The disciplining of illegal palm oil plantations in Sumatra

The Indonesian state has issued many regulations to control palm oil expansion, but they have been weakly enforced, resulting in widespread illegal plantations. During the last decade, Indonesian authorities have used force to reduce illegal plantations. This article analyses the drivers behind these actions and questions to what extent they reflect the rise of eco-authoritarianism. By investigating six cases of disciplinary action in Sumatra, we conclude that the Indonesian state is neither practising eco-authoritarianism nor constituting a green state. The disciplinary action, however, has had limited success in environmental terms due to policy incoherence, violent contestation and the sector’s historical context.     

和谐社会背景下油地关系和谐度评价分析

本文在熟悉与和谐有关的相关理论基础上,提出了和谐度及油地关系和谐度理论。通过查阅相关和谐度评价指标,结合石油企业本身,构建出评价油地关系和谐度的评价指标体系。利用层次分析法、模糊评价法构建出评价模型,借此对油地关系的和谐度进行评价。     

A Neoliberal Rentier System: New Challenges and Past Economic Trajectories in Iraq

The Islamic State’s conquest of swathes of Iraqi territory, combined with falling oil prices, revealed the fault lines of a model of economic development that made the country extremely vulnerable to the events of 2014. Over the last 13 years, the consolidation of the rentier economy in parallel to the promotion of a neoliberal model – a neoliberal rentier system – has not initiated a process of sustainable economic development. The main factors explaining this missed opportunity can be found in the tensions that exist between the two models and, in particular, between the relative roles of the state and the private sector as drivers of economic development.     

Sudan and the Unbearable Lightness of Islamism: From Revolution to Rentier Authoritarianism

The regime ruling Sudan since 1989 represents a pioneering experiment in the field of Islamist politics, being the first case in which a movement affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood managed to conquer power and hold on to it for a considerable time. During the late 1990s, internal and external pressures threatened the survival of the regime, leading the ruling class to abandon its ambition to represent a model of revolutionary Islamic governance. Oil exports provided a catalyst for this pragmatic shift, intensifying patronage-based relations at the expense of ideological affiliation. Seen from a political economy perspective, the Sudanese experience proves the flexibility of Islamism as an ideology, but also its failure as a political practice to constitute a real alternative to the authoritarian dynamics that are widespread in the MENA region.     

国际油价走势对俄罗斯产业结构的影响分析

近年来,国际原油价格不断攀升,给俄罗斯带来了巨额财富,从而保证了俄罗斯经济连续多年的快速增长。但是,高油价在给俄罗斯带来好处的同时,也对俄罗斯经济未来发展带来了潜在的不利影响:抑制了本国产业结构的调整,影响了国家经济安全和可持续发展。从国际石油价格走势来看,油价高位将会持续下去。因此,俄罗斯产业结构的调整在短期内将难以得到根本解决。     

中亚国家向俄罗斯出口汽油

当俄罗斯一些公司正热衷于增加出口石油的时候,中亚的一些国家却以飞快的速度发展本国石油产品的加工能力,并把争取石油产品在俄罗斯和欧洲市场上占据更大的份额作为自己的战略目标。俄罗斯南部的一些邻国已经开始实施这一计划。     

China’s Oil Venture in Africa

Oil has long been viewed as a strategic resource for nations. China is now the world’s second largest oil-consuming country after the U.S.. Its global efforts to secure oil imports to meet increasing domestic demand have profound implications for international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. China’s rising oil demand and its external quest for oil have thus generated much attention. As China’s overseas oil quest intensifies, will China clash with the U.S. and other western countries’ interests in Africa, and how dose it look at this rivalry? Will China disrupt the U.S. and its allies’ foreign policy and the world order? This article tries to provide an overview of China’s initiatives in developing oil in Africa. It examines factors for Chinese oil companies going to Africa and China’s oil strategy there. Finally, it argues that even though China’s practices of energy diplomacy in Africa seem to undermine U.S. goals of isolating or punishing “rogue states”, contrary to those pessimistic views, China has largely accommodated the U.S. and is willing to forge joint efforts with the U.S. in energy exploration in Africa.     

Territorial Finance and the Future of Barnett

This article traces the changing funding relationships between Scotland and the UK government. Beginning from the Barnett Formula, it examines how the changing support within Scotland for greater political autonomy from Westminster has influenced the mechanisms that have determined Scotland's fiscal structure. Increasing support for the SNP, and then for the Yes campaign in the September 2014 independence referendum, has led to a mixture of new powers being granted to the Scottish Parliament. The Scotland Act 2012 extends the Scottish government's control over income tax and some other small taxes. Although independence was rejected by the Scottish people in September 2014, the ‘Vow’ made by the Westminster parties immediately before the vote is leading to far‐reaching changes in the UK's fiscal structure. This will cause a very substantial change in intergovernmental relations within the UK, which the Barnett Formula may not survive.     

THE SPATIAL LEGACY OF INFORMAL EMPIRE: OIL,THE SOVIET UNION,AND THE CONTOURS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA'S FAR WEST

Abstract

Beginning in the 1930s, Soviet geologists, engineers, and economic planners began laying the infrastructure of informal empire in China's westernmost province of Xinjiang. Seeking to gain access to its rich petroleum wealth in particular, these Soviet state agents helped create a blueprint for state investment and development in Xinjiang that continues to resonate today. Confronting the substantial Soviet investment in the province and driven by a border policy intent on minimizing capital expenditures for distant peripheries, economic planners in the Republic of China and the People's Republic alike relied heavily on Soviet reports, technology, and infrastructure in their own economic development plans. In the end, the efforts of Chinese and Soviet planners, often working in collaboration, helped create an enduring pattern of state investment in Xinjiang. Focusing on oil extraction, processing, and transport operations in Xinjiang, this work reveals the long-term resonances of informal empire in Chinese border regions.     

David Brody: Heir to the Wisconsin school

Recently, there has been a move to use a ‘fine-grained’ approach to the study of the multinational companies (MNCs). In this paper, we examine in depth a significant part of the maintenance activities in the process plants of petrochemical MNCs in the UK. While the MNCs have de-recognized their internal trade unions, and out-sourced maintenance to on-site contractors, we find that such work is still linked to trade union recognition. In this sector, the MNCs have in general adopted a national agreement for their on-site contractors. This paper discusses and evaluates the changing situation and provides a unique contribution to theory regarding the rationale behind trade union recognition in that isomorphism underlies the national recognition for trade unions in the sector and, given the changing political situation in the UK, we argue this is ultimately based on legitimacy-seeking.