A perfect storm of neglect and failure: postwar capitalist restoration in Northern Morazán,El Salvador

This essay addresses economic relationships in northern Morazán, El Salvador, as they transitioned from a wartime subsistence regime to postwar integration into national and international capitalist circuits of production and exchange. It critically analyses the economic discourses and actions employed by the state, NGOs, and others to discipline the vagrant subjectivities of former FMLN insurgents, their social base, and ex-refugees. Much of the argument is developed via discussions of the postwar fates of residents of Ciudad Segundo Montes and peasant collaborators of the Community Development Council of Northern Morazán and San Miguel. Critical analysis of these cases suggest that economic relationships constitute not merely a product – however contradictory – of struggle over hegemony, but are important channels through which hegemony itself is secured.     

The Political Economy of Self-Help: Kenya's “Harambee” Institutes of Technology

This article explores the neo-Gramscian concept of hegemony by investigating what the author refers to as multiple layers of hegemony existing and interacting with one another. Moreover, an empirical analysis of the South African Communist Party's (SACP's) role in the post-apartheid political landscape will be conducted in order to elucidate the key theoretical points under consideration. The article suggests that there are at least three relatively distinct layers, or forms, of hegemony that influence the post-apartheid political struggles of the SACP: global, national, and organizational. Engaging with the notion of hegemony in this manner, the author seeks to more clearly understand and explain the case study at hand, and also begins a conversation regarding the theoretical implications of engaging with the concept of hegemony in this manner.     

International relations in China and Europe: the case for interregional dialogue in a hegemonic discipline

Abstract

The international relations (IR) discipline is known as an ‘American Social Science’ dominated by scholars and theories from the US core. This paper compares IR in two noncore settings, China and Europe. It shows that there is a growing institutional and intellectual integration into global Anglophone, mostly American, IR in both Europe and China. Both Chinese and European IR communities have established top Anglophone journals like the European Journal of International Relations and the Chinese Journal of International Politics to spearhead their integration into mainstream Anglophone IR and carve out a space for regional thinking. Yet, the analysis of their publication and citation patterns shows that IR outside the American core communicates through a hub-and-spokes system where there is always a connection to the American core but rarely very strong linkages to other peripheral regions. The two journals studied thus function as outlets for ‘local’ and American scholars, rely on ‘local’ and American sources, and there is very little integration and exchange between Chinese and European IR. Chinese and European IR would benefit from such a dialogue, especially regarding ‘schools’ of IR at the margins of an ‘American social science’.     

‘Telling our Way of Life': Modes of Mediating Social Life in German and Polish Primary-School Textbooks

The events of 1989-1991 in Central and Eastern Europe brought political and economic changes to the post-Communist societies, which required them to redraw the social and psychological maps of their countries and carried with them the promise of partaking in the 'Western way of life'. The introduction of liberalised ideologies, both at the official level and in most of the freed media, also had to be translated into the countries' education systems. New textbooks that would accommodate the new social and political realities had to be written. We are interested in this article in whether and how these new realities are reflected in primary-school teaching materials. For this paper, our analysis will focus on data from two current textbooks that are used in German and Polish primary schools, respectively. We shall be focusing particularly upon those units of the book aimed at defining or describing realities. Taking into account both linguistic and visual modes of representation, we are interested in revealing the 'way of life', the lived ideologies, constructed in these textbooks.     

全球化进程中我国文化安全面临的挑战及应对策略

随着全球化进程的发展,以文化安全问题为重心的非传统的安全观念日益凸显。一个国家的发展壮大不仅仅单纯依靠政治、经济等一些传统的安全因素,文化等相关的非传统因素的发展也至关重要。认清目前条件下中国面临的文化安全问题,并据此制定相应的国家文化安全战略,将是今后相当长的一个时期内,中国对外发展政策和国家文化发展战略的重要内容。     

美国霸权与伊拉克战争后的世界动荡

美国发动的伊拉克战争加剧了世界动荡,因而对美国的指责也超越了国家、阶级、宗教和年龄界限,已经成为一种全球现象。美国自以为在为世界工作,世界却认为美国蛮横霸道。从本质上说,美国的世界霸权是全球化的产物,但其指向却与全球化趋势相悖。     

The emerging middle power concept: Time to say goodbye?

To deal with the wide range of states that are considered middle powers, scholars distinguish between traditional middle powers on the one hand, and emerging, non-traditional or Southern middle powers on the other. This article examines the middle power concept in light of such diversity. It rejects middle power conceptions based on a ranking of size, power or position, on performing morally commendable international actions, on playing niche roles in international diplomacy, or on national self-identification. The article then considers a conception of middle powers as international stabilisers. The difficulty with this latter conception is that new middle powers exhibit a counter-hegemonic streak and a preference for multipolarity. Both of these are destabilising. The proposed solution is to jettison adjectives such as ‘emerging’ or ‘Southern’ with regard to middle powers, to stop classifying mid-range states with counter-hegemonic tendencies as middle powers, and to restrict the middle power term to mid-range states that actively support the liberal hegemonic project.     

美国次贷危机的成因及其对国际金融秩序的影响

美国次贷危机起源于房地产泡沫的破裂,金融创新形成的多重利益链条使次贷危机深化,金融全球化则是次贷危机国际传导的背景条件.次贷危机引发的全球金融动荡动摇了美国的金融霸权,国际金融力量对比正在发生深刻的变化,全球金融版图面临重绘的可能.对于中国而言,次贷危机为中国进一步融入国际金融体系提供了机遇,也带来了挑战.     

Regional power South Africa: Co-operative hegemony constrained by historical legacy

This article argues that regional powers can be distinguished by four pivotal criteria: claim to leadership, power resources, employment of foreign policy instruments, and acceptance of leadership. Applying these criteria to the South African case, the crucial significance of institutional foreign policy instruments for the power over policy outcomes at the regional and global level is demonstrated. But although Pretoria is ready to pay the costs of co-operative hegemony (capacity building for regional institutions and peacekeeping for instance), the regional acceptance of South African leadership is constrained by its historical legacy. Additionally Pretoria's foreign policy is based on ideational resources such as its reputation as an advocate of democracy and human rights and its paradigmatic behaviour as a ‘good global citizen’ with the according legitimacy. The Mbeki presidency was more successful in converting these resources into discursive instruments of interest-assertion in global, than in regional bargains. In effect the regional power's reformist south-oriented multilateralism is challenging some of the guiding principles of the current international system.     

International Organisations and the Production of Hegemonic Knowledge: how the World Bank and the oecd helped invent the Fragile State Concept

This article examines the role of the World Bank and the oecd in the emergence and circulation of the ‘fragile state’ concept. These organisations were critical to the early development of the concept and in the consolidation of a knowledge-based agenda set out by Western aid donors to justify international assistance to poor and conflict-ridden countries. Attention is focused on three normative processes affecting the production of transnational knowledge: normalisation, fragmentation and assimilation. ‘Normalisation’ is the process by which influential knowledge producers help to transform a rough concept into a widely accepted transnational norm based on expert knowledge, detailed definitions and statistical exercises. Once the concept has been appropriated by several international actors, it undergoes normative ‘fragmentation’ as it is subjected to various interpretations across time and space. ‘Assimilation’ is the process by which the overarching concept is renewed, enriched and gradually adapted through the incorporation of additional insights. The article argues that the World Bank and oecd have functioned as central knowledge hubs, facilitating the circulation of new and controversial ideas on fragile states and their integration into the prevailing policies of the most powerful aid donors. The two organisations have thus taken an active role in the consolidation and perpetuation of the aid donors’ policy doctrine, ultimately protecting it from major normative dissent.