Canada and the Honduran Coup

The purpose of this article is to expose the part played by Canadian imperialism in Honduras before and after the military overthrow of democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, on 28 June 2009. It draws attention to the neglected role of the Canadian state's efforts to protect the interests of Canadian capital in Honduras and Latin America more generally through the constant undermining of Zelaya's attempts to return to his legitimate office, and in the ultimate consolidation of the coup under Porfirio ‘Pepe’ Lobo in early 2010. The article simultaneously develops a critique of what has become the standard account of the Honduran coup of 2009. We show how Zelaya was neither a puppet of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, nor an autocrat seeking to entrench his power indefinitely through illegal constitutional reform when he was violently tossed out of government.     

Cooking the Goose: Fiji's Coup Culture Contextualised

Abstract

In the 40 years since Fiji became independent, there has been no shortage of perspectives from which to frame its development: its colonial past, its dual status as a Third World and Pacific island state, and, most pervasively perhaps, race conflict. This article focuses on another perspective: the failure of ethnic Fijian leaders to democratise their community politically and economically. Its consequences for the country have been long-standing and lie behind Fiji's developing coup culture     

Chernobyl': Observations on the Fifth Anniversary

A Canadian Sovietologist with extensive research experience relating to the accident at the Chernobyl' nuclear power plant in 1986 surveys some of its major consequences in light of new information on the fifth anniversary of the disaster in 1991. The author outlines and analyzes varying interpretations of the cause of the accident (operator error vs. design flaw), the extent and density of the radiation release, and the severity of its impact on public health in contaminated areas. Appropriately noted are the jurisdictional disputes over the clean-up and other remedial efforts-most rooted in the current political crisis in the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, Q20, Q40.     

Reflections on the Mosul problem

Summary

It now becomes possible to summarize our conclusions on the Brussels Line:

1. It does not fulfil the object of British policy completely in that it surrenders to Turkey the control of Assyrian destinies. It does, however, provide for the establishment and security of an ‘Iraq state sufficient to assure our own security.

2. The frontier does not, and cannot, satisfy the linguistic, racial, and religious requirements of a good frontier owing to the chaotic intermixture of these elements in its vicinity.

3. It is not strategically the best frontier for ‘Iraq, but it is sufficiently defensible to guarantee the security of the ‘Iraq state. It is economically sound.

4. It satisfies the political desires of the minorities concerned, except those of the Kurd and Assyrian.

     

Reflections on Schurmann's theory of the state

Abstract

Were Marx alive today he might be moved to comment on how quickly the next “revolution” materialized, that is to say, how quickly certain disciples of his, like Lenin and Stalin, substituted political organization and the power of the state for the proletariat as the agency of revolution. Perhaps Marx would recognize that the state merited more attention than he gave it, for in this century it seems clear that state power has functioned more autonomously than Marx implied in order to preserve capitalism, by ameliorating its fundamental contradictions; and to put off, even pervert, that socialist revolution which originally envisioned the proletariat assuming the central, world-historical role. In recent years Marxist critics have been filling this lacuna in Marxism with a profusion of writings on the role of the state in its absolutist, capitalist, and socialist variants. It was into this milieu that Franz Schurmann stepped with his Logic of World Power, containing within it a “theory of the state” that I find both interesting and flawed, a theory that offers much to the current debate on the role of the state, and yet one that has been largely ignored by Marxists and non-Marxists alike.     

Reflections on Putin and the Media

A political scientist investigates the extent to which, under Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin consolidated control over the Russian media. Conceptually, a contrast is drawn between the Soviet and post-Soviet systems of media control. Data-bases are used to illuminate imbalances of television coverage of presidential candidates and public officials as well as the evolution of popular distrust of the media. Comparisons are drawn with President Alberto Fujimori's defunct regime in Peru and speculation is offered as to the fragility of the Kremlin's control over the media.     

Reflections on the implications of the Vietnam Caucus

Abstract

It is revealing that a Vietnam Caucus held in March 1968 should end its meeting by beginning an evaluation of the professional “conscience” of Asian scholars. That it took this war to raise the latent problems in the profession is itself a depressing commentary on the state of the field. But the desire on the part of some individuals to create a nationwide inter-university student-faculty Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars to pose and then seek to resolve these problems fulfills one of the organizers' hopes.     

Reflections on the Kyoto conference on global warming

The Third Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was held in Kyoto in December 1997. It ended successfully with the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, which lays down internationally binding provisions for handling the problem of global warming in the twenty‐first century, but the negotiation process was extraordinarily difficult, due to the complex nature of the issue of global warming, and to the fact that the national interests of every nation were closely involved. As Japan's ambassador for global environmental affairs, Toshiaki Tanabe was chief negotiator for Japan, and gives here an insider's view of how that successful outcome was reached. The requirement for Japan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent is a heavy burden, he says, and poses a serious challenge.     

从政党政治的缺陷看苏共必然灭亡

政党政治是人类有史以来民主政治的高级形式,是现代民主政治的典型形式,是人类政治文明的积极成果。政党政治首先形成于现代资本主义社会。最先发展资本主义商品市场经济的国家,如英、法、美等国,新兴资产阶级是在夺取政权后的议会斗争中才组成政党,经由多党竞争,选民投票,实现政党轮流执政或联合执政。后发资本主义国家,如德、意、俄等国以及广大被压迫民族国家,则是先组成各类政党,由政党领导或推进革命斗争,到斗争胜利后才形成完全的政党政治。政党政治依据长期     

Reflections on Japan's past

Fifty years after the devastation of World War II, Japan's remarkable long‐term, export‐driven economic success is known as the East Asian development model and East Asian economies have become the engine for the world's economic growth. Yet the collapse of Japan's 1980s over‐inflated “bubble economy” has created apathy and pessimism, says former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. In May 1995, on the occasion of his seventy‐seventh birthday, after more than 45 years in the Diet, IIPS Chairman Nakasone reflects on Japan's modern history and issues a call for renewal in the following speech. Above all, he says, “Japan does have a few mavericks” and “people with true convictions [should] come forward . . . the Japanese are waiting for genuine leadership.”     

Reflections on Arzamas-16

Three German economists analyze the determinants of access to health care in rural Russia and ask whether income and ability-to-pay, emerging as the major determinants of access in urban areas, have begun to govern rural populations' access to health-care services. Using household data from a survey conducted in the year 2000 (N=321 households) in two regions of Russia—Oryol and Leningrad Oblasts—the authors examine how the reduced role of the state and the concomitant decentralization of policy-making have affected access of the rural populace to health services. Broader policy implications and suggestions for ensuring future access to services in rural areas are offered.     

从泰国军人干政看发展中国家政治制度危机

军事政变不仅是一种军事行动,更是一种政治行动.本文试图通过对泰国军事政变的分析,探讨在发展中国家军人干政的原理.本文认为,政变的发生取决于一个国家的社会结构因素和政治制度因素,其中政治参与的无序化与领导人退出机制的不完善是引发军事政变的最重要原因.虽然军人干政在历史上曾经起过积极作用,但在现代社会,军人干政已经不适应甚至危害民主政治的发展.为解决这个问题,发展中国家应该从调整社会结构、扩大政治参与和提升政治制度化水平等三个方面持续地付出努力.     

Reflections on the NGO forum on women '95

Abstract

The approximately 30,000 participants in the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Forum on Women ‘95 did more than simply give voice and attention to often invisible and silenced women's issues. They journeyed to the forum from over 185 countries to Huairou, a resort town forty kilometers outside of Beijing, the People's Republic of China, to network, exchange information, and devise innovative and determined implementation of solutions to the world's most pressing problems. The NGO forum inspired commitment to action in many forms: renewing and forging solidarity on issues and strategies, lobbying government delegates during the overlapping (4–15 September 1995) official U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and sustaining and expanding day-to-day work in communities after participants returned home.     

俄伊传统关系终结之思考

俄伊关系是苏伊军事合作关系的继承和发扬。俄伊传统关系的终结意味着俄罗斯在伊战略利益的丧失,亦意味着美国全球扩张战略中又一个重要目标的实现和大国在伊利益排序作有利于美国的转移。对伊战争隐含美国多重利益目标,这由美国霸权主义野心和单边主义行为所决定。此外,根据逻辑推断,存在着下一个俄(或X)——X关系终结的可能,应引起国际社会高度重视。     

Reflections on Environmentalism and the River Diversion Projects

In a companion paper to “Environmentalism in the USSR: The Opposition to the River Diversion Projects,” two geographers survey the current status of water transfer research after cancellation of the European and Siberian diversion projects and offer a different perspective on the debates leading to that cancellation. Implications of a demand-side approach to Centra! Asian water management problems are then assessed in light of (a) contradictory objectives of expanding irrigated hectarage and mitigating environmental deterioration in the Aral basin and (b) the problematic nature of projected water savings and costs involved in their realization. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 720.