标准，既无必要也不现实。财产犯罪法益保护扩张的主要目的是为了入罪，不论是“利益的法益化”还是“管理的占有化”，都是以保护法益之名行扩张犯罪圈之实。犯罪圈的不当扩张，不仅会有损整体法秩序，还会弱化乃至消解法益甄别法与不法的机能。部门法之间的紧张关系在任何法律体系下都是无可避免的，民法典编纂为解决“刑民倒挂”问题以及增加法秩序统一性原理在刑民之间的衔接度提供了重要契机。为此，应重新梳理刑民之间围绕财产、占有、管理等方面的争议问题，将民法所确定的财产法益内容作为财产犯罪法益保护的基本依据，并允许刑法根据财产犯罪的特点对法益保护范围作出适当调整。这样做的目的不是通过民法给刑法套上枷锁，而是在遵循法秩序统一性原理的基础上达成应有的刑民共识。     

美国冒犯性商标注册审查标准的变化及其启示——从涉新冠疫情商标申请谈起

《美国兰哈姆法》第2条a款和我国《商标法》第10条第1款第8项在国际公约义务和惯例、立法目的、条文开放性上有相似之处,但在商标注册层面的表达自由和遵循公序良俗边界的认定上差异巨大。表达自由不应逾越遵循公序良俗的国际惯例和国内司法习惯,美国式的完全放开商标注册层面的表达自由不符合我国传统价值观下公众的合理预期。我国在适用"不良影响"条款时需要把握表达自由与遵循公序良俗二者的界限,避免过宽适用"不良影响"条款而吞噬表达自由的空间,应以本土性价值判断克制条款的适用。     

困境与出路:失足未成年人思想观念教育误区探究

未成年人失足是一个严重的社会问题,未成年人违法犯罪给国家、社会、家庭都带来了严重的危害。未成年人思想观念的误区和困境是造成其失足的重要因素。可借鉴域外国家思想观念培育方面的做法,以儒家伦理思想为基,推进法治引导,筑造家庭、学校、社会教育网络,强化暂住、流动人口管理,依法惩戒未成年人犯罪,建构针对失足未成年人特殊群体思想观念教育的长效机制,更好地适应和谐社会的发展。     

The EU and the Global Order: Contingent Liberalism

Abstract

Politicians, diplomats and analysts commonly assume that commitment to multilateralism and liberal norms is part of the EU’s very DNA. Increasingly, however, the EU’s commitment to the liberal global order is more selective. We demonstrate the shift to a more contingent liberalism by examining the EU’s recent record in relation to four different challenges: international trade; US leadership; Russian actions in the eastern neighbourhood; and security in the Middle East. We speculate on what this may portend for the EU’s self-identity, European interests and the integrity of the prevailing global order.     

Contestation and Transformation. Final Thoughts on the Liberal International Order

Abstract

The liberal international order, the inseparable mix of US geopolitical power and ideational project of organising international relations along normative frameworks such as internationalism, institutionalism and democracy, is reeling under the pressure of profound systemic changes such as greater interconnectedness and multipolarity. Predictions abound that increasing great power competition, most visibly at play in geographical areas of contested orders, will eventually tear it down. However, even if major actors – the US included – display a selective, irregular and often instrumental commitment to the liberal order, they are still repositioning themselves in that order and not outside of it. In addition, conflict is not the default outcome of order contestation, as hybrid forms of governance are possible even in troubled regions. No doubt, the world of tomorrow will be less American-shaped and less liberal, but transformation is a more plausible future than collapse for the liberal order.