Language and identity in a post-Soviet world: language of education and linguistic identity among Azerbaijani students

Azerbaijan's complex history has weaved a tapestry of linguistic, cultural, and national identities among Azerbaijanis through centuries of political, social, and linguistic integration. In the current post-Soviet era, this identity is undergoing another period of change, with influences from intra-state ethnic, religious, and sociopolitical institutions as well as from regional and international powers. This article centers on linguistic identity among Azerbaijani youth at three types of schools: Azerbaijani-medium, Russian-medium, and English-medium. The authors seek to discover whether and to what extent the language of instruction in each type of school affects linguistic identity, which in turn has implications for national identity. The article first discusses the existing literature on language and identity in second language acquisition and socio-educational linguistics. It then examines Azerbaijan's linguistic and political history through the lens of the latter framework, as a context for an analysis of the data from surveys and focus groups. The article analyzes the relationship between medium of instruction in school and students' perceptions of language and identification with various language groups, and discusses the findings of a significant correlation between language of instruction and linguistic identity, with its implications for national identity.     

Why is the “KGB Bar” possible? Binary morality and its consequences

This article asks why a popular bar named after a criminal Soviet secret police organization has not provoked the outrage of the developed world's intellectual and artistic elites, who would surely condemn an SS Bar. It attributes this moral blindness to the Holocaust's centrality in Israeli, German, and American national discourse and the resultant binary morality that ascribes collective innocence to all Jews at all times and in all places and collective guilt to all Germans – and potentially to all non-Jews – at all times and in all places. The moral logic of the Holocaust thus transforms Jews into victims and non-Jews into victimizers; the moral logic and reality of the Gulag transform everybody into both victim and victimizer. The binary morality of the Holocaust insists that all human beings be heroes; the fuzzy morality of the Gulag recognizes that all humans are just humans constantly confronted by moral ambiguity. But because the Gulag's moral ambiguity concerns non-Jews and Jews, the Gulag undercuts binary morality. The Holocaust and the Gulag are not just incompatible moral tales; they are incompatible and intersecting moral tales. As a result, they cannot co-exist. We therefore fail to respond to the KGB Bar because to recognize the Gulag as a mass murder worthy of categorical moral condemnation would be to challenge the sacred status of the Holocaust. Ironically, the KGB Bar is possible precisely because an SS Bar is impossible.     

Sovereignty,networks, and norms

The literature on collective memories in the Baltic states often stresses the irreconcilable division between Russian and Baltic official interpretations of the Second World War. This paper seeks to challenge this popular notion of two polemic collective memories – “Latvian” and “Russian”. While there is evidence that Latvia's Russian-speakers are heavily influenced by Russian cultural and political discourses, I will argue that the actual positions taken up by Russian-speakers are more nuanced than a crude Latvian–Russian dichotomy would suggest.

Based on survey data collected at the site of the 2011 Victory Day celebrations in Riga, this paper points to the germane existence of a partial “democratization of history” among Latvia's Russian-speakers, typified by an increasing willingness to countenance and take stock of alternative views of history. Through an examination of the data it will be argued that such tentative steps towards a democratization of history are most visible among the younger cohort of Russian-speakers, whose collective memory-myths have been tempered by their dual habitation of the Latvian, as well as Russian, mythscapes. In order to more fully understand this process both bottom-up and top-down pressures will be examined.     

Public Opinion and Representation of Women in National Legislatures: An Analysis of Cause and Effect

Studies of female representation in national legislatures have claimed that the gender attitudes of a country's population have an effect on female representation in that country's parliament. This claim is based on the assumption that there is a unidirectional effect of public attitudes on female representation. This article tests that assumption, and hypothesises that in countries with multi-member electoral districts the effect is likely to flow in the opposite direction. When women are nominated, and to some extent elected to parliament, their presence in national politics affects public attitudes towards women in that role. Granger tests of causality in eight European countries and in the United States generally support these hypotheses. The effect flows from public attitudes to female representation in countries with single-seat districts, and in the opposite direction in countries with multi-member districts.     

宋代家法族规与基层社会治理

家族作为中国古代宗法血缘组织的基本细胞,虽然并没有在国家权力的直接控制之下,且因其地缘和血缘的个体差异性而在一定程度上游离于国家制定法的框架边缘,但这并不能抹杀其基本治理原则与国家制定法的一致。从宋代开始,大规模的宗族组织在基层社会普遍建立,家法族规的制定也蔚然成风。这一时期家法族规以习惯和伦理为准则,与国家法一起维护着宋代社会的正常运行,并在司法实践中成为了国家法的有效补充。同时由于与基层人民靠得最近,可以最快地反馈来自底层的消息,故就其本质来说有利于宋代社会基层政治的稳定,值得我们今天从中找到合理的借鉴。     

Defining Criminal-states

Governmental views on belligerent and near-belligerent states are discussed along with evolving US terms for these dangerous states. The post 9/11 security environment requires the recognition of a new form of dangerous state — the ‘Criminal-state’ a by-product of belligerent non-state entities and their networks at war with the nation-state form. Four criminal-state forms originating from Jihadi insurgency, state failure-lawless zones, external criminal takeover, and oligarchic regimes are then highlighted. Until the new security environment is openly recognized as merging with global criminality, and the fact that it contains highly adaptive ‘small, fast, and ruthless’ challengers to the nation-state form accepted, our ability to fully define the new threat of ‘Criminal-states’, highlighted in this essay, will be impeded.     

Attitudes Toward Reform Among Provincial Russian Politicians

An American political scientist presents the results of a survey of 1, 280 oblast' and city deputies in five provinces of central Russia. The survey conducted in 1992, assessed support for reforms aimed at development of a market economy and a more democratic political system. Five scales, two economic (including one to determine views on accumulation of wealth) and three political, were developed to measure deputies' attitudes. In addition, the respondents' age, education, occupation, gender and incumbency were used to determine whether attitudinal variation could be explained by demographic factors. The findings are related to the current struggle over control of local resources. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H70, P20, R59.     

人口较少民族人力资源开发的战略选择与现实路径

人口较少民族人力资源开发必须有明确的战略选择,包括战略定位、战略依据、战略重点和具体的战略对策。目前学术界对此研究不多且存在分歧,主要集中在人口较少民族人力资源开发是以经济目标为导向还是以文化目标为导向,以往的研究大都基于前者,而不同的目标导向带来的结果是不一样的。为此,强调以文化本位为基础的人力资源开发战略对人口较少民族而言更具本质意义和战略实施的可操作性。     

The Usefulness of Examining Terrorists’ Rhetoric for Understanding the Nature of Different Terror Groups

ABSTRACT

This study advances a distinction between two generic types of terrorists’ rhetoric: (1) ideological rhetoric candidly reflecting the terrorists’ genuine beliefs and values regarding their military targeting policy (who is a legitimate target), even when adopting such rhetoric involves high image/diplomatic costs; and (2) a PR-oriented rhetoric which consciously misrepresents the terrorists’ intentions and behavior in an attempt to project a more benign and humane image, thus maintaining sympathy and rebuffing criticism. We contend that such a distinction can provide a highly useful metric for assessing terrorists groups’ rationality and pragmatism: the most pragmatic groups will shift between these two types of rhetoric depending on changing strategic needs. To show the practical usefulness of this distinction we provide criteria for categorizing terrorists’ rhetorical responses to (mostly liberal-minded) criticism that they have killed innocent civilians in their enemy’s camp. We apply our criteria by examining terrorists’ (sincere and insincere) apologies.     

宪法视野下环境制度与国家安全的关系分析

“国家安全”这一概念的含义广泛,从法学角度可以将国家安全定义为一国法律秩序的稳定状态。目前,我国环境状况持续恶化,环境安全已成为我国国家安全体系的短板且严重威胁到我国法律秩序的稳定。法律具有秩序价值,能够维护社会秩序的稳定。通过对宪法文本的分析,可以认清宪法中关于环境保护相关条款对于维护国家安全的巨大作用。