A critical analysis of the NBC news special “six days plus twenty years: A dream is dying”

The July 1, 1987 NBC News documentary on Israel's occupation of the West Bank neglected the context of the occupation, failing to give any historical perspective on the Israeli‐Palestinian dispute. The nature of the Palestinian opposition— characterized by intransigence and violence—was virtually ignored by NBC. The unbalanced coverage of the conflict served only to confuse the viewer and distort the salient issues involved.     

Democratising the military: Lessons from Mediterranean Europe

This article analyses the factors and processes involved in democratizing the armed forces of Spain, Greece and Portugal in the 1970s and 1980s. After a brief comparative review of the history of civil‐military relations in the three countries, the article examines the role of societal, institutional (military professional) and international factors in the democratisation process. The article concludes that military professionalism can be a stimulant to intervention and de‐intervention, depending on societal considerations and the perceptions of the military at a given time. Explanations accounting for military democratisation can be found at the level of value‐congruency between society (including the international arena) and the armed forces.     

Conceptions Of Liberty Deprivation

This article adopts a theoretical and comparative perspective on the prisoner's legal status in England and Wales. Applying the principles of human rights, legality and proportionality, it argues that the prisoner's legal status must rest on a divisible conception of liberty. Such a conception must distinguish clearly between the liberty lost, and the rights restricted, by the imposition of the custodial sentence as opposed to the administration of prisons (the key distinction). In order for this to be achieved, the conception of the prisoner's legal status must also establish the purpose or purposes of the custodial sanction as distinct from the purpose of prison administration. Through comparison with Germany, the article demonstrates that the common law concept of the prisoner's legal status is unstable. Vacillating between a divisible and indivisible conception of the prisoner's liberty, the English conception of the prisoner's legal status lacks a foundation firm enough to satisfy the principles of human rights, legality and proportionality.     

'His Finest Hour?' George Bush and the Diplomacy of German Unification

This article examines the diplomatic record of the Bush administration with particular reference to its role in German unification. Based upon memoir material and new sources made available since 1989, it argues that the administration in general - and George Bush in particular - played an indispensable role during these critical years. First, Bush's unequivocal support for unification drove the process forward and reinforced Germany's commitment to NATO. By reassuring countries like France, the US also managed to compel reluctant Europeans to accept unification. Finally, by working closely with Gorbachev and Shevarnadze, Washington was also able to persuade the USSR to accept what many had once thought quite unacceptable to the Russians: a united Germany within NATO. Given the part that the President played in all this, the authors suggest that the generally accepted view of Bush as a politician without purpose or plan has to be questioned. The 'statesman without a vision' who emerges from this reading of events is seen as having been a more forceful and effective diplomatic leader than some of his critics have been prepared to concede.     

德国对冲基金监管制度研究

对冲基金起源于20世纪40年代末的美国。它是指通过非公开方式向少数机构投资者或富裕个人募集资金而设立,资产类别、投资技巧或杠杆使用不受或很少受到限制,基金经理也作为基金的一个主要投资者,具有以绝对回报为中心的业绩提成费用结构的投资资本组合。德国于2003年12月颁布《投资法》和《投资税法》对德国对冲基金业的发展及其监管做出了具体规定,首次从法律上明确允许对冲基金的发展,这对德国对冲基金市场的培育和繁荣具有里程碑的重大意义。     

Organizing knowledge spillovers when basic and applied research are interdependent: German biotechnology policy in historical perspective

The German biotechnology lag illuminates the difficulties of finding appropriate organizational forms of R&D for “embryo” innovations requiring the continued involvement of basic research scientists even after innovation has advanced to the stage of commercial product development. The analysis charts the German policy shift from largely unsuccessful “corporatist” networks (1970s and 1980s) to more promising “emergent” networks (1990s) as organizational vehicles for conducting biotechnology innovation. A constant of German R&D policy for most of the 20th century, and one underlying the initial reliance on corporatist networks in biotechnology, was the tendency to exclude universities from major R&D initiatives and rely instead on specialized research institutes. The structural inflexibilities of universities, combined with the early successes of many specialized research institutes from the 1880s on, led to path-dependent reliance on the latter for 20th-century reforms of the German national innovation system.      

New Insights into Coalition Negotiations—The Case of German Government Formation

Research on coalition negotiations after general elections in parliamentary systems usually focuses on the parties’ utility maximization as corporate actors. However, the most recent process of government formation after the German general election in 2017 followed a different type of logic and led to an outcome unlike that of other coalition negotiations. Regarding policy seeking, office seeking, and vote seeking, the outcomes of both the exploratory talks between Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU)/Christlich-Soziale Union (CSU), Freie Demokratische Partei, and the Greens and the negotiations between CDU/CSU and Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands are at least partly irrational from a cost–benefit analysis. This article examines the formation of Germany’s government in 2017–2018 and reveals the paradoxical outcomes of each phase of the negotiations. Empirical data to underpin the argument stem from interviews with negotiators and statements of direct participants in the formation of the coalition. Instead of the parties’ utility maximization, negotiations were largely dominated by intraparty conflicts, in which individual interests and personal trust rather than partisan unitary programs were most relevant to the negotiation process and outcome. Our work answers the question of why the grand coalition was unexpectedly renewed in the end—contrary to what might be predicted based on established theories of coalition building. The observations and conclusions set forth are of general interest not only for future coalition negotiations in Germany but also for other European parliamentary democracies facing increasing party fragmentation. Most importantly, the analysis yields insights into negotiations undertaken in the absence of rationalist behavior.     

Diverse enlightenments

In Rival Enlightenments Ian Hunter argues convincingly that there was not one comprehensive German Enlightenment, represented by Kant, but two irreducible and rival enlightenments: the metaphysical Enlightenment of Leibniz and Kant and the non-transcendental, civil Enlightenment of Pufendorf and Thomasius. Hunter's study frees us from a dominant way of taking up the question, 'What is Enlightenment?', and enables us to see that there is a plurality of possible answers.     

论德国刑法典中的“不实施救助”罪

从德国刑法第323c条＂不实施救助罪＂的法律性质、处罚基础、保护的法益以及构成要件来看,其处罚的不是违反风序良俗的行为,也不是保护人类之间的团结一致,而是保护身陷紧急状态下的个人或公共法益。在当前的社会背景下,设立见危不救罪的前提已经存在,立法疑虑也可以通过对德国刑法第323c条的分析得以排除。所以我国应该参照德国成功的立法例设立见危不救罪。     

SS: Germany’s federal election in september 2009 – Elections in times of duress – Introduction

This paper introduces the special symposium. It provides (1) an overview of the broad campaign themes; (2) introduces several questions pertinent to German electoral politics; (3) highlights the broader theoretical implications of this symposium for the research literature.