The 'nameless fever': The HIV/AIDS pandemic and China's women

HIV/AIDS is fundamentally an issue of human rights. To the right to medical provision must be added rights to the provisions of social justice necessary to the prevention and alleviation of HIV/AIDS. China has become the focus of international concern over HIV/AIDS. Applying the concepts of 'capabilities poverty', 'discursive democracy', gender construction, 'structural violence' and the 'hypermasculine state', the study identifies the threat to China's women from HIV/AIDS; evaluates the factors contributing to this threat with reference to issues of human rights; and assesses the quality of the national and international response to the HIV/AIDS threat. It is argued that there is a growing threat to women from HIV infection in China; that there are gender-specific factors that render women in China especially vulnerable; that the belated epidemiological response is weak and its capability to meet the threat seriously weakened by social patriarchy; and that, ultimately, the HIV/AIDS threat to China's women is an issue that can only be resolved through political reform leading to discursive democracy and social justice.     

Foreign threat and political party change: Russia and changes in party manifestos

How do political parties react to foreign security threats? There has been very little attention paid in the literature generally to how parties react to international events, particularly how parties react to foreign policy threats. Using data from the Comparative Manifesto Project, we examine how political parties in countries in Europe have reacted to Russian actions in terms of their emphasis on security issues. Based upon our analysis of the manifestoes from 331 parties in 36 countries we find that, generally, interstate threats have no significant effect on the military position adopted by political parties, although these effects vary by party type and by the type of threat. Russian based threats appear to be associated with the Far Left becoming more dovish (which is consistent with what would be expected by the literature) and the Far Right becoming significantly less hawkish.     

HIV/AIDS and older women in Zambia: Concern for self,worry over daughters,towers of strength

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has exposed the way in which gender relations can place women in a particularly precarious position in respect of health matters (Ankrah, 1991; Baylies, Bujra et al , 1999; de Bruyn, 1992; Heise & Elias, 1995; Obbo, 1993; Ulin, 1992). As it advances, it is also evident that women do not face the epidemic as a homogeneous group, but as one which is divided by varying levels of vulnerability and varieties of response. This article focuses on generational differences, as well as those defined by marital status and economic security, and identifies older women who have completed their families as positioned not just to perform a caring role but also to serve as advocates for others in articulating the dangers which gendered practices may pose for their daughters and for women in general, both married and unmarried. It will be argued that they may become spokeswomen for their communities and their families and should be seen as powerful actors around AIDS issues.     

The resilient state: new regulatory modes in international approaches to state building?

‘Resilience’ has quickly risen to prominence in international security and development circles. In recent years it has found its way into political discourse on state building and state fragility, triggering a vast but often conceptually indistinct examination of the subject. Given its meaning in policy publications and guidelines, ‘resilience’ tends to eschew a static conceptualisation of statehood, turning instead to a more dynamic, complex and process-oriented rendering of state–society relations. This illustrates a conceptual shift from ‘failed states’ to ‘fragile states and situations’. It also transforms the concept of ‘failed state’ as a mere threat perception – with ‘stability’ as its logical other – into ‘fragility’ as a particular form of social and political risk. This paper analyses the concepts in 43 policy papers, focusing on the nexus of ‘resilience’ and ‘fragility’ in international state building, and assesses potential consequences. What does ‘resilience’ – as the opposite vision to ‘fragility’ – in fact mean? What is the practice derived from this chimerical state of states?     

Policy Coalitions,Economic Reform and Military Power in Ecuador and Venezuela

Military coups and coup attempts, as well as the establishment, or continuation, of economic/social development roles for the military far outside traditional security missions have been a part of civil–military relations in Ecuador and Venezuela since 1990. The military's greater role in Ecuador and Venezuela has in part been a consequence of the failure of neoliberal and globalist policy coalitions to establish and maintain a hegemonic consensus over political power and national policy. This failure has undermined progress in orienting the military in a ‘democratic’ direction that prioritises traditional security roles under the ultimate command of civilian authorities. It has also allowed for competing models of civil–military relations to emerge that draw upon nationalist or socialist models of military power and democracy.     

环境与国际关系：一种区域性国际公共产品的视角

后冷战时代，随着传统的军事安全地位的相对下降，全球环境问题正渗透到国际关系领域成为许多国家对外政策的一个重要方面，甚至成为国际冲突中的一个新热点。对于全球环境问题，传统经济学所提出的解决方法并不适用，因此有必要对国际政治经济学中的“国际公共产品”理论进行改造和重构，提出“环境类区域性国际公共产品”的概念。有关国家为了本地区的环境安全而联合起来共同生产和维护环境类区域性国际公共产品将成为一种必然趋势，也必将成为今后国际关系的一个基本特点。     

Dangerised youth: the politics of security and development in Timor-Leste

International organisations, the national government and civil society alike have identified youth as a potential threat to the stability of the young state of Timor-Leste over the last decade. In this article, I ask how these actors define the danger of youth and what reasons they identify for the potential threat of young citizens for the society and state. Guided by a theoretical framework of Critical Security and Development Studies, I argue that while political manipulation as reason for youth violence was a prominent part of the security discourse in the years after the crisis in 2006, the discourse on the danger of youth in very recent international and national documents has been depoliticised. Despite decreasing numbers of youth-related violence, the threat construction has not vanished; rather, the language on youth has been adapted to the existing international discourse on violent youth as a threat to successful development. In this way, international and national actors have sustained the image of a society in need of management.     

Fighting crime and maintaining order: shared worldviews of civilian and military elites in Brazil and Mexico

Abstract

Domestic internal security missions have become a centrepiece of Brazil and Mexico’s counter-narcotic efforts. Relying on a set of interviews, this article addresses narratives of elites engaged in the decision-making process and implementation of military operations to counter drug trafficking crimes in Rio de Janeiro and Tijuana. In spite of different levels of drug trafficking organisation and international ramification, this article points out the existence of shared narratives of growing insecurity and criminal strength in Brazil and Mexico, justifying state military reaction against a perceived national security threat. The article thus suggests the relevance of civil–military elites’ perception in defining public policies’ instruments and, ultimately, in upholding the militarisation of security in democratic regimes.     

论分裂主义对国家安全的威胁

分裂主义对国家安全特别是国家核心安全的威胁巨大,它不仅危害到国家的领土、主权完整,对国家认同造成严重冲击,而且在分裂主义采用暴力方式和外部干涉的情况下,直接威胁到国家的军事安全。分裂主义不是非传统安全的问题,而属于传统安全威胁。中国所面临的分裂主义威胁非常严重,在反分裂及安全研究方面,简单套用西方的理论体系来解释我国的核心安全利益问题是危险的。     

Between emergency and routine – securitisation of military security in Iran and Indonesia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the internal conditions of military security in a non-European context. It utilises securitisation as the theoretical perspective and investigates Iranian and Indonesian case studies to explore how the perception of internal threats and vulnerabilities determines the approaches to military security. It begins with a reiteration of securitisation theory assumptions, followed by clarifying the understanding of security in non-Western contexts. The case studies focus on the conditions which facilitate securitisation, including the nature of securitising actors, assumed concepts of security, and securitisation processes and their outcomes. The analysis indicates a necessity for several alterations in securitisation theory to realise its full potential. Civil–military relations in Asian states differ from those in the West, as both Iran and Indonesia show a high degree of military involvement in political affairs. Military security also becomes securitised as a result of internal political rivalries. The perception of threats is a tool in the struggle to extend the capabilities of security agencies or retain influences.     

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.     

Freedom,Hate, and Violence on the American Right

Most studies on Middle East security focus on traditional threats such as military aggression and terrorism. This draft report examines the scope and dimensions of a broadened regional security agenda. It focuses on three specific issues: the opium trade in Central and Southwest Asia; unregulated population movements from the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and North Africa; and maritime piracy around the Horn of Africa and Arabian Peninsula. Although Washington is not directly affected by any of these "soft" or "grey area" challenges, they are relevant for the United States in at least five respects. First, they represent a subset of the transnational problems that both the Clinton and Bush administrations have emphasized as a growing threat to national and international stability (such as international organized crime, corruption and generalized non-state violence and chaos). Second, they have, in varying degrees, undermined and distorted institutional state capacity, trade and (legitimate) economic growth in a region that is of geostrategic importance to Washington. Third, all carry significant implications for the lives, welfare and safety of ordinary citizens, including Americans. Fourth, in certain instances they have interacted with other sources of political tension to act as an additional catalyst for inter-state hostility and rivalry. Finally, because these challenges cannot be readily deterred by established mechanisms of border security, they necessarily require innovative and novel countermeasures--something that the United States is well placed to facilitate, both by virtue of its resources and global leadership role.     

美国重返亚洲态势下的中日关系前瞻

美国战略重心东移亚太,经济上与中国争夺主导权,军事上围堵遏制中国,以图维持"一超"霸主地位;在此国际背景下,中国面临周边复杂形势和压力增大,处理好中日关系在整个亚太格局中尤为重要。文章分析了中日共同利益和结构性矛盾,提出了从战略上如何把握中关、中日两对矛盾。中日友好合作、战略互惠符合中国最大国家利益,以及加强中日关系须要经济互联、政治互信、民间交往、地方外事、防卫互动、立足内政等观点。     

International tutelage and domestic political will: Building a new civilian police force in El Salvador

Under peace accords signed in January of 1992, a new civilian police force replaced the military as the sole agency responsible for providing internal security in El Salvador. This new institution has the potential to substantially transform the relationship of citizen and state, to improve both human rights and public safety, and, eventually, to reduce tensions in civil-military relations. Despite extensive international participation in and verification of this project, however, implementation proved difficult. Political polarization and lack of political will on the part of the government initially undercut the civilian character of the project, while the international community proved unable or unwilling to provide sufficient material assistance. Significant improvements took place under a new presidential administration, which had greater will to implement the project as designed. William Stanley is assistant professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, where he teaches international and Latin American politics. His research focuses on how domestic and international political forces interact with the institutional characteristics of military and police agencies to affect the frequency of human rights violations. His bookElite Politics, State Violence, and Civil War in El Salvador is forthcoming from Temple University Press. He has published various articles on human rights, migration and refugee affairs, and on the role of the United Nations in post-conflict peace consolidation in Central America.     

Terrorism: A strategic perspective

This paper compares the U.S. national security strategy's vision for counter‐terrorism missions to the political realm in which conventional military forces and terrorists operate. Terrorist acts and state responses are analyzed to demonstrate that they have differing political effects, which calls into question the political utility of a conventional military counterterrorist response. Terrorism is placed within context of the present era as, according to Martin van Creveld, evolving historical conditions are wrenching warfare out of the political realm in which Clausewitz's analysis originally posited warfare's extension of political activity based on state power. The article also discusses terrorism's nebulous placement within the levels of war to reveal another aspect of terrorism's different relationship to the political realm. Ultimately, this challenges the U.S. national security strategy's conclusion that conventional military force used in “punitive” or “counterterrorism” operations is an effective political response to terrorism.     

“泛安全化陷阱”及其跨越

安全概念及其适用范围是国际关系学界长期以来争论的焦点之一。冷战结束后,传统安全的边界被打破,非传统安全领域议题越来越多地占据国家安全和国际关系议题的中心地位。国家行为体追求绝对安全状态和无节制扩充安全议题,可能造成资源的错配和浪费,导致国内政治的保守化和国际交往的封闭趋向,最终反而不利于实现安全目标,从而掉入“泛安全化陷阱”。当前,国际上少数国家表面上以“国家安全”为由干扰国际合作,实则推行单边主义和保护主义政策,对全球多边主义秩序规则、国际合作、大国关系造成严重冲击,其消极影响不可低估。党的十八大以来,中国的安全体系和能力建设取得了重要成就,形成了总体国家安全观的理论体系。作为新兴大国,中国同时面临复杂的安全形势和较大的发展压力。中国应以总体国家安全观为指导,理性平衡好安全与开放、发展之间的关系,审慎塑造安全议程,防止落入“泛安全化陷阱”。同时,中国在国际上应坚决反对滥用安全概念的行为,在新兴全球性议题上高举合作旗帜,推动经济全球化和国际关系民主化的持续发展,积极推动国际安全治理机制改革和创新,为构建人类命运共同体凝聚广泛共识和作出积极贡献。     

Preventive HIV/AIDS education through physical education: reflections from Zambia

Governments, UN agencies and international and local NGOs have mounted a concerted effort to remobilise sport as a vehicle for broad, sustainable social development. This resonates with the call for sport to be a key component in national and international development objectives. Missing in these efforts is an explicit focus on physical education within state schools, which still enroll most children in the global South. This article focuses on research into one of the few instances where physical education within the national curriculum is being revitalised as part of the growing interest in leveraging the appeal of sport and play as means to address social development challenges such as HIV/AIDS. It examines the response to the Zambian government's 2006 Declaration of Mandatory Physical Education (with a preventive education focus on HIV/AIDS) by personnel charged with its implementation and illustrates weaknesses within the education sector. The use of policy instruments such as decrees/mandates helps ensure the mainstreaming of physical education in development. However, the urgency required to respond to new mandates, particularly those sanctioned by the highest levels of government, can result in critical pieces of the puzzle being ignored, thereby undermining the potential of physical education (and sport) within development.     

Boko Haram: understanding the context

Boko Haram insurgency has caused the death and displacement of thousands of Nigerians. Its means of terror has evolved from the use of crude weapons to bombs, kidnappings and the use of children as suicide bombers. Its reach has expanded beyond Nigeria into neighbouring West African countries and it has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaida and Islamic State. To address this security concern, its cause should first be ascertained. This paper argues that to do this, Boko Haram should be located in northern Nigerian historical context/environment. This paper reviews economic greed and grievance, extreme religious ideology and political opportunity in historic insurgencies in northern Nigeria. It finds that while the interplay of different factors shaped these insurgencies; it was political opportunity that ignited their onsets. Finally, the article submits that as long as these factors remain the same, military quelling of Boko Haram will not prevent a re-emergence of its likes.     

Energy Security and Climate Change in the European Union,China and Latin American Relationships:Major Challenges and Areas of International Cooperation

The author discusses the subject in both ecological and political perspectives based on a most comprehensive,authoritative and updated bibliography.Hence,Latin America and the Caribbean(LAC) is as much diversified as there are sub-regions and regional organizations in geopolitical and geo-economical terms and often dialectic regarding energy security,climate change and LAC ties with Europeans and China and so is the tripartite relations with the rest of the world so far as energy security and climate cha...     

The Art of Museum Diplomacy: The Singapore–France Cultural Collaboration in Perspective

In the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks in the USA and Europe, most notably the 9/11 attacks on New York, there has been renewed interest in the role of cultural diplomacy in international relations as a strategic platform for engaging with other nations and for wielding “soft power” on the international stage. Central to this renewed interest on cultural diplomacy is that culture can provide a critical platform for contact and negotiations when political relations are in jeopardy or for recalibrating relationships with emerging powers. This study provides an analysis of cross-cultural museum exchanges as an instrument of “soft power” and cultural diplomacy by considering Singapore’s motives and outcomes of engaging in the Singapore–France cultural collaboration. The study demonstrates that while cross-cultural museum exchanges can serve as symbolic gestures of political goodwill, their effectiveness in shaping the preferences of other nations through exerting “soft power” on the international stage is limited. These exchanges are often apolitical in their initiation because museums seldom take their nations’ political goals into consideration in selecting their prospective partners and the subject of collaboration. While cross-cultural museum exchanges are apolitical in their initiation, their consequences are nonetheless political due to inherent unequal power relations between the collaborating parties.