Unrecognized states as a means of coercive diplomacy? Assessing the role of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Russia’s foreign policy in the South Caucasus

The scholarship on unrecognized or de facto states has been booming in the recent decades exploring this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. Yet, as this article illustrates, a crucial accent on the instrumentalization of unrecognized states by regional actors – or, to put it differently, on unrecognized states as a source of coercive diplomacy – has been neglected. This article seeks to fill that gap by offering an empirical analysis of Russia’s instrumentalization of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as unrecognized states as a means of putting effective pressure on the Government in Tbilisi – usually with respect to issues unrelated to the unrecognized states themselves. More specifically, this article shows that Moscow has used three instruments (military deployment, passportization of residents of the unrecognized states and responsibility to protect).     

Baltic Studies in North America: A Survey of Academic Dissertations 1911–2006

ABSTRACT

The article argues for an extended delineation of increasing Western cultural hegemony in the reconstituted Baltic states. An initial idiom of postcolonial studies is revisited in order to complement their dominant scope in the Baltics, focused primarily on a retrospective cultural study of Baltic/Soviet relationships. The argument elaborates on the urgency of the expanding research agenda regarding the Baltic/European research framework. By pointing out the frequent occurrence of the superiority or inferiority value scale in cross-cultural references sampled from press releases of the Art Museum of Estonia, the article concludes that mainstream cultural self-reflection in Estonia is nowadays subjected to the supremacy of the imagined West European viewpoint.     

中小企业战略转型风险免疫机理研究

本文以一家中小企业为研究对象,基于其战略转型风险因素的识别结果,从组织免疫的视角出发,深入剖析了其系统免疫、功能免疫和辅助免疫对其战略转型风险的应对机理,并尝试构建出中小企业战略转型风险免疫机理的理论模型。     

论中国社会权司法保障的路径及其限度

确定社会权的司法保障路径及其限度必须以社会权的基本效力为基础。在中国,通过司法保障社会权应当坚持以法律诉讼为原则,宪法诉讼为例外。同时,就保障程度而言,其只有在国家尊重和保护义务层面才具有完全的可诉性,而在国家给付义务层面其仅仅具有“最低限度”的可诉性。     

从商之道：变迁中的旅游小城镇商业市场

传统集镇的商业市场是集镇存在的基础和社会空间的映射,其传统商贸功能和作为文化资源的特点又为当代旅游业所采用。在当代大众旅游消费空间背景下,传统商业市场正经历着转换和变迁,并共时性地展现着传统集镇的社会变迁。研究主要以定性和实地调查的方法从商业市场的物质载体、经营主体和商业业态三方面阐述当代旅游背景下传统集镇商业市场现代转向中的变迁问题。     

国际海底区域内活动的 担保国的赔偿责任

1982年《联合国海洋法公约》（简称《公约》）为缔约国规定了确保其所担保的个人和实体在进行国际海底区域内活动时遵守《公约》相关规定的义务以及对所担保的承包者没有遵守其义务而造成的损害承担赔偿责任。然而,担保国的此种赔偿责任并非严格责任。只有当同时满足以下条件时担保国才应对其所担保的承包者造成的损害承担责任：担保国未按照《公约》履行其确保遵守的义务;所担保的承包者没有遵守其义务并因此造成损害;担保国的不履行与损害发生之间存在因果关系。在担保国需要承担赔偿责任的情况下,其责任的上限是其所担保的承包者的不法行为造成的“实际损害”,同时还应考虑管理局和对有关活动行使管辖或控制的国家的潜在责任。然而,担保国和承包者并不承担连带责任,担保国赔偿责任的存在并不影响承包者承担和履行其赔偿责任。承包者应先于担保国履行赔偿责任,而只有在承包者不能完全赔偿其应负责的损害时,担保国才有义务对未能赔偿的损害部分承担剩余责任。由于担保国根据《公约》承担的确保遵守的义务是一种“行为义务”,而并非杜绝损害发生的“结果义务”,因此,如果担保国已经履行了公约规定的尽责义务,那么即使发生损害,也不应要求其承担责任。     

建立陕西中小企业融资体系探析

中小企业在经济发展中存在的主要问题是缺乏健全的信用担保体系和直接融资渠道不畅等,陕西省中小企业信用担保体系,是省政府为推动中小企业发展,解决中小企业融资难、担保难的问题,由政府出资而建立的,陕西中小企业担保事业的发展,将对陕西中小企业发展带来更多的机遇。     

The Problem of Soviet Colonialism in the Baltics

This essay works through some of the necessary preliminary questions in thinking about Soviet colonialism in the Baltics. It opens by tracing the prehistory of critical thinking about Soviet colonialism in the 1960s and considers why the topic of Soviet colonialism has not (or not yet) become a dominant way to understand Soviet history. The central question posed by the article is whether one can speak about the Soviet invasions of the Baltic States as ‘colonization’. It proposes that, initially, communist Russia did not in fact seek to colonize the Baltic States and instead ‘occupied’ them; however, this initial period of occupation later developed into a period of a colonial rule.