Youth welfare policy in Turkey in comparative perspective: a case of ‘Denied Youth Citizenship’

This article explores the main characteristics of social and economic policies for young people in Turkey. Inspired by Tom Chevalier’s typology of youth welfare citizenship designed for Western European countries, the article situates Turkey’s youth welfare citizenship model within a comparative perspective and contributes to the extension of Chevalier’s typology to a non-Western European country context. Relying upon the systematic analysis of findings of a nationwide survey on young people that was conducted in 2013, comparative youth statistics, official youth statistics, public expenditures data and existing policy frameworks, the article suggests that Turkey fits well with the denied youth citizenship type in Chevalier’s typology. Two conclusions are drawn with respect to Turkey’s youth welfare citizenship model. First, with respect to the social citizenship dimension, the article finds that social and youth policy structure in Turkey has a familialization effect on young people’s access to income. In terms of economic citizenship, the article suggests that Turkey implements a selective strategy that results in unequal distribution of labour market skills among young people.     

Do the Kurds have ‘no friends but the mountains’? Turkey's Secret War against Communists,Soviets and the Kurds

A Kurdish proverb says that the Kurds have ‘no friends but the mountains’. This was not what the Turkish authorities believed. Using new and previously unexploited archives both in English and Turkish, this article offers a new interpretation of Turkey's perception of the Kurds. By analyzing Kurdish activities and their alignment with Communist movements and Soviet activities, it shows how Turkey's threat perception was shaped by international contexts, especially through the Cold War. In addition, the Kurdish nationalist movement in the Middle East played a pivotal role in regional intelligence cooperation between Turkey, Iraq and Iran. This article argues that Soviet and Communist activities had an important role in shaping Turkey's threat perception of the Kurdish minority in the country. Turkey's perception of subversive threats involved an intertwining of Communists, Soviets and Kurds. This affected the Kurdish bid for independence for most of the twentieth century.     

Japan as an Active Agent for Global Norms: The Political Dynamism Behind the Acceptance and Promotion of “Human Security”

Japan has shaped a distinct human security policy based on evolving policy preferences of successive domestic political leaders and the gradual assimilation of external norms into its own foreign policy. Independent experts have played a particularly significant role in advising Japanese policy elites on how human security could be used by Japan to become an “intellectual leader” within the United Nations and other relevant institutions. This article explores those processes that occurred in the early phase of norm acceptance on the part of key Japanese policy actors and change agents in Japan from the late 1990s through 2003. It argues that human security has served as an effective approach for Japan to establish itself as a more independent foreign policy actor in contemporary international politics.     

Abdürreşid İbrahim's journey to China: Muslim communities in the late Qing as seen by a Russian-Tatar intellectual

An eminent Russian-Tatar alim (a scholar, or an intellectual) and Pan-Islamist known for his role as a collaborator in Japan's Islamic campaigns in the first half of the 20th century, Abdürre?id ?brahim went on a grand tour of Eurasia from 1907 to 1909. This article focuses on his journey to China in the late Qing by drawing mainly on his travel book Âlem-i ?slâm, in which he describes China's politics, society, economy and culture, as well as the Muslims dwelling there, anticipating that Chinese Muslims would join in an alliance with Japan to form an anti-imperialist corridor. In general, ?brahim succeeded in enjoying Muslims' favour in Beijing, lamenting the place of Islam in China while also being scathingly critical of its practice. He was invited to Japan again in the 1930s and played an important role in drawing foreign Muslims' attention to Japan.     

Nationalism and modernism in the East Turkestan Republic, 1933–34

This study explains the intellectual history and ideology of the Turkic insurgency and the East Turkestan Republic in Kashgar in 1933–34. Texts in periodicals from the period suggest that the insurgency was defined by its intellectual elites more as a nationalist enterprise than as a religious one. The insurgency's ideologists established important national attributes of the East Turkestani nation, particularly its national name, homeland, symbology, and history, and they also articulated East Turkestani national interests, particularly political independence, representative government, and modernization. Regardless of the arguably low degree of social penetration of the ideas of the elites among common society and the small extent to which policy was actually implemented, the intertwining of East Turkestani national identity and interests with political self-government and modernization was an ideological concept that had a profound impact on all subsequent administrations in Xinjiang.     

Defending national sovereignty against two Russias: Estonia in the Russian Civil War, 1918–1920

Abstract

This article examines the establishment of Estonian independence from a wider perspective including the Petrograd front of the Russian Civil War which had a decisive influence on securing Estonia's independence. The contradictory military cooperation between the Estonian army and the White Russian troops under command of General Iudenich, who was an ardent fighter for a Greater Russia that also included Estonia, was skillfully used by the Estonians in order to secure their own borders. Based on primary sources from Estonian and Russian archives, this article sheds new light on Estonian Russian policy during the years 1918–1920, arguing that in the given framework of international policy it was the Estonian side that in decisive moments managed to set the rules of the game.     

当今日本社会离婚现象透视

日本作为一个东方国家,深受儒家思想影响,有着一套传统的家族制度体系。但是自20世纪90年代以来,日本社会的离婚率持续攀高,甚至超过某些发达的资本主义国家,成为离婚大国。当今日本社会的离婚,呈现出数量多、年龄段偏高、女性占主导地位等一些新的特点。离婚热的出现,不再只是一个孤立的社会现象,它对个人、家庭乃至整个社会都有着直接的影响,由此引发出一系列的家庭和社会问题。针对这一现象,日本政府和民间组织纷纷行动起来,期望人们能够慎重对待婚姻,降低离婚率,从而稳定家庭与社会。     

No Need for Modesty Here: Enhancing Japan's Public (Intellectual) Diplomacy

Japan is well known as a highly literate nation and ranks high in the actual as well as relative number of books published annually. A significant number of these books include translations of foreign works as well. However, Japanese works translated into foreign languages, especially English, are far less common. While interest in Japan is high, this does not mean Japan has influence. This article argues that Japan's failure to see more of its writers' works, some of which are world class or cutting-edge, published abroad limits not only its public diplomacy and soft power appeal, but also prevents Japan from making a greater contribution internationally. In order to improve this situation, this article introduces a detailed recommendation for a translation/publishing project in which important works of universal importance written by Japanese authors would be identified, translated, and published rapidly to contribute to the intellectual debate on a wide range of subjects in all fields.     

Social Movement Tradition and the Role of Civil Society in Japan and South Korea

In 1947, Japan became the first East Asian country to introduce democracy, and it was not until four decades later that South Korea completed the democratic transition. Today, surprisingly, South Korea stands out among the East Asian countries as the one that has the most vibrant and politically powerful civil society, whereas in Japan, the role of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector in political advocacy is greatly limited. Using historical institutionalism, this paper tries to explain why the NGOs in South Korea and Japan play vastly different roles in political advocacy. It concludes that the different social movement traditions have played important roles in the evolution of the civil societies in Japan and South Korea, and led to the different levels of institutionalization within the NGO sector.     

Algeria's Roles in the OAU/African Union: From National Liberation Promoter to Leader in the Global War on Terrorism

Even prior to the country's independence, Africa has always been central to Algeria's foreign policy. Algerian nationalists not only found support on the African continent in their struggle for independence, but they also sought to contribute to the decolonization of Africa and to free it from all forms of neocolonialism. Algerian diplomacy became even more involved in African affairs after independence. Using the Role Approach, this article shows how Algerian policymakers exercised various roles within the structures of the Organization of African Unity and, to this day, in those of the African Union to serve the country's perceived national interests. While from the 1960s through the 1990s, Algerians played the roles of developer, mediator, and anti-imperialist, since the 1990s, they have played the role of antiterrorist in order partly to regain the credibility that the regime had lost during the domestic civil strife. The antiterrorist role has been relatively successful as the country succeeded in greatly improving its relations with the West, the United States in particular. At the same time, though, this had led to a relative neglect of Algeria's bilateral relations with African states which allowed its regional rivals to fill the vacuum. However, since 2013, Algeria has shown some resolve in reclaiming its influence on the continent and to strengthen the role it has played in the structures of the African Union.     

Bilingualism and the pronunciation of Latvian intonations

For 50 years after World War II, Latvia was incorporated into the former Soviet Union. Although in theory the use of regional languages was not discouraged, in practice knowledge of Russian was obligatory. Since restoration of the country’s independence in 1991, Latvian has again become the official language, and knowledge of Russian is widespread but optional. These political events have created a natural experiment in the possible effects of almost universal bilingualism on a language. In this study, we examine the phonetic characteristics of the Latvian syllable intonations across generations. Native speakers of Latvian, ranging from retirement age to teens, were recorded reading a word list, sentences, and a short narrative. We find that younger speakers who used Latvian only about half of the time showed fading in their pronunciation of the intonations.     

Japan’s Diplomacy towards Member Countries of Pacific Islands Forum: Significance of Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM)

As an island country in the Pacific region, it is natural for Japan to have diplomatic relationships with neighboring island countries. By the early 1970s, Japan started to provide Official Development Assistance (ODA) to two individual island countries in the Pacific region, and, in the mid-1980s, when most of the island countries had achieved independence, Japan’s diplomacy expanded to additional countries. In 1985 then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone made an official visit to two of the island countries, and, in 1987, official policy expressing support for the Pacific island countries’ independence, regional cooperation, political stability, economic development, and people-to-people exchange was issued. In October 1997, the “Japan-SPF Summit Meeting” with participants of leaders from Japan and 14 South Pacific Forum member island countries/regions and government representatives of Australia and New Zealand was held in Tokyo. The 8^th Pacific Islands Leaders meeting held in May 2018 is symbolic of Japan’s diplomacy toward the Pacific Islands Forum member countries. This article is the author’s personal observation of Japan’s diplomacy toward Pacific Islands Forum member countries and the significance of Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting.     

Governors-General during Pacific Island constitutional crises and the role of the Crown

Links with the Crown are often thought to play a largely ‘symbolic’ role in the contemporary politics of the Pacific Islands. Yet the Queen appoints Governors-General for three Pacific Island states, albeit acting on advice, and did so in Fiji until that country became a Republic in October 1987. All four countries have witnessed constitutional crises in which the Governor-General has played a critical role. This paper examines those crises, and other occasions that have tested the link with the Crown. It argues that the common minimalist defence of such institutions (influenced by one reading of Walter Bagehot's well-known views) – i.e. that such arrangements tend to work better than republican or presidential alternatives by elevating a relatively disinterested arbiter to broker political transitions – misses the fact that realm territories have tended to face similar and comparable difficulties to those Pacific nations that abandoned the link with the British Crown at independence, and that these issues have been no better or no worse handled by Governors-General than by locally selected Heads of State.     

日本研究开发投资现状与存在问题及启示

本文研究发现，在“科技立国”政策背景下，日本研发投资居发达国家首位，但全要素生产率增长率有所下降。其根本的原因是日本研发投资成果没有得到有效利用，最终造成研发投资成果质量水平较低、专利市场的占有率有下降趋势、高科技产业附加价值收益、国际市场份额及贸易收支比下降等问题。应采取强化基础研究、充实对服务业的研究开发、发挥大学和政府的作用、推进企业、大学及政府协作、强化国际合作、确立和保护知识产权和强化知识管理等措施才有可能改变其被动局面。     

文化地理学视角下的俄罗斯

俄罗斯民族、语言和宗教信仰的特殊性与其广博的文化地理空间有较大的关系。在文化地理学视域下,可将俄罗斯划分为12个文化地理大区,每个大区的文化、生态和经济资源不同,在民族、语言和宗教信仰方面表现出的特征也各有差异。俄罗斯空间最重要的属性包括完整性、向心性、多标准性。俄国文化空间的完整性是指,作为国家的历史核心使用了“俄罗斯的”这个形容词;向心性属性可以认为是俄国空间组成中的基本属性之一,其空间的中心则是莫斯科;多标准属性是指在分出大的文化地理区域时使用了(历史国家文化空间形成史)标准和民族文化标准。在文化地理方面俄罗斯与中国有许多共同点,民族、语言和宗教的多样性是俄罗斯也是中国文化空间的重要属性。因此,像“一带一路”这样大规模的项目,就不仅应当考虑各国和各地区经济和基础设施的现实情况,而且要考虑各国和各地区的文化特点。     

De-Europeanisation or Counter-Conduct? Turkey’s Democratisation and the EU

Abstract

Many Turkish and European scholars have been (re)producing texts that praise the normative impact of the European Union (EU) which has helped the political transformation of Turkey. Nevertheless, the recent deterioration of democracy in the country indicates that the EU has been losing its transformative influence on Turkey. This might be regarded as de-Europeanisation. However, this article argues that the conceptual framework of de-Europeanisation can only partially explain the current situation in Turkey and the EU’s impact, and that an analysis based on counter-conduct, as produced by EU governmentality, may provide insight into a subtler dynamic at work in the country.     

旧韩末韩国的民族主义教育——以西北学会的活动为中心

以1905年11月17日签订的《日韩保护协约》为契机，韩国成为日本的保护国。面对亡国危机，韩国民众通过义兵运动与教育救国运动展开了轰轰烈烈的恢复国权运动。所谓教育救国运动就是通过和平的大众运动的形式实现民族独立的目标，其根本目的是通过普及教育，对民族思想进行弘扬，对一般群众进行启蒙教育，为此，创立学会就成为教育救国运动的重要组成部分。本文以这些学会中的西北人（黄海道、平安道、成镜道出生的人）的文化，以及为了普及教育而创立的具有代表性的学会——西北学会为例，试图考察从西北学会的创立到日韩合并的数年间，这些学会究竟为韩国民族意识的提高发挥了怎样的作用。     

20世纪初韩国的和平思想——日本的“东洋和平论”批判和韩中日间合作的探索

20世纪初期,在日本帝国主义进行侵略和扩张的过程中,伊藤博文政府为了建立"东洋和平"和西方势力抗衡,主张在韩中日之间开展合作。但事实上这种主张不过是把当时以日本为中心的东北亚地区秩序合法化的说辞。针对这一点,安重根、安昌浩、申采浩等韩国独立运动家指出国家正处于丧失国权的危机之中,在对日本主张的"东洋和平"进行批判的同时,强调只有在韩国等周边国家的独立得到保障的情况下才有可能实现真正意义上的"东洋和平"。1910年日本帝国主义强行合并韩国以后,申采浩、朴殷植等韩国独立运动家在指出日本合并韩国的非法性的同时,还强调韩中日等东北亚地区国家间建立在信任基础上的交流和合作的重要性,主张韩国的独立有利于"东洋和平与世界和平"。尤其值得一提的是,柳麟锡在强调韩中关系在东北亚的重要性及中国作用的同时,还提出了韩中日三国在相互信任的基础上朝着共生关系发展的构想。     

Cold war era relations between West Germany and Turkish political Islam: from an anti-communist alliance to a domestic security issue

ABSTRACT

West Germany played a significant role in the growth of Political Islam in Turkey during the Cold War. By recruiting from among Turkish workers in West Germany, Islamist organizations and the religious communities known as cemaats acquired significant economic revenues, which they used to fund their activities in Turkey. Moreover, West Germany served as a liaison between Turkish Islamists and Syrian and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members, who have influenced Political Islam in Turkey since the 1960s. Prominent Muslim Brotherhood representatives in West Germany took on important roles in the recruitment of Turks and also played some part in shaping the ideological development of Turkish Islamists. Due to the pervasiveness of anti-communism in West Germany and Turkey during the Cold War, the established orders in both countries viewed Political Islam as an antidote to the ascendancy of the Left. However, in the 1980s, Bonn and Ankara grew concerned about Islamist organizations becoming further radicalized and impossible to control; the two governments often cooperated in order to bring Political Islam under their own authority.