Foreign Observers Research Articles

NEGOTIATIONS IN “CHINESE STYLE”

The article reveals the negotiation tactics of Chinese negotiators and the historical and cultural context of their behavior. The author draws attention to a well-thought-out methodology for collecting information about the views, motives, negotiating position and individual characteristics of foreign colleagues. Representatives of the PRC pay great attention to personal relationships, they try to find out the true intentions of foreigners, and skillfully use moral and psychological tools to influence their interlocutor. When the Chinese want to cooperate with their foreign counterparts, they strive to create the most favorable atmosphere of communication, try to win over them and establish close mutual friendly ties. Representatives of the PRC are very demanding to their “friends” and count on their help and support in many matters. National culture influences the behavior of Chinese negotiators. In particular, it focuses on restraint, control of emotions, “body language,” adherence to the rules of politeness, maintaining calm, restraint and patience. A person must behave in a civilized and dignified manner. The Chinese negotiator should not succumb to provocations, he/she should act thoughtfully, take into account the situation and calculate the benefits and harms of his/her actions. The experience of communicating with the PRC colleagues shows that they can behave harshly, criticize their partners for “wrong” behavior, and exert an “educational” influence on them. Sometimes, foreigners sometimes notice high self-esteem among their Chinese partners, a sense of their intellectual and moral superiority. They perceive this behavior as a tool of pressure on the interlocutor. Foreign observers believe that Chinese negotiators are persistent, resilient, tenacious people who strive to use every opportunity to realize their interests. They use moral means to influence their partner to control the negotiation process and dominate the relationship. Chinese negotiators do not absolutize the significance of the signed agreements and will seek their revision if they see that they can receive additional benefits.

Stylistic Origins of Chinese Pianism

The majority of foreign observers recognize that the most important aspect of Chinese pianism is its technical perfection, which can be explained in two ways: first, by social factors (the close resemblance between the traditional Confucian conception of education and the foundations of learning to play the piano, parents’ interest in their children’s success as pianists, the competitive nature of Chinese society), and second, by the classical setting of children’s piano education to develop strict finger technique. Though it was unable to gain traction at all levels of Chinese piano teaching, the image of “singing on the piano” was also important for the development of Chinese pianism. The monosyllabic nature of the contributes language, as well as the dynamic brokenness and temporal syncopation of its intonation contribute to the specificity of the “singing on the piano” tradition in Chinese music culture. In general, the performing image of the piano in China is comparable to the image of the “salon piano,” just as the current piano boom in China is comparable to the “golden age” of the piano in Europe and America at the close of the 19th century. Keywords: Chinese pianism, Chinese piano education, image of the piano, singing on the piano, musical intonation, piano performance.

“Science on Display”: The Russian Phenomenon of Science Popularization in Eric Ashby’s Perspective

This article considers the popularization of Soviet science through the lens of the Australian botanist Eric Ashby, the author of the book “Scientist in Russia” published in New York in 1947. Although it has gone unnoticed in Russian historiography, this publication deserves thoughtful consideration for many reasons. Firstly, it addresses the current problem of public history. Secondly, it clarifies the role of cultural factors and national traditions in the development of Soviet science. Thirdly, it sheds light on the formation of a system of values in relation to science and scholars, which is closely linked to commemorative events. As an attentive foreign observer, E. Ashby succeeded in sketching his ideas about Soviet science. Here, his viewpoints are analyzed. The conceptualizing of the phenomenon of science popularization associated with academic anniversaries is discussed with respect to the celebration of the 220th anniversary of the USSR Academy of Sciences in June 1945, in which E. Ashby participated. The conclusions drawn from the study are as follows. E. Ashby related the extensive popularization of Soviet science to cultural paradigm, Russian literature, pre-revolutionary enlightenment practices, and the practical concept of applied knowledge. He emphasized the important role of science popularization in elevating the status of scientific knowledge and scholars in Soviet society. However, he also stressed possible negative consequences of overpopularized science, such as the hierarchization of the academic community based on popularity rather than scientific achievements.

Sociology and Contemporary Education Social Observation in Cultural Fabric and Garment Oversight in Makeni, Bombali District, Northern Sierra Leone

Universal financial and social systems have radically transformed the essence of social commerce in addition to the commission of higher education. Executive pedagogical initiatives, comparatively cultural fabrics and garments, are eventually accountable for assembling students to be production-primed and, consequently, divergent syllabi have been established to direct this contemporary demand of the production (Abbaspour & Zare, 2023). Specifically, social observational education has been depicted to be effective at student education; foreign observation education has become renowned in the social learning composition. While greatly prior social research has enrapt on the procedures and results of contemporary syllabus, the social research probed students bulletins from a short-term social inquiry on-deck syllabus to represent how students comprehend, theorize, re-cogitate on and inquire with contemporary social observations downward a pedagogical social education theory structure (Csok, 2022). However, eight social threads appeared; two from each of the four social education modes. The findings are deliberated and the social research is analyzed with presentations, ramifications and future social research chances.

Beyond genocide: Towards an improved analysis and understanding of the Syrian regime's mass atrocity crimes in the Syrian Civil War

AbstractIn the course of the Syrian Civil War, prominent former Syrian Regime politicians, human rights observers, and foreign observers have accused the Syrian Regime of committing genocide against the country's Sunni majority. This article views these accusations as part of a wider politicization of genocide, and instead progresses beyond them to outline the case for an alternative “framing” of large‐scale atrocities committed against civilians. It accordingly proposes strategic displacement, or the deliberate large‐scale uprooting and dispersal of established communities for tactical and strategic purposes, as a preferable and more sustainable framework of engagement and analysis, and seeks to more clearly distinguish it from “ethnic cleansing” with the aim of demonstrating and underlining its unique contribution to the analysis and understanding of violent conflict. This has two benefits—first, it provides a different basis for conceptual and theoretical engagement that makes it possible to view mass atrocity as a tactical innovation in response to conflict exigencies; and second, it draws attention to internal displacement, an aspect of the conflict that has been repeatedly overlooked by international observers.

Democratization as a pathway to populism: The case of Tunisian public discourse from 2011 to 2021

Since 2011, the Tunisian democratic transition was widely presented as a model for success and moderation. Therefore, most foreign observers were shocked when the Tunisian street enthusiastically welcomed President Kais Said’s decision on 25 July 2021 to declare the state of exception and to suspend the Parliament, thus bringing to a halt Tunisian democratization. The popularity of such decisions raises serious questions about the reality of Tunisia’s success, but also about the nature of its democratization. Infested with deep ideological hostility and distrust, this experience suffered from a lack of political courtesy and mutual respect. Coupled with a dangerous tendency towards discursive conflictuality, these conditions weakened the Tunisian pluralist institutions and paved the way to populism.

When do leader backgrounds matter? Evidence from the President’s Daily Brief

A wave of recent scholarship shows that the backgrounds of political leaders shape their behavior once in office. This paper shifts the literature in a new direction by investigating the conditions under which foreign observers think a leader's background is relevant. We argue that pre-tenure biographical attributes are most informative to outsiders during leadership transitions—unique periods where the new ruler does not yet have a track record—because a leader's background provides clues about how that leader might govern. But as time passes, foreign observers quickly discount the leader's biography and instead evaluate the leader's observable behavior. We test our theory by creating a systematic daily measure of attention to foreign leader backgrounds derived from the President's Daily Brief, a novel data source of 4991 recently declassified reports from the Central Intelligence Agency to the American president.

A plague of weasels and ticks: animal introduction, ecological disaster, and the balance of nature in Jamaica, 1870-1900.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, British colonists in Jamaica became increasingly exasperated by the damage caused to their sugar plantations by rats. In 1872, a British planter attempted to solve this problem by introducing the small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata). The animals, however, turned on Jamaica's insectivorous birds and reptiles, leading to an explosion in the tick population. This paper situates the mongoose catastrophe as a closing chapter in the history of the nineteenth-century acclimatization movement. While foreign observers saw the introduction of the mongoose as a cautionary tale, caricaturing British Jamaica as overrun by a plague of weasels and ticks, British colonists, administrators and naturalists - identifying a gradual decline of both populations - argued that the 'balance of nature' would eventually reassert itself. As this paper argues, through this dubious claim they were attempting to retrospectively rationalize or justify the introductions and their disastrous aftermath. This strategy enabled them to gloss over the lasting ecological damage caused by the mongoose, and allowed its adherents to continue their uncritical support of both the Jamaican plantation economy and animal introductions in the British Empire.

From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party by Tony Saich

As one of the largest and most powerful political organizations that has ever stood on earth, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is both a crucial actor in and a main product of China's tortuous and turbulent quest for modernity. The CCP's successes, failures, explorations, and transformations not only profoundly shaped the trajectories of the Chinese society and the lives of billions of Chinese citizens but were also an integral part of the twentieth century global history, marked by revolutions, world wars, nationalist movements, and economic globalization. Despite its tremendous significance, however, the CCP remains largely an enigma to many foreign observers. Although an increasing number of journalists, policy practitioners, and academics are now in the business of “China-watching,” the enthusiasm for deciphering CCP's current policies and action is often not matched by an adequate command of knowledge about the Party's past, from which its current visions, preferences, and organizational practices are originated.

The Fragility of Turkish Political Structures – The AKP Closure Case

For the Justice and Development Party (AKP), one of the most serious challenges in its history was the dissolution lawsuit against the party in 2008. This was not because there would have been no precedent in Turkey for banning the various political parties, but because by then one could speak of a government party with serious social support that had already won two parliamentary elections. Since the founding of the Republic of Turkey, it has not been uncommon for one or another political formation to be banned, but at times they have reactivated themselves under a different name. In fact, the initial, one-party era of the republic was also created by the situation provoked by the founder of the state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who banned rival, opposition parties that threatened his position. Even since the introduction of the multi-party system in 1946 and the first multi-party election in 1950, nearly three dozen parties have been doomed. These included Kurdish separatist groups, parties with communist ideologies, but also the AKP's moderate Islamist predecessors. It has also happened that the leaders of a military coup have decided to ban some parties, but it has also been the case that in a peaceful and democratic period the prosecution has initiated the same in the Constitutional Court claiming that one party or another is opposed to the most basic republican principles. Yet the case of the AKP was special because, in the case of a party that had been ruling alone for six years, it was still surprising that it was not its political opponent trying to overthrow its power, but the legal nomenclature attached to the old elite. In the second half of the 2000s, the AKP was still taking reluctant steps towards democratic opening, and it was far from the authoritarian style and centralization efforts that characterize it today, yet it can be said that they had fairly stable political positions. Of course, it is no coincidence that several things have weakened the situation of the AKP, and the party leaders could not have felt that they were surviving this crisis in a political sense. There was a chance that the organization would actually cease to function and the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic would be banned from practicing public affairs for up to 5 years. The legal process aimed at banning the party has resonated heavily in Turkey, but has come as a real surprise only to the Western public opinion. The purpose of this article is to look at why the Turks were so laconic about the situation and why it has caused so much uproar in Europe and America. At the same time, it will be possible to see the main differences between Western and Turkish democratic traditions.As the wrangling around the ban of the AKP excited foreign observers more than domestic experts, the literature used for the article was also mostly in English, and only a small number of works in Turkish were taken into consideration.

Democracy in Thailand

Summary: Democracy is an alien concept to Thailand. This study analyzes the possibilities for democratic action in the kingdom using a 7-question framework for analysis. The study concludes with the prospects for democracy in the kingdom. Summary of method: The framework for analyzing democracy in Southeast Asia has seven questions as follows: (1) Are there regularly held elections that are free and fair in the country? (2) Are there external or foreign observers of the elections? (3) Are the ballot boxes stuffed openly or secretly? (4) Are the voters bribed in any way before or during the elections? (5) Is the vote secret? (6) Are there secret police operating beyond the law? (7) Are there Opposition parties that can freely take part in elections with low barriers to entry? The study uses two main original tables to record the history of grassroots activism and General Elections since 1969 and supplement the framework.

Democracy in Vietnam: a matter of class consciousness?

Democracy is a Western concept without roots in Asia in general and Vietnam in particular. There are several reasons why Vietnam might be a prospective democracy: (1) its capitalist economy is worth US$371 billion in 2022; (2) the number of civil society associations has risen in Vietnam since 1990. There are increasing signs that space for civil society is opening up; and (3) there are isolated cases where democratic actions have occurred in Vietnam. This article explains why democracy faces significant challenges in Vietnamese late modernity. It uses a seven-question democratic framework to determine the existence of democracy in Southeast Asia. Framework for analysis: The framework for analyzing democracy in Southeast Asia with seven questions is as follows: (1) Are there regularly held elections that are free and fair in the country? (2) Are there external or foreign observers of the elections? (3) Are the ballot boxes stuffed openly or secretly? (4) Are the voters bribed in any way before or during the elections? (5) Is the vote secret? (6) Are there secret police operating beyond the law? and (7) Are there opposition parties that can freely take part in elections with low barriers to entry?

Moving through liquid territories: A cartographic history of roads in the Danube Delta

AbstractWe present an analysis of the Danube Delta (Romania) that is focused on the evolution and use of roads, so as to highlight the primacy of movement in spatialisation and the fluidity of roads themselves. We demonstrate that local inhabitants of the Danube Delta have relied on a network of roads for survival and have in the process fitted themselves to a deltaic space full of affordances that foreign observers have missed. Our objectives are achieved by juxtaposing a cartographic archive spanning from the 19th century up to 2019 with the lived experience of the deltaic space. The maps we uncover and redraw show how the road infrastructure in the Danube Delta has evolved. We explain what has driven this evolution by interpreting the archive in light of long‐term field work (2015–2019). This allows us to re‐characterise the deltaic space as a hybrid of solidity and liquidity, and to show the evolution of the local perspective in relation to traversing this complicated land. This is a completely new historical and cartographic contribution to a severely understudied area, the Danube Delta.

Un militar realista en la independencia de México: Estudio y edición del diario personal del oficial de infantería Modesto de la Torre (29 de mayo de 1821–4 de junio de 1822)

Un militar realista en la independencia de México: Estudio y edición del diario personal del oficial de infantería Modesto de la Torre (29 de mayo de 1821–4 de junio de 1822)

Alterated Identities in Brazil: From the Samba Culture to the Sertanejo Culture

Cultural references regarding Brazilianness have generally been associated with samba, carnival, colors, and an aesthetic compendium typical of a pre-modernity recreated in cities like Rio de Janeiro or Salvador. A foreign observer would like to see in these lands references that would transport him to Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema” song or to identity traits that would indicate a ‘tropical Brazil’ related to people dancing in the rhythm of samba and bossa nova , and Copacabana beach. However, many socio-cultural changes progressively impacted the consumption of musical and aesthetic styles among Brazilians. Changes concerning musical styles’ preferences led to significant cultural changes that would modify the notion of Brazilianness imaginary in the first decades of the 21 st century. The present paper addresses this eventual cultural and aesthetic references change, showing with decisive force what has been called ‘ sertanejo culture’ in Brazil. Keywords: Brazilian culture; Cultural identity; Samba culture; Sertanejo culture; Musical styles. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-18-04 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

Events of Prut Campaign according to Reports of English Diplomat Charles Whitworth to Secretary of State S. John

A brief overview of contacts between the Muscovite kingdom and England in the 16th-17th centuries is given. The activity of C. Whitworth in Moscow from February 1705 to March 1710 is considered. An assessment of his work in the specified period is given. Particular attention is paid to the solution by the British diplomat of the tasks associated with providing his government with verified information about the events of the Russian-Turkish war. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that at present relations between the Russian Federation and Turkey have entered a new stage of development, which means that the history of their contacts cannot but attract the attention of historians. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that earlier researchers paid little attention to how foreign observers assessed the events of the Prut campaign. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that C. Whitworth managed to obtain reliable information about the battle on the Prut River and the conditions of the subsequent peace treaty after it. It is noted that, despite of rather contradictory information, the British ambassador was able to identify the most and least reliable sources of information and draw up a complete picture of what happened. The most reliable sources of information for the ambassador were letters from foreign colleagues, in particular, the British ambassador to Istanbul, Robert Sutton, as well as the imperial resident in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Johann Michel von Thalmann. The least plausible and confused information is presented in Polish letters and in a message from Count G. I. Golovkin to Prince Dolgorukov.

Policy and media forces that shape the creation of Chinese state-owned enterprise policies

In this exploratory research, we examine the effect of policy and media indicators on the creation of Chinese state-owned enterprise policies. Using a VAR model, we show that Ministry of Finance policy and People’s Daily mention of small enterprises can explain, to some extent, the incidence of state-owned enterprise policies. We verify that non-government forces are less important in determining Chinese SOE policy incidence, as has been suspected by foreign observers, and that policy is indeed made through government agenda setting or consensus building. We also provide evidence to validate the theory of Leutert (2021), that SOE policy occurs in a feedback loop (it is self-reinforcing). These explanations of Chinese policy making can be applied to other government departments to further explain policy incidence.

Deconstructing Collywood: A Conceptual Discourse on the Camerooness and Nigerianisation of Cameroon’s Video Film Industry

Since its inception in 2008, the Cameroonian video film industry (codenamed Collywood) has attracted mitigated criticism from both Cameroonian and foreign commentators. This criticism has partly bordered on the “camerooness” versus the “foreignness” of Collywood. While a number of critics are of the persuasion that the above-mentioned cinematic movement is not only nigerianised but one of the multiple vectors of the nigerianisation of the Cameroonian cinema industry, others instead think that, by copying the Nollywood model, Cameroonian cineastes may boost their film production and ultimately inundate the local market with movies that speak to local cultures and reflect the quotidian experiences of Cameroonians. Using three methods of data collection (namely secondary sources, unofficial interviews with cineastes and critical observations), this paper revisits the above-mentioned debate and some of the thorny issues that have stemmed from the emergence, evolution, and enculturation of Collywood. The paper aims specifically at examining the camerooness versus the nigerianess of the Collywood movement. The paper attains four principal objectives: in the first place, it critically examines the creation and vision of Collywood, as well as its representativeness of Cameroon’s socio-cultural dynamics. In the second place, it explores the extent to which Collywood may be said to capture the aspirations of Cameroonian cineastes. Thirdly, the paper critically examines the extent to which Collywood is a nigerianised movement and an agent of the Nollywoodisation of the Cameroonian film industry. In the last place, it shows how the idea of copying the Nollywood model may enable or has been enabling the success of Collywood. Among other findings, the paper argues that Collywood is majorly a Nollywoodised Anglophone movement. Its Nigerianisation is just an inevitable outcome of the globalization/transnationalisation of the Nollywood model.

Relationship between SARS-COV-2 And autoimmune neurological diseases

Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, there has been an increase in the number of reports of patients who have experienced the development of autoimmune neurological disorders. It is assumed that such an increase in the incidence rate may occur due to an abnormal immune-mediated response of the body to the pathogenic impact of SARS-CoV-2. This article discusses the possibility of the influence of SARS-CoV-2 on the onset and exacerbation of the course of autoimmune neurological disorders, possible pathogenetic factors and mechanisms, and analyzes the features of the clinical picture and therapy. The article includes foreign and Russian scientific data and clinical observations of cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, multiple sclerosis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, myasthenia gravis and other autoimmune diseases that have changed their typical course on the background of COVID-19.

THE RUSSIAN NEGOTIATION CULTURE THROUGH THE EYES OF FOREIGNERS

Foreign negotiators’ observations represent a valuable source of understanding the Russian negotiation culture. They pay attention to the duality and inconsistency of the Russian character, significant fluctuations in the mood of Russians, which determine the unpredictability of their behavior. However, foreign observers also point a significant experience of rational behavior within the Russian negotiation. Researchers notice the special attention that Russians pay to the issues of national security and their respect for “power” and “strength” (that sometimes is explained as “imperial thinking”). Also, Russian negotiators are persistent in defending their position, they demonstrate desire to realize it as fully as possible, they struggle for equal partnership relations and sometimes these efforts bring unilateral advantages for them. Russians want to play a leading and even dominant role during negotiations, they prefer to set the agenda and try to hide their weaknesses in aim to prevent a counterpart from taking advantage that may cause damage. Such approach explains the reluctance of Russians to make compromises, which they perceive as a manifestation of weakness. Russians trust and cooperate primarily with members of their community (“intracultural negotiations”) and demonstrate less openness to foreign colleagues who represents the “alien” group (“intercultural negotiations”). Western negotiators note the decisive role of opinions made by delegation heads rather than experts. The fear of making mistakes and consequently the fear of punishment holds the Russians back from risky negotiating behavior and deviations from their instructions. The Russian negotiators are taken very seriously by their foreign colleagues. Nevertheless, some experts recommend that exaggerating the “threatening” and “overwhelming” power of the Russian partners should be avoided. They advise to be firm dealing with Russians, to strive to establish trust and good personal relations, and to prove reliability in their eyes for gaining benefits from negotiations.