浅析奥巴马政府的对朝政策

在应对处理朝鲜半岛危机中,美国一直扮演着一个关键的角色。奥巴马上台后,朝鲜半岛危机出现了急剧的变化,这也让人们对奥巴马政府的对朝政策更加关注。实际上,在2009年春美国国务卿希拉里访问亚洲后,奥巴马政府的对朝政策就产生了很大的变化。朝鲜半岛不断升级的紧张局势,使得美国有机会重振其世界领袖的雄风,重新确立美日韩在东亚的铁三角同盟关系,并通过不断的联合军事演习对朝鲜施加了除军事动武以外的巨大压力,同时也侧面敲击和缓解了中国力量在亚太地区伸展的势头。奥巴马的外交理念是做一个实际的理想主义者和一个有理想的现实主义者,其对朝政策的核心策略就是软的更软,硬的更硬,以硬逼软。     

Ideological cohesion between congress and the president: Does the road to the white house matter?

This study examines the impact of US presidential nomination politics on congressional‐executive relations. In particular, we pose the critical question of whether nomination reforms have had any systematic effect on the inter‐branch ideological gap. Using an indicator of liberal voting in Congress and a derived liberalism score for presidents, we analyse the ideological disparity between the branches over a 40‐year period from 1949 to 1993. Results do not support the view offered by Polsby and others that a shift toward more open and participatory decision making in the post‐reform nomination process has increased the probability that presidents will be ideologically distant from their fellow partisans in Congress. Indeed, the situation is quite the opposite, with post‐reform presidents being closer to the ideological centre of gravity of their parties in Congress than are presidents who reached the White House in the pre‐reform era.     

The Policy Dynamics of the Trans‐Alaska Pipeline System

Since 1977, oil produced in northern Alaska has posed a major environmental threat across large areas of Alaska while simultaneously playing a dominant role in the economy of Alaska. This enduring dilemma was created by the building of the Trans‐Alaska Pipeline System to transport oil produced on the North Slope of Alaska, a region containing the largest oil field ever developed in North America. The Trans‐Alaska Pipeline System transports oil through an 800‐mile pipeline and ocean‐going oil tankers. This complex technological system poses an enduring risk of environmentally damaging oil spills in Alaska. This study applies the punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change to examine the processes and enduring consequences of the national policy reforms that allowed the building of the Trans‐Alaska Pipeline System.     

Firm size,age and efficiency: Evidence from Kenyan manufacturing firms

Translog stochastic frontier production functions are estimated using an unbalanced panel of 235 Kenyan manufacturing firms in the food, wood, textile and metal sectors. The sectors are estimated individually in order to investigate whether technical efficiency is systematically related to the size and age of firms. The evidence suggests that firm size has a positive and significant effect in the wood and textile sectors. The age effect is less systematic, but is insignificant in all sectors, except textiles.