Strategic Commissioning in the UK: Service Improvement Cycle or Just Going Round in Circles?

This article explores the drivers of the development of strategic commissioning over the last two decades, its limitations, and the implications of its rapid spread. It suggests that the differences between government departments have allowed scope for local variations, which have been exploited by local government, leaving room for more innovation than would have been possible under an entirely ‘joined-up’ government agenda. The forms taken by this new approach to strategic commissioning were consistent with continual pressure from central government to find ways of promoting externalisation of public services. Although this underlying drive was often resisted, particularly at local level, but always re-emerged. The article ends by exploring the implications of this analysis for public services in the era of fiscal austerity under the new UK Coalition government.     

Learning from the news: Experiments in media,modality, and reporting about star wars

This study explores what ordinary American adults learn from news reported in different communications modalities and media. In the first experiment, the text of news items about Star Wars is held constant but the communications modality varies. In the second experiment, news reports reflect the journalistic style of television, newspaper, and magazine reporting. In the modality experiment, subjects learned equally well from the audiovisual, audio, or print versions of the stories. In the media experiment, subjects in the magazine and television conditions gained substantially more information than those in the newspaper condition; but when subjects were asked to apply information to policy judgments about Star Wars, magazine readers were more dovish than television viewers. For Star Wars news, it appears that the content and characteristic style of a news medium have important effects on news comprehension, particularly for the least informed and least interested members of the public.     

Situating the European Union within South Africa's foreign policy calculus

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the importance of the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership in South Africa's foreign policy calculations after a decade in existence. While political differences have been open for all to see in cases such as Zimbabwe and South Africa's notice of withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the enhanced political dialogue is important in ensuring that the partners have a greater appreciation of the complexities faced by foreign policy-makers on both sides. This study is thus interested in uncovering why political relations have lagged behind the economic and social aspects of the relationship. After assessing South Africa's foreign policy interests towards the EU, it then reviews where the political fault lines have been located since the adoption of the Joint Action Plan before identifying areas of cooperation in meeting South Africa’s interests as stated in the 2011 white paper on foreign policy.     

美国智库对华战略构想的新内涵——以《更长电报:走向新的美国对华战略》为例

拜登执政后美国对华战略如何调整备受瞩目,美国一些智库则积极"兜售"相关政策主张,其中大西洋理事会发布的《更长电报:走向新的美国对华战略》匿名报告受到广泛关注。该报告反映出美国智库对华战略构想中区别于传统冷战思维的新内涵,在战略认知上更新涉华判断,臆想当前中国战略"脆弱点",批判特朗普政府对华"政治惯性",主张从外部瓦解中国;在战略目标上力推拓展核心利益、重塑国际秩序,强调"共同威胁"以重振霸权体系,旨在护持冷战后美国霸权地位;在战略布局层面,提出振兴国家权势和加强对华威慑、明确与华竞争合作界限并煽动意识形态斗争,以全面遏制中国。该报告肆意抹黑中国,错误界定中国国家利益,对中国充满恶意偏见和误判,其战略布局根本无法撼动中国大战略根基。值得警惕的是,该报告的部分战略与政策构想在拜登政府近期政策实践中已有体现,暴露出美国政治精英与知识群体在涉华政策方面具有很大程度上的共同认知。在中美战略竞争常态化下,必须厘清两国关系的"常量"与"变量",做好应对各种风险和挑战的准备,尤其维护好国家意识形态安全。     

奠边府战役的胜利:中越人民战斗友谊的历史丰碑——奠边府战役胜利60周年纪念

奠边府战役是越南军民在抗法战争中取得历史性转折的伟大战役,也是中国人民支持越南抗击法国殖民者,打败美国干涉者的决定性战役。奠边府战役的胜利首先是越南人民的胜利,同时也是中越团结抗敌的胜利。在奠边府战役中,中越两国军民并肩战斗,共同对敌,结下深厚的战斗情谊,将中越友好关系推上了一个高峰,树立了一块光辉灿烂的历史丰碑。回顾奠边府战役的战斗历程,我们要永远牢记和珍惜两国人民这种十分宝贵的团结战斗的国际友情。     

战略伙伴关系框架下的中国—印尼合作:基础、现状与趋势

自中国与印尼建立战略伙伴关系5年多以来,双边的合作呈现出高速度、高层次和宽领域的发展态势。两国日益增多的共同利益是双方合作的坚实基础。但是23年断交历史形成的隔阂需要一段时间清除。未来5-10年,经贸合作仍将是两国合作的主渠道。未来15年之后,两国合作将进入超越经贸合作的更广、更深的领域。     

大国网络竞争与中国网络安全战略选择

当今网络空间已成为人类生存的新空间、发展的新驱动和安全的新领域以及大国拓展国家利益、输出意识形态和建立战略优势的新载体,因此也成为大国竞争的新高地。大国网络竞争体现了新时代的新特点,中国作为重要的竞争方,既介于竞争之中,又深受竞争影响。大国网络竞争涉及多领域、多层面和多维度,主要围绕网络话语权和网络治理权展开,话语权是外在表现,核心是治理权以及由此延伸的主导权。大国网络竞争对中国网络安全的影响是全方位的,从技术、战术层面上升到政治、战略层面,对中国网络安全以及整体国家安全的重要性急剧上升。对中国来说,在网络空间领域机遇与挑战并存,如何利用好机遇、应对好挑战是筹划网络安全战略的重中之重。未来中国网络安全战略选择聚焦于破解以下四个问题,即树立什么样的网络安全理念、选择什么样的网络安全应对手段、提升什么样的网络安全能力、如何进行网络安全治理。在很大程度上,解答了这四个重要问题,等于找到了有效维护中国网络安全的正确路径。     

Broadcasting party information: Can the introduction of community radio reduce the effective number of parties?

The introduction of a more majoritarian electoral system is expected to result in the consolidation of a party system as predicted by institutionalists. However, voters must have information on party viability and be able to coordinate with other voters within a constituency for an electoral system reform to have the expected outcome. I argue that the introduction of independent local radio frequencies can promote party consolidation by enabling coordination on viable candidates because of better information that becomes common knowledge. The effective number of parties (ENEP) is expected to be lower in constituencies where a larger proportion of voters listen to local radio. To test this hypothesis, access to television signals is used as an instrument for radio listening behavior to address potential reverse causality. Using 2SLS, I find that an increase in one standard deviation in regular radio listening is associated with a decrease of 0.42 ENEP in Thailand.