多维邻近性视域下大北极国家能源贸易网络的演进动力研究

气候变化引致北极海冰消融，世界大国的北极能源竞争愈发激烈。厘清各国能源贸易关系，寻求各方利益最大公约数，积极推动“冰上丝绸之路”建设是避免北极地区出现“公地悲剧”的重要路径。本文结合大北极国家概念，运用复杂网络分析方法探究大北极国家能源贸易网络的演进过程及其多维邻近性动力机制，主要结论如下：①网络总体趋向稠密化，其供应重心向西偏移，消费重心向东转移，产销空间高度分离。②网络表现出典型的“核心—边缘”结构，逐步形成以美加俄为主导的“三极”格局。③网络的三大子群日益显现，中国在网络中的地位不断攀升。④网络演进过程受多维邻近性动力驱动，经济差异是主要内生性动力，地理邻近性是重要自然基础，组织邻近性是主要推动力，文化邻近性的作用趋向弱化，制度邻近性的作用愈加凸显。中国需抓住大北极能源贸易网络消费重心东移的契机，加速推进“冰上丝绸之路”建设，与大北极国家建立“三环”能源合作体系和高效稳定的能源合作机制。     

Liberia an(d) Empire?: Sovereignty, ‘Civilisation’ and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century West Africa

ABSTRACT

In the 1840s, Liberia was a black settler state on the West African coast which avowedly supported the connected ideologies of Christianity, commerce, and ‘civilisation’. However, from the 1870s, as the rest of West Africa began to be divided up into colonies, adherence to these ‘Western’ values did not spare Liberia’s leaders from some of the disruptive consequences of European expansionism. This article frames these consequences in the context of commercial clashes between the Liberian state and European traders (and their companies). These clashes predated Liberia’s declaration of independence in 1847, worsened thereafter, and later became increasingly politicised with the stricter enforcement of colonial law in the region in the 1870s, partly as a result of economic crisis. On the coast, Liberian officials struggled legally and militarily to stave off the activities of European smugglers with diplomatic backing. In the interior, commercial alliances were forged with local authorities in an attempt to keep out the French and the British, in particular. Conflicts over the collection of customs duties, the setting of borders, and, ultimately, the nature and extent of Liberian sovereignty, reached a climax during the Berlin Conference (1884–1885). The Conference led Liberia, by 1904, to implement its own version of colonial ‘indirect rule’: first and foremost to safeguard its independence, secondarily as a tool of expansion. In spite of major losses Liberian leaders were ultimately able to strengthen the country’s standing as a member of the international community of nations.     

“You Cannot Trade What Is Not Yours”: Indigenous Governance and the NAFTA Negotiations

ABSTRACT

Contemporary International Relations scholars and practitioners generally recognize that substate governments affect the state’s international affairs; however, there is less acceptance of Indigenous governments as global actors that meaningfully impact the state. After all, the expectation would be that central governments, with considerably more resources and power, would be unlikely to face a challenge from an Indigenous government. However, Indigenous governments are negotiating new relationships with foreign and domestic governments, forming economic development corporations, hiring private firms to raise capital, funding trade missions, and even opening offices in key international locales such as Beijing to engage in trade promotion and push investment opportunities in projects such as resource extraction. Applying paradiplomacy theory, which argues that International Relations cannot be properly explained absent the global affairs of substate governments, this article analyzes the effect of Indigenous peoples and governance in the Canada–US trade relationship. It specifically considers how Indigenous engagement in the global economy affects the bilateral trade regime, foreign direct investment, and cross-border trade. The driver for these analysis centers on demands for the inclusion of a so-called “Indigenous chapter” in the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiations in 2017 and 2018.     

The Softwood Lumber Dispute and US Allegations of Improper NAFTA Panel Review

The dispute over Canadian exports of softwood lumber products to the United States (US) has lasted since 1982 and, so far, has gone through four episodes of litigation. In Lumber IV, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) determined that the US softwood lumber industry was threatened with material injury by reason of dumped and subsidized lumber from Canada. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a binational panel concluded, however, that there was no such evidence and directed the ITC to reverse its finding. In its resort to the Extraordinary Challenge Procedure, the US alleged that the injury panel had misapplied the US standard of review. In fact, allegations of improper NAFTA panel review were used by the US in order to justify its non-compliance with adverse binding decisions.     

Merchants on the margins: fifteenth-century Bruges and the informal market

During the late medieval period, Bruges acted as the prime hub of international trade in north-western Europe, with the town of Sluys as its outport. Trade along the Zwin, the waterway connecting the city to the sea, was subject to a series of tolls and a set of stringent and comprehensive staple restrictions, stipulating that all goods imported had to be sold on the Bruges market. The concentration of commercial activities which resulted from these rules allowed merchants with the necessary capital to trade more cheaply than elsewhere. For those with more modest means and ambitions, the trip along tollbooths to the heavily regulated and institutionalised staple market only jeopardised the profitability of their endeavours. Throughout the fifteenth century, local traders, international shipping crews, commercial staff and professional smugglers cut transaction costs by evading the restrictions of the staple and commercial taxation in Sluys. This article discusses the size of this informal market on the margins of Bruges' jurisdiction, analyses the backgrounds and motivations of its visitors and reconstructs the strategies they used to evade punishment.     

Booming Business. Communication,Print and Advertisement in the Seventeenth Century

ABSTRACT

News, print and the associated communications were not just a booming business in the early modern period, but are – research-wise – a “hot topic” at this moment as well. The seven volumes discussed are syntheses of many years of research. The books show overlap due to geography and events, and their stress on news bearing media of various sorts, all within the seventeenth century. Each of the volumes is written by an expert on either the Baltic Sea, Germany, or the Dutch Republic. The foci vary from the exchange of information to the printing of newspapers and books, to the use of advertisements.     

Potassium-argon ages of schist honestones from the viking age sites at Kaupang (Norway), Aggersborg (Denmark), Hedeby (West Germany) and Wolin (Poland), and their archaeological implications

Viking age honestones from four large sites in northern Europe have been made from two different types of quartz-muscovite schist: one dark grey, very fine-grained schist, and a light grey, fine-grained schist. In order to determine the provenance of these schist hones, KAr ages have been determined on 16 selected representative hones. The dark grey schist hones yield Caledonian ages of 403–446 Ma. and consideration of petrographic evidence leads to the conclusion that the hones were quarried in the Caledonian area (presumably) of Western Norway. The light grey schist hones are Precambrian, with KAr ages of 931–946 Ma, and are presumed to originate from Telemark, South Norway. The amount and homogeneity of these honestone groups from different parts of the Viking world indicates the existence of large quarries, and demonstrates that production and trade were more wide-ranging than had hitherto been assumed.     

Squeezed between external trade barriers and internal economic problems: Bulgaria’s trade with Denmark in the 1970s

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates Bulgaria’s trade strategy towards the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1970s: a decade of intensified economic exchange between East and West thanks to détente and, simultaneously, of growing trade barriers due to the consolidation of the EEC’s Common Market. The successes and failures of Bulgaria’s endeavours are discussed through a study of economic cooperation with Denmark before and after its accession to the EEC in 1973. The main argument is that while Bulgarian economic policy focused on the rising regulatory impediments to trade with EEC members, it neglected the structural deficiencies of Bulgarian export production. Thereby, Bulgarian state officials strove to resolve foreign trade problems through diplomatic negotiations over customs regulations instead of advancing domestic economic reforms . This argument is supported by analysis of intergovernmental economic negotiations and trade deals between Bulgaria and Denmark during the 1970s. It highlights the different ways in which Bulgarian trade envoys in Copenhagen and top officials at home evaluated recurrent problems in accessing the Danish market and formulated solutions for these problems. Thus, instead of tackling internal structural problems, the blueprints for Bulgaria’s foreign trade focused on external foes, namely trade discrimination against socialist countries.     

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.     

Canada’s Supply Management System and the Dairy Industry in the Era of Trade Liberalization: A Cultural Commodity?

ABSTRACT

Canada’s dairy farmers have spent the last 40 years fighting to preserve their supply management system despite increases in the desire to liberalize trade through the expansion of regional free trade agreements and the targeting of agriculture in recent rounds of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). How has Canada’s supply management system resisted trade liberalization thus far? Moreover, what strategies have Canadian dairy farmers used to lobby the government to preserve this system? The answer to these questions lay within the intersection of culture and economics. Canadian dairy farmers have been successful in framing Canadian dairy as a distinctly Canadian cultural commodity, and therefore framing supply management as the economic tool needed to defend this cultural commodity. In exploring this topic, this article will touch on Canada’s history of preserving cultural institutions, as well as the historical importance of Canada’s supply management system.