Against Global Parliament

Experimentation is often thought to be a key quality of any legitimate democratic system. Employing global parliamentary proposals as a heuristic, this article suggests that top‐down models for global democratization – proffered by liberal cosmopolitans and world government scholars – may create path‐dependencies which foreclose options for experimenting with alternative institutional designs in the future. Drawing upon historical institutionalism, the structure, sequence, and setting of top‐down proposals are outlined to show how experimentation with other forms of democracy may be constrained in problematic ways. Following this assessment, the article suggests that striving for democratic values under a pluralist arrangement of global governance may facilitate incremental institutional development and promote experimentation over time.     

试析互联网治理的概念、机制与困境

目前最具影响力的互联网治理机制是互联网名称与数字地址分配机构和它的挑战者——联合国系统下的三个机构：国际电信联盟、信息社会世界峰会和互联网治理论坛。这两套互相竞争的机制各有不足之处,前者合法性不足,后者有效性不够。但这只是互联网治理困境的表象,其深层原因不仅在于网络安全问题本身的复杂性,还和国际体系转型过程中全球治理的困境密切相关,集中反映在三大矛盾上,即霸权国和国际社会的矛盾、中关之间的矛盾以及国家行为体和非国家行为体之间的矛盾。任何国际治理机制的有效性和合法性在很大程度上依赖于新兴大国的参与,互联网治理机制也是如此。基于此,中国如果能在其中扮演更加重要的角色,将对互联网治理起到积极的作用。     

理解当代中国的安全哲学

通过分析安全主体在安全政治中的思维逻辑和行为方式,可以抽象出其所信奉的安全哲学。以当代中国的安全哲学为例,自改革开放以来,基于自身关于和平与发展是当今时代主题的战略判断,中国提出与之相匹配和呼应的新安全观,并且分为互信、互利、平等、协作的新安全观,以及共同、综合、合作、可持续的新安全观两个阶段。同时,中国所主张的新安全观与旧安全观在政治基础、安全结构、安全战略、争端因应、和平保障五个方面形成鲜明对比。以此为线索,当代中国安全哲学的具体内涵可以被理解和概括为一体安全、兼容安全和发展安全,倡导树立忧患意识与发扬斗争精神。当然,当代中国的安全哲学还面临包括启动成本、维持成本和机会成本在内的成本问题,包括不对称问题和道德风险问题在内的行动问题,以及包括安全感问题、实践转化及其效力问题和他者问题在内的竞争力问题等现实困境和理论困难,这也是当代中国的安全外交需要作答和完成的理论命题与实践课题。     

东南亚的中国文化消费

文化产品和文化服务已经成为现代国际文化交流的主要表现形式。东南亚地区曾受到中国文化的深刻影响,形成了中国文化消费的传统和群体。本文以2000年至今中国文化产品和文化服务输入东南亚的情况为基础,分析利用文化消费的形式扩大中国文化影响的可能性。笔者认为,中国文化产品在强调传统文化特点的同时,应该充分考虑东南亚民众文化消费的取向,兼顾文化宣传和娱乐受众的目的,从而达到扩大中国文化影响力的目标。     

新时代中国参与中东安全治理的理念与实践

进入新时代以来,中国始终坚持共同、综合、合作、可持续的安全观,倡导构建中东安全新架构。在参与中东传统安全治理、化解地区冲突方面,中国始终推动对话协商,致力于公正合理解决中东热点问题,构筑兼顾各方合理关切的集体安全架构。在改善地区安全环境方面,中国抓住中东地区主要安全矛盾,顺应地区国家寻求缓和与发展的时代潮流,取得了促成沙特与伊朗复交的重大成果。在参与非传统安全治理方面,中国与中东国家共同提高应对非传统安全威胁的能力,共同维护发展中国家的权益。在参与中东安全治理的过程中,中国形成了以共同安全破解独享安全、以综合安全破解分割安全、以合作安全破解竞争安全等理念和经验,在中东安全事务中发挥了重要的建设性作用。     

全球卫生公共产品供给:中国角色与路径

卫生议题正处在当前全球治理的突出位置,其核心是如何更有效地实现全球卫生公共产品供给。作为新兴负责任大国,中国秉持人类命运共同体理念,积极参与全球卫生治理体系变革,成为日益重要的引领者与公共产品供给者。中国通过多边、区域、双边等多元路径实现供给,国内与国际逻辑趋于统一,逐渐形成了自己的鲜明特色;但在供给体制、产品结构等方面也存在一些不足。新时代中国卫生外交需着眼于全球治理趋势,立足于自身实力与责任,通过提供更多全球卫生公共产品来推动全球卫生领域的良好治理,为构建人类卫生健康共同体作出应有贡献。     

The authoritarian logic of regulatory pluralism: Understanding China's new environmental actors

Over the last decade, Chinese citizens, judges, and prosecutors have started to take action against industrial pollution, pluralizing a regulatory landscape originally occupied by administrative agencies. Regulatory pluralism here has an authoritarian logic, occurring without the retreat of party‐state control. Under such logic, the party‐state both needs and fears new actors for their positive and negative roles in controlling risk and maintaining stability. Consequently, the regime's relation to regulatory pluralism is ambivalent, shifting between support and restriction. This prevents a development of a regulatory society that could bypass the regulatory state. Theoretically, this special edition argues for a subjective definition of regulation in a context of pluralism. Moreover, it finds that regulatory pluralism need not coincide with a decentring of regulation. Finally, it highlights how entry onto the regulatory landscape affects the non‐regulatory roles of new actors, creating unintended consequences for regulatory pluralism.     

Assessing “Global Lithuania”: the strengths and weaknesses of Lithuanian diaspora engagement strategy

Diasporas participate in the home country’s development through remittances, philanthropy, knowledge transfer, investment, and political engagement. Based on the theoretical perspective of network governance, this paper argues that governments can enhance diaspora contributions by offering incentives to engage with the homeland. The paper then applies this perspective to assess the effectiveness of Lithuania’s diaspora engagement policy. Based on successful strategies adopted by other countries, the paper makes recommendations on how to strengthen the incentives for the diaspora to participate in Lithuania’s political, social, economic, and cultural life, and on how to create a better environment for the diaspora’s contributions.     

South Africa and Japan: maintaining a difficult friendship

Japan's economic and political relationship with South Africa has been characterised historically by ambiguity. Throughout the twentieth century, economic ties were underpinned by mercantilist and strategic considerations. During apartheid, this placed Japan in an uneasy position as it sought to balance a relationship of expediency with wider foreign policy objectives in the rest of Africa and beyond. The demise of apartheid created the space for new forms of engagement centred on the pursuit of cognate goals. This has seen the intensification and deepening of economic ties in particular. Yet relations, especially at the political and diplomatic levels, have also been more complex than anticipated, and in recent years, the rise in Africa of other players from Asia and the Global South has had a bearing on South Africa–Japan ties. In this paper, it is argued that two related dynamics pivoting on policy elites’ changing conceptions (or self-view) of the nature of the state they are running and its place in the wider world order help explain the post-apartheid evolution of the South Africa–Japan relationship. First, there has been an apparent shift in South African foreign policy elites’ self-view, mediated by a changing systemic context. The development and manifestation over time of a stronger Global South self-conception in South African foreign policy, fashioned in juxtaposition to what have been considered in the past key Global North relationships, had direct consequences for South Africa–Japan ties. Second, meso- and micro-level dynamics – the role of the general operations in the diplomatic (i.e. bureaucratic) arena, and the personalities and shifting political preferences of individual executive leaders – had major impacts on how South Africa engaged with Japan in the past two decades.     

Interview with Nathalie Tocci on the Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy

The Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign And Security Policy, “Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe”, presented at the European Council on 24 June 2016 by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, was drafted by Nathalie Tocci, Deputy Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and co-editor of The International Spectator. 

Given the importance of the document, we asked Nathalie for an interview and 18 foreign policy experts from around the world to comment on it.