Normative Power Europe and the Moral Economy of Africa–EU Ties: A Conceptual Reorientation of ‘Normative Power’

‘Normative power’ is an increasingly popularised concept in the study of EU external relations in fields including military policy, human rights, and international trade. Defined by Manners, it acknowledges the normative foundations of the European project, examines how Europe acts to (re)shape internationally accepted norms, and makes the claim that Europe ought to influence external partners' conception of ‘normal’ behaviour in pursuit of a just global order. This article, however, argues that a moral economy perspective is central to a critical reorientation of the concept of normative power towards appraisal of discrepancies between nominal EU norms and material EU policy outcomes. Examining Europe's ‘normative power’ in its relations with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, it demonstrates how a moral economy of ACP–EU ties has been instituted in negotiation with European ethical norms as to solidarity with ‘the poor’. Nevertheless, the moral economy of ACP–EU ties is seen not to be ‘moral’ in terms of outcomes for vulnerable citizens in ACP countries. Rather the embedding of moral norms concerning pro-poor ‘development’ has rationalised asymmetric economic ties. ‘Normative power’ is understood as the EU's utilisation of moral norms in the public legitimisation and self-rationalisation of geopolitical interest and commercial gain in its relations with external ‘partners’.     

Economic Consequences of Armaments Production: Institutional Perspectives of J.K. Galbraith and T.B. Veblen

J.K. Galbraith’s short book, How to Control the Military, boldly championed political and institutional reforms to curb “the military power.” Galbraith stood out among economists for his advocacy of arms reduction negotiations with the Soviet Union. He rejected the hypothesis that the Soviet Union nurtured an aggressive expansionary military policy. At the same time, he maintained that the tenor of national policy and the shaping of national priorities emanated from the Pentagon. Galbraith’s assertion that the military was the dominant force within the “military-industrial complex” was never empirically demonstrated. Nor did he adequately address the crucial role that military outlays played in advancing major technological innovations which underwrote the accumulation process. Veblen offered a more comprehensive analysis of the role of military expenditures, correctly showing that forms of “waste” are highly functional to the institutional and ideological structure of the U.S. economy. Military Keynesianism constituted the evolution of his conceptualization.     

勉力献疑

本文针对沟口雄三的“乡里空间”和“省力”两个概念提出了一些疑问。“乡里空间”与国民党主导的建国运动和社会运动具有内在的契合，但这一运动在与中国共产党的竞争中处于不利地位，这说明“乡里空间”应该还蕴涵有其他的方面，在不同的历史条件下这些方面应该有不同的发展，并导致各方面产生不同的组合关系。辛亥革命尽管以各省独立为呈现面貌，但在接下来的四分五裂状态下，却也有很多跨越省的全国性的学会、商会、工会等的广泛存在，因此在“省力”之外，也有“国力”的因素。从思想史的角度，民族危机感也．并不必然导致对本民族文化的否定。     

SIPRI军费数据是怎么来的——兼论如何看待《SIPRI年鉴2009》中国军费居世界第二

目前斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所（Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,简称SIPRI）出版了《SIPRI年鉴2009》,显示中国军费支出已居世界第二,对此国际国内都存在质疑的声音。那么这是否意味着中国已成为军事强国,意味着中国主动防御的国防政策已经改变？SIPRI的数据是怎么得来的？如何看待中国军费支出居世界第二这个现象？本文对这些问题进行了回答。文章首先介绍了SIPRI年鉴军费开支数据的定义、数据来源、统计与计算方法,然后分析了其数据的局限性,以及西方对中国军费统计数据一直偏高的原因,最后阐述了应该如何辩证、客观地看待SIPRI中国军费世界第二的统计结果,并指出中国要坚定立场,加快国防建设与经济建设的协调发展。     

国防科技产业军民深度融合模式与路径研究

军民融合式发展是促进国防科技产业快速发展和统筹国防建设与经济建设协调发展的必由之路,国防科技产业是军民深度融合的最佳载体和重要平台。将国防科技产业领域军民融合发展归纳为院所自转、军工自转、院企联转、校企联转、军民共转、民企参军等6种模式,在此基础上,从技术、资本、人才、制度、组织、市场、产业链等7个方面探索相应的军民深度融合路径,以期为形成军民深度融合发展格局提供有益借鉴。     

State interests,military power and international commerce: Some cross‐national evidence

This article argues that the military power and commerce of states moves together in peacetime, and that the nature of this relationship is bound up with peacetime patterns of conflict. After constructing an essentially realist argument for such a relationship, and attempting to present the various ways in which military power and commerce interact, I estimate several cross‐sectional regressions with data from a number of countries. The regressions provide some support for a relationship between military spending and trade, but the connections between military spending and protectionism are not well supported.     

An Epistemological Reflection on Social and Solidarity Economy

Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is emerging as life affirming solutions to the global crises through the multiple ways people locally reinvent economic life on the margins of the capitalist system based on values of solidarity, reciprocity and sustainability. Although the SSE builds on a strong foundation of real practices and institutions of economic transformation as the way forward for us, this paper argues that this world of practice is in need of its theory to frame discourses and engage with the bigger picture with confidence as an alternative to the dominant economic paradigm. The author argues that the orthodox economics, with its ontological construct of the homo economicus, Cartesian dichotomy and logical positivist epistemology severely constrains our abilities to understand and appreciate economic alternatives based on ‘other’ rationalities. Hence, there is a need for an epistemological revolution to construct a coherent theoretical framework from the wreckages of the neoclassical economics for the SSE. This paper seeks to outline the basic structure and the key elements of the ontological and the epistemological framework for this ‘science-in-the-making’ as a step to stimulate further debate for a paradigm revolution.     

Liberalism,nationalism, and self-determination: Ludwig von Mises’s Nation,State, Economy after 100 years

This year, 2019, marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ludwig von Mises’s lesser known book, Nation, State, and Economy, which appeared in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. One of its leading themes was to trace out the interactions between language, nationalism, and the emergence of the political movement for national self-determination. On this basis, Mises formulated an explanation of nationalist imperialism within parts of, especially, Central and Eastern Europe where there were territories with overlapping linguistic or ethnic groups. Out of this came his proposed answer to national and ethnic conflicts through a system of plebiscites for a greater degree of individual self-determination to minimize intergroup tensions between and within nation-states. His proposal is then applied for an analysis of the recent international controversies over the Russian annexation of Crimea and the United Kingdom’s vote to secede from the European Union.

     

中国国防工业全要素生产率测算与分析

利用2004—2020年中国11大军工集团财务报表数据，从企业微观角度出发，运用LP方法计算国防工业全要素生产率并分析其变化趋势。结果表明，样本期内，我国国防工业全要素生产率总体呈波动上升趋势，其增长率高于制造业整体水平但低于高技术产业增速，说明国防工业技术进步比较明显，但进步速率还不够高；各细分军工行业全要素生产率存在较大差异，电子工业和船舶工业全要素生产率均值比其它军工行业高。收敛性分析表明，国防工业中，全要素生产率较低企业对较高企业具有追赶效应。建议军工行业必须转变增长方式，向集约型发展方式转变，提高发展质量；加大研发投入力度，重点扶持技术发展相对缓慢的行业，促进军工行业协调发展；贯彻军民融合发展战略，促进先进民用技术转军用。     

Trade Policy in the Presence of Economies of Scale and Product Variety*

It is well known that laissez faire may not be the ‘first-best’ policy in a closed economy where economies of scale are present. Corden has shown that this conclusion can carry over into an open economy, though under his assumption that imported goods are perfect substitutes for home-produced goods, interference with international trade could not raise real income. We have shown that where there are economies of scale, and imported goods are not identical to the home produced goods, interference with trade could raise real national income, though such a form of intervention would not normally be optimal. Further, it could even be desirable to support home production of more than one ‘variety’. Measurements of ‘costs of protection’ that aggregate several varieties into one may mislead not only regarding the size of the cost but even regarding its sign.     

Popular Geopolitics,Audiences and Identities: Reading the ‘War on Terror’ in the Philippines

Audience research has traditionally been neglected within the subfield of popular geopolitics. However in recent years, geographers are increasingly focusing on the making of geopolitical meanings by audiences as they consume popular culture and related texts. Drawing on recent assemblage thinking in geopolitics, this paper argues that audiences form part of the animators of a network that links the human body with places, environments, objects and discourses related to geopolitics. By investigating Filipinos’ critical readings of and engagements with the ‘war on terror’ in Mindanao as represented through the national newspaper, the Philippines Daily Inquirer, the agency and power of audiences in the creative enactments of geopolitics and geography are illuminated. As such, understanding the complex interactions between popular media and its audiences can prove useful in casting insights into the everyday, geopolitical ‘playing out’ of issues of terrorism, violence and peace in the Philippines context and beyond.     

The wise,the politician,and the strongman: Types of national leaders and quality of governance

This paper assesses how national leaders’ quality of governance varies with their career and education. Using a sample of 1,000 rulers between 1931 and 2010, I identify three types of leaders: military leaders, academics, and politicians. Military leaders are associated with an overall negative performance, while politicians who have held important offices before taking power tend to perform well. Academics have on average non-significant effects. These results are partially driven by differences in policy decisions and in leadership styles. Military leaders spend less in health and education, are more likely to establish a personalistic regime, to disrespect the constitution, and to move towards a non-electoral regime, while the reverse holds for politicians. Additionally, this paper highlights the weakness of using educational attainment as a proxy for politicians’ quality, and of growth as a measure of national leaders’ performance.     

The ‘West’ against the ‘Rest’: Geopolitics after the end of the cold war

With the end of the Cold War, it seemed that we had reached the ‘end of geopolitics’. Since the mid‐1990s, however, the term ‘geopolitics’ has experienced a revival, and even regional groupings which have so far abstained from any kind of power politics, such as the European Union, have started to claim geopolitical interests for themselves. But it is not clear what constitutes this kind of power politics in the 1990s and what drives ‘the West’ to pursue geopolitics, directed against what Huntington has labelled so plainly and provocatively the ‘Rest’. The article addresses this question by analysing Western capital's need for access to markets in the South and the EU's and US’ growing dependence on oil imports. The article will argue that a Western geostrategy based on Huntington's civilisational model would be counterproductive in the long run, manoeuvring the Western states into a situation where these geopolitical goals would have to be enforced by military means instead of being pursued through a strategy of political and economic support.     

农民合作意愿影响因素的实证分析——基于河北省838个农户的调查

基于对河北省838个农户的调查数据,利用Logistic模型,从受访者个人特征、家庭特征、村庄特征等方面对农民合作意愿的影响因素进行了实证分析。研究表明:农民的年龄、文化程度、对农民合作组织的认知程度与其合作意愿存在正相关关系;村干部有着比普通农民更为强烈的合作意愿;农民人均纯收入与其合作意愿异向变化;收入主要来源于农业的农民合作意愿强于源于非农业农民;而农民性别以及以村庄地理位置、区域经济发展水平、村集体经济状况所体现的村庄特征变量对农民合作意愿影响不显著。基于上述结果,从宣传引导与典型示范、建设学习型农村、培育新型农民、改善农业劳动力结构、加强村干部队伍建设等方面提出相关政策建议。     

A Cartography of the Unknowable: Technology,Territory and Subterranean Agencies in Israel’s Management of the Gaza Tunnels

ABSTRACT

This article evaluates the potential for agency exercised by the subterranean volume in geopolitical conflict. Joining recent geographical conceptualisations of territory as a volumetric assemblage with calls for an elemental geopolitics, it argues that the density of the underground layer creates a convoluted techno-political problem that obfuscates the state’s means of directly observing, visualising and knowing the topological space of territory. To illustrate this, a methodological approach based on the relational ontologies of actor-network-theory (ANT) and assemblage theory is applied to an empirical study of the geophysical sensing techniques used by Israeli engineers, scientists and military to manage cross-border tunnels built by the Palestinian militant group Hamas before and after the 2014 Gaza war. The soil conditions, settlement patterns and infrastructures in the Gaza-Western Negev region have necessitated experimentation with complex and multiple forms of scientific and political expertise in attempts to locate the invisible tunnels, alongside a shift towards increasingly oblique techniques of cartographic representation of the sub-surface. The contingency of these efforts has unsettled the State of Israel’s confidence in its ability to manage geopolitical risks through techniques of territorial control. This case raises poignant questions about the extent of the capacities and limitations of technological solutions and geopolitical practices to secure territory when confronted with the geophysical agency of the underground.     

加快军工企业股改的机制与对策分析

结合军工企业股份制改造的现状,按照"分类指导、循序渐进、稳步推进"的原则,从市场机制、军民结合机制、产学研结合机制和政府政策保障机制等方面入手,加快军工企业的股份制改造。并通过培育有效的国有资产投资主体、加强军工企业制度创新、创新军工企业治理结构,以及积极推进政府职能转变来确保军工企业股份制改造的实现。     

National borders,the global economy and geopolitics: A view from Yemen

The wider geographic scales of the new interdependencies called ‘globalisation’ are not new to peripheral states such as Yemen. In the colonial and post‐colonial world sensitivity to international developments has always been important in the course of local events. What is new is the particular configuration of political and economic institutions at various levels including, critically, the national level. This paper argues that, on the one hand, the new geography of economic and political ‘globalisation’ has left Yemen with distinctly ‘old’ forms of economic integration into world markets, but that, on the other hand, regional geopolitics have opened certain opportunities for Yemen's political elite to refashion itself as a strategic geopolitical player so as to maintain international flows of military and economic aid. The end result is the continued national dominance of these same elite. ‘Globalisation’ in this sense is a national political project.     

Refugees as Surplus Population: Race,Migration and Capitalist Value Regimes

ABSTRACT

Refugees and migrants are often studied as though they have no relation to the racial and class structures of the societies in which they reside. They are strangers to be governed by ‘integration’ policy and border management. Refugees and migrants are, however, subjects of contemporary capitalism struggling to render themselves valuable capitalist modes of production. I study the government of refugees and migrants in order to examine capitalist value regimes. Societal values and hierarchies reflected in capitalist modes of production impact on struggles of racialised subaltern groups to translate body power into valued labour. Marx’s account of surplus populations points to the common marginalisations of people called ‘refugees’ and other subaltern groups struggling to translate their body power into valorised labour. The essay includes a study of the gentrification of a district in Budapest, and its transformation into a means for the reproduction of capital, leading to the marginalisation of groups who no longer fit the new value regimes. Studying refugees as surplus populations allows for a sense of the common marginalisations of subaltern and racialised groups before capitalism, and questions the treatment of refugees and migrants as ‘strangers’.     

Cultivating the liberally educated mind through a signature program

In this article, the authors describe the Miller Upton Programs launched by the Beloit College Department of Economics in 2008. The programs aim to advance student understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being. After describing the programs’ core elements, the authors discuss ways in which they leverage economic discourse as a means to advance liberal learning. They argue that programs of this kind advance liberal learning by cultivating skills required to engage the great questions of human flourishing, by fostering development of students’ economic imagination and by enhancing students’ ability to engage in genuine intellectual discovery. Details on the history and resource commitments for various program aspects are provided, allowing readers to identify program elements appropriate for replication at their home institutions.