Mutual Distrust Research Articles

Spain and China: from mutual distrust to problems in strategic partnership. Trade, economic and investment cooperation

The article identifies the main trends in the development of trade, economic and investment cooperation between Spain and China, especially after the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2005. The authors assessed the potential of economic cooperation that has developed over 50 years of diplomatic relations, and considered new directions: interaction both within individual regions and cities, and in the markets of third countries, which include Latin America, North Africa and Asia. The article also shows negative market-driven factors that make it difficult to deepen these ties, which include Spain’s membership in NATO, the EU’s adherence to an aggressive anti-Chinese policy, and Beijing’s evasion of anti-Russian sanctions. The authors conclude that the growing deficit in Spain's trade with China, the decline in Madrid's interest in the Belt and Road project, and the intensification of Chinese policy in Latin America indicate that the likelihood of the formation of a China-Spain-Latin America triangle has decreased.

‘No ability to choose freedom’: a qualitative study on people who use drugs’ experiences of compulsory isolation treatment

Background Extensive criminological literature has paid attention to the exacerbation of disadvantage due to compulsory treatment of drug use within vulnerable communities. However, understanding how compulsivity shapes users’ narrative framework and meaning construction of lives is still limited. Methods Based on an ethnography conducted at a Compulsory Isolation Treatment Center (CITC) in Central China, we collect in-depth interview data about how trainees who were convicted as drug dependents experienced and interpreted compulsory treatment in the context of life history. Our coding and case analysis of data illustrate four representative narratives on rehabilitation and reveal different ways of meaning-giving between each other. Results Our finding shows that the experience of incarcerated detoxification did not relieve the social disadvantages of people who use drugs. Instead, it was perceived as a negative encounter that intensified discrimination, deeply ingrained in social identity and constantly resurfaced in everyday life. Specifically, harmful experiences are generated by the punitive management of CITC, which underlines obedience between instructors (police officers) and trainees and encourages mutual distrust among peers. The crippling of interpersonal relationships prevents participants from developing social connections or restoring social skills. We also find trainees’ diverse coping strategies to the punitive institutions, ranging from showing physical weakness for board shelter catering to the standard of conduct for an early release to deciphering the intricacies of power relations in CITC. However, these temporary strategies cannot balance their permanent estrangement from public life and thus make them descend into the invisible confines of societal imprisonment. Implications Our ethnographic descriptions reveal the deliberated production of punishment and isolation in the process of compulsory isolation treatment and explicate the potential proximity between political correctives and drug treatment. We, thus, promote abolishing the compulsory isolation model in China, which stems not only from the inefficiency of the treatment at the medical level but also from the political motivations behind the institution and the superficiality of its moral reshaping.

Understanding Inward-Looking Nationalism: An Instrumentalist Approach in Analyzing the Discourse of The People’s Alliance in Turkey1

Abstract Many theories, approaches, definitions have been laid down for the understanding of nationalism, which simultaneously produces many questions to answer later on. One of the recent debates is the ‘inward looking’ nature of nationalism. Whether it is the recent pandemic, Brexit, or alarming rates of Islamophobia in the West with an identitarian populist flavor, the issue pertains to nationalism, or for some, nativism. Contemporaneously with an ‘inward looking’ instrumentalist nature, it uncovers new debates arising out of the conflicts in today’s nation-states. One of these appears to be the ruling coalition known as the ‘People’s Alliance’ (de facto alliance between the Justice and Development party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) and the National Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) in Turkey thanks to its nationalist rhetoric, yet with an ‘inward looking’ direction. The deepening of polarization is causing a mutual fear, mistrust, and antipathy among the people in Turkey. As the coalition aims to re-invigorate the nation, its opponents are claiming it is a dissemination of hatred. This political rift is deepening via the political discourse and atmosphere. The goal of this paper is to inquire into this via a critical discourse analysis. The study analyzes the discourse of the party leaders forming the People’s Alliance. This discourse displays an inward-looking nationalist rhetoric, circling around three prominent issues: the proclamation of opponents as traitors via a blame shifting rhetoric; the protection of the fate of the coalition as the savior of the country; and finally, the determination of who adheres to the nation or not via the native and national (yerli ve milli) debate.

No need to look, trust me! Mutual trust and distrust in the European arrest warrant system

Abstract No cooperative scheme in EU law has displayed bigger tensions between mutual trust and fundamental rights protection than the EAW system. Despite the requirement developed by the CJEU for national courts to trust each other and recognise each other’s arrest warrants, the reality on the ground has shown high levels of distrust between national courts regarding Member States’ alignment with core EU values. In this contribution, we analyze how the CJEU has managed such tensions in the EAW system. To that effect, we first put the Court’s EAW case law into context by examining the broader language of mutual trust used by the Court in other fields of EU law. In doing so, we point out how the Court has espoused different levels of lawful distrust to be exercised in different circumstances under the scope of application of mutual trust. Given that broader context, it is contradictory for the Court to mainly view mutual trust as a requirement rather than a reality in need of permanent and continuing justification between national authorities. The latter conception of mutual trust is more apt to be the basis of EU horizontal cooperation, which must be value-based and sincere according to the Treaties. Therefore, we propose a bidimensional account of mutual trust as a legal principle, one that accommodates both trust and distrust as tools for managing the uncertainty and dynamic nature of trust-based cooperation. Finally, we explore how such account of mutual (dis)trust can be concretised by the Court and other political institutions.

Disenchanted comradery: The social process of persistent mistrust among North Korean refugees in the United Kingdom

AbstractPrevious research on refugees demonstrates that low interpersonal trust impedes their social adaptation in host countries. However, a pervasive sense of low trust among refugees, particularly within their own communities, remains less understood. Using survey and interview data from North Korean refugees in London, United Kingdom, this study probes the social processes that foster mistrust towards their in‐group peers. The quantitative findings show that refugees have created a close‐knit, in‐group community bounded by strong emotional bonds that, counterintuitively, do not necessarily develop into mutual trust. The interviews show that the asylum‐seeking experiences and the cultural norms they bring from North Korea continue to shape how they perceive in‐group contacts as potential threats. Additionally, interactions with locals, especially South Korean immigrants, amplify perceptions of inferiority and mistrust towards in‐group members. These findings illuminate the complex social process through which mutual mistrust continues to persist among refugees, offering insights into the multifaceted challenges refugees face in resettlement.

The Future of Multiracial Democracy: The Rise of Multicultural Nationalism

ABSTRACT: Some liberals argue that political polarization is caused by "identity politics" that has created a kind of new tribalism. This essay argues that this is a misreading. Instead, the essay addresses polarization between those who are pro-diversity (possibly also pro-immigration) and those who fear that their national identities are being demoted at the expense of other identities. The clash is not between universalism and identitarianism but over the value or recognition to be accorded to different group identities. While multiculturalism has been concerned with the normative status of minority identities, it has been counterposed, sometimes aggressively, by those who bemoan the neglect of majorities and their identity-based anxieties. This essay focuses on how we can tackle and lessen the polarization that is fostering mutual distrust and threatening the national, democratic citizenships upon which any multiculturalist, egalitarian, and unifying project must be built, and which multiculturalists, together with others, must defend. This involves developing a multicultural national identity to which all citizens can have a sense of belonging without giving up other identities that are important to them. Such national and group identities should not be conceived as monistic or static but rather as interactive and dialogical. Such a sense of the national allows one to be sensitive to minority-identity vulnerabilities and majority-identity anxieties within an integrated theoretical and political framework.

Interreligious Relations Among the Igala people

The three main religions practiced in Igala territory are Christianity, Islam, and African traditional religion. Consequently, the study looks at the relationships between the Igala people's various religions. An approach to qualitative research was adopted in this paper. With some contribution from my own experience as an Igala and as a missionary who has served pastorally in the Idah Diocese, the study was mostly based on library research. The study's conclusions demonstrated that, despite their differing religious perspectives, there are numerous examples of cooperation, support for one another, and a single, coordinated effort towards a common goal. The nation's two main religions, Islam and Christianity, are mostly cooperating in the fight against religious radicalism, discrimination, and anti-religious sentiment. The mutual mistrust, hostility, and animosity that have marred Nigeria's past in addition to violence and bloodshed seem to have overshadowed the positive sides of contacts between Christians and Muslims. The study suggests that rather than placing blame, each religious tradition should focus more on fostering effective religious development. For this type of instruction to be effective, it may begin with religious authority and work its way down. First, this instruction will help one form a firm understanding of their own faith, which will subsequently enable them to adopt the proper perspective about it.

Enhancing China's image in Africa: The role of the Belt and Road Initiative

Growing distrust makes it challenging for countries to retain positive reputations and images worldwide. Employing data from the eighth round of the Afrobarometer and the multiperiod difference-in-differences (DID) method, this paper examines how China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) affects its image in Africa. This study reveals that the BRI can significantly improve China's image among Africans. It affects Africans' perceptions of China's image in a highly heterogeneous manner. The BRI boosts China's image by increasing foreign direct investment, foreign aid, trade, and cultural communication with Africa. Moreover, domestic mainstream public attention and public praise and criticism can mitigate the BRI's impact on Africans' perceptions of China. These findings highlight the importance of economic cooperation and media portrayal in forming a country's image. Additionally, the paper offers suggestions for both China and Africa to build a high-quality BRI, thus improving their bilateral economic cooperation.

The Greek-Turkish Rivalry: A Bayesian VAR Approach

ABSTRACT The persistent Greek-Turkish rivalry has garnered considerable attention among defense economists, prompting an exploration of whether these two nations are locked in an arms race. The longstanding divisions between them are deeply rooted in historical conflict and mutual distrust, and diplomatic efforts aimed at reconciliation have proven largely ineffective, with brief rapprochements typically ending swiftly. Recent discoveries of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean have exacerbated tensions, leading to military expansion plans that have heightened the risk of escalation. Given the lack of consensus in empirical studies on the relationship between their military expenditures, we employ a linear Bayesian Vector Autoregression (BVAR) modeling approach to explore potential interdependencies among four distinct proxies of the states’ physical arms build-up. Utilizing an annual dataset running from 1960 to 2020, our findings reveal that shocks to one nation’s military expenditure do not significantly affect the opponent’s defense spending. This suggests that contrary to strategies focused on the costly maintenance of strategic balance, these rivals should prioritize cooperation to jointly foster peace and economic development across the broader Mediterranean region.

New Quantum Private Comparison Using Four-Particle Cluster State.

Quantum private comparison (QPC) enables two users to securely conduct private comparisons in a network characterized by mutual distrust while guaranteeing the confidentiality of their private inputs. Most previous QPC protocols were primarily used to determine the equality of private information between two users, which constrained their scalability. In this paper, we propose a QPC protocol that leverages the entanglement correlation between particles in a four-particle cluster state. This protocol can compare the information of two groups of users within one protocol execution, with each group consisting of two users. A semi-honest third party (TP), who will not deviate from the protocol execution or conspire with any participant, is involved in assisting users to achieve private comparisons. Users encode their inputs into specific angles of rotational operations performed on the received quantum sequence, which is then sent back to TP. Security analysis shows that both external attacks and insider threats are ineffective at stealing private data. Finally, we compare our protocol with some previously proposed QPC protocols.

"Talking to the Enemy": Clandestine and Public Encounters for Peace between Israel and Syria (1948–2023)

ABSTRACT: Israeli-Syrian relations have often been characterized by hostility and violence. Despite these periods of animosity, there were genuine opportunities for peace between them. However, these opportunities were not realized for various reasons. This article explores the failed attempts to engage in talks and potentially reach a peace agreement. The failures appear to stem from the personalities and decision-making styles of the leaders, as well as specific historical circumstances unique to each period. Key factors contributing to the failures include the significant gap between the two sides in terms of proposed solutions, a lack of leadership legitimacy, mutual distrust between leaders and societies, and a deep-seated sense of enmity that fostered animosity within each society, making it difficult for leaders to act contrary to prevailing negative perceptions.

On the Brink of War?

China and the United States have one of the most important and complicated bilateral relations in the world. Two distinct, yet similarly antagonistic, stances dominate Washington and Beijing. Over the last decade, China-U.S. relations are increasingly defined by mutual mistrust and suspicion. Currently, Beijing and Washington have been trapped into enduring rivalry. Unfortunately, their rivalry is more than a set of diplomatic disputes. Commerce, as well as other differences, is also driving the two nations further apart. Their differences are now irreconcilable for neither side could grant a concession on major issues. Up to now, nothing is sufficient to resolve their disputes nonviolently.

SECURED PAYMENT ON BLOCKCHAIN FOR OUTSOURCING SERVICES IN CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing has revolutionized outsourcing services, yet concerns about online payment security and mutual distrust persist. Existing solutions often rely on trusted third parties, limiting their applicability. To address this, we introduce BPay, a novel framework leveraging blockchain technology to enable a payment system that is both secure and equitable.for outsourcing services without intermediaries. We introduce the system framework, adversary model, and objectives of BPay, emphasizing its compatibility with Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. Security and compatibility analyses demonstrate BPay's robustness and efficiency. Cloud computing has revolutionized the manner in which outsourcing services are delivered and accessed, offering unprecedented scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, despite its numerous benefits, concerns about the security of online payments and the lack of trust between users and service providers continue to pose significant challenges. Traditional payment systems often rely on trusted third parties to facilitate transactions, which can introduce vulnerabilities and increase the risk of fraud or data breaches. These limitations hinder the broader adoption of cloud computing in various industries and applications. Keywords:efficient fair payment, blockchain-based technology,RSA algorithm,public key private key,security,Encryption-decryption

From currents to controversies: Unveiling performances of and perceptions on China's investments in the Philippine grid

The electrical grid system is a technology and a complex amalgamation of various factors, including geography, relationships, institutions, and socio-political-economic influences. Although China's involvement in international grids has primarily been analysed from the political economy perspective, little attention has been given to its impact on the electricity systems of host countries and how it affects their performance. This article addresses this gap by combining insights from international relations, political economy, and electricity systems transitions to analyse databases, news accounts and interview data on the performance and perceptions of energy actors regarding China's involvement in the Philippine electricity grid. Dissatisfaction with delays in project implementations, declining contributions to the development of in-house technological capabilities of the national grid company and transmission lines, diversification of local economic elites and oligarchs, and a lack of transparency have intensified mutual distrust between the Chinese grid company and prominent energy actors in the Philippines and failed to mitigate national security concerns. Our findings imply that changes in the constellation of local energy actors amid the electricity sector reform and integration of renewable energy in grids affect the role of the grid and justification for international grid investors. The perception of unsatisfactory performances raises concerns about national security during the worsening of bilateral relations.

Beliefs in Pain and Suffering:

In this communication recent evidence from cognitive neuroscience is presented showing that believing is a fundamental brain function. It integrates the perception of information from the environment with personal perspective taking (“what does it mean to me?”) as the basis for predictive coding of action. Observing that another person becomes injured can make one believe that the pain in the injured person is similar to pain that oneself has experienced previously. This first-person perspective has been called empathy and includes primal beliefs about potentially pain eliciting objects and painful events in the sense of “what does it mean to you?”. Furthermore, observing other people to suffer involves the conceptual belief that their condition is aversive and burdensome. Believing in love and peace involves the perspective of “what does it mean to us?”. Contradictory events may cause the sensation of pain and suffering in the afflicted individuals resulting in mutual distrust and eventually disruption of social bonds. In conclusion, beliefs play an important, though long underestimated role in cognitive neuroscience of pain and suffering and more generally for the cultural notions of deities and evil.

Saved by the Dark Forest: How a Multitude of Extraterrestrial Civilizations Can Prevent a Hobbesian Trap

Abstract The possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) exists despite no observed evidence, and the risks and benefits of actively searching for ETI (Active SETI) have been debated. Active SETI has been criticized for potentially exposing humanity to existential risk, and a recent game-theoretical model highlights the Hobbesian trap that could occur following contact if mutual distrust leads to mutual destruction. We argue that observing a nearby ETI would suggest the existence of many unobserved ETI. This would expand the game and implies that there may be a mechanism that prevents ETI from attacking us. As a result, the Hobbesian trap would be avoided if both parties assumed the other is not likely to attack.

Diplomatic activities of M.M. Litvinov in the USA during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1943)

The Great Patriotic War is one of the highlights in the history of Soviet-American cooperation. The USSR and the United States managed to overcome the inertia of mutual mistrust that persisted throughout most of the interwarperiod, taking together the lead in the fight against the Axis powers. However, rapprochement between the two future superpowers was neither plain nor swift; rather was it constantly hampered by mutual suspicion, aggravated by differences in their political cultures. Under these conditions, the fate of their alliance depended on the willingness of the ‘Big Three’ leaders to respect each other’s interest and concerns, as well as on the personal initiative and determination of individual politicians and diplomats. In this regard, the figure of M.M. Litvinov, appointed ambassador of the USSR to the United States at the most alarming and dangerous moment of the Great Patriotic War, deserves particular attention. Having played a major role in the Soviet-American cooperation in 1941–1943, M.M. Litvinov has been then forgotten for many years in both Soviet and Russian historiography. On the basis of new archive materials, the authors reexamine the activities of M.M. Litvinov as an ambassador to the United States and the specifics of his relationship with J.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov during the period under review. The first section covers the initial steps of M.M. Litvinov in his new position. Special attention is paid to his efforts aimed at clarifying the Soviet position on the most sensitive issues of bilateral relations and establishing contacts with various groups of the American political, economic and intellectual elites. The second section analyzes M.M. Litvinov’s activities in the context of increasing contradictions between the Allies with regard to the opening of the second front and disruption of supplies under lend-lease. The authors show that M.M. Litvinov used all the diplomatic tools available to defend the interests of the USSR, instantly reacting to any changes in the moods of the U.S. military and political establishment and immediately reporting them to Moscow. In this context, the authors question the widespread claims in historiography about the ambassador’s excessive independence and willfulness. On the contrary, M.M. Litvinov can be said to have consistently adhered to the official foreign policy line of the Soviet leadership in both his speeches and practical steps. This indicates the need for further study of the M.M. Litvinov’s figure in order to avoid oversimplified, cliched assessments of this personality.

A Bitcoin-based Secure Outsourcing Scheme for Optimization Problem in Multimedia Internet of Things

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, various multimedia data such as audio, video, and images have experienced explosive growth, ushering in the era of big data. Large-scale computing tasks in the Multimedia Internet of Things (M-IoT), such as mathematical optimization problems, have begun to be outsourced from IoT devices with limited computing power to cloud servers for execution. However, outsourcing computation brings security concerns, because the behaviors of clouds are invisible to users. The leakage of privacy data in outsourced optimization problems leads to immeasurable losses. The mutual distrust between clouds and users causes that the correctness of the optimal decisions and the fairness of the payment activities are not guaranteed. Blockchain technology has the characteristic of immutability and has become a new security paradigm for eliminating multi-party trust concerns. In this article, we propose a Bitcoin-based secure outsourcing scheme to address the aforementioned security concerns. To prevent confidential data leakage, the proposed scheme designs a computable privacy-preserving method for the outsourced optimization problems. To judge the correctness of the optimal decision and reduce verification costs, the proposed scheme designs a low-cost two-layer verification mechanism based on dual theory and blockchain technology. Blockchain nodes reach a consensus on the problem solutions and trigger an automatic fair payment protocol-based Bitcoin. Security analysis and experimental results demonstrate that our scheme guarantees privacy, fairness, and computational efficiency.

“If You Say You Believe This, Then Why Did You Vote Like That?”: Reasoning as Questioning in Dialogue

AbstractThis article draws on the philosophical work on dialogic rationality offered by Charles Taylor as well as qualitative studies of dialogues between politically opposed college students to argue that these conversations succeed as tools of democracy precisely because they fail as interventions. That is, the democratic strength of such dialogue is the way in which it is unreliable as a means of producing particular outcomes. Students whose political views eventually shifted partly in response to dialogue understood this not as a process of changing their commitments, but rather of finding a better expression for the commitments they already held. But the interviews show, too, just how rare it is for such shifts to occur at all, at least for these students in a period of political polarization and mutual distrust. The interviews suggest as well that the appeal to already shared ground is not the whole story of what prompts people to change their minds in these kinds of conversations. Rather the asking of direct but respectful questions was a crucial ingredient. Finally, dialogue did not independently cause the most profound changes in political views. Instead, it was the direction of students' lives that over time shifted their outlook. Their dialogue experience then gained meaning in retrospect, as the beginning of a process of self‐questioning that was brought to fruition only later, as a first time that they had heard alternative possibilities for how value commitments can be expressed through politics.

Secure semantic search using deep learning in a blockchain-assisted multi-user setting

Deep learning-based semantic search (DLSS) aims to bridge the gap between experts and non-experts in search. Experts can create precise queries due to their prior knowledge, while non-experts struggle with specific terms and concepts, making their queries less precise. Cloud infrastructure offers a practical and scalable platform for data owners to upload their data, making it accessible to intended data users. However, the contemporary single-owner/single-user (S/S) approach to DLSS schemes falls short of effectively leveraging the inherent multi-user capabilities of cloud infrastructure. Furthermore, most of these schemes delegate the dissemination of secret keys to a single trust point within the mutual distrust scenario in cloud infrastructure. This paper proposes a Secure Semantic Search using Deep Learning in a Blockchain-Assisted Multi-User Setting (S3DBMS)\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$(S^3DBMS)$$\\end{document}. Specifically, the seamless integration of attribute-based encryption with transfer learning allows the construction of DLSS in multi-owner/multi-user (M/M) settings. Further, blockchain’s smart contract mechanism allows a multi-attribute authority consensus-based generation of user private keys and system-wide global parameters in a mutual distrust M/M scenario. Finally, our scheme achieves privacy requirements and offers improved security and accuracy.