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3281. China Brief, China's 7-percent solution

Author:
James E. Auer, Willy Lam, Gordon G. Chang, Richard D. Fisher, and Holmes Liao
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
“If we didn't have China I would be suicidal,” chief Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach said this month. “It's the only bright spot in the world economy.” And bright spot it is: Beijing announced that its gross domestic product grew 8 percent last year. The rate is so good that some are wondering whether the People's Republic can become the new engine for world growth.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
China and Israel

3282. China Brief, Xu Wenli, into American exile

Author:
Robyn Lim, Willy Lam, Jonathan Mirsky, and Thomas Woodrow
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
On Christmas Eve the Chinese government released Xu Wenli, the founder of the country's tiny Democratic Party, into American exile. Xu has spent sixteen of the last twenty-one years behind bars. The most interesting comments on this event came from John Kamm, who for years has had no equal for occasionally persuading the Chinese government to free its political “enemies”.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
China, America, and Israel

3283. Aleksandr Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics

Author:
John B. Dunlop
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
One perceptive observer of the Russian political scene, Francoise Thom, noted as far back as 1994 that fascism, and especially its “Eurasianist” variant, was already at that time displacing Russian nationalism among statist Russian elites as a post-communist “Russian Idea,” especially in the foreign policy sphere. “The weakness of Russian nationalists,” she emphasized, “stems from their inability to clearly situate Russian frontiers. Euras[ianism] brings an ideological foundation for post-Soviet imperialism.”
Topic:
International Relations, Nationalism, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia and Eurasia

3284. The Future of Russia: The Nuclear Factor

Author:
Oleg Bukharin
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
Two factors were of critical significance in shaping the international peace and security agenda after the Cold War: the emergence of nuclear security and proliferation dangers in the wake of the Soviet collapse, and the unprecedented level of cooperation between Russia and other countries to address these problems. As a result of cooperative international and Russia's domestic efforts, important progress has been made in recent years in reducing nuclear arsenals, protecting Russia's nuclear materials, and preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons expertise from Russia. Much work, however, remains to be done.
Topic:
International Relations, Defense Policy, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Russia

3285. A Review of European Perceptions of Cuba

Author:
Joaquín Roy
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Cuban Republic on May 20, 2002, provided an opportunity to review not only the survival of the Cuban regime, but also the whole history of the Cuban nation. 2 This event coincided with the historic visit of former President Jimmy Carter to Havana 3 and the reiteration of the unwillingness of the United States to terminate its embargo of Cuba, as expressed by President George W. Bush in an unprecedented speech in Washington and on a trip to Miami. 4 At the same time, friction has increased between Cuba and some influential Latin American countries, as in the special case of Mexico. The tension generated in the aftermath of the vote taken by the United Nations Commission for Human Rights in Geneva in April 2002, which criticized Cuba's human rights practices, revealed a definite crack in the comfortable linkage previously enjoyed by Castro with most countries of the hemisphere (with the notable exception of the United States). On October 23, 2002, when the European Parliament (EP) approved the award of the Sakharov Prize to Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá for his record in the defense of human rights and especially for his leadership in the “Varela Project,” the overall panorama of the relations of the European Union (EU) with Cuba acquired a new look, signifying the confirmation of a long pattern of the EU's perceptions of and policy toward Cuba. 5 Cuba's decision to allow Payá to travel to Strasbourg to receive the award was taken simultaneously with the EU's announcement of the opening of a delegation in Cuba, while Castro surprisingly declared that Cuba would reapply to become a member of the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) Cotonou Convention. It is time, therefore, for a historical review and a consideration of the most salient aspects of European-Cuban relations and some of the pending issues.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Europe, Cuba, and Caribbean

3286. Europe: Neither Plan Colombia, nor Peace Process - From Good Intentions to High Frustration

Author:
Joaquin Roy
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
With the public announcement of a reshaped Plan Colombia in mid-2000, European attitudes toward involvement in attempting to solve the crisis of Colombia's endemic violence has oscillated from alarm to hope and, finally, to frustration. The overall scene has been dominated by a sense of powerlessness, mixed with realism and internal contradictions between member states and institutions of the European Union (EU).
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Colombia

3287. How the Axis of Evil Metaphor Changes Iranian Images of the USA

Author:
Daniel Heradstveit and G. Matthew Bonham
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The respondents feared an American attack, and regarded their membership in «the Axis of Evil» as a stab in the back after Iranian help in Afghanistan. This demonisation was seen overwhelmingly in terms of American geopolitical designs, ignorance and downright irrationality – an expansionist superpower that is dangerously out of control. The WTC attack initially caused a strengthening of Iranian national unity and a more coherent foreign policy, but most of the respondents regard «the Axis of Evil» as killing the nascent dialogue with the USA stone dead and coming as a godsend to the conservatives and the ultras.
Topic:
International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, America, Iran, and Middle East

3288. The Requirements of European International Society: Modernity and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire

Author:
Ayla GÖL
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper critically examines the 'admittance' of the Ottoman Empire as the first non-European and non-Christian state into European international society, challenges the idea that international society had a universal character, and explores how the Empire encountered and adapted to the requirements of this society. There are two premises to explore. First, the Empire was never accepted as an equal member of the European society of states. Second, the Ottoman Empire's desire to enter European international society initiated its modernisation, which gradually led to the emergence of Turkish nationalism in the twentieth century. The first part of this paper deals with the 'otherness' of the Ottoman Empire within European international society. The second part explains the paradoxical character of Ottoman–European relations, which initiated the Empire's modernisation. The last part explores the emergence of Turkish nationalism in relation to the policies of Ottoman modernisation that brought the transition from an Islamic empire into a modern secular nation-state. It concludes by questioning whether or not the modern Turkish state is considered a European member of international society.
Topic:
International Relations and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East

3289. The Neo-Roman Republican Legacy and International Political Theory

Author:
Steven Slaughter
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper claims that established accounts of international political theory overlook the neo-roman strand of republican political theory. It seeks to address this case of neglect and extend republican observations into international political theory in three steps. The first step examines the nature of international political theory. The second step examines the neo-roman strand of republicanism's conception of liberty and the institutions whereby this type of liberty is secured. Lastly, the main elements of a republican approach to international political theory are developed in a way that highlights republicanism's institutional approach to world politics and its commitment to the state.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Government, and Politics

3290. Reimagining International Society Through the Emergence of Japanese Imperialism

Author:
Shogo Suzuki
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
In the not too distant past Timothy Dunne asserted that '[International] society is what states have made of it'. Since then much has been written about how the English School offers a valuable interpretivist approach, how it has spread across the world, how it can be improved, and what it has to say about non-European societies and 'world society'. This paper aims to contribute to all three facets of the debate through a case study of how the Japanese elite understood international society during the bakumatsu (late-Tokugawa)/early-Meiji periods (1853-95). In doing so, it examines the emergence of Japanese imperialism from the perspective of international society as perceived by English School scholars.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, Europe, and Asia