Contesting the international order by integrating it: the case of China’s Belt and Road initiative

What does the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) tell us about China’s perceptions of the international order? This paper takes an inductive approach by examining the BRI for a two-pronged purpose: first, to understand China’s perception of the international order by examining Beijing’s official discourse around its intentions and vision for the initiative; and, second, to examine the mechanisms through which Chinese norms are diffused and normalised in Global South states. I find that Chinese policy navigates a dialectical interchange between upholding the existing international order while simultaneously promoting alternative norms and practices to reform parts of the order that are unsatisfactory to Chinese interests. To answer the second part of the puzzle, the paper finds that a central socialisation mechanism in China’s foreign policy for Global South states occurs through professionalisation training programmes. These programmes allow for Chinese expert knowledge and technical know-how to be shared with and mimicked by elites and civil servants across many Global South states.     

“自由国际秩序”、多极化与俄罗斯的“2024议程”

在国际秩序构建问题上,伊肯伯里的"自由国际秩序"理论、普里马科夫的多极世界思想、基辛格的国际秩序演变观,是三种来自不同思想谱系、取向与功能各异、对国际秩序延续和转型有着各自思考的理论。虽然三种立场之间有时看似对立,存在着相互冲突与逆转的可能,但是不排除彼此接近、展开对话,乃至探寻共识的空间。从物理学意义上的外在结构,或简单引用历史先例,来寻找未来世界秩序演进的轨迹,显然已经不够。关注上述不同立场间的争议与各自在互动中的调整,研究各大国间很不相同的国内进程与"全球转型"之间的相互作用,具有重要的理论与现实意义。2020年初俄罗斯开启了"2024议程"。俄罗斯政府改组和普京提出宪法修正案等一系列重要部署与相关的广泛讨论,不仅旨在解决社会经济的紧迫挑战,同时也指向2024年现总统任期届满之后的中长期政治经济安排。像俄罗斯这样将当下困难问题的处理与长远发展战略部署加以联系,将本国内部事务的转型与未来世界发展的潮流相互衔接的做法,值得学界关注。     

“New Terrorism” = Higher Brutality? An Empirical Test of the “Brutalization Thesis”

This article focuses on the so-called “brutalization” of terrorism. The brutalization thesis as part of the larger theoretical concept of “new terrorism” argues that “new terrorism” is more brutal than “old terrorism.” Many scholars claim that the 9/11 attacks mark the beginning of a new era of terrorism that has lifted international as well as domestic terrorism to a new level of violent brutality. Others argue that this process had already started in the early 1990s. After discussing possible ways to operationalize a brutalization of terrorism, for example focusing on suicide bombings or terrorist attacks against soft targets, this article tests the empirical credibility of the brutalization thesis regarding both potential starting points. Data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) shows that only three out of nine indicators increased significantly during the 1990s, partially backing the idea of a general brutalization, whereas increasing numbers of suicide attacks and beheadings after 9/11 support the notion of a qualitative change in terrorism and its brutality connected with the idea of maximizing media and public attention. Yet, these developments are regionally limited and the brutality of this “new terrorism” exceeds the levels known from the zenith of “old terrorism” in the 1970s and 1980s in only a few cases.     

The welfare cost of terrorism

Data from 117 countries over the period 2006 to 2011 are used to estimate a macroeconomic cross-country system of equations that examines the association between terrorism, self-reported life satisfaction, and national income. Results indicate that terrorism is negatively associated with life satisfaction, whereas no such association is found between terrorism and real GDP per worker. Stark contrasts are found, however, between OECD and non-OECD members. In all, our results suggest that the social costs of terrorism are potentially much higher than the economic costs, and measuring only the conventional economic costs of terrorism significantly underestimates the true costs.     

The economics of the Internet of Things in the Global South

While the Internet of Things (IoT) is not new, its key components are becoming increasingly affordable now, which makes the technology extremely attractive for the Global South. By collecting data from various IoT sources, combining them with data from other sources and using big data analytics, decisions can be made and actions can be taken that can have important economic, social, ecological and environmental implications in these countries. The most visible impacts of the IoT in these countries include improvements in agricultural and food systems, enhancement of environmental security and resource conservation, achievement of better healthcare, public health and medicine, and enhancement of the efficiency of key industries. This paper provides an overview of how the IoT is currently being used in the Global South. It also discusses the opportunities and challenges that IoT initiatives present there. The analysis indicates that the IoT may address some of the institutional bottlenecks, technological challenges and key sources of high transaction costs. On the other hand, various sources of underdevelopment may act as barriers to full utilisation of the IoT.     

The global governance of informal economies: the International Labour Organization in East Africa

This article develops a Gramscian approach to the governance of ‘informal’ economies through a historical study of International Labour Organization (ILO) programmes in East Africa. Drawing on Gramsci’s conception of the ‘subaltern’, the article highlights the ways in which the articulation of ‘informality’ in policy documents is coloured by broader struggles over the political organisation of labour. The article develops this argument through two case studies. The first examines the World Employment Programme mission to Kenya in the 1970s that popularised the concept of ‘informal’ labour. The second is a contemporary programme on apprenticeships in the informal economy that originated in Tanzania.     

Spirit and being: interdisciplinary reflections on drugs across history and politics

Abstract

Few commodities are as global as drugs. Cannabis, opium, heroin, amphetamines, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), khat, psychedelic cacti and mushrooms as well as an interminable list of other natural or synthesised substances travel and are consumed around the globe for all possible reasons. Human migration, trade, cultural trends, medical practice, political repression: together they constitute the drug phenomenon today – and indeed in much of human history. In this, drugs are spirit-like commodities, their value resting upon a fundamental ambiguity made up of individual, psychological, social, cultural, economic and medical circumstances. Defining a drug is an attempt at defining a spirit on the edge, which metamorphoses in time and space. At the same time, drugs remain a fundamentally political object. They are substances controlled by states, through mechanisms of policing, legitimated by judicial and medical evaluation, condemned often on moral grounds. Situated between a fluid social existence and a static legal dimension, drugs can become inspiring hermeneutic objects of study.     

全球与地区制度竞争中的后苏联国家:以哈萨克斯坦为例

本文从哈萨克斯坦的实例出发,考察单个国家利用制度竞争吸引外国投资产生的一系列决策的差异性问题.它主要聚焦于政治偏见和政治生存效果两者之间的矛盾,这恰恰是正规经济制度发展和实施的推动力.哈萨克斯坦的例子展现了这二者相对重要性的转变对国家在争取外国直接投资(FDI)所产生的显著影响.此外,本文还着眼于经济全球化背景下各个层面在制度竞争中的相对重要性.     

全球经济变局与两岸经济一体化

2008年以来,国际金融危机发生后全球经济的深刻变革,两岸经济各自步入历史性转型升级期,两岸关系呈现和平发展新局,两岸经济关系的发展环境随之发生重大变化。两岸贸易投资布局与结构正在发生历史性转换,并几乎与两岸经济合作机制的建构同步展开;传统的两岸经济关系发展方式面临新瓶颈,两岸经济合作由快速推进逐步进入“深水区”,在全球经济再平衡和亚太区域经济合作进程加快形势下,两岸应加快推进经济一体化进程,积极共同参与亚太区域经济合作进程,以更好应对全球变局的冲击。     

Politics of responsibility: governing distant populations through civil society in Mozambique,Rwanda and South Africa

This article presents and analyses the findings of a research project on power relations in the context of development partnerships with civil society on HIV/AIDS in Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa, and engages in a critical dialogue with governmentality analysis. It argues that contemporary neoliberal government needs to be understood as context-specific articulations of three forms of power discussed by Foucault – sovereignty, discipline and biopower – and, in the global domain, a fourth form of power – (new) imperialism. Further, the analysis demonstrates how the introduction of a ‘package of (de-)responsibilisation’ shapes CSOs’ activities so that they become competitive service providers, use evidence-based methods and produce measurable results. Addressing the issue of resistance, it shows how the transfer of responsibilities may involve tension and struggle – a politics of responsibility.