Those bothersome Rho-dents: Lyndon B. Johnson and the Rhodesian Information Office

My article explores the response of the Johnson Administration to the establishment of the Rhodesian Information Office (RIO) in Washington DC in the aftermath of the Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The stance adopted by Johnson toward the RIO is illustrative of the viewpoint of the White House toward the broader issues of achieving majority rule and racial equality in Rhodesia and indeed the wider Southern African region. As clearly demonstrated by its policies toward the RIO, the White House adopted a measured approach of condemning Rhodesia and white minority rule in Africa and engaged in limited actions to demonstrate US opposition. Johnson, however, was not prepared to countenance more extreme measures that could threaten US geopolitical and domestic interests.     

Domestic–External Linkages and the Cold War in 1953 and 1989: Using International Relations Theory and Comparative Politics to Explain the End of the Cold War

Drawing on theories of international relations (IR) and comparative politics, this article explains why the cold war ended in 1989 rather than 1953. Numerous scholars have used IR theory to discuss the end of the cold war, but most of the circumstances they highlight were also present in the spring of 1953, right after the death of Joseph Stalin. This article presents three broad theoretical approaches that deal with the connection between domestic politics and international relations, and it then shows how these approaches can help us understand the similarities and differences between 1953 and 1989. In particular, the article emphasises the importance of time. In the spring of 1953, the window of opportunity was very brief—only a few months, which was insufficient for the two main cold war antagonists to overcome their deeply entrenched suspicions and make far-reaching adjustments in their policies. In the latter half of the 1980s, by contrast, the sweeping reorientation of east–west relations occurred over several years, giving policy-makers on both sides sufficient leeway to adapt and to 'learn' new ways of interacting.     

The phonology of Slavic loanwords in Lithuanian

Since 9/11, Washington has viewed the new Europe as a protégé of the United States, whose role is to repair the political bridge across the Atlantic. Whereas the lure of the United States has started to weaken in Central European countries, the Baltic states have remained the most trustful new Europeans from Washington's point of view. Nonetheless, the Balts have not felt comfortable with the new European label. They have seemingly begun to define themselves as something special and have aspired to a voice of their own. Instead of being merely protégés of the United States, the Balts are transforming themselves into intermediaries between Brussels and Washington.     

From dictatorship to democracy: the US and regime change in Paraguay, 1954–1994

Abstract— This paper seeks to analyse the external sources of democratisation in Paraguay, specifically how the US contributed to regime change in that country. In the small and vulnerable countries of Latin America, like in Central America, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Paraguay, where the US played a portentous role in the rise, consolidation and demise of authoritarian regimes during the Cold War, Washington has also rendered a vital, but often neglected role, in protecting and enhancing democratic rule. This paper also provides an analysis of the different forms of leverage exercised by the US before and during Paraguay's transition.     

论日内瓦会议后美国与柬埔寨关系的演变(1954-1960)

本文详细考察了1954-1960年间美国与东南亚小国柬埔寨之间的关系演变历程。独立后的柬埔寨,一度对美国怀有好感,希望通过获得美国的经济、军事援助来发展本国经济、维护国家的安全与独立。美国虽愿意对柬埔寨进行援助,但是其根本目的却是要将柬埔寨融入到美国在东南亚编织的反共体系中。随着时间的推移,双方在美援根本目标上的分歧与矛盾逐渐显露并激化。美国无法容忍柬埔寨独立、自主的中立路线,试图通过削减美援、甚至策划政变的方式改变柬埔寨的外交政策。然而,美国并未达到目标,相反使一度对美国怀有好感的柬埔寨走向自己的对立面。美柬关系的演变对研究这一时期美国与其他新兴独立的中小国家间的关系具有重要的参考和启发意义。     

Compromising coalitions and duplicitous diplomacy: US support for Tajikistan after 9/11 and its security implications

This article investigates the development of democracy in Tajikistan and analyzes what has earned it the most international acclaim: its secular-Islamic governing coalition. The investigation reveals a compromised and illegitimate coalition that, with American collusion in local regime repression, poses great dangers to international security. The article argues that government repression, leading to increasing radicalization, combines with foreign aid to damage long-term democracy potential in Tajikistan but also works against global security interests by creating doubt about American intentions and possibly allowing a concomitant rise in Islamic radicalism.     

略论中日关系中的能源因素

能源因素是影响中日关系的重要变量.20世纪以来,中日间的能源关系大致历经了两个阶段:日本帝国主义大肆掠夺中国能源时期和新中国成立之后中日间平等互利的能源合作时期.后冷战时期,随着国际格局的演变,日本新保守主义的抬头,中日之间在能源安全领域的竞争日趋激烈.积极倡导中日间能源领域的合作不仅有助于改善两国关系,而且对维护东亚稳定具有重要意义.     

The Global Capitalism School Tested in Asia: Transnational Capitalist Class vs Taking the State Seriously

Globalisation continues to stir debate. One burgeoning theoretical perspective is the “global capitalism school” (GCS), anchored around the writings of William Robinson. The GCS argues that globalisation marks a new epoch as nationally-based elites are no longer the central locus of power in world order with the rise of a “transnational capitalist class” (TCC). Jeb Sprague’s edited volume, Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia and Oceania, is the first book-length study testing key tenets of the GCS in the Asia-Pacific, and therefore fills a crucial gap. In this review article, it is argued that this book does not overcome what I believe are some key theoretical and empirical problems in the GCS, from not taking the state seriously to a dearth of corporate ownership data to demonstrate the existence of a TCC. To argue this, the article draws upon chapters in the book itself that are critical of the GCS, as well as from empirical research on corporate ownership and nationality. Nevertheless, it is concluded that this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the GCS, as well as the broader theoretical implications and empirical impacts of globalisation in the Asia-Pacific region.     

Engaging with the self-captive nation: Albania in the US official documents from 1945 to 1980

This paper aims to analyse US policy towards Albania during the cold war, as a case that illustrates Washington’s approach towards individual Communist countries in Eastern Europe in the light of the grand contest between the antagonist superpowers. This analysis is based almost exclusively on published US archival documents related to Albania from 1945 to 1980. This analysis underlines that in the American perception, the geopolitical importance of each Communist country was intrinsically linked with its position vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. Albania was no exception, despite the rigid Communist dogma it vigorously pursued.     

The incompatibility of peacemaking and military power

Since the 1990s, the Sino-Cameroonian relationship has grown rapidly. Today, China plays a key role in Cameroon's economic development, particularly in regards to infrastructure projects. However, in the last few years, Yaoundé's partnership with Beijing has encountered an increasing number of obstacles. Behind the warm pro-China rhetoric, the Cameroonian government has become more willing to rebalance their country's external relations, in favour of both its traditional partners and other emerging economies.     

(Re)Productive Discourses: Media Coverage of Children Born of War in Colombia

Children born as a result of wartime sexual violence have not gained a place in the stories covered by the Colombian media. Based on an extensive content analysis (using the software MAXQDA 12) of newspaper articles published between 1990 and 2015, ethnographic content analysis, and drawing upon feminist critical discourse analysis, this paper explores how information about these children is presented as part of storylines that use the explanatory framework of sexual violence as a weapon of war. In those storylines, children emerge not as independent subjects but as part of social representations of female victims of wartime sexual violence and male perpetrators.     

论卡特政府时期美国全球战略发生历史性转变的内在根源(Ⅱ)

吉米·卡特是美国历史上少有的在执政期间真正有意致力于推动世界和平的总统之一。他为抑制美苏军备竞赛,裁减军备与缓和当时的国际紧张局势做出了不懈的努力。他的这些努力使他后来荣膺诺贝尔和平奖。然而,由于卡特的这种外交方针触犯了当时美国国内某些极端保守势力的利益,在国际上又遭到苏联霸权主义的扩张带来的冲击,使他在执政期间屡屡遭受外交政策上的挫折。分析美国外交政策史上这一特定时期的种种内在和外在的因果联系,对于我们今天更深入地了解美国外交政策的内在动因具有极为重要的参照意义。     

Filling in the Gaps: The Transnational Administration of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Peru

Diverse sources have constructed a common narrative of individual and isolated responses by countries and their leaders to the global coronavirus pandemic, akin to sálvese quien pueda (every man for himself). This article suggests that this is a simplification of the governance of the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru. Peru's governance story is one of domestic public and private action closely interwoven with crucial elements of transnational administration out of sheer necessity. The struggle against the pandemic has generated a domestic and transnational administrative symbiosis, involving authorities at multiple levels in efforts to fill a series of interconnected domestic, regional, and global governance gaps.     

Exclusion Despite Nominal Inclusion: A Critical Analysis of Participatory Development Programmes in Post-War Colombia

Citizen participation takes centre stage in Colombia's 2016 peace agreement. Its practical implementation, however, has proven difficult. This case study examines targets and tactics of exclusion in participatory development programmes established under the peace accords. Drawing on qualitative data generated between 2021 and 2022 in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, this article argues that exclusion affects societal (sub-)groups, organisations and communities as a whole and involves a large array of implicit-elusive, direct-explicit and coercive mechanisms. This matters for implementing inclusive peacebuilding more generally.     

论卡特政府时期美国全球战略发生历史性转变的内在根源(Ⅰ)

吉米·卡特是美国历史上少有的在执政期间真正有意致力于推动世界和平的总统之一。他为抑制美苏军备竞赛,裁减军备和缓和当时的国际紧张局势做出了不懈的努力。他的这些努力是他后来荣膺诺贝尔和平奖的原因之一。然而,由于卡特的这种外交方针触犯了当时美国国内某些极端保守势力的利益,在国际上又遭到苏联霸权主义的扩张带来的冲击,使他在执政期间屡屡遭受外交政策上的挫折。分析美国外交政策史上的这一特定时期的种种内在和外在的因果联系,对于我们今天更深入地了解美国外交政策的内在动因具有极为重要的参照意义。     

Ethnic Rights Under Threat: The Black Peasant Movement Against Armed Groups' Pressure in the Chocó, Colombia

During the past decade Colombia has been experiencing the paradox of, on the one hand, enjoying one of the most advanced constitutional frameworks for the empowerment of citizenship rights in general and ethnic rights in particular, and on the other, suffering from the drawn-out effects of endemic violence and armed conflict. In this paper, the manifestation of this paradox in a specific context, that of the black peasants' land rights movement in the Chocó region, is explored. Under the aegis of the 1991 Constitution, organisations of black peasants have been making headway in filing for and receiving substantial collective land titles on the basis of a discourse of black ethnic rights. At the same time, and not coincidentally, various armed actors such as the FARC guerrillas and paramilitary forces have made violent inroads into this region. The violence has led to internal displacement, social uprooting, and the disruption of the organisational efforts of the black peasantry. This has put the process of ethnic construction and mobilisation under severe strain. However, black peasants' organisation have been trying to use the land entitlements as a tool to mount a counterstrategy against the violence inflicted by the armed groups.     

War Hypotheses: Drug Trafficking,Sovereignty and the Armed Forces in Mexico

This essay analyses how Mexican presidents have interpreted the concepts of drug trafficking and national security and how these particular connotations have redefined national sovereignty and the specific role of the armed forces in protecting this sovereignty. A qualitative technique of discourse analysis is used to examine public speeches by Zedillo (1994–2000), Fox (2000–2006) and Calderón (2006–2012). The conclusions suggest that drug trafficking and US omnipresence are the two main issues that shaped Mexico's national security threats during this period, with qualitatively distinct trajectories.     

从国际新闻署到美国新闻署--美国对外宣传机构的演变

本文考察了二战后美国对外宣传执行机构从国务院组织框架下的国际新闻署到独立的美国新闻署的发展历程,并通过分析美国对外宣传执行机构在美国政府部门中的地位的变迁展示美国政府对外宣传的发展.     

The Totalisation of Human Social Practice: Open Marxists and Capitalist Social Relations, Foucauldians and Power Relations

This article critiques Open Marxism for an ontology which totalises human social practice—for Open Marxists, capitalist social relations are the singular constitutive source of human activity. Such a stance is superficially attractive yet ultimately inadequate, and I reinforce my case by demonstrating how other critical approaches—in this article, Foucauldian perspectives on power—suffer from similar deficiencies. Thus there is a need to resist the temptation of claiming to know how human social practice can be understood with recourse to a singular aspect (no matter how important) of such practice. I conclude that an excellent example of how to avoid such pitfalls is provided by Antonio Gramsci's writings, for they acknowledge the multifaceted yet nevertheless anchored existence lived by humans in capitalist societies.     

百人会在美中关系及华裔权益问题上所起的作用

百人会由一批在各个领域内卓有成就的,对美中关系和华裔权益有深厚关切的美籍华人组成。百人会以双重文化背景,本着求同存异的原则,积极推进美籍华裔全面参与美国社会,积极促进美中之间的相互了解和建设性关系的发展。本文通过《求同存异》白皮书、李文和事件等个案,叙述和分析了百人会在上述方面积极而有效的努力。