Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Arms Trade In Russian-Chinese Relations: Identity, Domestic Politics, And Geopolitical Positioning, Robert H. Donaldson, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why would a declining power help arm a neighboring and once-hostile rising power? Current international relations literature cannot explain relationships in which one powerful country contributes directly to its long-term relative decline in order to make smaller, short-term gains. This study focuses on one example, the Treaty on Good Neighborly Friendship and Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, signed in Moscow on July 16, 2001. Presenting evidence that this alliance embodies a relationship that is based primarily on sales of arms from Russia to China, the authors argue that this association cannot be explained by …

The Eu And The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons: The Way To Thessaloniki And Beyond, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper discusses EU policies against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The author states that at the beginning of the century, the EU began taking steps against the spread of nuclear weapons within its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In June 2003, the European Council adopted its first draft strategy against the proliferation of WMDs. In order to assess the significance of the strategy, the paper presents and evaluates the Union’s record in the field, reviews the strategy and makes suggestions as to how it can be improved.

Issue Definition And The Opinion-Policy Link: Public Preferences And Health Care Spending In The Us And Uk, Stuart N. Soroka, Elvin T. Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article explores the extent to which yearly changes in health spending reflect yearly changes in public preferences. Time series modelling suggests that health care spending is remarkably more responsive to yearly changes in public opinion in the US than in the UK.A content analysis of party manifestos suggests the significant role of ‘issue definition’ in accounting for this difference. Health care issues in the US have more often been viewed as problems of expenditure, while UK policy-makers have tended to focus on efficiency. Results suggest that the responsiveness of health care expenditures to public preferences in the US and …

In Praise Of The Strange Virtue Of People-Smuggling, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Almost everyone is against people-smuggling. The refugee advocate excoriating the government for its mistreatment of asylum seekers, no less than the departmental official bemoaning the numbers of boat people landing on Australian shores, feels well-justified in insisting that, somehow, something must be done to put an end to this 'evil trade'. On the scale of virtue, the people smuggler appears barely a notch above (and for many, several notches below) the drug dealer, the child molester, or the gangster.

Responsibility For Past Injustice: How To Shift The Burden, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article considers the question of the responsibility of present generations for injustices committed by previous ones. It asks whether the descendants of victims of past injustice have claims against the descendants of the perpetrators of injustice. Two modes of argument are examined: the individual responsibility approach, according to which descendants cannot have claims against other descendants, and the collective responsibility approach, according to which descendants do have strong claims. Both approaches are criticized, but for different failings. An alternative view, building on the individualist approach, is defended. This view argues that some people may have to bear responsibility for …

Business And Global Governance: The Growing Role Of Corporate Codes Of Conduct, Ann Florini

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

These are, in many ways, halcyon days for global business. In a vast ideological shift in the late 20th century, markets rather than governments came to be seen as the road to prosperity. Governments that once nationalized foreign firms now seek out the investment, technology, and managerial expertise such companies can bring. The halls of the United Nations used to ring with calls for international regulation of those dreaded evil-doers, the multinational corporations. Now the UN instead implores business to join with it in a voluntary Global Compact to ensure respect for internationally agreed environmental, labor, and human rights standards.

The Lion And The Lamb: Demythologizing Franklin Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, Elvin T. Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We are accustomed to a characterization of Franklin Roosevelt’s legendary Fireside Chats as intimate exchanges between the president and the people. This essay argues that the Fireside Chats were a harsher, more castigatory rhetorical genre than such a characterization would allow. A content analysis of the 27 Fireside Chats recorded in FDR’s Public Papers suggests that the Fireside Chats were, on a number of indices, far less intimate than have traditionally been supposed, and in fact among the more vitriolic and declamatory utterances of the 32nd president. The essay proceeds with a discussion of how this illusion of intimacy was …

Islam, Democracy And Civil Society, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What is the relationship between Islam, democracy, and civil society? This is thequestion which supplies the topic of this essay, Its purpose, more particularly, is to explore theplace of Islam in the modern world-a world which contemporary writers increasingly try tounderstand by invoking the notions of democracy and civil society. But the occasion for thisexploitation has a more precise origin still. The issue of the place of Islam in the modernworld is raised, more often than not, by writers and commentators for whom Islam is, aboveall, a danger, in geo-political terms, it is a danger to the West; in world-historical …

The Cultural Contradictions Of Socialism, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While no one has yet announced the death of capitalism, reports of its imminent demise have been as numerous as they have been exaggerated. Such reports have usually been bolstered by thoughtful analyses of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, which was expected to come sliding—if not crashing—down under the weight of its own inconsistencies. Leaving aside Karl Marx's own predictions, twentieth-century analysts as diverse as Joseph Schumpeter, Daniel Bell, and Jurgen Habermas have asserted that the contradictions of capitalism could only mean that its days were numbered. Alas, all that has been established by these analyses is that predictive failure …

The Role Of The Eu In The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons: The Way To Thessaloniki And Beyond, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past few years the EU has begun taking some steps against the spread of nuclear weapons within its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). At the Thessaloniki Summit June 2003, the European Council adopted its first draft Strategy against the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). In order to assess the significance of the Strategy, this paper will first present and evaluate the Union’s record in the field, then review the newly released Strategy, and finally make suggestions as to how it can be improved.

The EU is not an unitary actor in the nuclear non-proliferation domain, …

The Concept Of A Middle Power In International Relations: Distinguishing Between Emerging And Traditional Middle Powers, Eduard Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article seeks to develop a distinction between emerging and traditional middle powers as a means to giving the concept of a middle power greater analytical clarity. All middle powers display foreign policy behaviour that stabilises and legitimises the global order, typically through multilateral and cooperative initiatives. However, emerging and traditional middle powers can be distinguished in terms of their mutually-influencing constitutive and behavioural differences. Constitutively, traditional middle powers are wealthy, stable, egalitarian, social democratic and not regionally influential. Behaviourally, they exhibit a weak and ambivalent regional orientation, constructing identities distinct from powerful states in their regions and offer appeasing …