Public Pension Funds and Alternative Investments: A Tale of Four Swedish National Pension Funds

This exploratory study offers insights into why public pension plans might invest in alternative asset classes at levels inconsistent with modern portfolio theory. Using a case study methodology, the research relies on fieldwork data and in-depth interviews with individuals familiar with four Swedish national pension funds. The findings suggest that alternative assets are perceived as important vehicles for improving portfolio diversification, but that the funds’ propensity to invest in them is constrained by information asymmetry and access to alternatives. The findings also indicate that investment restrictions and political considerations have had limited effects on decisions to invest in alternative assets.     

长期股权投资两种核算方法的比较与转换

长期股权投资在会计核算上有两种方法 :成本法和权益法。这两种核算方法具有不同的特点并能够实现相互之间的账务转换。企业应当根据不同情况 ,分别采用成本法或权益法核算     

Searching for Sanctuary: Government Power and the Location of Maritime Piracy

Recent systematic work on the incidence of maritime piracy shows the importance of various political, economic, and geographic correlates at the country level. Yet these correlates tell us little about the determinants of piracy location off states’ coasts, despite the fact that piracy is well known to cluster locally. Conceptualizing pirates as strategic actors who consider the risk of detection and capture, this article argues that states’ ability to project power over distance affects pirates’ decisions on where to organize and operate. As state capacity increases, piracy will locate farther away from government power centers, whereas piracy can flourish closer to state capitals in weak states that struggle to extend control over space. Using geocoded data from the International Maritime Bureau for the 1996–2013 period, results show that increases in state capacity are associated with greater median capital--piracy distances. These findings are robust to several changes in model specification. Our results have important implications for the study of piracy and crime.     

Civil Society–Government Synergy and Normative Power Italy

There is a need for a reassessment of the Italian contribution to international affairs. If a more comprehensive and pluralist reading of Italian action at the international level is developed, an image of normative power Italy may emerge. Italian input has been crucial in a number of transnational campaigns that have had significant impact at the international level. The cases of the peace in Mozambique, the International Criminal Court, the Moratorium on the Death Penalty and, more recently, the Ban on Female Genital Mutilation all illustrate Italy’s contribution to international affairs, especially the politics of norm change. These cases are all characterised by the presence of intense civil society-government synergy. In order to advance the understanding of the processes and impact of transnational mobilisations, this analysis examines the domestic conditions that facilitated such synergy, intended as key conditions for the empowerment of transnational activism itself.     

跨国公司来华投资新趋向及我国应对政策与法律原则探析

进入九十年代以来,跨国公司来华投资较前发生了重大变化,并表现出鲜明的特点。跨国公司作为推动经济全球化的重要力量,对我国引进外资和社会经济发展的作用越来越大,本文从跨国公司来华投资的新趋向入手,在分析我国应对跨国公司的政策及法律原则的理论与现实基础上,进一步提出从积极引进、加强引导、合理限制与严密监督四个方面构建我国对待跨国公司来华投资的政策及法律原则。     

中俄混血人的产生及其发展的主要历史阶段——文献与田野资料并重

中俄混血人是指中国人与俄罗斯人通婚的后代，其历史最早可以追溯到清康熙年问。作为一个独立的族群，中俄混血人目前有数万人，主要分布在中国、俄罗斯和澳大利亚等国家。关于中俄混血人的历史，主要涉及三个问题：第一个问题是中俄混血人是如何产生的；第二个问题是中俄混血人的跨国移民问题；第三个问题是中俄混血人民族成分的确定和更改问题。     

国门安全治理的跨界性：双层跨域治理框架

国门安全是指口岸监管部门在进出境口岸通过履行其法定职能和被授权执行的法律法规所维护的国家安全和国家利益没有危险、不受威胁的状态以及在进出境环节维护国家安全的能力。国门安全不仅是国家安全的组成部分,也是保障国家其他方面安全及整个国家安全的重要屏障。国门安全是一种国际性的国内安全,具有跨境性与弥散性、动态性与线流性、建构性与主动性、外溢性与共生性以及虚拟性与无界性的特点,这就使国门安全风险的防控时空从口岸沿着跨境供应链前推后移,进而使国门安全表现出跨国公共产品的属性。各国的国门安全相互依存,国门安全治理日益呈现跨越国家边界、职能边界、层级边界、公私边界和时间边界的跨界性,不断提出国内和国际跨域治理的双重需求。然而,当下的国门安全治理存在着“碎片化”困境,体现为治理部门分散化、政策措施割裂化、政策执行差别化和国家间合作机制扩散拥堵等特点。因此,治理国门安全,应构建国内与国际同构的双层跨域治理框架,国际层面由双边和多边机制构成,国内层面由结构性、程序性和技术性机制组成,以实现对国门安全风险的全过程防控和精准化治理。     

Commodities and Terrorist Financing: Focus on Diamonds

Commodities, trade, and natural resources have long been part of the political economy of conflict, as soldiers and militants usually employ accessible means and methods to raise funds unless there is a clash with honestly held religious or ideological positions. Reports about the role of commodities in the financing of terrorist groups cover many areas of legal and illicit trade, foremost among these diamonds. A brief background to the diamond industry, with particular attention to vulnerabilities and their exploitation in conflict areas, provides the necessary context for two case studies about al-Qaeda (AQ) and Hezbollah. These utilize primary and secondary data to explore the linkages between diamonds and these particular groups. We found conflicting and weak evidence as well as vague language to describe interfaces between terrorist groups and the diamonds trade. We conclude that while there is cause for concern that this industry can be used to support terrorist activity, deeper factual grounding, meaningful context, and a more nuanced understanding of the diamond industry are necessary to fully inform policy makers and law enforcement about the connections between terrorist finance and the commodities trade.Research on which this paper is based was sponsored by a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant for a study of "Terrorist Finance and the Nexus with Transnational Organized Crime: Commodities Trade and the Social Organization of al Qaeda Groups," grant no. 2003-DT-CX-0001. We would like to thank Christian Dietrich and an anonymous peer reviewer for their very constructive comments.     

Forlorn daughters? The role of social motherhood in transnational African Methodist Episcopal missionary women networks, 1900–1940s

Abstract

This paper examines the transnational networks formed between women who were part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) within the United States (US) and its South African missionary societies during the early twentieth century. From the outset, these networks enabled South African women to gain tertiary education in the US, but were nonetheless entrenched in unequal power dynamics. US-based women considered themselves metaphorical mothers to the female South African members, portraying the African women as daughters in need of social and financial support. US AME women were complex role models for Black African women who could not reasonably maintain the lifestyle enjoyed by many AME missionary women. Often, however, South African women appear to have utilized these unequal power dynamics, embracing the rhetoric of being “forlorn daughters” of Africa to maintain the AME’s support. Nevertheless, these networks helped sustain both US and South African women’s participation within the AME Church.     

No solid ground: Max Aub’s roots and routes

While Max Aub’s unique and prolific body of work has been the subject of numerous studies and monographs, his work remains undervalued in transnational contexts. An analysis of two of his plays, San Juan (1943) and El rapto de Europa (1946), and a collection of poems, Diario de Djelfa (1944), makes it possible to rethink the ways in which aesthetic projects, produced either during World War II or shortly afterwards, reveal a geography of the war’s forced displacements, in which the Spanish Civil War, European colonialism in North Africa, and its enduring postcolonial remainders become the most important landmarks. While the present analysis centers on Aub’s routes between Spain, France, Algeria, and, finally, Mexico, a persistent yearning for roots, for a sense of belonging, or, to use one of his characters’ words, for “solid ground” haunts his writing. The interplay between roots and routes therefore makes it possible to consider Aub’s work in a postcolonial context and within a transnational memory.