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.     

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.     

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.     

Dialogue on an Equal Footing Promotes Understanding, Strengthens Cooperation and Advances Human Rights --Reflections on Sino-German Seminar on Human Rights

In November last year and October this year, China Foundation for Human Rights Development and German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation jointly sponsored two Sino-German seminars on human rights respectively in Beijing and Berlin. Both the Chinese and German sides attached great importance to the seminars which were attended by scores of government officials, parliamentarians, repre-sentatives from academic and religious circles and individual scholars. Both sides spoke highly of the positive …     

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.     

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>.     

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.     

Empowering families as an alternative to foster care for street children in Brazil

Although the emphasis in current thinking about work with street children has changed from aid-dependency towards youth protagonism, many organisations ignore the role of the children's families in their interventions. In so doing, they reproduce obsolete welfare traditions and also violate rights guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and national legislation. This article illustrates the importance of child–family ties for both children and families, and argues that interventions that lack the involvement of parents and families serve to reproduce images of failed families and inadequate mothers. The author presents an alternative approach from Brazil which respects the rights and needs of children and families through family empowerment.     

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     

Reputational Concerns and the Emergence of Oil Sector Transparency as an International Norm

This study argues that the reputational concerns of several high-profile actors drove the emergence of oil sector transparency as an international norm. Thanks to successful advocacy campaigns, developing country oil sector operations began to pose increasing levels of reputational risk to Western governments, international institutions, and corporations. These actors responded to this scrutiny by facilitating the evolution of transparency into a widely cited oil sector "best practice." However, the self-interests of these actors also altered the course of the norm's definition and institutionalization in ways which may constrain its eventual impact on industry behaviors. This study narrates the surprising and rapid spread of the transparency norm in developing country oil affairs, a process which suggests that reputational utility should be considered as a possible explanation for norm emergence.