US democracy promotion in the Arab Middle East since 11 September 2001: a critique

Promoting democracy in the Middle East has been a key foreign policy objective of the Bush administration since n September 2001. Democratizing the Arab world, in particular, is seen as an important instrument in the ‘war on terror’. To help democratize the Arab Middle East, the US initiated a number of policies which, it claims, have encouraged reform. But what has really been the impact of US initiatives? This article examines the implementation of US democracy promotion policies across the Arab region, and in particular Arab countries, and argues that it has had mixed results. The article suggests three reasons why this is so. First, democracy is part of a wider set of US interests and concerns with which it is frequently in contradiction. Second, the Bush administration conceives democracy as a panacea: it overlooks the problems its implementation may cause and lacks clear ideas about achieving this implementation. Third, democracy promotion policies have limited outcomes because neither a politically neutral nor a more interventionist approach can initiate a reform process if it is not already underway for domestic reasons. On the basis of the three critiques, the article concludes with recommendations for US policy.     

美国华人社会与"9·11"事件

"9·11"事件对美国华人而言,它是一次灾难,更是一次机会.华人社会在事件中的表现,让美国主流社会重新认识了华人社会.     

September 11: A Christian Fundamentalist Interpretation

Abstract

This article analyses sermons preached by Free Presbyterian ministers in the United States following the World Trade Centre tragedy and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It explores how these religious fundamentalists made sense of the event theologically. While terrorists carried out the attack, ultimately God was believed to have been responsible. It was considered God's way of punishing the American nation for its sin. Ministers' use of the Old Testament and God's covenantal relationship with ancient Israel is both the theological and historical backdrop to their explanation of September 11. Concentration on the Old Testament and fundamentalists' exegetical approach means that politics and religion are tightly intertwined. Emphasis on the militaristic portions of the Old Testament also helps justify the war in Iraq. Although Free Presbyterian doctrine is based on institutional separatism and believers' withdrawal from "the world" the sermons connect parishioners to their wider society through a shared sense of patriotic loyalty and national loss.     

回首杂忆

这是我对今生研究工作的忏悔。我在职的一生曾无一日离开过研究单位。然而时至今日,60余年逝去,挫折教训不少,成功经验渺然。岁月不居,回首无那。忏悔之心,将长此以往。以下大体上按时间顺序,分“启蒙岁月”、“学术生涯”两段,拉杂写上一点个人回忆,作为这一忏悔之心的自我剖析。读者进而教之,不胜感幸。一、启蒙岁月钩沉(一)我们的“家”我的研究历程中的启蒙阶段,是在当时的中央研究院社会研究所度过的。1 943年,我毕业离开武汉大学,经我的老师杨端六先生介绍,进入社会所。当时社会所所址,名义上设在四川南溪县李庄镇,实际上到了李庄镇,…     

Remembering September 11: Photography as Cultural Diplomacy

American cultural diplomacy has taken on fresh significance in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States and there has been increasing support within the US State Department for initiatives to promote the diplomatic role of culture in the 'war against terrorism'. This article considers one such initiative: the photographic exhibition, After September 11: images from Ground Zero which is touring the world over three years with substantial support from American diplomatic missions. This exhibition is clearly intended to shape and maintain a public memory of the attacks on the World Trade Center and their aftermath. As such, it is a fascinating initiative in cultural diplomacy that echoes structures of Cold War propagandizing yet asks fresh questions about the role of visual culture in American foreign policy in the digital age. The article examines the origins of this exhibition and considers tensions that exist between its aesthetic components and the ideological framework that surrounds its implementation.     

Forum on rethinking technology in the aftermath of September 11

The history of holography, the technology of three‐dimensional imaging that grew rapidly during the 1960s, has been written primarily by its historical actors and, like many new inventions, its concepts and activities became surrounded by myths and myth‐making. The first historical account was disseminated by the central character of this paper, George W. Stroke, while a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan. His claims embroiled several workers active in the field of holography and information processing during the 1960s, but transcended personality conflicts: they influenced the early historiography of holography and the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physics to . An extended discussion of these episodes, based on archival research, publications analysis and interviews with participants, reveals the importance and extraordinary allure of intellectual priority for practicing scientists, and how its history and explanations are woven from multiple accounts and contemporary interpretations.     

The paradigm shift: 11 September and Australia's strategic reformation

This article argues that the perceptual shock of 11 September transformed the mental picture which shapes the Australian government's approach to national security. The expansive and transformationalist range of strategic concepts introduced post-11 September by key government ministers and the prime minister in their public commentary, and formally expressed in a variety of post-11 September policy releases, have been substantial enough to conclude that the central geostrategic narrative underpinning Australia's pre-11 September strategic posture has been diluted sufficiently to render it ‘one of many’ shapers of Australia's post-11 September strategic orientation. It is this article's finding that the perceptual shock of 11 September has been sufficiently consequential to produce a paradigm shift in Australian strategy.     

Spatial dimensions of Arab American voter mobilization after September 11

We examine the sources of variability in Arab American voter registration in the months following September 11, 2001. Several comparisons suggest that the policy aftermath of 9/11 has acted as an accelerant to Arab American political incorporation. Specifically, we evaluate raised incidences of Arab American voter registration across locations relative to two populations: the Arab American population that registered to vote prior to 9/11, and the non-Arab American population that registered after 9/11. New Arab American voters, while dispersed, are not randomly distributed across space. The period between September 11, 2001, and the 2004 presidential election witnessed considerable change in the geographic distribution of the Arab American electorate, as well as its partisan and demographic composition.