Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of peace,education proposals,and Soka education: convergences and divergences in peace education

In this article, the authors introduce and explicate Daisaku Ikeda’s contributions to peace education. Ikeda is a Buddhist leader, peacebuilder, school founder, and prolific author whose six decades of contributions to peace education have had a global impact in practice but have remained unexamined in the extant, particularly Anglophone, literature. Using excerpts and bilingual discourse analysis of the Ikeda corpus, the authors focus on five aspects to trace the past, present, and future of Ikeda’s contributions to peace education: first, they trace the biographical roots of Ikeda’s contributions to his early educational experiences and encounter with Josei Toda (1900–1958). Second, they outline the Nichiren Buddhist philosophy informing Ikeda’s approach to peace education. Third, they explicate in the context of peace and peace education Ikeda’s concept of value-creating, or Soka education (soka kyoiku) relative to value-creating pedagogy (soka kyoikugaku) theorized by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944). In light of this relation, they also trace the origin of the Soka Gakkai International, of which Ikeda is founding president. Fifth, they clarify Ikeda’s educational proposals made explicitly under the label of ‘peace education,’ namely, cultural exchange, a United Nations for Education, and education for disarmament and human rights (including anti-bullying, sustainability, and global citizenship). The authors conclude that Ikeda’s perspectives, proposals, and practices of Soka education and ‘peace education’ can be viewed as a tripartite ontological model of a process of becoming, moving from inner transformation by means of dialogue to global citizenship.     

Introduction: South Africa's multiple languages in a shifting media environment

Abstract

The global South, as the collective for the peripheries of mainstream development is known, is often regarded as merely a beneficiary of Northern-borne notions in the field of organisational communication. The problem is that the Southern context and circumstance do not always mirror those of the North, meaning that these dominant, revered theories are not necessarily applicable. One Southern context is that of the South African mining and construction industries, which is seen as notoriously dangerous, plagued by various obstacles to internal organisational communication (such as illiteracy and diversity), and what Le Roux and Naudé (2009, 29) refer to as ‘historical baggage’. The research question of this article is whether congenital Northern communication theories can be adequately incorporated into the unique global South, in order to fulfil the important task of communicating safety information to employees. The article explores the appropriate implementation of the principles of the excellence theory, the stakeholder theory as well as the relationship management theory, and the research methodology includes interviews, focus groups and quantitative questionnaires at two organisations. The result of the empirical research is the amalgamation and reworking of these theories’ principles into a model for internal safety communication applicable to the South.     

新自由主义与国际经济法

全球性经济危机的危险性使人们对新自由主义产生了质疑,某些现行国际经济法制度的缺陷也日渐显露。WTO体制内各国保护主义可能抬头,国际金融体系的破绽使得加强监管和完善体制成为当务之急,从而弱化了自由主义色彩。国际经济法律秩序面临重组,这给各国提出了新的课题。但是在全球性经济衰退到来之际,新自由主义所体现的国际经济自由和开放仍然十分重要,其制度性的缺陷可以通过在危机之际建立国际经济合作机制得以修正。由于中国对外开放是在新自由主义的国际大环境下进行的,所以金融危机对新自由主义的冲击,对于中国也是一场严峻的挑战。但是,以中国的经济规模和成就,中国在国际经济法律制度和秩序的重组中也获得参与国际经济规则创制的难得机遇。     

全球治理与国际竞争法的网络模式

由于新自由主义理论的勃兴和市场机制的内在张力,国际社会步入了国际化市场经济阶段。国际化市场经济要求国际社会建立国际竞争机制解决国际市场失灵。在"洛克式"的国际体系下,借助全球治理理论建立一个多层次的国际竞争治理网络模式是国际社会现实的选择。多层次的国际竞争治理网络模式可以借鉴经济学的联邦财政理论和体制竞争理论确定各个层次的管辖权划分。     

It's economic size,stupid! How global advocacy mirrors state power

Numerous empirical studies suggest that global interest communities are heavily biased in favor of wealthier countries. This research note critically reviews these works suggesting that they (i) lack a benchmark to assess the biased nature of global interest communities and (ii) conflate the concepts of “wealth” (based on GDP per capita) and “economic power” (based on GDP) into one analytical category. As a corrective to these problems, we compare variation in global interest group mobilization across countries to the size of these countries' national economies. Relying on an original dataset mapping interest groups communities at the World Trade Organization (1997–2012) and the United Nations Climate Summits (1997–2011), we show that (i) global interest representation almost perfectly reflects differences in countries' relative economic power and (ii) contrary to the conventional wisdom, wealthier countries are, relative to their economic size, actually underrepresented in global interest communities.     

Power transitions and global trade governance: The impact of a rising China on the export credit regime

The existing liberal international economic order was constructed during the era of American hegemony and has been heavily shaped by US power. How is the rise of China affecting global economic governance? This article analyzes the case of export credit, which has long been considered a highly effective international regulatory regime and an important component of global trade governance. I show that the rise of China is profoundly altering the landscape of export credit and undermining its governance arrangements. State-backed export credit is a key tool of China's development strategy, yet I argue that an explosion in China's use of export credit is eroding the efficacy of existing international rules intended to prevent a competitive spiral of state subsidization via export credit. The case of export credit highlights a fundamental tension between liberal institutions of global governance and the development objectives of emerging powers.     

发展—安全互动中的全球基础设施议题

作为一种兼具公共产品与战略工具双重功能的议题,全球基础设施具有明确的发展与安全含义,因此,该议题在国际政治中呈现出嵌入"发展—安全联结"的基本态势。当前,在大国战略竞争结构之下,全球基础设施建设与国际社会"发展—安全联结"都具备议题拓展的政治动力,两者互动推动着安全与发展两大议题领域在不同层次上展开更为复杂化的聚合,扩展了当前"发展—安全联结"在国际政治中的适用范围,也强化了基础设施对安全与发展的依赖程度。基础设施与"发展—安全联结"互动呈现出螺旋圈层的架构,即主要通过议题维度的立体配置逻辑、制度方面的双重建构逻辑和演变方面的系统嵌合逻辑等方式,更紧密地与"发展—安全联结"发生互动关联。一个"发展—基建—安全联结"正在浮现。全新的联结也在重新塑造安全与发展两大议题,并在议题设定、行为逻辑、国际制度、全球治理和运作环境方面影响着当前的国际秩序。这种正在出现的"发展—基建—安全联结"可能对中国推进"一带一路"基建具有重要启示意义。     

A comparative analysis of regionalism in the Global South: The security and defence dimension of Unasur and the African Union

The aim of this article is to compare Unasur and the African Union with regard to their institutional structure, agenda and performance. Although some scholars have made comparative assessments of regional institutions in the same region or comparisons between regional projects worldwide and the European Union, there are still few academic contributions which develop a cross-regional comparison among regional initiatives from different regions of the Global South. By assessing the cases of Unasur and the African Union, and particularly Unasur’s Defence Council and the AU’s Peace and Security Council, taking into account their institutional structure, performance and limitations, and the role of regional leaders and exogenous actors in both cases, we have elaborated an analytical framework aiming to identify and explain the similarities and differences between two regional institutions outside Europe. Based on the contributions of comparative regionalism and the evaluation of Unasur and the AU, we conduct a comparative analysis of both regional organisations, giving specific attention to their security and defence agendas, moving forward the empirical and analytical agenda of comparative regionalism.     

Is Japan Really Back? The “Abe Doctrine” and Global Governance

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has emerged as the “comeback kid” of Japanese politics and in his second term of office is now widely regarded as a rare example of strong leadership as he seeks to arrest and reverse his country’s perceived decline. The strategy to achieve these objectives has come to be known as the “Abe Doctrine,” which represents a radical but risky shift in foreign policy. This article outlines the tenets of the evolving Abe Doctrine and then applies them to the Abe administration’s behaviour in the mechanisms of global governance, a highly pertinent but overlooked example. It argues that although a more strategic and coherent approach to global governance has emerged under Abe than had been previously evident, this has been at the expense of the norm of internationalism that has traditionally shaped Japan’s role.