Britain and Japan: a survey of recent books in English dealing with aspects of Anglo-Japanese relations

Abstract

Since the Japan Festival in the UK in 1991 some significant studies in English have been published about Anglo-Japanese relations. Two sets of volumes stand out. These are the five volumes in the History of Anglo-Japanes Relations 1600–2000 and the ten volumes in the series Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits which have covered up to six hundred British and Japanese personalities and themes. Some aspects of Anglo-Japanese relations and some personalities deserve further attention. Cultural exchanges have developed greatly in the seventy years since the end of the Second World War and merit research and analysis. Considerably more detailed work needs to be done on Anglo-Japanese trade and financial relations and on Japanese investment in the UK and British investment in Japan.     

Never Thaw that coming! Latin American regional integration and the US–Cuba Thaw

Existing accounts of the US–Cuba Thaw correctly identify the decisiveness of Latin American states in pushing the 2014 change in US policy towards Cuba. Problematically, however, these accounts overlook a range of regional integration projects pursued by Latin American states that prove pivotal in ascertaining the central dynamics of the region in shaping the Thaw. This article argues that these regional integration projects are imperative to understanding how Latin American states were able to alter US policy towards Cuba, for three reasons. First, these initiatives, and Cuba’s role in these projects, are central to understanding why Cuba came to be a unanimously ‘regional’ issue for Latin American states of all political persuasions; second, the challenges to US dominance in the region provided by these integration projects were ultimately what gave Latin American states their teeth in pushing the Obama administration to reconsider its policy towards Cuba; and third, a consideration of this broader regional context more thoroughly illustrates the strategic nature of the change in policy towards Cuba as an attempt by the US to salvage its ability to influence regional affairs in response to these integration initiatives that excluded it from the region’s architecture.     

‘New friends,easier partners and bigger brothers’: The influence of the emerging powers on agriculture and food security in Malawi

Emerging powers are credited with influencing development cooperation, but field-based studies incorporating the viewpoints of recipient developing country actors are scarce. This article analyses the presence and the material, ideational and institutional influence of assistance in agriculture and food security in Malawi by the governments of Brazil, India, China and South Africa. The findings suggest first that, despite a similar and powerful discourse linking these four states, in practice the emerging powers' approaches diverge to a large extent. Second, the material influence of these emerging powers is relatively limited and consequently so is their influence on Malawi's decision-making process with regard to development. Finally, perceptions about the emerging powers' potential contribution to addressing development challenges differ greatly between the Malawian government and the traditional donor community. This difference arises from limited coordination and cooperation on the one hand and the importance of ideational influence on the other.     

Stages of PPP and Principal–Agent Conflicts: The Swedish Water and Sewerage Sector

The focus of this article is on public–private partnerships (PPPs). The aim is to both theoretically and empirically illustrate PPP agency problems in four PPP stages, as well as to identify potentially relevant solutions to the agency problems. The study employed a longitudinal case study of one PPP in a municipality in southern Sweden. Through an analysis based on interviews, observations, and documents, the study illustrates a number of agency problems faced by PPPs and highlights the importance of resource allocation, stakeholder management, and the creation of a common identity in reducing these problems.     

What’s Sex (Composition) Got to Do with It? The Importance of Sex Composition of Gangs for Female and Male Members’ Offending and Victimization

Sex composition of groups has been theorized in organizational sociology and found in prior work to structure female and male members’ behaviors and experiences. Peer group and gang literature similarly finds that the sex gap in offending varies across groups of differing sex ratios. Drawing on this and other research linking gang membership, offending, and victimization, we examine whether sex composition of gangs is linked to sex differences in offending in this sample, further assess whether sex composition similarly structures females’ and males’ victimization experiences, and if so, why. Self-report data from gang members in a multi-site, longitudinal study of 3,820 youths are employed. Results support previous findings about variations in member delinquency by both sex and sex composition of the gang and also indicate parallel variations in members’ victimization. These results are further considered within the context of facilitating effects such as gender dynamics, gang characteristics, and normative orientation.     

道义朝鲜与征兵制度——二战时期“尾高法哲学”的一个侧面

尾高朝雄是20世纪日本法哲学史上一位有着重大影响的学者。随着日本战后民主化改革和民主主义法学的强固,曾经扮演了迎合日本军国主义并从法哲学角度对其进行理论包装的尾高在二战时期任职朝鲜京城大学(现在的首尔大学)教授期间的著作,作为"尾高法哲学"的一个侧面,在当今的日本法哲学界,已经被打入历史冷宫而鲜有能够问津之人了。但法律实证主义何以会与纳粹、帝国主义等带来人类惨重悲剧的国家行为相关联、法哲学家本应有的独立思考和学术批判精神何以会丧失,在这些问题意识的拷问之下,尾高和其他著名的使法哲学沦为政治的御用哲学、从而应当深刻反思和忏悔的学者一样,毫无疑问是一个有着特殊研究价值的学术个案。     

Negotiating North–South dynamics and the Philippine experience in the WTO

This paper elucidates how domestic and external factors have shaped the negotiating policy of the Philippines in bringing about incremental gains not only for its benefit but also for other developing countries during the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture Doha Development Round (DDR). The internal factors include the following: (1) executive monopoly of the WTO negotiations; (2) issue-based fragmentation and dispersal of authority; (3) the autonomy and flexibility of the Philippine WTO negotiator; (4) the involvement of civil society in the WTO negotiations, and (4) the central role of the Department of Agriculture as the lead agency in the WTO negotiations. A major reason for this is attributed to an external factor which is the centrality of agriculture as a major WTO issue among developing countries. Other external factors, on the other hand, include the following: (1) the strong solidarity among developing countries and (2) the confinement to particular issues with regards to coalition-building. These factors helped to strengthen the bargaining leverage of the Philippines, a seemingly ‘weak’ country, vis-à-vis the developed countries in the WTO.     

History and hero-making: patriotic narratives and the Sovietization of Kazakh front-line propaganda, 1941–1945

This article analyses Soviet agitprop that was produced for Kazakhstani soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. The author argues that one of the main goals of this propaganda was to cultivate a complementary Soviet-Kazakh identity. Conditions at the front made this difficult to accomplish, but Soviet propagandists persisted in tailoring their propaganda for the benefit of Kazakh soldiers. As the war progressed, Kazakh front-line propaganda acquired a more unambiguously Soviet orientation, a consequence of the elimination of key themes derived from Kazakh national history and considered too politically volatile by the Communist Party. The article concludes by suggesting that the narratives articulated during World War II by Soviet propagandists went a long ways towards setting the contours of a prescribed Soviet-Kazakh identity.     

‘How Do You Think I Feel? It's My Country’: Belonging,Entitlement and the Politics of Immigration

Current debates around immigration are informed by hierarchies of belonging, with some groups seen to belong more, and therefore deserve more, than others. This link between belonging and entitlement has been predominantly analysed in relation to struggles over access to key material benefits, such as jobs, housing, healthcare and so on. This paper will argue that these struggles also point to the continuing relevance of nationhood to many people's sense of self, community and place and the value that comes from being positioned, and recognised, as part of a group that lies at the heart of national life and culture. In other words, the ‘politics of immigration’ is about the anxieties and concerns of those who no longer feel ‘at home’ in what they consider to be ‘their’ country.     

英国欧陆均势政策的原因探析

均势既是国家的一种对外政策和对外行为,又是国际体系的一种运行状态和存在形式。几个世纪以来,英国将均势政策视为一种"金科玉律"或国际政治铁律,有着深刻和复杂的根源。在近现代欧洲国际政治中,面对欧洲大陆一系列统治者屡次掀起的追求霸权的狂潮,作为欧洲大陆外缘海岛国家的英国,基于自身的利益考量,采取均势外交政策,制衡和打击霸权追求者成为英国在此期间经久不息和坚持不懈的政策与行动。