Political Science Commons^™

"Our Woman In China": Louisa Lim, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Louisa Lim’s life as National Public Radio’s Shanghai correspondent is characterized by extreme variety. Much like China itself, Lim takes on many roles: hard-hitting investigative reporter, insightful trend spotter, art connoisseur, mother and even restaurateur. It turns out, she’s an excellent email-writer as well.

In a wide-ranging Web 2.0 interview, in between covering the Beijing Olympics and the ever-growing melamine disaster, she described her experiences in her three years as the Beijing correspondent for the BBC and then two with National Public Radio. She talked about the challenges of breaking news but still providing depth of coverage, the West’s growing …

Meeting Minutes, Wku Student Government Association

Student Government Association

Meeting regarding homecoming, diversity issues and legislation.

Meeting Agenda, Wku Student Government Association

Student Government Association

Agenda for November 3, 2008 meeting.

A Better Life In New Shanghai?, Maura Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

During the two years I recently spent in Nanjing as a student at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, Shanghai became an increasingly frequent choice when I needed to get away and wander the streets of China for a bit. With the introduction of CRH express train service in 2007, travel time between Nanjing and Shanghai fell to only two hours, and I rejoiced in the improved accessibility of Shanghai’s malls, restaurants, bookstores, and cultural events. However, I often found that I ended my Shanghai sojourns as eager to return to Nanjing as I had been to leave it only a day or …

China In 2008: What’S Inside

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

While our forthcoming blog-to-book, China in 2008, contains some content that regular China Beat readers will find familiar because versions of the pieces have either run or been linked to at China Beat (though many of these have been expanded or revised also), about one-third of the book is brand-new. Below, find the table of contents listing the essays included in the book’s fifteen chapters. Each chapter also includes additional, brief excerpts from the blog which are not listed here. China in 2008 will be published in early 2009.

Impacts Of ‘Three Strikes And You’Re Out’ On Crime Trends In California And Throughout The United States, Elsa Y. Chen

Political Science

The impacts of Three Strikes on crime in California and throughout the U.S. are analyzed using cross-sectional time series analysis of state-level data from 1986 to 2005. The model measures both deterrence and incapacitation effects, controlling for pre-existing crime trends and economic, demographic, and policy factors. Despite limited usage outside California, the presence of a Three Strikes law appears to be associated with slightly but significantly faster rates of decline in robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft nationwide. Three Strikes is also associated with slower declines in murder rates. Although California’s law is the broadest and most-frequently-used Three Strikes …

Now He Belong To The Ages: Memorializing Abraham Lincoln, Jonathan Jeffrey

SCL Faculty and Staff Publications

Reviled by many of his fellow Kentuckians while he was president, Abraham Lincoln became Kentucky’s, and America’s, idol during the 20th century. The Commonwealth is home to a growing list of notable Lincoln memorials. This article examines the history and folklore surrounding a number of these monuments.

Islamic Religious Curricula And Terrorism: A Case Study Of The Azherite Schools In Egypt, Babikir F. Babikir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the connection between Islamic religious education and terrorism. It looks at the curricula of the Azherite religious schools in Egypt. It examines how the curricula view the three themes of Jihad which are offensive Jihad, defensive Jihad, and Jihad for the purification of the soul in addition to the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims. Books which are used by violent jihadist groups for membership acquisition and cadre training are also studied for Jihad themes and relations with non-Muslims.

The analysis shows that the curricula are, generally speaking, a peaceful one in its principal direction, since it obviously …

Myths, Reasonable Disagreement, And A League Of Democracies, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The United States ' election in 2004 was based on a number of foreign policy myths. Three of the most obvious were:

• The war in Iraq was necessary as a response to the threat of international terrorism. As a result, the world is now a safer place;
• The institutions of the UN are corrupt and do nothing but restrict American power;
• Al Qaeda and international terrorism more generally are extremely significant threats to American national security

Human Rights And The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Brent J. Steele

Human Rights & Human Welfare

There has been a vivid tendency this year by the conventional keepers of Washington wisdom to explicate the two presidential candidates' foreign policy views using old frameworks of "hawk" and "dove." Not only is this binary wrong, it fundamentally obscures some rather ironic potentials for how each candidate, if elected president, will focus upon human rights in their foreign policy. McCain's neoconservative view of the world is founded upon the Wilsonian call for democratization-culminating in what he terms a "League of Democracies." To use a concept that Arnold Wolfers first coined, and one which Joshua Muravchik has proffered as well, …

Advocate, November 2008, Vol. [20], No. [3], Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

From the Editor's Desk: The Road Ahead (p. 2)

Political Analysis: The Other November Election, Michael Busch (p. 3)

CUNY News in Brief (p. 3)

Adjuncting: Adjunct Project Wants You to Have More Money!, Renee McGarry and Jesse Goldstein (p. 5)

Grad Life: The Long View from the Ivory Tower, Alison Powell (p. 6)

What’s So Democratic about American Democracy?, Advocate Staff (p. 7)

Forgetting Iraq and the Discourse of Responsibility, Steven Pludwin (p. 9)

What’s Happening to America?, Chalmers Johnson, Bill Ayers, and Amiri Baraka (p. 11)

Book Review: Democracy’s Demons: Inside the Mind of the …

Speak Softly...With Everyone You Can, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

From the Monroe Doctrine to the Bush Doctrine, United States foreign policy has been predicated on the assumption that somehow it knows what is best for the rest of the world. Monroe feared a potential encroachment from Russia and meddling in the "American" Hemisphere by the European powers and issued what originally appeared as a modest statement about resistance to intervention by any other country than the United States . Ironically enforced by the British Navy at that time, the Monroe Doctrine went far beyond its modest beginnings to set a precedent for the development of U.S. foreign policy. The …

The Politics Of Economic Performance, And The Trade Union Movement, 1970-1982, John Hogan, Gary Murphy

Articles

Here we argue that the relationship between the main Irish political parties and the trade unions, in the 1970s, was largely based upon political imperatives, with an economic subtext. The absence of strong ideological difference between the two largest Irish political parties meant they were willing to deal with the trade union moment in a somewhat similar fashion. At the start of the 1970s, the Fianna Fail government prodded the ICTU into a “voluntary” national wage agreement. This agreement was regarded as a means of stabilising the economy, attracting foreign investment, and improving Fianna Fail’s image with the electorate. While …

America As An Ordinary Nation, William F. Felice

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For decades, scholars of international relations have called attention to the limits of American power. For example, in 1976 Cornel University Press published America as an Ordinary Country: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Future , edited by Richard Rosecrance. As the title indicates, Rosecrance's book analyzed the impact of the economic, military, and foreign policy setbacks of the 1970s on U.S. power. Suddenly the U.S. seemed less the powerful, "indispensible" leader and more the vulnerable, "ordinary" country unable to control external forces lashing the society's economy and foreign policy. These insights led many scholars to call for a reassessment of …

November Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Foreign Policy Myths Debunked." The Nation. October 6, 2008.

Critical Junctures? Privatization Policy In Brazil And Argentina At The Start Of The Century, John Hogan

Articles

This paper uses the critical junctures framework developed by Hogan and Doyle (2007) to determine if there were critical junctures in privatization policy in Brazil and Argentina at the start of the 21st century. The framework constitutes a rigorous approach to the identification of crisis, ideational change, and policy change. It is used to examine the economic disasters in Brazil in 1999 and Argentina in 2001. Previously, we would have had to wait decades before making such an assessment, as there were few tools with which to identify critical junctures, and these were usually only effective long after the event.

Blogging China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One week ago, China Beat founders Jeff Wasserstrom and Ken Pomeranz participated in a conference at the University of California, Irvine called “Public Spheres, Blogospheres.” The day-long event mixed academics with bloggers (and a few people who could claim both titles) for a discussion about the past and future of blogging. You can download each of the day’s sessions here, and a full list of participants here.

The clip below is very lengthy. If you’d like to speed through to the parts about China, jump to 25:00 (to about 51:00). The session was a comparative one on blogging and the …

China On My Mind: Last Days Of Old Beijing

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few weeks ago, those of us based at UCI had the pleasure of hearing author Michael Meyer talk about his new book, The Last Days of OldBeijing. Accompanied by the evocative photos of Mark Leong, Meyer described his experience living in the ancient hutongs of central Beijing and how he tried to convey that experience–threatened by Beijing’s rapid development–in his recent book. Here, Tom Mullaney, who teaches history at Stanford, chats with Meyer about his book. Scroll down to enjoy Leong’s photos while you listen.

The character “chai” (to demolish) is painted on houses marked for demolition.

If you’d …

Wednesday Reading

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The tainted milk scandal has stayed on the front pages, particularly in recent days as the type of tainted products expanded yet again (to include eggs, see below). Here are a few readings on the subject, in case you missed them:

1. Anna Greenspan wrote this piece on the milk scandal for our forthcoming book,China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, but we’re delighted that its up for reading right now at The Nation. Check it out here.

2.Though most stories on the tainted baby formula have emphasized that its devastating impacts are the result of falling rates of …

Meeting Minutes, Wku Student Government Association

Student Government Association

Meeting regarding lock down of campus on October 22, homecoming, buy-a-book scholarships, committee appointments and legislation.

Wow In China And The U.S.

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

World of Warcraft (WoW) is the most popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) ever created, with more than 10 million players worldwide—half of them in China. Before WoW launched in 2004, conventional wisdom placed the potential playerbase for MMOs numbering in the hundreds of thousands. WoW quickly broke those numbers, drawing in new gamers with its cartoonish graphics, tongue-in-cheek storylines, and mix of collaborative and solo player options. Stories on WoW in China a few years ago emphasized a phenomenon known as “gold farming”—sweatshop laborers in China playing the game to raise in-game currency to then sell for real …

1948 & 2008: The George E. Morrison Lectures And Beijing’S Years Of Great Significance, Geremie R. Barme

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The 69th Morrison Lecture, “Reporting the Olympic Year,” was presented by Jane Macartney, The Times’ correspondent in Beijing, on October 22, 2008. The Morrison Lecture is an annual event in the academic calendar and public program of The Australian National University in Canberra. As 2008 was a major year for China, and Beijing in particular (something that will be marked by an upcoming publication by the editors of China Beat, China 2008: A Year of Great Significance), the Morrison Lecture Committee invited Jane to make this year’s presentation. As Jane noted in her précis of the Lecture, “The Olympics were …

The Best Reporting On The Sichuan Earthquake You’Ll Never See, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Busan, Korea – Pan Jianlin’s documentary about the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 made a quiet debut on a Sunday morning, at 10 a.m., the third day of this year’s Pusan International Film Festival.

With its not-so-great timing and grim title, Who Killed Our Children was a blip on the festival calendar’s 315 films and 85 world premieres. And if you happened to miss the documentary in Korea, it’s possible you will not have an opportunity to see it again.

Pan’s film’s subject is as simple as its title, examining the collapse of one of the many …

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1882-1945 (Sc 1786), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1786. Signature of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Governor of New York on unknown official document dated 18 June 1930. Collection contains lower portion of document only.

Ritter, George Kinslow, 1866-1947 (Sc 1782), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1782. Certified tally of votes cast in the Sartain Precinct, Barren County, Kentucky for all the candidates running in the statewide election of November 1899. Signed by George K. Ritter, one of the election judges.

Sampson, Flemon Davis, 1875-1967 (Sc 1792), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1792. Correspondence with family members of Flemon D. Sampson, former governor of Kentucky, and a deed for a large tract of land in eastern Kentucky.

On The Train To Tibet

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As part of our on-going series of reading recommendations and conversations about Tibet and Tibetan history, we are today featuring a short excerpt from occasional China Beat contributor Alex Pasternack about his recent ride on the new train to Tibet. Pasternack writes regularly for Treehugger, where this essay was published in its entirety.

China’s – and the world’s – reach to the highest plateau on earth grew in summer 2006 with the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (Qingzang Tielu 青藏铁路). An engineering marvel that China itself once ruled impossible, the $4.2 billion line traverses an region known for earthquakes, low …

Meeting Minutes, Wku Student Government Association

Student Government Association

Meeting to discuss tuition, elections, homecoming, commercial and resolutions.

Meeting Agenda, Wku Student Government Association

Student Government Association

Agenda for October 21, 2008 meeting.

Wiki-Ing China: The Discussion Continues

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Charles Hayford shared the link to his recent China Beat pieces (Parts 1 and 2) on using (and altering) Wikipedia with the Asia Scholars listserv, H-Asia. A brief discussion ensued there, which included references to several new (to us) resources. Though we won’t mention names or specific discussions, we did want to share some of the resources we learned about as a result of listening in:

1. At this website, Vincent Pollard has written a student guide on internet credibility that could be easily adapted to an exercise on testing/editing/using Wikipedia.

2. One contributor noted a particularly outstanding Wikipedian (not …