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Begin New Search Topic International Affairs Content Type Special Report

21. Australia's Approach to the South China Sea

Author:
Rebecca Strating
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Over the past five years, Australia has expressed concern over China’s island building, militarization of land features, and excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea (SCS). Australia shares similar interests with the United States in upholding the maritime rules-based order, yet there are important divergences that reflect differing perspectives on geostrategic competition in the Indo-Pacific. While bipartisan support for the U.S. alliance remains strong, the importance of protecting trade relations with China has also shaped Canberra’s response to the SCS disputes.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

22. Belt and Road Initiative 2.0 Qualitatively Different

Author:
N Janardhan
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Following five years of periodic controversies and criticism – some factual, others contrived – President Xi Jinping used the Belt and Road (BRI) Forum in April to set the agenda for the next five years of his hallmark project. At the forum’s second edition, meant to promote a “stronger partnership network,” the Chinese leader pledged to “clean up,” stressed “zero tolerance” to corruption, and emphasized readiness to adopt “internationally acceptable” standards in the bidding process of BRI projects in the future. This language indicates Beijing’s openness to constructive criticism and willingness to objectively tweak some inherent weaknesses in the strategy and implementation mechanisms for the BRI during the 2013-2018 period. It also sets the stage for the start of “BRI 2.0,” where the stress is likely to be on the qualitative, rather than just quantitative, attributes. The following are some analytical pointers on how BRI 2.0 is likely to be different from version 1.0, especially keeping in mind what Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi referred to as a “high-quality” shift from “big freehand” to “fine brushwork” in planning BRI’s future projects
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

23. Foreseeing India-China Relations: The Compromised Context of Rapprochement

Author:
Ranjan K. Panda
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
India-China relations witnessed a new wave of optimism for a progressive and engaging partnership following the Wuhan Summit, the informal 2018 meeting between Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping. Key to this has been continuous exchange of political and official visits from both sides. However, these exchanges might not be sufficient to remove uncertainty and suspicion from their relations. As long as China’s relationship with the United States remains adversarial, China will embrace India—without guaranteeing that it will not adopt a confrontational posture in the future. Their shifting relations, though suggesting an official longing for an upward trajectory, are based on a compromised context. External circumstances have pushed them to rapprochement, but could also drive them apart. Whether India and China will sustain this rapprochement is difficult to foresee.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. Overestimating the Power if China's BRI- Lessons Drawn from Japanese ODA Engagement

Author:
Raymond Yamamoto
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 is among the most ambitious global visions promoted by one country. The general goal of BRI is the provision of economic infrastructure worth at least $1 trillion to improve the land and sea routes between Asia, Africa, and Europe. In order to attract additional international investments to finance the initiative, China even created a multilateral bank – the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) — in 2015. However, China’s ambitious BRI strategy has met considerable criticism from politicians and policy-makers, journalists, analysts, and scholars. These criticisms include accusations of pursuing debt-trap diplomacy to gain concessions from countries participating in BRI. The decision of Sri Lanka in 2018 to lease Hambantota port to China in order to reduce its BRI debt burden is often cited as a prime example. Together with growing Chinese military strength and assertiveness in the South and East China Seas, BRI is being framed as an instrument deployed by China to build up its global dominance.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
China

25. The Scrutiny of the European Defence Fund by the European Parliament and national parliaments

Author:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Since 2016, the European Union has developed a number of new initiatives on security and defence. In particular, the introduction of Permanent Structured Cooperation and the European Defence Fund have been designed to allow the EU to become a more autonomous actor with regard to crisis management, capacity building and protecting Europe and its citizens. Yet the development of these new initiatives raises questions about their overall coherence and the role of parliamentary scrutiny. It is necessary to analyse the role of the European Parliament and national parliaments in relation to the scrutiny of the European Defence Fund. There is a need for recommendations on how parliamentary scrutiny can be enhanced at the EU level in the area of security and defence
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

26. Resilience in the Western Balkans

Author:
Sabina Kajnc
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
According to the 2016 EU Global Strategy, a credible accession process grounded in strict and fair conditionality is essential to foster resilience in the Western Balkans.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

27. Hamlet and Pluralism: A Postmodernist Metaphor

Author:
Ayub Muhammad Jajja
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Abstract:
The present study means to investigate Hamlet in the light of a postmodernist-deconstructive theoretical framework. The play seems to reinforce the overarching dominant patriarchal meta-narrative, with supposed unitary voice and unified identities. The current reading means to show that the play is a metaphor of postmodernism with pluralistic subjectivities, and multiple alternative micronarrative voices. It manifests the postmodernist notion of subjective, personal and local truth, against the idea of universal truth and reality. Its major features are self-difference, undecidability, and uncertainty. The regimes of truth in the form of dominant ideology are challenged, deconstructed and undermined, creating a zone of the postmodern condition of reality and truth as the effect of power and rhetoric. The postmodern condition does not push for the replacement of one totality with another. It creates a third space of pluralism, where all the voices are disjoined in a zone of the difference without hierarchy.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

28. Antecedents of Careerism: A Mediated- Moderated Model

Author:
Shaheen Akhtar and Muhammad Faisal Malik
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Abstract:
The present investigation was conducted aimed to investigate the relationship of proactive personality and careerism. The said relationship was not tested in isolation: rather it has been tested with the inclusion of career self-efficacy as a mediator and two moderators (openness to experience, extroversion). It was basically an attempt to build/ analyze the relationship of proactive personality with careerism which was not fully captured in the previous literature. In addition, the current study conducted a comparative analysis for male and female to identify the proactive behaviors in handling their careers. The population for the current study was selected from different private FMCG related firms. The analysis revealed that proactive personality has a significant relationship with careerism. Female respondents report lower proactive behavior than male. Overall the results supported three hypotheses and the one related to moderation was rejected.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

29. Direction Metaphors in Political Discourse: Imran Khan and the Rhetoric of Change

Author:
Lubna Umar and Umaima Kamran
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Abstract:
Journey Metaphors are among the most pervasive source domains used both in daily life and in political discourse as they follow a clearcut source-path-goal schema where the direction is a fundamental element. The crossdomain mapping between source and target domains is a means of gaining insight into the cognitive activity of the speaker. Metaphors of the journey are widely used in the political discourse generated by Imran Khan with special emphasis upon direction. Metaphorical expressions identified from speeches of Imran in both English and Urdu language have been analyzed using the Critical Metaphor Analysis approach given by Charteris-Black (2005) where linguistic metaphors have been interpreted semantically, pragmatically and in cognition to generate conceptual metaphors. Khan’s obsession with direction activates the PAKISTAN IS OFF TRACK conceptual metaphor necessitating a journey of change under his leadership. He highlights the failures of others to evoke images of a destructive past from which freedom becomes essential
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

30. Growth and Productivity Analysis of Micro Finance Sector: A Case Study of Pakistan

Author:
Adnan Ahmad
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Abstract:
This study reviews growth strategies and their effect on the efficiency and productivity of the microfinance sector of Pakistan. The sector needs to have an adopted intensive growth strategy instead of extensive strategies of wide expansion in terms of physical infrastructure and human resources, which have increased the financial sustainability risks for the credit constrain institutions. The six-dimensional model of outreach used in this study also shows that the sector does not achieve the targets set forth for these micro finance institutes with respect to its active borrowers’ outreach. The sector has mainly focused on the big cities and urban areas whereas the poverty levels are higher in rural areas. The government has also shown its interest by launching two different types of loan schemes. Among the three different types of institution, the microfinance banks dominate the sector
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus