Evidence-Based Policy Research to Inform the ENP: Five Recommendations for Europe and its Neighbours

The September 2014 referendum is a milestone in Scotland’s history. After 307 years of union with England and a 15-year experience with devolution, Scottish nationalism is within reach of its ultimate goal. Independence would be consensual and Scotland and the rest of the UK would retain multiple links. The EU dimension looms large in the debate and is entangled with the UK’s own review of its membership. Scotland’s referendum is part of a wider trend seeing other ‘stateless nations’ in the democratic world pursuing independence. Even if opinion polls indicate voters will likely reject secession, Scotland’s experience holds important lessons for the wider world.     

欧盟数字治理:理念、实践与影响

在全球科技竞争日益激烈的背景下,近几年来欧盟加速推动数字化转型,提出了"数字主权"的战略理念,在全球引起强烈反响。欧盟在规范数字市场发展方面持续发力,密集出台了一系列新的监管规则,成为全球数字治理规则的制定者、贡献者和引领者。依托于庞大的数字经济市场和先进的技术基础,欧盟将数字治理理念推向世界,产生的影响值得重视:一是在全球数字治理规则制定中的"欧洲色彩"愈加浓重;二是欧盟数字单一市场对全球数字经济格局的塑造力不断提升;三是"消费者主权"正在成为全球数字治理领域的新特征。     

抗击经济衰退：象和龙

由美国引发的经济危机已经席卷全球,无论是西方发达国家和地区如日本、欧盟,还是发展中国家如印度、中国,都已笼罩在全球经济衰退的阴影中。本文探讨作为正在崛起的亚洲大国——印度和中国,应采取怎样的措施遏制全球经济危机对本国经济造成更严重的伤害,以及印中两国如何借鉴对方在应对经济危机过程中采取的有效政策以尽快重新走上经济发展的正轨。     

East Asia in a unipolar international order and Europe’s role in the region

This article attempts to explore the post-Cold War international system in which regional orders intermingle their influence. It pays special attention to regional conflicts in East Asia in the new era and what roles global powers could play to maintain regional stability. I will first examine the characteristics of the new global order after the end of the bipolarity. I will then focus on American foreign policy in the new international system in the context of its dealing with major global events that have strategic implications for its relations with other major global powers. As to discussions of regional orders, this article focuses on East Asia, where conflicts between states have not evaporated despite the relaxation of the global Cold War confrontation. What makes this area special is the involvements of many great powers and less-powerful nations that could somehow easily manipulate the seniors into the conflicts to their favour. While the regional order in East Asia is being shaped by the post- Cold War international order, the regions peace and conflicts will in turn significantly influence global order. Finally, I will argue that dealing with problems in East Asia should acquire involvements of powers that would give necessary momentum to the existing participants to solve conflicts by the means of multilateralism. The European Union (EU) is often forgotten for its role in contributing to world order, and the EU should be taken seriously by the powers in East Asia as a possible player in maintaining the regional peace. I conclude that both global and regional security depend on continuing US unipolarity, strengthened by the co-operation of the EU in the form of multilateralism. By the same token, US unilateralism without a EU counter-balancing it, only invites potential challengers, such as China, to threaten the USs preponderant position, thereby destabilising world peace.This article was supported by a research project (NSC-P3-2414-H-004-018) of the National Science Council, Taiwan, which is gratefully acknowledged.     

The European Union’s common foreign and security policy reforms and its implications for Northeast Asia

The European Union (EU) is at a turning point. With the bipolar order of the Cold War fast becoming a distant memory, the European Union must quickly establish itself on the global stage before it loses the opportunity to do so. With Northeast Asia fast emerging as a new economic giant and political center for world affairs, the EU must reform its Common Foreign and Security Policy in order to develop a reputation and image as a global actor of soft power, based on its long-standing values and peaceful diplomacy. However, despite major reforms in the Lisbon Treaty (2009), the EU has not been able to form cohesion amongst its members, thus hindering its progress in achieving such international recognition. This paper therefore analyses the reforms taken place so far and suggests further reforms that will build a strong foundation for a united and cohesive foreign policy. It will then look at how the reformed framework will allow the EU to establish itself as a global actor in political affairs, in particular in Northeast Asia.     

Rethinking Italy’s Shrinking Place in the International Arena

Italy’s foreign policy is still shackled by two features inherited from its modern history: an obsessive focus on rank and prestige, and a no less delusional faith in the redemptive character of the EU and other multilateral arrangements it belongs to. The ‘middle power’ foreign policy model elaborated in the 1980s had a rationale of its own but it can hardly be adapted to the globalised world, nor can it be sustained by a deteriorated economic and societal domestic fabric. Italy has to rethink its basic national interests, adapt its foreign policy tools to new concepts of relevance and influence, and focus on a long-term, concerted effort at domestic regeneration if it is to withstand the challenges of the globalised world we live in.     

Methodological nationalism and the domestic analogy: classical resources for their critique

The critique of methodological nationalism arose in the 1970s in sociology, but it only gained salience with the rise of globalization theory in the late 1990s. This article argues that in International Relations the discussion of the so-called ‘domestic analogy’ is closely connected to the one on methodological nationalism as they equally point to the substantive problem of understanding the nation state's position in modernity. The first section of this article revisits the three waves of the debate on methodological nationalism in sociology. The second part connects this with the discussion in IR on the domestic analogy. The last section brings the two disciplinary strands together by suggesting that social theory's claim to universalism is a fundamental resource to theorize current global processes beyond methodological nationalism and the domestic analogy. But for us to do so, we still have to unpack social theory's ambivalent relationship with the natural law tradition.     

Redistributing the EU-China economic relationship: the role of domestic change in China

Asia Europe Journal - As the importance of China in the global economy has grown, changes in its domestic economy have increasing impact in the EU. However, a key factor is no longer the simple...     

Global Economic Governance between China and the EU: the case of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

The recent establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the initiative launched by the People’s Republic of China in 2013 underpins Beijing’s intensions to promote its own narrative about global economic governance (GEG) as well as China’s readiness to play a far more proactive role at the international level. In the age of global power shifting and with 14 EU member-states part of the AIIB, the European Union (EU) necessitates to engage further with China, in particular, within the context of multilateral institutions. This article analyses the impact of China’s evolving global governance policies on the EU. China’s and EU’s approaches to the reform of global governance present both differences and similarities, yet, the article highlights EU’s needs to make sense to what extent China’s growing ascent in the realm of global governance is reshaping world’s regional and global architectures vis-à-vis financial multilateral cooperation.     

印度的能源对策分析

能源供应与经济发展这一矛盾已成为世界各国共同关注的难题。为了应对经济增长所面临的能源短缺危机,印度开始全面实施新能源战略,一方面对内大力发展新能源,另一方面在全球范围内实施能源外交与合作,效果显著,因此,针对印度能源战略的分析有利于为我国建立完善能源战略提供参考依据和借鉴。     

China's Foreign Policy Comes of Age

Although China has acquired new weight in world affairs, its foreign policy is driven primarily by domestic considerations. This is true of China's approach to international norms, where it largely resists the case for humanitarian intervention as accepted by most of the international community. The Chinese government still adheres to the doctrine of non-interference, albeit with some flexibility, when its prestige as a responsible great power may be at stake. Its management of regional security issues is conducted with a wary eye to the intense nationalism evident among the educated young at home. China's deepening economic interdependence with the outside world is raising new problems for China and its main trading partners as their respective societies become more deeply engaged with each other.     

当前金融危机下的国际思潮动态

2008年下半年以来,由于日益严重的全球金融危机风暴及由此造成的全球经济危机,在国际上尤其是在西方的政界和学术界出现一股值得重视和研究的新思潮。归纳起来有以下方面：资本主义未来向何处去;再次掀起新自由主义与凯恩斯主义经济学的辩论;对全球化进行反思;欧洲中心主义开始动摇和消退;如何对待气候变化成为一种道德标准;建立无核世界成为一股新的国际思潮;对西方国家的“促进民主”进行反思;马克思主义、社会主义思潮回潮;要求对现行国际秩序进行改革的思潮席卷全球;如何应对中国的崛起。     

Abe's Nationalism and His Policy Practice

Nationalism threatens to imbue modem Japan with a rationale for increased militarism.Post-war nationalism was a reason Japan had launched war abroad,but the reinvigoration of Japanese nationalism is burgeoning under two-term Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.His sense of nationalism,which has domestic and international repercussions,has developed under the influence of his family political genes.Abe's nationalism is being carried out in internal and external policies,with increasingly negative impact on domestic and regional order.The international community should remain vigilant of his right-wing politics.     

The EU and the Peacebuilding Commission

What can the world hope for from the Peacebuilding Commission, given the record of the United Nations in this area? And what contribution can the European Union (EU) offer, given its own record in engaging with countries emerging from violent conflict? The essential task in peacebuilding is to restore a war-torn society's capacity to manage its own conflicts. The priority for the Peacebuilding Commission should be to develop international support and legitimacy for this task, avoiding muddying it with the foreign policy objectives of donor states. The EU has much to offer and much to gain from establishing this growing area of global governance on sound principles and internationally accepted lines. The paper argues that the EU can and should play a leading part in developing the Peacebuilding Commission. It reflects on principles that could be applied and practices that should be avoided.     

The EU Global Strategy in a Transitional International Order

This article explores the prospects for the EU’s role as a global leader in a transitional international order, based on the assumption that multilateral principles will remain at the heart of global governance. It focuses in particular upon the EU’s 2016 Global Strategy in the context of three principal trends and challenges for global governance: political and normative challenges, legitimacy challenges, and systemic challenges. It argues that the prospects for the EU’s global role are limited as long as the EU remains committed to traditional forms and norms of global governance, because these are increasingly out of touch with the emerging international order, and the nature of contemporary collective action challenges.     

Homo Nationis: The Psycho-social Infrastructure of the Nation-state Order

The central argument of this article is that the global expansion of sovereign nation- states has been accompanied by the emergence of a particular type of modern individual, homo nationis. The general significance of this argument lies in the fact that this personality type, which is either taken for granted (untheorised) or ignored, constitutes an integral component of modern social order. That is, in addition to the constitutional and institutional foundations of the state and its political economy, the nation-state has a psycho-social foundation--a "national habitus". The concepts of homo nationis and national habitus underscore the notion that modern individuals are historical individuals, i.e. they have personality structures that are unlike those of individuals in other historical epochs, and that they should be explicitly conceptualised as such, rather than as a transhistorical homo oeconomicus or homo sociologicus. Many fundamental social processes, including those discussed under globalisation, can be better explained with such a conception. The historical- structural context for homo nationis is the world order of nation-states that has only recently finished formally incorporating all other social formations from tribes to the remnants of empires, as well as the specific state-society to which the individual belongs. The article notes the interest that Durkheim and Weber had in habitual behaviour and draws on the exemplary work of Norbert Elias on national habitus to sketch its conception of homo nationis. The article then assembles further evidence for the existence and significance of national habitus by perusing a diverse set of scholarly literatures, including national culture in business studies, national economies and economic nations, nationalism, comparative sociology, and normative political theory.     

Universal Democracy,Diminished Expectation

This wide-ranging article identifies some general characteristics of democratization with the intention of stimulating further discussion. The contemporary debate appears largely unreflective, and often curiously pessimistic about outcomes. There is little questioning of a global 'democratic imperative', which now even insists upon making democratic advances beyond just the electoral sphere. Yet there appears little expectation that such initiatives will effect real transformation. Critically commenting upon the impulse behind these trends, the article claims that their origins lie in the manner of democracy's triumph in the 1980s. Democracy unexpectedly came to be without rivals; third world nationalism was demoralised and ultimately collapsed with communism. Rather than through its own efforts or self-belief, the new agenda found itself in demand simply by default. Reflecting the reorientation of United States foreign policy, conceptions of democracy then became universalized and were in effect relativized, a development that created short-term gains but poses longer-term difficulties. Concern at the inflated expectations generated by this global democratic mood has led some accounts of democratization to now counsel lowered expectations. The article ends by asking whether democracy too might ultimately be the victim of the 'end of ideology' and the collapse of alternatives which led to its revival in the 1990s.     

Globalization and the Reform of the International Financial and Monetary Systems

The outbreak of the global financial cdsis has called into question U.S.-style ＂financial capitalism.＂ Protectionism, currency multilateralism, decentralization of financial decision-making power and the nationalism of resources are gaining ground. The emerging economies are on the rise. The world power order is becoming multi-polar. Relations between countries are growing more diverse. The global governance model is undergoing fundamental changes. Global governance mechanisms, which are more representative and reflective of the diverse interests （such as the G20 and the UN climate change conference）, along with a reform of the international monetary system, will also help shape the future world order.     

Fostering arms control: The role of unilateralism

Climate change has taken centre stage in European and international politics. Since the second half of the 1980s, the EU has established itself as an international leader on climate change and has considerably improved its leadership record. The Union has significantly enhanced both its external representation and its internal climate policies. However, implementation and policy coherence, coordination of EU environmental diplomacy, an evolving international agenda, EU enlargement, and a still precarious EU unity remain major challenges. Shifts in underlying driving forces and advances of EU domestic climate and energy policies nevertheless support the expectation that the EU will remain a progressive force in international climate policy for some time.     

南亚地区形势的特点及其走向

在过去一年中,南亚地区各国政府虽然维持了政治上的基本稳定,但经历的挑战巨大;地区整体经济形势增长受挫;总体安全形势十分严峻。未来南亚局势将更趋复杂,主要表现为:印度的战略地位将继续走强;巴基斯坦的长期稳定问题值得担忧;美国撤军将使阿富汗面临安全真空。由于南亚具有特殊的地缘政治地位,大国在地区的角逐和争夺始终不会停止,地区局势的演变对中国的影响尤为重要,中国在对印关系、对巴关系和对阿富汗问题应有切实可行的应对思考。