SCANDINAVIANS AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS SECRETARIAT, 1919–1946

This article reintroduces the Scandinavian perspective on interwar internationalism by mapping and analysing the Scandinavian staff in the League Secretariat. Combining quantitative and qualitative sources, the article explores how the Scandinavian members of staff were viewed by and situated in the institutional topography of the League Secretariat; how they were related to and positioned towards the national foreign policy establishment; and what the postwar trajectories of the Scandinavian League staff looked like. With these perspectives, the article offers three key insights: First, the interplay between the League Secretariat and the foreign policy strategies pursued by the Scandinavians, was highly productive, and the international issues that different Scandinavian countries engaged with through the League staff was substantially determined by the institutional set-up of the League. Second, we note clear differences in terms of strategy and commitment between the three countries’ Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs). Third, the careers of the Scandinavians working in the Secretariat show a clear continuity of Scandinavian internationalism across the Second World War. The experience, prestige and networks gained from working in the League Secretariat often translated into key positions in postwar IOs or within the new multilateral parts of the MFAs.     

跨域视角下的美国铁路华工研究述评

论文分别梳理了美国和中国关于铁路华工研究的学术史,并进行了比较与思考。认为美国横贯大陆铁路的通车,保障美国实现了真正的国家统一,开拓了美国的太平洋贸易时代。华工是铁路西段的建设主力,铸造了历史的丰碑。目前,对铁路华工的研究成果主要是"美国视角"下的学术实践:美国学界的研究起步早;研究资料主要来自美国;学术话题主要是美国学界在引领;中国的铁路华工研究仍处于边缘地位。这种状况既具有时代特点,也具有学术的时代局限。需要从地理和学术两个层面去突破"美国视角",深化铁路华工研究。     

全球化时代国际劳务移民治理析论

论文基于联合国、国际劳工组织、国际移民组织等机构的数据,重点从国家、地区及多边三个层面,对国际社会有关劳务移民的国际合作以及移民工人权益保护的治理实践进行考察,并对于未来全球劳务移民治理发展趋向加以展望。在国家层面,各国政府通过建立有关劳务移民的法律框架,推动国家间协议以及参与多边体系治理合作等方式维护移民工人权益。在地区层面,在区域一体化进程中,正式区域性组织和非正式机制,积极推动区域内有关劳务移民问题的对话、协商和合作。在全球层面,国际上有关劳务移民的国际公约及法律文书代表着多边倡议,国际劳工组织也致力于政策制定以实现所有移民工人利益的最大化。全球劳动力的流动是全球化未完成的事业。随着当今国际迁移的性质和组成日益复杂,移民治理过程中的国际合作与移民工人的保护有待进一步加强。     

Information and Confusion: Russian Resident Diplomacy and Peter A. Tolstoi’s Arrival in the Ottoman Empire (1702–1703)

Abstract

This article explores the arrival of the first Russian resident ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in a period when Russian diplomacy underwent major transformations. It focuses on Peter A. Tolstoi’s network and the management of information gathered during the first year of his appointment in Adrianople (1702–03). The article revisits the notion of resident ambassador, not as a hallmark of ‘modern European diplomacy’ with an overemphasis on the diplomat as a state-representative and office-holder, on the states system, or on institutional reform, but to suggest that a resident embassy in the early modern period was more than a formal, self-contained, and sovereign institution located in a particular place. The transformation from ad-hoc to resident diplomacy in Russian–Ottoman relations did not originate from the adoption of European diplomatic norms alone: it created new or relied on the existing trans-imperial networks of the ambassador rather than on bilateral inter-state relations. The example of Russian–Ottoman relations demonstrates that while the new diplomacy introduced by Peter I was driven by Europeanization and reform, the transformations emerged from the adaptation to circumstances in different locations and depended on the development of contacts embedded in the geo-cultural and religious entanglements of the region.     

Toward an Understanding of Canada’s International Identity

ABSTRACT

This article examines the construction of Canada’s postwar international identity and how that identity continues to influence Canadian foreign policy, especially with the United States. Furthermore, the article illustrates how changes in Canadian policy necessitated by the Trump Administration may impact Canada’s international identity in the future. The article argues Canadian policy makers have consistently constructed an international identity in opposition to the United States and continue to use the US as a reflective tool in shaping their own policy. The first part of the article briefly examines the concept of state identity outlining both type and role variants and their relevance to foreign policy and this is followed in the second part by a discussion of Canada’s postwar international identity.     

China,the international criminal court,and global governance

ABSTRACT

This article explores the Chinese policies towards the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the context of global governance. Despite China’s fast-growing foreign policy competence, the level of confidence held by China in engaging with global governance systems has not yet fully transmitted to the legal institutions governing human rights issues, and the ICC is such an example. This article examines specific policy concerns of China regarding the ICC in light of China’s engagement with global governance, and some of the traditional concerns that have had an impact on that engagement. It discusses the extent to which these concerns should still be regarded as policy barriers preventing China’s full accession to the ICC in years to come.     

New collaborations in old institutional spaces: setting a new research agenda to transform Indigenous-settler relations

ABSTRACT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people navigate the social and political order of the Australian settler state in ways that seek to increase their personal freedoms and political autonomy. For some groups this means seeking a firmer place within the social, political and economic life of Australia, and for others it means navigating away, towards a more distant relationship based in the resurgence of Indigenous nationhood. This navigation is composed of multifaceted and multidirectional relations between Indigenous Australians, settler Australians, and the settler state. As a discipline, political science must move beyond the study of settler institutions and begin to engage more comprehensively in research that considers the dynamics and structures of Indigenous-settler relations as a matter of priority.     

Gallantry on the Shankill road: the British ‘soldier-hero’ and state-media relations in Northern Ireland, 1969-1979

ABSTRACT

The study of the British ‘soldier-hero’ as a political and cultural icon after 1945 has been largely confined to literature concerned with the memory of historical figures. Rarely have scholars considered how post-war military deployments not only created contemporary soldier-heroes, but also transformed their place within politics and society as the moral interrogation of these wars threatened to encroach upon the prestige of these icons. This article examines how the soldier-hero interacted with one of Britain’s most contentious deployments, Northern Ireland, and how politicians sought to control narratives surrounding this figure to avoid public relations controversy in unusual political conditions.     

Canada’s Trade Policy: In Search of a Roadmap

This article examines Canada’s trade policy in light of efforts by the Harper government to respond to increasing global competition through the Global Markets Action Plan (2013). Through an analysis of three initiatives, the Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA), the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), and the Trans–Pacific Partnership (TPP), it becomes clear that Canada’s current strategy has only gone part of the way to enact policies that will be most beneficial to its economy. This article shows that Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan, though ambitious, does not correctly prioritize Canada’s interests: it gives too little attention to improving Canada’s strongest trading relationship with its immediate neighbors in North America; it does not comprehensively address the changing nature of trade (which is now focused on trade in value-added products); and finally, its almost singular focus on market access and increasing exports directs attention away from the type of liberalization that would be most beneficial to Canadians, which is opening up the market for imports and dismantling Canada’s supply management system.     

Women bargaining with patriarchy in coastal Kenya: contradictions,creative agency and food provisioning

Gender analysts have long recognised that challenging existing patriarchal structures involves risks for women, who may lose both long-term support and protection from kin. However, understanding the specific ways in which they ‘bargain with patriarchy’ in particular contexts is relatively poorly understood. We focus on a Mijikenda fishing community in coastal Kenya to explore contradictions in gendered power relations and how women deploy these to reinterpret gendered practices without directly challenging local patriarchal structures. We argue that a more complex understanding of women’s creative agency can reveal both the value to women of culturally-specific gendered roles and responsibilities and the importance of subtle changes that they are able to negotiate in these. With reference to food provisioning, the analysis contributes to more nuanced understandings of gendered household food security and women’s creative approaches to maintaining long-term security in their lives.