“David Byrne really does love PowerPoint”: art as research on semiotics and semiotic technology

This article presents a reading of David Byrne's Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, an art work created with MicroSoft's presentation software PowerPoint, as an instance of creative research on semiotics and semiotic technology. It reveals commonalities and differences between Byrne's ideas about PowerPoint and related ideas from linguistics and semiotics, and is intended as a contribution to research on PowerPoint, and on semiotic technologies generally, as well as to efforts aimed at developing criteria for evaluating art as research on semiotics.     

Relational representation: an agency-based approach to global justice

This paper argues that Amartya Sen’s comparative approach to justice requires a politics that is attentive to the agency of the other. Rethinking representation as a relational, rather than a sovereign, concept captures the relationship between agency and justice that is emerging in global politics today. It is increasingly common that non-governmental actors engage with communities through practices of trust and responsibility without appeal to political authority. Relational representation helps clarify the dynamics of these relationships and provides a way to think about their purpose. That purpose is to effect changes that ameliorate suffering and injustice, working to re-present the represented persons as more capable persons, more free to use their agency.     

Nothing Succeeds Like Access? NGO Strategies Towards Multilateral Institutions

Despite a large literature on international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), we still know relatively little about their nature as strategic actors. This article addresses this gap, arguing that a key determinant of NGOs' strategies towards multilateral institutions in particular is their level of formalization. NGOs' choices over both organizational structure and strategy towards multilateral institutions reflect their level of commitment to being a social movement organization. Some NGOs bureaucratize their organizations and seek insider access to (and influence in) multilateral institutions, while others reject formalization as betraying the social movement network ethos and inviting co-option. Drawing on an original database, this article demonstrates that NGOs adopting formal bureaucratic structures are more likely to engage in insider strategies—i.e. lobby and seek accreditation at multilateral institutions—than those maintaining informal coalitional structures, regardless of these NGOs' budgets, age, or ideology. This finding gives us new insight into the divisions within global civil society and the limited prospects for cooperation between two sets of actors central to emerging forms of global governance.     

Do indicators influence treaty ratification? The relationship between mid-range performance and policy change

Treaties are a valuable tool for policymakers because they are both legally binding on, and symbolically powerful signals of, commitments of states that ratify. Why states choose to ratify treaties is unclear, although social pressures appear to play some role. This article argues that global performance indicators can influence the ratification process, but that the effect varies depending on where states fall on these measures. In the mid-range of a scale, fast ratification has significant benefits and relatively few costs. However, indicators have less of a catalysing effect at the extreme ends of the scale, where the costs are higher and the benefits are lower. This article uses policy performance indicators as independent variables in duration analyses of the ratification of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (2003) and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (2000). It finds states in the mid-range of the indicator are faster to ratify than states that are not ranked, whereas the other categories are statistically insignificant. These findings imply that indicators matter for those in the middle, but not as much for those at the extremes. This finding enriches our understanding of treaty ratification and has potential implications for performance metrics as a tool to promote policy change for those states in the middle, highlighting the strengths and limitations of indicators as a force for change.     

对全球化的思考

全球化在加速各国融入世界体系进程的同时,也带来了生态环境、能源、人口等一系列全球性问题,这些问题可以通过多极化得以更好的解决。中国作为最大的发展中国家,应该并且能够在国际舞台上发挥更为重要的作用。     

试析尼克松政府全球均势外交的实施背景

20世纪60年代中后期到70年代初,美国深陷越战,国力相对衰落,而同时期国际几大力量却出现了重大改组。面对复杂的国际、国内局势,为了使其对外战略与国力相适应,尼克松政府大规模调整了美国的外交政策。显然,尼克松政府实施全球均势外交是有其深刻的国际国内背景的。     

北京构建世界城市的政府治理研究

法治是世界城市的一个不可或缺的特征或者要素。完善的法治是北京建设世界城市的重要内容,也是实现世界城市目标的城市治理途径。北京创建世界城市应该在重视国际市场规律的基础上,采取政府主导、多方参与型的治理模式。在重视培育成熟的公民社会同时,应重点加强政府与公务员队伍建设,加强政府信息公开制度、法律制度、决策制度的建设。     

全球治理时代国际贸易关系的法治

在全球化深入发展的条件下,为实现全人类共同利益和保障基本人权,在现代国际贸易关系领域,力图以世界各国普遍接受的国际贸易法律规范,在全球范围内更有效地实现其调整国际贸易关系的功能,呈现出以追求全球正义为目标的法治。无庸置疑,国际贸易关系领域的法治是全球化语境下应对全球化挑战的理性抉择。在全球化语境下可以国际贸易关系面临的诸多矛盾与冲突等方面探讨当代国际贸易关系确立法治实现全球治理的现实路径。     

The Malaise of Federalism: Comparative Reflections on Commonwealth–State Relations

The High Court's decision in the ‘Work Choices’ case expanding further the scope of the Commonwealth's enumerated powers is the latest reminder of the highly centralised nature of Australian federalism. The division of powers traditionally forming the essence of a federal system has become increasingly difficult to discern and the roles and responsibilities of the two levels of government have become entangled. While for a good part of Australia's history divided jurisdiction was deplored as an obstacle to progress in government, today the decay of the system is most likely to be lamented. Discussion of options for reform presupposes an understanding of the forces that have led to the present condition. This article examines the Australian experience in a broader comparative and historical perspective and suggests that those forces are endemic and substantial.     

不扩散全球治理:现实主义视角

在全球化时代,民族国家奉行主权防务的传统没有改变。基于现实主义的视角,所有大规模毁伤性武器的扩散主要都有安全动因的驱动,解决扩散问题必须提供可信的替代安全产品,集体防御以及合作安全都具有这种功效。霸权可能导致一时的稳定,但更会引起大规模毁伤性武器扩散所带来的长期性的不稳定。同时,扩散不仅容易产生地区失稳,它也不无平衡霸权从而产生新的稳定。然而所有个体的理性,未必保证系统的整体理性。在平衡国家安全和国际安全之间,经由全球治理来交换国家安全利益从而促使人类社会分享更为普遍的安全,乃是一种更为理想的出路。