On Her Majesty's Commercial Service: Bribery,Public Officials and the UK Intelligence Services

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美国对台湾军售分析

进入新世纪,中美关系已发展成为重要的双边关系,但是美国实施的对台军售政策却阻碍着这种关系的健康发展。文章回顾了美国对台军售的历史,按各个时期军售的特点将其分为初始萌芽、稳步推进和大幅膨胀三个阶段,并从战略、经济、意识形态角度分析了美对台军售的动因。以此为基础对今后美国对台军售的趋势性特征进行了判断。     

Arms Transfers beyond the State-to-State Realm

Arms transfers beyond the state-to-state realm can have harmful effects for international security dramatically affecting the relations and behavior of states. This article examines why an emerging international norm on "prohibiting states to transfer arms to nonstate groups" has failed to diffuse at the international level. It discusses the already available international law framework existing at the regional and international levels upon which the potential norm could be built. The failure of the norm to diffuse at the international level can be primarily explained by the existence of a long-consolidated norm: the customary practice of states to transfer weapons to nonstate actors, that is, groups they deem legitimate to, without any interference or constraint. ¹ The unrestrained transfer of weapons is an established foreign-policy practice. It is the way states form, uphold alliances, extend friendships, and build spheres of influence ( Sorokin 1994 ). Clearly, no state willingly wants to give this up. Therefore, the multilateral agreement on a norm barring most or all transfers of weapons to nonstate actors would curtail the freedom of action to build spheres of influence as states please. There are genuine ethical and moral dilemmas in this discussion, a nonstate actor may be a freedom fighter or a terrorist depending on different perspectives. The distinction between the categories "state" and "nonstate" actors may risk classifying actors in two camps: the good and the bad, respectively. This is problematic as a few states are known to be the most brutal perpetrators of egregious violations against their own citizens, whereas certain nonstate actors are legitimately fighting for the protection of vulnerable populations.     

Arms Acquisition Patterns and the Dynamics of Armed Conflict: Lessons from the Niger Delta

Arms acquisition is a crucial venture for armed insurgency groups for carrying out their militant activities. I argue that the specific manner in which these groups obtain weapons may have important consequences for the dynamics of violent intrastate conflict. While most previous studies of the relationship between arms acquisition and armed conflict have focused solely on the impact of arms availability, in this article I analyze the impact of two specific aspects of arms acquisition patterns—the methods and the degree of leadership control—on the dynamics and nature of armed conflict in a qualitative case study of the armed conflict in the Niger Delta (Nigeria) between 1995 and 2005. I conclude that the specific arms acquisition method and the degree of leadership control over this process have strongly affected the dynamics of the conflict.     

Small arm transfers and state complicity in international law： Challenging the limitations

Small arms have been frequently used in perpetration of human rights violations, and thus need to be subjected to legal scrutiny. This piece attempts to contribute this aim by making a legal analysis of the issue of state complicity in arm transfers. Drawing a frame of applicable laws, it highlights the importance of Article 16 of the ILC Draft Articles on State Responsibility where the notion of complicity in international law is typically designed. Moreover, this piece finds the scope of protection provided within this Article limited, and contends that the boundaries of liability for complicit acts must take into account the contemporary political, social, and economic settings for a wider understanding of complicity.     

Illicit arms trafficking and the limits of rational choice theory: the case of the Balkans

Organized crime is often conceptualized as a business enterprise formed by actors motivated by profits. The Balkans represents an ideal case for testing the extent to which assumptions about the image of actors involved in illegal arms trading can be extrapolated to the macro-level of analysis. Focusing mainly on public discourse, this paper points to several thematic categories of illicit arms trafficking: i) profit-oriented arms trafficking involving organized crime groups ii) trafficking of arms for the purpose of arming criminal-terrorist formations and iii) state-sponsored illegal arms trafficking. Although economic incentives appear strong in many cases, other cultural, social and political issues also frame the illicit arms market in the region. We argue that both understanding and policing organized crime should also embrace the non-economic nature of this type of criminal behavior.

Behind the ‘Miracle’: Non‐Traditional Agro‐Exports and Water Stress in Marginalised Areas of Ica,Peru

Expansion in the non‐traditional agricultural export sector following neoliberal reform has precipitated an economic transformation in Peru. Non‐traditional agricultural export growth has brought environmental, social and distributive costs. This article critically examines the Peruvian asparagus boom and the impact of this on water availability among marginal groups. Based on primary case study fieldwork, the paper asserts that the agro‐export model is causing the over‐exploitation of important groundwater supplies in the Ica Valley where almost all of Peru's fresh asparagus is produced. This reveals wider issues concerning neoliberal development and the political economy of natural resource allocation in Latin America.     

Non-strategic nuclear weapons as a ‘Trojan horse’: explaining Germany's ambivalent attitude

Germany's ambivalent attitude toward nuclear weapons is the result of an intricate rivalry between competing principles and goals of foreign and security policy-making. A deeply engrained strategic culture of anti-nuclearism and anti-militarism competes with a belief in collective defense and alliance cohesion. Similarly, the long-held belief in multilateralism is time and again challenged by newly emerging claims for leadership within multilateral institutions. The strategically rather insignificant non-strategic nuclear weapons issue provides a nodal point around which these conflicting principles came to the fore.     

武装掩护走私若干问题探讨

武装掩护走私的含义 ;武装掩护走私中的“走私”行为要否独立成罪 ;武装掩护走私两种以上物品怎样定罪 ;走私武器、弹药罪怎样认定武装掩护走私 ;武装掩护走私与以暴力、威胁方法抗拒缉私的区别。     

Trade Liberalisation in Latin America: the Bolivian Case1

Abstract— Bolivia adopted a drastic trade liberalisation in 1985 as part of its neo- liberal New Economic Policy. The paper discusses the theoretical arguments which underlie such a policy and the main neo-structuralist criticisms. It then looks at the effects of liberalisation on resource allocation, productivity growth and export performance. It concludes that the results have been disappointing which gives rise to some scepticism concerning the advantages of a wholesale policy of trade liberalisation in a low income country such as Bolivia.