The Making of BRICS:South Africa Invigorates the New Cooperation Mechanism

South Africa’s accession to BRIC caused quite a stir in the world at the end of 2010.According to the news release dated December 24,2010 on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry,China-the current     

南非加入“金砖国家”合作机制探析

南非申请加入金砖国家合作机制,是南非与其他金砖国家的历史联系,及经济与战略合作关系的持续深入等综合因素影响的结果,符合南非推动国内经济发展、注重对非其他国家间关系与参与全球治理等利益诉求。作为非洲大国与世界主要新兴经济体之一,其他金砖国家看好与南非在增强相互关系的经济社会基础、促进世界经济发展的均衡与完善全球治理机制等方面的合作潜力。作为金砖国家合作机制的新成员,南非将在推动金砖国家间的经济合作、倡导非洲议程与深化金砖国家合作机制等方面扮演积极角色。     

The rise of film production and the politics of the star system in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The rise of film production and the ubiquitous presence of the ‘new wave’ of South African films on the international scene in recent years have raised expectations amongst local film stars hoping to get their biggest break by taking leading roles in major South African productions. However, most of these films – particularly co-productions – have continuously used foreign stars in leading roles. As a result, local stars have constantly voiced concerns about the proliferation of foreign artists in leading roles in South African productions. Many explanations have been offered in trying to understand why filmmakers tend to cast a foreign star when a local one could probably do a better job (in, for example, portraying a local icon like Nelson Mandela) and still command a lesser fee. However, this article puts forward that most of these arguments are based on intuition rather than on the real dynamics and externalities governing this practice. The article attempts to make sense of this issue by arguing that the rationale for this practice stems from a film being a high-risk investment that it is driven by the broader financial imperatives of film production. The article offers empirical evidence to suggest that stars do not add economic value to the film, but to themselves (see Elberse 2005), since the bulk of the money goes towards their appearance fees. It is concluded that the traditional model guiding film finance and the logic behind it need to be looked at afresh, given the fact that several films have failed at the box office, both locally and internationally, despite featuring major foreign stars, compared to the massive success of some local films (e.g., Jerusalema, Tsotsi and Yesterday) with local stars in the leading roles.     

EU enlargement and the rise of Asian FTAs: Implications for Asia-Europe relations

  Over the past few years, there has been resurgence in regionalism and preferential trade across the global economic system. The European Union has taken steps at enlargement of their economic community to include countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Bilateral trade arrangements are proliferating in Asia involving the region's largest economies Japan and China. These arrangements mirror similar initiatives in the Americas. These developments have profound implications on the world trading system, in general, and to Asia-Europe relations in particular. The rise of preferentialism runs the risk of heightened discrimination, trade diversion and the fragmentation of the multilateral trade order. This prospect will have a direct impact on the future relations between Asia and Europe. Both Europe and Asia should remain outward oriented, open to reciprocal arrangements with non-member economies, and supportive of the multilateral trading system.     

The Construction of Power in the Strategic Narratives of the BRICS

Rising powers, collectively joined in informal diplomatic groups such as the BRICS, aim to influence the meaning of the international order by means of “strategic narratives.” Together, the BRICS develop strategic narratives that support their aspiration for a fairer and more democratic multipolar world order and which produce a positive perception of the group. This paper evaluates how BRICS’s system and identity narratives combine geostrategic, economic and solidarity narratives. Narrative tension emerges due to their embeddedness in contradicting power constructions, namely a geostrategic perspective and a multipolar perspective. The synchronisation of these three narratives is undermined when there is a fall in perceived power, economic recession or a lack of accountability and transparency practices. Strategic narrative analysis helps to think about and analyze power in global politics.     

国际金融安全治理中的金砖路径

随着世界经济发展格局与国际政治权力结构之间的错位日益严重,在"新兴国家"的共同身份与追求金融安全保障的共同利益的双重基础上,金砖机制以国家组合的形式积极参与国际金融安全治理,向当前西方主导的金融安全治理格局发起了强有力的冲击。在全球层次,金砖国家以二十国集团、国际货币基金组织等国际多边组织机构为框架参与国际金融安全治理并谋求更高的权力地位;在区域层次,金砖国家成立了金砖国家新开发银行、构建金砖外汇储备库等新的金融机构和金融机制以深化成员国内部的金融安全合作;在双边层次,金砖国家通过本币互换等形式提升货币安全。金砖国家金融安全治理合作的顺利开展,需要一个更有效的国际机制作为保障。然而,金砖机制中存在着成员特质差异、政治嫌隙明显、议题实施艰难、国际风险巨大等诸多障碍,使其在内部难以避免制度性缺陷,在外部难以保障金融安全,这就需要金砖国家采取更加积极的作为加以克服。作为金砖机制的主导国,中国一方面在经济外交新发展的历史阶段,需要借助金砖平台以展示实力、阐明诉求;另一方面,中国也能为构建治理水平更高的金砖金融机制做出贡献。     

Negotiating a democratic order in South Africa: Learning from mediation and industrial relations

Labor law reform in South Africa unintentionally precipitated the rapid growth of a powerful black trade union movement and institutionalized collective bargaining in the 1980s. Despite the political crisis, the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa helped to disseminate the culture and practice of negotiated order, developed in industrial relations, to the broader society and national politics. As a result of the negotiated transition, the new democratic order is characterized by inclusive, consensus-building policy-making processes.He is also a doctoral degree candidate in industrial relations at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 02139.     

金砖合作面对的世界秩序和全球化挑战

现存世界秩序向何处去?现阶段的全球化向何处去?这是当今世界,也是金砖合作面对的两大根本挑战。金砖合作能否在维持世界秩序、创造新的世界秩序上发挥关键作用?金砖合作能否矫正全球化、创造有意义的"新发展"?本文提出了一些战略建议:金砖合作应该就世界秩序和全球化议题举行高峰会议,以超越目前的"务实合作"。在经济和金融上,金砖的"新发展银行"和"应急储备安排"等正在建设和运行的新兴国际金融(发展融资)机构要成为以"新发展"为目标进行全球经济治理的实验。在和平与安全上,金砖合作也要进一步制度化,成为以世界和平为目标的全球安全治理实验——全球协调。     

浅析金砖国家合作前景

2009年6月,中、俄、印、巴四国正式组成“金砖四国”对话机制,继2011年4月南非加入,“金砖国家”合作机制成立。几年来,“金砖国家”各级别合作机制初步形成,在国际事务中相互配合、重大利益相互支持、务实合作深入开展等方面凸显了这一组织的空前活力,同时也存在着政治互信不足、各方利益不能完全吻合、投资环境多被西方质疑、面临新兴经济体的挑战等问题。由于“金砖国家”自身发展潜力巨大．并被国际投资商看好,联合自强已成为金砖国家共同的战略选择,成员国都有化解分歧的诚意,机制的包容性更增添新的活力,因此,未来金砖国家的合作前景机遇大于挑战。     

Europe's others and the return of geopolitics

In the context of European Union enlargement and the discussions about a European constitution, the question of Europe's identity has once again entered the limelight of political debates. From a poststructuralist perspective, identities are constructed through practices of othering, articulating a difference. In this article, I follow Ole Wæver to argue that for most of the time after the Second World War the most important other in the construction of a European identity has been Europe's own past. This temporal form of othering offered the possibility to form an identity through less antagonistic and exclusionary practices than was common in the modern international society. However, since the 1990s geographic and cultural otherings are on the increase, marking a return of geopolitics in European identity constructions and undermining the notion of European integration as a fundamental challenge to the world of nation‐states.1 A previous version of this paper was presented at the workshop ‘Other Europes’, organised by the Poststructuralism working group of the British International Studies Association, Keele University, England, 16 May 2003. I would like to thank the workshop participants, Alessandra Buonfino, Bahar Rumelili and the three referees of this journal for their critical and constructive comments. View all notes     

The geopolitics of climate change: power transitions,conflict and the future of military activities

Climate change is emerging as one of the primary geopolitical challenges of the early twenty-first century, one that will likely involve military engagements and deployments in both traditional and non-traditional missions. Unlike mass casualty terrorism, climate change does not have a single galvanising event that can encourage collective mitigation efforts by both developed and developing states. International efforts to counter putative climate change causes have, thus far, been only marginally successful. Consequently, some of the more pernicious effects of climate change—extreme weather, heat waves, droughts and floods—will likely continue to manifest in the years and decades ahead. From a geopolitical perspective, climate change may influence the trajectory of rising or declining states in an increasingly multipolar world. It may also induce or exacerbate resource competition between states, particularly with regard to energy resources, water and food. Climate change may also exert a general weakening effect on lesser developed countries, thus necessitating increasingly intrusive and costly humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) missions, some of which may be conducted by military agencies. Overall, these trends suggest that climate change will continue to emerge as a significant factor that shapes and defines future military missions and deployments.     

The rise of the Ukrainian oligarchs

Like many post-Soviet societies, Ukraine has experienced over the past decade the emergence of an oligarchic system. Political and economic elites have become locked into a 'partial reform equilibrium'. Unfinished political and economic reforms have fostered the exchange of economic resources against political support, weakened the state capacity and opened the way to undemocratic outcomes. President Kuchma has become the centre of a 'personal rulership', in which rent-seekers and rent-givers have forged an alliance aimed at preserving the current state of affairs. The consequent situation of stall has benefited both economic actors, allowing them access to the redistribution of national wealth, and political actors, allowing them to consolidate unchallenged their position of power. The systematic plunder of economic resources, perpetrated under the oligarchic system, has imposed great costs upon Ukrainian society, condemning it to a vicious circle of underdevelopment, administrative weakness and inability to implement change.     

The rise of the welfare state in international society

In this article I seek to develop a case for viewing the welfare state as a primary institution in international society. This is with particular reference to Norden (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), where in the course of the 1930s, and particularly in the post-1945 era, the welfare state was elevated to a core principle of legitimacy, largely defining the idea of nationhood for these countries. Furthermore, I will attempt to show how the adoption of this principle of legitimacy conditioned the Nordic countries’ interpretation of a number of other primary institutions in international society such as diplomacy, war and trade. A key contribution of this approach is that it aspires not only to examine the evolution of one institution in isolation, as has often been attempted in English School scholarship, but to actively explore how institutions interact with each other.     

Negotiated peace versus victor's peace: the geopolitics of peace and conflict in Sri Lanka

In examining the failure of the 2002 peace process between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), this essay argues for the need to go beyond the power dynamics of the local actors. The peace process was dismantled and military victory by the Sri Lankan government made possible not so much by the Sinhala nationalist discourse, which opposed administration of development aid by the LTTE, as by the global security discourse associated with geo-strategic interests. The EU-led development discourse, which was informed by the liberal internationalist ethos, could have facilitated resolution and transformation of the conflict. In its place a security-based, realist discourse was prioritized in South Asia by the UK and US governments, particularly after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This was the discourse which provided the material basis for the Sinhala nationalists to consolidate their power in pursuing a military victory. The post-war era is marked by geopoliticization of the human rights discourse, deepening the conflict. This essay explores the correlation between the liberal peace model, human rights, international relations and geopolitics.     

The Wilsonian moment and the rise of Anticolonial nationalism: The case of Egypt

This article examines the influence of Woodrow Wilson's rhetoric of national self-determination on the Egyptian nationalist movement in 1918-20 as a case study in the impact of the Wilsonian Moment on emerging anticolonial movements. It traces the impact of Wilsonian discourse on Egyptian expectations for the postwar international order, on the way they envisioned their place within it, and on the rhetoric and actions they utilized to fulfil these expectations. It concludes that the experiences of the Wilsonian Moment radicalized Egyptian national demands, transformed the Anglo-Egyptian colonial relationship, and left a legacy of disappointment and bitterness among Egyptians towards liberal internationalism. The article ends by contextualizing the Egyptian case within the surge of anticolonial nationalism in the wake of World War I, and positing the Wilsonian Moment as a watershed in the transformation of colonial relations.