Organising for Effective Emergency Management: Lessons from Research1

The February 2009 bushfires have prompted a debate with regard to contemporary arrangements for dealing with large‐scale disasters. In this article, we seek to contribute to that debate by culling lessons learned from the literature on crisis and disaster management. We discuss what constitutes an effective disaster response system, we identify some key barriers to the effective functioning of such a system, and offer some suggestions for improvement.     

Organising Response to Extreme Emergencies: The Victorian Bushfires of 2009

How can people and organisations best respond to emergency events that are significantly beyond the boundaries of what they had generally anticipated, expected, prepared for – or even imagined? What forms of organisations are likely to be best able to cope with such events – and what procedures and practices will aid in their ability to do so? Obviously, extreme events – events that are in scope or scale or type beyond the range of our ordinary experience and expectations – by definition will occur only relatively rarely (and very rarely to any given emergency organisation). Nonetheless, when they do occur they tend to be of defining importance to the people and institutions that are thrust into them and that must find their way through them. September 11, 2001 in Manhattan and at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004; Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of the United States (US) in 2005; major earthquakes like the ones in Pakistan in 2005, Wenchuan in 2008, Haiti in 2010, Chile in 2010, and Christchurch in 2010 – these and other catastrophic events catapult people and response agencies into a new, unfamiliar, and largely unexplored dimension.     

The Banking Crisis: Grid,Group and the State of the Debate

The banking crisis and the recession it induced provide a salient backdrop to domestic and international politics. ² The International Monetary Fund (IMF 2010) estimates that total banking losses between 2008 and 2010 exceeded US$2.3 trillion. This article uses grid‐group theory to review the existing literature on the causes of the banking crisis and, in doing so, distinguishes between hierarchical, individualist, egalitarian and fatalist accounts of what went wrong and of what needs to be done to prevent another crisis from occurring. It is argued that the existing reform agenda is underpinned by a hierarchical analysis of the causes of the crisis and that this risks narrowing the support base for the reform process.     

理性认识金融危机下我国中间阶层的作用

在全球性金融危机中,中国承受着巨大压力,一部分人认为,作为社会中流砥柱的中间阶层能够以其强劲的消费拉动中国经济,从而维护社会的稳定与发展。文章认为,在金融危机下,这不是一种理性的对待中间阶的态度,并从经济、政治和社会责任感三个角度,分析了在当前环境下这种观点是值得商榷的,随后,从不能正视中间阶层的现状,忽略中国社会发展的实情以及对中间阶层理解的偏差性等方面分析了持这种观点的原因。     

Transnistrian strategy in the context of Russian–Ukrainian relations: the rise and failure of ‘dual alignment’

Abstract

The diversification of allegiances with several more powerful states is seen as a way for minor actors to improve their strategic position in the international system. The result, however, could become less than desirable when these relations are both essential and contradictory. This article intends to examine the challenges for Transnistrian foreign policy through the concepts of bandwagoning and balancing. It uses alternative neorealist perspectives to identify various types of alignment and then examines how this landlocked territorial entity attempts to use relations with Russia and Ukraine to protect its statehood and identity in the context of the ongoing threat from Moldova. This article identifies that twice in the last decade (after the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan), the strategy of ‘dual alignment’ failed. It claims that recent attempts by both the EU and Ukraine to weaken Russia’s position in the region by isolating Transnistria has led to a further strengthening of ties between this actor and Moscow.     

中国国家粮食安全战略演进及前瞻

粮食安全始终是关系中国国民经济发展、社会稳定和国家安全的全局性战略问题。自新中国成立以来,通过多次粮食战略的调整,已经形成了相对完善的粮食安全保障体系。中国的粮食产量总体上呈现的是波动式增长的趋势,这种增长与中央粮食战略的调整均有一定关系。国家粮食战略经过了20世纪50年代的从互助组到统购统销、60年代的进口粮食缓解粮食危机、70和80年代的家庭联产承包责任制直至21世纪初期至今的从取消农业税到严防死守18亿亩耕地红线这样一个过程。中国粮食安全面临粮农种粮的相对收益较低的结构性矛盾,要解决这一矛盾,必须从国家层面加大投入资本和提高基础设施建设能力,大力推动农业科技创新,努力在提高粮食生产能力上挖掘新潜力,在优化农业结构上开辟新途径,在转变农业发展方式上寻求新突破,在促进农民增收上获得新成效。自2004年以来,中共中央、国务院"一号文件"多次聚焦"三农"问题,始终强调粮食安全的重要性,这凸显了国家在协调粮食政策运转过程中的重要作用及中共中央对粮食安全的高度重视。只有保住"安全口粮和放心粮",才能保证中国到21世纪中叶顺利达到中等发达国家水平。     

The politics of market reforms: Korea's path from Chaebol Republic to market democracy and back

This paper studies the politics of market-oriented reforms in Korea since the 1997/98 financial crisis. It focuses on the capacity of the state to implement these reforms, and challenges the view that successfully implemented market reforms follow a technocratic ‘best practice’ approach. On the contrary, this paper argues that reforms in Korea were relatively successful because they were political projects that went beyond ownership concepts of the IMF and World Bank. The temporary weakness of big business (chaebol) and the formation of reform coalitions by the government created a balance of power between societal interest groups that opened a political space for the government. The state regained some of the autonomy it had lost during the ‘Chaebol Republic’ from 1987 to 1997 and was able to implement reforms in a temporary corporatist framework. However, the chaebol adapted to the new situation and used the market-friendly reforms in their favour. The re-emergence of the chaebol undermined state autonomy and with the inauguration of the new President and former chaebol CEO Lee Myung Bak in 2008, Korea is arguably entering the second Chaebol Republic.     

全球金融危机背景下俄罗斯的亚太外交

俄罗斯是一个横跨欧亚大陆的国家,亚太地区在俄罗斯外交政策中占据重要地位。俄罗斯新任总统梅德韦杰夫继续实行务实、平衡的亚太政策。面对各种传统和非传统安全威胁,应对全球金融经济危机的严峻挑战,俄罗斯积极开展亚太地区外交活动。俄罗斯积极发展与亚太地区邻国的关系,特别是俄罗斯与中印的战略伙伴关系,广泛参加亚太地区事务,开展多边对话与合作。俄罗斯积极推动国际金融结构和货币体系改革,扩大亚太地区政治、经济、安全对话与合作,以及亚太地区安全体系建设。通过发展俄罗斯与亚太地区关系,促进了俄罗斯东西伯利亚和远东地区的经济发展,为俄罗斯大国外交开拓亚太战略空间。     

Linking two levels of governance: Citizens’ trust in domestic and European institutions over time

This article puts forward a comprehensive framework for explaining the complex and dynamic relationship between trust in the domestic government and trust in the EU, considering time, country and individual-level variation. Using longitudinal comparative data from 32 Eurobarometer survey waves (2004–2018), we first establish that the link between attitude formation at the national and the EU supranational levels is present over time. Second, we show that during ‘extraordinary’ times of crisis the strength of that relationship intensifies. Third, we posit that the European sovereign debt crisis changed the mechanism for this relationship in two ways: during ‘extraordinary’ times, the link is much stronger in countries hardest hit by the crisis, and the relationship holds independent of individuals' political sophistication across all countries. Our findings have implications for understanding the drivers of EU support and theories of institutional trust.     

美国金融危机对泰国金融业的影响

作为1997年亚洲金融危机的始发国和重创国,泰国金融业在此次金融危机中受到的影响程度备受关注。本文在金融危机传导机制的基础上分析了美国金融危机对泰国金融业的影响,并探索对我国金融业健康发展的一些启示。