Vietnam's Better War

When General Creighton Abrams took command of U.S. forces in Vietnam a better war resulted from his superior understanding of the war and more effective conduct of it, including improvement of South Vietnam's armed forces and emphasis on pacification. As American forces were progressively withdrawn, the South Vietnamese took on more and more of the load, winning the counterinsurgency war and fighting valiantly and effectively against the enemy's conventional invasion until the United States Congress drastically reduced materiel and financial assistance at the same time communist forces received massively increased support from their patrons. Thus, inevitably, South Vietnam succumbed.     

More International Cooperation for Better Buildings

<正>I.International cooperation in building consultancydesign in Beijing Generally,developed countries such as the UK,France,USA and Australia are leading in the world in building consultancy design,as some landmark buildings in Beijing were codesigned by China and these countries.The UK     

印日关系持续升温及其动因

冷战期间，由于受国际大环境和地理距离影响，印度与日本的关系始终不冷不热。冷战结束后，随着国际形势的变化，在政治、经济、安全、防范中国等一系列共同利益的驱使下，加之美国的支持和推动，两国关系开始逐渐升温。印度是世界上第二大发展中国家，日本是世界上第二大经济大国；     

Bilateral Efforts in Seizing Opportunities for Better Relations

General improvement of the Japan-ROK relations started after the end of the Cold War. Although the Japanese wrongdoings over the history-related issues have caused fluctuations in the bilateral relations, no substantial damage has occurred.……     

Better Multimethod Design:The Promise of Integrative Multimethod Research

As this symposium suggests, we are in the middle of a boom time for multimethod research in the social sciences. Gary Goertz's essay shows how case studies can test claims about causal pathways; this suggestion should be seen as an element of a broader set of possibilities. “Integrative multimethod designs” provide a family of compelling strategies for linking qualitative and quantitative components of an overall design, while also enhancing the quality of causal inferences. Given that rigorous and credible causal inferences are essential to both scholars and policymakers, integrative multimethod research designs deserve our attention.     

Using key informant monitoring in safe motherhood programming in Nepal

This article discusses the methodology and application of the Key Informant Monitoring (KIM) tool as used by the Nepal Safer Motherhood Project (NSMP). NSMP aims to achieve a sustained increase in the uptake of midwifery and essential obstetric care services by addressing, among other things, constraints on access to such services. Data collected by community-based Key Informant Researchers (KIRs) are synthesised and used by NSMP and key project partners for monitoring and planning purposes. NSMP has used KIM findings to modify its main interventions at the local level. International and Nepali NGOs have adopted KIM in their safe motherhood and other development programmes. Village Development Committees, with support from NGOs and NSMP, have responded to issues raised by KIM by running maternal health awareness-raising campaigns, working with traditional healers, improving the quality of care, and facilitating local emergency transport and funding schemes. KIRs have proved effective as sources of information and as change agents, spreading safe motherhood messages to promote behaviour change.     

South Africa's Economic Diplomacy: Constructing a Better World for All?

The article raises questions such as: 'Is South African "economic" diplomacy primarily "economic"?' and 'how altruistic in intention are the diplomatic efforts currently being undertaken by South Africa?' These questions flow from the interplay between the premise that economic diplomacy seeks to serve economic interests through diplomatic means, and the pronouncements made by South African decision makers that point to a broader, more altruistic agenda being pursued. In exploring the political and economic elements of current South African economic diplomacy, some pertinent aspects of South Africa's foreign and economic policies are highlighted, and South African economic diplomacy is broadly sketched. The focus is on the post-1994 period, but developments are put in historical perspective. The article concludes that current South African economic diplomacy serves both economic and political interests and that it is deployed in an extremely complex environment in which it is virtually impossible to disentangle the economic from the political and the altruistic from self-interest.     

印尼：政局和经济好转

前言2003年是印尼政局进一步稳定 ,经济复苏开始见效 ,社会治安逐步好转的一年。回顾印尼6年来发生许多惊心动魄的事件 :1997年亚洲金融危机引发的经济总危机、1998年5月社会大骚乱、苏哈托专制政权垮台造成的混乱、震惊世界的巴厘岛爆炸案等 ,直到2001年7月梅加瓦蒂接替瓦希德出任第五届总统 ,政局才开始趋向稳定 ,经济缓慢复苏。2003年 ,梅加瓦蒂进一步巩固政权、重建经济初见成效 ,民族与宗教冲突进一步缓和 ,打击分离主义和恐怖主义取得成绩。在艰难的环境中取得这样的成绩 ,确实来之不易。2004年的印尼全国大选将产生新议会和新政府 ,…     

Build an International Exchange Platform for Even Better Understanding between China and the World

At the beginning of the 1980s, China entered a new historical era of reform and opening up and socialist modernization drive. It became important and urgent for China to exchange and communicate with the international community. To meet the demand of     

Louder than words: Tacit communication in international crises

Clear communication is generally viewed as requisite to the peaceful resolution of international crises. The success of bargaining, deterrent, and compellent strategies hinges on the credibility afforded by unambiguous signals exchanged between opponents. Despite the acknowledged importance of this ‘communication factor,’ little effort has been made to evaluate the relative effectiveness of the various modes of communication that may be employed in crisis. By means of theoretical and comparative case analysis, this study finds a substantial difference between the efficacy of traditional diplomatic negotiation and tacit measures, such as the deployment and/or exercise of military forces near the scene of crisis. Where negotiation alone often fails, backing, preceding, or, at times, replacing diplomacy with tacit measures affords the greatest chances for success. The policy implications of this finding are explored, particularly as they apply to U.S. regional ‘extended deterrent’ strategies for protecting geographically distant friends and interests.     

Threatening Sanctions When Engagement Would Be More Effective: Attaining Better Human Rights in China

Leaders use both coercion and engagement as leverage against other nations. Recent literature suggests economic sanctions are more effective than deployed sanctions to attain intended foreign policy goals. This paper examines a case of threatened coercion—the threat to remove China's most favored nation (MFN) status following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989—where engagement would have produced better human rights in China. We show that the American threats to sanction China were counterproductive, while cooperative statements and MFN renewal proved to have a more beneficial impact on Beijing's human rights policies. This paper suggests that economic sanction threats are not directly linked to China's human rights behaviors. Instead, China uses accommodations to manipulate diplomatic relations with the U.S. As a result, engagement with China would have been a more productive policy when dealing with human rights issues.     

Managing the Goal-Setting Paradox: How to Get Better Results from High Goals and Be Happy

Many negotiation teachers share the same tip early on: negotiators who set higher goals do better. It turns out that one of the most empirically supported truths about negotiation comes with a big but. Negotiators who set higher goals are likely to feel worse. In other words, negotiators who set optimistic goals are likely to obtain better objective outcomes but worse subjective outcomes.
We call this empirical finding the goal-setting paradox. This article considers sources of and explanations for the goal-setting paradox and suggests how negotiators and negotiation teachers may better manage this paradox through mindfulness and other techniques.     

States,Nations, and Territorial Stability: Why Chinese Hegemony Would Be Better for International Order

How would a hegemonic China shape international norms related to states, nations, and territoriality? Scholars have noted the conflict between the right of minority nations to self-determine and the right of states to maintain their territorial integrity. An unrestricted application of the former would risk considerable state fragmentation; an unconditional acceptance of the latter would condemn stateless nations to a subordinate status. Powerful actors like the United States have attempted to navigate these norms by specifying the conditions under which one norm should take precedence over the other, but such decisions are difficult to make in an international environment that lacks consensus, and the result is an ambiguous international order where conflict is common. I analyze the future of these norms in a Chinese-led international order, explaining why China would champion territorial integrity over self-determination, and why this would be better for territorial stability.     

The Paradox of American Unipolarity: Why the United States May Be Better Off in a Post-Unipolar World

The decline in the United States’ relative position is in part a consequence of the burdens and susceptibilities produced by unipolarity. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the U.S. position both internationally and domestically may actually be strengthened once this period of unipolarity has passed.