论“金砖国家”的国际影响力及其制约因素

“金砖国家”从一个商业概念演变为一个国际机制有着深刻的背景。“金砖国家”的崛起不仅大大提升了发展中国家在世界格局中的地位,使得西方主导的战后国际秩序进入一个历史转折点,而且有利于世界经济政治发展模式的多样化和国际关系的民主化。“金砖国家”应冷静和理性地看待西方国家对新兴国家整体性崛起的疑虑,并对“金砖国家”自身存在的问题和制约因素有足够清醒的认识。     

技术轴心时代(上)--《后工业社会的来临》1999年版前言

著名社会学家、哈佛大学教授丹尼尔·贝尔的《后工业社会的来临》一书初版于 1 973年 (中译本于 1 997年由新华出版社出版 )。 1 999年出版了一个特别纪念版 ,作者新写了长篇前言。前言总结了自该书第一版以来西方社会的新发展。其中的材料对我们研究西方社会的变化应有助益 ,其观点亦可借鉴。经作者授权译出发表。文章中的一段经作者同意未译出 ,其他原文照译。文中注解除了特别说明者外 ,均为原文所有。译文拟分两期连载。翻译过程中 ,美国土伦大学JamesDerleth教授给了许多帮助 ;《休伦港宣言》介绍由中国社会科学院周穗明教授提供。在此一并致谢。     

The Development Mandate of International Institutions: Where Did it Come From?

What was the origin of the commitment of international institutions to promote economic development in poorer countries? A popular view in “post-development” scholarship has been that this international development project was born with Truman’s Point Four program of 1949. This article suggests instead that it emerged for the first time in a significant way out of the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, with US-Latin American relations in the early 1940s acting as a key incubator for this innovation in international governance. This historical reinterpretation leads to a different view of the initial content of the international development project and the politics that generated it. It also challenges those who have downplayed the significance of the development content of the Bretton Woods negotiations.     

The Danger of Global Austerity

The United States accuses China of subsidizing its entire export economy through artificially undervaluing its currency. China accuses the United States of fiscal profligacy while flooding the world with easy credit to keep its economy afloat. This dispute reflects the reality that the world's two largest economies are built on opposite dynamics of production and savings vs. consumerism and debt. In Europe, the wages of unsustainable debt that financed the welfare state have also come due. Rebalancing the global economy in this context is not only a matter of fixing exchange or interest rates and extending the retirement age. It must also involve a recalibration of democracy in both East and West. Two Nobel economists, the Greek prime minister, a ranking Chinese economist and the former chief economist of the IMF address these issues.     

The End of the Age of Empire

The article was adapted from a keynote address given at the conference “1989 and Beyond” at the New School for Social Research, New York City, April 2008.     

The Global Information Infrastructure Revisited

Ideally, the internet will eventually evolve into a global information infrastructure, which, by creating a global information marketplace, will narrow the poverty gap and eliminate many of the existing geographic barriers to prosperity and equality. On the other hand, there is a risk that the internet will concentrate economic activity among the richer countries and thus accentuate the existing divisions between North and South. Which of these scenarios is the more likely will depend to a large extent on whether developing countries are able to gain access to low-cost forms of information technology. Using numerous examples of such technology that already exist in the Third World, we conclude that there is in fact more scope for optimism regarding the Global Information Infrastructure than is commonly realised.     

The Central Paradox of the Digital Age

Civilizations are mortal. Some rise to meet their challenges, others collapse and disappear into history. Why do some posses the capacity to change, and others not? Jared Diamond warns that the Anthropocentric Age, in which the human species for the first time is the dominant influence on the planet, could end up like the extinct Maya, terminating our civilization's accomplishments if we don't squarely face our ecological challenges. Bruce Mau, like Alvin Toffler, sees hope in the “distributed power” enabled by new technologies. Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt examine the paradoxes of the digital age which has transformed how we live our lives in every respect.     

走近印度古城--戈尔康达城堡

印度是四大文明古国之一,历史遗迹比比皆是,就象散落的珍珠,远看星星点点,近看粒粒闪光.安得拉邦首府海德拉巴的戈尔康达城堡就是其中一颗耀眼的珍珠.