The force of relationships: the influence of personal networks on the market for force

Since the 1990s, military support and security services in hostile environments have been increasingly traded on the market for force. Surprisingly, how exchange is organised on the market for force remains predominantly focused on the neoclassical model, which assumes anonymous exchange, and sellers compete through price and quality of product for customers. However, the model seems to be incomplete as it describes some empirical patterns, yet not others. Why are service backgrounds clustered together and why do specific nationalities dominate the market in the Iraq and Afghanistan war? Why are they not distributed evenly as price and quality competition would suggest? The argument here is that social factors need to be taken in to account, i.e. personal relationships. The logic being that sellers and customers trade through existing relationships, and familiarity is the dealmaker, rather than price. The article takes on the challenge to develop a sociological conceptualisation of the market able to integrate both logics. Finally, the approach is put to the test on the labour market for Western security operators. The results demonstrate that personal relationships play a significant role to explain exchange on the market for force, yet co-existence with the neoclassical logic.     

The Impact of Mercenaries and Private Military and Security Companies on Civil War Severity between 1946 and 2002

Research has long abandoned the view that only states wage war. On the contrary, civil war research has produced an impressive body of literature on violent non-state actors. Still, a particular group of actors—mercenaries—has been widely neglected so far, although they have participated in numerous conflicts in the second half of the twentieth century. Whether their presence aggravated or improved the situation is a matter of dispute. Some believe that the additional military capabilities provided by mercenaries help to end civil wars quickly without increased bloodshed, while others deem mercenaries greedy and bloodthirsty combatants who contribute to making civil wars more brutal, while a third opinion differentiates between different types of mercenaries. This article tests the impact of mercenaries on civil war severity. The evidence indicates that the presence of both mercenaries and private military and security contractors increases its severity.     

The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Protection: The Case of Software

The end of the twentieth century was marked by a sea change in global governance in the realm of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Whereas countries historically retained substantial autonomy with regard to what they defined as intellectual "property" and the rights granted to the owners of intellectual property, the 1990s witnessed the establishment of new global obligations regarding national practices. This paper focuses on the case of software "piracy" to assess the mechanisms by which the new global obligations for the treatment of IPRs are transmitted from the international to the national levels. We first consider a set of national-level factors that many scholars have shown to be important determinants of IPR policy. We then supplement the standard emphasis on domestic factors with an analysis of new transnational factors: countries' multilateral obligations under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and bilateral pressures from the United States to increase the protection of IPRs. Population-averaged panel data models are used to assess the effects of these national and transnational determinants on levels of software piracy in 80 countries from 1994 to 2002. Our results indicate that membership in the WTO and bilateral pressures from the United States—particularly pressures that offer reciprocal concessions—lead to substantial increases in levels of protection in rich and poor countries. There is, in short, a new international political economy of intellectual property.     

Conflict Management in Public–Private Partnerships: The Case of the London Underground

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become common inter‐organizational arrangements associated with “new public management.” Discussion about their effective operation has often focused on successful management methods, with less discussion about how these arrangements specifically overcome obstacles and problems. In this article, we seek to address this deficiency in the literature by analyzing the conflict management system employed within the London Underground PPP (when it was still in operation). We conclude by identifying several lessons from this case that we believe should inform the design of such systems, one of which is the role of knowledge management.     

人的安全保护与民主转型 ——基于阿富汗战争的考察

一些国家在由非民主体制向民主体制转型的过程中,往往遭遇各种暴力与冲突。由于人的安全得不到保障,新政府的信誉与合法性因此受到质疑,从而损害了民主转型的前景。阿富汗就是这方面的典型例子,特别是2009年的总统大选表明,恶劣的安全状况已经影响到民主的运作和信誉,这体现了一个困扰许多处于转型过程中的国家的困境：没有人的安全,就没有可靠的民主;转型中的发展中国家很容易在一种失序、动荡的过渡期中反复纠缠,民众的不安全与无效的政府成为一对相互催生的恶瘤。西方的武力干预容易推翻一个旧政权却很难塑造一个强有力的新政权,其造成的权力真空加剧了人的安全与民主转型之间的紧张。民主的价值不容否定,但民主应该在一个稳定的安全基础上去构建,无视人的安全去追求民主,可能反过来有损于真正的民主进程。人的安全视角表明：安全在价值序位上是高于民主的,也是民主生成的前提性条件;有一个能够保证人的安全的有效政府,是国家顺利实现民主转型的关键。     

国家维护能源安全手段的选择逻辑：产权制度的视角

经济体量、能源禀赋、对外能源依赖程度等相仿的国家在应对同一场或情境相似的能源危机时所采用的手段经常呈现出明显的差异,以美国为代表的一部分国家主要依托行政或外交手段,而以中国为代表的另一部分国家则更依赖行政与商业的组合手段。为解释这一差异,就要突破能源安全研究惯有的地缘政治与供给需求分析视角,借助产权制度来考察政府与企业的权利责任边界以及政府借助企业力量维护能源安全的可能性和成本。基于美国应对1973年石油危机与中国应对2017年天然气紧缺的实证研究以及英法两国应对1973年石油危机的补充性分析,可以发现产权制度决定了企业的自主性与政府的处置成本。研究表明,在私有产权制度下,能源公司的自主性与政府的处置成本均较高,政府难以借助能源公司的力量应对能源危机,由此独自采取行政或外交手段保障能源安全;在公有产权制度下,能源公司的自主性与政府的处置成本均较低,政府更容易借助能源公司的力量应对能源危机,由此两者共同承担维护能源安全的责任并通过行政与商业相结合的手段维护能源安全。     

Criminalising Academia: The Protection of State Information Bill and Academic Freedom

This article assesses the implications of the controversial Protection of State Information Bill for academic freedom in South Africa, specifically for communications, media and journalism studies. The Bill requires the security cluster to classify sensitive documents on national security grounds. Academic teaching and research can help citizens to understand whether the security cluster is acting in the universal interest, rather than the interest of a political elite; it can also be used to assess media performance in reporting on national security matters. Using a critical approach to the concept of national security, I argue that the Bill favours secrecy over openness, and South Africa’s embrace of the human security definition of national security has contributed to the problem. This overemphasis on secrecy is likely to reduce the few spaces that exist in academia for critical, emancipatory work on security issues, which could hobble the sector’s attempts to understand the deeper processes at work in the security cluster. If such enquiry is marginalised, then the higher education system risks becoming an instrument for continuity rather than change in South Africa’s existing, highly unequal power relations: relations that are being maintained increasingly by force.     

与宿敌为友：国家间和解的政治经济学

和解是国家间关系中一种典型的、然而在过去很长一段时间里没有得到足够重视的国家间互动形式。与和平不同,和解是发生在那些有严重历史恩怨的“宿敌”或“世仇”国家之间,它不单单是物质层面上的冲突解决,更涉及民族心理和精神创伤的愈合,是一个从冷和平走向暖和平、从不稳定和平走向稳固和平的长期过程。目前,学术界既有的关于国家间和解的研究描述多于诠释、案例多于理论,存在着忽视和解的阶段性特征、割裂政治与经济的关联性逻辑等缺陷。国家间和解的发生本质上是一种政治行为,它或是等级制作用的结果,或是在面临较为强烈的安全关切下,国家在维护国内政治合法性与国家安全之间作出的一种平衡。国家间和解的巩固与深化本质是一个将和平制度化的过程,它涉及三个密不可分、又相互递进的机制：从承认(对历史事实的再确认)到补偿(对非正义的弥补和纠正),再到融合(多层次的社会融合与交流机制),是在内力与外力、政治与经济等多重复杂因素互动作用下的结果。国家间和解的实现会带来广泛而又深远的影响,能够显著地改变国家内部的政治经济生态,又能够获得超越双边关系的意义,不仅有助于推动国家与地区和平的深化,而且也是推动地区经济一体化的重要力量。     

俄罗斯的战略性贸易政策倾向——以汽车工业保护为例

俄罗斯在汽车工业领域采取了长期和短期政策相结合的支持政策,其中带有显著的战略性贸易政策倾向。作为一种鼓励创新的贸易政策,却在一个相对传统的行业中发挥作用,这是俄罗斯产业结构、市场结构和政府偏好相互作用的结果。正确理解政策发挥作用的充要条件,正确认识保护和竞争的关系,才能够正确制定和实施战略性贸易政策。俄罗斯的政策实践有着独特的借鉴意义。     

美国国家安全人才培养与高等教育的融合 ——以国家安全教育立法及其实施为例

美国出台《1991年国家安全教育法》,标志着美国国家安全教育政策的法制化取得了重要成果,而这一法制化的进程却并非一蹴而就。美国国家安全教育政策的法制化进程始于第二次世界大战后,一直延续至冷战结束方告一段落,历时四十余年。其形成和发展过程与同时期美国国家安全法律体系的不断完善相伴随,其间突破了联邦政府不得干预教育的立法困境,体现了立法者国家安全观念的重要转变,最终推动实现了美国国家安全人才培养与高等教育的制度融合。依据该法开创的“国家安全教育计划”是美国落实国家安全教育政策的重要举措,通过数据分析观察该计划的发展实际和实施成效,发现当宏观的美国国家安全战略转化为具体的国家安全人才培养举措时,虽然两端表现出较高的关联性,但是政策与行动之间的传导脱节和错位在所难免。该计划诞生至今,持续开展近三十年,为美国国家安全人才建设发挥了积极作用,但也存在较明显的局限性,可以为中国做好新形势下高等教育范畴内的国家安全教育提供借鉴与反思。     

Food sovereignty and agro-ecology in Karnataka: interplay of discourses,identities, and practices

Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), a farmers’ movement, and a member of La Via Campesina, has been encouraging zero-budget natural farming in Karnataka, India, within the framework of food sovereignty and agro-ecology. Using the experiences of KRRS, this article addresses the question of the extent of pluralism within the discourse of food sovereignty. Focusing on the interplay of local and global practices, discourses and identities, the article throws light upon contradictions and negotiations between “necessary abstractions” and “particularisms”, spaces and places of resistance and implications it may have on struggles at both local and global levels.     

The Transformation of Security Planning for the Olympics: The 1976 Montreal Games

Montreal's Summer Olympics in 1976 was a turning point in Olympic history: it was the Games' first highly visible security operation. It was also a transformative moment in the history of security planning in Canada: preparations for the games contributed to shifting the Security Services' focus from communism towards domestic and international terrorism. The following article documents, for the first time, the scope of this operation. It is based on five years of requests and appeals under the federal Access to Information Act, which led to the release of over fifty thousand pages of Royal Canadian Mounted Police documents. I argue that security for the Montreal Olympics was based largely on imagined threats. In addition, I argue that security costs for the Montreal Olympics were high but modest as compared to the overall budget. Nonetheless, Montreal set a precedent for high security costs that have since become the standard for hosting the Olympics. Finally, I argue that the Montreal Olympics had long-term implications for policing in Canada. The scale of the operation produced new resources and inter-agency links that were only made possible as a result of hosting the games.     

The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism

The boundaries between news and entertainment, and between public affairs and pop culture, have become difficult if not impossible to discern. At the intersection of those borders sits The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a hybrid blend of comedy, news, and political conversation that is difficult to pigeon hole. Although the program often is dismissed as being “fake” news, its significance for political communication may run much deeper. This study first locates The Daily Show within an emerging media environment defined by the forces of technological multiplication, economic consolidation, and discursive integration, a landscape in which “real” news is becoming increasingly harder to identify or define. It then offers an interpretive reading of the program that understands the show not as “fake news,” but as an experiment in journalism. It argues that the show uses techniques drawn from genres of news, comedy, and television talk to revive a journalism of critical inquiry and advance a model of deliberative democracy. Given the increasing popularity of the program, this essay concludes that The Daily Show has much to teach us about the possibilities of political journalism in the 21st century.     

规则、关系与地区安全治理——以大湄公河次区域公共卫生协作治理为例

在地区安全治理研究中,规则或国际规则是主导话语和主导研究范式。然而,规则本身并不能自动构建治理实践和产生预期的治理效果。文章通过借鉴世界政治关系理论的最新研究成果,尝试建立“规则-关系”治理模型。其基本假设是,国际规则需经由地方关系过程激活和运化,才更有可能产生协作机制和务实政策,从而实现有效的地区安全治理。具象的地方关系过程由地区安全利益攸关方的互动关系构成,是各方参与协商的过程,同时也是给国际规则和治理实践赋能的过程。整体和抽象的地方关系过程就是治理实践本身,是所有治理要素联动应对安全威胁的过程,并以大湄公河次区域跨境传染病联防联控协作治理为案例对模型进行了验证。实践证明,关系过程活力越大,越能够激活和运化规则,就越有可能形成有效的地区安全治理,这项研究有望推动和深化地区安全治理的学理思考,并为公共卫生治理研究作出累积性知识贡献。     

地区安全治理的未来:走向亚洲协调

作者首次提出了亚洲协调的概念,讨论了亚洲协调对未来亚洲及太平洋地区安全治理的必要性和长远性。尽管最早的主要国家之间协调(concert of powers)的理论与实践是19世纪的、欧洲的,但是,关于主要国家之间协调(不仅是大国协调)的一般理论却同样可以运用在解决21世纪的亚洲(以及太平洋)的严峻安全挑战和困境上。这些挑战和困境在未来可能会进一步演化为严重的大国之间的对抗甚至冲突。更重要的是,亚洲协调将注定会阻止战争、实现长期和平及维持本地区的经济活力。也就是说,如果亚洲协调明智地和有效地建立并运作起来,到2079年,亚洲以及太平洋将拥有一百年的和平,如同欧洲在1815-1914年拥有的百年和平。从1979年到现在,亚洲地区已经享受了接近四十年的和平。在过去二十多年建立起来的地区或者跨地区的论坛、会议、组织和制度等,反映了治理亚洲地区的权力转移的企图和努力;尽管这些安排相互重叠、尚未彼此兼容,甚至相互竞争,但我们完全可以把它们当做未来亚洲协调的基础。虽然目前的地区安全治理仍然由美国及其同盟体系占据主导地位,但美国也不得不重视复杂的安全地区主义。有不少人建议美国应该以亚洲协调作为未来解决与中国关系的方案。中国已经为建立在经济发展基础上的亚洲和平做出重大贡献。中国已与美国建立新型大国关系回应美国的转向亚洲。中国在亚洲协调中的地位是中心的和关键的。     

The Impact of Political Change on the State of Academia Including Academic Freedom in the Arab World: Libya as a Case Study

ABSTRACT

Furthering Western style academic freedom has been challenging, as Arab countries, especially Libya, have known only autocratic regimes throughout their modern existence. Amidst its current political and social upheaval, Libyan society is drifting towards the unknown. The problem addressed in this study is the impact of political change on the state of academia but, more specifically, academic freedom. Since the intervention in Libya by NATO states, many academics have lost their jobs. Some have become refugees outside of Libya as a direct result of the appropriation of most of the governmental posts in the country by religious and political radicals. The research questions reflect ways in which the new inserted de facto leaders of post-transitional Libya have impacted life on Libyan campuses and academic freedom.     

Relative Political and Value Proximity in Mediated Public Diplomacy: The Effect of State-Level Homophily on International Frame Building

This article applies the homophily thesis to public diplomacy and offers an empirical examination of a country's success in its mediated public diplomacy efforts. It analyzes international frame building, the process of creating or changing media frames in the international communications arena, by applying it to the case of Israeli mediated public diplomacy efforts during the war in Gaza in the winter of 2008–2009. The article claims that one way to use the homophily thesis in empirical analyses of international frame-building campaigns in conflicts is to measure the political and value proximity of a country promoting frames to other countries. Yet, proximity should be measured relatively rather than in absolute terms. Therefore, one should look not only at the dyadic proximity between two actors (i.e., Country A that attempts to promote its frames to Country C), but at the relative proximity between Countries A and C considering the proximity between the rival Country B and the target Country C. The study proposes a model and a method to facilitate empirical analysis of this claim. Using sophisticated computerized content analysis, our analyses demonstrate that relative proximity is related to successful international frame building in the hypothesized direction: The closer the relative proximity between Israel and a foreign country, the greater the acceptance of Israel's views.     

The governance of justice and internal security in Scotland: between the Scottish independence referendum and British decisions on the EU

This article examines how the governance of justice and internal security in Scotland could be affected by the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014. The article argues that it is currently impossible to equate a specific result in the referendum with a given outcome for the governance of justice and internal security in Scotland. This is because of the complexities of the current arrangements in that policy area and the existence of several changes that presently affect them and are outside the control of the government and of the people of Scotland. This article also identifies an important paradox. In the policy domain of justice and internal security, a ‘no’ vote could, in a specific set of circumstances, actually lead to more changes than a victory of the ‘yes’ camp.     

性别议题安全化研究

安全是国际关系研究的核心概念。20世纪90年代,哥本哈根学派提出具有建构主义特色的“安全化理论”。女性主义安全研究重视性别与安全的关系,认为安全化理论忽视了性别安全问题。以联合国安理会通过的第1325(2000)号决议为基石的妇女、和平与安全议程既是近二十年来形成的新国际安全规范,也是性别议题安全化的集中体现。1325号决议及其后续决议共同形成了妇女、和平与安全议程,使性别议题进入国际安全日程。对妇女参与、妇女权利和性暴力等性别议题的安全化或去安全化问题,受到多重因素的交叉性影响。在不同行为主体和各种因素的共同作用下,以安理会成员国特别是常任理事国围绕妇女、和平与安全议程进行的互动与辩论,推动了性别议题安全化的发展进程,既体现出“主体间的和由社会建构的”安全化问题的复杂性,也规范了安理会表决机制下安全化的程度和限度。性别议题安全化的发展前景亦具有一定的复杂性和多重可能性。     

The discursive construction of intervention: selves,democratic legacies,and Responsibility to Protect in French discourse on Libya

This article analyses French executives' and lawmakers' legitimisations of the intervention in Libya with the aim of understanding the discursive construction of intervention. It investigates the arguments in favour of intervention and the oppositions they were confronted with. To these arguments belong a re-evaluated democratic legacy of France, an identification with the Libyan people, and a debate on Responsibility to Protect and the rule of law in world politics, which have a broader relevance for French actorness abroad. The article applies the Essex School discourse theory and techniques from Interpretive Policy Analysis on executive speeches and parliamentary documents for structuring the debate and for estimating the strength of ideas in their interdiscursive configuration. An ideal-typical explanation of the legitimisation of intervention and of the choice of one policy over another is made. The article argues that going to war in Libya equated to a question of cultural appropriateness.