The diplomacy of German unification

Heinrich Bortfeldt, Washington ‐ Bonn ‐ Berlin (Bonn: Bouvier, 1993)

Elizabeth Pond, Beyond the Wall (Washington: Brookings, 1993)

Stephen Szabo, The Diplomacy of German Unification (New York: St Martin's, 1993).     

日本外交的“钟摆”现象

日本民主党上台执政以来,在对美、对华政策上发生了一些明显变化,概括起来说,这些变化其实都是小泉下台以后的历任内阁对日本外交战略调整的继续。关于小泉以后至管内阁以前日本外交战略调整的过程,具体可以分3个阶段来考察：第1阶段是安倍、麻生的价值观外交所体现的“疏美防华”倾向;第2阶段是以“新福田主义”为特点的“亲美返亚”倾向;第3阶段是以鸠山的“友爱外交”为中心内容所表现出的“脱美入亚”倾向。其中,安倍的“疏美防华”仍然未消除冷战思维的阴影;鸠山的“脱关入亚”略带理想主义色彩;只有福田的“亲美入亚”具有现实性,预示着日本21世纪对美、对华外交战略的发展方向,也是菅内阁外交政策的方向标。     

The limits of coercive diplomacy: The 1979 Sino-Vietnamese border war

In 1979, China waged a brief but bloody war with Vietnam, with the hopes of punishing Hanoi for its invasion and occupation of Cambodia the previous year. Beijing’s attempt at coercive diplomacy was an embarrassing failure, however, resulting in tens of thousands of casualties for both sides. This article, using Alexander George’s models of coercive diplomacy and crisis management, examines the reasons for China’s failed coercion and confirms that the most important variable was the omnipresent military threat from the Soviet Union, which prevented China from successfully escalating the crisis to its advantage.     

从国际政治经济学的视角看俄罗斯的能源外交

本文主要运用国际政治经济学的相关理论,以俄罗斯的能源外交为研究对象,揭示能源领域的政治与经济互动机制.俄罗斯政府出台的<2020年前俄罗斯能源战略基本要点>,使油气能源成为实现国家外交战略目标的重要手段,根据国际政治经济学的相关理论进行分析,本文认为俄罗斯政府试图并已经获得能源生产领域的"结构性权力",并利用这种权力来推行其外交战略,但俄罗斯政府在实施其能源战略与外交的过程中也受到多方面因素的掣肘.     

South African foreign policy,preventive diplomacy and the false promise of conflict resolution

A key challenge for Africa in post‐conflict situations lies in the building of capacity to implement ‘stabilisation and reconstruction’ initiatives, combining security with state building and developmental efforts. The authors look at work already done in this regard in the United States and Britain and discuss what Africa should do to get up to speed.     

Environmental diplomacy,regional security,and the limits of “green aid”

Environmental diplomacy could play a vitally important role in the complicated political world of Northeast Asia, according to Shohei Yonemoto and Robert Triendl. If handled carefully, they argue, environmental objectives could serve as important substitutes for addressing security questions and as opportunities for institution‐building. Shohei Yonemoto is Director of the Science and Society Program at the Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences in Machida, near Tokyo. Robert Triendl is a science policy analyst formerly affiliated with the Center for the Sociology of Innovation at the Paris School of Mines, and is presently a research fellow at the Mitsubishi Kasei Institute.     

Economic diplomacy and political leadership: An alternative foreign policy vision for South Africa

The article suggests that strategies for African engagement can no longer take sweeping views of the continent but need to differentiate policy responses. It also suggests that the real key to improving Africa lies with African leadership rather than external agencies and assistance.     

Compromising coalitions and duplicitous diplomacy: US support for Tajikistan after 9/11 and its security implications

This article investigates the development of democracy in Tajikistan and analyzes what has earned it the most international acclaim: its secular-Islamic governing coalition. The investigation reveals a compromised and illegitimate coalition that, with American collusion in local regime repression, poses great dangers to international security. The article argues that government repression, leading to increasing radicalization, combines with foreign aid to damage long-term democracy potential in Tajikistan but also works against global security interests by creating doubt about American intentions and possibly allowing a concomitant rise in Islamic radicalism.     

Reconstructing the New Regulatory State in Germany: Telecommunications,Broadcasting and Banking

What was largely accomplished by the conservative governments in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, that is, the re-modelling of the role of the state in the economy, seems under way now in Germany. However, it is not yet clear whether one may speak here of 'a new regulatory state' as well. In this article, an analytical framework is proposed to analyse the change of statehood, paying particular attention to regulation. It is argued that regulation is not a new form of governance, but rather a general form of state-societal interference. As such, it represents a valuable category for state analysis. Focusing on three sectors, namely telecommunications, broadcasting and banking, it is concluded that the kind of change we observe in Germany is, in many respects, both less spectacular than in Britain as well as much more heterogeneous and sector-specific. While the public interest has been amazingly constant, regulatory modes and institutions have been subject to major shifts. Yet, there is hardly any sign for the emergence of 'the' new regulatory state at the turn of the millennium.     

Reconstructing Indigenous ethnicities: the Arapium and Jaraqui peoples of the lower Amazon, Brazil

In Latin America, indigenous identity claims among people not previously recognized as such by the state have become a key topic of anthropological and sociological research. Scholars have analyzed the motivations and political implications of this trend and the impacts of indigenous population's growth on national demographic indicators. However, little is known about how people claiming indigenous status constructs the meaning of their indigenous ethnicity. Drawing from sixty-four indepth interviews, focus-group analyses, and participant observation, this article explores the double process of identity construction: the reconstruction of the Arapium indigenous identity and the creation of the Jaraqui indigenous identity in Brazil's Lower Amazon. The findings reveal six themes that contribute to the embodiment of a definition of indigenous identity and the establishment of a discursive basis to claim recognition: sense of rootedness, historical memory, historical transformation, consciousness, social exclusion, and identity politics.