Commercial Diplomacy and Statecraft in the Context of Economic Reform: The Indian Experience

It is almost a decade since India began its economic reforms. Apart from the purely domestic economic objectives that the reforms were expected to achieve, there was a recognition that reform was imperative if India wanted to become an economic power of consequence within and beyond its region. This had important foreign policy implications. Official pronouncements reflected the concern that the balance of fiscal power as opposed to military power was the key factor in determining a country's international standing. This called for an integrated strategy to bring economic and foreign policies closer. The implementation of a vigorous foreign economic policy could not be undertaken without sharpening the commercial diplomatic tool. Indian foreign policy over the last decade has been grappling with this challenge. This article analyses the reorientation in Indian foreign policy, assesses the efforts undertaken so far to make commercial diplomacy viable and highlights the challenges that multi-layered diplomacy poses for a country like India.     

Congressional Activism in the Foreign Policy Arena: A Case Study of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide

This article analyzes congressional activism during an international crisis. Using the 1994 Rwandan genocide as a case, this study explores executive–congressional relations during a time when immediate policy responses are needed. A content analysis of policy statements made during committees, on the House floor, and on the Senate floor is used to investigate the specific policy ideas proposed by members of Congress. The models presented pay particular attention to the actions of Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members, in relation to other more common predictors of congressional activism. In addition to the results for CBC members, other conclusions indicate that foreign policy leaders in Congress are international affairs policy experts without serious concerns of being defeated in their next election.     

Carl Graap and the Formation of Weimar Foreign Policy Toward Soviet Russia from 1919 until Rapallo

Even though the conviction that Russia was evolving in a more moderate direction was an important underlying assumption of German policy in the months leading up to the Treaty of Rapallo, it has been essentially ignored in the scholarship on Rapallo. Equally ignored is the central role played by Carl Graap in promoting this assumption in Berlin. This article aims toward filling this gap and toward improving our understanding of the relationship between Germany and Russia in the twentieth century in general and in the period from 1919 to 1922 in particular.     

“东突”问题中的美国因素

"东突"问题已成为中国边疆安全的重大威胁,美国在其中发挥的作用越发引人注目。美国外交的基本原则是自身利益至上,在"东突"问题上的战略考虑则涉及反恐、美中关系、地缘政治和意识形态等多种因素,其不同需求之间存在冲突,由此也导致美国"东突"政策的模糊和多变,并在诸多层面上影响到"东突"问题的解决。虽然美国因素会继续在"东突"问题的发展变化中发挥重要作用,但鉴于一些条件的制约,美国会对"东突"活动的支持控制在一定限度内。     

当代外交学研究现状分析

我国对外交学的研究极为重视。了解当代外交学研究的现状对我们进一步完善学科建设具有十分重要的意义。本文以近年来国内外出版的外交学研究成果为基础,对外交学研究的历史、主要问题、研究现状和发展趋势作一介绍,以期对中国的外交学研究有所启示。     

我省外资引进工作应防范的几个经济安全风险

外资引进工作中,要重视防范外商资本进入非法资本流动通道的风险和离岸公司的潜在威胁,强化能源风险意识,并重视知识产权保护与品牌欺诈问题,同时,外资引进工作中由司法案件引发经济安全事件的潜在风险也不容忽视。     

我国外商投资产业指导政策价值评析——以国际私法为视角

我国外商投资政策主要体现为2001年的《指导外商投资方向规定》、2007年的《新外商投资产业指导目录》以及2010年的《关于进一步做好利用外资工作的若干意见》.通过一宗典型涉澳案例导引出我国对外商投资产业政策的反思,继而对三种外商投资产业政策加以比较,并以稀土产业和机械工业为例分析了我国的外商投资产业政策的意义.最后,从国际私法角度审视了我国的外商投资产业指导政策的价值.     

域外财税法学发展及其对中国的启示

在市场经济和法治较为发达的国家,财税法往往相对完善,这不仅表现在财税立法、执法和司法上,也表现在财税法的教育和研究上。质言之,财税活动自国家产生之日就已存在,并在现代受到民主、法治等理念的深刻影响,在理财治国中发挥着系统性的作用。域外财税法学一直遵循独立的发展轨迹,尤其以税法为核心建构起了成熟的法律框架和教学体系。而财税法学在中国作为一门交叉学科、新兴学科,亟需厘清自身的性质和定位,围绕公共财产的收入、支出、监管展开制度构建,才能有效地推动财税改革和法治建设。同时,与欧美、日本等国相比,中国财税法学人地提出了"财税一体"的广阔视野,从而为财税立法和财税法学的后续发展奠定了良好基础。     

Coordination and control in Russia’s foreign policy: travails of Putin’s curators in the near abroad

Abstract

This article seeks to challenge the conception of the Russian state as being centred on Vladimir Putin by looking at the actors implementing Russia’s foreign policy in its near abroad. In particular, it explores the activities of curators (kuratory), a term applied in Russia to describe officials tasked with making things work often bypassing, and sometimes competing with, formal institutions. Following the state transformation framework, the argument put forward in the article is that curation (kuratorstvo), as a practice of coordination and control in Russia’s system of governance, can be seen as a manifestation of fragmentation and internationalisation of Russia’s foreign policy making. The empirical basis for this article is a case study of Russia’s policy towards Abkhazia, which Russia officially recognised as a sovereign state in 2008. This article addresses the involvement of curators in their attempts to exert political influence as an expression of fragmentation as well as emerging institutionalised curation in development assistance as a part of internationalisation.     

Decomposing Audience Costs: Bringing the Audience Back into Audience Cost Theory

According to a growing tradition in International Relations, one way governments can credibly signal their intentions in foreign policy crises is by creating domestic audience costs: leaders can tie their hands by publicly threatening to use force since domestic publics punish leaders who say one thing and do another. We argue here that there are actually two logics of audience costs: audiences can punish leaders both for being inconsistent (the traditional audience cost), and for threatening to use force in the first place (a belligerence cost). We employ an experiment that disentangles these two rationales, and turn to a series of dispositional characteristics from political psychology to bring the audience into audience cost theory. Our results suggest that traditional audience cost experiments may overestimate how much people care about inconsistency, and that the logic of audience costs (and the implications for crisis bargaining) varies considerably with the leader's constituency.