The Ascendance of Political Islam: Hamas and consolidation in the Gaza Strip

This article outlines the means by which the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas has developed and implemented a consolidation of power strategy that is inexorably driving it to a state of increasingly authoritarian control in the Gaza Strip. It discusses the factors that have driven Hamas in terms of power seeking as primordial to all radical Islamist movements or as a result of or response to other factors outside its control. The article highlights the concurrent demise of the Fatah organisation in the Gaza Strip as the largest and most visible symbol of secularism. It then reflects on the role of external, including international, actors in accelerating consolidation tactics following the Hamas ‘takeover’ of power from the Fatah-dominated institutions of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in June 2007. The article aims to demonstrate that Hamas' control in Gaza is an important signpost in terms of developing Islamism in the Middle East region.     

Inflation targeting at the crossroads: Evidence from post-communist economies during the crisis

The objective of this paper is to assess if inflation targeting post-communist economies performed better, in terms of output growth, during the crisis than their non-inflation targeting counterparts. The paper also puts the issue in the context of the preconditions of inflation targeters to adopt this regime. 26 post-communist economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are analyzed during the ongoing economic crisis. Results suggest that inflation targeters of those countries performed worse than non-inflation targeters. The growth decline in inflation targeters post-communist economies has been estimated to be deeper by about four percentage points than that in non-inflation targeters. The study finds very limited role of the preconditions for growth decline. Only the lower amount of monetary financing of the budget may have contributed in inflation-targeting countries to have gone through the crisis better.     

从社民党到民左联党:波兰左翼政治力量演变的基本轨迹

在剧变后波兰左翼阵营中,由原统一工人党演变而来的社民党占据着特别重要的地位,发挥了中坚作用。以社民党为核心的民左联不仅顶住了来自右翼的打压,而且赢得了总统和议会大选的全面胜利,波兰因此成为东欧地区“左翼复兴”的领头羊。1999年,民左联党的建立是波兰左翼政治力量发展的重要里程碑。然而,新的统一政党的成立实际上具有双重效应,在壮大左翼整体力量的同时,又对左翼未来的发展产生了一定的负面影响。从社民党到民左联党及其后的演变,实际上勾勒出波兰左翼政治力量发展的基本轨迹。     

Globalising cities at the crossroads of migration: Puebla,Tijuana and Monterrey

This article is part of a larger project that focuses in part on the migration dynamics in large Mexican metropolitan areas or globalising cities. In particular, it develops a comparative analysis of the urbanised region of Puebla-Tlaxcala, the metropolis of Monterrey and Tijuana. All three metropolitan areas are important industrial centres that attract rural–urban as well as interstate migrations. Moreover, these urban centres are situated at routes used by migrants from Central and South America to get to the US. Yet, despite the increasing impact of migration(s) on urban areas, very little is known about its characteristics and municipal authorities have not identified inward or transmigration as issues of political importance. For our analysis we intend to map the different migrations through addressing the following question: How are migrations transforming the urban areas of Monterrey, Tijuana and Puebla-Tlaxcala and how are they inserted in and contributing to urban assemblages in these metropolitan zones? For this particular article we have chosen three distinct migratory groups to contrast: Germans in Puebla-Tlaxcala, Haitians in Tijuana and Indigenous populations in Monterrey.     

Regional councils of governments at the crossroads: implications for intergovernmental management and networks

Councils of governments (COGS) have been subjected to powerful forces of change in the 1980s, due principally to drastic reductions in federal financial support. To survive, the councils have had to become more entrepreneural, to extend themselves in new directions They have scanned their local and regional task environments intensively for opportunities to form and/or join new networks and to provide more services in traditional and in new areas. The new style of council is described in this paper, using a market model. The model emphasizes opportunistic scanning of the regional task environment, and the assessment of issue networks as an iterative process in COG direction setting and implementation efforts.     

Japan's central administration at the crossroads: increasing public demand for deregulation,decentralization and de-bureaucratization

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)singlehandedly governed Japan for over thirty eight years until June 1993. Under the semipermanent conservative governance, central agencies have assumed a major role in making Japanese big businesses expand and become one of the leading players in the international economy. Nonetheless, many Japanese doubt the role and function of Japan's central administration. They believe that the central government has been excessively involved in economic affairs. For them, governmental meddling in private business is detrimental to the health of Japanese society. Reflecting these public outcries, the government finally enacted an important law, The Law for the Promotion of Decentralization, on May 15, 1995. While much still remains to be clear, this may become a significant threshold for Japan's administrative reform. It may perhaps help introduce a new paradigm to Japan's producer oriented social environment.     

Islam and Toleration: Studying the Ottoman Imperial Model

This article explores the relationship between religion and politics in the context of the recent debates on Islam and religious fundamentalism. I argue that too much attention is paid to the theological issues of Islam, and that we should rather focus on the historical conditions that tend to produce religious tolerance or intolerance. I use the Ottoman Empire as an example of a polity that succeeded in maintaining religious and ethnic toleration for the tremendous diversity it encountered within its frontiers. I analyze the specific relationship between the Ottoman state and Islam, the subordination of religion to the state, the dual role of religion as an institution and a system of beliefs as well as the intricacies of the millet system. I conclude that the particular relationship that was forged between religion and politics during the first four centuries of the empire promoted religious openness and toleration.     

让美丽三亚放飞世界——"世界海南青少年冬令营"赠书活动的启示

加强文化建设,提高三亚文化软实力,不仅有利于增强三亚市民和国外华侨、华人的凝聚力和创造力,也有利于国外投资者与三亚在旅游经济的交流中开展合作,进而不断增强三亚区域的竞争力、吸引力,推动三亚走向世界.     

Under construction and highly contested: Islam in the post-Soviet Caucasus

While scholarship on Islam in the Caucasus has focused on the late Soviet religious revival – the rise of Salafi jihadism and religious radicalisation in the northern part of these strategic crossroads – no study to date has addressed the discursive struggle over the social functions of regional Islam. This article deconstructs these discourses in order to examine the very varying, and often conflicting, representations of Islam advocated by various actors across the region and within particular republics. The article highlights the contested functions of regional Islam against the background of a religious revival that is still a work in progress.