The fragility of elite settlements in Tunisia

Six years after the revolution that ousted Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia remains in flux. On the face of it, the country should be celebrated for transitioning from political ferment to consensual normalcy. Unfortunately, there is more to Tunisia’s transition to consensual politics than meets the eye. The country is still caught in a turbulent grey zone where strong authoritarian tendencies threaten to pull down the country’s tortuous march towards democratic stability. Some developments are particularly worrisome. The old authoritarian discourse emphasising stability and law and order has regained credence. The repressive habits of the police and security services are also back in full swing. The outlook for democratic stability darkens as the chasm between ordinary citizens and political elites expands. The lurch towards illiberalism and the failure of the successive postrevolutionary governments to make even the slightest dent in Tunisia’s dreadful unemployment rate and sharp regional economic inequalities are undermining faith in elite settlements and state institutions.     

谈审计监督工作对党委决策的促进作用

审计监督工作在促进公安现役部队党委科学民主规范经济决策管理方面发挥着不可替代的作用,它特有的监督与服务、评价与鉴证职能决定了在部队规范化建设中的地位和作用。从帮助有关人员完善自我、提高履职能力水平,帮助被审计单位建章立制、规范管理等层面,诠释了审计监督工作在部队建设中的促进、服务、制约、保证作用。     

“中国特色社会主义理论与实践”课教学创新探讨

新形势对《中国特色社会主义理论与实践》课程教学提出了新要求。开展以"民主开放,求实创新"为特征的教学改革主要内容有:树立"以生为本"的教学新理念;坚守主阵地,创新教学内容;重视能力训练,创新方法手段等,在教学创新中,应着重把握几对辩证关系,解决一些关键问题。     

Assessing military reform in Indonesia

This article seeks to assess the magnitude of military reform in Indonesia and its impact in establishing greater levels of professionalism within the armed forces. To this end, the authors will offer some reflections on the studies of civil-military relations and military transformation for inculcating a higher degree of military professionalism; analyse to what extent the process of military reform in Indonesia has reshaped the institutional role of the armed forces; and discern three major strategic gaps in Indonesia's military reform, namely the “legal loopholes and regulation vacuum,” the “shortcomings of democratic civilian control,” and the “defence-economic gap.” This article asserts that military professionalism will grow more substantially depending on the ability of civilian elites to exercise effective control over the military and the capacity of the government to transform the military establishment keeping pace with strategic challenges and operational requirements.     

India's counter-insurgency experience: the ‘trust and nurture’ strategy

The Indian Army, a force trained primarily for conventional warfare, has been engaged in internal counter-insurgency operations since the 1950s. Despite such a long innings on a counter-insurgency mode, little attention has been accorded within military circles to doctrinal innovation for waging sub-conventional warfare in India's democratic political context. At best, the Army continues to view counter-insurgency duty as secondary to its primary duty of defending India from external conventional threats. By conceptualizing a counter-insurgency strategy of ‘trust and nurture’, this article aims to fill this critical doctrinal gap in India's military policy. The author argues that a counter-insurgency strategy of ‘trust and nurture’ based on democratic political culture, measured military methods, special counter-insurgency forces, local social and cultural awareness and an integrative nation-building approach will result in positive handling of India's internal security problems. The author utilizes India's counter-insurgency experiences in Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, and Operation ‘Sadhbhavana’ in Jammu and Kashmir as illustrative empirical indicants in order to validate the ‘trust and nurture’ strategy.     

中国与西方民主社会主义国家的混合经济体制比较

混合经济体制在科学社会主义的中国与民主社会主义的西方世界同时存在，并且都发挥了积极的作用。但是，学者们对混合经济体制的认识却存在较大差异，进而导致了论证上的分歧，文章在论述上将采取在国家意志层面上的混合经济体制概念内涵。通过对两种混合经济体制从所处的文明发展阶段、国家的指导思想、发生学、组成成分的功能以及目标趋向等层面进行比较分析，改变传统对混合经济体制研究中对两者在政治哲学、历史哲学等方面的不足。两种混合经济体制的相似点关涉到混合经济体制模式未来发展和对二者关系的认识问题，而传统对此研究的认识论基础主要是一分为二的矛盾分析法，故而在思想认识产生了上一些问题，文章将采用“一分为三”的方法论对此进行一些尝试。     

AFRICA'S TRIPLE TRANSITION

Sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed the end of foreign colonial rule, the rise and fall of autocratic political regimes, and the disappearance of statist command economies. The challenges were to turn populations into coherent nations owing allegiance to the state; to democratise the state structures that govern these populations; and to liberalise the rules that regulate economic transactions. An important source to assess these prospects are the views and attitudes of ordinary Africans. This essay reflects on the original data derived from a crossnational research project. Nine African states were surveyed between 1999 and 2000. An attempt is made to gather some propositions from the analysis of the data. Many present serious challenges to common wisdom about African politics. It appears that the process of nationbuilding has created coherent political communities with high levels of national identity; that democratising the state in Africa builds on existing indigenous demands from ordinary Africans; and that economic liberalisation proceeds in the face of a mixed set of values about market and state.     

中小学校长治校漫话——由“钱学森之问”引发的思考

“钱学森之问”是广大校长必须直面的一个严峻课题。校长作为一所学校教学业务的指导者和教育行政的管理者,应以教学、管理、学生、教师及社会为基本职业维度,在工作中以“五心”标准要求自己。导致校长履职失范的因素包括校长自我认知错位、上级行政主管单位制度缺位及学校教职工角色异位等方面。人格自觉与制度跟进是加强校长队伍建设、规范校长治校理教的根本和正途。     

Imperial nostalgia,the liberal lie,and the perils of postmodern counterinsurgency

Since 9/11, counterinsurgency is back in fashion; the ‘war on terror’ has even been branded a ‘global counterinsurgency’. However the context within which counterinsurgency originally arose is critical to understanding the prospects for its present success; the radically changed environment in which it is currently being conducted casts into considerable doubt the validity of the doctrine's application by many national militaries currently ‘rediscovering’ this school of military thought today. Above all, classical counterinsurgency was a profoundly imperial, state-centric phenomenon; consequently it only rarely faced the thorny issue of sovereignty and legitimacy which bedevils and may doom these same efforts today.     

NEW TERRORISM

New or contemporary international terrorism associated with Islamic fundamentalism and the struggle against Zionism and American interests is a recent phenomenon in Kenya, different to that experienced during the struggle against colonialism. Many explanations have been offered as to why Kenya is being targeted, but have not sufficiently explored its close relationship with the West—especially Britain and the United States, the perceived connection between Israel and the former Presidency of Daniel Arap Moi, domestic forces and government policy. Externally the most important explanations for the increase in regional terrorism are the three waves of global terrorism since 1967, the most recent and significant of which is associated with Osama bin Laden and the Palestinian Intifada. These events reverberated in the region, Sudan and Somalia in particular, but also internally. Both internal and external attribution factors explain the resurgence of new terrorism in Africa. In the case of Kenya, terrorist attacks are associated with the country's internal domestic processes and a naïve approach to broader international issues.