Understanding EU crisis diplomacy in the European neighbourhood: strategic narratives and perceptions of the EU in Ukraine,Israel and Palestine

ABSTRACT

This Special Issue seeks to better understand the role of communication and perception in EU crisis diplomacy. In a recent Special Issue in this journal, Catarina Kinnvall, Ian Manners and Jennifer Mitzen argue that, “?…?the greatest security challenge facing people across Europe is not physical, despite the threats of Putin and ISIS, but is a sense of fear and anxiety over their daily lives” [2018. Introduction to 2018 Special Issue of European Security: “Ontological (in)security in the European Union”. European security, 27 (3), 249–265]. We take an interdisciplinary approach to widen the scope of studies on European security and offer new avenues for further research into how citizens in the EU’s neighbourhood understand the security challenges they face and the role the EU plays in addressing these. Through this, we aim to bring theoretical and methodological innovation to understanding the role of the EU as an external actor.     

Recasting Leadership Reform in Australian Local Government: A Typology from Political Theory

Changes to elected leadership in Australian local government have seen greater authority assigned to mayors in several jurisdictions. A Discussion Paper recently released under the auspices of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government (ACELG) has recommended further reforms, arguing inter alia that mayors ought to enjoy a personal mandate and a stronger strategic role. This paper places these suggested reforms into context by developing a typology of local government leadership from political theory. We argue that this quadrilateral typology provides a critical portrait of recommendations for stronger leadership which, in this instance, have been transposed from two unitary systems of government (England and New Zealand) to the Australian federal system, without due consideration of the literature examining stronger mayoral roles. It is argued that caution should be exercised when redrafting legislation governing mayoral authority, a process presently underway in New South Wales (NSW).     

Operationalizing Strategy Content: An Example from the Transit Industry

While models of organizational strategy saturate private sector research, public sector research lags behind. The model created by Boyne and Walker (2004) is an exception. The main objective of this study is to operationalize this model using a unique data set from the US transit industry. Through a survey of 103 local transit agencies, we developed separate strategy profiles for each agency that help us answer important questions about organizational strategy. We find that not only do the organizations adopt a mix of strategic stances through the action areas; they also have distinct profiles, which vary greatly between agencies.     

超越“确保摧毁”：核武器数量、承诺可信度与核威慑原理

现有几乎所有关于核威慑的理论和政策研究都认为,核武器数量是否达到确保摧毁门槛对核威慑有效性有决定性影响。这种"确保摧毁"原则对学界的影响已达到范式级程度,以至于学者们在争论中国核武器数量够不够这个政策问题时,均自发地从该原则出发论证各自的主张。本文认为,"确保摧毁"范式忽视了承诺可信度在核威慑生效过程中所起的关键性作用,特别是未能充分意识到核武器数量变化对承诺可信度的反向影响以及这种反向影响对核威慑生效机制的影响,因而错将是否具备确保摧毁能力作为判断核威慑是否有效的唯一标准。通过剖析核武器数量、承诺可信度与核威慑有效性三者的作用关系,充分说明,"确保摧毁"既不是核威慑有效的充分条件,也不是其必要条件;未达到确保摧毁门槛时无需增加核武器同样有可能实现有效核威慑,而达到该门槛后为确保威慑有效反而应当(继续)增加核武器。超越"确保摧毁"范式有助于更准确、更完整地理解核威慑生效的全部机制。     

人工智能影响复合战略稳定的作用路径:基于模型的考察

技术进步与时代变迁促使战略稳定的体系框架发生了重大变化。战略稳定理论的研究视角也经历了从核战略稳定、军事战略稳定到复合战略稳定的转变。一个新时期的复合战略稳定模型为探求上述理论与现实之间的互动提供了支撑,即通过战略能力、战略行为和战略意愿等三大链条,分析复合战略稳定的要素构成与互动关系,并且选取最有代表性的颠覆性技术——人工智能作为案例,分析其在复合战略稳定模型中的作用路径。人工智能的优势在于能够打破国家战略能力、战略行为和战略意愿三者的间隔,通过对战略能力的全面渗透效应、对战略意愿的双向引导效应、对战略行为的动态介入效应,从正负两个方面影响复合战略稳定。但是,人工智能对战略稳定的影响在多数情况下是负面的。这一发现,对于更好地认识人工智能对战略稳定的影响,以及维护战略稳定和提升人工智能治理能力,都具有重要的启示意义。     

Unequal Voices: ‘Strategic’ Consultation in South Australia

In 2006, the South Australian government undertook the largest consultation ever to take place in the state. Over 1600 South Australians were involved with the consultation on the revision of South Australia's Strategic Plan (SASP). This ‘big‐picture’ consultation was a significant attempt to connect with, and gain feedback from, the South Australian ‘community’ on the Rann government's vision for the state. This article is the first formal evaluation of the 2006 consultation on the SASP. To critically evaluate the consultation process, this article uses Pratchett's framework which examines participative processes through the two principles of responsiveness and representativeness. The article concludes that the state government's rhetoric about the success of the consultation obscures a number of deficiencies and tensions that underpinned the consultation process. This critique of the South Australian consultation provides some key insights for the current trend for strategic planning at the state level in Australia.     

Information strategy： An analysis framework

Strategic information requirements define which information an enterprise needs to operate and manage its business. These requirements are told ＂strategic＂, since they are at a very high abstraction level, and reflect what managers want to know about operations. In an ideal world, managers would simply express their needs in natural language and the analyst will translate them in actual systems. To get close to these ideal results, a key point is to structure requirements and go from a strategic level, suitable for managers but not for IT analysts, from a semantic level, suitable for IT analysts. For this purpose, we here present an approach to strategic information requirements elicitation （SIRE）. It includes a meta-model, analysis steps and a software tool. The meta-model describes the information domains of the enterprise. The design steps specify the activities the analyst should perform to go from a strategic level to an engineering level. SIRE is based on some key ideas. First, an enterprise processes information made of universal information domains, which include stakeholders, products, process and contexts. By specializing these domains, the analyst identifies domains specific to individual enterprises. Second, whatever domain includes different information types： Master information that defines structural properties, transaction information that describes events, indicators that describe performances. By crossing information domains and types the analyst identifies strategic information entities （SIE）. The method requires few definitions and is readily understood by management and users. Of course, it can be used to design new systems. Additionally, it can be used in information systems planning to assess the coverage of current systems （fill-gap analysis）. The tool enables to store high level schemas that can be mapped against real database schemas of commercial software platforms to understand their coverage.     

企业战略联盟伙伴选择研究

企业战略联盟对于提高企业抗风险的能力,实现企业绩效稳定持续增长具有非常重要的意义。虽然战略联盟具有很多优势,但却是很难管理的一种组织方式。据资料显示,战略联盟的成功率只有30%,而失败的主要原因是与联盟伙伴的关系问题。如何使战略联盟取得成功,进一步改进战略联盟的稳定性,是所有参加联盟的企业必须考虑的重大问题。     

后冷战时期越俄关系的转型与重塑

越南与俄罗斯的关系既是冷战时期越苏关系的沿袭,又有别于冷战时期的越苏关系。从冷战前以意识形态为纽带、以战略利益为基础的双边军事同盟,到后冷战时期不同社会制度国家平等互利国家关系的建构,再到世纪之初战略伙伴关系的重塑,直至近期双边关系的持续升温,越俄双边关系已经发生根本嬗变。     

关于加强中国热点外交的若干对策思考

目前中国热点外交所面临的挑战和存在的问题,主要反映在思想、理论与实践等领域。为解决这些问题,在思想上,中国要从战略高度对热点外交进行定位,具体表现在要从统筹国际和国内两个大局的高度看待热点外交的战略重要性,要从中国的价值理念与外交政策定位热点外交的指导思想与目标。在理论研究方面,中国要从国家利益、地缘政治、介入和参与的身份与环境要求等角度,对热点问题分类,并建立长效研究机制。在实践方面,中国应通过灵活运用外交基本原则、完善特使制度、增强外交统筹和平衡、加强中美战略对话、加大对伊朗核问题参与力度、创新外援体制、创新公共外交机制,解决当前热点外交面临的紧迫问题。