Coordination and control in Russia’s foreign policy: travails of Putin’s curators in the near abroad

Abstract

This article seeks to challenge the conception of the Russian state as being centred on Vladimir Putin by looking at the actors implementing Russia’s foreign policy in its near abroad. In particular, it explores the activities of curators (kuratory), a term applied in Russia to describe officials tasked with making things work often bypassing, and sometimes competing with, formal institutions. Following the state transformation framework, the argument put forward in the article is that curation (kuratorstvo), as a practice of coordination and control in Russia’s system of governance, can be seen as a manifestation of fragmentation and internationalisation of Russia’s foreign policy making. The empirical basis for this article is a case study of Russia’s policy towards Abkhazia, which Russia officially recognised as a sovereign state in 2008. This article addresses the involvement of curators in their attempts to exert political influence as an expression of fragmentation as well as emerging institutionalised curation in development assistance as a part of internationalisation.     

马克思主义中国化视阈下中华传统文化双重继承法研究

双重继承法指的是在圆融和合批判继承和抽象继承的基础上形成的一种方法。在双重继承的过程中,批判继承和抽象继承是逻辑先后的关系而非时间先后的关系,是共通互补的关系而非相互排斥的关系。双重继承法既能保持文化自省精神,又有力地回击了否定民族文化的虚无主义倾向。通过双重继承法可以充分继承和科学弘扬中华优秀传统文化的合理内核,并赋予其时代意义,使之与马克思主义的精髓相契合,从而为马克思主义增添了中国气派和中国风格。坚持双重继承法有助于推进中华优秀传统文化的创造性转化和创新性发展,并推动马克思主义中国化不断深入发展。     

Decomposing Audience Costs: Bringing the Audience Back into Audience Cost Theory

According to a growing tradition in International Relations, one way governments can credibly signal their intentions in foreign policy crises is by creating domestic audience costs: leaders can tie their hands by publicly threatening to use force since domestic publics punish leaders who say one thing and do another. We argue here that there are actually two logics of audience costs: audiences can punish leaders both for being inconsistent (the traditional audience cost), and for threatening to use force in the first place (a belligerence cost). We employ an experiment that disentangles these two rationales, and turn to a series of dispositional characteristics from political psychology to bring the audience into audience cost theory. Our results suggest that traditional audience cost experiments may overestimate how much people care about inconsistency, and that the logic of audience costs (and the implications for crisis bargaining) varies considerably with the leader's constituency.     

Intellectual iconoclasm as modernizing foreign policy: the cases of Mahathir bin Mohamad and Lee Kuan Yew

This article attempts to engage in a preliminary twinned study of the foreign policy styles of Mahathir bin Mohamad and Lee Kuan Yew within the framework of ‘modernizing Southeast Asian foreign policies’. Modernization is a process of immense multidimensional displacement in economy, society, political system, attitudes towards politicians, identities, work, and consumption. As such the onus falls upon their leaders to either mitigate change or productively awaken their followers to embrace a new mode of thought. Both Lee and Mahathir have however chosen to engage in the foreign policy of intellectual iconoclasm featuring the narrative of ‘productive shock’, manufactured nationalist logics, elitist policy-making and elaborate self-propaganda.     

Resurgent authoritarianism: the case of Russia's new NGO legislation

Following the protest demonstrations of the 2011–2012 electoral cycle, tensions between the limited modernization efforts of Medvedev and the resurgent authoritarianism of Putin have become increasingly manifest. These are seen not only in the relationship between society and the state, but also in the “para-constitutional” institutions of the dual state. This article argues that whereas Medvedev created an arena for liberalization within these para-constitutional structures, Putin has firmly rejected these policies, among other things by revising the 1995 law on NGOs amended in 2006. Using the perspective of the dual state, the article argues that with the introduction of the Law on Foreign Agents (2012), the original law draft On Public Control (2014), a key element in Medvedev's modernization program, was delayed and substantially altered. Together, these amendments create precarious conditions for NGOs, pressuring their independence by threats of dissolution and reducing the quality of civil control over state organs.     

No,prime minister: explaining the House of Commons’ vote on intervention in Syria

On 29 August 2013, the UK House of Commons inflicted the first defeat on a Prime Minister over a matter of war and peace since 1782. Recalled to debate and vote on UK intervention in Syria, the Commons humbled the government and crucially impacted the development of UK foreign policy. This article places that vote, and the developments leading to it, in the context of the role of parliaments in security policy and explores the relationships between parliamentary influence, leadership, intra-party and intra-coalition politics, and public opinion. From an in-depth analysis of leaders’ statements and parliamentary debate, we find a combination of intra-party politics and party leadership were most significant. An additional factor – the role of historical precedent – was also important. Our analysis explores the fluidity and interconnectedness of the various factors for parliamentary influence in foreign policy and offers directions for future theoretical development and empirical research.     

国际投资法中的“国家安全”问题探究——以“Ralls诉美国外国投资委员会案”为视角

国际投资协定通过条约义务设定,促使投资东道国保护其境内的外国投资。"国家安全例外"条款则以保护东道国利益为宗旨,并为国际投资协定和国际投资争端解决实践认可。"国家安全例外"在平衡国际投资者与投资东道国利益中扮演重要角色,但该条款会为以保护东道国国家利益为名行投资歧视之实的行为提供"条约保护伞",对国际投资造成不合理限制。在国际投资协定由"重投资保护轻东道国保护"向"投资者与东道国兼顾"的转型中,我国拟在《外国投资法》中设置国家安全审查机制的做法正逢其时,并与"投资者—东道国纠纷解决机制"退出国际投资条约的呼声相呼应,将为投资东道国利益提供条约上的保护。但在国际投资协定尚未完成转型的时期,通过国家安全审查国际投资时应兼顾考察所涉及的投资协定,以免国家承担可能发生的条约不履行的国际责任。     

国外非营利组织法人治理研究进展

非营利组织作为一种与企业法人类似的法人形式,从公司治理的角度研究非营利组织法人治理问题越来越引起学界的重视。本文主要对国外公司治理视角下非营利组织法人治理问题从静态的治理结构和动态的治理机制两方面的最新研究进展进行系统综述,探讨对研究我国非营利组织法人治理问题的借鉴和启示。     

期待可能性理论的继承与批判

期待可能性理论在许多大陆法系国家或地区的刑法理论里占有相当重要的地位 ,并在刑事立法和司法中得以承认和采纳。近年来 ,我国刑法学界已有人开始涉足这一理论 ,但是 ,其诸多主张颇值商榷。本文简要地介绍了期待可能性理论的基本内容 ,并对这一理论进行了全面而深入的评价。文章提出 ,我国刑法应批判地继承期待可能性理论 ,不能盲目扩大期待可能性理论的适用范围。     

外资并购国有企业的法律思考

外资并购我国国有企业是当前企业并购中的热点。随着我国入世步伐的加快 ,妥善处理这一问题显得日益重要。本文通过分析外资并购国有企业存在的问题 ,提出了完善外资并购国有企业法律制度的设想。