Russian War Propaganda in the United States during the First World War

The article examines Russian governmental efforts to positively shape public opinion in the United States towards the Russian war effort. In late 1916, a small information service, the Nord-Ziud Agency, was established in New York with the task of influencing press coverage by supplying American publications with interesting and favorable information about Russia and its army. However, meager financial support, the unwillingness of the military authorities to frankly share information, and their failure to understand what would interest American readers all undercut this novel propaganda effort.     

Why the United States Does Not Have Responsible Parties

Political philosophy must be pursued phenomenologically. When pursued phenomenologically, political philosophy is in fact proto or first philosophy itself rather than a subsection of philosophy. As first philosophy, political philosophy must be seen as architectonic, the queen of the sciences.     

Attitudes toward War in the United States and Iran

Understanding the determinants of attitudes toward war is important for the prevention of military conflicts and the promotion of peaceful conflict resolution. To examine American and Iranian attitudes toward war, questionnaires were administered to American and Iranian college students in the United States and Iran respectively. The results of the study revealed that American students generally have more positive attitudes toward war than Iranian students. Since most Iranians in the sample experienced eight years of war with Iraq whereas Americans never had direct experience of war, it was predicted that direct experiences of military action could explain this cross-national difference. Among Iranians those who experienced the Iran–Iraq war had more negative attitudes toward war compared to Iranians who did not have such experiences. The results further demonstrated that being authoritarian, religious and male were independently related to having positive attitudes toward war in both samples.     

Stem Cell Policies in the United States and in Germany

The article compares policymaking in the field of human embryonic stem cell research in the United States and in Germany. Although experimental research with human stem cells is controversial in both countries, restrictions on research are much more strict in Germany than in the United States. In order to explain the contrast between the United States and Germany in dealing with human embryonic stem cell research and to predict possible future developments, we need to look carefully at a number of important differences in the interpretations and discourses of embryonic stem cell research and their consequences for the strategies of institutions and actors in the political-regulatory realm.     

Forced migration and legal-spatial violence in the United States and Germany

Asylum laws cannot function without spatial technologies and practices. Refugee camps, detention centers and accommodation facilities, in addition to dispersal and residential obligations, highlight the spatiality of asylum laws and policies. They are not only designed to regulate forced migrants' movement and place them in alternative legal and spatial regimes, but they are also spaces where migrants’ legal rights are violated and access to integrating institutions are restricted. Based on findings from Germany and the United States, this paper argues that current asylum regimes are characterized by a system of legal-spatial violence; a process in which a form of violence is embedded in law, implemented through policies and formal processes, and realized and reproduced spatially. This entanglement between the law, space, and violence involves complex and paradoxical processes: immobility and internal bordering practices (where forced migrants are confined and their movement is limited), as well as forced mobility and situations of unbordering (where movement is forced, and where spatial restrictions are either repealed or replaced). These processes fragment and prolong the trajectories of forced migration. Compulsion, displacement, and the dispossession of rights—which constitute the process of forced migration—do not cease on entering Germany or the United States, but can continue. The rationale for legal-spatial violence goes beyond the securitization of forced migration and the control and deterrence of forced migrants, and also includes economic logic and profit making.     

美国为何归还巴拿马运河 --1977年美巴运河条约评析

经过13年的谈判,美巴于1977年9月7日签署了关于归还运河主权和保持运河永久中立的两项条约。美国政府同意,经过23年过渡期,于1999年12月归还运河区主权,但将永远保有以武力维护运河中立的权力。1977年美巴运河条约改善了美国的国际处境,标志着美国对拉美政策的新阶段,其实质是以放弃对运河的直接占领来换取对运河的永久控制。本文利用美国国会记录等原始资料,探讨了美国为何以间接控制取代对运河的直接占领,分析了美国在这一问题上的战略思考和利弊权衡,有助于理解美国的拉美政策及美国霸权的性质和特点。