Central-Local Relations in an Era of Multi-Level Governance: The Case of Public Participation Policy in England, 1997-2001

The election of a 'New Labour' UK government in 1997 promised a new era of central-local relations facilitated by a programme of local government reform which recognised local government's 'community leadership' role. Other aspects of the agenda supported the development of multi-level governance, for example, the establishment of sub-national institutions such as the Scottish Parliament and the promotion of neighbourhoods as key sites for action. Despite these actions this paper will argue that in England the central state retains considerable influence over the key agents of local governance. Using the example of public participation policy, and drawing on the findings of a recent study in two English cities, the paper will explore how national policy aspirations were reflected locally. It concludes that while local action generally complemented national priorities, there were important points of contrast, and that localities' capacity to act in their own interests is supported by the opportunities presented in a multi-level governance environment.     

Imperial Incompetence and Guatemalan Militarism, 1931–1966

Drawing of Guatemalan and US sources, this paper complicates the instrumentalist argument that US assistance and intervention explain the Guatemalan military's repeated intervention in politics, and the rise of a military government in 1963. This study contends that the US government had little to do with giving Guatemalan officers the capacity and motive to intervene in politics. However, the US did contribute to their opportunity to intervene through its opposition to regimes it opposed, as was the case in the infamous 1954 coup, and also by inadvertently weakening regimes it backed.     

奥巴马访华与当前的中美关系

2009年11月13日。荚闰总统奥巴马开始了首次东亚之行一在这一行程中,要数为期四天的中国行最为丰富多彩。奥巴马在与中国领导人会晤中就经济复苏、气候变暖、开发新能源、防核武器扩散、地区安全等双方共同关心的话题进行了坦率、深入、富有建设性的会谈,共同发表了《中美联合声明》,“双方重申致力于建设21世纪积极合作令面的中美关系,     

Fear,Anxiety and the State of Terror

The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon marked the advent of an unprecedented preoccupation with terrorism. Although Australia's actual terrorist risk profile remains marginal in comparison with other mortality risks, in times of crisis, the reasoned negotiation of risk is marginalised. Drawing on the findings of qualitative research, this article offers an analysis of how Australians are responding to the threat of terrorism embodied in a developing discourse of the war on terror and how they construct their perceptions of terrorist risk. The findings implicate community fear as a factor that should be considered in the development of counter terrorism strategies that emphasize community engagement as a mechanism for challenging radicalisation in democratic states.     

Social Ties,Collective Efficacy,and Crime-Specific Fear in Seattle Neighborhoods

While research suggests that individuals’ interactions with their communities—such as their social integration into the community and perceptions of collective efficacy—impact their perceived risk of victimization, only a handful of studies have examined the influence of these characteristics on crime-specific, emotional fear. Using the Seattle Neighborhoods and Crime Survey, we conduct multilevel models to examine whether social ties and collective efficacy are associated with perceived risk and emotional fear of violence and burglary. The results show that individuals’ social ties to the community are negatively associated with perceived risk, but not emotional fear of violence or burglary, while perceived collective efficacy is negatively related to both cognitive and emotional fear. Moreover, the results suggest that individuals’ social integration into the community functions through perceptions of collective efficacy to predict perceived risk; however, this process does not extend to emotional fear of either violence or burglary.     

国际关系与国际法的学科结合——中国现状、存在问题及解决思路

国际法与国际关系之间关系紧密,国际法学与国际关系理论的研究相辅相成,这些特性决定了两个学科紧密联系的必要性。过去的十年是中国国际关系与国际法跨学科研究兴起的十年。然而,教学体系设置上的彼此隔离、学科研究本身的难度、对话机制的不畅通,以及跨学科合作平台的缺乏等,严重制约着跨学科研究的进一步发展。鉴于此,推动包括改进两个学科教学体系、建设跨学科的对话机制与研究平台等各个方面的改革措施势在必行。     

中国企业劳动关系:转型,紧张,迈向和谐

改革开放以来,随着所有制结构的调整和市场经济的发展,中国的企业劳动关系发生了一系列变化。这些变化调动了各方面的积极性,明显地推动了经济增长和经济效益的提高,但也使企业劳动关系呈现出逐渐紧张的趋势。针对造成这种状况的原因,今后应继续实行有利于扩大就业的经济发展战略,改变企业在国际分工中的不利地位,健全劳动法制体系,完善劳动保障监察执法手段。     

及笄与志学——中国女性主义国际关系研究

中国的女性主义国际关系研究已超过15年。该学派起始于中国学者自发的研究,但更多体现的是自觉引进西方研究成果并将其中国化的努力。女性主义国际关系研究在中国发展的过程分为三个阶段,在2006年达到高峰后进入平稳发展阶段。整体而言,这一学派生产出一系列学术成果,建立起重要的研究机构,正在缓慢平稳地前进,并已体现出自己的独特性。中国女性主义国际关系研究的创新需要立足于中国特定的时间和空间,强调实践中国特色、多轨跟进、跨界合作,在日常生活和国际关系之间建立更为密切的联系。     

中国同其他大国关系点评

今年,在纷繁复杂和动荡多变的国际形势下,中国在国际政治经济舞台上十分活跃,令世人注目。这一年里,中国在处理国际性危机事件中,既坚持了原则立场,又寻求各方的对话与协商,发挥了建设性的作用。在活跃而从容的多边外交中,中国不仅发展了同各大国的关系,也发展了同广大发展中国家的关系,特别是同东南亚国家的合作有了长足的进步。 本文仅就一年来中国同大国关系作些点评。总的来说,中国同大国的关系,如同大河流水,在曲折中向前发展。     

中国拉美经贸关系迅速发展

去年11月中国国家主席胡锦涛拉美四国之行和今年1月国家副主席曾庆红对拉美五国的访问均取得圆满成功.从而推动了中国拉美经贸关系的迅速发展.     

Gender Identification and the Fear of Crime: Do Masculinity and Femininity Matter in Reporting Fear of Crime?

ABSTRACT

Criminologists have been interested in the gap in reported levels of fear of crime between men and women for decades. Our study advances and empirically tests the hypothesis that gender identity is an important mechanism that accounts for the gap in fear of crime between men and women. Specifically, the current study incorporates Magliozzi, Saperstein, and Westbrook’s gradational measures of masculinity and femininity to test if these variables are related to fear of crime. Statistical analyses reveal that masculinity is negatively and significantly associated with fear of crime, suggesting that men may be doing gender in reporting fear of crime by suppressing their expression of fear when responding to survey items related to fear of crime. Additionally, the inclusion of the measures of masculinity and femininity in our statistical model reduces the effect of sex to non-significance.     

Czech and Slovak Relations with China: Contenders for China's Favour

This study examines the prospects for new European Union (EU) member countries in pursuing their foreign policy objectives in relations with China. Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia cherished an idea of making China an alternative economic partner. However, after 1989, China perceived these states as minor, almost unimportant partners, regardless of their efforts. Their profile was raised by EU accession but there was little change in their strength in terms of bilateral relations with China. The article investigates the failures and partial successes of the Czech and Slovak relationships with China, comparing their different approaches to the balance between focusing on political and human rights issues and the pursuit of economic and business interests.     

Evolving Thinking and Policies of China's Diplomacy and China-EU Relations

Evolutions and readjustment permeate China’s diplomatic policy in the six decades’ history of PRC, thanks to the tremendous changes happened to both the world and PRC. Enormous opportunities and challenges to China coincide in the present world. China and EU are rising with bigger role to play in the world, though daunting challenges to bilateral relations beckon.     

Intellectuals,International Relations and the Constant Emergency

In this essay, I return to Hans Morgenthau's and Hannah Arendt's writings on the Vietnam war and US foreign policy, which explored questions of bureaucracy, technology, emergency. On one level the essays they wrote illustrate the extent to which the discipline of International Relations (IR) has now caught up with the analyses of politics and war that they were developing in the 1960s and 1970s. We begin to see how lines of thought in Morgenthau's writing connect directly with the work of a younger generation of scholars interested in the work of intellectuals like Giorgio Agamben on the dangers of a security-obsessed politics in a ‘state of emergency’ or ‘state of exception’, or how Arendt's and Morgenthau's work on bureaucracy and war is explored in contemporary work; from a pedagogical perspective, drawing out these connections creates the possibility of a different, potentially more subversive, way of introducing students to the discipline of ir.     

默克尔访华后的中德关系

今年5月21-23日,德国总理默克尔成功访华.正如人们期待的那样,在2005年德国大选与政府更迭之后,中德关系仍然保持了连续性和稳定性,并继续呈现着全面、快速发展的势头,各个领域的合作不断加深.对此,温家宝总理22日在与默克尔总理会谈时说:中德关系已进入成熟阶段.