The Paradox of American Unipolarity: Why the United States May Be Better Off in a Post-Unipolar World

The decline in the United States’ relative position is in part a consequence of the burdens and susceptibilities produced by unipolarity. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the U.S. position both internationally and domestically may actually be strengthened once this period of unipolarity has passed.     

Threatening Sanctions When Engagement Would Be More Effective: Attaining Better Human Rights in China

Leaders use both coercion and engagement as leverage against other nations. Recent literature suggests economic sanctions are more effective than deployed sanctions to attain intended foreign policy goals. This paper examines a case of threatened coercion—the threat to remove China's most favored nation (MFN) status following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989—where engagement would have produced better human rights in China. We show that the American threats to sanction China were counterproductive, while cooperative statements and MFN renewal proved to have a more beneficial impact on Beijing's human rights policies. This paper suggests that economic sanction threats are not directly linked to China's human rights behaviors. Instead, China uses accommodations to manipulate diplomatic relations with the U.S. As a result, engagement with China would have been a more productive policy when dealing with human rights issues.     

联合国改革与中国和平发展的国际政治环境

联合国受美国的影响较大 ,在美国单边主义影响较大的条件下 ,联合国较难发挥其正常作用 ,但美国也不可能完全抛开联合国 ;联合国是中国和平发展的重要的国际政治环境 ,与中国重要国家利益的有着密切的关联 ;中国不仅要适应联合国这一国际政治环境的特性 ,而且作为一个大国 ,也应采取积极的措施 ,改善和优化这一环境。     

"失败国家"问题与国际秩序

在国际政治中,国家的失败并非什么新的现象.然而,近年来它却引起了西方学术界的广泛关注.尽管西方特别是美国对失败国家问题的关注有其自身的目的,但国家失败及其造成的严重后果却是不争的事实.因而,探究国家失败的根源以及如何应对失败国家危机,就不仅具有重要的理论价值,也具有迫切的现实意义.     

Chinese Military Power: What Vexes the United States and Why?

The enhancement of Chinese military power over the past decade is generating ample debate over its meaning and consequences for American security interests. China's characterization in larger conceptions of U.S. national security strategy has experienced repeated shifts over the decades. China is now an arrived major power according to virtually all relevant power criteria, without U.S. policy makers conclusively resolving the implications of China's military modernization for American security interests. Comparable uncertainties bedevil Chinese thinking about American military power. The latent elements of strategic rivalry (if not outright confrontation) are beyond dispute, and could readily take deeper root in the bureaucratic processes of both countries. Without leaders in both systems fully imparting and communicating to one another their respective strategic equities in Asia and the Pacific, the emergence of a reconfigured regional security order fully accepted by both states remains very uncertain.     

United States Hegemony and Globalisation: What Role for Theories of Imperialism?

This article examines the return of the subject of imperialism to the social sciences since 2001, focusing in particular on Marxist and Marxist-related attempts to reconstruct an analysis of the US-led international order based on this concept. It does so by first examining attempts to update Marxist and Marxian work to understand contemporary globalisation, and then points to both the weaknesses of these approaches and international events that have undermined these theories. The paper then examines the return of imperialism in some detail. While the international order can still be described as imperialist, the article is sceptical of many accounts of the ‘new imperialism’. This is partly because the utility of classical theories was questionable in the pre-1914 era, and are even more so now. Theorising imperialism in turns of surplus capital or a spatial fix ignores the direction of capital flows, both before the First World War, and in the current era. Moreover, as Marxist and Marxian theories of globalisation point out, the current era is one of greater openness and international integration than the pre-1914 era, and there is far greater cooperation between the core capitalist states, as well as sovereign states in the developing world. Contemporary imperialism is characterised by US hegemony but also greater global interdependence, and US military domination does not guarantee its economic domination. At the same time however, US hegemony is closely related to neo-liberalism and, despite as much as because of US intentions, these same policies undermine the prospects for development in the ‘South’. In this respect, US attempts to ‘Americanise’ the world are undermined by US hegemony and the imperialism of free trade.     

Ready for Prime Time: The When,Who, and Why of International Mediation

Most of the literature on international dispute resolution emphasizes timing and ripeness when considering whether or not a dispute is suitable for mediation. In addition to this focus, the authors believe analysts should consider whether a particular mediator is ready for prime time. Their framework posits that one may gauge the appropriateness of a mediator for a particular dispute along three different types of considerations: operational and political; strategic and diplomatic; and relationship and cultural fit. They provide numerous case examples illustrating how the choice of a mediator might apply in each dimension.     

Why Japan Could Revise Its Constitution and What It Would Mean for Japanese Security Policy

This article seeks to make sense of the policy debate on constitutional revision underway in Japan, to consider what international and domestic factors are driving the debate forward, to assess the range of proposals currently on the table, and to gauge the likelihood of actual constitutional change. Additionally, it considers how various forms of constitutional revision, if actually implemented, might affect Japan's military doctrines and capabilities; the extent of its alliance cooperation with the United States; its devotion of military capabilities to un operations; and the repercussions for Japan's regional relations in East Asia.     

霸权·制度·战略——读《霸权之翼:美国国际制度战略》

二战结束,特别是冷战结束以来,美国在世界权力结构的优势地位更加明显,美国霸权的神奇性色彩愈发突出.然而,对于美国霸权在世界政治转型中所出现的新变化,已有的霸权理论模式("霸权稳定论"、"霸权周期理论"、"霸权转移论"等)未能做出迅速而有效的解释,国际关系学界有必要对此而为之.中央党校国际战略研究所门洪华博士新近完成的<霸权之翼:美国国际制度战略>(以下简称<霸权之翼>)一书,[1]就是上述有益探索中的一种尝试.     

中国新外交:国内变迁、外部环境与国际秩序

20世纪90年代以来,中国外交无论在实践层面还是理念层面都展现了一些明显不同于已往的新特征,受到国际社会的广泛关注.中国新外交是在改革开放后中国综合国力显著增强、国内社会发生剧烈变迁以及国际环境发生剧烈变化的基础上发生、发展起来的,走的是由周边到全球,从实践到理念的发展轨迹.中国新外交的实践和理念,已经并且将继续对周边及国际秩序产生积极而深远的影响.     

百年间国际政治经济秩序的转型压力——资本流动、产业——金融联系与自由秩序

当前,新自由主义国际秩序遭遇来自美国国内的严重冲击。这与一百年前,古典自由主义国际秩序遭遇来自英国国内的冲击十分类似。为何在一百年间,英美两国均遭遇国内对国际秩序的严重冲击?本文指出,各国不同的产业-金融联系是一项关键前情。在解除对资本跨国流动的管制后,英美两国疏远的产业-金融联系加剧了资本跨国流动带来的问题。由于缺乏国内利益纽带约束,能够用脚投票的英美两国资本生产意愿降低;相对当地政府以及普通民众的议价能力提升。资本分得更多的经济份额。由贫富分化引发的政治问题日益凸显。理性的政治家利用国内分化的政治结构,动员国内民众,给自由国际秩序构成巨大压力。与英美不同,德国等有着紧密产业-金融联系的国家,即便面临资本全球化浪潮,国内冲击自由秩序的压力相对较小。基于其政治经济安排的特点,中国能为维护国际秩序做出积极贡献。     

The Iraq War and International Relations: Implications for Small States

The Iraq War exposes the new shape of world politics. It discredits the idea of a benign hegemon defending world order, content to be an ‘offshore balancer’, exercising its power through multinational institutions and constrained by mutually agreed rules. Rather, the hegemon, facing few external constraints in a unipolar world, is driven by the particularistic interests of its ruling group, in the pursuit of informal empire wherein military force is used to impose client regimes and economic subordination. The impotence of both a realist power balance and of liberal institutions to restrain it calls into question the main bases of global order, leaving imperial overreach as the main limitation on hegemonic power. Small states may be able to adapt to, even temporarily profit from, bandwagoning with the hegemon, but it is they that are potentially most threatened when a hegemonic power undermines the international constraints on the use of power.     

G时代的国际新秩序:变局与变数

2009年9月25日,G20匹兹堡峰会发表的<领导人声明>宣布,G20将取代G8成为永久性的全球经济主要协调和合作机制.向来被批评为富人集团的G8将于未来两届年度峰会中,逐步将其组织功能转移到G20.逾30年历史的G8(前身为G7及G6)角色将大为弱化,沦为国际安全等个别议题上的事务会议,不再召开专门峰会.     

中亚国家:国际战略、外交政策与国家安全

分析影响中亚五国制定国际战略、外交政策和国家安全战略的各种因素,简介各国国际战略、外交政策和国家安全战略的异同点及其原因,以及中亚五国外交和国家安全观的特点,指出维护国家利益和民族利益是各国制定国际战略、外交政策和国家安全战略的出发点和核心.在当前国际形势相当复杂和三股恶势力肆虐中亚的情况下,中亚各国国家安全战略正面临巨大的考验.     

Preemption, Unilateralism, and Hegemony: The American Tradition?

Historian John Lewis Gaddis has found precedent for the current war on terror in early American history, arguing that the British burning of the capitol in 1814 had an impact on defense policy similar to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, leading to an emphasis on preemption. In basic respects, Gaddis restates the consensus among diplomatic historians that the early republic's foreign policy focused on preemption, unilateralism, and hegemony. But these depictions of early American diplomacy conflate separate eras and ignore an opposing tradition that was more moderate and principled. They are not without some truth, but their imperious sway in histories of our country needs to be checked and balanced.     

国际反恐怖主义战略：美国、巴基斯坦与印度

“9.11”恐怖主义袭击事件后 ,随着美国组织盟国准备对阿富汗实施军事打击 ,巴基斯坦的战略地位重新回升 ,美巴之间的密切合作成为美国反恐怖主义行动顺利进行的重要条件 ;印度的合作愿望则因印巴两国的微妙关系而受到美国冷落。印巴在阿富汗政治重建问题上利益迥异 ,同时克什米尔暴力事件也突出了印度自身的反恐怖主义问题 ,这些复杂因素使得美国不得不在南亚维系平衡、险走钢丝 ,为其全局计划增添了新的变数。     

Teaching International Studies from a Regional Perspective: An ISP Symposium on Power, Wealth and Global Order: An International Textbook for Africa

Thanks to a suggestion made by Tim Shaw (Dalhousie University), the Editors of ISP decided about a year ago to commission a discussion of the textbook Power, Wealth and Global Order: An International Relations Textbook for Africa. This symposium aims at increasing our understanding of the different, regionally specific perspectives that can be brought to bear when studying international relations outside of North America and Western Europe. We want to thank Prof. Donald Gordon for the time he spent on examining the volume at hand and for his insightful analysis of the contribution made by the editors and authors of the textbook. Based on this discussion, we then asked four other authors from diverse areas of the world (Venezuela, Korea, Slovenia, and Russia) to read Prof. Gordon's analysis and respond to a set of questions we posed to them. Those questions and their comments follow Prof. Gordon's essay. We would also like to invite other ISA members from anywhere in the world to comment on this subject, as a continuing effort to engage important pedagogical topics in the pages of ISP.     

Managing the Goal-Setting Paradox: How to Get Better Results from High Goals and Be Happy

Many negotiation teachers share the same tip early on: negotiators who set higher goals do better. It turns out that one of the most empirically supported truths about negotiation comes with a big but. Negotiators who set higher goals are likely to feel worse. In other words, negotiators who set optimistic goals are likely to obtain better objective outcomes but worse subjective outcomes.
We call this empirical finding the goal-setting paradox. This article considers sources of and explanations for the goal-setting paradox and suggests how negotiators and negotiation teachers may better manage this paradox through mindfulness and other techniques.