China and the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure: An Organizational Analysis

China is a member of the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure (RCTS), the security organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Given China’s issues with Uighur separatists, close relationship with other SCO members such as Russia, and bankrolling of expanded SCO projects in other areas, one might expect RCTS to be a hub of Chinese-backed security cooperation. Yet it is not so. RCTS has a tiny staff and budget, and lacks the bureaucratic muscle to actually implement most of its broad security mandate. The author argues that this is a consequence of China’s reticence and/or inability to contribute to international security at a level commensurate with its ballooning capabilities.     

What Makes Diets Political? Moral Foundations and the Left-Wing-Vegan Connection

Social Justice Research - Though meat-consumption is known to be a key factor in environmental damage, veganism and vegetarianism are still perceived to be left-wing-phenomena, ironically not...     

„Die Macht des Heiligen“ als eine Alternative zur Entzauberung? Zu Hans Joas’ Religionstheorie

Berliner Journal für Soziologie - Um die Säkularisierungsthese hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten eine hitzige und kontroverse Debatte entwickelt. Anschließend daran hat Hans Joas...     

Do Candidates Seek Personal Votes on the Internet? Constituency Candidates in the 2009 German Federal Elections

The Internet provides new opportunities for political communication. How strategic are constituency candidates in exploiting these new opportunities and what are the contexts driving their choices? This paper envisions the Internet as a means for personal vote-seeking on the campaign trail adopted by those candidates electorally motivated in this regard. It aims to explore this argument in theoretical and empirical ways and in light of survey data resulting from the 2009 German Candidate Study (GCS 2009). These data cover 38 per cent (N = 790) of all constituency candidates running in the 2009 campaign and enclose numerous questions on their campaign activities online.