Contesting the Monopoly of Interpretation: The Uneasy Relationship between Ulama and Sunni Parties in Yemen

Most studies on Sunni Islamism either neglect ulama or portray them as basically diverging from the Islamist movement. Unlike their Islamist counterparts who are contenders for political power in incumbent regimes, the ulama are depicted as loyal quietists. As such, this article problematizes this dichotomy. As is shown by the case of Yemen, the ulama form an integral part of the Islamist Islah party, yet since the position of ulama within the party is crucially dependent on their monopoly over interpretation, and as the lay Muslim Brothers have increasingly digressed from the rulings of the ulama, they have sought alliances with their peers outside the party and attempted to undermine the politics of the Brotherhood by means of ulama associations and founding Salafi parties. By focusing on these developments, the article proposes an alternative reading to the allegedly contradictory politics of Islah which might be valid to other Islamist parties too.     

Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico

This article asks whether democratization, under certain historical conditions, may relate to the deteriorating rule of law. Focusing on Mexico City, where police corruption is significant, this study argues that the institutionalized legacies of police power inherited from Mexico's one-party system have severely constrained its newly democratic state's efforts to reform the police. Mexico's democratic transition has created an environment of partisan competition that, combined with decentralization of the state and fragmentation of its coercive and administrative apparatus, exacerbates intrastate and bureaucratic conflicts. These factors prevent the government from reforming the police sufficiently to guarantee public security and earn citizen trust, even as the same factors reduce capacity, legitimacy, and citizen confidence in both the police and the democratically elected state. This article suggests that when democracy serves to undermine rather than strengthen the rule of law, more democracy can actually diminish democracy and its quality.     

Police Drones and the Air: Towards a Volumetric Geopolitics of Security

The paper explores the aerial dimension of policing and surveillance. It does so by drawing upon select results from a large‐scale survey conducted in 2017 among professional (public and private) drone users in Switzerland. Focusing in particular on the police, the paper shows that the technology not only generates novel ways of looking down from above, but also of looking up from below, thus instilling a kind of air‐mindedness among the police. In making the airspace explicit as an object, and stake of imaginaries, concerns and practices, drones mediate novel ways of relating to the air, understanding it, approaching it and acting in relation to it.     

Political Clientelism in Mexico: Bridging the Gap Between Citizens and the State

This article explores practices of political clientelism in a native village in Mexico City during recent elections (2006, 2012), aiming to create more conceptual clarity and to demonstrate the usefulness of ethnographic approaches. Seen from the clients' and the brokers' perspective, political clientelism and vote buying are two different practices, carried out in different ways, with different degrees of legitimacy. The problem‐solving network studied here bridges the gap between the citizen and the state, while the political operators hope to be rewarded with public employment. In this case, one candidate‐patron changed parties a few months before the 2012 elections, and the electoral statistics provide indications of the numerical effectiveness of his clientelist network. Multiparty competition, instead of undermining clientelist practices, appears to “democratize” them.     

The Relationship Between Revenue and Expenditure in the ASEAN Countries

The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between revenue and expenditure in the ASEAN countries. Using annual data for the period between 1980 and 2012 in ten member states, a long-run relationship between government expenditure and revenue emerges, both in ASEAN-6 and ASEAN-10 countries. Granger causality analysis shows mixed results, even though for five ASEAN countries the predominance of “tax-and-spend” hypothesis exists, given that government revenue drives the expenditure. Moreover, mixture models seem to produce homogeneous groups, considering the socio-economic structure, welfare state, and historical aspects. Finally, convergence measures show interesting results, confirming the sample’s heterogeneity.     

华侨华人与中国的关系:侨批业之视角

随着"侨批档案"成功入选2013年6月的《世界记忆名录》,越来越多的人了解和认识到侨批(银信)的特殊价值及其作为人类文化遗产的世界意义,侨批这一世界文献遗产的抢救、保护与研究也得到了积极的推动。但是,曾经承担着侨批的收揽、中转、派送以及汇兑、解付之职责,兼具国际金融和国际邮政两大功能的侨批业、水客业,却并未受到更多的关注,特别是其在新中国成立后的发展轨迹以及作用和影响,更是鲜见学术探讨与总结。随着侨批局(或银信机构)遗址的不断荒芜破败或被征用开发,它们正在迅速而彻底地淡出历史的记忆。今年是中国邮政开办120周年,本文拟从中国转型、构建为近现代化国家以及融入"世界体系"进程的视角,考察和揭示侨批业、水客业在中国近现代     

Organised Crime Governance in Times of Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on Gangs and Drug Cartels in Colombia and Mexico

The COVID-19 crisis provides a window of opportunity for organised crime organisations in Colombia and Mexico to exert social control in local communities through actions of solidarity and care rather than traditional violent coercion. This new dynamic is increasing the legitimacy, power and social capital of gangs and drug cartels, helping them to co-opt civil society and the state to support their criminal operations. The pandemic also shows how poverty and inequality remain fundamental in shaping the building of the nation-state in both countries, where criminals act as a de facto state even without the virus and, in many areas, effectively replace the state. The coronavirus is making visible the ways in which organised crime groups cultivate civil society's support in delivering the provision of governance, order and public health in a time of lockdown and quarantine, making local ‘narco-gang’ governance profitable economically and politically.     

Governing the Safety and Security of the Malacca Strait: The Nippon Foundation between States and Industry

ABSTRACT

Despite long-standing sovereignty sensitivities, the Malacca and Singapore Straits have been the site of co-operative governance and regime building. Of note is the 2007 Co-operative Mechanism of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, characterised as a milestone achievement in regional co-operation towards improved safety and security in the Straits. Yet, well before the Co-operative Mechanism were also earlier instances of co-operation dating to the 1970s – specifically between the Straits’ littoral states under a tripartite framework and Japanese actors through the Malacca Strait Council. In addition to providing a template for the Co-operative Mechanism, these arrangements offer alternative models of governance and regime building that challenge conventional characterisations of “regional governance” – what it looks like, as well as its driving actors. This article considers the significance of these early efforts, with attention to the ways that the region’s developmental context bears on the actors, structures and processes of governance in Southeast Asia. Not only does this historical process of co-operation give expression to alternative governing arrangements composed of mixed actors and obligations, but an unconventional governance agent – the Nippon Foundation – has played an especially defining role in bringing actors to the table and substantiating the co-operative process.     

白俄罗斯旅游业发展现状与中白旅游合作前景

在当今世界经济中,旅游业是发展最快、对全球国内生产总值贡献较大的产业之一,已成为世界经济增长的重要动力。而旅游合作正在成为国家间双边及地区多边合作的重要方向。在最新的《2030年前白俄罗斯可持续社会经济发展战略》中,旅游业已被白俄罗斯确定作为国家经济发展的主要动力之一。尽管在基础设施、发展资金等方面还存在诸多困难,在国民经济贡献度、市场受欢迎程度、服务形式与水平等方面还存在诸多不足,但是其在资源、相关基础设施建设、政策支持等方面已具备较好的基础,发展前景广阔。中白旅游合作,在资源、政策、市场等方面已经具备了较好的合作条件。通过实施第三方市场联合开发、区域旅游集群建设、消费支付手段便利化以及创新产品宣传手段等措施,未来中白旅游合作有潜力成为继中白工业园之后中白间务实合作的又一亮点,进而成为“一带一路”合作框架下的新典范。     

试论谷崎润一郎作品与《源氏物语》间的关联

三次将《源氏物语》译成现代日本语,使得谷崎润。一郎和这部旷世巨作之间形成了一种不可分割的关系。谷崎润一郎的作品不仅在内容和情节上和《源氏物语》有一定的相似性,内含的二大主题——恋母情结和女性崇拜均来源于此。     

马科斯政府时期美国政府与菲律宾基督教组织关系探讨

马科斯政府时期,由于菲律宾基督教教会活跃的“入世”表现,加之马科斯政权实施军管法引起人权状况恶化,以及政府对基督教人员、财产等权益的侵犯,菲律宾政府与基督教组织的关系经历了从合作到对抗的变化。这一时期,美国政府对待菲律宾基督教组织的态度也发生了变化:从忽视到逐步重视,从观望到接触、援助、施加影响,而菲律宾基督教组织也希望借助美国政府向马科斯政府施压,推动结束军管并恢复正常的政治局面。美国政府力促菲律宾基督教组织恪守“政教分离”和“非暴力手段”的原则,关注并默许基督教组织与反对派势力合作,最终菲律宾在1986年通过“人民力量革命”实现了政权和平过渡。     

Police Reform and the Peace Process in Guatemala: the Fifth Promotion of the National Civilian Police

After 36 years of mostly authoritarian rule and often bitter civil conflict in Guatemala, the December 1996 Peace Accords prepared the ground for a new phase of reconstruction, democratisation and social and institutional reform. Prior to the Peace Accords, policing in Guatemala had been often violent, repressive and subordinated to the counterinsurgency logic of the military. Security sector reform intentions included the abolition of existing police forces and the creation of a new National Civil Police (PNC). The PNC was meant to give substance to a new way of policing in tune with the building of democratic governance and effective law enforcement. This paper examines the general background of the reforms, discusses the limitations of the results so far, and takes a particular and critical look at one of the key components of the police reform: the recruitment and training of PNC aspirants, using the case of the 1999 Fifth Promotion that entered the Academy of the PNC.