Clean Energy Development and China’s Climate Change Bargaining Position:Industry Policy,Innovation and Business Power

<正>This paper analyses developments in China's climate change diplomacy from the perspective of business power and conflict theory.It does so by:(i) accounting for the processes of clean energy industry policy and development in China;(ii) introducing the concept of business power and placing it in the context of climate change;(iii) applying the business power concept to China explore how the development of clean energy industry is expanding China's policy options and changing its bargaining position;and(iv) taking stock of developments thus far and assessing future prospects.It will thereby test both the theoretical proposition that the business power concept is applicable to the Chinese situation,and the empirical proposition that the ongoing development of the national clean energy sector is crucial to China's bargaining position at the international level.     

The Reform of International Financial System and China’s Policy Options

The reform of international financial system is focused on the following aspects: international monetary system, international financial institutions (IFIs), and international financial regulatory system. The US, European Union, Japan, and the Emerging Market Countries all have different stances concerning the reforms in these fields. There is also an obvious deviation in the interests and demands of Emerging Powers and the US and EU. In addition, the G20 has become the major forum for economic coordination...     

Anti-Corruption Policy: China’s Tiger Hunt and India’s Demonetization

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the different styles of anti-corruption strategy, particularly at the local level in China and India. In China there has been a central push with a role of anti-corruption agencies that have law-enforcement power. In India there has been a focus on institutional building together with a visible role of the civil society. China has had a top-down approach while India has more of a bottom-up approach combined with top-down initiatives such as demonetization. Interviews with 44 mid-career and senior officials investigate the two approaches and the impacts of anti-corruption measures in China and India. Interviewees support the approaches adopted by China and India but doubt their effectiveness and sustainability. The way forward, they suggest, is to reduce the influence of political parties especially in India and to enhance e-governance in both countries. Experiences of the two countries have significant implications especially on capacity building, institutional development, and law enforcement.     

The Concepts of State and Society in Defining Russia’s Domestic Political Unity: A Research Note

Abstract

Vladimir Putin’s long period in power has so far raised scant discussion about the political concepts that underpin real state and societal unity, and especially about the domestic political implications of these concepts. Despite this, key concepts of his political regime, such as ‘sovereignty’ and ‘sovereign democracy’, have frequently been used in Russian political discourse. This essay examines the way the current Russian administration has used concepts that stress strong societal unity, and the creation of a stable state and societal unity to support the development of real functioning dynamics in the society. It charts the shift from ‘sovereign democracy’ to ‘sovereignty’ around 2011–2012 as a key discursive concept in moving towards a more isolationist international stand and consolidating Putin’s power by emphasising Russia’s unique political tradition, which requires a strong leader as the basis of national unity and to ensure Russian sovereignty.     

The International–Domestic Nexus in Anti-corruption Policy Making: The Case of Caspian Oil and Gas States

This article looks at the application, in the anti-corruption realm, of the analytical framework developed for transnational human rights advocacy by Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink. Focusing on Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, this article shows that the level of integration with Western actors on the state and corporate levels determined the degree to which the transnational anti-corruption regime has been accepted in the Caspian region. As the transnational regime does ultimately lack coercive powers, the tension between transnational demands and national political elites does not translate into serious conflict, as a broader formal acceptance of the transnational anti-corruption regime offers national actors only limited opportunities to genuinely promote the issue.     

Political Rivalry and Conflict in Putin’s Russia

The year 2015 throughout Russia was much less about what it seemed than what it revealed. On the surface, after the September 2015 combined regional and local elections, Russia appeared to be tranquil, politically disengaged, and supportive of President Vladimir Putin. The underlying reality was quite different. The election exposed a country divided by rivalry and a conflict of interests within the Russian political establishment set off by Putin’s own policies over the preceding two years. Since the election, Putin and the Kremlin have been confronting the challenge of balancing and containing the competing interests of institutions, levels of government, and establishment stakeholders who are less easily reconciled or controlled.     

International Criminal Law and Russia: From ‘Nuremberg’ Passion to ‘The Hague’ Prejudice

Abstract

This essay outlines the history of international criminal law scholarship in Russia. I use a politically based explanation of the changing positive and negative attitudes regarding international criminal law, and show that the discourse on these issues in contemporary Russia is subject to serious political pressure. Changing such a situation is a difficult but essential task, mainly because of the over-riding need to free current scholarship from political control.     

The Non-profit Sector in Today’s Russia: Between Confrontation and Co-optation

Abstract

In present-day Russia, the government’s approach towards the non-profit sector is in many ways ambivalent and contradictory. The Russian government follows two opposing strategies: it largely suppresses independent and potentially critical NPOs, while at the same time co-opting those that function in line with government priorities. The essay analyses the ways in which NPOs have perceived the dual nature of governmental policies and how these policies have affected the non-profit sector in Russia’s regions. The essay argues that, by creating divisions between different types of NPOs, government policies have exerted a negative influence on the internal solidarity of the Russian non-profit sector.     

A Very Ambiguous Empire: Russia’s Hybrid Exceptionalism

This article will widen existing analyses of Russian imperial narratives through the introduction of the concept of ‘hybrid exceptionalism’, referring to discourses and practices of hierarchy emanating from the country’s liminal position between East and West. In its various—Tsarist, Soviet, contemporary—guises, Russia is posited to have reproduced narratives of hierarchy by formulating civilising missions within a distinct sphere of interest. Transcending political discontinuities, such hierarchical civilising missions have been a defining feature of various Russian worldviews for centuries, and are poised to remain so in the absence of a major redefinition of Russian national identity.