Suchergebnisse

The following article should not be dismissed as yet another attempt to construct a renewed round ofrevisionism in history. On the contrary, it aims to explore the possibility of scaling down the dominant Eurocentric epistemology that served as a basis for a stereotypical frame of knowledge about Central Asia. The majority of researchers of the region do not deem the need to review the scale of contradictory clashes created by the notion of Eurocentrism. The latter is reflected in numerous articles about the frozen (and sadly deadlock) dilemma on why and how were the lands of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Kazakhs divided. By publishing conventional analyses on the region's "clumsy separation", experts illustrate their subaltern, narrowly framed by the colonial world, knowledge and hence, remain as gravestones of the Eurocentric methodology. In the process of such explication, the most important role is allocated to the modern culture, which encouraged the formation of the paradox, represented to us via the paraphrased Soviet aphorism: modernity and coloniality are twin brothers. The initiation of the process of decolonizing the mind within the five republics of the region is possible. One of the solutions involves recognizing the integrity of the pluralist-cycled culture and philosophy of the region. The proposed act will allow shrinking the focus on the knowledge within the limited national units and frames (thus, lessening the degree of'fetishism of the national identity'), and rather creating conditions for designing the "bridge", linking different cultures, ideologies and institutional spaces in Central Asia, as a transnational intellectual matrix. The aforementioned theory will provide a basis and structure for empirical facts, and, therefore, drive the researchers from merely constituting to critically thinking, and consequently, inspire to come upon new approaches and fields of study, connecting them with the existing, colonial experiences. It is essential to highlight that based on this, a new dialogue may commence, where Central Asian scholars are regarded as equals to those of other research schools (both within and outside the region).

Yearly published competitiveness indexes make possible immediate comparisons of investment and productivity climates around the globe. Against the backdrop of an increasing linkage between competition, "good governance" and poverty alleviation within development rhetoric and practices, this article places the agenda of competitiveness in the context of political struggle. Based on extensive interviews, I situate the "global" discourse of competitiveness in the diverse conditions of two Central American countries, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, in order to explore articulations and legitimacy claims of business associations and labor organizations respectively in processes of labor market flexibilization and economic change. Focusing on labor–capital and state–market relations, the study contributes to the understanding of how principles of competition are promoted, negotiated and contested within transnational divisions of labor.

Many states partially relinquish sovereignty in return for physical protection from a more powerful state. Mainstream theory on international hierarchies holds that such decisions are based on rational assessments of the relative qualities of the political order being offered. Such assessments, however, are bound to be contingent, and as such a reflection of the power to shape understandings of reality. Through a study of the remarkably persistent US-led security hierarchy in East Asia, this article puts forward the concept of the 'epistemic community' as a general explanation of how such understandings are shaped and, hence, why states accept subordinate positions in international hierarchies. The article conceptualises a transnational and multidisciplinary network of experts on international security – 'The Asia-Pacific Epistemic Community' – and demonstrates how it operates to convince East Asian policymakers that the current US-led social order is the best choice for maintaining regional 'stability'.

"We are in the midst of the third tectonic social transformation in human history. Our current transition towards greater forms of transnational interconnection, consumption- and finance-driven rather than production-based capitalism, digital information and cultural flows, and the attendant largescale social and ecological consequences of these are drastically remaking our world, cultural producers from across the globe are seeking to make sense of, and provide insights into, these complex changes. Imagining Neoliberal Globalization in Contemporary World Fiction, takes a broad cross-cultural approach to analyzing the literature of our increasingly transnationalized world system, considering how its key constituent features and local-level manifestations have been thematized and imaginatively embraced by literary fiction produced from the perspective of the periphery of the capitalist world system. Textual renderings of globalization are not simply second-order approximations of it, but constitutive elements of globalization that condition how it will be understood and responded to, and so coming to terms with the narrativizations of globalization is vital scholarly work, as among other things, it allows us to see to what extent it is currently possible to imagine alternatives to globalizations more baleful aspects. This work will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of areas including contemporary literary/cultural studies, globalization studies, international relations and International Political Economy. "--Provided by publisher.

An accessible history of multilateralism from its origins in the 1800s to the present. Multilateral initiatives have brought about striking, yet diverging, results. International organizations often struggle with the nationalist impulses of member states, different and shifting goals, and a lack of enforcement methods. Here, Kathryn Lavelle offers a history of multilateralism from its origins to the present. Lavelle focuses on the creation and evolution of major problem-solving organizations, examines the governmental challenges they have confronted and continue to face from both domestic and transnational constituencies, and considers how nongovernmental organizations facilitate their work.

The Latin America's geographic space is prodigal with non-conventional threats to the security of the states, the societies and the individuals which integrate it. These threats are characterized by their transnational dynamics, the non-state character of their protagonists and the asymmetrical use of violence.Inside this outlook we can highlight the organized criminality, which is present in every region of the hemisphere, showing different features in each case. The case of Mexico can be emphasized because of its gravity, typified by research centers and experts as an example of a new form of insurgency. This readings force us to reformulate the concept of insurgency, defining it with more attention to the question of territorial control than the political motivation of its acts. Based on the outlook described, the objective of this paper is to apply the reformulation of the concept of insurgency to the South America's scenario. In order to do this, the scope of this concept will be established, concrete cases of application will be identified, as well as their impacts on the regional strategic surroundings and the multilateral cooperation about security.

Private institutions for third-party (eco-)labelling of food and wood products has been a lively field of empirical research, peaking in the conception of certification as a "non-state market-driven governance system," which is gaining rule-making authority domestically and internationally as a private governance institution and a transnational regime. Recent findings, however, suggest that state actors also play a decisive role in private certification governance. Questions relating to who within the state, however, so far remain unaddressed. Very recent empirical trends in the fields of timber and palm oil certification in Indonesia suggest that it is distinct public bureaucracies who start reclaiming certification authority through state-led mandatory schemes, challenging the private and transnational certification institutions in support of government-driven international certification regimes. Against this background, the objective of this paper is to substantiate the trend from transnational private to international state-driven governance by analyzing the role of distinct state bureaucracies in the emergence, diffusion, and reshaping of private natural resource governance systems. To achieve these objectives, we develop our propositions by combining insights from political certification studies, regime theory, as well as bureaucratic politics theory. Methodologically, we employ a qualitative case study design on recent developments in forest, timber, and palm oil certification systems in Argentina and Indonesia. Our results substantiate the observation that distinct state actors play a key role in private governance systems and, in the case of Indonesia, even re-claim labelling authority from private institutions by attempting to outcompete them through employing their exclusive regulatory power. The results further indicate a strong, self-interested support from domestic state bureaucracies to state-driven international rather than to transnational certification regimes, supporting the temporary governance hypothesis. We discuss and conclude on our results in light of literatures on private governance, policy sectors as well as international relations theory on the emergence of international and transnational regimes.

Refugee participation in transnational acts – from advocating for regime change in home countries to strengthening modes of safe passage for friends and family to host countries – is only as effective as the ability of refugees to organize, collaborate with one another, and develop strong communication links between communities in the home and host countries. While many assume that legal status improves the ability of refugees to engage in political transformation, research on the Burmese refugees living in Japan reveals that the application and provision of legal status can have the opposite effect, weakening fragile community structures, stemming advocacy efforts, and discouraging communication between divided political and ethnic groups. I argue that transnational acts form a three-way relationship with legal recognition and local community, and that, because of conflictual relationships among local refugee communities, refugees from Burma with higher degrees of legal recognition in Japan do not necessarily expand transnational space. ; La participation des réfugiés aux lois transnationales – depuis leur plaidoyer en faveur d'un changement de régime dans les pays d'origine au renforcement des modes de passage sécuritaire pour les amis et la famille vers les pays hôtes – est aussi efficace que leur capacité à organiser, à collaborer entre eux et à établir des liens étroits de communication entre les pays d'origine et d'accueil. Bien qu'il soit admis que la situation juridique améliore la capacité des réfugiés à envisager une transformation politique, des recherches menées auprès des réfugiés birmans qui résident au Japon révèlent que l'application et la disposition de la situation juridique peut avoir l'effet inverse et fragiliser les structures communautaires, interrompre les tentatives de plaidoyer et décourager la communication entre les groupes politiques et ethniques déjà divisés. L'article défend la thèse que les lois transnationales forment une relation à trois avec la reconnaissance juridique et la ...

Contents -- Illustrations and Maps -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction - Beyond the Divide -- Part I - Political Processes and Transnational Networks -- Chapter 1 - Opening Up Political Space: Informal Diplomacy, East-West Exchanges, and the Helsinki Process -- Chapter 3 - Transmitting the ""Freedom Virus"": France, the USSR, and Cultural Aspects of European Security Cooperation -- Chapter 4 - Cultural Diplomacy of Switzerland and the Challenge of Peaceful Coexistence, 1956-75 -- Part II - Interplay in the Academic Contexts

The literature on global international relations (IR) has argued that the discipline develops in the footsteps of world politics, but no sustained attention has been given to more immediate causes such as the funders that pay for IR teaching and scholarship. These donor–recipient relations have only attracted the attention of authors interested in cultural hegemony and those contributing to the recent historiography of IR. Among the latter, some have studied how during the Cold War the Rockefeller Foundation attempted to buttress classical realism in the United States and Western Europe. This article connects and moves forward IR historiography and the global IR literature by shedding light on philanthropic foundations' attempts to further a specific IR theory—classical realism—and area studies in the global south. The article argues that world politics influenced global IR, but this influence was mediated by highly contingent events. Even a proximate cause like science patronage, let alone "world politics," is not a sufficient cause capable of determining IR theories and disciplinary boundaries. Donors may achieve some impact but only under specific circumstances such as the ones explored here, that is, the donor is a unitary actor determined to advance its agenda by resorting to conditionality, alternative donors and funding are scarce, the discipline is either poorly or not institutionalized, and the recipient perceives the donor's preferences as legitimate. The article uses previously untapped, fine-grained, primary sources to unravel philanthropy's impact on Latin America's first IR center. Because science patronage is exposed to many sources of indeterminacy and to contingency, donors cannot determine scholarship, which makes cultural hegemony all but impossible. Still, IR scholars need to study their patrons to understand their discipline, in and outside Europe and the United States. ; La bibliografía sobre Relaciones Internacionales (RI) globales sostiene que la disciplina se desarrolla al compás de la ...

"This reader is designed to be a concise summary of the history of the European Union. Starting with the rebirth of a common European vision right after WWII, this reader will elaborate on all the vital events and treaties that have come to substantially shape the course of the European Union to the point where it is today. Due reference is devoted to the current state-of-arts of the Union too (critically, but fairly and objectively assessed). Even though the European Union considerably contributes to improved living conditions being the form and the substance for European citizens and is commonly accepted as a heavy-weight tool on the global political stage, it is yet to fully realize its capacities. The present reader does not seek to take position nor to make a case that the precise institution that came to be known as the European Union shall be exempt of criticism and questioning. Instead, the authors wish to convey an idea and an understanding of a real-life model, an essence of transnational cooperation. As such, it is objectively valuable to learn it and learn from it in order to give a chance to the widest range possible of actors to fuel the current or future discussions on multilateral cooperation possibilities world-wide, understood here as a means to join forces in solidarity and reach common goals"--