Japan’s approach toward Asian regional security: from ‘hub-and-spoke’ bilateralism to ‘multi-tiered’

This article argues that Japan’s growing activism in promoting multilateral regional security arrangements since the early 1990s stems from the country’s adoption of the ‘multi-tiered approach’; a new policy perspective that packages different types of coordination among region states, including bilateral, multilateral, and minilateral or subregional, in a layered, hierarchical manner. The significance of the approach explains why Japan has retained its enthusiasm for promoting multilateral arrangements, despite continuous criticism of their effectiveness and significance, as well as the marked decline in Japan’s economic power to support financially the country’s activism in regional institution-building. Meanwhile, the multi-tiered approach also explains Japan’s effort to maintain and strengthen its bilateral security relationship with the United States during the last decade. Four factors – a perceived change in the regional security order, growing self-recognition of major-power status, the legacy of history, and constitutional constraints – worked essentially to lead Japanese policy-makers to settle on a multi-tiered approach as a desirable policy choice in shaping the country’s security policy in post-Cold WarAsia.     

Reconciling China with international order

Abstract

The debate about Western policies towards China ('containment’ versus ‘engagement') is intellectually and politically misleading. At issue is not so much the policy blueprint but the ability of Western countries to design and implement coherent and consistent policies towards China, and to coordinate those policies between themselves. This ability has been affected by a trend towards the ‘domestication’ of foreign policies — a trend which is particularly marked in the case of the United States, but clearly visible in France, the UK and Germany as well. If the capacity to design, implement and coordinate effective China policies is to be regained, the problems will have to be recognized and addressed.     

Local Governance Versus Centralization: Connecticut Wetlands Governance as a Model

Scholars disagree whether local decision making is inherently more democratic and sustainable than centralized governance structures. While some maintain it is, due to the incorporation of local knowledge, citizen decision makers' closeness to the issues, and the benefits of participatory democracy, others find it as susceptible to issues of corruption and poor implementation as any other scale. We argue that with wetlands, a natural resource with critical local benefits, it is imperative to incorporate local governance, using the U.S. state of Connecticut as an example. Despite the American policy of No Net Loss, the local benefits of wetland resources cannot be aggregated on a national scale. Each local ecosystem needs wetland resources to ensure local ecological benefits such as flood control and pollution remission, as well as the substantial economic benefits of recreation. We illustrate the benefits of local control of wetlands with data from the American state of Connecticut, which consistently surpasses the federal wetland goal of No Net Loss due, we argue, to the governance structure of town‐level wetlands commissions. A national policy such as No Net Loss, where wetlands are saved or created in designated areas and destroyed in others, is insufficient when it ignores critical benefits for localities. The Connecticut system using local volunteers and unpaid appointees is a successful method for governing common‐pool wetland systems. In the case of Connecticut, we find that local decision making is not a “trap,” but instead an effective model of sustainable, democratic local governance.     

充分发挥比较优势 促进中俄区域合作

目前中俄边境地区参与区域性合作的途径还将在一个时期内以互市贸易为先导,通过由量的积累达到合作战略升级的目标。设立边境互市贸易区是有效途径之一。     

民族自治地方立法标准法构想

民族自治地方立法作为整个社会主义立法体制的重要构成部分,在新时期,迫切需要将其纳入统一的社会主义法制系统中加以规范。为了更好的贯彻实施立法法,规范民族自治地方立法行为,推动民族自治地方立法规范化、标准化建设,文章依据法理学原理,结合民族自治地方立法实践,系统探讨了民族自治地方立法标准法,分析了制定民族自治地方立法标准法的客观必然性,界定了民族自治地方立法标准法的调整对象,阐释了民族自治地方立法标准法的标准化内涵。     

黑龙江省对俄旅游合作的新思路探析

区域旅游合作是在市场经济基础上的资源互融、客源互动、产品互补、产业联动和利益共享的综合性合作,是以实现区域旅游产业横向联合发展,提高地方旅游总体发展水平的必然选择。     

大图们江区域各国法律的冲突与协调

大图们江地区各国国情差别较大,法律传统与法律背景不一,各国的法律观念存在很大的分歧,其法律体系也存在明显的差别。在区域合作中,政治上的分歧,观念上的相左,权利上的纠纷,是合作松散无法紧密的根本,而这些因素又具有深刻的历史文化根源,很难被“经济上的获利”消解。同时,这些因素又往往体现在法律当中,寻找解决的途径也只能依靠法律的思维。通过对大图们江地区各国法律及其背后的文化解析,认清各国的法律冲突,进而运用国际私法的理论,寻找解决冲突的途径,是促进大图们江区域合作的现实选择。     

The Mystery of China's Interprovincial Manufacturing Convergence & Differentiation of Overall Economic Growth——From the Perspective of Sector Productivity Growth & Cross-sector Redistribution of Resources

This article breaks down productivity growth into intra-sector productivity growth & inter-sectoral resource reallocation, & analyzes the reasons for the convergence of China's inter-provincial manufacturing industry & the differences in overall economic growth. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The growth of the service sector is diverging across provinces. The divergent growth of the service sector may be the key cause of the overall economic inconsistency, but not all. (2) Although the productivity of manufacturing industry has accelerated convergence across provinces, the convergence of manufacturing industry on the overall economy has been weakened by changes in the industrial structure due to the accelerated transfer of labor in the manufacturing industry. (3) The labor outflow from agriculture enters the service industry & non-manufacturing sectors, rather than the manufacturing industries with higher labor productivity. Therefore, the substantial pulling effect of the changes in the industrial structure on the overall economy is limited.     

ETHICAL, LEGAL, AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE ISSUES INVOLVED IN ACTING AS A PSYCHOLOGIST PARENT COORDINATOR IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES

The use of Psychologist Parent Coordinators in child custody cases (called Special Masters in California) is becoming increasingly prevalent across the country. This postdivorce parenting coordination role is a legal/psychological hybrid, demanding knowledge and skill in legal domains (legal procedure, relevant case law, etc.), psychological domains (child development, family systems, etc.), and dispute resolution (mediation and settlement processes). Situated in the interface of legal and psychological paradigms, Parent Coordination may be reviewed by multiple legal and psychological regulatory bodies. Coming from varying perspectives, the practice guidelines and mandates of these legal, ethical, and licensing agencies impose multiple standards of review of Parent Coordination. A brief overview of the legal and psychological review processes applicable to Special Master work in California, as they relate to common issues that confront the Parenting Coordinator across the country, is the focus of this article. They suggest that the current lack of coordination of review processes creates a minefield of professional risk for the psychologist who chooses to practice in this role.     

赴俄罗斯考察报告

20 0 2年 6月 17— 30日 ,中共中央政治局委员、中国社会科学院院长李铁映率领的中国社会科学院代表团访问了俄罗斯。作者作为全国地方社会科学院的惟一代表随团出访。由于俄方各界高度重视 ,考察访问非常顺利 ,实现了广交朋友、扩大交流、增进友谊、加强合作的目的。主要考察收获概括起来是十个非常深刻的印象 ,六点关于发展中俄睦邻友好和战略协作伙伴关系的启示与建议