Looking back,thinking forward: Understanding the feasibility of normative supranationalism in the African Union

The creation of the African Union (AU) in 2002 was seen as a significant paradigm shift in the course of continental integration. Unlike its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, the AU has a normative framework that espouses supranational aspirations. Various aspects of the AU framework, such as the nature of some of the AU institutions, the declared right of intervention, and the objective of harmonising the policies of Regional Economic Communities under the AU umbrella, are allusions to supranationalism. Furthermore, it appears that normative supranationalism is the goal, in that these aspects indicate the intention on the part of the architects of the AU to create a regime under which AU laws and policies are superior to national and sub-regional rules. The fact that, after a decade of the AU's existence, little or no progress has been made in this regard requires serious introspection. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore some of the factors that militate against the effective operation of normative supranationalism in the AU and proffer recommendations on how to address those constraints.     

South Africa and Myanmar: Beware the politics of perfidy

The article examines the repressive actions of the government of Myanmar, focusing on its continuing incarceration of a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and questions the diplomatic route South Africa has chosen in terms of its relations with the country.     

Conflict dynamics and agonistic dialogue on historical violence: a case from Indonesia

This article contends that the type of high-level political consensus needed to reach a peace agreement is often insufficient for rebuilding and transforming wider social relations. Consensus-focused processes tend to suppress divergent views and experiences of conflict, particularly among grassroots conflict actors, and risk deepening social divides by homogenising diverse memories of past violence, with potentially dangerous consequences. In response to these concerns this article advances an understanding of agonistic dialogue and explores an example of such dialogue in communal conflict in Indonesia. Building on an understanding of effective dialogue as sustained, intensive and relational, this article also underscores the need for effective dialogue to have politico-institutional support and to be locally driven and owned by actors who are legitimate and trusted in the eyes of conflict protagonists.     

红色资源的抢救挖掘与利用——以《口述历史·延安的红色岁月》项目为例

《口述历史·延安的红色岁月》项目是干部教育培训资源挖掘开发的创新,是资源优势转化为教学优势的重组成部分,它以反映党中央在延安十三年史为基础,具有访问范围的广泛性、访问内容的针对性、访问流程的科学性、影像技术的独创性、媒资管理的先进性等特点。本文主论述了该项目的背景和意义、项目设计的基本思路、项目在运行过程中需处理的几个关系、项目实施的规范化和科学化、项目成果的转化和运用等五项内容。     

转型社会中防范公共权力异化问题思考

在社会转型的大背景下,一些政府部门存在的公共权力异化现象,会在一定程度上影响现阶段民主政治建设和社会主义和谐社会的全面构建。公共权力异化的一大表现就是公共权力的滥用和私用,进而滋生腐败,损害公民的合法权益。针对这些问题,应从法制层面、制度层面、伦理层面以及文化层面,探讨公共权力的合理规制和有效运用,进而完善权力运行机制,促使政府部门"权为民所用,利为民所谋"。     

The Fate of the State Revisited

The State, which during the three and a half centuries since the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) has been the most important and the most characteristic of all modern institutions, appears to be declining or dying. In many places, existing states are either combining into larger communities or falling apart; in many places, organizations that are not states are challenging them by means fair or foul. On the international level, we seem to be moving away form a system of separate, sovereign, legally equal, states towards less distinct, more hierarchical, and in many ways more complex political structures. Inside their borders, it seems that many states will soon no longer be able to protect the political, military, economic, social and cultural life of their citizens. These developments are likely to lead to upheavals as profound as those that took humanity out of the middle ages and into the modern world. Whether the direction of change is desirable, as some hope, or undesirable, as others fear, remains to be seen.     

Governing disorder: the Australian Federal Police and Australia's new regional frontier

Abstract

The Australian Federal Police has in recent years become an important actor in both the implementation and design of Australian-led state building interventions in Australia's near region of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. The article focuses on the recent expansion of the Australian Federal Police as a way of understanding the emergence of a new partly (and strategically) deterritorialized, ‘regional’ frontier of the Australian state. Within this new frontier, whose fluctuating outlines the Australian Federal Police not only polices but also to a considerable extent shapes and reshapes, as one of the primary expert agencies on identifying and managing transnational security risks, Australian security is portrayed as contingent on the quality of the domestic governance of neighbouring states, thereby creating linkages between the hitherto domestic governing apparatus of the Australian state and those of other countries. This allows for the rearticulation of the problems affecting intervened states and societies – indeed, their very social and political structures – in the depoliticized terms of the breakdown of ‘law and order’ and the absence of ‘good governance’, which not only rationalizes emergency interventions to stabilize volatile situations, but also delegitimizes and potentially criminalizes oppositional politics. The Australian Federal Police, however, does more than merely provide justification for intrusive state transformation projects. Its transnational policing activities open up a field of governance within the apparatus of intervened states that exists in separation from international and domestic law. The constitution of such interventions ‘within’ the state leaves intact the legal distinction between the domestic and international spheres and therefore circumvents the difficult issue of sovereignty. As a result, police and other executive-administrative actors obtain discretionary ordering powers, without dislodging the sovereign governments of intervened countries.     

A Common Future and a Common Identity： The Transformation Process of Political and Social Identities in the South Caucasus Countries

In reflecting on the case of the South Caucasus （Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia）, one of the most popular perspectives is its lack of a common identity. The main argument is that it is a culturally diverse region with old-fashioned, ethnically exclusive nationalism. From this point of view, the process of the formation of a European identity in the region acquires particular importance. A European identity could act as a catalyst for bringing the region together. This identity could be considered as based on much more than just political orientation but fundamentally grounded in common values. This comprehensive integration in the South Caucasus can be achieved through the formulation and acceptance of a common political identity based on the political orientations of the South Caucasian States and their citizens. The main question that this study tries to answer is how people in the South Caucasian countries identify themselves in terms of a European identity. A suitable analysis is increasingly important at both the micro and the macro levels. The author examines the people＇s attitudes in the three South Caucasian states toward Western culture, states, and organizations, drawing on opinion polls conducted by the Caucasus Research Resources Center （CRRC）. The author seeks to analyze attitudes toward the West in the South Caucasus on a macro as well as on a micro level. The author seeks also to provide a much-needed analysis for decision making, based on empirical data that help understand public opinion toward the European Union （EU） in the countries of the South Caucasus, and that can contribute to the refinement of integration strategies.     

Penetration,Overlay, Governmentality: The Evolving Role of NATO in the Western Balkan Security Dynamics

ABSTRACT

According to the Regional Complex Security Theory (RSCT) external involvement in regional security can take either the form of penetration or overlay. We theorise governmentality as the third form of external involvement aimed to responsibilise regions in order to govern them indirectly and at a distance. We illustrate our argument in a study of NATO’s role in the Western Balkans since the dissolution of Yugoslavia. In particular, we posit that the predominant role of NATO in the region has evolved over time from penetration in the 1990s, through overlay in the early 2000s, to today’s governmentality.     

区域环境治理中地方政府协调机制的构建

环境问题是一个关系到人类生存发展和社会进步的全局性问题。随着社会的发展和人类生活水平的提高,人们对于生活中的环境问题的重视程度也越来也高,对环境的治理越来越要求政府发挥更大作用。但是,环境治理是一个系统工程,需要众多的主体综合协作才能够取得好的成绩。各级地方政府要加强协作,构建和谐的区域性综合治理机制。