Decentralised Institutions and Electoral Authoritarianism: The Case of Town Councils in Singapore

Singapore’s electoral autocracy is well known for its innovative use of political institutions such as Parliament and elections to enhance its durability, but relatively little attention has been paid to decentralised subnational institutions such as Town Councils, which require elected Members of Parliament to manage public housing estates in their constituencies. This paper focuses on Town Councils by examining the motives behind their formation and exploring how they serve as institutions to support authoritarianism. Based on analysis of a range of primary and secondary sources such as parliamentary Hansard, government documents and newspaper articles, this paper argues that the formation of Town Councils was politically motivated and specifically designed to thwart opposition growth. It also argues that Town Councils support authoritarianism in three ways. First, they create extra hurdles and disadvantages for the opposition. Second, they give the ruling party an additional election issue on which to attack the weaknesses of the opposition and allow it to shift the focus of elections in its favour. Lastly, they facilitate more effective and targeted material distribution and create more opportunities for elite co-optation. The implications of the study for Singapore politics and the role of decentralisation in electoral autocracies are discussed.     

战时合作的“中间人”:中国战区青年译员与美军的相处

太平洋战争爆发后,中美开展紧密的军事合作,在中国战区大量征调青年译员成为重要一环。译员服务于美军的工作特殊性,使美方可影响到译员的待遇水平;但译员也面临地位不明、管理混乱以及职责不清等诸多问题。中美之间在文化与体制上的"隔阂",使译员与美军的相处存有不少冲突。国民政府既要防止译员成为美方的工具,同时也要保障译员的"人格"以维护中国之"国格"。作为战时合作的"中间人",盟军机制里的中国青年译员是中国近代史上最独特的翻译群体,同时也体现了战时青年参与抗战的重要形式。     

汉帝国交通地理的“直单于庭”方向

秦汉交通地理语汇"直",言方向正对,路径捷便。在特定的语境中又往往指正南正北方向。汉帝国交通地理的"直单于庭"方向,既直接关系军事交通格局,也与经济交通形势有密切关系。这一方向,与起点于九原即五原的秦始皇直道大致对应。秦始皇直道"直"的意义,因此得到准确理解的条件。汉帝国北上"直单于庭"方向的经济交往的作用,在讨论丝绸之路史的学术主题中有值得重视的意义。《史记》说"单于之庭直代、云中",由"代"而"云中",体现西汉初期与西汉中期的历史变化。有学者注意到卫青、霍去病北击匈奴"出定襄""遇单于"的明确的历史记录,以为"定襄""直单于庭"。就"直单于庭"方向而言,空间位置居于五原郡与云中郡之间的现今内蒙古包头土默特右旗地方,可以说具有坐标性的意义。其交通史的作用,在后世依然长期发挥,因而形成有久远影响的历史记忆。     

HMS Falmouth: addressing the significance of a light cruiser lost in the First World War off the coast of Yorkshire

HMS Falmouth is the only known wreck of a Town Class light cruiser, which were ‘arguably the best cruisers of the First World War’ (Lyon, 1977c: 49). This article reports on a project to better understand the significance of the wreck and to raise public awareness of the heritage of the First World War at sea. Although the wreck is heavily degraded it is still of considerable importance, raising methodological questions about the role of multibeam survey and 3D visualization, access to archival material, and the characteristics of archaeology as applied to 20th‐century warships.     

New military femininities: humanitarian violence and the gendered work of war among U.S. servicewomen

This article examines ‘military femininity’ in new gendered forms of labor employed by the U.S. military in the post-September 11 wars. Between 2003 and 2013, when women were technically banned from direct assignment to ground combat units, the U.S. military deployed all-female counterinsurgent teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. In various forms, these teams searched Iraqi women at checkpoints and in home raids, provided medical assistance to Afghan women and children, and participated in highly combative special operations missions alongside Army Rangers and Green Berets in Afghanistan. Recent literature on the gendering of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan focuses mainly on the teams’ deployment of humanitarianism and affect as weapons of war, while older feminist critiques analyze women’s marginalization within military institutions. This article reconceptualizes military femininity, departing from the prevailing marginalization and humanitarian frameworks. Drawing on military and policy documents, first-hand observations of military trainings, and interviews with military trainers, I show how women were integrated into ground combat through the promotion of certain gender essentialisms, such as feminine domesticity, alongside military violence. A new form of military femininity has emerged that eschews humanitarian rhetoric, and instead emphasizes servicewomen’s lethality.     

Interventions on military mobilities

Mobility and movement are central to military actions and military life, and yet despite an increasing concern with military geographies and the geographies of mobility, little consideration has been given by scholars to the political geographies of military mobilities and movements, past or present. In these interventions, we examine how these different bodies of work might intersect, focusing on social media, methods for tracing military mobilities, the role of military technologies in facilitating everyday mobilities, and the more-than-human dimensions of military mobilities.     

城市居民日常活动的社区依赖性研究——以深圳华侨城为例

本文通过研究深圳华侨城社区居民日常活动特征及其差异,探讨城市居民的社区依赖性。因子分析界定了5种社区日常活动因子:低社区依赖性活动距离、低社区依赖性活动频率、高社区依赖性活动频率、工作的频率与距离以及高社区依赖性活动距离,累积解释率达63.597%。研究进一步表明:女性低社区依赖性活动的时间距离远于男性;居民对社区的依赖性随着年龄的增长而增强;居民对社区的依赖性随着学历的增长而降低;居民对社区的依赖性随着收入的增长而降低;居民对社区的依赖性随着家庭结构的扩大和老龄化而增强;居民高社区依赖性活动频率随着居住时长的增长而提高。     

Tracing the ‘chemyn de Portyngale’: English service and servicemen in fourteenth-century Portugal

Three Anglo-Portuguese campaigns took English servicemen into Portugal in the 1380s. Two were largely guided by Plantagenet interests, in 1381–2 and 1386–7, respectively under the earl of Cambridge and the duke of Lancaster. The other, which began in 1384 under the regent João of Avis (later João I), involved entirely volunteer English forces. While the Lancastrian-led expeditions were largely political and military failures, servicemen recruited by the Portuguese in England achieved greater success, including victory at the Battle of Aljubarrota. This article compares these expeditions for the first time. It looks at their political, diplomatic, military, social and economic contexts, exploring motivations for English service in Portugal in particular, from that of the common soldier to that of the governments. By looking at the itineraries in Portugal of English soldiers, their presence is mapped and their continuance debated. The Anglo-Portuguese examples demonstrate how foreign military intervention and mercenary activity might be a driving force in social and economic relations between regions of Europe during the Hundred Years War.     

唐安西都护“两四镇不同”问题述要——碎叶镇城地望考实

安西四镇是唐朝建立在天山南道的若干军事建置,其中碎叶镇城位置的不同,构成了学术探讨上的"两四镇不同"问题。研究表明:"两四镇不同"是安西四镇之一的碎叶镇镇治在焉耆国的碎叶城与焉耆城之间来回迁移的结果,"碎叶镇城"具体位置当在今焉耆回族自治县县城之所在处。