Auschwitz's Finale: racism and holocausts

It is passing strange that the existence of Auschwitz has not lessened racism. In fact quite the reverse: it has unleashed surplus racism on the ‘Third world’ and its ‘natives’. As I contend here, this is the Auschwitz finale, its abject truth, the dialectical residue of the Holocaust. Jacob Neusner calls it the Holocaust ‘myth’ and ‘mythic theology’. It now constitutes the ruling narrative in the West. This article dissects the Auschwitz discourse and its denial of other holocausts. It critiques the claim that it was the only ‘real’ genocide. It advances a contrary thesis on colonialism, racism and holocausts in history. I clarify the affinity between colonialism and fascism and Israeli tactics in Occupied Palestine. It is undeniable that Auschwitz fuels anti-Arab anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism. In my conclusion I analyse Jewish criticism of the Auschwitz finale.     

RCEP:特点、问题与前景

作为世界最大的自由贸易安排,RCEP所取得的突破不仅有利于改善区域贸易与投资环境、增强区域供应链、推动经济复苏,还为区域经济一体化、全球贸易自由化、基于规则的多边贸易体制注入了前行的动力。同时,它对中国贸易和投资的可持续发展、高水平制度型开放、实施自由贸易区提升战略、构建国内国际双循环相互促进的新发展格局也可以发挥积极作用。RCEP以市场准入、规则、合作为支柱,具有开放包容、全面、高质量、互惠等诸多特点,并突出东盟方式与东盟中心地位。RCEP的后续生效实施与适时升级,将面临成员差异性与利益诉求复杂性、外部因素牵制、既有FTA规则的多样性与整合的难度、区域身份认同与大国协调等现实问题的挑战,仍需要以渐进灵活的方式,不断推动其深化和拓展。中国应一如既往支持东盟的主导地位,推动RCEP尽快生效。既要助力东盟提升凝聚力、加强大国协调,也要加速推进中日韩FTA谈判、加快与东盟成员的FTA构建。应不断提高规则利用率,充分发挥FTA本应具有的效应,以制度型开放营造良好营商环境,持续推动区域制度性经济一体化。     

Republican China: Chaos,Process, and Revolution*

A pivotal figure in the birth of Chinese cinema, Zheng Zhengqiu (鄭正秋 1889–1935) established an art of dramatic film integral to the creation of early Chinese motion pictures. His style incorporated unique cross-media perspectives, producing theatrical works fundamentally grounded in his experiences in graphic arts (illustrated news) and theater. This article focuses on crucial links between Zheng's films and his work for various illustrated newspapers, as well as between his stage plays and his own experience of family life. The author offers new approaches to and interpretations of Zheng's art, analyzing his emotional modes of narrative and provocative forms of engagement. These artistic traits are rarely discussed in contemporary scholarship on his contributions to Chinese cinema. Emerging during the 1911 Revolution, Zheng's sensational style of drama aimed to foster broad social and cultural reforms. For Zheng, art was never for art's sake alone; instead, art was always in the service of society.     

Scientific racism,race war and the global racial imaginary

Abstract

The premise of this paper is the elucidation of a different ontology of global politics and order of the nineteenth century. International relations theory takes for granted a largely ahistorical state-centric ontology, which reifies a specific Eurocentric state and state-system as the embodiment of global politics. Instead, I focus on an alternative ontology of race, racial hierarchy and racial difference as significant for defining the content of an imperial global politics and order. My paper places into context the emergence of scientific racism and social Darwinism as key intellectual elements in defining a political imaginary that influenced the politics of difference and violence. What I show is that this intellectual history reveals a global order that was fundamentally racialised and that global violence was understood and practiced as race wars.     

Citizenship education and the challenge of racism,discrimination and disadvantage

The idea behind citizenship education is that it will help both to integrate the demands of justice, equality and community and to prevent the increasing apathy towards politics and government, which may damage the health and stability of a modern liberal democracy. The recent British Report on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools (the Crick Report) can be seen as a response to those concerns. This article discusses these concerns and offers an evaluation of the main recommendations of the Crick Report from the perspective of ethnic minorities and disadvantaged groups. If citizenship education as defined by the Crick Report is intimately linked to ideas of entitlement, justice and tolerance of difference, would such an education help students to acquire the necessary knowledge and understanding, skills and dispositions to tackle racism, discrimination and disadvantage? An incisive education must help to remove social, racial and sex barriers that prevent some citizens from enjoying their full citizenship rights. This article offers some critical general conceptual perspectives that aim to help inform teachers thinking about those issues.     

Yemen: Between Revolution and Regression

Yemen once again descended into chaos in November 2014, when the Houthis seized control of Sana'a. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Cooperation Council partners, along with mainstream media, characterized the conflict as a sectarian proxy-war with Iran. However, this narrative fails to acknowledge the trajectory of Yemen's Arab Spring revolt. This article refutes this narrative by using theories of revolution to connect the Arab Spring revolt to the current conflict. Situating Yemen within a broader revolutionary moment sheds light on patterns of revolution in Third World societies and the likely outcome of the current conflict.     

Microfinance and Gender: Issues,Challenges and The Road Ahead

Abstract

This special collection examines the claim that microfinance promotes gender equality. The focus is on three areas of the debate: first, the question of how successful microfinance has been in empowering women; second, whether and how negative gender discrimination operates within the sector; third, how power relations within and beyond the household shape the context and outcomes of microfinance initiatives. The papers in this collection demonstrate the divergence of circumstances and emphasise the need to go beyond the past searches for a simple narrative regarding the impact of microfinance. Rather, as the sector evolves and is incorporated into the mainstream financial system, the challenge ahead for researchers is to marshal the evidence on gendered dynamics to ensure that the gains made are built on through deeper understanding of why impact outcomes and processes differ and use this to inform new initiatives to further gender equality.     

Revolution,longevity and legitimacy in communist states

This article examines key linkages in the dramatic turn of events in totalitarian states by reviewing the literature on regime legitimacy and longevity in communist regimes. But that longevity is a poor substitute for legitimacy. Eastern Europe states, where communist rule was externally imposed, were relatively “easy” to overcome. However, changes occurring in countries where quasi-legitimacy was achieved by mass movements, as in China or the Soviet Union; and those under family dictatorships, such as North Korea and Cuba, are not as subject to collapse. These pseudo forms of legitimacy resist liberalization in political terms, although economic changes are increasingly feasible as a half-way house. Still it is now clear that longevity in and of itself is not a substitute for legitimacy. The former is a function of time, the latter of social structure. This paper was written and accepted for publication in the wake of events following the collapse of communist power in most states of Eastern Europe during 1989. It does not cover the events which led to the collapse of communist power in the Soviet Union during 1991. Rather than simply adjust the paper to reflect current events, I take this opportunity to simply note the time frame during which the paper was produced. Indeed, I would also note that the Russian Revolution of 1991 served to delegitimize communist power by the exposure and then collapse of the coup attempt orchestrated by the KGB, a sector of the military elite and the upper stratum of the Communist Politburo. Such delegitimation accelerated a process of communist disintegration that could have taken a much longer period of time, and with possibly a different set of outcomes. [ILH] Irving Louis Horowitz is Hannah Arendt distinguished professor of sociology and political science at Rutgers University. He has written widely on developmental subjects, includingThree Worlds of Development (1965);Equity, Income, and Policy: Comparative Studies in Three Worlds of Development (1977); andBeyond Empire and Revolution (1982); all published by Oxford University Press.     

国际核不扩散机制的现状、挑战与前景

国际核不扩散机制是国际社会为减少因核武器的横向扩散和纵向扩散带来的核战争风险，促进核能的和平利用和推进核裁军，从政治安排和技术手段两方面对核武器及其技术、材料、设施以及相关的核活动进行管理和控制的组织系统和工作制度。尽管它是冷战时期核大国在军备控制领域相互斗争与妥协的产物，但仍对防止核扩散发挥了积极作用。     

Nationalism,identity and civil society in Ukraine: Understanding the Orange Revolution

This article is the first to study the positive correlation between nationalism and democratic revolutions using Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution as a case study. The Orange Revolution mobilized the largest number of participants of any democratic revolution and lasted the longest, 17 days. But, the Orange Revolution was also the most regionally divided of democratic revolutions with western and central Ukrainians dominating the protestors and eastern Ukrainians opposing the protests. The civic nationalism that underpinned the Orange Revolution is rooted in Ukraine’s path dependence that has made civil society stronger in western Ukraine where Austro-Hungarian rule permitted the emergence of a Ukrainian national identity that was stymied in eastern Ukraine by the Tsarist empire.     

A million little ways: racism and everyday performances of blackness in Buenos Aires

In spite of the reality of racism in Argentina, dominant Argentine society holds class as the most important factor in explaining social inequalities. I analyze everyday performances of blackness in Buenos Aires, Argentina and how these both corroborate with and contest dominant ideas about race. Even attitudes and behaviors that appear to uphold the racial hierarchy are, often upon deeper analysis, complex mechanisms of negotiation within a racist society. These performances range from very casual encounters on the street to literal interpretations including an audition for a TV commercial. I detail incidents of blacks who counter racist assumptions through their performance of identity as well as how racism influences and shapes these performances among Africans and Afro-descendants. The ethnographic evidence I gathered from my own exchanges as well as those of my research consultants challenges the notion of Argentina as a nation devoid of antiblack racism.     

Challenges for Effective Counterterrorism Communication: Practitioner Insights and Policy Implications for Preventing Radicalization,Disrupting Attack Planning,and Mitigating Terrorist Attacks

Growing concerns about small-scale, low sophistication terrorist attacks, and the difficulties they present for security services, make public coproduction of security increasingly necessary. Communication to ensure that the public(s) is aware of the role they can play will be central to this. This article, based on interviews with thirty expert practitioners, explores challenges associated with communication designed to prevent radicalization, interdict attack planning and mitigate the impacts of a terrorist attack in the United Kingdom and Denmark. The interplay between these challenges and the contemporary terrorist context are analyzed, highlighting that new, or adapted, communications and approaches may be necessary.     

Peace and Security in Africa:Opportunities and Challenges for China-Africa Cooperation

This paper seeks to explore some of the security and conflict dimensions of the China-Africa relationship, illustrating what the challenges are, why they are important and what has been done to meet them. Section one provides a brief overview of the different manifestations of conflict and insecurity on the African continent, highlighting that Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) proliferation is a problem that links them all. Section two explores the reasons why China has a stake in the peace and security o...     

全球技术革命中的可持续性标准与对华影响

在全球技术革命不断演进的背景下,标准问题日渐成为国家间经济与科技竞争的焦点。随着联合国2030年可持续发展议程进入落实阶段,可持续性标准也成为最具潜力的技术治理手段之一。当前,由西方发达国家不同行为体推动形成的自愿性可持续性标准体系正在对广大发展中国家产生复杂的影响。许多发展中国家在采纳和推广西方标准的同时,也面临新的贸易壁垒。值得关注的是,西方背景的自愿性可持续性标准大量兴起,其中一部分已沦为发达国家向发展中国家推卸责任、转移压力甚至进行政治打压的工具。尤其对中国等新兴大国,更是如此。西方可持续性标准给中国带来政治风险的同时,也推动中国积极塑造自身的可持续性标准体系。展望未来,中国应继续在政府主导下,鼓励和支持国内相关行业组织联合产业界、国际标准机构以及其他国际组织,共同培育更加完善的自主可持续性标准体系,从而对冲和化解西方发达国家以可持续性标准之名行打压之实的风险。     

Challenges to american public administration: complexity,bureaucratization, and the culture of distrust

In the United States, the development of public administration has depended on its different historic challenges. There have been periods characterized by much contemplation of “why things don’t work,” when one hears more about the problems of the field than about solutions. In contrast, solutions become the center of discussions during periods of optimism. Public Administration in the United States has seemingly entered an era of reform over the past decade. Such an era is characterized by a major change in attitute, particuarly towards two challenges, those of complexity and bureaucratization. The treatment of these challenges has gone from pessimistic views of the mid-1970s to the current more proactive approaches. Public administration in the United States has always had to contend with its low level of legitimacy, but every so often the level of distrust would decrease enough for the nation's leaders to carry out needed reforms. Such a time is approaching as public administrators in the United States prepare to take on the challenges of complexity and bureaucratization. To do so effectivelly, however, requires a greater level degree of trust than is now forthcoming from the public. Until the cultural challenge is confronted, all other efforts are likely to fail. Looking at how the other challenges have been transformed can help us underestand what it takes to transform a challenge from an obstacle into a target for change. Less optimistically, it may be necessary to wait until the culture evolves on its own.