Kosovo: Where It All Began

Kosovo, a largely ethnically Albanian province of the Serbian republic, played an important role in Yugoslavia's troubles in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Shortly after Tito's death in 1980, disturbances in Kosovo set the Albanians and the Serbs on a collision course and also polarized the country politically. Ironically, when Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in 1991, and as it fell into four years of warfare, Kosovo remained relatively calm. Only after the Dayton peace, in late 1995, did Kosovo's Albanians opt for a militant policy toward the Serbs. Meanwhile Serbs escalated their oppression of the local population. International diplomatic intervention failed to defuse tensions, and ultimately, NATO initiated military action to stop Serbia. NATO prevailed in the seventy-eight day engagement in 1999, while Kosovo acquired greater autonomy and was put under UN protection.     

浅析女性的价值标准——现代男女平等现象的一些反思

中国女性在追求与男性的平等并自以为取得了显著绩效的同时,并未真正找到在两性社会中应有的位置。女性要获得真正的平等,必须修正长期依附于男性本位的价值标准,根据自己的能力倾向在家庭和社会的天平上摆正位置。     

普通高等院校办学理念的冲突与整合

普通高等院校办学中面临着事业与产业、象牙塔与中轴机构、自治与政府监控、教育者与服务者的两难困境。前者要求高校超然物外，后者要求高校积极入世，单纯强调其中任何一种取向都会影响高校的正常发展。化解这一困境的前提是要明确现代高等教育的定位，只有强调高等教育的文化定位，才能有效整合高等院校办学中面临的理念冲突。     

论宪法与区际法律冲突

本文通过分析宪法中的立法管辖权规范及其与区际法律冲突的关系 ,探讨了宪法与区际法律冲突之间的关系。此外 ,本文还着重讨论了中国的宪法 ,尤其是两部基本法 ,对区际法律冲突问题的影响。本文的结论强调 ,宪法在一定程度上决定了复合法域国家区际法律冲突的产生、范围及其解决途径。     

西方文化霸权的运作程式和理论形态

在全球化的时代,西方文化霸权已经成为一个日益凸显的国际关系问题,他们以媒介霸权为技术基础,以话语控制为基本途径,把自己的意识形态、文化价值观在被输入国的广泛渗透,以种族优越论、文化至上论、文明冲突论等为理论支撑,实现自己文化霸权的目的。了解了西方文化霸权的基本程式和理论基础,我们要更加自觉地捍卫自己的文化主权。     

文化动力：一种解释城市发展与转型的新思维

城市发展动力问题一直备受社会和学界关注。新型城镇化背景下,以人为本的思路要求城市发展模式从规模粗放型向质量集约型转变、从增量扩能向做优存量调整。因为单纯依赖土地、劳动力、资金和管理效率等要素的“传统模式”,很难维持城市的可持续发展。在新背景下,大城市如何进一步发展,提升内涵与质量？文化动力模式作为一种新的发展路径,是对该问题的学术回应。文化动力中的“文化”,并不是指那种模糊的、抽象的、无所不包的文化,而是指那些与本地居民生活息息相关的生活文化设施、多样性组织、各种文化实践等构成的城市场景,以及场景中隐藏的自我表达、超凡魅力和时尚等价值观与生活方式。这些因素能对创意阶层产生吸引作用,并影响该群体的城市流动和新兴公司选址等。从这个角度来说,文化动力模式作为一种全新思维,重塑着城市发展与转型的后工业路径。     

Territorial Polarization in Brazil's 2014 Presidential Elections

The 2014 presidential elections showed a growing political polarization based on regional differences in Brazil. Against this backdrop, President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected by the slimmest margin ever obtained by a Brazilian president. Rousseff's Workers’ Party (PT) has held the presidency for the past 12 years, gaining widespread support for reducing social inequality and maintaining macroeconomic stability in the country. However, as the latest presidential elections show, this support for the PT and its presidential candidate has eroded. This article argues that as a result of fiercer competition for votes, a more politically polarized discourse was used in the presidential campaign to mobilize voters around Brazil's regional divide between the richer south and the poorer north. In the analysis, the article attempts to elucidate possible causes of territorial patterns of voting in Brazil's 2014 presidential elections.     

The European Union in Sudan: A Missed Opportunity?

Abstract

International organisations active in Africa are often criticised for their ineffectiveness. So too is the European Union (EU), which is also accused of failing to assume a more prominent conflict management role in war-torn countries. This article examines the EU’s capacity and readiness to take on such a role in one such country, the former Republic of Sudan, home to Africa’s longest-running civil wars and the first ‘genocide’ of the 21st century. It begins by outlining the EU’s record in Darfur and the North–South Peace Process. Drawing upon 25 interviews and Hill’s ‘capabilities–expectations model’, it then questions whether the EU’s ‘capabilities’ (resources, instruments, unity) were ‘fit for purpose’ in Sudan’s hostile target setting. It concludes by identifying settings that have been more propitious for a conflict-related management function and by suggesting that the EU should better manage expectations about future security roles.     

Poverty amid plenty: structural violence and local governance in western Congo

The protracted conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has drawn sharp criticism regarding the model of liberal peacebuilding employed in the country. Critics emphasise the importance of local ownership of peacebuilding mechanisms at sub-national as well as national levels. This raises questions in relation to the popular legitimacy and efficacy of local mechanisms. Drawing on field research conducted in the relatively affluent province of Bas-Congo in Western Congo, this article highlights a lack of popular legitimacy for provincial-level political authority within the province stemming from an acute marginalisation of the population from local structures of power and wealth. The article also demonstrates the inefficacy of more local, village and neighbourhood-based political structures which, aimed at conflict mitigation rather than transformation, ignore the structural roots of local conflicts and do little to counteract the growing social distrust, conflict and disintegration within local communities.     

Measuring the Ambivalence of Religion: Introducing the Religion and Conflict in Developing Countries (RCDC) Dataset

Despite ample anecdotal evidence, previous research on violent conflict has found little evidence that religion is an important factor in organized violence. Quantitative work in this area has been largely confined to the interreligious character of conflict and measures of religious diversity, and has strongly neglected the peace aspect of religion. The Religion and Conflict in Developing Countries (RCDC) dataset helps to fill this gap with innovative and fine-grained data for 130 developing countries between 1990 and 2010. RCDC includes four types of religious violence (assaults on religious targets, attacks by religious actors, clashes between religious communities, and clashes with the state). In addition, RCDC contains data on interreligious networks and peace initiatives. This article demonstrates the usefulness of RCDC by applying our data to a preliminary analysis. The results indicate that interreligious networks are a reaction to identity overlaps and previous interreligious conflict.