Rethinking Japan Stockwin, Arthur; Ampiah, Kweku
2017., 2017, 2017-02-15
eBook
The authors argue that with the election of the Abe Government in December 2012, Japanese politics has entered a radically new phase they describe as the “2012 Political System.” The system began ...with the return to power of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), after three years in opposition, but in a much stronger electoral position than previous LDP-based administrations in earlier decades. Moreover, with the decline of previously endemic intra-party factionalism, the LDP has united around an essentially nationalist agenda never absent from the party’s ranks, but in the past was generally blocked, or modified, by factions of more liberal persuasion. Opposition weakness following the severe defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration in 2012 has also enabled the Abe Government to establish a political stability largely lacking since the 1990s. The first four chapters deal with Japanese political development since 1945 and factors leading to the emergence of Abe Shinzō as Prime Minister in 2012. Chapter 5 examines the Abe Government’s flagship economic policy, dubbed “Abenomics.” The authors then analyse four highly controversial objectives promoted by the Abe Government: revision of the 1947 ‘Peace Constitution’; the introduction of a Secrecy Law; historical revision, national identity and issues of war apology; and revised constitutional interpretation permitting collective defence. In the final three chapters they turn to foreign policy, first examining relations with China, Russia and the two Koreas, second Japan and the wider world, including public diplomacy, economic relations and overseas development aid, and finally, the vexed question of how far Japanese policies are as reactive to foreign pressure. In the Conclusion, the authors ask how far right wing trends in Japan exhibit common causality with shifts to the right in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. They argue that although in Japan immigration has been a relatively minor factor, economic stagnation, demographic decline, a sense of regional insecurity in the face of challenges from China and North Korea, and widening gaps in life chances, bear comparison with trends elsewhere. Nevertheless, they maintain that “a more sane regional future may be possible in East Asia.”
The Gift in Antiquity Satlow, Michael
2013, 2013., 2013-02-12, 2013-02-22, Letnik:
16
eBook
The Gift in Antiquitypresents a collection of 14 original essays that apply French sociologist Marcel Mauss’s notion of gift-giving to the study of antiquity.Covers such wide-ranging topics as vows ...in the Hebrew Bible; ancient Greek wedding gifts; Hellenistic civic practices; Latin literature; Roman and Jewish burial practices; and Jewish and Christian religious giftsOrganizes essays around theoretical concerns rather than chronologicallyTakes an explicitly cross-cultural approach to the study of ancient history
This book investigates intractable conflicts and their main verbal manifestation - radical disagreement – and explores what can be done when conflict resolution fails.
The book identifies agonistic ...dialogue - dialogue between enemies - as the key to linguistic intractability. It suggests how agonistic dialogue can best be studied, explored, understood and managed even in the most severe political conflicts when negotiation, mediation, problem solving, dialogue for mutual understanding, and discourse ethics are unsuccessful. This approach of viewing radical disagreement as the central topic of analysis and conflict management is a new innovation in this field, and also supplements and enhances existing communicative transformational techniques. It also has wider implications for cognate fields, such as applied ethics, democratic theory, cultural studies and the philosophy of difference.
This book will be of great interest to students of conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies, ethnic conflict and International Relations in general.
Oliver Ramsbotham is Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford, UK, Chair of the Oxford Research Group, President of the Conflict Research Society and co-author of Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Conflict .
Prologue: Having the First Word Part 1: Radical Disagreement and Conflict Intractability 1. Radical Disagreement and Discourse Analysis 2. Radical Disagreement and Conflict Analysis 3. Radical Disagreement and Conflict Resolution Part 2: Taking Radical Disagreement Seriously 4. Methodology: Studying Agonistic Dialogue 5. Phenomenology: Exploring Agonistic Dialogue 6. Epistemology: Understanding Agonistic Dialogue 7. Praxis: Managing Agonistic Dialogue 8. Re-entry: Feeding back into Conflict Settlement and Conflict Transformation Part 3: Radical Disagreement and the Future 9. Radical Disagreement and Human Difference 10. Radical Disagreement and Human Survival. Epilogue: Having the Last Word
Oliver Ramsbotham is Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford, UK, Chair of the Oxford Research Group, President of the Conflict Research Society and co-author of Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Conflict .
After the horrors of the First World War a dialogue began between European statesmen seeking some form of European integration as a way of achieving lasting peace. During the inter-war period this ...idea started to attract support in Britain even though Britain's strategic and economic interests remained focused outside Europe. This book explores Britain's relations with the continent between 1918 and 1945, focussing on diplomatic and military responses to the major crises and examining attitudes to the idea of Europe in the broader context of relations with the Empire, Commonwealth and the USA.
A significant contribution to the study of cross-cultural communication--and accommodation--in the ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse world of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean as ...reflected in Byzantine, Latin and Islamic archival sources and chancery traditions.
Det är allmänt bekant att den amerikansk-ryska dialogen «återställdes» 2009 under presidenterna Obama och Medvedev men tveksamt huruvida denna symbolpolitiska utfästelse även skapade förutsättningar ...för bättre, eller närmare, mellanstatliga relationer. I det följande företas en analys av återverkningar av de signaler om förnyat samarbete som sänts av respektive politisk ledning inom multilaterala fora där både USA och Ryssland deltar, med särskild tonvikt på Organisationen för Säkerhet och Samarbete i Europa (OSSE) och FN:s Säkerhetsråd. Det övergripande intrycket är att amerikansk-rysk diplomatisk samverkan 2009–2011 förblev fortsatt begränsad, i några spörsmål mer fokuserad, men att man från båda sidor medvetet undvek att «störa» varandras prioriterade intressen. En specifik iakttagelse från OSSE-samarbetet är att Rysslands diplomatiska initiativ var bättre underbyggda än tidigare, och kan förväntas få starkare genomslag i framtiden, åtminstone på det europiska fastlandet. Till skillnad från USA, som handlar via Säkerhetsrådet när man tror sig kunna skapa en koalition för ett visst ändamål, var rysk FN-diplomati 2009–2011 alltjämt defensiv.
