Reviews and Commentary

Managing the secret war in Laos

Timothy N. Castle: At War in the Shadow of Vietnam, U.S. Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government, 1955–1975. Columbia University Press, New York, 1993,257 p., $15.00 p.b.

The angry intriguer with a marble pulse

Albert Glotzer

Lars T. Lih, Oleg V. Naumov, and Oleg V. Khlevniuk, eds.: Stalin's Letters to Molotov, 1925–1936

Yale University Press, New Haven, 1995, 276 p., $25.00.

The NKVD in Spain

Herbert Romerstein: Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War The Council for the Defense of Freedom, Washington, DC, 1994, 127 p., $7.95 (paper).     

Commentary

Commentary

Commentary     

The Gun Control Debate: Why Experience and Culture Matters

The article revisits the gun control debate policy comparing the varied and diverse perspectives and viewpoints held by both the culturalist and empiricist, pro-gun society and gun less society on how the gun debate may be properly resolved through a pragmatic approach of policy-making- putting emphasis on culture, experience and observation with regards to gun control. In the process of employing an idea-based coalition approach and argumentative discourse analysis towards the brewing gun control debate, the article consequently realizes the convergent role of both cultural worldviews and public opinion plays at the very heart of deliberation on gun debate.     

当代美国少年法庭的存废之争

19世纪初期的美国,对犯罪少年、受忽略的少年以及流浪街头的少年的处置与成年罪犯是一样的。后来出现的各种少年救助运动是少年法庭诞生的前奏和准备，尽管现代学者一般认为早期的救助少年者主要是为了自身的利益而不是出于慈爱。1900年美国少年法庭的设立开创了少年司法制度的新纪元，该法庭以关心、爱护并矫治失足少年为宗旨。然而，随着少年暴力犯罪率的增长，严厉惩罚犯罪少年的呼声越来越高，少年案件诉讼“成人化”的特征越来越明显，撤销少年法庭的呼声也出现了，并且该呼声越来越高。但同时，少年法庭的支持者也大有人在，他们主张应该对少年法庭保留与完善。     

“经典路径”与国际关系理论建构——对国际关系学科史上“第二次论战”的再思考

长期以来,学界对国际关系学科史上的第二次论战存在误解,实质上这场论战围绕如何对国际关系进行理论化概括展开,经典路径和科学路径的信奉者分别构建了不同形态的国际关系理论。经典路径构建的理论是一种哲理性思想,它由一系列有关国际关系且彼此间密切联系的普遍性命题构成,其重点是展示对国际关系中心问题的哲理思考;科学路径构建的理论是一种简洁的理论模型,它由一整套彼此联系且清晰扼要的假说组成,其重点是揭示特定研究领域的组织原则和内在逻辑。两种形态的理论各有特殊价值,难以相互取代。科学路径在理论构建过程中离不开经典路径的思维工具,这有助于破除以单一的实证主义标准来衡量理论合理性的观念。     

Russia as a New Immigration Country: Policy Response and Public Debate

Both the Russian public and its elites were taken by surprise by the fact that Russia has become an immigration country. It has resulted in widespread anti-immigrant sentiments and inconsistency in government actions. Russian immigration politics, as well as immigration politics in liberal democracies of the West, are characterised by a wavering between protectionist and liberal laissez faire approaches. This leads to a mismatch between public rhetoric and legal decisions. However, two features seem to make the Russian situation specific: open borders with most of the countries of the former Soviet Union and omnipresent corruption. Corruption results in a discrepancy between formal (legal) decisions and informal (illegal) practices.     

量刑答辩在未成年人刑事案件庭审中适用的几点思考

在未成年人刑事案件审理过程中,未成年被告人的量刑相对于成年人而言,更具有其特殊性,所涉及到的量刑因素,除法律规定的以外,还涉及到未成年人犯罪的家庭因素、社会因素等,也较成年人更复杂,量刑幅度较成年被告人更不好把握；同时为了有利于挽救失足未成年人,对未成年被告人适用非监禁刑的比例较高。如何在量刑及适用刑罚上更有利于教育挽救未成年被告人,是值得探索和思考的问题。在未成年刑事案件庭审中适用量刑答辩,既必要,也可行。