The dialogue of civilizations: Philosophical basis,current state and prospects

Since the end of the Cold War, the dialogue of civilizations has become one of the keywords in the global discourse on issues of world order and peace. Traditional enemy stereotypes along the ideological lines of the earlier East-West conflict have disappeared while new confrontational schemes are becoming visible under the slogan of a supposed clash of civilizations. The nature of dialogue consists in the ability to see oneself from the perspective of the other. The human being's consciousness – self-reflection – is only possible if the subject is aware of the other, i.e. of that which is not the self, that from which it can distinguish itself. Semantically, this is the essence of the Latin word definitio. Applied to the level of civilization, this entails that full understanding and development of any given civilization can only be achieved if the respective civilizational community not only takes note of, but positively interacts with other civilizations on the basis of (normative) equality. Thus, the dialogue of civilizations is the fundamental requirement for defining each civilization's identity and for reaching its maturity and universal relevance. The common values underlying all civilizations – making possible genuine civilizational progress – are those of tolerance and mutual respect. Acceptance and realization of those values is the necessary, though not the only condition for the adequate self-comprehension and identity of a civilization. In this regard, an analogy can be drawn between (a) the normative equality of civilizations on the socio-cultural level and (b) the concept of the sovereign equality of states on the political level. One of the most serious threats to international peace and stability, i.e. to the realization of the basic goals of the United Nations Organization, is the persistence – or even creation in certain cases – of enemy stereotypes along civilizational lines. Over the centuries, the demonization or vilification of another civilization (particularly in regard to religious identity) has often been a prelude to armed conflict and has served to create a pretext for – or to legitimize – the violent pursuit of mainly economic interests. At the beginning of the third millennium, the world should not repeat the mistakes of an earlier era. No civilization should try to establish hegemony over the other. The claim to civilizational superiority has too often been a recipe for confrontation, even armed conflict.     

政治传统、宗教和殖民历史对东南亚民主政治的影响——以菲律宾和马来西亚为例

本文以菲律宾和马来西亚为例,分别讨论了政治传统、宗教和殖民历史对东南亚国家民主政治的影响。第二次世界大战后,东南亚国家虽继承了西方的民主政治形式,但文化、宗教的多样性与殖民历史对民主政治实践产生了不可忽视的影响。只有正视这些因素并善加利用,东南亚国家才能探索出一条适合本国国情的民主政治发展道路。     

简论近代菲律宾传教士的成长及其意义

推动传教士的本土化,是近代天主教东传运动的一个重要内容。但在西班牙殖民统治时期的菲律宾,菲律宾传教士的成长却因西班牙传教团的重重阻碍而经历了漫长的过程。近代菲律宾本土教士的成长在菲律宾历史上占有重要意义,它不仅推动了天主教的本土化,为“教区菲化运动”奠定了基础,更重要的是,菲律宾传教士的成长对推动近代菲律宾民族意识的觉醒有着重要的影响。     

Nation-Building in the Philippines: Rooseveltian Statecraft for Imperial Modernization in an Emergent Transatlantic World Order

The acquisition of the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish–American War gave Theodore Roosevelt's presidency an unprecedented mandate for conflict resolution, post-war reconstruction and development through modernization and democratization. A network of bilateral inter-colonial relations contributed to the extension of triangular transatlantic reciprocal influence. The lessons of America's continental empire-building, assessment of competing colonial experiments, and modern attempts at public diplomacy fed into a strategy of preventive containment of Japanese expansionism through popular consent. The intention was to institute an enduring “special relationship” to build up America's power in the Pacific, and to transform the Philippines into a model that would then “naturally” expand into a transcontinental informal empire by proxy.     

日俄入侵对东北招民垦荒的影响（1860～1911）

随着自19世纪50年代以来沙俄的移民和侵略,清政府逐步解除了东北地区的封禁政策,开始招民垦荒,以图巩固边防。中日甲午战争后,日本也把侵略的触角伸向这一地区。尤其是在日俄战争结束后,沙俄和日本分别将＂北满＂、＂南满＂划为各自的势力范围,以铁路为依托,逐步实行殖民统治。沙俄和日本的入侵使得清政府感到自己在东北的统治受到严重的威胁,为维持在东北的统治,进一步把东北的荒地全体开放。总体来看,这一时期清政府在东北地区招民垦荒政策的实施与日俄长期争夺东北是密不可分的。     

Negotiating National Identity and Self-Determination in Ethnic Conflicts: The Choice Between Pluralism and Ethnic Cleansing

The contradictions of ethnonational identity, which make it a prime force in both the promotion and the destruction of human dignity and social justice, have become more pronounced with the ending of the Cold War. It is necessary to reconceptualize national identity and develop new norms for accepting a group's right to national self-determination through establishment of an independent state expressing its national identity, and even far accepting its claim to national identity itself This article proposes that (1) implementation of a group's right to self-determination cannot be left to the group alone, but must be negotiated with those who are affected by that decision, particularly minority populations; and (2) national identity itself must be negotiated — explored and discussed — with those who are affected by the group's self-definition.     

藤山一雄和他笔下的“满洲森林”

甲午战争、日俄战争后,伴随着日本军国主义穷兵黩武国策的急剧膨胀,大批日本移民进入中国东北。尤其是1931年日本军国主义悍然发动侵略中国东北的“九一八”事变后,更是加剧了日本移民的涌入。至1945年日本战败为止,不包括军政人员,全东北已经有150余万的日本移民定居。就中作家近百人,他们绝大多数人站在殖民主义的立场上,记录了殖民主义者眼中的“满洲”风光,描摹了他们作为统治阶级一员对“满洲”新大陆的“美好憧憬”。藤山一雄可谓最典型的一个。     

普世福音与新殖民主义——20世纪初期基督教在菲律宾的传播剖析

本文考察与分析了20世纪初期基督教在菲律宾传播的政治宗教因素,指出基督教在菲律宾的迅速扩张,一方面归因于美国在菲律宾推行的带有浓厚道德理想主义色彩的新殖民主义政策,另一方面也离不开19世纪以来基督教海外传播运动所倡导与实践的“三自”传教策略与教会本色化方针。基督教会通过其积极倡导与实践的自立与本色化的传教策略,促进了基督教在菲律宾的发展,同时对维护美国在菲律宾的殖民统治发挥了不可忽视的作用。     

Stability and Change in U.S. Grand Strategy

Since the Global War on Terror (more recently termed the Long War) emerged as the centerpiece of U.S. grand strategy in 2001, the post–Cold War U.S. debate has narrowed significantly. Essentially three alternative strategies now compete for pride of place. Two are variants of a “primacy” strategy; one is a variant of “restraint,” sometimes termed “offshore balancing.” All three strategies take globalization as a given and as a positive development. None specifically connects U.S. military power to globalization. To the extent that globalization can be argued to have negative consequences, restraint offers a different remedy than either version of primacy. This article offers a brief characterization of globalization and speculates on its positive and negative results. The three grand strategies that remain visible in the U.S. public policy debate, and their suggested remedies, are then discussed. Finally, the U.S. military strengths and weaknesses are evaluated in order to gauge which strategy's remedies are most feasible.     

The failure of the Philippine presidential system

This article explains why the Philippines continues to be a weak state and that the prospects for building a stronger, sustainable state are dim under the current political system. Philippine elections are won through a mix of popularity, populism and money politics. This seriously undermines the strength of the state since the oligarchy expects returns for their investment in a candidates campaign. The extraordinary power of the president and the ministers makes it possible to repay and buy the loyalty of the financial and political oligarchy by giving away jobs within the bureaucracy. A predatory political elite, whose prime goal it has been to win the coming elections and to assure that their family interests are protected and promoted further undermines the independence and meritocracy of the Philippine bureaucracy. I argue that as long as the current presidential system continues to exist in the Philippines the chances for building a strong state are slight.This article represents an abbreviated version of the introduction of the MA thesis of Bastiaan van de Loo titled: The Election and Presidency of Joseph Estrada: A Case Study of Philippine Politics. The complete version of the thesis can be found on http://www.thephilippines.org     

The CAI as seen from Spain: a positive agreement with uncertain implementation

Asia Europe Journal - Spanish elite’s perceptions of the European Union-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) are positive given its economic and normative prospects and...     

‘Something old,something New’: The politics of recognition in post‐cold‐War Europe

In 1945, as a final settlement of the Palestine question drew near, the Arab states established the Arab Office, Washington, as part of their unprecedented effort to influence public and elite opinion on this matter in the United States. It was staffed by many of the leading young Arab intellectuals of the era. This article charts the Arab Office's attempt to reduce American support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. In particular, it examines the accusations, made at the time, that the Arab Office, in pursuing its anti-Zionist agenda had co-operated with leading American anti-Semites and was under the control of the notorious former Mufti of Jerusalem, who had collaborated with Hitler during the Second World War.     

Revisiting the Transatlantic Triangle: The Decolonisation of the British Caribbean in Light of the Anglo-American Special Relationship

The international collapse in the price of sugar, together with increasing immigration restrictions in the late 1920s and 1930s, produced great pressure on wages and employment throughout the British Caribbean. The underlying tensions reached their boiling point in the years between 1935 and 1938. The chronology proved fateful and speaks for itself: a sugar strike in St. Kitts, 1935; a revolt against an increase of customs duties in St. Vincent, 1935; a coal strike in St. Lucia, 1935; labor disputes in the sugar plantations of British Guiana, 1935; oil strikes in Trinidad and Tobago, 1937; urban riots in Barbados, 1937; and acute disturbances in Jamaica, 1938. While these disturbances, together with the radicalization of the colonial discourse, facilitated the archipelago's constitutional decolonization, attributing all social, economic, and constitutional postwar reforms to the riots alone constitutes an immense leap of faith. A careful analysis of the chronology, let alone a detailed study of the archival records, suggests a robust correlation between the islands' constitutional evolution and the geopolitical worries of the Anglo-American alliance. The German threat, on the one hand, led Britain to re-articulate its colonial project and, on the other, compelled the US to make sure the British did not walk away from their responsibilities. The strategic importance of “the slums of empire” came to light dramatically once the theater of war became apparent. The Caribbean now became “the show window” where British and American interests collided against each other.     

Revisiting the Transatlantic Triangle: The Decolonisation of the British Caribbean in Light of the Anglo-American Special Relationship

The international collapse in the price of sugar, together with increasing immigration restrictions in the late 1920s and 1930s, produced great pressure on wages and employment throughout the British Caribbean. The underlying tensions reached their boiling point in the years between 1935 and 1938. The chronology proved fateful and speaks for itself: a sugar strike in St. Kitts, 1935; a revolt against an increase of customs duties in St. Vincent, 1935; a coal strike in St. Lucia, 1935; labor disputes in the sugar plantations of British Guiana, 1935; oil strikes in Trinidad and Tobago, 1937; urban riots in Barbados, 1937; and acute disturbances in Jamaica, 1938. While these disturbances, together with the radicalization of the colonial discourse, facilitated the archipelago's constitutional decolonization, attributing all social, economic, and constitutional postwar reforms to the riots alone constitutes an immense leap of faith. A careful analysis of the chronology, let alone a detailed study of the archival records, suggests a robust correlation between the islands’ constitutional evolution and the geopolitical worries of the Anglo-American alliance. The German threat, on the one hand, led Britain to re-articulate its colonial project and, on the other, compelled the US to make sure the British did not walk away from their responsibilities. The strategic importance of “the slums of empire” came to light dramatically once the theater of war became apparent. The Caribbean now became “the show window” where British and American interests collided against each other.     

The Role of "Enemy Images" and Ideology of Elite Belief Systems

We use data from the Leadership Opinion Project (LOP), a panel survey of American opinion leaders which brackets the end of the Cold War, to investigate two interrelated questions about the structure of elites' foreign policy beliefs. We assess, first, whether the militant internationalism/cooperative internationalism scheme, developed primarily by Wittkopf (1981, 1990) and Holsti and Rosenau (1990), has continued relevance now that the USSR has collapsed; and second, whether Hurwitz and Peffley's (1987, 1990; see also Peffley and Hurwitz, 1992; Hurwitz, Peffley, and Seligson, 1993) domain-specific, hierarchical model of mass belief structure can be applied to elite belief systems. The evidence indicates that respondents' past stances toward military and cooperative ventures are highly predictive of their views once the Cold War ends. This continuity in leaders' postures toward international affairs, in itself, suggests that "enemy images" of the Soviet Union were less important within elite belief systems than Hurwitz and Peffley (1990; see also Peffley and Hurwitz, 1992) posited for the mass public. The starkest difference, however, between their findings for mass samples and our findings for a leadership sample centers on the importance of ideology in constraining foreign policy beliefs, and the close interconnection with domestic beliefs. Consequently, as we illustrate, predictable ideological divisions among opinion leaders persist in the post–Cold War era. In sum, our evidence demonstrates considerable continuity in elites' beliefs despite profound changes in the global system, and reaffirms the importance that ideology plays in structuring attitudes within elite belief systems.     

Power, Borders, Security, Wealth: Lessons of Violence and Desire from September 11

America's "war on terror" and Al Qaeda's "jihad" reflect mirror strategies of imperial politics. Each camp transnationalizes violence and insecurity in the name of national or communal security. Neoliberal globalization underpins this militarization of daily life. Its desire industries motivate and legitimate elite arguments (whether from "infidels" or "terrorists") that society must sacrifice for its hypermasculine leaders. Such violence and desire draw on colonial identities of Self vs. Other, patriotism vs. treason, hunter vs. prey, and masculinity vs. femininity that are played out on the bodies of ordinary men and women. We conclude with suggestions of a human security to displace the elite privilege that currently besets world politics.     

Social knowledge and the legitimation of the state: The Philippine experience in historical perspective

Social conditions have been recognized as a factor in the rise of social knowledge. The social knowledge produced creates a social reality characterized by its own justification for existence. Established intolerance and institutionalized suppression, for example, delineate what the guardians of society regard as dangerous and subversive, on one hand, and permissible, on the other. The purveyors of social knowledge, including the social sciences, in the Philippines from the Spanish colonial period to the present have borne much responsibility in this task of delineation. But more importantly, they have served, either willingly or unwillingly, to legitimize and validate the existing political order by elaborating on the political order's ideological basis, contributing to the formulation and implementation of policies, refusing to challenge the political order, or by simply being acquiescent to its presence. The Philippine experience reinforces the observation that objectivity is relative to the paradigm to which the practitioner belongs. In the wake of the postbehavioral movement in the social sciences, the social scientist's role in the Philippines, like that of his or her counterparts in the West, is influenced not so much by the drive to be objective, but, rather by the need to choose between competing values that would ultimately determine his or her relevance to society.     

Strengthening international mediation

Conclusion Any of these models can be pursued in tandem with any other. There are undoubtedly other options as well so these must be considered illustrative of what might be done.Such an informal approach to improving and extending the practice of international mediation would not preclude the eventual creation of a more formal organizational structure at some point should that be deemed useful. Indeed, it might prepare the way.If it is too soon to know whether or how a more formal service should be designed, perhaps the soundest way to begin is with a loose network offering an array of support services that can grow organically as it proves useful. William L. Ury is Associate Director of the Avoiding Nuclear War Project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Director of the Nuclear Negotiation Project, 513 Pound Hall, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass. 02138. His publications includeBeyond the Hotline: How Crisis Control Can Prevent Nuclear War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985) and, with Roger Fisher,Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Houghton Mifflin, 1981).This column was composed as a think-piece for the Working Session on International Mediation held at the Carter Center of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, May 28–29, 1987, and cosponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Carter Center. For their suggestions and ideas, I am indebted to Brian Urquhart, Harold Saunders, Larry Susskind, Roger Fisher, Cynthia Sampson, Bill Spencer and the members of the Core Group of the International Mediation Project (a faculty seminar sponsored by the Program on Negotiation).     

Regional integration and conflict management. The case of Vietnam

This paper is examines the process of regional integration of Vietnam into the framework for regional co-operation under the umbrella of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The main focus is on the process leading to Vietnams admission into ASEAN in 1995. The relative importance of key factors – economic, political and security – in the process leading to Vietnams admission into ASEAN is assessed. Particular attention is devoted to the conflict management dimension of the regional integration of Vietnam both in process leading to membership in ASEAN and in the management of border disputes between Vietnam and other ASEAN members.This study is based the authors on-going research on Vietnams foreign policy and on regional collaboration is Southeast Asia including ASEANs expansion with a focus on conflict management.This article is an edited version of a paper with the same title presented at Paper prepared for Session 1: Lessons to be learnt, success stories of peaceful reconciliation, At the 3rd Asia-Europe Roundtable: Peace and Reconciliation Success Stories and Lessons. Organised by Asia-Europe Foundation, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, The Institute for International Relations, and Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Hanoi, 20-21 October 2003.     

Sources of power in coalition building

This article analyzes the coalition-building tactics employed by the Bush administration during the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990–91. To provide a basis for generalization to other situations, we have developed a conceptual framework for understanding sources of power in coalition building. This framework draws upon research in the social psychology of persuasion, mass communications and negotiation analysis. While the actions of the Bush administration during the Persian Gulf crisis provide a textbook case for applying our conceptual framework, we believe that it could be employed much more broadly to analyze the efforts of leaders to effect political and organizational change.