Purpose and behaviour: The Cuban missile conflict revisited

Fairly strong theoretical arguments posit that the use of force to achieve foreign policy objectives and the milita’ rization of society are part of a self‐amplifying feedback process. In spite of the rather coherent reasoning linking these two factors, little empirical work has attempted to demonstrate the strength of this postulated relationship. This analysis uses a system of equations to model this hypothesized feedback in the US and British societies during the 20th century. The findings presented below lend tentative support for the hypothesized feedback, though suggests that further verification might be facilitated through refinements in the operational indicators of violent foreign policy. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that systemic level variables contribute significantly to the propensity of the US and Great Britain to employ violence as a tool of foreign policy.     

中日交涉与张群对日外交策略

中日交涉自“九.一八”开始就以各种途径、不同形式在进行,张群因早年留日,与日本渊源较深,为蒋介石所倚重,负责调整中日关系。华北事变后的中日交涉,是抗战正式爆发前中日间最后的较量,张群在与日方的周旋与应对中,实施了一系列积极的外交策略。     

The construction of NATO's medium term defence plan and the diplomacy of conventional strategy, 1949-50

This article examines NATO's first strategic project, the Medium Term Defence Plan (MTDP) of 1950, and the plan that led to the 1952 Lisbon Force Goals, a landmark in the evolution of NATO's strategic thinking because the failure to reach the Lisbon goals allegedly drove NATO into its subsequent dependence on nuclear weapons from which it has never been weaned. The article disputes this interpretation by showing that the MTDP was conditioned by the desire of the United States to maintain its autonomy over the use of atomic weapons, and its freedom from the constraints of the new alliance. The MTDP was a paradox: a conventional strategy designed to mask the rules governing the balance of decision-making power within NATO which maintained American peripheralism against the integrative pressures of the alliance. Lisbon was actually part of a deepening nuclear commitment on the part of the United States, sustained by the willingness of the Europeans to endorse the rearmament plan in exchange for promises of further economic assistance.     

古巴革命的历史意义和成就

古巴革命是古巴民族意识和精神的象征,政治和社会变革的旗帜,崇尚伦理价值和理想的境界,勇于进行社会主义探索的精神,无私的国际主义义务和发展中国家寻求自主发展的重要启迪.50年来,古巴在革命和社会主义建设事业中取得了重大成就,克服了90年代初的经济危机,实现了经济持续增长;社会主义政治体制机制不断完善;教育、科技、医疗卫生事业获得长足进步,惠及全民;社会发展成就得到国际公认,住居世界先进水平.展望未来,古巴人民将继往开来.把革命和社会主义事业继续推向前进.     

Understanding EU crisis diplomacy in the European neighbourhood: strategic narratives and perceptions of the EU in Ukraine,Israel and Palestine

ABSTRACT

This Special Issue seeks to better understand the role of communication and perception in EU crisis diplomacy. In a recent Special Issue in this journal, Catarina Kinnvall, Ian Manners and Jennifer Mitzen argue that, “?…?the greatest security challenge facing people across Europe is not physical, despite the threats of Putin and ISIS, but is a sense of fear and anxiety over their daily lives” [2018. Introduction to 2018 Special Issue of European Security: “Ontological (in)security in the European Union”. European security, 27 (3), 249–265]. We take an interdisciplinary approach to widen the scope of studies on European security and offer new avenues for further research into how citizens in the EU’s neighbourhood understand the security challenges they face and the role the EU plays in addressing these. Through this, we aim to bring theoretical and methodological innovation to understanding the role of the EU as an external actor.     

The great tradition: The spread of diplomacy in the ancient world

Diplomacy as we understand it to the present day — a sophisticated system for handling affairs of state and negotiating treaties, based on accredited envoys working within a framework of international law and protocol - emerged in the third millennium BCE in the ancient Near East at the same time as the development of writing and urban culture. Transmitted by the great cuneiform civilizations of Babylon and Assyria to Achaemenid Persia and classical Greece and Rome, the heritage of diplomacy continued to flourish in Byzantium, Rome, and Venice. The Renaissance provided the conditions for the spread of a tradition that had existed in many essential aspects for millennia.     

朝鲜的核、导战略态势及其影响

朝鲜实施导弹发射和地下核试验,意在实现核拥有,籍以提高对美战略的筹码。朝鲜开展核战略角逐由来已久,先后展开过以守为攻;“边缘”对应;将计就计;以硬对强四个回合。角逐结果虽不乏战术上的小胜,却丧失了战略上的大胜。此番的导弹试射与地下核试验可视为第五个回合,是朝鲜核、导角逐战略“以攻为守”的转换。朝鲜执意实现核拥有纵有多种原因,却因核、导本身所拥有的“双刃剑”作用,带来于己、于他都不利的负面影响。包括:自食其言,愈加难以取信于国际社会;产生连锁反映,引发新一轮的军备竞赛;挑战核不扩散条约,难免遭到更大封杀;破坏合作气氛,延缓统一进程;置中国于尴尬境地,动摇中朝关系基础。朝鲜的“自行其事”难免遭到国际社会更加严厉的抵制。     

日本对华环境外交:构建战略互惠关系的新支柱

环境外交是日本外交战略的重要一翼。近年来日本为了改善同周边邻国的相互关系,尤其是为了在争取"入常"问题上能得到东亚各国的支持,企图抓住环境保护与国际合作这个国际政治的"第三重要课题",欲从环境外交入手拓展自己的外交空间,提升自身的国际地位。在环境保护领域,中日有着共同的战略利益,也存在需要共同面对的可持续发展的环境和社会课题。环境外交正日益成为中日关系调整的平衡器,对促进相互理解与信赖,调整双边关系起着重要的杠杆作用,也为构筑更高层次的战略互惠关系奠定了基础。日本政府着意改善中日关系、构建战略互惠关系的外交新起点也正是从环境保护合作开始的。