CIAO DATE: 09/2011
Volume: 87, Issue: 3
May 2011
Is China a responsible stakeholder? (PDF)
Amitai Etzioni
This article explores the concept of stakeholding and what it entails to China's international conduct. Whether China is a responsible stakeholder is evaluated from employing three sets of standards: normative, 'aspirational' standards (i.e. those that make a good community member and an upstanding citizen); rational choice (is China acting in line with shared or complementary self-interest?); and power analysis (whether China is upsetting an established world order or contributing to the formation of a new one?).
International order after the financial crisis
Harold James
The geography of power is at present being dramatically transformed, notably by the rapid economic rise of China. What makes international order legitimate in a world in which political and economic foundations are rapidly shifting? This article examines analogies and lessons from a previous transition, from a world order centered on Britain, to a US dominated global order. The article looks at two interpretations of the transition, one by E. H. Carr, the other by Charles Kindleberger. China is beginning to behave in the way expected of a Kindleberger hegemon, but also sees the possibilities of asserting power in a world that in the aftermath of 2008 looks much more like the chaotic and crisis-ridden interwar period as interpreted by E. H. Carr. The challenge for the management of the new international order will lie in the ability of China to embrace the universalistic vision that underpinned previous eras of stability, in the nineteenth century and in the late twentieth century.
US missile defence and China's nuclear posture: Changing dynamics of an offence-defence arms race
Baohui Zhang
This article examines the rising prominence of strategic nuclear deterrence in Sino-US relations. China is the only major nuclear power that has been actively expanding its offensive capabilities. Its nuclear modernization has inevitably caused concerns in the United States. The article suggests that China's nuclear programme is driven significantly by US missile defence, which has fundamentally altered the incentive structures for Chinese nuclear deterrence. The article also assesses the latest Chinese perception of US strategic adjustment under the Obama administration and its potential impact on arms control. It reveals that recent measures by the United States to restrain its missile defense could be conducive for achieving a strategic nuclear understanding between the two countries. The article then suggests a number of concrete actions for China and the United States to realize such an understanding.
Why the Pakistan army is here to stay: prospects for civilian governance
C Christine Fair
This article explores the prospects for civilian governance over Pakistan's military in the policy-relevant future. After reviewing the Pakistan army's past interference in the country's judicial and political affairs, it turns to the ongoing political maneuvering of the current Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, despite Pakistan's ostensible democratic dispensation. The article dilates on the impact of US engagement on the robustness of the Pakistan army's dominance and questions the newfound US commitment to promoting democratization and civilian control. The article argues that while conventional wisdom places the onus disproportionately upon the military's penchant for interventionism, the army has intervened only with the active assistance of civilian institutions, which are subsequently further eroded with every military takeover. It concludes with a consideration of whether or not genuine civilian control would result in a significant change in Pakistan's foreign and domestic policies, particularly Pakistan's well-known utilization of Islamist militants in India and Afghanistan.
Contesting danger: a new agenda for policy and scholarship on Central Asia
John Heathershaw, Nick Megoran
Western geopolitical discourse misrepresents and constructs Central Asia as an inherently and essentially dangerous place. This pervasive 'discourse of danger' obscures knowledge of the region, deforms scholarship and, because it has policy implications, actually endangers Central Asia. This article identifies how the region is made knowable to a US-UK audience through three mutually reinforcing dimensions of endangerment: Central Asia as obscure, oriental, and fractious. This is evidenced in the writings of conflict resolution and security analysts, the practices of governments, the activities of international aid agencies and numerous lurid films, documentaries and novels.
Politics by other means? The virtual trials of the Khmer Rouge tribunal
Duncan McCargo
This article argues that more emphasis should be placed on the political aspects of international tribunals, which are often in the business of reshaping politics as well as simply administering justice. By examining the hybrid Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), popularly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, the article develops arguments previously advanced by Victor Peskin in respect of Rwanda and the former Yuogoslavia. Peskin has suggested that courtroom war crimes trials are paralleled by 'virtual trials', in which international and domestic political actors struggle for power and control over the form and outcome of proceedings. The Cambodian case demonstrates that where war crimes tribunals are concerned, backroom 'virtual trials' need as much academic, policy and media attention as the actual courtroom trials of key defendants.
Ending corruption in Africa through United Nations inspections
Stuart S Yeh
Evidence suggests that a lack of effective checks and balances against corruption undermines the rule of law, the protection of human rights and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This article suggests the need for an international treaty to establish an African commission against corruption, involving United Nations inspectors to investigate and prosecute corruption. A range of evidence is reviewed suggesting that pressure from constituents as well as international organizations may be effective in compelling African leaders to sign this type of protocol.
State reconstruction in Africa: The relevance of Claude Ake's political thought
Jeremiah O Arowosegbe
Studies on post-conflict reconstruction in Africa have glossed over the need for state transformation as a prerequisite for sustainable peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. This article fills this gap and discusses the relevance of Claude Ake's political thought for state reconstruction in post-conflict Africa. It underscores the need for the autochthonous transformation of the state as a central component of peacebuilding and post-conflict transition in the continent as Ake had suggested. Drawing on Sierra Leone, it theorizes Ake's works on the state in Africa against the backdrop of externally driven state reconstruction projects hinged on hegemonic discourses of 'nation-building' in post-conflict situations.
A false dichotomy? The binationalism debate and the future of divided Jerusalem
Mick Dumper
The case of Jerusalem in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a prime example of how national sovereignty issues can be seen as having an impact upon urban divisions. One option that is proposed for the resolution of this conflict, which has generated intense debate on both sides, is that of a binational Israeli-Palestinian state. This article argues that there is a false dichotomy concerning the competing benefits of binational and two-state models in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The article comprises three main sections. The first is an enquiry into the idea of binationalism in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and identifies some of the key issues to do with its feasibility. The second examines the various proposals on Jerusalem put forward during the course of the peace negotiations and draws out the significant issues relating to the question of interstate coordination. The third seeks to demonstrate, first, that the future governance of Jerusalem is closely tied to the overall interstate political arrangements, and second, that, rather than those interstate political arrangements driving the nature of governance in the city, in fact the impetus is the other way round: the nature of the joint governance of Jerusalem will have a significant impact on the nature of the interstate arrangements. This observation in turn leads to a reconsideration of the binational model. A concluding section looks at the implications of these findings both for the future of Jerusalem and for that of divided cities in general.
Was Iraq an unjust war? A debate on the Iraq war and reflections on Libya
David Fisher, Nigel Biggar
This article is based on a debate held on 22 March 2011 at Chatham House on 'Was Iraq an unjust war?' David Fisher argues that the war fully failed to meet any of the just war criteria. By contrast, current coalition operations in Libya are, so far, just. This is a humanitarian operation undertaken to halt a humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place, with wide international support, including authorization by the UN Security Council. Nigel Biggar argues that the fact that the invasion and occupation of Iraq suffered from grave errors, some of them morally culpable, does not yet establish its overall injustice. All wars are morally flawed, even just ones. Further, even if the invasion were illegal, that need not make it immoral. Regarding Libya, Biggar notes the recurrence of conflict over the interpretation of international law. He wonders how those who distinguish sharply between protecting civilians and regime change imagine that dissident civilians are to be 'kept' safe while Qadhafi remains in power. Against those who clamour for a clear exitstrategy, he counsels agility, while urging sensitivity to the limits of our power. What was right to begin may become imprudent to continue.
Russian historians defend the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
David Wedgwood Benn
In 1989 the Soviet authorities officially denounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of August 1939 as illegal and void and for the first time admitted the existence of a secret protocol providing for a division on territorial spheres of influence. Today, however, some Russian historians, apparently with official support, are mounting a vigorous defence of the pact. Although some of their arguments are tendentious and selective, they do, in the opinion of the author, make certain valid points which deserve greater recognition by the western media. The author also argues that given the stated desire of the White House in Washington to press the 'reset button' in relations with Moscow, there are certain things which both Russian and western historians could do to narrow the gap between their perceptions of the Second World War.