Extra-judicial targeted killing

This paper asks fundamental questions about the legality of remote killings by drones outside combat zones. Despite the difficulty of obtaining accurate statistics from the Obama Administration, it argues that clear legal standards are being avoided and dangerous precedents are being established, including vaguely-defined licences to kill. It also criticises the US Administration's position justifying the use of such force, as identified by Harold Koh, the Legal Adviser to the State Department. The fundamental legal question of whether IHRL should apply is discussed.     

Transnational Networking on the Far Right: The Case of Britain and Germany

This article examines an aspect of transnational activity that is often neglected, namely the transnational activism of the far right. It uses a case study of the British National Party (BNP) and the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD – German National Democratic Party) in order to explore how its leaders and activists share ideas and information, policy and praxis, and how this is employed in the development of a strategic ‘master frame’ that they believe will allow them to overcome the limits of purely national activity in a globalised world. It explores the evolution of the links between the two parties, their nature and indeed the limits of such transnational activism upon national ‘frames’ in order to present a historical overview of the diffusion of ideology and strategy within the contemporary European far right.     

Regional arrangements for providing liquidity in a financial crisis: developments in East Asia

Abstract

During the last decade three books have had a disproportionate impact on China Studies because of their controversial interpretations: Jenner's The Tyranny of History, which predicts the disintegration of the Chinese state; Menzies' 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which describes how Chinese sailors circumnavigated the globe well before any Europeans; and Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's biography Mao: The Unknown Story. All are revisionist histories that amongst other (usually controversial) conclusions suggest there has been a conspiracy to keep the information they convey hidden. Considering their arguments and the manner of their enquiry and expression is interesting in more general ways about the construction of narrative and the nature of conspiracy, as well as about the lessons for academic research.     

Correspondence

This article surveys the problems facing the existence of intellectuals in the twenty-first century by reflecting on the historical and conceptual conditions that have enabled them to flourish in the past but less so in recent times. The first part considers several strands of contemporary philosophical and social thought that, despite their progressive veneer, have served to undermine the legitimacy of the intellectual's role. This delegitimation is largely traceable to a scepticism about the existence of ideas that are simultaneously normative and manipulable. The second part deals with the rise of anti-intellectualism in philosophy and psychology in the twentieth century, focusing especially on the debates surrounding ‘psychologism’. The third part examines what remains the most attractive expression of anti-intellectualism, namely, invisible-hand thinking and its late nineteenth-century transformation through the influence of statistics, evolution and epidemiology. In the conclusion, the main strands of the argument are drawn together in a sketch of an overall account of the rise and fall of the intellectual in the modern era. Finally, I provide one strategy for stemming the current tide of anti-intellectualism by reinterpreting the currently popular concept of ‘heuristics’.     

An inquiry into quasi‐credit contracts: The role of reciprocal credit and interlinked deals in small‐scale fishing communities

The use of currency depreciation as a means of strengthening the balance of payments has long been a contentious issue amongst developing countries, especially in their negotiations with the IMF. This article reviews the various ways in which depreciation might exert its impact. A study of the empirical evidence suggests that it may be both an effective and cost effective instrument in many developing countries, even though exceptions do exist. Compared with alternative balance of payments policies, use of the exchange rate emerges as possessing many advantages. It is concluded that greater emphasis should be placed on the exchange rate in the context of IMF programmes than has perhaps been the case in recent years.     

Integration or separation? Nationality groups in the US and the Republican Party's ethnic politics, 1960s–1980s

Using examples of American Latvians, Estonians and Ukrainians in the states of Minnesota, New Jersey and New York this article explores the ambiguous nature of integration of nationalities groups inside the Republican Party during the 1960s–1980s. Based on the analysis of available archival information, it is shown that the Republican Party intentionally brought in the ethnics during the discussed period and created the Nationalities Sections within specific electoral campaigns, Nationalities Divisions inside the state party organizations and the National Republican Heritage Groups (Nationalities) Council within the Republican National Committee in order to recruit the ethnics and engage in the partisan struggle with the Democrats. Consequently, the nationalities were given a sense of importance, but little real power to actually influence the internal processes inside the party. At the same time, the nationalities eagerly responded to the invitation to join the Republican national and state-level organizations specifically designed for the ethnics. Yet in doing this they perceived themselves primarily as ethnics with a distinct, mainly anti-communist, agenda and only secondarily thought of themselves as Americans dedicated to Republican politics. Consequently, the Republican political strategy of creating Nationalities Sections and Divisions seemed to integrate the ethnics on the surface, while in reality intensifying political separation and even ghettoization of the ethnics in American politics. This research initiates a larger project, which will compare the Republican and Democratic strategies of directly involving ethnic groups and minorities inside the party organizations in the second part of the twentieth century.     

The IMF and the mobilisation of foreign aid

Particularly in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, there has been much discussion of the association between the International Monetary Fund and bilateral aid flows. What role should the Fund be playing in helping to achieve the MDGs? Some observers have suggested that the Fund should seek to reduce its role in poor countries and should be minimising its own lending. They see aid donors taking on a larger role and present the IMF and aid donors as substitutes. Others envisage a much bigger lending role for the Fund. This may hint at complementarities. Although this discussion raises important policy issues there are very few studies that examine the relationship empirically. This paper attempts to help fill this gap. It explores the extent to which the IMF has had a catalytic effect on Official Development Assistance and the potential channels through which catalysis might work. It finds strong evidence of a positive association and suggests that this may have more to do with conditionality than with the provision of IMF resources. But it may not represent catalysis in the conventional sense. There is a synergy between the IMF and bilateral aid that may yet be more fully developed and exploited.