Understanding China’s goals and strategy in the South China Sea: bringing context to a revisionist systemic challenge – intentions and impact

ABSTRACT

The slow moving conflict in the South China Sea has been characterized by some as “not worth the candle.” China claims the entirety of the South China Sea pursuant to a nine-dash line, the legal impact of which has been limited by international courts. At the same time, China has changed the reality of control over the South China Sea by building a number of fortified islands in the Spratly Islands and elsewhere. The US has either refused to stand up to China's behavior (Obama) or responded unevenly (Trump). This paper examines the impact of China's behaviour on local parties, US interests, and the liberal international system.     

Local perceptions of the EU’s role in peacebuilding: The case of security sector reform in Palestine

ABSTRACT

Perception research can make a valuable contribution to the study of the local dimension in EU peacebuilding. The conceptual framework developed in this article distinguishes between perceptions of the “legitimacy,” “effectiveness,” and “credibility” of EU peacebuilding practices, which are crucial factors for successful peacebuilding. Relying on the case of the EU’s support for security sector reform (SSR) in Palestine, this article shows that local stakeholders—which participate in various EU-sponsored training and capacity-building programs—display considerable support for liberal peacebuilding norms. Yet, perceived discrepancies between the EU’s peacebuilding rhetoric and its SSR activities have severely undermined the potential of the EU’s liberal peacebuilding model in the eyes of Palestinian stakeholders. Critical local perceptions are frequently articulated with reference to the EU’s own liberal peacebuilding discourse, pointing to a lack of inclusiveness of the SSR process and deficits in terms of democratic governance and the rule of law.     

党的十六大与第四次机遇

社会发展需要社会成员的共同努力 ,同时也需要一定的历史机遇 ,回顾中国近代历史 ,机遇总是在不经意间错失。面对新的历史时期 ,机遇再次不期而至 ,要想抓住这次重要战略机遇 ,必须以史为鉴 ,与时俱进 ,开拓创新     

挖掘高等数学人文价值,培养大学生探究能力

数学的人文要素对培养学生的探究能力具有重要意义,在数学教学中通过体现数学人文价值来培养学生的探究能力可采取以下几种尝试:介绍古今人们对有关数学方面的认识,帮助学生全方位了解数学;借助数学史料,再现数学知识的发现过程;开展专题研究,师生共同研讨数学知识中隐含的数学思想方法;利用“数学美”,再现数学的人文价值,为此教师需做好两种形态知识的转化工作,树立新型的数学教育信念。     

国外消防中介组织运作模式及启示

介绍了美国、加拿大、俄罗斯、德国、日本等国消防中介组织运作模式概况及特点,提出了其对我国消防中介组织发展的启示。     

浅析小型史馆建筑内部展示造型与多媒体表现

作为现代展览展示建筑的一个发展分支,小型史馆就是一部精练的“物化”历史,表达出一个丰富而统一的信息传播展示空间。小型史馆的设计往往在有限的空间内,充分体现出观演类建筑的主要特点,其内部的展示造型设计和多媒体表现手段起到了重要的作用。主要从小型史馆建设出发,对其内部展示造型设计与多媒体表现手段进行分析与探讨,阐述了它们的设计手法及达到的视觉创意效果。     

谈新闻媒体对警卫工作的影响

警卫工作与新闻媒体有着广泛的联系,新闻媒体对警卫工作具有重大影响,警卫部门要科学利用新闻媒体,充分发挥其积极作用。     

一种基于EDU模型的新闻视频摘要方法

现有的视频摘要技术缺乏一个统一、可扩充的视频摘要模型。针对该缺陷,提出了实体-描述-效用模型(简称EDU模型),该模型从视频实体出发,经过描述得到效用,并最终根据效用来生成视频摘要,该模型具有可扩展性。对EDU模型进行了详细阐述,并根据该模型,提出了新闻视频故事摘要生成的方法。实验结果表明,该方法具有令人满意的效果。     

Unnecessary or unsung? The utilisation of airpower in Britain's colonial counterinsurgencies

Making extensive use of primary archival documents, this article seeks to explore whether airpower in three of Britain's most significant post-war colonial counterinsurgency campaigns, Malaya, Kenya and South Arabia, was an unnecessary part of British strategy, offering little useful military force due to the futility and strategic damage rendered by offensive bombardment, or whether airpower was indeed an unsung factor that provided operational flexibility through its effectiveness in a supply context, as well as its intelligence role in providing valuable aerial reconnaissance. In all three case studies the role played by the RAF in medical evacuations, in troop drops, in crop spraying during food-denial initiatives, and in providing ‘Voice Aircraft’ for the propaganda campaign, provide insights into an under-explored component of Britain's politico-military efforts in counterinsurgency in the 1950s and 1960s and suggests that the main strategic value of airpower in counterinsurgency, then and now, lies in its non-kinetic functions.     

Exporting professionalism: US efforts to reform the armed forces in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, 1916–1933

Why did the United States, a country notorious for supporting coups and military dictatorships in Latin America during the Cold War, seek to depoliticize security forces in the Caribbean basin during the early twentieth century? Drawing from primary sources, I argue that this emphasis on military non-partisanship abroad stemmed from Progressive Era reforms popular at home. These reforms, which stressed bureaucratic efficiency via nonpartisan expertise, had become institutionalized within the US military and State Department and then channelled into the imperial administration of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The State Department and Marine Corps attempted to replace local partisan armies with the kind of professional, nonpartisan armed forces that the US's own military had come to exemplify. That these civil-military reform efforts ultimately backfired should serve as a reminder of the difficulties inherent in using military interventions to transform coercive apparatuses and their societies.