The United States and Extraterritoriality

Book reviewed in this article:
Eileen P. Scully, Bargaining with the State From Afar: American Citizenship in Treaty Port China, 1844–1942     

Patterns in the Mess: The United States and Nicaragua

Review in this Article
Robert A. Pastor. Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua . Princeton     

卡霍基亚——美国的金字塔之城

<正>北美第一大河密西西比河在中部大平原上滚滚南去。在它的中游,有一处少为人知的古老遗迹——卡霍基亚(Cahokia),一座由印第安人建造的金字塔城市,同时也是美国境内出现的首个城市。提到金字塔,总是让人联想到古埃及或墨西哥玛雅文明用巨石筑起的史前摩天建筑,     

Trade and culture: the United States

ABSTRACT

The US government has long held that cultural goods and services represent an economic sector like any other and should be liberalized. The American cultural and digital industries enjoy a strong competitive advantage and constitute a leading export sector. This US stance has antagonized many countries pursuing cultural policies. This has led the US government to soften its trade strategy and accept financial measures, as well as a broader array of ‘traditional’ cultural regulatory instruments. At the same time, the United States insists on the absence of restrictions in digital networks, through which cultural contents are to be increasingly distributed and accessed. Under the negative-list negotiating approach, whereby everything is liberalized save for specific exceptions, states parties to US trade agreements have secured a varying array of measures. However, only a handful, essentially industrial countries, have secured digital exceptions, the latter coupled with conditions raising questions concerning their applicability.     

The United States, The United Nations and Iraq: 'Multilateralism of a kind'

Much is made of the need for any second war against Iraq (following Desert Storm of 1991) to be sanctioned by a resolution of the UN Security Council, approved necessarily by all five Permanent Members. Yet only two of the five, the USA and the UK, show any enthusiasm for renewed war in the Persian Gulf; and British policy is undeniably following rather than leading American actions on the diplomatic and military fronts. What are the sources of this American policy? Some critics say oil; the latest arguments of proponents invoke humanitarian concerns; somewhere between the two are those who desire ‘regime change’ to create the economic and political conditions in which so‐called western political, economic and social values can flourish. To understand the present crisis and its likely evolution this article examines American relations with Iraq in particular, the Persian Gulf more generally and the Middle East as a region since the Second World War. A study of these international relations combined with a critical approach to the history of American actions and attitudes towards the United Nations shows that the United States continues to pursue a diplomacy blending, as occasion suits, the traditional binaries of multilateralism and unilateralism—yet in the new world‐wide ‘war on terrorism’. The question remains whether the chosen means of fighting this war will inevitably lead to a pyrrhic victory for the United States and its ad hoc allies in the looming confrontation with Iraq.     

美国与亚非会议

1955年的亚非会议,是亚非历史上有重大意义的一次会议。用美国自己的档案件,看看它对这一会议以及对中国代表团的态度和反应,也许会启发人们的思索。