Looking towards the East: the High Representative’s role in EU foreign policy on Kosovo and Ukraine

ASBTRACT

My article addresses the role of the two post-Lisbon High Representatives (HRs), Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini, in EU approach to the Eastern neighbourhood. Adopting a broad conceptualisation of EU foreign policy and drawing on the scholarly literature on new intergovernmentalism, it focuses on events that marked the HRs' mandates in the cases of Kosovo and Ukraine. In the case of Kosovo, it examines the HRs' role in the conclusion of the so-called Brussels Agreement (April 2013); and of the August 2015 agreements. In the case of Ukraine, it reconstructs how the HRs dealt with the events leading up to the November 2013 Vilnius Summit; and with those leading up to the conclusion in February 2015 of the Minsk II Agreement. The article argues that the European Council exerts tight control over the post-Lisbon HR, and EU foreign policy-making processes more generally. Nonetheless, the empirical analysis demonstrates that, under certain circumstance, the HR can significantly influence EU foreign policy in the post-Lisbon era.     

Between fragmenting and multiplying: scale-shift processes in Serbian and Croatian antiwar activisms

This paper follows the almost contemporaneous emergence of the two primary antiwar initiatives in Belgrade and Zagreb to explore how they acted as hotbeds from which permanent human rights organizations appeared in the newly created nation-states. Drawing mostly upon in-depth interviews with antiwar activists from Serbia and Croatia, I argue that the dominant patterns of protest expansion were different in the two countries. While cooperation and tensions existed within both antiwar groups, the Antiwar Campaign of Croatia acted as a broker, leading toward the multiplication of civic initiatives; on the other hand, the Belgrade Center for Antiwar Action was characterized by ideological, professional, and personal divisions, which caused a rapid fragmentation of antiwar undertakings. This paper outlines the main reasons for such expansion patterns (scale-shift processes) and discusses them in the light of recent theoretical advances in political contention studies.     

The limits of feminist political intervention in Singapore

This article uncovers the strongly ideological quality in Singapore's theory and practice of pragmatism. It also points to a strongly pragmatic quality in the ideological negotiations that play out within the dynamics of hegemony. In this complex relationship, the combination of ideological and pragmatic manoeuvring over the decades has resulted in the historic political dominance of the People's Action Party (PAP) government in partnership with global capital. But in an evolving, diversifying and globalising society, this manoeuvring has also engendered a number of mismatched expectations. It has also seen a greater sensitivity and attention to the inherent ideological contradictions and socio-economic inequalities that may erode what has been a relatively stable partnership between state and capital. This article argues that Singapore's one-party dominant state is the result of continuous ideological work that deploys the rhetoric of pragmatism to link the notion of Singapore's impressive success and future prospects to its ability to attract global capital. In turn, this relies on maintaining a stable political system dominated by an experienced, meritocratic and technocratic PAP government. While this Singaporean conventional wisdom has supported the political and economic interests of the state and global capital in a period of neo-liberal globalisation, its internal contradictions and external pressures have also begun to challenge its hegemonic pre-eminence.     

The Struggle for Recognition of the Indigenous Voice: Amerindians in Guyanese Politics

Abstract

In Guyana’s racialised geography, Amerindians live in scattered villages in the vast hinterland that covers 90% of the country. Amerindian iconography is appropriated in state-making, even while Amerindians themselves are consigned to a patron–client relationship with the dominant ‘coastlander’ society. In the late 1950s, Amerindians made up only 4% of the national population but voted as a bloc in the national elections of 1957, 1961 and 1964, rallying around Stephen Campbell, the first Amerindian member of the legislature. Their unified position allowed their political leaders to negotiate a commitment to the settlement of Amerindian land claims as a condition of Independence in 1966. After losing its parliamentary majority in 2011, the coastlander-based party in power has been working to disrupt cohesion among Amerindian community leaders. The government uses a variety of funds to reward community leaders who will sign pre-prepared resolutions at the statutory National Toshaos Council meetings, and denies funds to leaders and communities that protest at government neglect and mismanagement of the traditional areas claimed by the indigenous peoples.     

高较党外代表人士培养选拔工作的思考

做好高校党外知识分子工作,特别是党外代表人士培养选拔工作,是高校面临的重要任务,新一代党外代表人士高职称、高学历,视野开阔,思想敏锐,开拓精神和参与意识强。高校党外代表人士培养选拔工作要抓住源头,注重整体规划,抓好各个落实环节,进一步提高认识,切实贯彻落实中央有关文件精神,加大党外代表人士培养选拔工作力度。     

网络集体行动发生机制的探索性研究——以2008年网络事件为例

网络时代的来临使得网络集体行动成为社会科学界研究的一个新焦点。网络集体行动具有不同于传统集体行动的特征:其发生场域是网络公共领域,主体是网络民众,客体是以政府为核心的多元化呈现,主要方式是网民的口头抗议与表达。集体行动发生机制的西方理论解释框架和本土解释模型为网络集体行动的研究提供了良好范本,价值累加理论、建构主义理论取向以及本土解释模型中的怨恨变量、动员变量和理性变量经过适当的调整同样可以解释网络集体行动为何会发生,对2008年的五个网络热点事件的剖析或许可以佐证理论的强大生命力。     

劳动权益受损与行动选择研究:两代农民工的比较

新生代农民工利益抗争行动参与比例远高于第一代农民工.影响新生代农民工利益抗争行动的主要因素是工资权益受损及认知、人生及健康侵害经历和认知、结社力量;影响第一代农民工利益抗争行动的主要因素是劳动合同签订情况、工会与居住状况.客观权益受损及其认知对于新生代农民工利益抗争行动的影响说明工人的意识、觉醒及阶级经历对于行动的重要...     

The politics of misogyny: General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization of Pakistan’s legal system

General Zia-ul-Haq’s ambitious Islamization program vis-à-vis gender status in an Islamic Republic remains embedded in the legal system to the detriment of Pakistan’s females. Passage of the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 was a harbinger of things to come as the military junta moved to implement laws perceived to be congruent with Shariah (Islamic) law. This article examines specific discriminatory legal measures, which ensured the reversal of the slow but significant gains made by females since Pakistan’s creation in 1947; and explores how certain draconian measures enacted by Zia’s regime served to mobilize some Pakistani women to political activism.     

逆向平权选举的工具依赖——国家法团主义协调机制

参与选举是维护公民政治权利的一种基本形式,通过立法落实各选举原则是保障公民选举权的逻辑前提。根据乘积原理,公民选举权的落实状况是由各选举原则所组成的关系系统决定的,挖掘各选举原则的核心要素并分析这些要素在选举中发挥作用的有效程度,就可以推导出落实公民选举权的一般情形。在我国,以逆向平权为基本运行规则的选举逻辑根植于国家法团主义内部,数量有限的各法定团体和组织以责任明确、非竞争性的方式参与各项政治选举,它们在政治表达和代理人选择方面给予国家以组织化的支持并自愿接受国家的控制。这种以利益协调为本位的制度设计,是各选举组织的民意代表功能明显不足的现实缘由。