On the Meiji Restoration: Japan's search for sovereignty?

It is generally taken for granted that the Meiji Restorationwas a watershed event that incorporated Japan into the modernsovereign state system. This conventional wisdom is misleading.The Japanese political system that existed prior to the MeijiRestoration, the so-called Tokugawa Baku-Han regime, was comparablewith many modern sovereign states in its exercise of publicauthority and its ability to control cross-border movements.Furthermore, as Krasner has shown, sovereignty itself is a problematicconcept, the fundamental norms and principles of which are frequentlyviolated. A case study of the 1862 incident known as NamamugiJiken demonstrates how Japan was recognized and treated internationally,revealing that while some aspects of Japan's sovereignty wereconveniently violated, other sovereignty norms were certainlyrespected by the Western nations. These norms constrained therange of choices available to the key actors involved in thisincident and thus significantly affected the subsequent courseof events, which ultimately led to Tokugawa's collapse in 1868.Hence, it was the complex (hypocritical) nature of Japan's existentsovereignty, and not its absence, that explains why the MeijiRestoration occurred the way it actually did.     

Trying to Have Your Cake and Eating It: How and Why the State System Has Created Offshore

From modest beginnings in the wholesale financial market specializing in government debt, offshore has expanded rapidly, penetrating and then dominating an ever growing portion of international economic life. This article reflects on the relationship between offshore and the concept of state sovereignty. My argument is that far from escaping the state, offshore is intimately connected with the state system. The concepts of sovereignty and national self-determination played simultaneously an enabling and constraining role in the development of offshore. Furthermore, having "created" offshore, sovereignty and self-determination are themselves constrained and (re-)enabled in turn. Offshore therefore is not a diminution of state sovereignty but a legally defined realm marking differential levels of intensity by which states propose to apply their regulation. Such a bifurcation of juridical space represents a process by which the state is reimagining its relationship to its territory.     

Sovereignty, globalization and transnational social movements

Traditionally, sovereign states have been defined, in termsof their external and internal dimensions, as mutually exclusiveterritorial jurisdictions. Economic globalization is associatedwith the liberalization of the world economy, decreases in transactioncosts, the development of communication technologies, and theemergence of transnational social and cultural spaces. Thesehave eroded the divide between national and international systemsand fostered the dispersal of power in social networks. As aresult, it is unrealistic to define state sovereignty as a counterposeto the global system, as these phenomena have become mutuallyembedded. States and their sovereignty are not disappearing– on the contrary, they may be gaining new tasks and resources– but they cannot exercise their agentive power as effectivelyas before. This means that the internal dimension of state sovereigntyhas been transformed more thoroughly than the external one.This is in part due to the growth and proliferation of transnationalsocial movements, which have also gained agentive power in nationalsocieties. Therefore, the anti-globalization movement, althoughit is unable to halt the process of economic integration, hasbeen able to redefine the terms of the globalization debateand influence responses by national governments and internationalfinancial institutions.     

从比较的视角看海外移民的流动性对中国的影响

在经济全球化发展日趋增强的今天,移民活动的状况或本质正越来越表现为流动性而非定居性。移民的流动性,是“人权高于主权”这一国际政治思潮的反映,是全球化发展所产生的一种“跨国逃避”趋势,也是国际政治经济多元化、不平衡发展和各国综合国力竞争的必然产物。本文试图通过对移民流动性的探讨,揭示中印两国海外移民的流动性对两国发展和综合国力提升所共同具有的有益影响,以及中印两国因其海外移民流动性在国际社会中所面临的不同处境。     

The Salience of Race

While the salience of race is rising in public discourse, the dominant knowledge structure in international studies has deflected this issue. A look at curriculum and research programs suggests that the transnational dimensions of race are sidelined. The core concept of state sovereignty rarely opens to questions of race. Yet there is a longstanding tradition in transnational race relations, including substantial literature and university initiatives. These have had a tangible impact on the activities of international organizations. To restart such efforts in ways appropriate for our times, it is suggested that six sets of interaction between globalization and race could form the core of a curriculum and research program. This foundation provides the basis for explaining how the politics of "we" and "they," friends and enemies, operates in racializing questions of identity, especially after 9/11, when inclusion and exclusion are increasingly securitized.     

Central America,civil society and the ‘pink tide’: democratization or de-democratization?

In the literature on the turn to the left in the wider Latin American region, Central America has generally been neglected. The aim of this article is to seek to fill that gap, while specifically assessing the left turn's impact on prospects for democratization in the sub-region. Using three case studies – El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua – the article questions the usefulness of transition theory for analysis and instead offers a framework based on state/civil society interaction within the context of globalization. Four key conclusions are made: First, democratization is not a linear process, but can be subject to simultaneous processes of democratization and de-democratization. Second, continued deep structural inequalities remain central to the region's politics but these often provoke unproductive personalistic and partisan politics which can inhibit or curtail democratization. Third, interference from local and/or international economic actors can curtail or reverse democratization measures, underlining the influence of globalization. Fourth, Central America is particularly revelatory of these tendencies due to its acute exposure to extreme oligarchic power and outside influence. It hence can help shed light on wider questions on the blurring of boundaries between state, civil society and market and its impact on democratization, especially within the context of globalization. In this way the article contributes to the analysis of Central America in the current context of the ‘pink tide’, underlines the importance of continued analysis of Central America for democratization studies, and brings new insight to debates on transition theory.     

Civilizations and the twenty-first century: some theoretical considerations

Since the end of the Cold War, globalization has become the centralphenomenon in world politics. Civilizations, once geographically based,are now loosened from fixed space, as migration of peoples andof ideas has accelerated. A focus on the dimensions of intersubjectivitywill give some understanding both of differences among civilizationsand on transformations of civilizations. Attention is thus givento different forms of substantive economies, to historical dominanceand subordination of civilizations and to the reawakenings ofcultures; to what Sorokin called the sensate and ideationaltypes of consciousness and to different forms of spirituality,and to relative orientations toward time and space. Two propositionsare implicit in a concern for civilizations: (i) that thereare alternatives for the human future, and (ii) that if differentcivilizations do coexist, the problem of mutual comprehensionbecomes paramount for the maintenance of world order. The implicationsfor a research program are to study civil societies as the sourcesof intersubjective meanings, the maintenance of the biosphereas the basic material condition of existence of all civilizations,and world governance as the modus vivendi of a plural world.     

Sovereignties: Westphalian, liberal and anti-utopian

Sovereignty remains the key concept and principle accordingto which the world is ordered. But sovereignty is also a disputedconcept and a contested social practice; it has come under fierceassault from a number of diverse sources. Sovereignty is paradoxicalin nature and hypocritically practised. States have differentempirical degrees and qualitative types of sovereignty, rangingfrom the merely formal to the substantial to the popular. Statesalso have different dispositions towards sovereignty, and areliable to project their own in different ways in pursuit ofconflicting objectives. Different groups of states attempt toimpose their understandings and beliefs on the internationalsystem. There are three ideal types which help us to understandthe issue of sovereignty and the interactions of sovereign states.These are respectively Westphalian, liberal and anti-utopian.The Westphalian paradigm has the maintenance and protectionof state sovereignty as its key concept. The liberal paradigmis conceived in terms of the concept of popular sovereigntyand controversies over the extent to which this ideal shouldbe promoted and exported. The anti-utopian paradigm is conceivedin terms of the concept of quasi-sovereignty or the loss ofsovereignty, and in terms of resistance to attempts to imposeglobalization and liberal values on recalcitrant states andcultures.     

More Labels, Fewer Refugees: Remaking the Refugee Label in an Era of Globalization

This paper revisits the concept of refugee labelling I elaboratednearly two decades ago. In radically different conditions, thecontemporary relevance and utility of the concept are re-examinedand re-established. Formulated at a time of regionally contained,mass refugee migration in the south during the late 1970s andearly 1980s, the paper argues that the concept still offersvital insights into the impacts of institutional and bureaucraticpower on the lives of refugees in a globalized era of transnationalsocial transformations, mixed migration flows, and the continuingpresence of large scale refugee migration. The core of the paperargues that the ‘convenient images’ of refugees,labelled within a co-opting humanitarian discourse in the past,have been displaced by a fractioning of the label which is drivenby the need to manage globalized processes and patterns of migrationand forced migration in particular. The paper re-evaluates theconcept using the three original axioms—forming, transformingand politicizing the label ‘refugee’. The core argumentis that in the contemporary era: a) the formation of the refugeelabel reflects causes and patterns of forced migration whichare much more complex than in the past, contrasting with anessentially homogeneous connotation in the past; b) respondingto this complexity, the refugee label is transformed by an institutional‘fractioning’ in order to manage the new migration;c) governments, rather than NGOs as in the past, are the pre-eminentagency in the contemporary processes of transforming the refugeelabel, a process driven by northern interests; d) the refugeelabel has become politicized by the reproduction of institutionalfractioning and by embedding the wider political discourse ofresistance to migrants and refugees.     

Managing the conceptual gap on sovereignty in China–EU relations

While, historically, sovereignty is what Europeans invented and what the Chinese were forced to accept, today it is what Europeans try to bury and what the Chinese hold dear. A conceptual gap on sovereignty clearly exists between China and Europe which more often than not exerts a negative impact on their relationship. It breeds misunderstandings and disputes, makes it more difficult to reach agreements on many bilateral issues, and complicates China–Europe cooperation in third countries. But the conceptual gap on sovereignty does not prevent China and Europe from building a strategic partnership. Given that strengthening or weakening national sovereignty means totally different things to China and Europe, the two parties should jointly and proactively manage their divergence on sovereignty issues by mutual avoidance, mutual assurance, and mutual accommodation, in order to unlock sovereignty-related impasses in China–Europe relations.     

从马来西亚官方媒体的报道解读该国政府的南海政策——以马新社及《使者报》1999年至2013年的相关报道为分析依据

从上个世纪末至今,作为东盟成员国中对南沙群岛部分岛礁及水域提出主权要求的国家之一,马来西亚虽前后历经3任总理,但该国政府在南海问题上所秉持的政策始终坚持以“务实”为基点,以获取经济利益为核心。《使者报》是该国政府的喉舌报,本论文通过对该报近10余年来与南海问题相关的大量新闻报道或综合评论的跟踪分析,尝试对马来西亚的南海政策进行解读,并探寻有助于我国应对南海困局的“马来西亚因素”。     

McDonaldisation of Sovereignty: A Foucauldian Analysis of Responsibility to Protect

The importance of the principle of Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) has typically been attributed either to its character as a presumed new norm (normative ontology) or to its capacity to influence international politics by mobilising political actors to protect civilians through military interventions and other forms of intervention (causal ontology), as witnessed in the recent cases of Libya and Côte d'Ivoire. This article will argue for an additional model of explanation, according to which the main significance of RtoP might best be understood by reference to its character as a political statement of global policy networks (discursive ontology) calling for the reinterpretation of the sovereignty regime. The article will apply Michel Foucault's theory of discursive fields to demonstrate that RtoP beneficially introduces human security as an additional criterion of state sovereignty, thus contributing to the “humanitarisation of sovereignty”. However, RtoP also engenders “McDonaldisation of sovereignty” and “sovereignty-consumption” mentality in that it attempts to transform and homogenise pluralistic state sovereigns into a universal, seemingly humanitarian mould. As a drawback, this McDonaldisation process excludes some victimised groups from the remit of international concern.     

Beyond Bounded Space: Europe,Security, and the Global Circulation of Infectious Disease

Abstract

The threat of pandemic spans beyond traditional security concerns to challenge conventional understandings of urgency, power, the threat–defence dynamics of states and the protection of sovereignty itself. This paper argues that confronting this non-conventional threat in Europe requires not only moving beyond a linear understanding of the proximity of threat across space and time to recognise the global circulation of disease, but also a reconceptualisation of how Europe is understood. In effectively confronting the challenge of infectious disease to the region, Europe needs to be understood less as a territorially bounded space, and more as a dynamic and fluid one, constituting a node within broader interdependent systems of circulation.     

Punctuated equilibrium in the energy regime complex

The concept of a regime complex has proved fruitful to a burgeoning literature in international relations, but it has also opened up new questions about how and why they develop over time. This article describes the history of the energy regime complex as it has changed over the past 40 years, and interprets this history in light of an interpretive framework of the sources of institutional change. One of its principal contributions is to highlight what Stephen Krasner referred to as a pattern of “punctuated equilibrium” reflecting both periods of stasis and periods of innovation, as opposed to a gradual process of change. We show that the timing of innovation depends on dissatisfaction and shocks and that the nature of innovation—that is, whether it is path-dependent or de novo—depends on interest homogeneity among major actors. This paper is the first to demonstrate the empirical applicability of the punctuated equilibrium concept to international regime complexes, and contributes to the eventual development of a dynamic theory of change in regime complexes.     

越南近海渔业及其对地区安全与合作的影响

20世纪90年代中期越南出于“海上安全”、经济社会发展、近岸渔业资源和环境保护的需要,大力发展“近海”渔业。然而,越南“近海”渔业意在凸显其单方面“专属经济区”权利主张和对我国南沙群岛、西沙群岛的主权声索,侵犯了我国南海岛礁主权和海洋权益,将升温南海争端,损害地区传统安全,不利于共同开发和南海争端的良性发展;越南的“近海”渔业对南海海洋渔业资源和海洋环境的保护也有不利影响,但客观上可能促进南海非传统安全合作。     

Editors' Note

Stephen Brooks' Producing Security is a very fine book that advances our understanding of globalization and of the links between economics and national security. In this paper I evaluate favorably and explore the frontiers of the book's chief contributions: its elucidation of the globalization of production, its illustration of the novelty of that phenomenon, and its consideration of the significance of this for world politics. I then raise one basic dissent, challenging the idea that the globalization of production has indeed altered the calculus of conflict—though my claim is not that the argument is wrong, but rather, that it is very considerably oversold. A final section offers some hypotheses on how the processes of globalization more generally may be altering the calculus of conflict for reasons complementary to, but largely distinct from, those emphasized in Producing Security.     

东亚地区秩序的未来：东亚还是亚太？

东亚历史上曾先后建立以中国为中心的朝贡——华夷秩序以及以日本、美国为核心的霸权秩序,在以国家主权为国际关系核心机制的当代,这些反映不平等国家间关系的秩序无法复制到当今东亚,东亚的现实也决定了不存在孕育这些秩序的土壤。同时,20世纪80年代以来的全球化和区域经济一体化两种趋势极大程度地影响了当今东亚秩序的建构,然而一个统一的东亚秩序的建构又受到该地区复杂的大国关系的制约,东亚秩序将摇摆于“东亚”与“亚太”之间。     

Introduction: Globalization and change in India

ABSTRACT

This series of papers on Globalization, Institutional Change, and Politics of reforms in India highlights some of the key characteristics of institutional change and globalization in India. This special issue points in the direction of three important conjectures on globalization and change by bringing together a few key aspects of the process of institutional change and engagement with the global in India. First, India’s liberal democracy has embraced globalization and globally influenced institutional change in an embedded liberal way. Second, this is a saga of gradual and largely endogenous change. India is deeply affected by the demonstration effect of global best practices but builds rather more after its own internal consensus. Finally, even though India is not a classic developmental state, the state is an important factor in promoting change.