International Mediation and Social Networks: The Importance of Indirect Ties

This study extends the previous literature on actors' incentives in conflict management by examining how direct and indirect links between fighting parties influence the prospects for mediation onset from a social network perspective. The paper argues, contrary to existing research, that direct links, i.e., bilateral ties between warring parties, do not notably increase the likelihood of mediation. Rather, indirect links, i.e., ties that connect two states via one or more than one third party to each other, are more likely to determine whether a conflict sees mediation. Although direct links can indicate mutual interests, shared preferences, and decreased uncertainty between the warring parties, these ties either lose importance or become cut off when states enter a conflict. By contrast, indirect ties create a social network that involves outside parties in the dispute process, and indirect ties increase the exchange of information between belligerents and potential mediators and the chances that third parties will have a vital interest in intervention. My empirical analysis using conflict and social network data in 1946–1995 provides strong support for the theory.     

What Is Critical Globalization Studies?

From a critical perspective, precisely what kind of knowledge about globalization is meaningful? The distinctive province of a critical orientation to globalization is coming to be defined by a complex of five interacting components: reflexivity, historicism, decentering, crossovers between social inquiry and other streams of knowledge, and an emphasis on strategic transformations. Critical globalization studies may be employed to identify diverse tendencies in world order, parts of a contradictory whole that coexist, with different logics colliding with one another. These are elements of the old configuration, multilateral globalization ; the contemporary structure, militarized globalization ; and the potential constellation, democratic globalization . The motor of transformation is not only countervailing power but also alternative knowledge, which should be demystifying and enabling.     

数字鸿沟与国际关系知识霸权

霸权是国际关系的伴生物。农业社会霸权国家具有明显的军事强权特性,工业社会霸权国家具有明显的工业强权特性,信息社会霸权国家初步显形知识霸权的特性。数字鸿沟的浮现使得国际关系中的知识霸权凸现,成为发达国家获利、强国和称霸的利器,科学的认识和探讨知识霸权对当代国际关系的影响具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

Conflict reduction by mutual disengagement

This study attempts to discover what variables, if any, will induce opponents to cooperate. The author isolated 12 independent variables and grouped the first five together in his refined model as variable 6. The remaining variables are: worthlessness, supervision, conspicuousness, previous neutralization, absence of internal segmentation, military potential, and tradition as a neutral. Analysis was limited to bivariate relationships between the independent and dependent variables (i.e., possible outcomes). Cases tested included examples from the outbreak of World War I to the present. The author discovered that disengagement would most likely succeed in a geographically and ideologically distinct Country, one previously neutralized, that had little military value, a politically organized population, and some military capacity. The most unpromising candidate would lack clearcut ethnic borders, internal homogeneity, and political unity. Disengagement, while no panacea, offers the advantage of many opening moves in a conflict reduction situation.     

Self-Defense and the Use of Force: Breaking the Rules, Making the Rules, or Both?

This article examines shifts in international law regarding the use of force—the jus ad bellum —that emerged in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and subsequently were invoked in part by the United States and United Kingdom to justify military intervention in Iraq. These shifts import some elasticity—in time, space, and place—into the preexisting legal understanding of self-defense. To be sure, the general consensus that supported the use of force in Afghanistan as a legitimate exercise of self-defense has diluted as the use of that force expanded into other theaters of operation. It is therefore unsurprising that considerable controversy envelops claims by some states that international law entitles them to use force in self-defense in a preemptory manner. This article explores the articulation of this and other justifications for the military intervention in Iraq. It also unpacks the difficult question whether these entitlements are constitutive of inchoate legal rules or simply deviations from the still operational old rules. Moreover, this article encourages scholars and students of international law and relations to consider why a movement is afoot to change the rules and how this affects the architecture of collective security. To facilitate this process of reflection, this article explores the policy implications of retaining the old rules or adopting the newly alleged rules.     

The structure of the international telecommunications regime in transition: A network analysis of international organizations 1

This paper examines the structure of the international telecommunications regime in terms of networks of social interaction and institutional affiliation among international actors. Social interaction and overlapping membership data of 69 international telecommunications organizations in the Yearbook of International Organizations 1994/1995 are analyzed to describe the social structure of the international telecommunications system through network analysis. The analysis reveals a center‐periphery structure with the Western industrial countries at the center and the less developed countries at the periphery. The international telecommunications system is also regionally structured suggesting influence by geopolitical and cultural proximity. The results indicate that inter‐governmental global organizations such as the ITU and UNESCO play intermediate and coordinating roles at the central linking‐pin positions (or cut‐points) in the international telecommunications regime. In summary, this research shows that transitional trends in international telecommunications have affected the interaction patterns of international actors.     

全球化对当代国际关系的影响

人类社会的全球化进程始于近代资本主义的对外扩张 ,西方资本主义国家在全球化的发展过程中始终扮演了推动者的作用。全球化的发展透视出一个以经济为中心 ,逐步向政治、文化等领域扩散的发展态势。西方国家在推动全球化发展的过程中 ,利用其资本、技术、信息和组织的优势 ,一直谋求把资本主义的经济模式、政治制度、价值观念和西方文化推向全球 ,构建西方发达国家主导的世界秩序。     

Globalization by the Numbers: Quantitative Indicators and the Role of Policy

Many writers have sought empirical referents for globalization. The most persuasive work has considered economic, political, cultural, and environmental indicators. Attempts to combine indicators from different spheres into a single index appear unpromising.     

从政治层面看演变中的中俄关系

20世纪80年代末90年代初苏联解体、冷战结束后,国际形势发生了新的变化。大国关系也处于全新的构筑之中。其显著的标志是美、俄、中、日、欧盟世界五大力量的相互关系带有根本性的调整。在这种国际环境背景下．中俄两国关系在以往中苏关系的基础上继续发展。逐步确立了中俄两国的战略协作伙伴关系。冷战后的两国关系呈现出三大特点两国关系稳定迅速发展;政治关系重于经济关系;变与不变同时存在。对于中俄关系。在发展趋势上我们要在努力争取长期稳定的睦邻友好合作关系的同时．关注两国关系中的不稳定因素,做到有备无患、未雨绸缪、趋利避害。     

Experiencing Globalization: Active Teaching and Learning in International Political Economy

This article explores the teaching and learning challenges for the discipline of international studies (IS) that arise from the contemporary social, economic, and political changes usually labeled "globalization." The focus is upon the challenge posed to IS by a transformation in the nature of the relationship of teachers and students to the subject matter that they study: that is, teachers and students increasingly experience and contribute to globalization in the course of their daily lives as they simultaneously teach and learn about it. Significantly for the study of globalization in IS, pedagogical debates surrounding active teaching and learning highlight the potential for strategies that actively engage students' interests and everyday experiences with the subject itself. On this basis, the article outlines some potential routes into the active teaching and learning of globalization in the field of international political economy, illustrating these with examples from classroom activities and exercises.     

论全球化背景下的国际机制

国际机制是国际社会中一系列规范与预期的汇集,它所体现的一整套原则、规则和决策程序使无序社会的有序化成为可能,并降低了国际合作成本,增加了交往的信赖度。当今的全球化为国际机制的发展开拓了新空间,同时也对其规范化与制度化提出了更高的要求。     

中欧博弈新常态与国际安全格局转型

中国和欧洲正在成为全球政治、经济、安全博弈的焦点。随着新兴国家的群体崛起,国际格局力量对比正在经历持续且深刻的调整,中欧大国的安全博弈也随之呈现出新的常态。相应地,如何准确把握中欧大国关系中安全博弈的新常态以及中欧博弈对国际安全格局走向的影响,并加以前瞻性应对,是中国外交在保障国际安全以及维持未来大国协调进程中必须考量的问题。中国和欧洲在大国安全关系持续协调中的\"软博弈\"(即国际安全的规范与价值的持续碰撞)与角色互换进程中的\"硬摩擦\"(即中国与欧洲在世界主导权结构中地位与角色的升降变化),共同构成了国际战略格局转型期中欧安全博弈的新常态。理解中欧大国博弈新常态之于国际安全研究则需要透过\"‘相互依存式主导权’视阈下的国际社会化\"这个两者结合的理论棱镜。在安全领域,中国对欧洲的外交也将迎来新的历史机遇,应当引导中欧关系进入国际安全规范重塑和机制建设进程的大方向。     

世界新秩序的建立与国家的选择

苏东剧变结束了二战以来的雅尔塔体制,也结束了冷战秩序。震荡之后,世界在经济和科技的发展带动之下,开启了真正意义的全球化大门,不再有两个阵营之间的固定壁垒,取而代之的是世界上的任何国际行为主体间都有了交流与合作的自由。国际社会体系的这种重大而深刻的变革对世界新秩序的形成造成了极大的冲击,各种力量重新调整彼此之间的关系,探索自身发挥影响所能达到的限度,寄希望于在新的世界秩序中占据有利地位。正是在这样一个格局转变的时刻,国家对于利益的追求方式也在做出新的选择。     

Do Democracies Attract Portfolio Investment? Transnational Portfolio Investments Modeled as Dynamic Network

For many, transnational capital is an important driving force of economic globalization. However, we know little about the political determinants for cross-border portfolio investments. Recent economic literature focuses upon information asymmetries. We move beyond this and introduce an explicitly political element into the study of international asset flows. Democratic institutions attract portfolio investments because they reduce the chances of government predatory practices. Applying a dynamic latent space model on the bilateral portfolio investment data from 2001 to 2005, we empirically examine the effects of important country-level characteristics of both exporters and importers of portfolio investments. The empirical findings suggest that democracies are often associated with higher levels of inward portfolio investments. Interestingly, we also find that portfolio investments are associated with business communities’ subjective estimate of property rights protection, but not with more comprehensive, index-based aggregate measures from international think tanks.     

International Disorder and China's Strategic Thoughts

Since the 2008 international financial crisis,international political and economic disorder has become obvious.Major reasons are the decline of US-led Western developed economies' global influence;US and other Western countries inaction or ineffective actions;power diffusion allowing non-state actors to intervene;a global governance short of needed rules;and mainstream economic theory's overemphasis on market roles.International disorder is a long-term process posing a potential threat to China' s national interests.The situation challenges China to create an international economic and trade order,thereby shaping itself as prophet of global free trade,shaper of international economic and trade rules,and trendsetter for globalization.     

Global Energy Governance: Trade,Infrastructure, and the Diffusion of International Organizations

Why do states choose to join and form international governmental organizations (IGOs) that regulate energy policy? In this article we make three specific contributions to the literature on international cooperation and diffusion. First, we show that countries form and join energy IGOs in response to memberships previously gained by direct competitors among oil and gas producers and consumers. Moreover, we demonstrate that energy IGOs diffuse among countries that share oil and gas pipelines. Finally, we provide evidence that the institutional design of established energy IGOs impacts the development of their membership network. To test these hypotheses, we rely on original data on oil and gas pipelines and the design of energy IGOs as well as on a newly compiled dataset that includes 152 countries and covers 38 years (1970–2007). We employ both network analysis and spatial econometrics.