The Great Republican Transformation on Oversight

For a relatively small country that does not have a very large intelligence establishment, Canada has produced quite a sizeable literature on such matters. Produced mainly in the past twenty years, it essentially dates from the period when revelations began that the Security Services of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had been involved in illegal activities. The resulting scandal produced a Royal Commission of Inquiry, the McDonald Commission, and the establishment of review institutions. While Igor Gouzenko's disclosures of Soviet involvement had drawn some public and academic attention to espionage matters in Canada in the late 1940s, the Security Service controversies of the late sixties and seventies marked the real beginning of a spate of publications in the field.     

直击印度洋海啸大救援

2004年岁末,印度洋发生的"世纪海啸",已造成了近30万人丧生,140多亿美元的财产受损的特大灾难.国际社会闻之震惊,同时也唤醒了人类惺惺相惜的良知.面对这场突如其来的大灾难,世界许多国家,不论大小,不分贫富,上自国家领导人,下至普通平民百姓,都纷纷投入到救灾行动之中.其规模之大,行动之快,实属空前,甚至出现了从未有过的"损款竞赛"现象和许多感人的事例,在全世界掀起了史无前例的灾难救援的高潮.在这场全球大救援的行动中,不仅反映了国际社会的一个变化,这就是互助共存的全球安全共同体的意识骤然上升,而且也体现了联合国地位的提升和它主导下的国际合作的加强.     

The Great Convergence and the Logic of One World

A great historical transition is underway from American‐led Globalization 1.0 to Globalization 2.0—the interdependence of plural identities where no one power or alliance of powers dominates. The G‐20 is floundering as the immediate global financial crisis has receded. The United Nations and the old Bretton Woods institutions—the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO—have lost their vigor and are struggling to adjust to the global powershift with the rise of the emerging economies. While Europe is paralyzed as the historic project of integration stalls, the world's two largest economies—the United States and China—are as yet unable to figure out how to share power. The danger now is that the geopolitical vacuum will invite assertions of national self‐interest that will unravel the rules‐based order that enabled stability and prosperity over recent decades. America's leading geopolitical strategist, China's most outspoken strategic thinker and one of Asia's leading global thinkers from Singapore offer their reflections on this state of affairs.     

The Great Survivor: The Persistence and Resilience of English Local Government

This article is about the persistence and resilience of the form of local government that emerged in England in the nineteenth century and took shape in the twentieth century. English local government has adapted to successive reorganisations and changes to its functions; it has survived centralisation, privatisation, the imposition of quangos, regional governance, elected mayors, performance management and latterly fiscal austerity by responding to opportunities and meeting the continual need for administrative tasks at the local level. The centralised structure to political management in English local government has generated a high level of organisational capacity and a pragmatic sensibility that ensures the institution remains in place even in unpropitious circumstances. Other local organisations, such as voluntary sector bodies and quangos, have less capacity to compete and work to shorter timescales. Such resilience has come to the fore in the period of fiscal austerity since 2009 when local authorities have had to manage severe declines in their budgets whilst taking on additional functions, such as council tax benefit. The organisational capacity and pragmatism of English local government create path dependence as its very efficiency at managing services may have shut off options for democratic renewal and participation.     

Political Responsibility for UK Prison Security – Ministers Escape Again

Two very serious prison escapes in 1994–5 prompted the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to dismiss the Prison Service head, Derek Lewis (a contracted businessman) who successfully sued for full compensation and costs. This sacking and law suit were unprecedented events which highlighted familiar tensions about the 'policy' and 'administrative' ('operational') distinction and what passes for the theory of individual ministerial responsibility to Parliament. This article reviews four serious prison security failures in England and Northern Ireland since 1983 and the standard ministerial posture blaming operational error rather than their own policy framework. Drawing on interviews with relevant senior figures, the exceptionally politically sensitive case of executive agency status for the Prison Service of England and Wales is considered. The 'Lewis vs. Howard' affair is placed in its context of the increasingly managerial ambitions of both 'incomer' and career civil servants which conflict with traditionally comprehensive, but symbolic, ministerial responsibility.     

日本的崛起及其对大国关系的利用

日本的崛起是其国内外各种因素综合作用的结果,除了内部改革、重视科技和国民教育之外,对大国关系的利用也是其中不容忽视的一个因素。由于日本具备了崛起的物质技术与国际环境等有利条件,因此相对较早地实现了国家崛起,成为第一个非西方的现代化国家。但是,日本崛起后对邻国的侵略以及同欧美国家的殊死争夺也给我们留下了诸多的历史教训。