The Ankara Consensus: Islamists,Kemalists, and Why Turkey's Nationalism Remains Overlooked

Over the past decade scholarly consensus has moved away from viewing turmoil in Turkey as a product of religious–cultural incompatibility with modernization. Instead, scholars have shown that the rise of an Islamic elite has expanded democracy in Turkey, while often vexing the secularist elite. This article reviews the most important of the new scholarship, but criticizes it for inheriting the assumption that all events in Turkey somehow hinge upon Islamist–secularist antagonism. Alternatively, insights from sociology are employed to argue that domestic Turkish discord is intimately related to industrialization and democratization, and that excessive attention to supposedly religious conflict blinds much contemporary scholarship to the intolerant Sunni-Turkish nationalism cultivated by the Turkish state.     

巴美关系为何日渐疏远?

冷战时期,巴基斯坦是美国抵抗苏联势力南下的"前线国家",两国关系密切.冷战后,巴基斯坦在美南亚战略中的地位骤降,双方在核问题、塔利班等问题上分歧日深,渐行渐远.本文分析了巴美关系变化的原因及发展趋势.     

The New Research on Civil Wars: Does It Help Us Understand the Colombian Conflict?

The article synthesizes contributions from the recent comparative research on civil war and the case‐specific literature on Colombia to argue that too often, commentators on this conflict overlook some of its key dimensions. A comprehensive analysis shows that no fewer than six factors are fueling violent conflict in Colombia: economic forces, state weakness, landscape, U.S. policies, long‐duration and spin‐off violence, and malicious opportunism by non‐combatants. The first three are the ones that matter most. The case made here is that when analysts disregard the range and interrelat‐edness of the factors involved, the result is a distortion of reality and a tendency to support policies that will not enhance the prospects for peace.     

Civil Liberties vs. Security: Why Citizens Accept or Reject Digital Security Measures

Fundamental changes to security policy in European democracies raise the question of the acceptance of new security measures. This paper aims to explain why new measures are accepted (or not). It combines three core elements that are typically analysed separately in the literature: individual attitudes (especially trust), social context and cost/benefit balancing. Comparing Germany and the UK, the model is tested using data from two countries with different societal perceptions of two prototypical security measures: communications data retention and passenger name records. The analysis confirms that trust is crucial, but in a more complex way than usually argued. Trust in specific institutions and actors, related to the specific security measure, is decisive for acceptance. Furthermore, individual cost/benefit balancing is also important for acceptance. Consequently, our model shows that a more detailed analysis than in former studies is needed for understanding the acceptance of security measures in European democracies such as Germany and the UK.     

Weapons of Mass Destruction: Major Wars,Regional Conflicts,and Terrorism

The twentieth century saw the creation and development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD): nuclear, chemical, and biological. In the following article, Ryukichi Imai, distinguished research fellow at the Institute for International Policy Studies and visiting professor at Kyorin University, Japan, describes the history of WMD and the international treaties that have been negotiated on their non-proliferation. He focuses on the history of the nuclear bomb from its first tests, to the nuclear arms race and the subsequent deterrence. He goes on to examine the issues surrounding the nuclear hot-spots of South Asia and North Korea, as well as the feasibility and effects of chemical and biological weapons. He argues that the suicide plane attacks on 11 September changed the very concept of WMD and that any future threat of a mass destruction is likely to come from terrorists beyond the reach of governments.     

印度大选:结果何以如此?

2004年5月13日公布的印度大选结果令人颇感意外.雄心勃勃的执政党印度人民党败北,稳扎稳打的国大党胜出.这一结果似乎有悖于全国民主联盟执政时的"辉煌"成绩.本文从影响选举的七个主要因素,即政党的政绩或历史、政党的施政纲领、施政纲领或口号的传播程度、利益集团与捐献额度、投票手段、个人魅力及政党联盟等出发,并结合印度的政治制度等具体背景,对印度的选举结果进行了分析.     

中国和平崛起:何以能与何以为

在人类历史上相继出现了"全面对立与冲突,对内剥削压迫、对外侵略扩张";"局部的和平共处,西方国家共同发展";"共同发展范围的扩大,依附发达国家技术与市场"等三种崛起和振兴模式之后,中国的崛起历史性地创造了"全面和谐与合作,与发达国家和发展中国家协同发展"的第四种模式.与美国霸道地将它的发展理念与模式推向全球的做法不同,中国倡导和而不同,坚持发展理和模式的多样性.中国的崛起将推动东亚地区现有的垂直分工格局朝水平分工方向发展,带动周边国家共同繁荣.     

Civil society in Georgia: expectations versus reality

Academic analysts, political commentators and activists in Georgia are almost unanimous in their assessment that the public in Georgia is generally passive, civil society is weak, and that this may be one of the key reasons why Georgia – despite numerous democratic openings – keeps failing to consolidate its democratic institutions. In order to measure the strengths and weaknesses of Georgian civil society, the present article uses interviews with respondents from the Georgian non-governmental organization sector and academia on two areas: (a) citizen participation: to what extent is civic participation in the public sphere aimed at advancing shared interests and (b) influence on policy-making: to what extent is Georgian civil society able to foster popular influence on political and economic developments. This paper applies the concept of delegative democracy to contemporary developments in Georgia, and argues that one of the major factors which contribute to this trend in Georgia is a weak civil society and, therefore, a lack of intermediary institutions to safeguard democratic norms.     

Existential Terrorism: Civil Society and its Enemies

This paper explores the attitude of contemporary terrorism towards civil society, the intermediate realm between the family and the state that accommodates the free play of economic and cultural forces and individual and group interests. Terrorism now targets not only people and institutions that operate within civil society but civil society itself, i.e., terrorism increasingly targets the very possibility of an autonomous realm of everyday life. This tendency is found in the Islamism of Al‐Qaeda, but also in any group that adheres to the “Augustinian paradigm” of civil society that arose in the West and dominates radical ideologies. An exploration of this situation illuminates both the nature and tactics of contemporary terrorism and the role of civil society itself.     

Trust: Why and How Historians Should Study It

Recent scholarship has examined the decline of trust between citizens and the elected representatives, which is seemingly a hallmark of contemporary Western democracies. But the problem is not new. This study draws on newspaper accounts to trace the accumulation and erosion of trust in the Scullin federal Labor government, during its early months. Elected on 12 October 1929, James Scullin's government was expected to resolve the long‐running New South Wales’ miners’ strike; his deputy, E.G. Theodore, promised Labor would return the miners to work on pre‐stoppage conditions. The promise was undeliverable. The lockout dragged on through Scullin's first months in office, with the miners refusing to work on reduced wages and the government unable to deliver on Theodore's pledge. By the end of January 1930, the government's trust relations with its core constituency had unraveled. This case study illustrates how trust is made and unmade through complex relations between individuals, and between individuals and institutions.     

Battleground: Why the Liberal Party Shirtfronted Tony Abbott

Battleground: Why the Liberal Party Shirtfronted Tony Abbott. By Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2015), pp.277. AU$29.99 (pb).     

The Japanese legal system: Why many Americans fail

In the United States, a businessperson can operate within the familiar framework of American law, relying on a legal expert only for the relevant specifics. However, because the historical background, modern usage, and basic logical structure of the Japanese legal system differs so completely from American expected norms, this simple acquaintance with the law is insufficient in Japan. The failure of the American trans-Pacific business community to acquaint itself adequately with the unique Japanese legal system has contributed to America’s inability to penetrate Japanese markets, the default of many business ventures, and ultimately to the decline of America’s economic status relative to Japan.