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| 1 |
ID:
112657
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| 2 |
ID:
110520
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The political concerns underlying Mo Yan's creative work come to the fore in his latest novel, Frogs (Wa), which gives the reader an unusual perspective on the complex relations between fiction and politics. This novel harshly criticises a state whose coercive population control policies are responsible for some murderous consequences. This denunciation is also aimed at the economic ultraliberalism that is complicit with the totalitarian inheritance because of its destruction of human dignity through the alienation and commercialisation of the body. The complex symbolic structure of this work brings out the need for life itself to be rehabilitated in accordance with basic human rights and membership in the human community, and to be strongly defended against political attack and moral decay. Far from being an essentialist communitarian ethics, however, the bioethics proposed by the author offers the possibility of social reconstruction of the bios.
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| 3 |
ID:
107568
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
During its thirty-five years, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) has been scarred by treaty violations, failed compliance negotiations, and ambiguous treaty language. Essentially a bruised paper tiger, the BWC adds no clarification to its distinction between biological activities for peaceful versus hostile purposes and has amplified-rather than lessened-mistrust in states' biological research and development potential. For the past two decades, these circumstances have generated multilateral annual discussions on BWC issues. From 2003 to 2010, intersessional talks centered on less controversial topics in an attempt to save the treaty from spiraling political tensions. States generally agree that this intersessional process was not futile and that it cooled some of the negative effects of the failed negotiations over a compliance protocol. At the upcoming Seventh BWC Review Conference this December, treaty members will weigh the utility of extending the process and its accompanying administrative Implementation Support Unit. The challenge will be to stimulate the evolution of the BWC beyond its hollow characterization to strengthen and inspire confidence in the treaty regime. This article examines the BWC's ambiguous language and how it has affected diplomacy, reflects on intersessional discussions, acknowledges the (limited) scope of appropriate peaceful activities that can be identified under the BWC, and addresses ways in which to reinvigorate the treaty.
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| 4 |
ID:
113896
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Immobilization is generally thought to result from power and poverty acting against the acceleration produced by science and technology. In this article we explore neglected countervailing trends, such as quarantines, health inspections, and import bans, where science has the effect of restricting mobility, which we refer to as "slow science." As well as increasing mobility, science can be mobilized for political projects of restricting movement, but this possibility is neglected because of cultural assumptions fundamental to modernity. Both science and technology can be enrolled for projects of slowing mobility as well as increasing mobility. Drawing on actor-network theory, we examine the enrolment of science and technology into restricting movement in various ways. These issues are explored first through an overview of the neglected genealogy of the ways in which science and technology have slowed movement, particularly across national borders, and second through a short case study of how food safety concerns affect the movement of beef across borders. The case study discusses how "slow science" diagnoses threats posed by mobility and develops technologies to immobilize certain entities. These entities have almost always been biological organisms (including humans) or their products due to the self-reproducing qualities of invasive species, bacteria, or viruses. Uniquely, WTO rules about food require that restrictions be based on sound science, resulting in trade disputes focused on scientific interpretations.
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| 5 |
ID:
105922
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
To understand the politics of recognition, one must conceive of it as a politics of representation. Like representation, recognition proceeds at once in a constative and a performative mode, whereby they bring into being what is simultaneously represented or recognized. This structure has paradoxical implications. The politics of recognition is also a politics of representation in the sense that it always involves questions such as, Which representations are recognized? Whose representations are they? The reverse is also true: the politics of representation involves recognition because representatives and representations must be recognized in order to gain authority. In short, we can examine recognition as representation, and there is no recognition without representation, and vice versa. This is demonstrated through a reading of a recent British legal case, Begum, where the issue at stake concerned which representation of Islam should form the basis for the recognition of Islam in the school uniform policy.
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| 6 |
ID:
109984
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Much of the existing research examining the acquisition of English language skills amongst refugees and other newly arrived migrants, both in Australia and internationally, assumes a relatively straightforward relationship between English language proficiency and inclusion within the broader community. This article presents contrary findings from a study of two South Australian primary schools with New Arrivals Programmes (NAPs). By examining data from both a questionnaire administered to teachers and ethnographic observations of children at play in the school yard, the findings presented here suggest that students in NAPs will be differentially invested in learning English according to the degree of exclusion they experience in the school environment and the impact this has upon their perception of the value of learning English as a mode of engagement. In response, the article calls for an approach to education that is situated in global contexts of colonisation and power relations, and where the terms for inclusion of NAP students are mutually negotiated, rather than predetermined.
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| 7 |
ID:
102352
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has progressively adapted itself
to the new strategic environment. This has meant a shift from a defensive
posture to a more proactive risk management strategy. A key
component of this mandate is contributions to international peacemaking
and peacebuilding operations. In both the Balkans and Afghanistan, NATO
has worked to utilize its military assets to create and maintain peace so
that civilian organizations can administer aid, development programs, and
good governance projects. These multifaceted operations, however, are
complex and rely on well-structured relationships between the different
civilian-led international organizations on the ground and NATO. Sadly, as
the case of Afghanistan illustrates, these organizations have proved woefully
inadequate in terms of providing sustainable peacebuilding. The hypothesis
is that international organizations do not play well on the ground
in conflict or postconflict environments because they were meant to manage
a balance of power, rather than an absence of power. These organizations
are more worried about their bureaucratic turf than they are
sustainable outcomes.
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| 8 |
ID:
103720
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
We present game theoretic models of two of the most famous military bluffs from history. These include the legend of Li Guang and his 100 horsemen (144 BC), and the legend of Zhuge Liang and the Empty City (228 AD). In both legends, the military commander faces a much stronger opposing army, but instead of ordering his men to retreat, he orders them to act in a manner consistent with baiting the enemy into an ambush. The stronger opposing army, uncertain whether it is facing a weak opponent or an ambush, then decides to flee and avoid battle. Military scholars refer to both stories to illustrate the importance of deception in warfare, often highlighting the creativity of the generals' strategies. We model both situations as signaling games in which the opponent is uncertain whether the general is weak (i.e. has few soldiers) or strong (i.e. has a larger army waiting to ambush his opponent if they engage in combat). We then derive the unique Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium of the games. When the probability of a weak general is high enough, the equilibrium involves mixed strategies, with weak generals sometimes fleeing and sometimes bluffing about their strength. The equilibrium always involves the generals and their opponents acting as they did in the historical examples with at least a positive probability. When the probability of a weak general is lower (which is reasonable given the reputations of Li Guang and Zhuge Liang), then the unique equilibrium always involves bluffing by the general and retreat by his opponent.
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| 9 |
ID:
114582
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
One hundred years after the 1911 Revolution (Xinhai Revolution) in China, its meaning continues to be highly contested. Paradoxically, the more time that passes, the less certain either political actors or scholars seem to be about the significance of 1911 for the path of Chinese revolutionary history. This essay examines three phenomena: the appropriation of 1911 in contemporary political and popular culture; the use of 1911 as a metaphor for contemporary politics by PRC historians; and the changing meaning of 1911 over the past ten decades, particularly during the years of the war against Japan. The essay concludes that it is precisely the "unanchored" nature of 1911, separated from any one path of historical interpretation, that has kept its meaning simultaneously uncertain and potent.
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| 10 |
ID:
110142
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The 1911 Revolution was a momentous event in bringing down the monarchical institution with a history of 2,000 years. Yet its consequences were ambiguous, it was overshadowed by the more radical revolution that followed in 1949, and it was stigmatized by the defeat of the Kuomintang, which claimed it as its own. Its 'revolutionariness' has been in question even as it has been celebrated as a turning point in modern Chinese history. This discussion reaffirms the revolutionary significance of the event, but also suggests that it is best viewed as a 'high peak' in a revolution of long duration that is yet to be completed. The current regime in China has revived aspects of monarchical culture and practices that revolutionaries sought to abolish in 1911. Most importantly, the promise of full citizenship for all that animated the 1911 Revolution remains unfulfilled, which may explain the contemporary regime's nervousness over the celebration of its 100th anniversary.
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| 11 |
ID:
107064
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the dramatic events that transformed Czechoslovakia into a totalitarian dictatorship primarily from the perspective of the United States Foreign Service officers posted at the American Embassy in Prague. It is based on new archival sources, on interviews with former American Foreign Service and Intelligence officers, and on their unpublished mémoires.
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| 12 |
ID:
109034
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| 13 |
ID:
102429
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article draws on fresh archival research to challenge Robert Putnam's 'Two Level Game Theory'. In his seminal article, 'Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two Level Games', published by International Organization in 1988, Putnam contended that international negotiations proceed at the domestic level and at the international level. In taking diplomatic initiatives forward, leaders are compelled to respond to the needs of domestic constituencies, through granting concessions and building coalitions, while international negotiations are pursued with one goal in mind: that any agreement will not damage the domestic political calculus. This article contends that Lyndon Johnson's actions in 1968 disprove this thesis. The President was in fact relaxed about a Richard Nixon victory in the general election as his commitment to defend South Vietnam from communism was stronger than that of his sitting Vice President, Hubert Humphrey. The President's concern for the fate of South Vietnam thus superseded his concern for his 'normal supporters'- the Democratic Party at large - who had become so hostile towards his management of the Vietnam War.
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| 14 |
ID:
105962
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| 15 |
ID:
108003
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| 16 |
ID:
106148
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| 17 |
ID:
102765
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| 18 |
ID:
102972
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| 19 |
ID:
105375
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In President Obama's words, the Democratic Party experienced a "shellacking" in the 2010 elections. In particular, the net loss of 63 House seats was the biggest midterm loss suffered by a party since 1938-the largest in the lifetimes of approximately 93% of the American population.
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| 20 |
ID:
105422
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The 2010 midterm elections are consequential not only in terms of the candidates who were elected to office, but also in terms of the government policies that they will enact. High on the list of important policies is the decennial practice of drawing new redistricting plans for legislative offices. A new census reveals population shifts that will result in a reallocation of congressional seats among the states through apportionment and-following U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the 1960s-a re-balancing of congressional and state legislative district populations within states that aims to give fast-growing areas more representation and slow-growing areas less. Of course, much more than an innocuous administrative adjustment occurs during the process of redistricting. The individuals who draw districts are keenly aware that district lines may affect the fortunes of incumbents, political parties, and minority voters' candidates of choice.
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