Bringing Peace Into the Room

What are the essential qualities a person needs to be an effective mediator? In addition to understanding conceptual frameworks and mastering fundamental skills of mediation, what role do the personal characteristics of the mediator play in the resolution of conflict? Bringing Peace Into the Room is a groundbreaking collection of essays addressing these questions. In a thoughtful and provocative way, the authors ask us to examine ourselves and our field. They invite us to consider the ways in which our own individual development as human beings impacts the parties and cases with whom we work. Ultimately, the book challenges us to re‐imagine our roles as mediators by asking us to internalize and to embody the highest principles of our profession.     

Assessing the balance

Save for the single issue of balance of power theory's relevance to the current system, where we and some of our critics are in real disagreement (and they are wrong), every aspect of this symposium has been highly productive. Our critics do not directly dispute the proposition that a rapid end of a single superpower world is extremely unlikely. They generally endorsed our core finding that the systemic constraints featured in IR scholarship are largely inoperative with respect to a United States that remains the sole superpower. These essays are consequently devoted mainly to discussing the implications of our findings and the future research agenda. In particular, they developed serious challenges to the idea of US led institutional revisionism, generated new ideas about both systemic and non-systemic constraints, and suggested potentially powerful theories about constraints on other states besides the United States.     

Maladies of our souls: identity and voice in the writing of academic international relations

Drawing primarily, but not exclusively on the work of Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes on language, writing, and ‘the subject’, I examine the issue of identity and writing in international relations. I argue that what has come to be labeled ‘critical’ or ‘radical’ constructivism rather insistently points in the direction of opening up spaces for discussing our own writing and exploring our own voices in what we write, though this has not been actively pursued. Sociologist Avery Gordon uses the phrase ‘making common cause’ to argue that our encounters with the social world ‘must strive to go beyond the fundamental alienation of turning social relations into just things we know and toward our own reckoning with how we are in these stories, with how they change us’. It seems to me that this is not possible without giving attention to the issue of voice, specifically the voice we use when we write about international relations. To speak of voice is to raise many interesting and important questions, to ponder our use of language, our locations within our stories and the discourses we create, and perhaps most importantly to give recognition to the presence of desire in language and in the writing of international national relations.     

Teaching the New Inequalities: Using the Human Development Report as Class Text

In this article we share our experiences helping students to think critically about global issues by using the data and the conceptual innovations presented by the authors of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report We discuss a number of strategies we have applied to actively engage students in the analysis of the extensive data in the Report and the approaches we have taken to help our students understand both the research and the policy implications of the diverse conceptual frameworks introduced in each annual edition. By using a publication that introduces new concepts, new measures, and new insights in each annual edition, we help our students to see how social scientists work and how knowledge is constructed. At the same time, by requiring them to use the data to analyze, compare, and conceptualize, we show them they can "do" social science and discover for themselves some of the realities of the global community described in the more traditional texts.     

Repression of the Human Right to Personal Integrity Revisited: A Global Cross-National Study Covering the Years 1976–1993

Here we seek to build on our earlier research (Poe and Tate, 1994) by re-testing similar models on a data set covering a much longer time span; the period from 1976 to 1993. Several of our findings differ from those of our earlier work. Here we find statistical evidence that military regimes lead to somewhat greater human rights abuse, defined in terms of violations of personal integrity, once democracy and a host of other factors are controlled. Further, we find that countries that have experienced British colonial influence tend to have relatively fewer abuses of personal integrity rights than others. Finally, our results suggest that leftist countries are actually less repressive of these basic human rights than non-leftist countries. Consistent with the Poe and Tate (1994) study, however, we find that past levels of repression, democracy, population size, economic development, and international and civil wars exercise statistically significant and substantively important impacts on personal integrity abuse.     

加强东北亚区域能源合作 保障我国能源安全

当前我国能源特别是石油进口持续增加 ,能源安全面临着严峻的挑战 ,存在来源风险、运输风险和市场风险 ,需要通过区域能源合作来保障我国能源安全。东北亚区域除我国外 ,既包括油气资源丰富的俄罗斯 ,又有缺乏油气资源但资金雄厚的日本和韩国 ,发挥各国优势加强东北亚区域能源合作 ,是防范我国和区域内其他国家能源风险、避免对能源资源恶性竞争的有效途径。在参与东北亚地区的能源合作中 ,我国应建立一种整体的、相互协调的战略思路 ,寻找各方的利益共同点以促进区域内能源合作 ,同时还必须增加与区域外的联系 ,实现能源进口渠道的多元化。     

日本经济高速增长时期的农业剩余劳动力转移

农业剩余劳动力转移是我国农业发展乃至国民经济现代化进程中无法回避的重点问题和难点问题。从已经经历过这一过程的发达国家道路看,作为亚洲国家的日本与我国的情况最为相似,因此,对日本在上个世纪50~70年代的经济高速增长时期农业剩余劳动力转移的过程进行回顾,并对影响转移的几个主要因素进行分析是十分必要的。通过回顾和分析,使日本农业剩余劳动力转移过程的基本轮廓和基本经验渐渐清晰起来。对比日本的情况,结合我国目前农业剩余劳动力的现状和面临的问题,日本的经验是很有借鉴价值的。     

The Empire and the Independent Island

The history of Cuba during the last 140 years is one of both struggle to preserve national identity and independence and the history of the evolution of the American empire, with its constant craving to appropriate Cuba and of the horrendous methods that it uses today to hold on to world domination. Prominent Cuban historians have dealt in depth with these subjects in different periods and in various excellent books that deserve to be readily available to our compatriots. These reflections are addressed especially to the new generations with the aim of helping them learn about very important and decisive events in the destiny of our homeland.     

美、日、澳金融策划业的发展与中国本土化发展设计

我国经济的发展、居民收入和财富的增加以及相应的对高效率理财、实现个人资源的优化配置的需求呼唤着金融策划业 ,在中国实施注册金融策划师资格认证体系的时机已逐渐成熟。目前 ,金融策划业成为国际金融领域发展的一个新趋势。引进国际通行的CFP认证体系将有利于促进我国金融策划业的良性发展 ,但中国更需要结合自己的国情逐步实现注册金融策划师认证制度体系的本土化。     

Recall in Germany: explaining the use of a local democratic innovation

While recall recently has gained slightly more attention from academia, the use of recall has hardly been under systematic scrutiny. Our study tackles this research gap and seeks to answer the following question: What combinations of conditions facilitate or constrain the use of local recall (in Germany)? It provides a qualitative comparative analysis of conditions of recall use in 11 German federal states. Building on theories of democratic innovations and previous studies on recall, we develop an analytic framework systematizing the conditions we include in our empirical analysis along three dimensions: institutional design, attitudinal context, and political context. While our article focuses on Germany, our analytic framework can be applied to study recall in other countries and on other levels, allowing for more systematic comparative research. Applying fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, our article provides a comprehensive picture explaining the use of recall. It shows that political and attitudinal conditions serve as an equally important explanation for recall use as the institutional design of recall does. Our article gives new insights considering the conditions for the use of direct democratic instruments.     

土耳其和法国巨灾保险制度对我国的启示

土耳其和法国的巨灾保险制度在建立背景、要素特征、运营管理模式、风险分散机制、财税政策多方面有很大的不同，对我国未来的灾害保险制度设计和运营管理有很大启示。我国应以“充分讨论，前期准备，瞄准时机，适时推出”的方式建立巨灾保险制度，保险覆盖的风险则以单风险为主，政府主要承担再保险人的角色，并加强配套基础设施的建设。     

Dealing with uncertainty: the illusion of knowledge in the study of counterterrorism effectiveness

Efforts to combat terrorism have become a priority in the security agenda of most countries around the world, while the respective policies, tools and instruments have amounted to significant costs. In this article, we review the literature on counterterrorism (CT) effectiveness and draw a series of rather negative conclusions with regard to the reliability of our knowledge in this area. We find that the literature displays case and data selection biases, and the results produced are oftentimes contradictory, mostly due to the use of different indicators. We then propose a conceptualisation of CT effectiveness, which should help to resolve some of the issues outlined. The article concludes by outlining some future research directions that should improve our methodological grasp in the field.     

越南当代文学创作中的悲剧意识

悲剧是通过矛盾冲突,描绘人们遭受不应遭受的厄运,描绘美好正确的东西受到摧残、失败或者毁灭。它强烈地激起人们悲哀、愤怒的情感,使人们的灵魂得到净化。20世纪80年代,悲剧意识开始重返越南文学创作舞台,为文学带来了崭新的面貌。由于社会由计划经济向市场经济体制转型,生活变得丰富、复杂、紧张起来。正是现实生活中充满悲剧色彩的典型矛盾与冲突打开了作家们的悲剧意识。     

The G20 Chair and the Case of the Global Economic Steering Committee

Global and regional summits occur regularly, yet we know little about the factors supporting an effective summit. This article reviews knowledge about the chair, agenda building and prenegotiation preparation within an institutionalised régime, and then turns to our venue, the G20, and our specific case, the 2014 G20 Australian presidency. Through case analysis, we develop a Prenegotiation Framework, identifying tasks and key issues that are usefully addressed during summit preparation. Furthermore, we identify a linked relationship between the chair, their management of prenegotiation planning, the agenda that is adopted and the way in which that agenda determines public perception of the fundamental nature or “identity” of a particular international organisation. Thus, the prenegotiation process can have significant consequences for our understanding of those institutions engaged in global governance. We conclude that data no longer support a characterisation of the G20 as a global crisis committee, as an analysis of G20 Summit agendas demonstrates that it has evolved into a global steering committee. With its identity established, the effectiveness of the G20 as a global steering committee is the key question, while régime continuity and change constitute the real long-term G20 challenge.     

Seal the Deal: Bargaining Positions,Institutional Design,and the Duration of Preferential Trade Negotiations

Multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization have stalled. This has contributed to a steep rise in preferential trade agreements (PTAs). At the same time, negotiations for PTAs have not always proven quick and painless: While some treaties are sealed within a few months or days only, other agreements are preceded by protracted bargaining processes in trade and trade-related issue areas. In this article, we provide a theoretical explanation for this empirical variation. More specifically, we argue that PTA negotiations take longer the greater the distance between the prospective partners’ initial bargaining positions. Moreover, we contend that negotiation processes become more protracted the higher the relative ambition of the prospective PTA. Due to the limited links to the domestic political arena in autocracies, we expect this latter effect to play out for groups of democratic bargaining partners only. We test these two hypotheses for 198 preferential trade negotiations using novel measures for bargaining templates and the ambition of PTA clauses. In our two-stage survival models, we find support for our argument. In line with qualitative evidence from recent preferential trade initiatives, our models indicate that services, investment and intellectual property rights are particularly sticky agenda items for democratic leaders at the international bargaining table.     

Compensation Schemes and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: Beyond the Obvious

Because compensation and dispute resolution lie at the core of most resettlement proposals, this panel had two main objectives: to get an accurate grasp of the current Israeli approach to these challenges and to glean insights from relevant experiences in other settings. Before reading our panelists' presentations, one might be forgiven for reasonably thinking that "compensation equals cash" and "dispute resolution equals court." As our panelists discussed, however, such a straightforward view is simply inadequate to the needs of the resettlement problem — a much richer view of compensation and dispute resolution is required.     

Revisiting the Effects of Case Reports in the News

Synthesizing several theories about the likely impact of case reports in the news, we propose that the impact of featuring identified victims in a news story is contingent on the degree of similarity between the audience member and the identified victims. We execute a population-based survey experiment involving immigration policy to examine our theory. Our results suggest that featuring specific, identified victims in a news story will promote more supportive policy opinions than otherwise identical stories about unidentified victims, but only when the victim is highly similar to the audience member. Conversely, case reports featuring identified people who are dissimilar to the audience member will decrease the extent to which the story encourages victim-supportive policy attitudes. Overall, our experimental findings shed light on the conditions under which the inclusion of case reports increases versus decreases the policy relevance of news stories. Our findings also help explain previous inconsistencies in findings about the impact of case reports. Additional analyses allow us to speculate as to the reasons for the differential direction of effects.     

Taking Your Academic Expertise Public: Lessons Learned Responding to the 11 September Crisis

The advantage of academic life is that society allows us to spend years reading things no one else reads, writing articles and books almost no one else reads, and traveling to places no one else travels to. But in times of crisis, when the totally unexpected becomes reality, society understandably expects that we serve our communities with knowledge, explanation, insights, and policy alternatives. The days, weeks, and months following the attacks of 11 September were such an occasion and many academics experienced sudden demands for public commentary and analysis. As international studies scholars, we have insights and knowledge that our communities require and desire, most notably in times of crisis. By responding to the best of our abilities, we are able to return something to society and help people understand more clearly the world in which we live. In this essay, we discuss how we handled this challenge in the wake of 11 September and the lessons we have learned through that process.     

科学发展观与科学社会主义——结合苏联在发展方面的经验教训,深入领会党的十七大精神

科学发展观的形成和确立标志着我党发展史上的又一次思想解放和思想飞跃,是我党越来越成熟的一个非常重要的体现.联系苏联在发展方面的经验教训,我们更能够清醒地认识到科学发展观对于我国我党发展的重要性.科学发展观继承了马克思列宁主义的理论,科学地回答了有关发展的重要历史命题.科学发展观极大地丰富了科学社会主义理论的内涵,是马克思主义关于发展的世界观和方法论的集中体现.解决发展问题一定要与国家和社会的环境和条件相适应.科学发展观力戒急于求成和急于过渡,力戒以革命热情代替科学实践.