Playing the “Game” of Transparency and Accountability: Non-elite Politics in Kyrgyzstan’s Natural Resource Governance

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates the role of non-elites in the struggle for transparency and accountability in Kyrgyzstan’s mining sector. Most existing accounts foreground elite strategies and political machines in the governance of post-Soviet societies. Drawing on recent anthropological work on post-Soviet politics and applying it critically to the literature on neopatrimonialism, this article sheds light on the adoption of political game strategies by community members (non-elites) to advance their interests and challenge elite dominance within the case study’s mining communities. This finding responds to recent calls to interrogate the activities of non-elites at the margins of neopatrimonial contexts. The article advances a research agenda on how practices by non-elites shape the multiple meanings and enactments of transparency and accountability by elites in natural resource governance. It also points to the need to explore how and why “communities” exert their “agency” in governing natural resources within post-Soviet contexts.     

The Tibetan Self-Immolations as Counter-Securitization: Towards an Inter-Unit Theory of Securitization

This article argues that the Tibetan self-immolations constitute a form of counter-securitization to China’s securitization of the 2008 Tibetan uprising. Theoretically, it argues that securitization theory (1) is too focused on the intra-unit interaction between securitizing elites and audiences, (2) leaves the inter-unit dynamics underdeveloped, and (3) fails to recognize the securitized “other” as an audience. This article theorizes the linkage between unit-level and inter-unit processes by exploiting three concepts: inter-discursivity, identity, and emergency measures. Contrary to existing theories, it shows that even unsuccessful securitizing moves can set off counter-securitizations thanks to audience overlap and inter-discursivity. The Sino-Tibetan interactions around the Tibetan self-immolations uphold these theoretical positions.     

Is Irrigationalism a Dominant Ideology in Securing Hydrotopia in Mekong Nation States?

ABSTRACT

For over six decades, grandiose proposals calling for significant expansion of public irrigation schemes have been commonplace throughout the Mekong region, irrespective of the political configuration or developmental stage of each state. From Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea to Thailand’s military and quasi-democratic regimes, irrigation has figured prominently on development agendas. Mainstream narratives around irrigation are embedded in a technocentric, developmental and nationalistic discourse, incorporating socially pre-conditioned beliefs and values that closely reflect the rhetoric of state-linked elites. This article critically examines some of the narratives employed by key actors and groups to justify ongoing practices and processes of irrigation development, focusing on Thailand and Cambodia. It seeks to look beyond conventional econometric and instrumental drivers, to consider other socio-political factors that may account for irrigation’s critical role as a “technology of control,” but which are rarely examined across comparative national contexts. Further, it proposes a dominant ideology of irrigation developmentalism or “irrigationalism” as a useful concept in explaining certain aspects of contemporary social power in these nations. State-led irrigation may be perceived as a utopian intervention that aids in the emergence of an effective monopolistic authority and control by bureaucracies and other powerful groups over development decision-making processes and silencing opposition.     

Globalization,education, and the politics of identity in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

This essay examines a resurgent interest in “regionness” as a response to globalization, and it looks at how governments and citizens have participated in the discourse on forging a new Asia-Pacific community that has developed over the past fifteen years. Part one distinguishes between “regionalization” and “regionalism” as competing visions for the construction of a future Asia-Pacific community. Regionalization, the dominant paradigm during the postcolonial period, centers on interstate forums dominated by officially recognized political and economic elites who seek interstate cooperation in order to protect state interests, state power, and national identity from foreign as well as domestic challenges. Regionalism, as an alternative paradigm, envisions the creation of transnational networks inclusive of nonofficial actors, whose identification with a particular state and set of national interests does not preclude the creation of a regional identity (or identities) and support for regional interests. Part two considers the challenges that regionalism poses for the nation-state and its leadership. It does so by highlighting the pressure for reform that globalization has brought to bear upon one particular institution that theorists of nationalism have long identified as central to the perpetuation of national identity, national unity, and state authority: schooling. Part three assesses the current prospects for such reforms by briefly examining recent educational developments in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore.     

“地缘政治欧洲”:欧盟力量的地缘政治转向?

新一届欧盟委员会明确将自己定位为“地缘政治欧委会”,预示着欧盟对外政策出现地缘政治转向,“地缘政治欧洲”或将成为欧盟力量的新标签。“地缘政治欧洲”的定位,是对此前欧盟作为“民事力量”“规范力量”和“联系力量”的补充和修正。基于对自身地缘敏感性与脆弱性的新认知,加强欧盟在地缘政治世界中的力量已成为欧洲政治精英的共识。“地缘政治欧洲”包含内外双层地缘结构,不仅要加强军事力量,向陆权倾斜,还要巩固内部堡垒,强化欧洲地缘政治参与者的主体性与空间性,工具化欧盟经济力量,加大数字与技术、基础设施领域的竞争。中国应重视“地缘政治欧洲”的回归,主动调整对欧方略,推动中欧战略对接。     

Singapore: The Limits of a Technocratic Approach to Health Care

Being a tiny, easily managed polity run by Western-educated technocrats, Singapore is an ideal laboratory for those who believe that there is a “logical” answer to the problem of health-care funding in economically advanced societies. Certainly the ruling elite in this not-very-democratic country is convinced that Singapore is the epitome of a rational, technocratic state in which rule is based on supposedly impartial, objective criteria. The government's achievements in the delivery of health care are at the forefront of its showcase of technocratic achievements. This article uses the Singapore government's innovations in health-care funding as a case study to explore and test the limitations of trying to apply purist technocratic premises and methodologies to governance. The limitations it uncovers raise the question of whether a technocratic approach to governance can ever deliver the promised results and suggests that the attraction of “technocracy” is a chimera.     

Governing the Safety and Security of the Malacca Strait: The Nippon Foundation between States and Industry

ABSTRACT

Despite long-standing sovereignty sensitivities, the Malacca and Singapore Straits have been the site of co-operative governance and regime building. Of note is the 2007 Co-operative Mechanism of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, characterised as a milestone achievement in regional co-operation towards improved safety and security in the Straits. Yet, well before the Co-operative Mechanism were also earlier instances of co-operation dating to the 1970s – specifically between the Straits’ littoral states under a tripartite framework and Japanese actors through the Malacca Strait Council. In addition to providing a template for the Co-operative Mechanism, these arrangements offer alternative models of governance and regime building that challenge conventional characterisations of “regional governance” – what it looks like, as well as its driving actors. This article considers the significance of these early efforts, with attention to the ways that the region’s developmental context bears on the actors, structures and processes of governance in Southeast Asia. Not only does this historical process of co-operation give expression to alternative governing arrangements composed of mixed actors and obligations, but an unconventional governance agent – the Nippon Foundation – has played an especially defining role in bringing actors to the table and substantiating the co-operative process.     

Allegories of Venice: Singapore’s Vague Concept of a Global City

This paper argues that although the state elites of Singapore use “Venice” as an image to legitimate the People’s Action Party’s continuous rule and unpopular immigration policies, the image has both empowered and constrained the state. To the state, Venice serves as a keyword that conjures up dynamism, progress, and continuity; to its critics, however, Venice signals the state’s willingness to focus on the intangible elements of nationhood, namely culture and the arts. These critics use the ambiguities of the Venice rhetoric to legitimate their own appeals for change, especially after discovering that the “shared vision” of Venice is mainly in economic terms. By so doing, detractors of the state contest the centrality of economics in the making of modern—and future—Singapore, rendering the use of “Venice” as an image to promote the concept of a Global City problematic.     

After neoliberal globalization

This article traces the “securitization” of U.S. foreign economic policy in the administration of George W. Bush. It does so with reference to U.S. economic policy in East and Southeast Asia. It argues that in the context of U.S. economic and military preponderance in the world order, the United States has been unable to resist the temptation to link foreign economic and security policy. While there was evidence of the securitization of economic globalization in U.S. policy from day one of the Bush administration, it was 9/11 that firmed up this trend. For the key members of the Bush foreign policy team, globalization is now seen not simply in neoliberal economic terms, but also through the lenses of the national security agenda of the United States. Economic globalization is now not only a benefit but also a “security problem.” The attacks on 9/11 offered the opportunity for what we might call the “unilateralist-idealists” in the Bush administration, to set in train their project for a post-sovereign approach to U.S. foreign policy.     

APEC,globalization, and 9/11

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) has, in the main, been based on attempts to advance neoliberal ideas about economic governance, although this has stimulated a great deal of controversy and resistance. Having failed—despite much effort—to entrench neoliberalism within APEC the United States and other “Western” members of APEC are now “securitizing” economic policy in an effort to reconfigure the Asia Pacific along lines favored by major capitalist players in the region. Critics argue that this securitization of economics is simply a tactical effort to bring in through the back door policies that APEC members have resisted in the past. Faced with the prospect of not getting its own way through straight trade negotiations within APEC, Washington appears to be promoting measures — “urgently needed in the name of security”—that might never have been accepted otherwise. At the same time, a twin strategy of pursuing bilateral trade negotiations with key APEC states is threatening the multilateral nature of the body, further emasculating APEC's position as a serious trade body.     

区域治理视域下的东盟环境问题

环境问题是区域治理的重要组成部分.20世纪80年代以来,环境问题已成为影响东盟社会经济可持续发展的重要因素之一,平衡经济增长与环境的可持续性成为东盟必须认真考虑解决的问题.为应对日益恶化的环境问题,东盟建立了不少合作机制,签署了若干宣言、倡议和协定,并积极与域外国家和环境组织开展合作,然而治理成效还是有限.从东盟存在的环境问题、合作机制和面临的挑战来看,制约东盟环境治理成效的因素,既有东盟层面的,也有东盟成员国层面的.东盟的环境治理尚未摆脱以国家为核心的传统治理模式,区域间缺乏有效的协调与合作,导致治理成效不佳.其中,"东盟方式"是最大的障碍,如何突破"不干涉成员国内政"这一原则的限制,将是东盟环境合作能否取得成效的关键.东盟治理能力的缺陷和缺乏有效的危机应急管理机制、区域意识淡薄、区域合作治理意志与决心不强、集体行动迟缓,说明东盟仍只是一个松散的国家集团.因此,如何协调政治—安全、经济、社会一文化三大支柱之间的关系,实现经济与环境的可持续发展,东盟还有很长的路要走.     

俄罗斯网络空间治理 ——以互联网政治为视角

随着信息技术的发展和广泛应用,互联网成为人们互动的特殊空间,民众表达社会情绪、产生多元舆论的新场所,对传统政治形成新挑战。2011年以来,俄罗斯互联网快速发展,互联网政治给俄罗斯传统政治带来的挑战致使俄罗斯网络空间治理的形势愈加严峻;2018年12月俄罗斯在刻赤海峡与乌克兰发生冲突后被要挟断网,该事件使俄罗斯深刻地认识到没有网络安全就没有国家安全。在此背景下,为有效应对国内外互联网安全出现的挑战,俄罗斯政府采取战略战术相结合的思路,从顶层设计入手,借助完善法律法规、管理机制等多种手段,构建出较为完备的互联网空间治理体系。俄罗斯互联网空间的治理手段主次鲜明、有管有控,其在互联网治理理念以及管理方式上具有独到之处,值得深入研究,具有借鉴意义。未来,俄罗斯将继续从立法、技术和国际合作三个层面解决治理困境,有效规避互联网政治对国家安全带来的消极影响。     

Securitizing “spiritual-moral values” in Russia

This article examines how “spiritual-moral values” (SMV) became securitized, or defined as a matter of national security in Russia. I analyze speech acts to show how moves to securitize SMV spread from the political fringe to the center of power, and from individual sectors to the strategic level. This “moral turn” in Russian politics is not merely a superficial attempt of the elite to distract the masses and rally the conservative electorate. The securitization of SMV has wider implications: It is, in the most direct way, the regime’s way of preventing a “color revolution.” By introducing a “state of siege” to the sphere of fundamental moral values, this securitization aids the construction of a national identity that is incompatible with basic human rights. An existential threat is constructed in order to justify extraordinary measures and establish a new social contract in which modernization is sacrificed at the altar of security.     

Imagining Islam in Kosovo - The social construction of the Kosovar Muslim subject among European political actors

ABSTRACT

Despite being a Muslim-majority society, Kosovo increasingly securitizes practising Muslims by politicizing the ostentatiously pious among them as a threat to Europe’s security and Kosovar identity. Given the EU’s significant discursive and political power in Kosovo, this article pursues the question of how European representatives conceive of pious Kosovar Muslims, and whether this image might explain their securitization. On the basis of 24 semi-structured interviews with various European officials conducted in 2018, I argue that they predominantly imagine pious Kosovar Muslims as influenced by foreign powers through indoctrination, material incentives or appeals to identity, which does condone their securitization. However, this image is in fact shaped by local Kosovar elites who instil such conceptions in European officials because such an image helps them in the pursuit of their own political agendas. The article exposes the intricate mechanism and power relations that underlie this process of policy-relevant knowledge production.     

“五微共享、五联共治”:基层党建引领社会治理的实践探索——以南京建邺区江心洲街道为例

基层党建在构建符合城市特色的基层社会治理体系中发挥着重要作用,是推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要任务。在基层党组织的引导下,南京市江心洲街道抓住“中新国际生态科技岛”建设的机遇,创造性地进行了具有江心洲特色的“五微共享、五联共治”基层党建引领社会治理的探索。系统阐述“五微”“五联”的基本内涵,总结出其在职能定位、结构优化、机制整合和赋权保障方面的经验做法,并进一步探索现代化社区建设中党建智能化与社会治理深度融合的启示,具有较强的现实意义和借鉴价值。     

Becoming a “Good Nixon Doctrine Country”: Political Relations between the United States and Singapore during the Nixon Presidency

The Nixon Doctrine, which devolved US troops from direct involvement in Asian conflicts but gave priority to military sales and economic assistance, was considered by some commentators to be an inefficacious foreign policy approach that did little to serve US interests in Asia during the Cold War. Using Singapore as a case study, this article demonstrates that Richard Nixon's foreign policy approach improved US‐Singapore relations significantly from 1970 onwards. After a period of flirtation with the Soviet Union during 1968–72, Singapore came to be labelled a “good Nixon Doctrine country” by the US government in 1973. Through the sale of US military equipment and economic assistance, Singapore and the US cultivated bilateral ties that endured after the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in 1973 and the fall of Saigon two years later.     

The Web as a Marginalizing Technology: The structure of web-based resources on South Asia

Abstract

The World Wide Web (WWW), a potentially non-hierarchical and open mode of information presentation and sharing based on hyperlinked text, has emerged over the last few years as the most celebrated form of information access in most countries that have a well-developed telecommunications infrastructure. From the time—not long ago—when the word “internet” would produce confused looks, we have come to a time in which the terms “Internet” and “World Wide Web” are virtually synonymous and instantly understood. Much of the Web is in the process of becoming one huge overpowering corporate resource, but even in the midst of this commercial inundation, progressive political organizers and a broad swath of progressive organizations around the world have also begun utilizing the Web both for broadcasting and for collecting information.     

Editor's Note: Special Feature – China,India, and the Future of Great-Power Politics

Abstract

This review essay is based upon Shuja Nawaz' Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within and Ayesha Siddiqa's Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy. Based upon these two author's insightful volumes, this essay explores the roles of both military and civilian actors and institutions in the undermining of Pakistan's constitutional rule of law. While conventional wisdom places the onus disproportionately upon the military's penchant for interventionism, this review essay contends that the army has intervened only with the active assistance of civilian institutions which are subsequently further eroded with every military takeover. Thus any long-term solution to democratize Pakistan must focus both upon the army's presumed “right” and “obligation” to intervene in Pakistan's political system while simultaneously strengthening and professionalizing those civilian institutions needed for providing good governance with accountability.     

Beneath the Eagle's Wings? The Political Economy of Northeast Asian Burden-Sharing in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines Japanese and South Korean host-nation support (HNS) policies toward American forces deployed in those two countries from a comparative perspective. It finds that both countries provide substantial support for US forces, contrary to the expectations of collective action theory and the assumptions of many international relations theorists about free-riding. Northeast Asian HNS support tends to be both quantitatively substantial and to involve an unusually elaborate range of common support programs, thus constituting a distinctive Northeast Asian model of “burden-sharing.” The specific programs supporting US forces in these two countries were generally designed by local politicians and bureaucrats, with only minimal input from the US, albeit under American pressure. They were implemented in discontinuous fashion, at critical junctures, as during the Gulf War and the first Korean nuclear crisis. These results thus provide useful elaboration of “reactive state” and “critical juncture” interpretations of how East Asian policymaking relates to domestic and international politics.     

Japan as an Active Agent for Global Norms: The Political Dynamism Behind the Acceptance and Promotion of “Human Security”

Japan has shaped a distinct human security policy based on evolving policy preferences of successive domestic political leaders and the gradual assimilation of external norms into its own foreign policy. Independent experts have played a particularly significant role in advising Japanese policy elites on how human security could be used by Japan to become an “intellectual leader” within the United Nations and other relevant institutions. This article explores those processes that occurred in the early phase of norm acceptance on the part of key Japanese policy actors and change agents in Japan from the late 1990s through 2003. It argues that human security has served as an effective approach for Japan to establish itself as a more independent foreign policy actor in contemporary international politics.