When Faith Moved Mountains

It is believed that Buddhism reached China through the Silk Road around the first century A.D., and subsequently, Buddhist arts and crafts arrived from countries like India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. An example would be the artworks found in grottoes built along the Silk Road in China. The Mogao Caves near the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province in northwest China, the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang in central China's Henan Province, and the Yungang Grottoes near Datong in Shanxi Province in north China are the three most important places in the country where Buddhist grottoes have been found.     

禁止核武器条约:接下来做什么？

核不扩散机制使得世界从1945年以后没有发生过核战争,而且帮助防止了核武器扩散至更多国家或流入恐怖组织手中。然而,当前围绕禁止核武器条约的态势,可能会分散国际社会对核不扩散机制的关注和努力,这是禁止核武器条约的反对者和怀疑者们所担心的。禁止核武器条约的讨论得到国际支持,主要是因为核武器国家未能在《不扩散核武器条约》框架下就核裁军显示出“诚意”。无核武器国家占据大多数,而其中的多数又不能接受核裁军没有进展的现状,也不愿意成为有核国家启动核战争决策的人质。此外,尽管促成禁核条约的种种关切合情合理,但令人担忧的是条约过于简单,从而缺少严格的核查以及强制遵约条款。因此,核武器国家可以单独或与其他核武器国家一道更加认真地履行核裁军义务,设计核裁军机制的范本需要解决禁核条约绕开的关键问题,并需要进行国际辩论,讨论何种条件下首先使用核武器是必要与正当的,才是消除禁核条约造成对立的出路所在。     

A Guide to Benchmarking COVID-19 Performance Data

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that policy makers, experts, and public managers need to be capable of interpreting comparative data on their government's performance in a meaningful way. Simultaneously, they are confronted with different data sources (and measurements) on COVID-19 without necessarily having the tools to assess these sources strategically. Because of the speed with which decisions are required and the different data sources, it can be challenging for any policy maker, expert, or public manager to make sense of how COVID-19 has an impact, especially from a comparative perspective. Starting from the question “How can we benchmark COVID-19 performance data across countries?,” this article presents important indicators, measurements, and their strengths and weaknesses, and concludes with practical recommendations. These include a focus on measurement equivalence, systems thinking, spatial and temporal thinking, multilevel governance, and multimethod designs.     

Can Charitable Donations Compensate for a Reduction in Government Funding? The Role of Information

Are private donors willing to replace cuts in government funding? The authors conducted a survey experiment (n = 2,458) to examine how information about government funding affected decisions to donate money to a large charitable organization in the Netherlands. Providing information about actual budget cuts increased the number of donors. Most new donors were recruited among respondents who had processed the information correctly, underlining the importance of effective communication. The magnitude of the information effect was stronger for citizens with lower levels of empathic concern, who are less likely to donate but can be converted into donors. The authors conclude that policy information shapes not only attitudes but also civic engagement outside the political sphere.