Editor's Notes

Professor Wenfang Tang's article, Nationalism and ElectoralOutcome in Taiwan: The Impact of Identity Fence-sitting on VotingBehaviour, examines the impact of the electorate's sense ofnational identity on voting behaviour, based on public opinionsurvey data amassed over the four Taiwan elections from 2000to 2004. The concept of national identity combines an individual'ssense of either ethnic Taiwanese or Chinese identity and correspondingadvocacy of either Taiwan independence or reunification withChina. The article focuses on national identity ‘fence-sitters’—thesection of the electorate undecided as to its sense of eitherChinese or Taiwanese identity, consequently an advocate of neitherindependence nor reunification. Professor Tang's     

Editor's note

Abstract

In this article the author investigates the degree to which regional political relationships as well as domestic political stability have changed as a result of the Gulf War. As the countries of the former Warsaw Pact, Latin America, and elsewhere attempt to democratize, often with American support, the countries of the Gulf, at least on the governmental level, appear largely immune to this trend. This is belied somewhat by popular desires for political liberalization as well as cynicism about America's aims in the region. The political future and stability of this key part of the world is further complicated by the changing relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia who share a distrust for Iraq if little else. Thus, despite the Gulf War, many of the key issues that have traditionally influenced the Gulf region remain salient even after significant modifications in the status of the regional power‐holders.     

Editor's Notes

Guo Gang's essay, Government Leadership Change and InternationalNegotiations uses a game theoretic model to explain the effectsof leadership change on international negotiations. The essayargues that leadership in transition introduces a context ofasymmetric information that has an impact on negotiations andtheir outcome. It identifies and analyses three perfect Bayesianequilibria employing a case study based on the strategic dialoguebetween the United States and the USSR during the Cold War period.Guo Gang applies the logic developed in     

Editor's Notes

In ‘The Rise of China and its Power Status’, YanXuetong aims to correct problems in previous quantitative assessmentsof China's power, using a multilevelled analysis instead ofa quantitatively based analysis to evaluate China's positionin the early 21st century. The article highlights the importanceof evaluating China's power, and provides political, militaryand economic measures for doing so. It is in accordance withthese three aspects of China's power that the author conductshis analysis. Research indicates that China's comprehensivestrength ranks second in the world and that     

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Dr Feng Huiyun examines in her article Is China a RevisionistPower? the operational code beliefs of four Chinese leaders,Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao, to provideunderstanding of the kind of rising power China will become.China is indeed rising, and general international relationstheory predicts that rising powers as doomed to clash with thehegemonic or declining power. But motivations other than materialpower figure in state foreign policy decision making. Intentionsas reflected in a state leader's beliefs are also importantin predicting state behavior and assessment     

Editor's Notes

Since the end of the Cold War, the main focus of research forscholars of International Relations has been the theory of deterrence.Their main questions are: under what conditions do states attemptto deter? How do a state's efforts to deter affect the challengingstate's beliefs? When is deterrence successful? Preferences,Information and the Deterrence Game by Xiang Ganghua and WangYongxian uses a game theoretic approach to answer these questions.The authors begin with a comparison of three main approachesto the study of deterrence: cost-benefit analysis; rationalchoice analysis; and game theory. They demonstrate the superiority