The state after modernism

In his book Democratic Governance Mark Bevir has highlighted a number of key issues facing those of us who want to understand the state and its role in governing. Not only has the role of the state changed significantly in the last 30 years but those changes need to be understood in terms of the implications for the nature of the state’s interaction with society and the ways in which the state exercises power within a democratic context. Perhaps what Bevir highlights most is how the conceptions of the state amongst elites is being challenged by changes in the form of government but more importantly by changes in the nature of knowledge and how citizens understand their relationship to the state. Whilst Mark Bevir is right to acknowledge the role and influence of ideas, he has a tendency to overemphasize their impact and as a consequence pays insufficient attention to the role that institutions and structures more generally play in mediating the way in which beliefs and ideas affect outcomes. This simplification leads to an overestimation of the degree of change that has occurred in Britain in particular and in states in general.     

The Role of Foreign Direct Investment and State Capture in Shaping Innovation Outcome in Russia

This article explores the linkage between foreign direct investment, grand corruption (that is, state capture) and innovation in Russia's regions in between 1997 and 2010. The results indicate that during the period under investigation both foreign direct investment and state capture were the significant determinants of innovation outcome. What is also interesting is that a positive impact of state capture on innovation through foreign firms, and a negative impact—through exporting—was observed.     

Japan and The East China Sea Dispute

This article offers a closer examination of the way in which the 2010 crisis emerged between Japan and China. The debate that it sponsored within Japan suggests that a crisis management initiative between Beijing and Tokyo rather than an overall reconciliation agenda may be what is now needed. The author contents that greater predictability and transparency in these maritime interactions will go a long way to developing confidence in what has to date been a very uneasy and publicly sensitive aspect of the bilateral relationship.     

Institutional sustainability as learning

How organisations and associations can work together over time to develop new norms and practices which enhance the sustainability of development initiatives is an on-going problem. This article looks at how processes of negotiating shared agendas over the meanings of sustainability, exploring assumptions behind proposed actions, establishing means of accountability, and setting up mechanisms for investigating cause and effect in the processes and outcomes of development programmes can be a source of action-learning. It is argued that such processes of action-learning can help lead to institutional sustainability.     

Rethinking dependency and development between international and indigenous non-governmental organisations

This article presents a case study detailing how the Netherlands-based international NGO Terre Des Hommes (TDH) works with and impacts the indigenous Tanzanian NGO Umoja wa Maendeleo ya Bukwaya (UMABU) and the Bukwaya region that UMABU serves. The article illustrates how indigenous agency and autonomy are actualised within relationships where indigenous over-reliance and dependency are connected to Western aid organisations. The paper proposes that dependent relationships between Southern and Northern NGO partners can be negotiated by indigenous leaders in order to disseminate resources for development in indigenous communities to a greater extent than previously imagined by Western donor agencies.     

Do Drone Strikes Degrade Al Qaeda? Evidence From Propaganda Output

The United States has used unmanned, aerial vehicles—drones—to launch attacks on militants associated with Al Qaeda and other violent groups based in Pakistan. The goal is to degrade the target's capacity to undertake political and violent action. We assess the effectiveness of drone strikes in achieving this goal, measuring degradation as the capacity of Al Qaeda to generate and disseminate propaganda. Propaganda is a key output of many terrorist organizations and a long-standing priority for Al Qaeda. Unlike other potential measures of terrorist group activity and capacity, propaganda output can be observed and measured. If drone strikes have degraded Al Qaeda, their occurrence should be correlated with a reduction in the organization's propaganda output. The analysis presented here finds little evidence that this is the case. Drone strikes have not impaired Al Qaeda's ability to generate propaganda.