Negotiating interference: US democracy promotion,Bolivia and the tale of a failed agreement

Since 2009 the USA and the Bolivian government have been trying to fix their broken diplomatic relations. These negotiations culminated in 2011 in the signing of a bilateral agreement but, ultimately, failed to establish a basis for mutually acceptable development aid relations. This article analyses these negotiations and suggests a partial explanation that accounts for their dynamics and results. Specifically it shows how the negotiations have pitted Bolivian demands for state sovereignty and mutual respect, based on an egalitarian understanding of inter-state relations, against the US emphasis on common obligations and universal rights, informed by a non-egalitarian notion of liberal hegemony.     

Hemispheric reconfigurations in Northern Amazonia: the ‘Three Guianas’ amid regional change and Brazilian hegemony

Regional and hemispheric reconfigurations in Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly mediated by Brazilian power, and the engagement of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana with this emerging context is intriguing. They are tentatively moving away from a Caribbean region with which they are culturally contiguous, towards a South American continent in which they are geographically located. This is partly a reflection of the gradual opening up of the Northern Amazonian space that they share collectively, and also with Venezuela and Brazil. These processes are occurring as cause and effect of Brazil’s emergence as a regional – and even regionally hegemonic – power. With reference to wider debates on regionalism and hegemony, we analyse the uncertain consequences of these shifts.     

Modes of transition and the timing of separatist war onset: a comparative analysis of South Ossetia and Kosovo

This paper compares the escalation of civil war in South Ossetia and Kosovo and shows how different modes of transition deeply influenced the timing and type of conflict in these two cases. It argues that regimes resulting from a transition from above – when the elite in power leads the process of regime change and imposes its political agenda on other social actors – are more likely to ensure political stability in the short term, since governments are more cohesive internally, enjoy the support of the military, and can rely on a loyal bureaucracy. In contrast, regimes that emerge from transitions from below are more likely to experience civil war with an ethnic minority in the short term because of an intrinsic weakness of the elite in power. Under these circumstances, the newcomers need to win the loyalty of the military and of the bureaucracy, and separatist groups can take advantage of the incumbents’ weaknesses and try to build resources to militarily challenge the state.     

Global South rhetoric in India’s policy projection

While an on-going statist project tries to portray India as a ‘rising power’ in world politics, the fact remains that India’s global projection continues to be heavily fashioned by the Global South rhetoric. Such rhetoric is inclusive of irredentism and contestation with western norms and ideals along with cooperation leading to a complex process of interactions shaping up the global order. For countries like India being claimant to the status of ‘civilisational state’, the strong urge for autonomy along with the self-perception of national and cultural greatness is shared by the elite along with a sense of strategic importance. Such identity formation, however, reduces and sometimes obliterates the gaps between ‘internal’ and ‘external’, bringing into academic scrutiny the whole range of policymaking and to what extent it matches the state rhetoric.     

Staying sincere: an experimental analysis of non-strategic voting in South Korea

Under ideal conditions, when do voters switch from sincere to strategic voters? Despite a large literature on strategic voting and Duverger’s Law, few studies assess when individuals shift from sincere to strategic nor what factors may encourage or discourage defecting from one’s first choice. Through an experimental web survey analysing district voting in South Korea’s National Assembly, this study measures the effect of partisan cues and the margin of error. Not only did a non-negligible number of respondents remain sincere voters despite conditions favourable to strategic voting, but supporters of smaller parties and those without partisan identification were more likely to defect from their sincere vote when given an additional prompt about the margin of error. The results suggest the contextual influence on the strategic vote calculus.     

Implicating ‘fisheries justice’ movements in food and climate politics

Abstract

While much debate on climate change has emerged around food, forest and land politics, the fisheries sector has only recently become more visibly implicated in these discussions. Similarly, in comparison to food and agrarian movements, fishers’ resistance to intensified mitigation efforts and resource exclusion is still significantly understudied academically, and receives little attention in political spheres. This highlights a critical gap in both food and climate politics literature, which this paper aims to present a framework for addressing. To do so, it contextualises the emergence of overlapping processes of exclusion in global fisheries, and explores the implications global food system transformations have had in the fisheries sector, and the reactions this has spurred from South African fishers. It then traces the convergence of fishers’ movements with other resource justice movements, and how this has contributed to the rise of ‘fisheries justice’. Finally, it presents four interlinked propositions – highlighting food sovereignty, resource access and conflict, climate change and mitigation, convergences between movements, and alternatives proposed by fishers – as a framework for how incorporating fisheries and fishers’ movements can broaden our understanding of transnational social movements, and expand the depth and scope of food and climate politics.     

对中国民族政策“反思”的反思

2009年新疆“7·5”暴力事件发生后,国外一些媒体包括一些学者,对中国民族政策进行“反恩”。为避免谬种流传,文章对这些“反思”进行反思。认为,所谓“共产党创造民族”说,是无稽之谈。那种认为是中国民族政策把民族边界清晰化,提升了民族意识,酿成了民族分裂主义的恶果的观点也是错误的。中国民族关系结构的实质是多元一体格局。“中华民族”和56个民族的民族意识的分层次性和兼容性,民族意识并不一定等同于民族独立、民族分裂,但这种民族意识必须在中华民族认同意识的范畴之内,否则,就会滑入民族分裂主义的泥潭,给中华民族带来灾害。     

论冷战后南亚地区合作——基于新地区主义的考察

冷战结束后,地理空间的认同取代了意识形态的认同,导致新地区主义兴起。作为一种多边主义形式．新地区主义的出现反映了地区范畴内从相互依存与国家合作到一体化、认同与社会聚合的相互作用进程。可以以新地区主义考察为分析视角,认识合作安全是南亚地区合作的基本范式。     

Regional power South Africa: Co-operative hegemony constrained by historical legacy

This article argues that regional powers can be distinguished by four pivotal criteria: claim to leadership, power resources, employment of foreign policy instruments, and acceptance of leadership. Applying these criteria to the South African case, the crucial significance of institutional foreign policy instruments for the power over policy outcomes at the regional and global level is demonstrated. But although Pretoria is ready to pay the costs of co-operative hegemony (capacity building for regional institutions and peacekeeping for instance), the regional acceptance of South African leadership is constrained by its historical legacy. Additionally Pretoria's foreign policy is based on ideational resources such as its reputation as an advocate of democracy and human rights and its paradigmatic behaviour as a ‘good global citizen’ with the according legitimacy. The Mbeki presidency was more successful in converting these resources into discursive instruments of interest-assertion in global, than in regional bargains. In effect the regional power's reformist south-oriented multilateralism is challenging some of the guiding principles of the current international system.     

韩国劳资关系:从对抗走向协商

1987年之前,韩国政府直接扶植企业发展、压制工会。民主化运动爆发后,劳资矛盾出现井喷现象,形成了劳资对抗的传统。90年代韩国的政治、经济、社会环境开始期待协商型劳资关系,但是政府缺乏经验和能力、企业和工会没有彻底完成意识转变。1997年金融危机以及全球竞争的压力为韩国建立协商型劳资关系提供了契机。在工会较为信任的"进步阵营"执政的情况下,在全社会都认识到了劳资对抗、僵硬的劳资关系的负面影响后,韩国政府倡导建立了自上而下的劳资政协商机制。尽管韩国还未彻底走出劳资矛盾的泥潭,但劳资关系向协商转换的趋势已经非常明显,而且在2008年的经济危机中又有了发展。