“十一·五”期间中国国家安全环境展望

"十一·五"期间(2006-2010年)是中国全面建设小康的历史关键期,中国国家安全面临四大机遇和五方面的挑战,其中挑战尤显紧迫、棘手、严峻与突出.对此要做到心中有数、有的放矢,首先要牢固树立"大安全"观,明确国家安全战略主要任务;其次应推进中美"建设性合作关系",开展大国多极外交,确保中国的战略安全;第三要分片经营、稳打稳扎,以区域经济合作、反恐防扩散等维护中国的"大周边"安全;第四应明确将反独反民分与反恐防扩散列为"十一·五"期间中国国家安全的两大主要战略任务;第五需努力确保中国的能源与经济安全,尽早防范对外开放风险;第六是保障中国海外人员与机构安全,有效维护国内社会政治稳定.总之,应标本兼治,着眼长远与根本.     

禁毒社会工作专业建设思考

通过分析禁毒社会工作的现状,提出培养禁毒社会工作人才的措施:进行社会工作的宣传,扩大社会认知度;政策支持;准确定位禁毒社会工作专业人才培养的目标与能力体系;专业课程设置的创新;做好社会工作实习基地建设;提升师资专业水平,增强执教信心;积极编写教材,实现"本土化"等措施来加快社会工作专业建设。     

云南省禁毒警察工作环境与心理健康问题分析

禁毒警察是一支特殊的警察队伍,他们的职业具有高风险、高压力、高负荷、高诱惑的特点。他们在工作中所承受着高强度的心理压力,因此心理健康状况亟需关注。应对由职业带来的心理压力,需要公安机关警察队伍管理部门和民警个人共同作出努力,保障禁毒民警心理健康,才能为禁毒事业做出更大贡献。     

The Quest for a United Nations Specialised Agency for the Environment

Abstract

Recent years have seen intense intergovernmental deliberations on issues concerning governance in the field of environment. Their aim has been to address the role of the institutions that provide platforms for international environmental cooperation. There are two main lines of enquiry: the role of regime-specific institutions that cater to sectoral regulatory frameworks (popularly known as multilateral environmental agreements, or MEAs); and the role of institutions that are established to follow up on global environmental conferences or a specific environmental task. Most of these institutions reflect intergovernmental consensual process. However, there are concerns about their proliferation and there is a growing cacophony of calls to ‘bring coherence to the fragmented landscape of MEAs, intergovernmental bodies, UN system entities and other international organizations’ (Sha Zukang (2011) ‘Legal and policy dimensions of sustainable development: expected contribution of Rio + 20’, Environmental Policy and Law, 41(6), pp. 244–246, at p. 245). In fact the need to bring order to environmental governance has assumed great importance and urgency if environmental cooperation is to be achieved. This paper explores, in particular, the role of the United Nations Environment Programme and its potential for conversion to a specialised agency of the UN.     

Environment and Energy: The Baltic Sea Gas Pipeline

Germany and Russia have agreed to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The 1,200 kilometers-long structure will run from Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany traversing the Baltic Sea. The Baltic countries, Finland, Poland and Sweden, have expressed concerns about the project. At issue is the environmental impact of the project as well as the energy, political, and socioeconomic implications.     

Considering the ecohealth approach: Shaping Haitian women's participation in urban agricultural projects

This paper examines the social and gender politics of a women's urban garden project supported by the International Organisation of Migration, in Cap Haitien, Haiti. My study highlights how the development process created an unmonitored symbolic space where society's normalised gender processes reproduced broader social inequalities, which, in turn, prevented the project from meeting the women's practical and strategic goals. Then, I discuss how the ecohealth approach, as an alternative design framework, could make symbolic space visible to be critically engaged and analysed by participants, to account for gender process, and create an emancipatory activity.     

A note on household approach to credit rationing in agrarian economies

Using clues from transaction cost economics this note develops an intertemporal agricultural household model to explain the demand-side credit rationing from formal financial institutions in agrarian economies. The model employs ex-ante transaction costs, namely search cost and negotiation cost to explain this phenomenon. The model shows that with market failure an agricultural household's production decision is not separate from its consumption decision. This is when the policy analysis household approach, which includes simultaneous decision making in production and consumption side, becomes essential.     

Supporting local climate adaptation planning and implementation through local governance and decentralised finance provision

Policies developed at national levels can be unresponsive to local needs. Often they do not provide the rural poor with access to the assets and services they need to allow them to innovate and adapt to the ways that increased climate variability and change exacerbate challenges to basic securities – food, water, energy, and well-being. In development deficit circumstances, common pool resources are important for climate adaptation purposes. In order for climate adaptation actions to deliver resilience, local perspectives and knowledge need to be recognised and given due priority in formal planning systems. Basing formal adaptive development planning on local strategies can support and strengthen measures that people have been tested and know to work. Local climate adaptation through collective action can address current increases in climate variability, future incremental changes, and the need to transform existing systems to deal with qualitative shifts in climate. These types of adaptation can work in cumulative ways. The results of local adaptation collective action that have benefits of low rivalry between users while being highly inclusive can be considered “local public goods”. Evidence is beginning to emerge that when local governance systems facilitate high levels of participation in planning collective action for climate adaptation, and direct access to resources for implementing local plans, “local public goods” can be created and common pool resources better managed.     

Climate resilience in fragile and conflict-affected societies: concepts and approaches

To understand resilience to climate and environmental changes in fragile and conflict-affected societies is particularly important but equally challenging. In this paper, we first develop a conceptual framework to explore the climate-fragility-conflict and climate-resilience-peace nexus. Second, we discuss approaches to promote pathways from climatic changes to peace. We draw on the relevant literature and International Alert's experience in fragile and conflict-affected societies to stress the key role of resilience. To build resilience, climate, development, peacebuilding, and government actors would have to overcome bureaucratic and institutional barriers and cooperate across thematic and regional silos.     

The role of caste in the implementation of herbal gardens in Bangalore

Over the past few decades home garden research has emphasised the promotion of home gardening for nutritional and other welfare benefits for the poor in urban areas. Still, the urban communities who cultivate plants in their home gardens are in general represented as rather uniform groups, and no distinction is made in terms of caste, ethnic groups, or social class. This article asserts that social stratification represents an important aspect that needs to be taken into account while devising educational programmes and community projects for the promotion of home herbal gardens in urban areas.