Understanding China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’: beyond ‘grand strategy’ to a state transformation analysis

Abstract

China’s massive ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) – designed to build infrastructure and coordinate policymaking across Eurasia and eastern Africa – is widely seen as a clearly-defined, top-down ‘grand strategy’, reflecting Beijing’s growing ambition to reshape, or even dominate, regional and international order. This article argues that this view is mistaken. Foregrounding transformations in the Chinese party-state that shape China’s foreign policy-making, it shows that, rather than being a coherent, geopolitically-driven grand strategy, BRI is an extremely loose, indeterminate scheme, driven primarily by competing domestic interests, particularly state capitalist interests, whose struggle for power and resources are already shaping BRI’s design and implementation. This will generate outcomes that often diverge from top leaders’ intentions and may even undermine key foreign policy goals.     

Going once, going twice, sold! The committee assignment process as an all-pay auction

I analyze the committee assignment process as an all-pay auction and derive equilibrium lobbying strategies of legislators competing for vacant seats on a committee. The model illustrates the relationship between sincere and revealed preferences, which earlier formal models of committee assignment do not explicitly consider. Incorporating seniority, party loyalty, effort constraints, or committee transfers can discourage those who highly value the assignment from competitively lobbying for the seat. I also offer an alternative interpretation of the model’s parameters to consider the pure partisan assignment model, where efforts are contributions to the party’s collective good.     

Social welfare needs of residents in polluted areas: A case of Dioxin pollution in southern Taiwan

This article defines the social welfare needs of residents living in a severely polluted community by examining a set of communities around the An‐shun plant in southern Taiwan that were polluted by dioxin. The study examines the inhabitants' economic status, the communities' manpower utilization, and the prevention of social contingencies and the provision of aftercare. A survey conducted between March–April 2008 revealed the need to reduce poverty in these highly polluted communities, to identify and maximize each community's human resources, to address illness, aging, pollution, and lack of professional skills, and to better inform residents about pollution so that they can understand how to protect themselves. The article concludes with suggested programs to meet the social welfare needs of residents in a highly polluted community. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultural Policy in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

The purpose of this paper is to introduce North Korean culture as well as its foundation, North Korean cultural policy. The paper consists of three broad sections. First, I explore the unique qualities and changes of North Korean cultural policy. Next, I look into what North Korea considers to be culture and how it is portrayed. Finally, I will analyze the similarities and differences between North and South Korean cultural policy, and the possibility of their convergence.     

Caregiver Stress and Elder Abuse among Korean Family Caregivers of Older Adults with Disabilities

This study aims to identify risk factors and mediating factors of elder abuse among older adults with disabilities being cared for by their family caregivers. The data were based on a sample of 1,000 primary family caregivers from the Comprehensive Study for the Elderly Welfare Policy in Seoul (2003). Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify significant indicators for the degree of elder abuse, such as cognitive impairment, functional ability (ADL), caregiving involvement, economic strain, caregiver burden, and social support for the degree of elder abuse. In the full model, ADLs, cognitive problems, economic strain, caregiver burden, informal social support, and formal social support were significantly associated with elder abuse. The findings suggest that psychosocial support services and programs for family caregivers are needed to prevent and reduce the prevalence of elder abuse in South Korea. The research data were drawn with permission from the Seoul Development Institute and this project was funded by the Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor’s Office, Welfare & Women’s Bureau.