Multinational counterinsurgency: the Western intervention in the Boxer Rebellion 1900–1901

This article proposes a case study of the multinational counterinsurgency operations that occurred in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900–1, to provide a better understanding of the political and military dynamics specific to this type of mission. The study focuses primarily on the nature of the cooperation on the ground, the various national approaches to counterinsurgency, and the asymmetry of strategic approach between the Westerners and the Chinese. A discussion is also proposed, highlighting that combined counterinsurgency is not per se an obstacle to the unity of command, but that politically international coalitions create unique challenges to counterinsurgency operations.     

Guns–butter tradeoff in contemporary China

This study offers an investigation of the relationship between defense and social spending in the People's Republic of China. In particular, three consecutive questions are answered here. Does a warfare–welfare tradeoff exist in China's budgetary allocation? Is it positive or negative? What is the causal direction involved? By applying a vector autoregression analysis for the period of 1952–2006, this study finds a unidirectional crowd-out effect going from defense to social spending.     

新时代与公共政策的创新

公共政策,既是时代的产物,又为时代服务。新时代要求公共政策的创新必须更加聚焦,一切以调动广大人民群众的积极性,增强民族的凝聚力、创造力为出发点;要求公共政策的创新以人民为中心,一切以人民是否满意,是否具有获得感、幸福感、安全感、自豪感为落脚点;要求公共政策的创新,应当以社会问题为重点,以推动解决主要矛盾、化解社会各领域的主要问题为根本要求;要求公共政策的研究应当提高定位、开阔视野,跟上时代步伐,多出系统性、前瞻性研究成果和高质量研究人才,为党和国家的科学决策贡献更多的智慧力量。     

Place–time correlation of robbery incidents in metropolitan Lagos: a Mantel index analysis

This article investigates the correlation of space and time in the clustering of robbery incidents in metropolitan Lagos. Analysis was carried out on 781 selected robbery incidents in 2013. Using the Mantel index to correlate place and time intervals for pairs of robbery incidents, the results show that robberies are respectively concentrated in residential areas, transport nodes and public places, peaking at midnight during weekdays. The results further show that this concentration is most likely greater than what would be expected on the basis of a chance distribution. The study concludes that various factors may exist which cause clusters of robberies to occur in these places at these times.     

《人民武装警察法》“社会安全事件”概念及特点分析

《中华人民共和国人民武装警察法》颁布之前,武警部队虽然已经担负着执行处置社会安全事件的任务,但对于社会安全事件的概念及其特点的分析较为模糊。2009年8月颁布的《人民武装警察法》第2章第7条,明确将社会安全事件纳入武警部队的任务范围。鉴于武警部队执行任务种类的多样性,有必要对这一概念的内涵、外延及其特点进行界定。     

基于SNA参数的网络舆论系统状态差分分析

近年来,互联网在我国快速发展,网络舆论起着越来越重要的作用,对国家安全和社会稳定产生了重大的冲击和影响。针对网络舆论系统的状态进行研究,借助SNA方法,提出了可作为序参量的一些特征参数。在此基础上,设计了基于时间序列的SNA参数差分算法,实现对网络舆论系统的状态进行观测与分析。同时,对一个真实网络舆论进行实验仿真,验证了这种方法。     

创新社会治理体制对推动和谐社会建设的新意义

党的十八届三中全会提出“创新社会治理体制”的改革目标,对于在新形势下推动中国特色社会主义和谐社会建设,具有重要的创新意义。从理论发展完善上讲,创新社会治理体制是我国社会建设实现多元化民主治理理念的重大转变;从社会现实需要上讲,创新社会治理体制是抓住时机有效应对当前社会现实矛盾的有力推手;从制度体系建设上讲,创新社会治理体制是与社会主义市场经济体制配套协同的重大举措。     

Witchcraft and African development

Impressive investment and growth figures and commercial write-ups enthusing about ‘Africa rising up’, ‘the continent of the future’, and so on, obscure the poverty, illiteracy, poor health and other hardships afflicting the vast majority of African people. Why has massive so-called development and technical ‘aid’ not created the expected dynamic, autonomous economic progress? A blind eye is delicately being turned to the decisive role of people – more specifically, the cultural element. Notwithstanding good intentions, outsiders seeking to promote development assume that black Africans think and act like they only need more education, training and finance in order to ‘catch up’. Outsiders easily forget that since time immemorial, Africans have developed and cherished worldviews and cultures of their own. While these are by no means immutable and do adapt to changing needs and outside influences, Africans refuse to cast off overnight the heritage that makes them the people they are. This paper examines the impact of witchcraft as an integral feature of traditional culture on African existence, notably community life, religion, politics, the law, and economic practice. It stresses the significance of traditional society's powerful egalitarian impulses as well as its profound conviction that all things – goods, wealth, well-being and life force – are in a strictly limited supply that cannot be increased, but can only be redistributed by force or through magical manipulation. While modern life gradually weakens the influence of witchcraft beliefs – in Europe these flourished well into the 18th century – the exasperation associated with Africa's headlong urbanisation actually bolsters these beliefs.     

Unemployed youth: ‘time bombs’ or engines for growth?

While popular narratives about success in South Africa focus on individual effort, accidents of birth continue to determine life prospects. Inequalities in early childhood development, health, and education narrow the range of possibilities that young people have available to them, and this impacts on their risk appetite, including, through the workings of the maturing brain, a propensity to violence, substance abuse, and unsafe sex. New technology offers young people an unprecedented ability to organise and network. This fact, combined with high levels of youth dissatisfaction, unemployment, and marginalisation, leads many to worry that the young are “ticking time bombs”. While there certainly are risks, great unused pools of youth labour also present an opportunity for engaging them in social advancement programmes. Structured youth service is a tried and tested policy option that, when implemented as part of an integrated youth development strategy, can enlist thousands of young people in devoting their considerable energies to leadership for the public good.