The US post‐imperial presidency and transatlantic relations

The EU’s response to the Arab Spring is seen as one of its biggest missed opportunities. It has been unable to bring together its different tools of foreign, development and security policy into a strategic joined-up approach. The interconnectedness of the socio-economic and political demands of the popular uprisings across the north of Africa represented a unique opportunity to implement such a joined-up approach. The EU’s ambitious rhetoric and pledges to promote ‘deep democracy’ have not been matched at policy level in the fields of money, market or mobility. Whilst certain member states have sought to overcome the different operating logics of the development, diplomatic and security communities in their regional Arab Partnership programmes, a number of structural and circumstantial factors limit the effectiveness of these attempts, at both the EU and member state level.     

The Pragmatic Research Approach： A Framework for Sustainable Management of Public Housing Estates in Nigeria

The paper is based on a research which tries to explore, explain and develop a framework that would be used in the sustainable post-construction management of public housing estates. Literature review provides evidence of the extent of unoccupied, unfinished, vandalized, and abandoned social housing estates in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, signifying that the availability and management of decent public housing estates in the Niger Delta of Nigeria are lacking because the post-construction management practice is not as good as it should be. The aim of this paper is to assess and set out the methodology and rationale for adopting a strategy to the research. It further, thus, examines case study design strategy that follows exploratory and explanatory methods and other research worldviews as alternatives in philosophy, approach and in research methodology. In addition, the paper draws out the significance of pragmatism as current practical world thinking that is a better answer to a research study aim, objectives and questions which focus on real-life situations. It argues that the development of a framework for use in the post-construction management of social （public） housing estates in a sustainable manner is needed; and that, using a pragmatic philosophical perspective and approach of worldview through a mixed method （qualitative and quantitative） in a case study design line of inquiry in the research methodology would be a better proposition to adopt in the study. The paper recommends that the issues of sampling, validity, reliability, the relationship between the researcher and the subject and other research quandaries are vital when deciding on an appropriate method.     

A Longue Durée Approach to the Role of Civil Society in the Uprisings against Authoritarianism in the Arab world

Abstract

This article will show how a ‘new history’, inspired from longue durée approaches, can be methodologically applied, and how it equips us with analytical tools that improve our capacity to understand the long-term changes that fostered the civil society-based resistance in the Arab world. Although we cannot predict the exact timing of such resistance efforts, the application of the longue durée method provides us with tools that help us understand why and how the many uprisings transpired. This complements, and partly contrasts with, most previous research, which had its main focus on discussion of short-term factors that were claimed to have caused the Arab mass-mobilized resistance in 2010–2011. The article draws upon and intends to contribute to the theoretical debate on contentious politics within social movement research, resistance studies, and civil society-driven democratization research.     

When Liberal Peacebuilding Fails: Paradoxes of Implementing Ownership and Accountability in the Integrated Approach

As a consequence of the popularity of integrated and nationally owned peace processes, aligning external actors to a national peacebuilding strategy has become part of the recipe for success. Using the case of Sierra Leone, this article engages with the question of what constructing such unified peacebuilding agenda in fragile states means politically. Contrasting the purpose of peacebuilding with the practices through which it is carried out, the article argues that the implementation of a unified peacebuilding agenda to a large extent undermines the liberal pretences of peacebuilding. While the integration of government, civil society and donors works to portray a more ordered society in countries where the lack of such order has been a manifest security problem, it also works to undermine the crucial autonomy of and accountability between them.     

执行和解协议的效力分析及完善立法建议

执行和解是民事执行的一项重要制度,是当事人意思自治的体现和运用,能有效而及时地化解矛盾、维护社会稳定。执行和解协议的产生和履行必然会对执行程序产生影响。我国民事诉讼法对执行和解协议的效力和救济途径规定得不够完善,给司法实践造成了诸多问题。在对执行和解协议的效力进行分析的基础上针对现行立法提出建议。     

私法原则、规则的二元结构与法益的侵权法保护

私法是由原则与规则组成的。侵权法对法益的保护途径有如下两种 :1.通过规则实现法益保护即以保护权利之名保护法益 ;2 .通过原则实现法益保护即以一般的立法条文制裁故意违反公序良俗行为。我们应该分析两种途径的利弊 ,确定我国侵权法对法益的保护方法。     

社会学视野中的教育产业化

教育产业化不仅是社会经济发展的要求，同时也是社会文化转型的必然结果，社会文化是实现教育产业化的根基。本文通过采用社会学的视野来看待这个问题，从整个社会文化的角度来反映经济与教育的互动。教育产业化要在方方面面与世俗化的社会文化相适应，走向全面大众化，才能体现出教育产业化的本质。要做到这一点，我们还面临许多矛盾和难题。     

证明责任之经济分析

民事诉讼所体现的价值已经不仅仅在于维护社会秩序、伸张社会正义、解决民事纠纷,随着社会的进一步的发展,诉讼效益和诉讼经济也是民事诉讼追求的价值目标之一。民事诉讼法的制定必须符合诉讼利益的最大化。法律的经济分析为改革和完善民事诉讼制度提供了方法和工具。本文在介绍法律经济学和简述证明责任概念的基础上,从提供证据责任和证明责任两方面对证明责任进行了经济分析。     

中国保安业职业化的差距与实现途径分析

保安业的职业化是世界保安业发展的总体趋势。中国的保安业也必将通过职业化途径来促进自身的发展。如何实现职业化是中国保安业面临的一大难题。     

试论案例式培训方法的应用

案例式培训方法是比较适应我国公务员能力建设需要的一种现代培训方法。通过对案例式培训方法概念、特点、适用范围、操作流程等问题的应用研究,可以使我们对案例式培训方法的有效运用获得全面的认识,从而促进公务员能力培训的发展。