Brexit,Development Aid,and the Commonwealth

Abstract

Development cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states has provided a vehicle for the UK’s ongoing relationship with the majority of the Commonwealth, although this was widely overlooked in the run-up to the UK referendum and its aftermath. Membership of the EU has provided the UK with the opportunity to collectivise its obligations to ACP Commonwealth states and a framework for its development cooperation relations across the Global South. This has augmented British leadership in global development and the alignment of development policy and practice at the global, regional and national levels. This paper argues that withdrawal from the EU would be a lengthy and costly process that threatens to undermine the UK’s position in global development, current levels and sources of development funding and existing and nascent trade relations. While this will present particular challenges for ACP Commonwealth states, there may also be opportunities to propose and advocate for alternative frameworks. However, recent changes to the UK’s post-referendum political leadership does not augur well for those hoping for a roll back of pressures for liberalisation and associated reforms.     

泰国政治权力结构调整的动力、路径与困境

基于对政治利益集团权力斗争的分析,本文认为,近年来泰国政局持续动荡的根源在于政治权力结构调整所面临的转型困境。20世纪90年代以来,泰国在全球化外部风险与国内城乡发展失衡的双重压力下,形成对国家发展道路的重新选择要求。经济利益结构的改革压力,形成对"碎片化"政治权力结构的调整动力。1997年东亚金融危机爆发,成为推动泰国政治权力结构调整的契机。既得利益集团倾向于保留"碎片化"格局的改良方案,但代表新资本集团的他信派系倾向于政治改革,要求建构由其主导的"层级式"政治权力结构。他信派系得益于新资本集团与农民群体的政治联合,在"政治权力结构—经济利益结构"大循环调整过程中占据优势;既得利益集团得益于国王权威的支持,在"政治权力结构—政治文化传统"小循环调整过程中掌握主动。双方在政治权力结构的调整过程中相互制衡,从而使得泰国的政治秩序迟迟未能重建。     

Youth and generation in South African history*

In recent years, “the youth” have captured (or perhaps recaptured) public attention in South Africa. This paper reflects on South Africa’s experience of generational conflict and places it in the broader context of South African history. After attempting to define “youth,” this paper makes two key points. First, far from being a recent development, generational tension has been a continuous feature of Southern African history since at least the late nineteenth century. Second, organized political mobilization is not the way this tension usually manifests itself. Mass youth politics is a specific phenomenon, which needs to be explained historically rather than assumed. The paper focuses on three historical examples to illustrate this: early migrant labor in South Africa, the formation of urban youth gangs, and the sustained youth uprising from 1976 until the early 1990s. It concludes with a tentative attempt to draw some parallels between that phase of rebellion and recent student upheavals.     

Foreign aid,debt relief and Africa's development: problems and prospects

In recent years, the Paris club granted a number of African countries, including Nigeria, debt relief. This elicited widespread celebration in the capital cities of affected countries, where it was portrayed as a veritable launch-pad to Africa's development. This paper takes a critical look at the debt relief, with emphasis on its problems and prospects for Africa's development. It is argued that while debt relief does offer some prospects for development, there is little or no evidence to suggest that such an outcome is automatic. The conditions that precipitated the debt crisis in the first instance, including an inequitable international economic order and political conditions tied to aid, are still very present in the debt relief regime. Corruption of the foreign aid regime by both internal and external actors has been compounded by the recent global economic crisis, posing further constraints on the effectiveness of foreign aid in Africa. If debt relief must yield the desired result, it has to be accompanied by a sustainable campaign to fundamentally reform the world order to make it more equitable, together with a drive for good governance that is not only democratic, but also efficient and development-oriented in Africa.     

Home-grown strategies for greater agency: reassessing the outcome of civil society strengthening in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

This paper seeks to reassess the outcome of mainstream civil society promotion policies in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. While it agrees with critics that the distorting effects of funding relations have meant that the promised ‘grassroots citizen empowerment’ has not been achieved directly through NGOs, it does not agree that NGOs are therefore merely vehicles of the Western ideological agenda and international aid to the Kyrgyzstani population. It argues that the facilitation of international actors has opened up opportunities for individual NGO activists to pursue their own social and political development agendas. In recent years, some activists have begun to use these opportunities to develop strategies through which grassroots interests are represented to decision-makers, and citizens' abilities to represent their own interests are enhanced. The strategies adopted differ from the mainstream civil society model and have allowed some NGOs to function in a manner more relevant to the specific Kyrgyzstani context. This suggests that local Kyrgyzstani NGOs and activists should not all be written off as ‘artificial’ civil society, irrelevant to the dynamics of state–society relations.     

Crisis in the Philippines Left: Implications for the Asia Pacific

The struggles of poor communities to negotiate development processes have been documented increasingly in recent years. However, recognition of the agency of the poor should not preclude attention to patterns of oppression that may be intensifying in the face of top-down development processes imposed by increasingly well co-ordinated elites. Examination of patterns of violence in border areas across the Greater Mekong Sub-region suggests that integration facilitates the collusion of state actors in the dispossession of the poor in a manner that is deleterious to ethnic minorities, internal migrants and other vulnerable populations. National political processes are not offering mechanisms by which such populations can seek to contest this trend.     

韩国人对华负面认知与中国对韩公共外交途径

中韩两国关系自建交以来在许多方面取得了飞速发展,但近些年,两国关系由"暖"变"冷",原因是多方面的,其中韩国人对中国形象的负面认知,产生了很大的负面影响。对此,我们不能视而不见或避而不谈,而应积极加强对韩公共外交,促进两国友好关系顺利发展。韩国是中国的重要邻国,中韩两国关系良好发展的意义不仅局限在两国关系上,它对于改善东北亚地区的安全局势也具有不可忽视的作用。本文主要就韩国人对中国形象的负面认知及其对中韩关系所起的负面影响作用以及应对之策,做简要分析和探讨。     

African Renaissance: The need for gender-inclusive developmental states

ABSTRACT

This article was developed from a paper presented at a seminar at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria in 2006 while the author was an Archie Mafeje Fellow. It argues the urgent need for the construction and consolidation of gender-inclusive democratic developmental states as central to grounding the concept of an African Renaissance, for an effective transformation of the human condition, and for ensuring that this renaissance does not become romanticised and meaningless. While the notion of developmental states has gained currency in recent years, very little, if at all, has been said about gender in relation to these debates – despite the United Nations warning that ‘without engendering development, development itself is endangered.’ In other words, formulating and implementing development policies with gender lenses are crucial for development.     

日本的香港研究综述

日本的香港研究历史悠久,近年来发展迅速。与中国内地、香港特区自身以及英美等西方国家的香港研究相比,日本的香港研究自有其特色。为便于学界对此有更多的了解,就研究主题与发表时序,逐一介绍近年日本对港研究的著作。由于日本香港研究触及香港社会的诸多议题,题材相对丰富,所以更适合就政治发展、社会经济、法律法规、文化艺术等视角逐一进行考察及综述。与此同时,也不可讳言,日本的香港研究存在种种不足,包括其对于内地与香港关系的偏见、研究取材的狭隘以及研究方法的滞后等等。从这个角度看,日本香港研究的成果值得国内学界关注,其局限也需要我们引以为戒。     

试析跨世纪的国际海洋开发趋势

本文分析了《联合国海洋法公约》诞生以来东南亚国家以及其他沿海国家争夺海洋管辖权及进行海洋开发的总形势，指出过去中国海洋开发落后的原因和近年来的良好势头     

试论荷兰殖民统治对印尼现代政治发展的影响

本文回顾了荷兰在印尼的殖民统治过程和特点 ,同时也简要论述了它对印尼现代政治发展的影响。本文认为 ,现代印尼政治中的许多问题都与殖民统治有着千丝万缕的联系 ,只有充分了解殖民统治的历史影响 ,才能更好地了解现代印尼政治发展的曲折历程。     

Perestroyka and the Slavic Regions

The paper examines the effects and significance of geographic position, cumulative advantages and disadvantages of past development, present investment cuts, political factors and links, and two recent decrees on enterprises, regional self-management, and the devolution of authority in selected Slavic regions. It argues that structural and spatial constraints and system-preserving controls on the reforms themselves have rendered perestroyka ineffectual and accentuated “center-periphery” tensions within the Slavic republics, Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 940.     

后美国时代的权力结构变迁与国际制度改革——基于八国集团改革的理论思考

权力结构与制度变革的关系探讨历来是国际问题研究的核心之一。金融危机爆发后,国际权力结构进入一个后美国时代,权力的分散但非匀质化是其显著特征。本文认为,制度改革是权力结构变迁过程中的合理性诉求,结构的变迁会对原有制度框架内的支配国和受益者形成某种改革压力。另一方面,权力结构变迁的长期性决定了制度改革的继承性和包容性。从总体上看,世界权力关系的变迁将会导致国际规则的调整和完善,倾向于制度的不断演化而非完全替代。     

海外华商网络在广东"走出去"战略中的功能与作用

广东企业"走出去"是发展外向型经济和实现自身经济可持续发展的必然选择.近年来,广东企业"走出去"已经取得一定的成效,但同时又存在一系列突出的问题.这些问题导致海外企业未能顺利实现其经济效益,进而影响广东实施"走出去"战略的效果.鉴于海外华人经济的特性,本文分析了华商网络在广东实施"走出去"战略中的功能与作用,并在此基础上提出几点利用华商网络的建议,以服务于广东的"走出去"战略进程.     

Japan and Africa: A Historical Review of Interaction and Future Prospects

This article has four points of contention. First, it argues that time is ripe for the Japanese model of ODA (Official Development Assistance) to work in Africa. The recent positive changes seem to be creating an enabling environment in Africa for the Japanese model of ODA—an economic-development oriented ODA that once has contributed to the dynamic development of Asia—to work, at least in some African countries and in some areas. Second, it is contended that despite recent positive changes, Africa is still faced with huge developmental challenges, and Japan is ready to support its African partners especially in agriculture, industry, human resource development and in nurturing political stability and security, while taking advantage of its strengths and traditions. Third, the changes happening in Japan, combined with those happening in Africa, are opening a new era of Afro-Nippon cooperation, which is much more broad-based and encompassing wider areas of cooperation. And fourth, it concludes by arguing that what Japan has been doing and what it intends to do in and for Africa must be taken not in the context of diplomatic rivalry between Japan and other actors but in the context of Japan’s willingness to fulfill its international responsibilities and hence to serve its broad and long-term national interests.     

Rethinking Colonialism and the Origins of the Developmental State in East Asia

Previous studies on economic development in East Asia focus exclusively on the recent period (since the 1960s) and posit that East Asian “miracles” were largely a result of the state's exceptional capacity to implement consistent industrial policy. Yet, they neglect the question of the origins of the developmental state. To confront this neglect, this article makes a macro-historical comparison between Northeast and Southeast Asia, highlighting colonialism, the role of income inequality, and subsequent socio-economic transformations. It is argued that a crucial historical phase for new economic trajectory was the decolonisation period when East Asian countries had an opportunity to break away from negative colonial legacies. This article sheds new light on the ways in which colonialism shapes long-term economic development in East Asia.     

The making of a transnational religion: Alevi movement in Germany and the World Alevi union

ABSTRACT

The literature on migrants’ religious movements generally see them as backward and conservative movements that are resistant to change. On the contrary, this paper shows that transnational religious movements are shaped by interactions between origin and destination places’ political, legal and social structures, and may take different pathways across time and place. Analysing the development of the Alevi diaspora movement in Germany and the recent efforts to establish the World Alevi Union, the article argues that both the (old and new) states and the (old and new) societies they live in, as well as broader paradigm changes and their agency have a direct influence on the ways migrants’ daily life practices alter in time.     

The establishment of the South African Development Partnership Agency: Institutional complexities and political exigencies

Since 2007 there has been discussion to formalise, rationalise, coordinate and provide structure to South Africa's development cooperation through the establishment of a centralised South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA). Progress in rolling out the new institution, however, has been extremely slow, owing to the political and technical complexities of South Africa's institutional environment. This paper elaborates on the rationale and driving forces which have led to the establishment of SADPA and the steps which have been taken to gradually operationalise the new agency and the partnership fund dedicated to providing development support on the continent. As plans move forward, will SADPA be expected to manage all of South Africa's development cooperation — bilateral, multilateral, regional, trilateral — as well as concessional loans, humanitarian aid and development financing, public and private? Clarity of roles and coordination is critical. The paper will examine the different mechanisms for the financing, implementation and oversight that need to be in place to take forward Pretoria's development cooperation, and the challenges of leadership, coordination, accountability and information management that face the new agency.     

浅析中国与东盟的能源合作

能源是人类社会赖以生存和发展的基本要素之一。随着中国经济的快速增长,中国对外能源需求量逐年增长,能源安全成了人们普遍关注的一个全球性的热点问题。因此,中国应通过积极参与双边与多边的能源合作,采取多元化的油气资源供给途径,来保障中国的油气资源的安全供给。随着东盟与中国政治经济关系的升温,东盟各国在中国的能源安全领域扮演着越来越重要的角色。本文在对中国能源现状进行分析的基础上,对中国与东盟开展能源合作这一议题进行剖析,浅析其合作的必要性、可行性及其前景。     

Multinational corporations in Asia the labor-intensive factory

Abstract

In a segment of his recent television series on economics, “The Age of Uncertainty,” John Kenneth Galbraith makes a number of critical remarks about multinational corporations. However, towards the end of the program, the screen is suddenly filled with pictures of bustling Singapore, and Galbraith comments that, whatever else can be said of them, the MNCs have played a major role in bringing economic development and employment to this and many other parts of the world. The implication is that the employment and economic growth fostered by the large corporations in Asian countries like Singapore are—by definition—changes for the better.