Evaluating civil development in counterinsurgency operations: the case for a field experiment in Afghanistan

It is a widely held belief that civil development programs play a central role in any counterinsurgency campaign. It is assumed that civil development assistance is key to ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the civilian population, which, in turn, is crucial for victory. However, there is currently little evidence to support this belief. This article begins by analysing the different methods that have been used in Afghanistan in order to evaluate the effectiveness of civil development programs since 2001. It finds that these methods have severe limitations. Indeed, based solely upon current methods of evaluation, we have no reliable evidence whether civil development programs are actively improving security, having no impact or making matters worse. As such, this article makes the case for a field experiment approach to be adopted in Afghanistan. It argues that field experiments are the most powerful methodology currently available to social scientists for making causal inferences and, by making minor changes to the way in which civil development is distributed, we can vastly improve our understanding of the relationship between aid and security.     

The disciplinary politics of antagonistic nationalism in militarized South and North Korea

After the Korean War (1950–53), the two militarized Koreas governed each and every member of society in similar ways through their disciplinary politics of antagonistic nationalism. The existing studies of state formation in the two Koreas have neglected an aspect of state power that was neither necessarily top‐down nor violent from above but also reproduced from below. In both South and North Korea, especially from the 1960s to the 1970s, state power had internal dynamics that penetrated the day‐to‐day activities of most citizens and led them to actively accept and participate in nationalist rule. This article explores an understudied aspect of the two Koreas' state power that was disciplinarily diffused in people's everyday practices through reproduction of aggressive nationalism from below and the organic construction of the individual body and nation.     

Financial crises and the balance of power in international finance, 1890–2010

Has the centre of gravity of international finance irreversibly started to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific since the financial debacle of 2007-2008? This article discusses this highly topical question in a historical perspective, by considering previous changes in the balance of power in international finance and the role played by global financial in these changes. Particular attention is paid to the Baring Crisis of 1890, the American Panic of 1907, the financial crisis of July -August 1914, the banking crises of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the financial instability of the early 1970s and the ensuing banking failures, the International Debt Crisis of 1982, and the Japanese Banking Crisis of 1997-8. The article concludes that financial crisis, perhaps surprisingly, did not lead to clear changes in the balance of power in international finance; and that the financial debacle of 2007-8 is unlikely, in the medium-term, to fundamentally alter the current order.     

Nationalism,civil society,and the revolution of 1989

Relying heavily on the work of Edward Shils, this paper argues that a robust sense of national identity among the peoples of East Central Europe played a crucial role in the revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent emergence of civil society in the region's countries.     

地域、权力与关系:对清代江苏督抚的考察

两江总督统辖江苏、安徽和江西三省地区,辖地辽阔,但驻地在江苏江宁府,而江苏巡抚驻地在苏州府,两地相距才二百多公里。江苏督抚同省而驻,既有历史的渊源,更有现实的考量。两者权力相仿,地位相同,又各有专责,共担治理江苏地方的重任,因此,地方治理的好坏,往往取决于双方是否各本虚公,坦诚合作。总体说来,有清一代,江苏督抚关系在共事中大体能够和衷共济,还呈现出几对堪称模范的督抚;当然,其间也夹杂着双方的权力争斗,甚至出现了督抚互参的重案。     

Dwelling in the Sites of Finitude: Resisting the Violence of the Metaphysical Globe

Abstract: In this paper Martin Heidegger's notions about dwelling in the sites of finitude and “power‐free” (Macht‐los) “letting‐be” (Gelassenheit) are explored as fundamental possibilities for resisting the ontological violence posed by global capitalism, the planetary outcome of the metaphysical condition Heidegger calls the “machination” (Machenschaft). Beginning from the planetary machination—the emergence of the flexible and circularly functioning power of calculative intelligibility—resistance is understood ontologically and hence as a radical critique of power as a consummation of the history of the metaphysical constitution of being. The paper culminates in a discussion of Heidegger's view on the awakening of the “other beginning” of the abyssal “Event” of being, a groundless “time‐space‐play” capable of constituting an alternative modality of relations no longer based upon the calculative functions of power but upon groundless thought and non‐violent dwelling in the earth‐sites of finite being.     

二战后日美之间的冲绳行政权归还交涉

二战后日本政府一直致力于收复冲绳主权。经过日本历届政府多年的努力,到佐藤政权时期日本终于成功地收回了冲绳施政权,并实现了＂撤出核武器和本土一样＂的归还目标。但日本收回的是对冲绳的行政管理权,美军在冲绳不仅依然保有其军事基地,而且还拥有相当的军事行动自由。为此,日美还专门签订一份保障美军行动自由的秘密协定。冲绳问题的解决对于日美两国来说是一次外交上的双赢。它不仅成功解决了二战后日美之间的领土问题,而且成功实现了日美关系的转换。从此日美关系从日本对美依附走向了日美相互依存。     

“满洲”电业株式会社始末

本文介绍了满洲电业株式会社的发展历程、代表性发输配电设施、伪满洲国覆灭时的状况。纵观“满电”的发展史可以发现,这既是高度垄断的电力生产、管理机构,也是伪满洲国傀儡政权的重要经济支柱和日本帝国主义侵略、掠夺中国东北的重要工具。     

Grassroots Environmental Activism and the Internet: Constructing a Green Public Sphere in China

The past three decades have seen the resurgence of China's civil society through the blossoming of NGOs that campaign for various marginalised interests, including environmental protection. Many studies have examined the co-evolution of the Internet and China's civil society. This paper examines the role of the Internet in strengthening grassroots environmental activism, taking into consideration the corporatised character of Chinese NGOs. Through a detailed ethnographic case study of a leading grassroots environmental group, the Global Village of Beijing (GVB), I argue that Internet technologies effectively empower resource-poor activists in their self-representation, information brokering, network building, public mobilisation and construction of discourse communities. The Net therefore contributes to the nascent formation of a green public sphere in China by fostering a discourse that counterbalances rapid economic development. Also discussed here are issues that hamper this process, including resource limitations, the fragmentation of online discourse communities, and the marginalisation and “caging” of environmental discourse.     

The Netherlands in the constellation of the eighteenth-century Western revolutions

In the constellation of the eighteenth-century revolutions, the French events have always occupied a dominant position. Consequently the other European upheavals have been considered as being provoked or strongly influenced by France. Yet, the Dutch revolutions in the 1780s and 1790s provide some important nuances to this interpretation. Before the French took over the Bastille, there was already a Dutch revolution with devoted Patriots, speaking about rights of man and constitutions. The Patriots had to flee abroad in 1787. In 1795, thanks to the French Army, they were able to return to their drawing boards, eager to think anew their government and society. This paper investigates how they did it and whether the American and French precedents were so influential after all in the construction of the Batavian Republic.