From Bandung to Brasilia: IBSA and the political lineage of South–South cooperation

This article aims to trace South–South cooperation political lineages connecting the Non-Aligned Movement and the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) Forum. In order to determine whether IBSA could be considered the ‘heir’ to Bandung's principles, we analyse the concepts of ‘Third World’ and ‘Global South’ as well as their current applicability, the interpretations provided by existing literature on the IBSA grouping, and its member countries' shared views on different issues of the international agenda. The article also considers the historical evolution of ‘Southern’ diplomatic thought and actions. IBSA's actions and history, as well as its members, are studied to grasp how they are related to the Third World movement in the Cold War.     

Modernist art in the service of Nazi culture: Baldur von Schirach and the Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich exhibition

ABSTRACT

Maertz's essay offers a history of a modernist art exhibition that opened in Vienna's Künstlerhaus under the patronage of Baldur von Schirach, the Führer's personal representative in that city, the second largest in Nazi Germany. The significance of the 1943 Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich (New Art in the German Reich) exhibition lies in its assertion of a modernist variant of ‘official’ National Socialist art that clashes with the orthodox aesthetic system typically associated with the Third Reich.     

Leader Incentives and Civil War Outcomes

This article examines the influence that rebel and state leaders have on civil war outcomes, arguing that incentives to avoid punishment influence their strategic decision making during war.  Leaders in civil war face punishment from two sources: internal audiences and opponents. I hypothesize that leaders who bear responsibility for involvement in the war have a higher expectation of punishment from both sources following unfavorable war performance, and thus, have incentives to continue the fight in the hope of turning the tide and avoiding the negative consequences of defeat. These incentives, in turn, make leaders who bear responsibility more likely to fight to an extreme outcome and less likely to make concessions to end the war.  These propositions are tested on an original data set identifying all rebel and state leaders in all civil conflict dyads ongoing between 1980 and 2011.  Results support the hypothesized relationships between leader responsibility and war outcomes.     

美国智库对华战略构想的新内涵——以《更长电报:走向新的美国对华战略》为例

拜登执政后美国对华战略如何调整备受瞩目,美国一些智库则积极"兜售"相关政策主张,其中大西洋理事会发布的《更长电报:走向新的美国对华战略》匿名报告受到广泛关注。该报告反映出美国智库对华战略构想中区别于传统冷战思维的新内涵,在战略认知上更新涉华判断,臆想当前中国战略"脆弱点",批判特朗普政府对华"政治惯性",主张从外部瓦解中国;在战略目标上力推拓展核心利益、重塑国际秩序,强调"共同威胁"以重振霸权体系,旨在护持冷战后美国霸权地位;在战略布局层面,提出振兴国家权势和加强对华威慑、明确与华竞争合作界限并煽动意识形态斗争,以全面遏制中国。该报告肆意抹黑中国,错误界定中国国家利益,对中国充满恶意偏见和误判,其战略布局根本无法撼动中国大战略根基。值得警惕的是,该报告的部分战略与政策构想在拜登政府近期政策实践中已有体现,暴露出美国政治精英与知识群体在涉华政策方面具有很大程度上的共同认知。在中美战略竞争常态化下,必须厘清两国关系的"常量"与"变量",做好应对各种风险和挑战的准备,尤其维护好国家意识形态安全。     

论信息化战争中的谋略心理战

中国古代谋略攻心思想一直倍受世界各国的高度重视。在信息化战争的背景下,谋略心理战作为"不战而屈人之兵"的上策,正吸引着越来越多关注的目光。信息化战争对于谋略心理战而言,有利亦有弊,但利大于弊。谋略心理战斗智、斗将、虚实结合的基本特点在信息化战争中开始向战略化、系统化、重点化、技术化、多维化、全程化的方向拓展。与此相适应,谋略心理战的传统认知需要在战略观、系统观和效益观三个层面加以深化,它应跃出单纯以军事一隅来谋划国家安全利益的局限,充分挖掘全社会的心理战资源,着眼系统效益的最优化,努力构建和谐高效的系统结构。直面信息化战争的浪潮,那里有谋略心理战发挥作用更为宽广的舞台。     

论党在抗日战争中的成长及其现实启示

中国共产党在抗日战争中经受住了种种严峻考验,壮大了自己的力量,并逐步走向成熟,为抗日战争的最终胜利发挥了中流砥柱的作用。认真总结党在抗日战争的艰难险境中的成长,我们可以得到如下启示：党要始终代表和维护好中国最广大人民群众的根本利益;党要始终把思想理论建设放在首位,不断推进马克思主义中国化时代化大众化;党要努力加强执政能力建设,不断增强应对复杂局势的能力;党要认真总结历史经验,始终坚持和大力弘扬自身的优良传统和作风。     

抗战时期中共中央南方局外事工作历史考察

抗战时期中共中央南方局根据国际和国内形势的变化,开展了一系列卓有成效的外事活动,富有艺术性地运用了党的统战策略,巩固和拓展了抗日民族统一战线,争取了国际社会对中国抗战和党的敌后斗争的援助与支持,扩大了党的国际影响、塑造了党的国际形象,并对建国后的外交工作产生了重大而深远的影响。因此,考察中共中央南方局外事工作的起源、发展,研究其历史作用有着重要的历史价值。     

马克思的世界历史思想及其当代意义

全球化作为当代一个重要的经济、政治和文化现象。因为这样,有关全球化的看法,对全球化的研究,在国际和国内的学术界引发了激烈的争论。熟悉马克思经典著作的人都知道,马克思和恩格斯在百多年前所提出的世界历史思想与当今的全球化有着直接和紧密的联系。因此,分析和研究马克思的世界历史思想,是理解当代全球化的需要,也是建设有中国特色社会主义的需要。     

冷战后老挝外交政策的特点及走向

冷战后,老挝外交政策表现出四个特点:由政治外交转向经济外交;重点发展与越南、中国等传统友好国家的关系;从地缘政治考虑,参与并扩大与东盟各国的合作;转向"全方位外交",增进与各大国的交往。今后老挝外交政策将围绕政治独立、经济发展、安全维护、地位提升等方面展开,以实现国家利益最大化。     

Analysis of an ancestry using cremated old human remains from the Korean War victims

Analysis of DNA from burnt bone fragment is the very hard work for the human identification in forensic casework. In general, cremated bone with an artificial damage is more difficult to get an intact DNA than a singed one because of the chemical and biological drastic changes such as protein denaturation and destruction. In this study, we pursue the best technical approach for the minimal damage and the contamination of DNA from other factors in the preconditioning and the extraction process based on over 70 years old Korean War victim skeletal that was burnt and buried in Korean Peninsula. First of all, we removed the pollutant and the dust from the burnt bones using dental instruments, and then incubated with EDTA buffer at 25 ℃ to remove inhibitors such as calcium and mineral. In order to compare the DNA preservation ability between a pellet and a supernatant, samples are repeatedly tested to collect washed EDTA buffer several times to separate. Each of isolated materials is secondly cleaned with the organic extraction method using phenol and analyzed mtDNA sequence with the in-house method for the ancestry assay. The better discrimination ability was appeared in the supernatant than the pellet. Nevertheless, many of the forensic geneticists use a powdering method for getting more DNA, we applied EDTA buffer in the preconditioning step to eliminate every contamination. As a result, the contamination factor was efficiently removed and the ancestry was estimated as per the written information. Consequently, cremated bone is identified to belong in the D4 mtDNA haplogroup which is commonly reported in ethnic groups in Asia especially Korea. This is a preliminary study of a human identification over an ancestry analysis to give information against a mass disaster in a future. Through a higher process optimization and better analytical methods toward more remains, which are genetically difficult to analyze, will support to examine the identity of the post cremated remains.