Co-Producing with FBOs: lessons from state–madrasa engagement in the Middle East and South Asia

Forging partnerships for development is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. While faith-based organisations (fbos) are receiving growing attention within development policy as important non-state service providers, they are assumed to be less conducive to forging partnerships with governments or development organisations than secular ngos due to their allegiance to specific religious beliefs. Analysing the dynamic of engagement between the state and madrasas (the most prominent fbo in the Muslim world) in six countries across two geographical regions—the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Turkey), and South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh)— the paper counters the assumption that fbos are less likely to enter into negotiations, demonstrate flexibility, and engage in the strategic bargaining often involved in forging such partnerships. Like ngos, fbos respond to socio-political and economic incentives and enter into a variety of relationships with the state, ranging from co-operation to conflict. The defining feature in building a cooperative relationship is the level of trust between the negotiators on the two sides.     

Electoral reform and the British MEP

After many years in which the subject was of marginal concern, electoral reform has recently become of central importance to politics in the UK. In this paper we examine the consequences for political representation of the electoral reform introduced in Britain for the 1999 elections to the European Parliament. We find that the immediate consequences of reform for the partisan balance and ‘representativeness’ of the British contingent in the EP were very much as expected. However, both qualitative and quantitative evidence suggest that the impact of reform on the representative priorities of British MEPs has been more partial, as parliamentarians have sought to adapt to the challenge of representing multi-member regions.     

Social Democratic parties as buffers against the extreme right: the case of Belgium

While the Vlaams Blok (currently Vlaams Belang) became one of the most successful and electorally durable extreme-right parties in Europe in the 1990s, the francophone Front National has yet to achieve a stable basis of support. We argue that an important reason for this divergence has been the behaviour of Social Democratic parties in the two regions of Belgium. In Wallonia, the Parti Socialiste (PS) held onto its traditional electorate through both distributing material benefits and by keeping traditional economic themes, or issues that it ‘owns’, high on the political agenda. The SP (currently SP.A) in Flanders has done less well on both counts. Since Social Democratic parties across Western Europe have lost voters to the extreme right, our comparison suggests that their behaviour is an important variable in understanding cross-national variation in the extreme-right's success.     

Could Innovations in Policing have Contributed to the New York City Crime Drop even in a Period of Declining Police Strength?: The Case of Stop,Question and Frisk as a Hot Spots Policing Strategy

Available data make it impossible to reach strong conclusions about the role of policing in the New York crime decline. Instead, we examine whether innovations implemented in New York fit with what is known about effective policing strategies. Our main analysis focuses on how the New York City Police Department (NYPD) could have continued to contribute to the crime drop over the last decade when the number of police declined significantly. We examine geographic data on crime and stop, question and frisks (SQFs) to show that SQFs are concentrated at crime hot spots. We also show that the NYPD increased these specific hot spots policing strategies despite declining numbers. In our discussion, we speculate on whether this “doing more with less” could be an explanation for the continued crime drop in New York, noting the limitations of drawing conclusions from existing data. We also raise concerns about possible backfire effects of SQF hot spots approaches.     

中国碳交易市场的核心问题与解决思路

中国碳交易市场已初步形成,但存在的核心问题也比较明显,主要集中在碳交易市场机制不完善、法规法律不健全、政府主管部门监管不足、缺乏碳交易的定价权与碳金融发展滞后等方面,该文围绕上述核心问题分别提出了应对思路。     

合理行使紧追权 维护中国海洋权益

紧追权是国际法赋予沿海国有效行使管辖权的一项重要权利。正确、合理行使紧追权等国际法权利,对于强化和规范海上执法、维护中国海洋权益、妥善解决海洋执法纠纷,具有重要的现实意义。从如何行使紧追权入手,由点到面,探讨国际法在中国海洋执法过程中的应用问题以及中国海洋执法队伍的建设问题。     

Issue opacity and sustainability standard effectiveness

Many voluntary sustainability standards govern opaque environmental and social issues, which are difficult to understand and address. Extant studies show mixed evidence around the effectiveness of such standards. We develop a theoretical framework that relates different degrees and types of opacity to standard effectiveness. Systemic opacity results from issues embedded in complex, diverse, and dynamic settings, whereas behavioral opacity stems from human challenges in interpreting and acting upon focal issues. Rigid sustainability standards, oriented toward compliance, are effective for addressing issues that are transparent or enshrouded by behavioral opacity, but are counterproductive for issues with systemic opacity. The trade-off between rigidity and flexibility leads to optimal effectiveness when standards governing systemically and behaviorally opaque issues are moderately rigid. Our ideas are illustrated with two leading sustainability standards in the fisheries and real estate sectors, which effectively address transparent issues but show limited success when facing opacity. We conclude that unpacking issue opacity is instrumental in designing and implementing more effective sustainability standards.     

国家安全学视域下的人工智能安全研究：议题网络建构的初步尝试

国家安全学的创建为人工智能安全研究提供了整合与成长的契机。人工智能技术并非基于安全目的而诞生，却因其核心功能可以与既有安全体系内的诸多环节建立深度链接，从而获得了内在的安全属性。人工智能与国家安全学存在深度耦合关系，国家安全学研究框架能够为人工智能安全议题网络的建构提供基础条件。人工智能本身蕴含的“双重时空意义”与国家安全学框架内特点各异的安全领域形成复杂互动，能够在学科框架中建立以“中心—外围”结构为基本特征的人工智能安全研究议题网络。国家安全研究的六个领域同时兼容人工智能的双重身份：在研究视角更加宏观的政治安全、经济安全和军事安全领域，人工智能将以系统性要素的身份创建广泛的新议题，并成为网络的中心节点；在安全内涵相对具体的网络安全、核安全与国土安全领域，人工智能则成为重要的赋能主体，塑造了网络的半中心区域。其余十个国家安全领域与人工智能的链接相对松散，人工智能分别以博弈客体、功能性要素和技术性要素的身份发挥次要作用，从而构成议题网络的外围区域。议题网络的创建有助于人工智能安全研究迈入学科化的发展轨道。