The OECD and “The Rest”: Analyzing the Limits of Policy Transfer

Abstract

Prompted by the rise of the emerging economies and the growing importance of the G20, the OECD has formally announced its intention of establishing itself as a key actor in global policy coordination. As part of this ambition, it has embarked on cultivating closer relations with five G20 countries it designated as key partners through the so-called “Enhanced Engagement” programme: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. This article mobilizes concepts from the policy transfer literature to explain why the OECD’s attempts to increasingly involve all five countries in its policy have fallen short of its original ambitions, and also why the transfer of its policy work has been uneven across policy and country issue.     

Relativierung des Rechts durch Digitalisierung

Das Recht ist in modernen Gesellschaften ein wichtiges Steuerungsmittel. Schon bisher ist es allerdings nicht das einzige Instrument gewesen, um gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen und individuelles Verhalten zu beeinflussen. Es gab und gibt Bereiche, die sich selbst organisieren und in denen staatliches Recht aus unterschiedlichen Gründen nicht das entscheidende Steuerungsmittel ist. Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie sich die zunehmende Digitalisierung der modernen Gesellschaften auf die Steuerungsfähigkeit des Rechts auswirkt. Er kommt dabei zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Bedeutung des Rechts in der digitalisierten und hoch fragmentierten Welt abnimmt. Das Recht muss sich deshalb Verbündete in anderen Bereichen der Gesellschaft suchen, um weiterhin Steuerungsfunktionen für die Gesellschaft wahrnehmen zu können. Der Beitrag skizziert, wer als Verbündeter des Rechts in Frage kommt und wie die notwendigen transrechtlichen Kooperationen aussehen könnten.     

Dynamics of Trade in Value-Added in “Factory Asia”

ABSTRACT

Trade patterns in East Asia are termed the “Factory Asia” model, whereby Asia functions as a “global factory” that imports intermediate goods from its regional networks and then assembles and exports them as finished goods to higher-income developed countries. In 2001, China’s accession into the World Trade Organisation consolidated this pattern by becoming the core economy in this model. However, is this pattern still valid after more than a decade of rapid development in East Asian countries? The main objective of this article is to examine the evolution of this pattern of trade in East Asian countries. Although the key findings of this study show that the Factory Asia model continues, it is changing as different East Asian countries capture more value in global value chains. The gaps in the rate of upgrading are identified and mainly attributed to differences in government policies and competition. However, the dependence on foreign inputs still remains an important part of high-technology production in East Asian countries. Hence, the idea that East Asia is evolving from a “factory” into a “Research & Development hub” remains far-fetched.     

国际金融危机影响下的俄罗斯对华战略调整

国际金融危机对俄罗斯产生了深远影响。危机在某种程度上改变了俄罗斯所处的战略环境,恶化了俄罗斯的经济状况,使俄罗斯调整经济发展战略更具紧迫性,同时也影响了与中国的双边贸易。这些影响又间接作用于俄罗斯的对华战略,主要表现为:俄罗斯对华借重、合作领域有了新的方向,对华战略中更加突出经济因素的作用,调整对华经济战略,力图改变单纯依赖能源出口贸易结构,进而稳步提高双边贸易额,减少与中国的贸易逆差。在今后,随着国际政治、经济形势以及俄罗斯本国经济发展情况的变化,俄罗斯对华战略也将发生进一步的调整。     

A Cartography of a Global Civil Society Advocacy Alliance: The Case of the Global Call to Action against Poverty

The last few decades have witnessed the emergence of global civil society advocacy networks as major players in global governance. The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is one of the recent phenomena in this arena and epitomizes high-level involvement of a multiplicity of actors in GCAP, with various multilateral governance institutions, as well as states. This article analyses the origins of GCAP, motivations for its formation, evolution, and operations, with specific references to its structures and architecture. It argues that alliances are very different from ‘normal’ forms of organizations because they are made up of diverse forms of organizations, coming together voluntarily to achieve a specific purpose and therefore are by their very nature complex, unstable, and difficult to co-ordinate. The result of such, within GCAP, is an organization that is somewhat amorphous and exhibits both aspects of anti-systemic protest (in Polanyian terms) as well as a pacifying force (part of the hegemonic historic block in Gramcsian terms). I argue that the loose nature of global civil society alliances is a positive contributor to mass mobilization but causes frustrations in decision-making and actions. This, in effect, calls for a more bureaucratized and institutionalized architecture, albeit with a potential to alienate some constituencies. A key lesson from GCAP's evolution, structures, and strategies, I posit, is that it is not possible to push through individual positions without compromising so as to accommodate others.     

Evangelical violence: Western Christianity and the use of force against the Third World

Abstract

Recognising the impact of religion on state action, this article identifies two variables that interact to affect the type and level of violence employed by Western states against Third World targets. First, variation in the degree to which the prominent Christian denominations and organisations within these states view evangelisation as either an individual-level or national-level process – Christian individualism vs Christian nationalism – has determined church support for using violence as a tactic. Second, the level of influence that churches and missionary organisations have over their home states affects the ability of Christian actors to directly impact state actions. Western violence against Third World peoples is expected to be lowest when churches and Christian organisations view evangelisation in primarily individualistic terms and have significant influence over the state. The article examines the relationships between concepts of evangelisation, Christian influence over state policies, and levels of violence against the Third World by examining British, French and German colonialism during the late colonial period of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.     

“同舟共济”与适应性变革:经济增长、权力转移及中美关系

由于经济增长的差异,新兴市场日益崛起,亚太地区日益崛起,其中中国崛起尤为瞩目。纵观权力转移历史、理论与现实,中国积极寻求融入当前美国主导的国际制度安排,在战略上是正确的,中国成为这一制度的得利较多者,也是满意者和维护者。因此综合长期战略和当前金融危机冲击下的策略,除了积极推动美国对当前制度进行适应性变革外,对于美国目前的困境,中国应该量力积极帮助,共同促进全球经济早日复苏和全球善治,与美国"同舟共济"符合中国战略利益,中国需要战略规划;同时,需要面向未来,准备好美国经济复苏后的策略变化。美国凭其发达的金融业在全球财富再分配中占领制高点,金融业的发展意味着可以在财富的再分配中获得竞争优势,因此中国需要大力发展现代金融业。     

金融危机下中国与马来西亚贸易的挑战与机遇

2008年下半年以来的全球金融危机极大地冲击了中国与马来西亚贸易，并使得双边贸易面临贸易额增长趋缓、主要商品进出口增速大幅回落等诸多严峻挑战。与此同时，中马双方为应对金融危机所采取的一系列政策措施也为双方贸易发展提供了诸多新的机遇，并取得了预期的显著进展。     

Falling from the sky

Back examines the human costs of immigration policy through recovering the stories of the desperate stowaways who are literally falling out of the skies over London. Some 3,000 people have died trying to gain entry to Europe. These are the human costs of contemporary forms of immigration policy. Back attempts to problematize the ways in which the global movement of people is understood within an immigrant/host framework. He argues for an alternative way of thinking about the movement of people, culture and imagination in the context of globalization.     

区域全面经济伙伴关系协定对台湾的经济影响--基于价值链分析和GTAP政策模拟

2020年11月,区域全面经济伙伴关系协定(RCEP)正式签署,全球最大的自由贸易区应运而生。本文从传统贸易与价值链出发,阐述台湾与RCEP成员经贸关系和价值链联系,分析RCEP签署对台湾经济和贸易的影响,利用GTAP模型模拟RCEP关税削减对台湾岛内经济与产业的影响。结果显示:RCEP建立将导致台湾对外贸易与投资的转移,贸易条件恶化,从而对岛内各产业产出、经济增长、消费者福利带来负面冲击。同时,台湾通过后向联系参与全球价值链的低端产业将面临被替代的风险。