To Build A “Harmonious World”: China’s Soft Power Wielding in the Global South

This study attempts to answer a new but important question in China’s foreign policy— how Beijing has wielded its soft power to construct its ideal of international order in the age of China’s rise. Before empirical analyses, this study tries to set up a conceptual framework on the relations between the idea of “harmonious world” and China’s soft power wielding in its rising process. Within this framework, this study examines a rising China’s foreign policies towards three targeted regions in the global south—Africa, East Asia, and Latin America. On the one hand, due to Beijing’s carefully-designed and soft power-based foreign policies, the global south has become an increasingly harmonious environment for Beijing to cultivate a favorable national image, exert its political influence on regional affairs, benefit its own domestic economic developments, etc. On the other hand, some problems such as the so-called “China’s New Colonialism” and the increased vigilance from the other powers have already began to challenge Beijing’s harmony in those regions. Sheng Ding is assistant professor of political science at Bloomsburg University. He received both his masters and doctoral degrees from Rutgers. His research interests include soft power in international relations; transnational identity in globalization; information technology and world politics; politics in Pacific Asia; Chinese politics and foreign policy; U.S.-China relations, etc. His research articles have been published by Pacific Affairs, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and East Asia: An International Quarterly. The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on the draft of the paper.     

Legitimacy and the Rise of NGOs: the Global and Local in South Asia

We extend sociological institutionalist theory and draw on evidence from South Asia to develop a research agenda for studying how nongovernmental organization (NGO) legitimacy plays out in national and local arenas. After first presenting a sociological institutionalist approach to nongovernmental organizing, we extend it into three areas: national laws governing international and domestic NGOs, growth in domestic NGOs, and the situated interactions among international organizations, nation-states, local organizations, and other actors. (1) International and domestic NGOs are governed by national laws, and we sketch the history of such laws in South Asia to hypothesize a pattern of legal change leading to the present social concern about accountability. (2) Sociological institutionalism suggests that domestic NGO growth is related to the presence of international NGOs and can be interpreted as the diffusion of formal organization. (3) We conceptualize the situated interactions of the plethora of actors as a meso realm at the interface of the global and local. The interrelations of these actors are marked by tensions and conflict. There are many permutations of how they coalesce, not always along a global—local cleavage, and there is a need to examine the full range of interactions. We explore some of these and it seems that actors use accountability strategically in their conflicts with others. The ‘uses of accountability’ in contesting legitimacy within such situations is proposed as a fruitful research direction.     

虚拟世界中的公平演练——以《魔兽世界》为例探讨虚拟世界团队的合作机制

本文以目前风靡全球的网络游戏《魔兽世界》为例,探讨虚拟世界中的团队合作机制。发现:(1)虚拟世界中,玩家并非被动地接受游戏规则,而是与外部游戏设定之间形成了积极互动,从而创造玩家自己的共识契约,体现出极强的主体性;(2)虚拟世界中团队合作真实而复杂,其背后共通的公平理念,是一种理想化的按劳分配的模式,认为每个玩家在电脑前付出的时间都应该得到平等的尊重和回报。这恰是虚拟世界带来的最有意义的经验与启示,充分展现了玩家的智慧及公民意识的养成。     

From Pax Americana to Pax Mosaica? Bargaining over a New Economic Order

While the economic rise of new powers, frequently identified as the ‘BRICs’ (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), has been dramatic, the implications of this emerging multipolarity for global economic governance are not clear. In this paper, we address the question: can the diffusion of power among a greater diversity of countries result in the creation of a new global economic order—a Pax Mosaica—to succeed the Pax Americana of the previous century? Our argument proceeds in four steps. First, we provide a brief overview of the achievements and limitations of the system that was established at the end of World War II, and lasted for over half a century in the form of Pax Americana. In the second section, we investigate the emergence of multipolarity, and highlight the opportunities and costs that this generates. In the third section, we explore the routes whereby the changing balance of power might be harnessed towards the creation of a Pax Mosaica. We do so by posing four sets of questions, which must be answered if the mosaic distribution of power is to lead to greater economic stability, growth, and peace. The fourth section concludes the paper with ideas for reform with reference to the World Trade Organization, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the G20.     

Punishing German Soldiers during the Cold War: The Case of Erich von Manstein

Bloxham examines the events and rhetoric surrounding the trial and premature release from custody of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. Von Manstein was convicted of involvement in atrocities on the Eastern Front, yet his story aroused the sympathy of many in Britain, including influential politicians, who believed the Wehrmacht to be innocent of the crimes of Nazism. His trial also fell squarely into a period, the onset of the Cold War, when Britain was attempting to restore relations with West Germany. Pressure both from the nascent West German elite and from within the Conservative government (re-elected in 1951) and its foreign diplomatic corps ensured that a series of dubious legal devices would be used to accelerate the liberation of von Manstein at a time of negotiations about a German contribution to a Western European army. Similar contrivances abetted the early release of another field marshal, Kesselring, and a senior general, Falkenhorst. The releases, and the obfuscations of the soldiers' war-time records that were an essential part of justifying the releases, constitute a substantial British contribution both to the undermining of the process of war crimes trials and to the rewriting of the Second World War.     

解放战争后期毛泽东工作队的经验及其启示

解放战争后期,尤其是辽沈、淮海、平津三大战役胜利结束以后,毛泽东审时度势,及时地提出了军队不仅是战斗队而且是工作队,要求军队干部应当学会接收、管理城市和新区工作,对促进当时新解放区干部问题的解决和革命事业的顺利发展起到了巨大的促进作用。在新世纪新阶段,我军要借鉴毛泽东的工作队经验。努力做到突出核心军事能力建设,注重非战争军事行动能力建设,注重培养“学习型”高素质复合型军事人才,为维护国家安全、社会稳定和经济发展作贡献。     

红色文化视域下加强党员理想信念的研究——以桂林为例

党员干部的共产主义理想和中国特色社会主义信念是否坚定,对中国特色社会主义事业的兴衰成败有极大的影响。桂林红色文化是构筑桂林精神家园的重要载体,是引导党员坚定理想信念的宝贵资源。挖掘桂林独特的红色文化资源对加强党员干部的理想信念教育、引导党员牢固树立正确的理想信念有重要意义。     

文明多样性与“和谐世界”

文明是一个与野蛮、愚昧和无知相对应的概念,标志着人类社会进步的程度和开化的状态.文明的多样性是指各地区、各民族和各国社会进步所达到的程度和水平,体现了各地区、各民族和各国社会进步的特点和方式,也反映了人类社会生活的丰富性和多样性,这是一种客观现实.正是基于对这一事实的认识和尊重,中央提出了"和谐世界"这一具有全球视野的新理念.文明多样性是构建"和谐世界"的基石,"和谐世界"也是对多样性文明的内在诉求和应然结果,在本质上,二者是一致的.     

经济全球化对全球文化的影响--兼论中国文化发展战略

构成文化核心的深层结构的价值观念与取向、思维与行为模式、宗教信仰、审美情趣等 ,具有很强的稳定性 ,有一种独立发展的内在惯性与规律 ,不会轻而易举地被同化 ;而以消费为中心的文化的浅层结构则容易被“全球化”。研究者不同的视角也会影响到对经济全球化背景下全球文化的走向的判断。全球文化将在冲突与融合的交互中走向与经济全球化相适应的新阶段     

大冈升平的东南亚叙事与战争认知——文学文本的政治指涉阐析

日本战后派作家大冈升平及其创作深受中日文坛关注.一种通行的观点是:他深刻揭露和批判了日本法西斯军国主义发动的那场侵略战争,表现出鲜明的反对法西斯侵略战争的思想倾向.笔者结合社会政治语境,对其作品做了深入的文本分析,意图通过对个案的考察,揭示出日本社会一般的错误战争认知理念所赖以产生的深层社会历史原因,批驳那种视大冈为反战作家的一厢情愿的、误导性的解读,消除由此造成的遮蔽,还原真相.