Public affairs and power

This paper argues that Western democracies will have to renegotiate their constitutional and psychological relationship with their intelligence agencies. This follows from the changing role of the intelligence services after the end of the Cold War and recent events surrounding the beginning of the Gulf War. The paper examines the impact of spies and the public affairs function in a world of failed and failing states and concludes that, however uncomfortable, public affairs should not deny its relationship to power. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

The official art of the Khrushchev Thaw: The Severe Style as an ambassador of the Estonian national school at Baltic art exhibitions in Moscow

In Estonian post-Socialist art history writing, the term ‘national’ has mostly been introduced as a defense mechanism against the Soviet regime. The aim of this article is to indicate that concept ‘national’ also played quite an important role in ‘official’ Soviet cultural politics, especially after Stalin’s death. The processes of cultivating ‘national particularities’ in the arts will be exemplified by the Baltic exhibitions in Moscow in the end of 1950s and 1960s.     

Environment-shaping: An Alternative Approach to Applying Foreign Development Assistance

Development assistance has a chequered past, in large part because planning for development assistance is historically such a fractured enterprise internally, and so disassociated from development assistance recipients’ assets and needs. The authors of environment-shaping offer an alternative development programme planning methodology that highlights above all else the ever-important relationship between development assistance and the environment into which it is offered. The authors employ an asset-based, rather than a traditional deficit-based, approach to assessing the environment for which development assistance will be formulated. The authors then highlight the power of perceptions in the creation of policy programming and in identifying and reinforcing opportunities for positive feedback loops within the recipient environment as critical to truly ‘sustainable’ development.     

Globalisation and Public Language

This article questions what the concept of ‘globalisation’ really amounts to. In doing so it highlights problems for the ascendancy of globalisation in contemporary public debate. Globalisation has become a catch‐all; the phrase is now used to try and explain all manner of phenomena from everyday life to international politics. But the article suggests that this may be little more than a combination of rhetoric and wishful thinking. It asserts that the contemporary world is being driven by older and familiar pressures, such as state power and nationalism. As a result, the idea of ‘globalisation’ needs to be treated with some scepticism.     

An Examination of Local Climate Change Policies in the Great Plains

As the United States struggles with national solutions to address climate change, state and local governments have become leaders in both mitigation and adaptation policy. Although a significant and growing body of research targets these policies, most studies have assumed common factors motivating both adaptation and mitigation policy adoption. There remains a need for more research on cities of all sizes, their adoption of specific local policies, the factors motivating those choices, and whether the influences for mitigation differ from those that motivate adaptation. The paper uses data from a new survey of over 200 local governments in eleven states of the Great Plains region, including measures distinguishing between mitigation and adaptation policies. These data are employed to test the relative influence of factors from three areas: the policy environment, the attitudes of governmental actors, and community atmosphere, in explaining observed variation in the adoption of climate change policies.     

Break Out of Russia: Miķelis Valters and the National Issue in Early Latvian Socialism

This article deals with the political thought of Mi?elis Valters (1874–1968), whose early writings are considered to contain the first clearly articulated argument for independent and democratic Latvia. Until now, Valters's writings haven′t been analyzed in their own historical and intellectual context, being subjected to Marxist and nationalist ‘proleptic mythologies’ instead. However, such an analysis provides us with important insights about the intellectual origins of Latvian political nationalism. Valters's early argument for independent Latvia derives much from the legacy of Russian narodnichestvo and from German liberal legal theory, rather than from Austro-Marxism, as suggested by previous commentators.     

Unthawed: post-Cold War economic ties between Kaliningrad and Europe

ABSTRACT

Kaliningrad’s post-Soviet economic interconnection with Europe is encountering obstacles due to specific Russian governmental idiosyncrasies as well as its particular regional challenges. In essence, the Kremlin’s direct control from afar and European misgivings have influenced the territory’s economic development in relation to Europe. The distance of the region from Russia, exclave status, large size for an exclave, and conflicted history subject the area to contradictory forces. On the one hand, it links Kaliningrad to Europe because of a shared history and geography. On the other, it promotes a sense of political instability and geographical isolation that discourages economic integration with Europe.     

浅析国家及其财产管辖豁免中关于国有企业和商业行为判断的问题

国家及其财产豁免是国际法中的一项重要原则,随着绝对国家豁免理论逐渐受到挑战,绝对豁免原则逐渐走向相对豁免原则。国有企业能否成为国家及其财产管辖豁免的主体,属于国家豁免原则例外的商业行为应如何界定,一直是国际法学界长期关注的热点问题。本文结合最近通过的《联合国国家及其财产管辖豁免公约》之内容以及美国最新案例法的发展趋势,对此问题进行了理论与实践的探讨,并在分析我国国情的基础上提出了应对策略。     

论国际法强制执行的法理基础

国际法的强制执行具有充分的法理基础。国家意志是国际法强制执行的根据。强制执行规则的制定、措施的选择、执行或者放弃都由国家决定。强行法是国际法强制执行的规范基础。它要求国际法必须是可被强制执行的。相互原则是国际法强制执行的基本机制，通过剥夺违法国的权利的方式发挥作用。国际组织的制裁是国际法强制执行的集中机制，由国际组织集体决定并授权国家采取强制措施。     

20世纪末美国总统选举评析

2 0世纪末 ,美国第四十三届总统选举大战 ,形如拉锯 ,激烈而滑稽 ;总统迟迟难产 ,实为当代世界历史的笑柄。