Transparency in multilateral climate politics: Furthering (or distracting from) accountability?

This article analyzes the interplay between transparency and accountability in multilateral climate politics. The 2015 Paris Agreement calls for a “pledge‐and‐review” approach to collective climate action with an “enhanced transparency framework” as a key pillar of the Agreement. By making visible who is doing what, transparency is widely assumed to be vital to holding countries to account and building trust. We explore whether transparency is generating such effects in this context, by developing and applying an analytical framework to examine the link between transparency and accountability. We find that the scope and practices of climate transparency reflect (rather than necessarily reduce) broader conflicts over who should be held to account to whom and about what, with regard to responsibility and burden sharing for ambitious climate action. We conclude that the relationship between transparency and accountability is less straightforward than assumed, and that the transformative promise of transparency needs to be reconsidered in this light.     

马克思主义国家学说在中国实践和发展中的几个关键问题

在实践和发展马克思主义国家学说的过程中,必须要围绕着社会主义政权建设的实际,正确理解马克思恩格斯国家学说的几个关键性问题,主要是全面准确地理解马克思、恩格斯关于国家含义及其作用的科学论述、关于巴黎公社经验的科学总结以及对＂国家的迷信＂批判的科学论述。     

拜登政府的全球气候变化领导政策与中国应对

美国的气候治理政策长期呈现周期性变化特点。围绕气候问题,拜登政府强调引领清洁能源革命和重回气候治理,重视国内清洁能源发展、气候议题科学化塑造、气候治理多边主义,希望在继承奥巴马政府时期气候政策的基础上,全面提升美国的气候治理领导力。在国内,拜登政府欲依托科技创新、刺激需求、投资基础设施等措施使清洁能源融入美国经济进程;在气候外交方面,美国将推动相关问题在国家安全和外交事务中的主流化。拜登政府设计了“团结应对策略”,将盟友、峰会外交、经贸合作、对外援助和投资、技术标准、区域合作等内容融入其中,并突出气候变化与安全、人权的相关性。在对华气候政策方面,拜登政府将对中国实施限制性气候合作策略。虽然中美合作有助于实现《巴黎协定》的“2摄氏度”目标,也有助于全球低碳经济良性发展,但在气候治理领导权、全球低碳标准领域,中、美两国仍存在竞争。     

论巴黎协定后北越实行"政治优先"政策的原因

签署巴黎协定之后,北越并没有立即采用军事手段统一南方.虽然北越一直在向南越渗透人员和物资,但是在南越的蚕食行动面前,北越却保持了一种忍让的态度.考虑到当时南北双方的力量对比以及北越以往的进攻态势,它的这种行为是耐人寻味的.北越之所以会这样,一是为了最大限度地利用对自己有利的巴黎协定,二是为了避免美国的再度干涉,三是考虑到自身的实力问题.但这并不代表北越就要放弃统一越南的目标,正好相反,这只是为了实现其目标而采取的一种相当妥当的策略.     

第一个工人阶级政权巴黎公社崭新创举

1871年建立的巴黎公社是第一个工人阶级政权。它是法国社会内部阶级矛盾和外部民族矛盾激化的产物。巴黎公社是在1871年3月18日国民自卫军武装起义胜利后建立的。它的第一个崭新创举是经过民主选举产生政权机关。政权结构是继承了法国立法与行政统一的地方自治机构的传统。政权具有四重性质:工人阶级政权,社会主义政权,多派联合政权,爱国主义与国际主义结合政权。政权领导体制是不设主席的委员集体领导制。巴黎公社的第二个崭新创举是工人政权实行民主执政,全面开展政法建设、财经建设、文教建设、社会建设、军事建设和外事建设,是兴建社会主义新社会开天辟地的空前试点,马克思确认它是"新社会的光辉先驱"。巴黎公社只坚持72天就因内部危机和外敌入侵而败亡。要从哲理上深入理解为何巴黎公社是偶然诞生,必然灭亡。巴黎公社的实践经验对确立和发展科学社会主义、对重振和提高世界社会主义运动都有重大意义,对中国革命更有长久影响和现实意义。     

Anxiety and Diminished Hope: The Potential Impact of Trump’s Presidency on Security in the Pacific Islands Region

Abstract

The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the US has caused much international consternation and anxiety. Reactions have been based on distrust and rejection of Trump’s political ideology, behavioural disposition and unpredictable policy positions. His campaign speeches were filled with provocative utterances which were racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-environment and self-centred. This article examines some possible impacts of Trump’s presidency on the Pacific island countries (PICs). The first issue refers to how Trump’s proposed isolationist and militarisation policies may affect regional geopolitics. The two policies tend to contradict each other because while isolationism means pulling back on US economic and strategic presence in the Pacific, a reversal of the pivot to Asia-Pacific policy, militarisation implies greater strategic reach, regionally and globally. What does this seemingly contradictory approach mean for the PICs? Second, the article looks at the impact of Trump’s climate change denial stance and the responses by PICs, given the fact that climate change is the single most significant foreign policy and development initiative of the PICs since their independence. The third issue deals with the potential impact of Trump’s restrictive migration policies on remittance flow to the PICs and how these affect the small island economies and well-being.     

Paris (COP21) Agreement: Loss and damage,adaptation and climate finance issues

Climate policy documents are more interesting for what they leave out than what they contain. Using the COP21 negotiating texts, this article analyses the Paris Agreement to determine the good, the bad and the ugly of this ‘landmark’ document regarding loss and damage (L&D), adaptation and finance. The article establishes that among the good is that we have a universal deal in place that speaks to L&D and adaptation. the bad remains that developing and weaker nations are still vulnerable, in negotiations and to climate change. Among the ugly is the emerging unholy alliance between the referees (national governments) and key players (business and industry) that resulted in a quasi-legally binding deal. Furthermore, we continue to have endless financial promises. Since Gleneagles in 2005, when $50 billion in aid was promised by the G8, $100 billion per annum was promised from Copenhagen’s COP15 in 2009, to the scale-up promises of $100 billion annually from 2015 – developing countries are still waiting for these promises to be met. Drawing from Africa’s adaptation funding needs of $15 billion annually, as estimated by the United Nations environment Programme to 2020, and the $50+ billion annually thereafter to 2050, the article concludes that the global adaptation funding gap remains huge. We therefore recommend that domestic mobilisation of financial and other resources remain a viable option.     

Reflections on Global Climate Politics Post Paris: Power,Interests and Polycentricity

The Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in December 2015 has the potential to shape future climate politics and governance significantly, with broader implications for world politics at large. First of all, it solidifies the importance of ‘low-emission capacity’ as a source of power in international climate politics. Second, it supports the ongoing societal mobilisation and reinforces interest in the new climate economy. Third, it points, as a result, toward a more multipolar future climate world order. Finally, the Agreement recalibrates the role of the multilateral UN process as providing overall direction towards global decarbonisation, while leaving implementation to states, other international organisations and various non-state actors and initiatives. Therefore, phasing out global greenhouse gas emissions within the next few decades requires subnational and national policy frameworks that facilitate and promote overachievement and hence drive an upward dynamic – making the Paris Agreement a real-world experiment with an uncertain outcome.     

The Paris Peace Conference and the Armenian arguments on Garabagh

The South Caucasus, which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, is one of the most challenging regions in the world, owing to its long-lasting and ongoing conflicts. One of these conflicts is between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the current stage of which has continued for 25 years without any prospect of a settlement in the near future. For a better understanding of this conflict it is necessary to go back to 1918 and 1919, which witnessed the emergence of the first Azerbaijan and Armenian Republics. The article examines and assesses the ethnic, historical, economic, geographical and security arguments submitted by the Armenian government to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to substantiate its vision of territorial delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding Garabagh. The article argues that Armenian nationalism was ethnic nationalism and that the Armenian government constructed politically motivated arguments to substantiate its claims to Garabagh, which were part of its nationalist aim of constructing an Armenian ‘ethno-nation’ in the area from the Mediterranean to Garabagh.     

政治体制改革视域下的巴黎公社政治文明探析

巴黎公社以其民主原则和公仆原则真正彻底的实现了人民主权。无论从权力的来源、本质还是从权力的运行、归宿来看,人民当家做主都是巴黎公社政治文明的精神实质。巴黎公社政治体制体现出社会主义政治文明的优越性。它在民主集中中实现权力制衡,服务型责任政府代替了旧式官僚政府,社会公共空间有效运行,社会自由充分保障,社会自治全面实现,社会契约真正履行,协商民主包容各党派。作为社会主义政治文明建设的先驱,巴黎公社的政治实践对我国政治体制改革有重要启示。