The United States — Japan relationship: A post‐cold war future

Abstract

In the introduction, the editors discuss the emergence of a new body of literature on Southeast Asia's regional relations that is both theoretically informed and stimulating. One element of this literature features a constructivist challenge to realism, traditionally the dominant perspective on Southeast Asian International Relations. Constructivist writings have helped to broaden the understanding of Southeast Asia's regional order by capturing its ideational determinants (norms and identity), the agency role of local actors, and the possibility of transformation through socialization and institution building. But constructivism itself has been challenged by other perspectives, including neo-liberal, English School and critical approaches. The essays in this special issue of The Pacific Review capture this emerging debate. The editors argue that the articles in this special issue are a good indicator of the theoretical pluralism that marks the study of Southeast Asia's regional relations today. Southeast Asian studies need not be dominated by either realism or constructivism, but can accommodate a diversity that vastly enriches our understanding of regional conflict and order.     

Commentary on Mazlish: “The hi-jacking of global society”

Abstract

History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, CSOs have to mediate between their original mission and modern-day realities. This article argues that understanding the concept of decoupling can enrich analyses of how organizations deal with path dependency. Hence, this article discusses cross-fertilization between historical and organizational institutionalism. This is illustrated through a study of Swedish CSOs using survey data, interviews and documents. The Swedish popular movement tradition is argued to be a path that is not easily abandoned, and the results of the surveys and interviews included here show how actors in CSOs find history to be both a resource and a constraint. Furthermore, different decoupling strategies, including both reversed and official decoupling, are used to balance between historical legacies and current challenges.     

The limits and variety of risk‐based governance: The case of flood management in Germany and England

Risk‐based governance is argued by many to hold the promise of a more rational and efficient state, by making explicit the limitations of state interventions and focusing finite resources on those targets where probable damage is greatest. This paper challenges the assumption that risk‐based governance has the potential for universal and uniform application, by comparing contemporary flood management in Germany and England. On first inspection, flooding appears to be a paradigmatic case of risk colonizing European policy discourses, with the traditional notion of flood defense giving way to flood risk management in the context of climate change, increasingly frequent flood disasters, political and cost pressures on flood protection, and publicly available European‐wide flood assessments. Drawing on in‐depth empirical research, this paper shows how the role, and even the definition, of “risk” is institutionally shaped, and how the respective institutional environments of German and English flood management practices impede and promote risk colonization. In particular, the use and conceptualizations of risk in governance are variously promoted, filtered, or constrained by the administrative procedures, structures, and political expectations embedded within flood management and wider polities of each country. The findings of this research are important for the design and implementation of supranational policies and regulations that endorse risk‐based approaches, such as the recent EU Flood Directive, as well as scholarly debate as to how to legitimately define the limits of governance in the face of uncertainty and accountability pressures.     

Global Sustainable Development Governance: Institutional Challenges from a Theoretical Perspective

This paper submits that efforts to achieve sustainable development at global level call for, inter alia, institutional reform. It argues that there is no optimal institutional design, and that different schools of thought have different perspectives of the future. It briefly presents the history of institutional evolution in the area of sustainable development up to the latest developments in the context of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. This history sets the context for the rest of the discussions. It then presents a taxonomy of the various options suggested in the literature for improving the institutional structure of the United Nations in order to achieve sustainable development. This paper critically examines the feasibility of these options from the perspective of the different schools of thought in international relations theory. It argues that from the point of view of idealistic supranationalists, a hierarchic supranational environment and/or development organisation should be established to integrate and coordinate activities in the UN in order to promote sustainable development governance. It argues that from a realist/neo-realist and neo-liberal institutionalist approach, coordination, whether hierarchical or horizontal, is doomed to failure. From a historical materialist approach all efforts at institutional design are likely to lead to asymmetrical results reflecting global power relations. This paper concludes with a speculative argument that institutional design is not a question of the best architectural option, but calls for multiple pathways including strengthening of individual organisations, promoting the progressive development of the law of sustainable development, developing a high level advisory body to advise the Secretary General, promoting the concept of the decentralised network organisation and possibly finding ways to cluster regimes. The effectiveness of these multiple efforts are dependent on the support of civil society. In order for sustainable development to take the key concerns of developing countries into account, it is necessary that institutions are able to represent the variety of views of their members and that countries develop good policies domestically.     

合约、国家理论与世界秩序——自由制度主义的外交理念与世界政治主张

本文以新制度经济学的合约与国家理论为基础,对自由制度主义的外交理念与世界政治主张进行了研讨。文章认为,自由制度主义与新制度经济学存在理论上的渊源关系,新制度经济学关于合约、经济权利与国家规模的理论,对自由制度主义的研究议程具有重要的启发意义。文章进一步认为,自由制度主义需要进步性的改造与转化,也就是从新制度经济学中汲取养料,将合约、国家理论与世界秩序结合起来,以开辟制度研究的新领域。     

玛雅·黛润的电影三部曲与女性意识的觉醒

玛雅·黛润被誉为美国地下电影之母.她的电影三部曲<下午的罗网>、<梦中>与<变形时间中的仪式>从独特的女性视角出发,对于女性的"纳卡索斯"自我进行深层探索,抒发职业女性受到外界环境漠视的痛苦感受,寻找现代女性在当今社会中的生活与精神出路,不仅在题材与形式上为美国先锋派电影开辟了道路,而且还发出了女性主义的呼声.     

美国女性主义法学及其启示

女性主义法学以其独特的方法论剖析法律问题,提出女性问题方法、女性主义实际推论方法、提高觉悟方法以及用社会性别视角观察历史、文化、社会现象,从而展现出与以往法学理论研究的不同进路。女性主义法学是一种对女性及性别进行全方位认识的法学流派。其"硬核"已经并非单纯要求女性在婚姻、家庭、劳动就业和社会福利保障等方面享有与男性同样的权利,它更要求在分配和界定上述权利的过程中,乃至在以法律为核心的整个现代法治结构中加入女性的视角和女性的生存体验与思维方式,要求立法中的社会性别意识,从而使两性关系、婚姻、家庭乃至社会健康协调地发展。     

少数民族农村妇女外流现象的实证研究

在对三个不同少数民族村寨进行田野调查的基础上,分析了目前少数民族农村妇女外流的原因。文章认为,在看待妇女外流现象时,应该引入“社会性别与发展”的现代女权主义视角,把保障少数民族妇女的安全作为一个系统工程来进行考量,根据不同少数民族社区各自的社会性别观念作出有针对性的政策导向和制度设计。     

马克思主义和新制度主义制度变迁理论的比较与综合

马克思主义和新制度主义在制度与制度变迁、制度变迁的动力与机制、制度变迁的形式与方式等方面都做了比较系统的论述,因而都提出了比较完整的制度变迁理论。新制度主义与马克思主义的制度变迁理论既包含相互补充、相互融合的方面,也包含相互排斥、相互冲突的方面。新制度主义制度变迁理论一部分是科学的,一部分是非科学的。我们应该吸取新制度主义制度变迁理论中的科学因素,摈弃其非科学的成分,形成以马克思主义为基础的制度变迁理论的新综合。