Globalization in Solidarity

Abstract

Globalization is an economic, social, cultural, and political phenomenon. Considering globalization as evil in itself or as a panacea for all the problems is not realistic. In general, globalization is welcomed by the elite and the corporate sector in India, whereas the poor are generally against it. Considering the impact of globalization on economic life, culture, and the environment in India, this article tries to see why globalization needs to integrate the values of justice and solidarity if it really wants to facilitate true human development.

In spite of the advancement in technology, communication and trade, inequalities, exploitation, and corruption have increased in a globalized world. Economy needs ethics to function correctly. Globalization has an inherent tendency to bring homogeneity in socio-cultural and religious life. Consequently, the indigenous cultures feel threatened. Only by respecting the uniqueness of cultures, globalization can strengthen cultures through healthy dialogue rooted in solidarity. Another important aspect of solidarity is solidarity with nature. To enhance real human development, globalization should safeguard ecology, discerning the needs of the present generation, as well as future generations.

Globalization is not first all about money, market, or competition, but about people and their interconnectedness. Economic prosperity, if it does not ensure justice to all, will not lead to long-lasting peace and development. Justice is rooted in love and solidarity with all.     

Law,Principle, and the Theologico-Political History of Sovereignty

Abstract

This article takes it cue from the debate between Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson regarding the possibility of political theology within Christianity, and in response, offers a conceptual-historical portrait of sovereignty and its juridical dimensions. Beginning with the introduction of Roman law into the medieval Church, the article traces the logic of “legal principle” as the basis of sovereign decision and how the form of legal distinctions adopted into canon law translate the Romanitas of law into the theory of papal sovereignty. By the Romanitas of law, that is to say the principle of sovereignty in law. The article then seeks to describe the conceptual translations of Roman politics and Stoic metaphysics into theological form and the logic of this translation into medieval natural law. The article concludes by evaluating how the civic theology of Rome is conceptually inherited by the politics and legal framework of sovereignty and returns to Peterson’s critique of Schmitt, arguing that political theology can be understood as a dynamic where politics is theologized, assuming that in the history of religion, theology and politics are never fully distinct to begin with.     

The Moral Theologian,Oliver O'Donovan and International Law

Abstract

Oliver O'Donovan renders a singular contribution to the theory and history of international law by identifying the spiritual impoverishment of the discipline following the triumph of state-centred contractarianism in the theory of international relations, with Hobbes, Locke, Kant and, for the present, John Rawls. This contractarian approach to international society has an inherent tendency, which O'Donovan highlights, to ground international order in the hegemonic claim of one or two countries to represent the values of the whole of humanity. With a combination of rational moral theology and biblical interpretation (Revelation), O'Donovan reasserts an international order grounded in the autonomous identities of the nations, which God has recognized as equal. With a theory of political legitimacy which rests upon representation of national identity, O'Donovan points the way to an international order based upon mutual respect among nations under natural law, in the classical medieval sense finally represented by Grotius and Suarez. This article describes again what the natural law tradition meant in the hands of Aquinas and Vitoria, in order to highlight the fact that the ontological dimension of natural law theory provides a way to meet the intolerable insecurities which theories of nationalism appear to generate. Then the article goes on to offer one way to bring natural law thinking up to date for contemporary audiences by drawing upon Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological theory of mutual recognition and respect among the nations as a way of going beyond the contractarian tradition in contemporary international law and relations theory.     

THE CAREER OF L. S. BERG

The following appraisal is by Eduard M. Murzayev, physical geographer and toponymist, with interests in Mongolia and Central Asia, who was a student of Berg at Leningrad University, and since this graduation in 1930 has been associated with the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences USSR, first in Leningrad and after 1936 in Moscow. This article is based on a talk given by Murzayev in March 1976 at a memorial session of the Geographical Society USSR in Leningrad.     

The Russian Stabilization Fund and Its Successor: Implications for Inflation

A senior Japanese specialist on Russia's economy and its oil- and gas-producing sectors analyzes the functions and performance of the Stabilization Fund of the Russian Federation and the new system replacing it in 2008. The Fund, created to diminish the effects of possible future decreases in oil prices on federal budget revenues and to absorb excess liquidity in the economy, was expected to exert a major curb on inflation. The author investigates the extent to which the latter, inflation-fighting role of the Fund has been fulfilled, given increases in the country's money supply and in state-regulated prices within the natural monopolies. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E50, E62, H20, H60. 4 figures, 5 tables, 25 references.     

The Booming Russo-Japanese Economic Relations

A noted Japanese economist analyzes the history, present status, and future prospects for Russo-Japanese economic relations. The author demonstrates that the boom in trade between the two countries in the 2000s is unprecedented, ending the stagnation in bilateral trade that began in the early 1980s, when the era of large-scale Siberian resource development projects came to an end. He argues that underlying the current boom is an eastward shift in the Russian economy, characterized by its energy and investment policies as well as foreign economic relations. The paper considers in detail two important factors supporting this boom: (1) Japan’s exports of automobiles to Russia; and (2) Russia’s exports of oil and gas to Japan. He concludes with a guardedly optimistic prognosis suggesting growth in the bilateral economic relations on the grounds of the continuing eastward shift of the Russian economy and a marked correspondence between the demand and supply of the two countries. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F140, O520, P280, Q430. 7 figures, 4 tables, 50 references.     

Picturing knowledge: Chinese brushwork illustrations of Western natural history in a late Qing periodical, 1907–1911

In recent years, a number of studies have examined the introduction of Western learning into China after the late nineteenth century. Many of these works discuss how Chinese scholarship might have been reshaped by Western classification and structure of knowledge, and ask how it absorbed and adopted the vocabulary and language of Western learning. While defining the newly emerged idea of “national essence”, late Qing Chinese literati, notably the members of the Society for Preserving National Learning, also tried to incorporate Western scientific knowledge, as they understood and perceived it, into the framework of Chinese learning. From 1907–1911, more than a hundred botanical and zoological illustrations, drawn more or less according to Western scientific norm, appeared in Guocui xuebao, a journal published by the Society for Preserving National Learning. These pictures are an indication of the attempts made by late Qing Chinese literati to integrate Chinese and Western scholarship. Focusing on these drawings, this paper examines how the painter Cai Shou might have adopted and applied the natural history knowledge and the drawing techniques he acquired through various means. It also asks with what ideal late Qing and early Republican Chinese literati might have identified themselves.     

Development and the environment: Perception and opinion in St Andrews,Scotland

In 2003, three proposals were being mediated through the planning system in the peri‐urban environment of St Andrews, Fife: a large housing development, a rail link, and a Green Belt. Using questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders, we investigate the ways in which diverse conceptions of ‘the environment’ shaped public reactions to these proposals, and evaluate the fit between these and the respondents’ stated environmental perceptions. 98% of local residents surveyed describe themselves as ‘concerned about the environment’. However, large majorities conceive of the environment as a local rather than a global phenomenon, and regard it primarily in terms of personal benefits (such as landscape aesthetics or traffic considerations). By exploring the environmental perceptions in the light of the planning proposals, the study supports the contention that the ‘local environment’ is a socially constructed phenomenon which can be fashioned and re‐fashioned according to local perceptions of threats and opportunities.     

The deserts of the Kashmir‐Tibetan frontier

Abstract

Semi-arid landscapes are vulnerable to cultivation, overgrazing and climate variability, although it is difficult to identify the relative significance of these three factors. In the South African Karoo, the ‘desertification debate' seeks to explain a change to more shrubby vegetation in heavily grazed areas. We examine these issues in catchments where farm reservoirs provide sediment stores with 137Cs, 210Pb, geochemical and mineral magnetic signatures. Rainfall data and stocking numbers are reported and current erosion rates are estimated. Sediment accumulation in the reservoirs increases between 1935 and 1940, probably due to rises in the frequency of rainfall events of >25mm day. Significant increases in sedimentation rates (×8) occur during rain-fed wheat cultivation. In an uncultivated catchment, sediment yields remain relatively high and reflect increases in erosion from hillslopes, colluvial storage, and cultivated land sources. Gully systems have acted as transport routes rather than sediment sources over the last ～70 years. Badland erosion rates average ca. 50t ha^?1 yr^?1. At Ganora, their development in the 1920s strongly influences peak sedimentation between 1970 and 1980. Any delay between badland initiation and increased sediment yield appears to be a function of landscape connectivity. Recovery following disturbance is occurring slowly and is likely to take >100 years. De-stocking and better management systems are reducing erosion rates but may be offset by increases in rainfall intensity.     

From Nihewan to Zhoukoudian: Cultural Evolution Pattern in the Paleolithic Age of Northern China

Nihewan and Zhoukoudian are important areas where early humans and cultures originated and reproduced in northern China and even East Asia. Geologically, both site groups belong to the Haihe River valley; chronologically, the Nihewan sites date to ca. 1.7 million years ago, and the Zhoukoudian sites date to ca. 0.5 million years ago; and culturally, both are dominated by the small-flake-tool culture. Thus, it is speculated that the early culture in the Zhoukoudian sites came from the migrants from the Nihewan Basin who facilitated cultural diffusion in the area; in turn, it also affected the culture in the Nihewan area during the subsequent development. This paper proposes the development path of the Paleolithic culture in northern China, that is, early humans in this region roughly experienced three stages of subsistence from lake-dependent to cave-dependent and then to river-dependent.