Can constituent states influence foreign and security policy? Coalitional dynamics in India

Abstract

The Indian state has undergone significant transformation since the late 1980s, most notably the extensive decentralisation of power, with consequences for the formation and implementation of Indian foreign policy. This article explores the role of India’s constituent states explaining the extent and limitations of their autonomy and influence. It deploys and extends the state transformation approach to incorporate considerations of issue area and coalition type. Under coalitions led by typical national parties, subnational governments are less likely to influence foreign and security policy. Under the same coalition type, they are more likely to behave autonomously on non-traditional security issues such as sharing of water resources with neighbouring countries. They are less likely to behave autonomously on security issues such as the transnational expression of ethnic solidarity. Under coalitions led by atypical national parties or regional parties, subnational governments are likely to exercise a moderate level of autonomy and influence on issue areas such as transnational expression of ethnic solidarity. They are likely to exercise a high level of autonomy and influence on non-traditional security issues such as sharing of water resources. The framework is illustrated through Tamil Nadu’s activism on Sri Lanka, and West Bengal’s position on water-sharing with Bangladesh.     

How do interests,ideas, and institutions affect multisectoral governance? The case of tobacco governance in two Pacific small island developing states

Multisectoral governance has been recognized to be vital to regulate harmful commodity industries, yet countries struggle with reaching policy coherence due to government agencies' conflicting mandates and industry interference. Limited empirical evidence is available on how interests, ideas, and institutions intersect and influence multisectoral governance in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Pacific small island developing states (PSIDS), often exploited by vested industry interests and whose non-communicable disease crisis commands urgent action to regulate harmful commodities. This study assessed the ways interests, ideas, and institutions intersect and shape multisectoral tobacco governance in PSIDS. Interviewee data collected in Fiji and Vanuatu show that the idea of individual responsibility, the limited recognition of commercial determinants of health, the centralization of authority, and the vulnerabilities of small island developing states, (including small population, land, economy, geographic isolation, and status as a developing economy), prevent these states from achieving policy coherence in multisectoral tobacco governance.     

Taxing Fracking: The Politics of State Severance Taxes in the Shale Era

States producing gas and oil have long levied severance taxes at the point of extraction, commonly placing most revenues into general funds. These taxes have assumed new meaning in many states amid the expansion of gas and oil production accompanying the advent of hydraulic fracturing. We reviewed all major statutes and constitutional amendments related to severance taxes that were enacted at the state level during the first decade of the “shale era” (2005–14). There have been only modest adjustments in statutory tax rates and some evidence that states have attempted to reduce these rates, possibly in response to growing national production. In turn, there is also evidence that states have begun to pursue more targeted strategies for revenue use, including some expanded focus on responding to the negative externalities linked to drilling, expanded revenue sharing with localities, and increased long‐term protection of resources through state trust funds.     

Korruption und Kleinstaat. Elemente einer Theorie

Abstract: Der Aufsatz beschäftigt sich vorwiegend aus einer theoretischen Perspektive mit Korruption als einer bestimmten Form von Devianz in Kleinstaaten, insbesondere Mikrostaaten: Weisen sie Besonderheiten im Hinblick auf Korruptionsanfälligkeit, das Kosten‐Nutzen‐Verhältnis von Korruption sowie die Korruptionsbekämpfung auf? Zunächst wird eine grobe Kosten‐Nutzen‐Analyse für Kleinstaaten im Hinblick auf Korruption skizziert. Es folgt ein Versuch, darüber hinausgehend strukturelle korruptionserhöhende oder korruptionsreduzierende Einflussfaktoren für das Korruptionsniveau in kleinen politischen Systemen zu benennen. Daraufhin wird anhand eines Stufenmodells diskutiert, wann und gegebenenfalls in welcher Weise Kleinstaaten aktiv Korruptionsbekämpfung betreiben. Einige der in den verschiedenen Abschnitten entwickelten Überlegungen werden am Beispiel Liechtensteins punktuell veranschaulicht. Der Beitrag versteht sich als theoretische Vorstudie für weiterführende empirische Analysen.     

Uhlin,Anders. Post-Soviet Civil Society: Democratization in Russia and the Baltic States. London and New York,Routledge, 2006, ISBN: 0-415-36804-9.

The Baltic German politician and political thinker Paul Schiemann (1876–1944) is widely recognized as the most prominent defender of liberalism in the Baltic states during the interwar period. However, his liberal ideas have rarely been interpreted in their own right. This article explores the main presuppositions of Schiemann's liberalism: his conceptions of individual freedom, democracy, and cultural development. Although Schiemann's main intentions are liberal, his theory of the anational state includes significant Marxist elements, which call into question the potential of the democratic state. In my conclusions, I will argue that Schiemann's ideas still have theoretical relevance, which must be further explored in the context of contemporary liberal theory.     

The Problem of Soviet Colonialism in the Baltics

This essay works through some of the necessary preliminary questions in thinking about Soviet colonialism in the Baltics. It opens by tracing the prehistory of critical thinking about Soviet colonialism in the 1960s and considers why the topic of Soviet colonialism has not (or not yet) become a dominant way to understand Soviet history. The central question posed by the article is whether one can speak about the Soviet invasions of the Baltic States as ‘colonization’. It proposes that, initially, communist Russia did not in fact seek to colonize the Baltic States and instead ‘occupied’ them; however, this initial period of occupation later developed into a period of a colonial rule.     

T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land in Lithuanian translation

Small states, argued Peter Katzenstein a quarter of a century ago, were different. Faced with the fluctuations of world markets, they adopt democratic corporatism and domestic compensation, thus ensuring political legitimacy and successful economic adjustment. The Baltic countries are an interesting case study for this framework, because in many ways they are “smaller” than the seven countries analyzed by Katzenstein. This article finds that, on a broader level, Katzenstein’s framework is very helpful in highlighting the key developments in the Baltic countries. On the other hand, the specific causal mechanism that can be drawn from this framework running from smallness, to democratic corporatism, to political legitimacy, as well as domestic compensation, has not developed in the Baltics.     

Baltic Studies in North America: A Survey of Academic Dissertations 1911–2006

ABSTRACT

The article argues for an extended delineation of increasing Western cultural hegemony in the reconstituted Baltic states. An initial idiom of postcolonial studies is revisited in order to complement their dominant scope in the Baltics, focused primarily on a retrospective cultural study of Baltic/Soviet relationships. The argument elaborates on the urgency of the expanding research agenda regarding the Baltic/European research framework. By pointing out the frequent occurrence of the superiority or inferiority value scale in cross-cultural references sampled from press releases of the Art Museum of Estonia, the article concludes that mainstream cultural self-reflection in Estonia is nowadays subjected to the supremacy of the imagined West European viewpoint.     

国际海底区域内活动的 担保国的赔偿责任

1982年《联合国海洋法公约》（简称《公约》）为缔约国规定了确保其所担保的个人和实体在进行国际海底区域内活动时遵守《公约》相关规定的义务以及对所担保的承包者没有遵守其义务而造成的损害承担赔偿责任。然而,担保国的此种赔偿责任并非严格责任。只有当同时满足以下条件时担保国才应对其所担保的承包者造成的损害承担责任：担保国未按照《公约》履行其确保遵守的义务;所担保的承包者没有遵守其义务并因此造成损害;担保国的不履行与损害发生之间存在因果关系。在担保国需要承担赔偿责任的情况下,其责任的上限是其所担保的承包者的不法行为造成的“实际损害”,同时还应考虑管理局和对有关活动行使管辖或控制的国家的潜在责任。然而,担保国和承包者并不承担连带责任,担保国赔偿责任的存在并不影响承包者承担和履行其赔偿责任。承包者应先于担保国履行赔偿责任,而只有在承包者不能完全赔偿其应负责的损害时,担保国才有义务对未能赔偿的损害部分承担剩余责任。由于担保国根据《公约》承担的确保遵守的义务是一种“行为义务”,而并非杜绝损害发生的“结果义务”,因此,如果担保国已经履行了公约规定的尽责义务,那么即使发生损害,也不应要求其承担责任。     

Examining the immanent dilemma of small states in the Asia-Pacific: the strategic triangle between New Zealand,the US and China

ABSTRACT

Small states throughout the Asia-Pacific are confronted by a growing dilemma over how to balance their traditional security ties with the US and rapidly growing trade with China. This gives Washington and Beijing potential leverage over small states to use within their competition with one another. This article explores the implications of this for New Zealand – a small South Pacific state that prides itself on maintaining an independent foreign policy. Situated within the small state literature, it utilises a material-based strategic triangle to illustrate the fundamental facets of New Zealand's position. Relatedly, the article examines how Wellington has managed its burgeoning relations with China and the US over the past decade and critically considers New Zealand's independent foreign policy. It finds that New Zealand has adopted a mixed set of strategies to manage its position between the US and China, closely aligning itself with Washington while remaining nonaligned on some key security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. New Zealand has certainly not opted for neutrality. The article concludes that New Zealand and other small states must remain vigilant, may want to consider alternative strategies of alignment, and outlines a number of areas where additional research could prove fruitful.