Shaking off the neoliberal shackles: “democratic emergence” and the negotiation of democratic knowledge in the Middle East North Africa context

ABSTRACT

There is a general assumption in democracy promotion that liberal democracy is the panacea that will solve all political and economic problems faced by developing countries. Using the concept of “good society” as analytical prism, the analysis shows that while there is a rhetorical agreement as to what the “good society” entails, democracy promotion practices fail to allow for recipients’ inclusion in the negotiation and delivery of the “good society”. Contrasting US and Tunisian discourses on the “good society”, the article argues that democracy promotion practices are underpinned by neoliberal parameters borne out from a reliance on the transition paradigm, which in turn leave little room to democracy promotion recipients to formulate knowledge claims supporting the emergence of alternative conceptions of the “good society”. In contrast, the article opens up a reflective pathway to a negotiated democratic knowledge, which would reside in a paradigmatic change that consists in the abandonment of the transition paradigm in favour of a “democratic emergence” paradigm.     

泰国：20世纪二三十年代海外潮剧的中心

泰国潮剧源于中国。20世纪二三十年代,伴随着现代化的进程,泰国潮剧逐渐本土化,并对中国潮剧产生一定的影响,成为海外潮剧的中心,对潮剧艺术的发展做出了巨大的贡献。同时,潮剧在泰国与中国之间的地理位移意味着这一特殊戏曲艺术在整体格局中的边缘与中心地位的互换,其后隐藏着特定的社会背景和历史渊源,给予人们深刻而独特的文化启示。     

从NAFTA到USMCA:投资争端解决机制的变化、成因及启示

2020年7月生效的《美国—墨西哥—加拿大协定》在投资争端解决机制上一改《北美自由贸易协定》下偏重对投资者权利保护的“新自由主义”精神,回归对国家规制权能的重视。在适用对象、适用争议、适用程序上作出变化与革新。全球价值链收缩及“慢球化”、投资争端解决机制的内在合法性危机以及对东道国规制权力的削弱,是国际投资争端解决机制发生变化的深层次经济、法律与政治动因。《美国—墨西哥—加拿大协定》投资争端解决机制的变化与革新将进一步推动“卡尔沃主义”的回归以及加剧国际投资法体制内部的碎片化趋势。中国应积极支持及推进投资争端解决机制改革,使其发挥正面作用,同时辩证吸收“卡尔沃主义”的合理因素,积极探索诸如前置协商、投诉与帮助以及调解等解决投资者与东道国之间投资争议的多元渠道。     

NORTH KOREA’S PERSPECTIVES IN ITS ARGUMENT FOR A PEACE TREATY

In recent years, North Korea’s military provocations have been making the headlines. Beyond its harsh actions and remarks, North Korea persistently mentions ‘peace’ through a demand for a ‘peace treaty’. This may sound paradoxical. However, the origin of the North Korean argument for a peace treaty dates back to the Korean War (1950–53). Since then, North Korea has continued to raise the issue of a peace treaty in a consistent manner and the arguments have displayed similar logic and terminology throughout. It is this consistency and similarity that this article examines: through reviewing North Korea’s original texts, this article attempts to undercover North Korea's perspectives reflected in its argument for a peace treaty.     

泰国府名的历史文化内涵

泰国府名反映了其隐藏的文化内涵。从语言学角度进行分析,可以看出泰国地名具有下列特点:深受梵印文化的影响,国王在国民中的地位无尚崇高,城邦历史悠久,南北文化各异。     

RISE OF THE DISLOYAL: INCREASING RESENTMENT IN NORTH KOREA

Why has loyalty to the Kim Family Regime and the Worker’s Party diminished over the past twenty years despite a rise in the average standard of living, greater social mobility, and a regime policy of benign neglect towards marketization? Unthinkable in the Kim Il Sung era, the increase in expressions of resentment toward the North Korean authorities represents a shift in the ideology, behavior, and motivation of the population. Four critical factors have heightened tensions between state and society in North Korea, leading to a reduction in loyalty among the general population. The author considers the impact of labor mobilizations, the declining importance of party membership, the influence of foreign media, and the rise of rent seeking and extractive policies. While all play a role, it is important and possible to identify the primary cause. Extractive policies and rent-seeking position the regime and the people in a directly adversarial relationship. All tiers and agencies of the government have become complicit in efforts to siphon off profits, control market actors through crony capitalism, rent seek, over-regulate, and compete against private market actors, causing the residents to express frustration and resentment towards a government that does not have their interests at heart.     

POLICIES OF LAST RESORT FOR DEALING WITH NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME

This paper analyzes the policy remedies for dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs. After six nuclear tests and three recent successful ICBM tests, North Korea is close to miniaturizing nuclear warheads and establishing a reliable delivery system, thus achieving a much-feared nuclear weapons capability. In defiance of the extraordinarily tough U.N. Security Council resolutions, Pyongyang persists in developing nuclear weapons. North Korea's nuclear weapons program already has exceeded the strategic patience, of the U.S.-ROK alliance. Harsher policy options to deal with the DPRK nuclear weapons are imperative. Several drastic options, including severe sanctions, preventive bombing, nuclear armament of South Korea, are evaluated in the final round of engagement policy on guaranteeing nonaggression and a peace agreement with Pyongyang.     

愿景与现实的矛盾触碰--美国心理战略委员会东南亚心理战略的筹划、实施与结果

为了遏制共产主义在东南亚的渗透，在美国国家安全委员会的指示下，心理战略委员会特别成立了一个东南亚计划小组来负责制定编号为PSB D-23号的东南亚心理战略计划。但是，在PSB D-23号文件筹划过程中，国务院、中央情报局等部门对如何扩大在东南亚的心理战略计划有不同的看法，使得该文件的制定过程颇多磨难。虽然经过妥协，该计划最终得到国家安全委员会通过，但其实施效果却不应过分夸大。     

Books received

Since the early 2000s, the governments in ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) countries have developed ‘good agricultural practices’ (GAP) as public approaches to field-level quality assurance. Besides the primary goals of consumer food safety and quality assurance, these public GAP programs aim to support small-scale farmer inclusion in mainstream markets. This goal represents the antithesis of the prevailing trend that private GAP approaches have tightened integration with resourceful, large-scale producers in global value chains. This paper examines the compatibility of the goals of safety assurance and social justice in a public GAP approach through comparative analysis of Thailand's Q-GAP between two local contexts of fruit production and marketing. The research findings suggest that while the public GAP scheme could draw the participation of a broad cohort of local small-scale producers and serve to certify their production, its impact on changing producers' on-field practices and catalyzing their access to the global market through food safety assurance is limited. The binding factors include the lack of producers' understanding of the principles of the programme, limited additional economic merits for them, and the influence of extra-local market forces that stress economies of size and food quality rather than food safety.     

试论汉语在泰国语言政策中的地位变迁

汉语是泰国的一门重要外语,在泰国经历了自由发展、被限制打压和当前的迅速发展几个不同阶段。本文旨在梳理不同历史时期汉语在泰国语言政策中不同地位的基础上,指出汉语在泰国语言政策中的地位变化与中泰关系的亲疏程度、汉语工具价值的高低、泰国华人国家认同的变化等因素有密切联系。