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.     

毒品贸易与上海合作组织:前景与矛盾

从上合组织所在中亚地区的有组织毒品贸易的视角看,全球化和非传统安全问题如何日益成为影响上合组织的重要因素。通过对上合组织成员国在反毒品贸易政策上的差异及其形成原因的分析,认为反毒品问题是中亚地区第四股恶势力,应成为上合组织发展的优先方向,反之可能对其构成不良后果。为此,上合组织应采取加强边境安全与海关检查、澄清上合组织以及其他与其优先方向类似的地区多边机构关系等措施。     

Between Continuity and Change: Ostpolitik and the Constructivist Approach Revisited

To social constructivists, West German Ostpolitik, as implemented under the social-liberal government of Chancellor Willy Brandt in the early 1970s, is an excellent example of norms and identities influencing foreign policy. According to constructivists, Ostpolitik involves a continuous social process in which decision-makers are increasingly guided by norms such as ‘peace’, ‘reconciliation’ and ‘Europeanness’. However, constructivist analyses of Ostpolitik remain too abstract to answer the question why West German reunification policy was first put on an international sidetrack, before it subsequently took the initiative in international détente and caused national and international political commotion. Only when the constructivist emphasis on the influence of norms is linked to more traditional decision-making models of bureaucratic and government politics, and their focus on political interests, does it become clear that the answer lies in the dynamics of the continuous political struggle between Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD).     

改变与延续:奥巴马政府的东亚政策与东亚一体化

本文旨在探讨奥巴马政府的东亚政策及其对东亚一体化的影响.作者认为:奥巴马政府的东亚政策可以用"安全"、"繁荣"、"人权"和"环保"四个词来概括,在安全和经贸方面大体会延续前任政府的政策,在环保和人权方面会进行一定的变革,在经贸方面也会和以往有所不同.总体而言,奥巴马的东亚政策对东亚一体化既有积极的一面,但也必须认识到其消极的一面.最后,针对美国的关注与担忧及如何推动东亚一体化,本文提出了一些政策建议.     

Free Traders and Drug Smugglers: The Effects of Trade Openness on States' Ability to Combat Drug Trafficking

The theoretical literature presents conflicting expectations about the effects of trade openness on the ability of states to interdict drug trafficking. One view expects that trade openness will undermine drug interdiction; a second argues the opposite; a third argues that trade openness does not necessarily affect drug interdiction. This article assesses empirically the effects of trade openness on drug interdiction for countries in the Americas using a pooled time-series cross-sectional statistical model. It finds that trade openness decreases the interdiction capabilities of states in drug-consuming countries while increasing those of states in drug-producing countries. Greater openness to trade does not have a consistently significant effect on the interdiction capabilities of states in drug transit countries.     

Continuity and Change before and after the Uprisings in Tunisia,Egypt and Morocco: Regime Reconfiguration and Policymaking in North Africa

While the scholarship on the Arab uprisings is increasingly complex and intellectually refined, this special issue considers an aspect that so far has failed to attract sustained scholarly attention, namely continuity and change. This introduction provides the framework underpinning the special issue as a whole and discusses all the articles composing it, while elaborating on the scientific contribution that the examination of continuity and change before and after the uprisings can make to our understanding of politics in the region.     

Women of Japan and Korea: Continuity and Change,by Joyce Gelb and Marian Lief Palley,eds.

Abstract

Japan and Korea as neighboring countries share some basic similarities in their cultural heritage. Their languages, which belong to the Altaic family, exhibit a striking resemblance in grammatical structure. Yet their writing systems, the kana syllabaries and the han'gul alphabets, are distinct. Both societies have been influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism, but the place of Buddhism in contemporary Japan and Korea is quite different, and the Confucian legacy is believed to be much stronger in Korea than in Japan. The traditional family systems of Japan and Korea were both patrilineally organized, but the details of the descent rules differ markedly. In short, Japan and Korea share the general traits of East Asian civilization, but diverge in the details of their cultural traditions.     

Change and Continuity after the Arab Uprising: The Consequences of State Formation in Arab North African States

This article provides a comparative macro-level overview of political development in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. It examines their evolution from the colonial period through several distinct phases, showing how differences in their origins were followed over time by a certain convergence towards a common post-populist form of authoritarianism, albeit still distinguished according to monarchic and republican legitimacy principles. On this basis, it assesses how past state formation trajectories made the republics more vulnerable to the Arab uprising but also what differences they make for the prospects of post-uprising democratisation. While in Morocco the monarch's legitimacy allows it to continue divide-and-rule politics, in Egypt the army's historic central role in politics has been restored, while in Tunisia the trade union movement has facilitated a greater democratic transition.     

Change and Continuity under an Eclectic Social Security Regime: The Case of Turkey

This article discusses how changes in the welfare regime are shaped by the inherited institutional setting as well as by politics with reference to the particular case of Turkey, where the former social security system combined Bismarckian conservatism with informality and clientelism. Both the reassertion of traditional forms of solidarity and the discovery of social rights as an aspect of equal citizenship figure in the currently emerging social solidarity models. The ability of political actors to defend these contesting models is likely to influence the ongoing transformation of the countryãs eclectic welfare regime.     

"九一一后的美国:变化与延续"研讨会综述

2007年10月20日至21日,由中国社科院美国研究所、北京外国语大学美国研究中心,以及美国中美教育基金会(USCET)联合举办的“九一一后的美国:变化与延续”国际研讨会在北京举行。来自中、美、英、德、澳大利亚、日本、新加坡、香港特别行政区等国家和地区的130多位中外专家学者参加了本次会议。美国中美教育基金会主席张之香大使、美国驻华使馆公使丹尼尔.皮克塔先生、美国驻华使馆公使衔文化参赞元敦奎先生及曾任中国驻印度等国大使的周刚先生也与会。与会者从政治、经济、外交和社会文化视角对九一一之后的美国进行探讨,议题涉及美国外交…