Human Security as Global Security: Reconceptualising Strategic Studies

The article argues that global security should be seen as synonymous with human security, and that strategic studies should be located within that broader rubric. Mounting such an argument means meeting the charge of those who see the broader construction of strategic studies as vague and meaningless, and as detracting from the ability to make good policy. The article attempts, therefore, to map human security in as inclusive and systematic a way as possible. It attempts to show that the concept is neither vague nor meaningless, and is suitable, therefore, to be the basis for a comprehensive account of global security.     

Human Trafficking: The Nadir of an Unholy Trinity

Terrorism, corruption, and international organized crime, a very “unholy trinity,” which globalization has at once enabled and encouraged, represent the most dangerous security threats to the developing democracies of Europe and the Eurasian region. While neither as lethal as the first order effects of terrorism, nor as corrosive to one’s confidence in government as state corruption, international organized crime’s trafficking of human beings can destroy the very “soul” of a state. Human trafficking – the commodification of human beings – represents a modern form of slavery, exploits and ruins women, and can kill. No nation can unilaterally defend itself against this threat.     

The uses and misuses of uneven and combined development: an anatomy of a concept

A central concern of much contemporary Marxist scholarship in international relations (IR) is to internally relate global capitalism and the state system without reducing one of these systems to an epiphenomenon of the other. A recent attempt at this is Justin Rosenberg's reformulation of Leon Trotsky's idea of uneven and combined development (U&CD). This article examines the internal relations of ‘unevenness’ and ‘combination’ as presented by Trotsky and reworked by Rosenberg. From this anatomization of the concept, we focus on the problematic status of U&CD as a transhistorical general abstraction arising from the exchange between Callinicos and Rosenberg (Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 22:1 2008, 77–112) and suggest our own possible solution. We argue that while the uneven and combined nature of historical development represents a truly transhistorical phenomenon, its distinct causal determinations, articulated and expressed through inter-societal competition, are only fully activated under the specific socio-historical conditions of generalized commodity production. These theoretical points are illuminated through three specific historical examples (the Meiji Restoration, the ‘Eastern Question’ and the origins of the two World Wars). Finally, we illustrate some of the dangers of analytical overextension found in Rosenberg's own ambiguous use of U&CD.     

Human security as power/knowledge: the biopolitics of a definitional debate

This article interrogates the parameters of the human security debate as a site of biopolitics in order to gain an understanding of how it has been possible to shape the debate in certain ways and not others. The role of cosmological realism in grounding knowledge claims within the debate is explored. By privileging objectivist claims to knowledge of human (in)security, it is argued that empiricism and rationalism, as forms of cosmological realism, foster the production of logics which facilitate forms of biopolitical intervention. The quest for precision, measurement, causality and policy relevance that define the production of human security knowledge is shown to have important political effects beyond the definitional debate itself in terms of agency, normalcy, and the scope for intervention. Therefore, this article demonstrates how the demarcation of human security as a field of knowledge is a process pregnant with relations of power that are important to understanding contemporary political dynamics.     

Teaching the New Inequalities: Using the Human Development Report as Class Text

In this article we share our experiences helping students to think critically about global issues by using the data and the conceptual innovations presented by the authors of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report We discuss a number of strategies we have applied to actively engage students in the analysis of the extensive data in the Report and the approaches we have taken to help our students understand both the research and the policy implications of the diverse conceptual frameworks introduced in each annual edition. By using a publication that introduces new concepts, new measures, and new insights in each annual edition, we help our students to see how social scientists work and how knowledge is constructed. At the same time, by requiring them to use the data to analyze, compare, and conceptualize, we show them they can "do" social science and discover for themselves some of the realities of the global community described in the more traditional texts.     

美国研究新视野——以上海国际问题研究院为例

回顾历史,我们院研究美国的经验教训可总结为四个跟着走:一是跟着研究对象走.因为我们人数较少,所以一直以中美关系为主要抓手,然后顾及一点美国外交、政治、经济和社会.美国提出engagement policy,我们就研究接触政策;美国出台<国家安全战略报告>,我们就跟着研究其国家安全战略.这与我们美国研究逐步发展的进程有关,与我们的战略研究不足也存在联系.二是跟着美国政治和经济周期走.     

Terrorism as Cancer: How to Combat an Incurable Disease

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an alternative framework that conceptualizes the threat posed by terrorism based on an epidemiological approach that views it as a chronic disease like cancer rather than as a military, ideological, or socio-economic problem. After highlighting the similarities in the causes, behavior, treatments, and challenges of combating terrorism and cancer, this paper presents a staging system policymakers can use to educate the public and allocate counterterrorism resources more efficiently. This approach encourages policymakers to see terrorism for what it is (an all but inevitable facet of modern life that can be managed but never fully eliminated), and not what they wish terrorism to be (a national security problem that can be solved, defeated, or vanquished). It provides policymakers with a useful model to conceptualize the threat and treat terrorism in a comprehensive manner, from preventing future attacks to effectively responding to them when they will inevitably occur.     

整体还是个体——中国与东盟建设自由贸易区应持何态度

2001年11月6日,在文莱的斯里巴加湾,中国总理朱镕基与东盟领导人一致同意在10年之内建成中国一东盟自由贸易区(CAFTA).2002年11月4日,中国总理朱镕基与东盟10国领导人共同签署了<中国一东盟全面经济合作框架协议>.     

Teachers as social capital agents: an exploratory study from Brazil

While socialisation aspects of schooling are widely considered as significant mechanisms of reproducing social inequalities, teacher contributions are rarely examined in terms of the social-relational dimensions of student outcomes. This paper employs a social capital framework to examine teacher-student engagement in two under-resourced urban public schools in Brazil. Extended interviews with teachers reveal that inspired educators do take great initiatives to transform the nature of their relationships with low-income students into sources of critical institutional and psycho-social support. The study offers critical policy perspectives on how teachers could be enabled to potentially become social capital agents for their students.

Les enseignants comme agents de capital social : une étude exploratoire menée au Brésil

Si les aspects de la scolarisation relatifs à la socialisation sont considérés par beaucoup comme des mécanismes considérables de reproduction des inégalités sociales, les contributions des enseignants sont rarement examinées en termes des dimensions sociales-relationnelles des résultats pour les étudiants. Cet article a recours à un cadre de capital social pour examiner le dialogue enseignant-étudiant dans deux écoles publiques urbaines brésiliennes disposant de moyens insuffisants. Des entretiens étendus avec les enseignants révèlent que les pédagogues inspirés prennent effectivement de fantastiques initiatives visant à transformer la nature de leurs rapports avec des étudiants issus de familles à faible revenu en sources cruciales de soutien institutionnel et psychosocial. Cette étude offre des manières de voir cruciales sur le plan des politiques en ce qui concerne la manière dont les enseignants pourraient avoir la possibilité de devenir peut-être des agents de capital social pour leurs étudiants.

Los maestros como agentes de capital social: un estudio exploratorio en Brasil

Si bien los aspectos socializantes de la educación son ampliamente considerados como mecanismos significativos de reproducción de las desigualdades sociales, pocas veces se examinan las contribuciones que los maestros realizan en términos de las dimensiones social-relacionales de los resultados obtenidos por los estudiantes. Con el fin de analizar la interacción que tiene lugar entre maestros y estudiantes de dos escuelas públicas de escasos recursos localizadas en el ámbito urbano de Brasil, el presente artículo utiliza un marco de capital social. Las entrevistas a profundidad aplicadas a los maestros revelaron que los educadores inspirados implementan muchas iniciativas con el objetivo de modificar la naturaleza de sus relaciones con los estudiantes de bajos recursos, pretendiendo transformar tales relaciones en cruciales fuentes de apoyo institucional y psico-social. El estudio propone varias ideas políticas fundamentales vinculadas a la forma en que los maestros podrían ser capacitados de modo de convertirse en agentes de capital social para sus estudiantes.

Professores enquanto agentes de capital social: um estudo investigativo do Brasil

Embora os aspectos de socialização do ensino sejam amplamente considerados mecanismos importantes de reprodução de desigualdades sociais, as contribuições dos professores são raramente examinadas em termos das dimensões sociais-relacionais dos resultados dos estudantes. Este artigo emprega uma estrutura de capital social para examinar o engajamento professor -estudante em duas escolas públicas urbanas com recursos insuficientes no Brasil. Entrevistas mais longas com professores revelam que educadores inspirados realmente têm grandes iniciativas para transformar o recurso de sua relação com estudantes de baixa renda em fontes de apoio crítico institucional e psicossocial. O estudo oferece perspectivas de políticas críticas sobre como professores podem ser capacitados para tornarem-se potencialmente agentes de capital social para seus estudantes.     

The Common Security and Defence Policy as an act of American hegemony

Abstract

The financial crisis endangers the security of NATO's members and partners. As such, NATO has a formal obligation to mobilize its resources to aid members in overcoming current economic challenges. NATO can play a valuable role on three levels. First, NATO can aid members in rationalizing their military procurement and manpower systems, thus reducing the fiscal burden of maintaining adequate defenses. Second, NATO can press the ECB and the EU to modify arrangements governing the Euro so as to minimize the risk that EMU will collapse. Finally, NATO has a “soft power” role in vigorously defending the liberal economic order and democratic political institutions of the Western Alliance from the ideological attacks that inevitably follow financial crises.     

历史和现实的呼唤:创建中、日、韩经济共同体

中、日、韩三国创建经济合作体是必要的、可行的 ,这是世界经济区域化、一体化的潮流所决定的 ,也是三国在地理、人文和经贸关系上的密切性所要求的。“中、日、韩经济合作体”的建立存在着有利因素 ,也不能忽视那些障碍因素 ,如体制、经济矛盾、历史等问题 ,但这些并不能也不应该阻碍经济合作体的建立 ,相反 ,应利用目前的大好时机 ,将其提到历史日程上来。     

The NGO sector as an alternative delivery system for agricultural public services

In many less developed countries (LDCs) that are undergoing economic adjustment, the promotion of the agricultural sector is constrained by limitations on resources that include finance, and human and institutional capacity. The inability of the state to provide essential agricultural services (for example, agricultural extension and research) leaves a void that could be filled by specialised organisations within the non-governmental sector (NGOs). NGOs as a whole need not fear the loss of other advantages, but rather welcome the contracting out to specialist agencies of those activities that hitherto have been the domain of inefficient and ineffective government services.     

中印参与WTO的比较分析

成立于1947年的关税与贸易总协定(Gener-al Agreementon Tariffs and Trade,下面简称GATT)是世界贸易组织(World Trade Organiza-tion,下面简称WTO)的前身。关税与贸易总协定是于1948年1月1日起正式生效的临时协定,设立