SOCIETY

正Welcome Back Captain Xie Beizhen(front)and crew members Wang Minjuan(center)and Dong Chen walk out of the Moon Palace1 capsule in Beijing on May 20,after spending 105 days in the closed lab.It was China’s first manned test of the Moon Palace 1,a 500-cubic-meter module that is the country’s first bio-regenerative life-support base,and also the world’s third largest.During the experiment,the volunteers ate only laboratory-grown plants and insects.     

The Chinese Dream and the World

正FOR over 2,000 years in its history,China maintained great power.But its influence didn’t stem from territorial expansion or the occupation of foreign countries.China is rather an introversive country,focusing on developing its culture rather than its military might.Chinese civilization has never displayed force or made bellicose policies;instead it emphasizes"harmony is of the utmost value."China hopes to share its dream with the rest of the world,as it is the time-honored consensus among its1.3 billion people that"the interests to be considered     

Local Government Capital Spending During and After Recessions: A Cause for Concern?

This article combines literature on cutback management with the results of a survey of county commissioners. Specifically, it focuses on the use of capital spending reductions in county government to cope with fiscal stress and the potential long-term impact of such reductions in response to the limited amount of research on this form of local government. In light of the literature and survey results, it recommends that county governments change their behavior and avoid cuts to their capital budgets due to the long-term costs of delayed maintenance and the opportunity costs incurred by stifling economic development. It also presents policy choices available to many counties that enable them to maintain capital investments, including public–private partnerships and earmarked local option sales taxes. The study concludes with a call for quantitative research on the long-term effects of capital reductions during economic downturns.     

The EU's security and defense policy (ESDP) and the challenges of civil–military coordination (CMCO): the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Abstract

The article assesses the role of the EU in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the ability of the EU to coordinate its different means and instruments with regard to the relationship between the European Commission and the Council. The article focuses on what is referred to as civil–military coordination (CMCO) in internal EU documents. The aim is to compare the four ESDP missions in DRC since 2003 with special regard to CMCO since the aim of the EU as a comprehensive security actor is to avoid artificial distinctions between military and civilian missions. Hence, the distinctiveness of ESDP derives precisely from its civil–military synergies, and a comparative perspective on CMCO could tell us more about how the EU has developed so as to become a comprehensive security actor in a country which is of importance for EU interests. The final part of the article assesses the impact on CMCO of the newly implemented Lisbon Treaty. A suitable institutional framework as devised for in the Treaty is essential so as to shape a framework that creates a timely as well as a comprehensive response to crises.     

Suicide bombers in Western literature: demythologizing a mythic discourse

In facing the challenge of suicide terrorism today on a global scale, it is tempting to attribute the phenomenon to cultural or religious behavior patterns observed solely in non‐Western countries. Yet recent scholarly research on its possible cultural or religious origins has led less to convincing and satisfactory results than to an unresolved aporia between arbitrariness and contingency. By the same token, little notice is taken of the fact that, in Western history and literature, actions and figures can be found whose development and strategies conspicuously resemble those of today’s suicide bombers. A series of such analogous examples in Western literature from antiquity to the present is explored in order to provide deeper insights into situational and systemic factors at work beyond cultural and religious determinants. To more effectively counter suicide terrorism, alternative policies are proposed with the vision of a peaceful coexistence of diverse cultures and religions.     

The Criminalisation of Russian State Security

While the Russian authorities may seek to talk up the role their security apparatus plays in combating organised crime, in fact, they are to a large extent falling prey to criminalisation. A culture of corruption and a decade of neglect have combined to create a situation in which not only do police, army, and security officers provide services to ‘civilian’ criminals but organised crime groupings have actually formed within them. These gangs tend to be defined by their location and legal powers, both of which can be abused for criminal ends, and they include police and military officers at the very apex of their respective command structures. There are grounds for hope now that President Putin is beginning to become aware of the practical dangers this poses for Russian national security, not least given the haemorrhage of weapons to criminal and insurgent hands, but, for the immediate future, the security apparatus will remain corrupted and criminalised.     

Taming the tigers? Reforming the security sector in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Despite global trends towards military reform characterized by processes of professionalization and democratization, militaries in Southeast Asia have continued to play prominent roles in domestic politics since 11 September. This suggests that wider patterns of global military reform have not had as great an impact on the control, capacity and cooperative functions of armed forces in Southeast Asia as they may have elsewhere. In order to explore why the security sector reform agenda has had so little impact in the region, we investigate recent patterns of civil–military relations in Southeast Asia by focusing on the experiences of four of the region's militaries: Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. We argue that the security sector reform agenda is informed by a predominantly North American approach to civil–military relations based on a number of core assumptions that do not reflect Southeast Asian experiences. Hence, we ask whether the reform agenda itself could be modified to better suit the Southeast Asian context. We suggest that although the regional military sector has not reformed along a ‘Western’ path it is nonetheless possible to see other types of, and potential for, reform.     

The debate on a regional arms register in Southeast Asia

Abstract

ASEAN member states are no longer opposed in principle to military information sharing and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is now actively considering ideas for new confidence‐building measures in this area. The first specific transparency measure supported by ARF was the UN Register of Conventional Arms, whose success in the region has been a result, at least in part, of its flexibility. Because of the limited scope of the UN Register, debate has continued on the possibility of a regional Register. As this debate has proceeded, however, it has become apparent that the creation of such a Register will require a number of complex and difficult issues to be resolved. What additional data should such a Register include? Who should be responsible for operating such a Register? Which countries should be included? Because of these difficulties, the prospects of a regional Register being established in the near future are rather slender. But, as they become more comfortable with the concept of transparency, there is still considerable scope for ARF members to do more to adopt regional ‘best practice’ in their replies to the main UN Register. The Register formula of framework plus flexibility could also be used as a model for the development of parallel transparency arrangements in areas other than arms transfers. The experience of the Register debate suggest that the development of concrete confidence‐building measures in the ARF region is likely to be a gradual process. Progress is possible, but is unlikely to transform levels of national openness on military affairs overnight. The main obstacles to increased transparency may prove to be domestic and political rather than international and military: demonstrating once again the way in which the confidence‐building agenda is linked to broader debates about the necessary political foundations of a secure regional order.     

The post‐cold war security agenda of Russia: Implications for Northeast Asia

The end of the cold war has seen the emergence of new political and geo‐strategic rivalries for Russia. The major aspect of change has been an intensification of an eastern focus in Russian security policy. The identification of changing security concerns, be they the intensification of local conflicts on Russian borders or potential territorial claims from neighbours, poses new problems for the Russian army. This paper looks at Russia's post‐cold war security agenda and military modernization questions in the light of these potential problems. In regional terms the paper focuses on the implications of these wider questions for Russia's relations with Northeast Asia, especially in its dealings with the Korean peninsula issue and remaining border questions with China and Japan.