Exporting ‘active citizenship’: foreign support for citizenship education in the Arab world

What explains the rise in support for active citizenship programs in the Arab region? How has active citizenship been envisioned and taught with support by foreign states? How do participants understand the usefulness and impact of such programs? In this paper, we examine the contexts in which citizenship programs that embody the political aspirations of foreign states, are implemented. Embedded in local political realities, participants in these programs routinely question the ef?cacy and applicability of training modules focused on active citizenship and civic engagement. We argue that the proliferation of active citizenship programs for civil society organizations in practice serves to both bolster state legitimacy and discourage community leaders and activists from expressing political dissent. By submerging con?icting values, practices, and perspectives while encouraging civic participation based on conformity rather than dissent, active citizenship programs risk fostering a depoliticized civil society that is detached from the local political context.     

中美关系、中日关系以及东北亚国际关系

从2007年起,随着中国经济的成长,中美日三国已成为世界上最大的三个经济体。这三国的综合国力均在世界前列,在东北亚更具显著优势。全球化时代,中美日三国在本地区凝聚着更多利益交汇,同时,中美关系、中日关系仍然存在诸多问题。本文研究东北亚地区的国际关系,核心是抓住中美日三个主要行为体,并以东北亚存在的两大冷战遗迹为线索,通过分析朝鲜半岛与中国台湾两对分裂与统一的矛盾,构建中美关系和中日关系在矛盾形成和演化中的作用,从而增进三国间战略互信与东北亚地区的和平共荣。     

Manage Adeptly Common Interests between China and America

Over the past 30 years, China-U.S. relations have overcame lots of obstacles and moved forward. One fundamental reason is that there exist broad common interests between the two countries. The national interests are both subjective and objective in nature. It is up to policy-makers to make objective judgment and identification. The 30 years＇ Sino-American relations have been the history in which the two countries have been constantly reaffirming their common interests. When both countries decided that bilateral relations were in conformity with their respective interests, the relationship would improve and move forward.     

Collective Blindness： A Reflection on Predictions by Chinese Academics about the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

During the early part of the 21 st century,Chinese academic circles made judgments and forecasts about U.S.war aims in Afghanistan and the Middle East,the possible process of the wars,and outcomes of postwar reconstruction.After the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan on October 7,2001,and its military invasion of Iraq on March 20,2003,these big events were analyzed in the context of the international politics of the time.Since these two conflicts are coming to a conclusion,at least in their direct military scope,it is time to look back upon the forecasting framework to see whether alterations and improvements can be made.On December 18,2011,all American combat troops pulled out of Iraq,and the end is in sight for U.S.withdrawal from Afghanistan—either in December 2014,or thereafter.     

China and Its Neighbors March Onwards Interdependent

DURING the year 2012,China and its neighboring countries entered a somewhat complicated diplomatic environment.Despite challenges,the situation as a whole remained stable.The center of gravity in world economy having shifted from West to East,there are now unprecedented opportunities for Asian countries to rise.     

Finding Wisdom in the ite House

THE president of the United States might be one of the most familiar strangers to the Chinese people. One may be not clear about his full name, but one should be aware of the issues that concern him the most, and of his latest achievements.     

China＇s Strategic Choices

A number of significant events in 2008-2009, such as the Russia-Georgia conflict, the Beijing Olympics, the global financial crisis, the continuing threat of international terrorism and the worldwide spread of the HIN1 virus, may herald the close of the post-Cold War era. A new epoch is dawning, characterized by the collective rise of emerging powers and by increased global cooperation in response to the common concerns of the planet. America, Europe, Japan, Russia, India, Australia and other world powers are contemplating new strategic options to meet these changing circumstances. As a major driving force behind this phenomenon, China faces pressures for self-change and global change at the same time. It is obviously a task more formidable than that confronting the rest of the world. It requires China to redefine its role in the new era and make its strategic choices more rational and multi-directional in nature.     

An assessment of Bayesian and multinomial logistic regression classification systems to analyse admixed individuals

Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) has been applied to the prediction of hair and eye colour. Here we apply it to the prediction of biogeographical ancestry (BGA) in a test set of 1092 admixed and non-admixed genotypes from the 1000 Genomes Project using a training set of 571 non-admixed genotypes from the HGDP CEPH cell line panel. Predicted BGAs are consistent with those of Structure, a naïve Bayesian classifier.