Political Order Research Articles

신라 하대의 쿠데타와 대외교섭

The late period of Silla was marked by frequent coups, reflecting the internal instability and political volatility within Silla society. These events played a crucial role in shifting the power dynamics and reshaping the political order within Silla. When successful, new monarchs would actively engage in foreign diplomacy, especially strengthening relations with the Tang, as part of their efforts to overcome political instability and secure international legitimacy. Such diplomatic activities were essential for elevating Silla's international standing and establishing the legitimacy of the new monarchy both domestically and internationally. For the kings who ascended to power through coups during the late Silla period, prioritizing relations with Tang, the major power of the time, was a critical strategy in the international political environment. Friendly relations with Tang provided Silla with political support and stability, contributing to overcoming internal instability caused by coups and securing recognition and support from the international community. The dispatch of envoys to Tang by the kings who ascended through coups right after their coronation can be seen as part of this strategy, revealing Silla's intention to emphasize its legitimacy internationally and to secure internal political stability through diplomatic relations. Specifically, the use of unconventional diplomatic strategies by Kings Seondeok and Heondeok, such as intentionally concealing the news of their accession, can be interpreted as an effort to overcome the legitimacy deficit caused by the coups. The prioritization of diplomacy with Tang by the monarchs of late Silla who came to power through coups was a pragmatic choice considering Silla's position in the international political environment. The close diplomatic relations with Tang brought political stability and international support to Silla, playing a significant role in overcoming the internal instability caused by the coups. This strategy indicates Silla's efforts to secure international legitimacy and overcome the political instability resulting from the coups. On the other hand, the lack of official diplomacy with Japan suggests that Silla did not see significant benefits in diplomatic relations with Japan at the time or placed more emphasis on its relations with Tang. This indicates that Silla's foreign policy was focused on securing its position and legitimacy in the international arena, primarily through its relationship with Tang, rather than establishing formal diplomatic ties with Japan.

THE CONCEPT OF “JUST WAR”: HORIZON, STRUCTURE, CRITICISM

The concept of “just war” has become politically and scientifically relevant due to the collapse of the “European international system of sovereign states”; in the modern situation of “world disorder” (R. Haas), it becomes an instrument of public rhetoric; the inevitable consequence is the degradation of meaning - philosophical research, thus aimed at the formation of the concept, becomes relevant. Understanding the structure, meaning and scope of the concept of “just war” involves putting it in context; the goal, therefore, is to construct a horizon. The main task is to clarify the meaning of the concept of “just war” as a phenomenon of modernity. The concept of “just war” belongs to the field of ideas, that is, understanding presupposes going beyond the methodological framework of disciplinary science - the trans-boundary can be ensured by using methods developed by philosophical hermeneutics to analyze and identify the meaning of ideas and concepts, as well as understanding the ways in which they have power and determine reality. It is revealed that the reduction of the political to morality and the direct application of moral principles to politics necessarily leads to the degradation of war: the rejection of the “non-discriminatory concept of war” in favor of the concept of “just war” removes any restrictions from armed violence. It is demonstrated that war remains necessary on its periphery as normalization, police operation, “humanitarian intervention; the concept of ’just war’ is a tool for ensuring security. It is concluded that the anti-terrorist war as a police operation to ensure the security of the global liberal political order is the conceptual core of the modern concept of “just war”.

Uzbekistan’s ‘Real’ Second Chance: a Structural Account of the Reforms of Shavkat Mirziyoyev

Abstract The election of Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Uzbekistan was initially dismissed as, yet another Central Asian transition of power that would ultimately change very little. In this instance however, analysts were proven quite wrong. Since taking the country’s highest office, Mirziyoyev has liberalized the economy, improved relations with neighbors, increased accountability, and signaled willingness to release some executive powers to the people. However, in analyzing these welcomed reforms, we must ask ourselves whether they are genuine. Is Mirziyoyev a radical reformist willing to sacrifice the political order established by his predecessor for the sake of liberalization or are these changes instead part of a broader political agenda for the sake of legitimacy?

Anti-corruption Law as a Fiction: The Illusion of Serving Morality by Controlling It through Rules and Regulations with an International Reach

According to the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, corruption is still far more prevalent in “non-Western” countries. The search for more effective anti-corruption legislation has shifted from preventing and combating bribery to preventing corruption in a broader sense. Consequently, anti-corruption law has obtained a more far-reaching scope. However, this does not work sufficiently. Up till now, we do not know why. This article focuses on why we should consider revising anti-corruption legislation. The research is a qualitative theoretical analysis based on empirical insights from preliminary anthropological fieldwork conducted in Gabon (Feikema 2015). One of the reasons for the challenge seems to be that the implicit institutional setup—namely, of a national state with a rule of law, which forms the point of departure of anti-corruption law—is not self-evident in countries where this democratic rule of law is not an experienced reality. For example, in the so-called hybrid political orders (Boege 2008), these developments of anti-corruption law may have a confusing and alienating impact, as demonstrated by a case study. Therefore, the effectiveness of these laws could be doubted. Even more importantly, respect for human dignity, the rationale of these laws, seems to be seriously at stake. We could understand recent developments in anti-corruption law as an illusion of control. Even more vitally, anti-corruption law could be considered a symptom of derailment. What we experience as evil may occur as the disturbance of the ecological cohesion of society: derailment.

Rewriting the plan of the world: Peter Thiel’s messianic rhetoric and the end of progressive neoliberalism

ABSTRACT Following the 2007–8 financial crisis, far-Right conservatives advanced a reactionary political turn, seeking to replace the prevailing political order, what Nancy Fraser calls “progressive neoliberalism,” with an overtly exclusionary and rapacious form of capitalism. This article investigates how entrepreneur Peter Thiel sought to shape this transition, adopting a messianic rhetoric to return capitalism to its essential principles. Employing Giorgio Agamben’s study of Saint Paul, I argue that Thiel employed a Pauline stance to realize a plērōma, or fullness, of capitalism, preserving the profit motive while jettisoning neoliberalism’s deployment of progressivism. In this analysis, I build upon rhetorical scholars’ exploration of contemporary neoliberal discourse, framing the billionaire rhetor as a uniquely agentive figure in twenty-first-century capitalism and positing neoliberalism as an eminently versatile rhetorical logic capable of operationalizing arguments from across the political spectrum.

Informality and insecurity in the Sahel: unravelling the hybrid political orders of Northern Mali and Northern Niger

Since the Sahelian crisis broke out in 2012, Northern Mali and Northern Niger have been identified as the two potential epicentres of violence in the region. Nevertheless, while sharing very similar structural conditions and constraints, during the last decade these two subregions have scored very differently in terms of stability and armed conflict along the centre-periphery divide. Aiming to understand the divergent security patterns in Northern Mali and Northern Niger, this work highlights the importance of informal institutions as politically – and spatially contingent networks whose mechanisms for regulating authority and power are key for the appreciation of state capacity and political ordering, and essential for understanding statehood in the Sahel. We stress the importance of hybrid political orders and informality for the definition of political settlements which result in (a) the cooptation of political/economic competitors and the stabilisation of viable governance arrangements; or (b) an open contestation of authority and value-extraction that paves the way for destabilising dynamics. The diverging pattern exhibited by the two cases demonstrates that hybrid networks that straddle political and informal institutions are crucial in determining either the stabilisation or destabilisation of political settlements.

Athens or Rome? A New Perspective on the Political Philosophy of H. Arendt

Hannah Arendt is widely known as a philosopher who attempted to rehabilitate the ancient Greek conception of politics. According to established readings of The Human Condition, Arendt is generally regarded as a ‘Graecophile’ whose thought is underwritten by ‘Athenian nostalgia’. Arendt’s sympathies for the Greeks are hard to deny: she did indeed turn to the Athenian understanding of politics in an attempt to crystallise in it the core elements of authentic politics. However, this interpretation is excessively one-sided. In Arendt’s view, the greatest contribution to the understanding of politics was offered by the Romans, not the Greeks. The Romans were much better at dealing with the problem of stability, continuity and order of politics. In Arendt’s view, an exclusive focus on action, spontaneity and extraordinary deeds threatens to destabilise the life of the political community. By introducing concepts such as tradition, authority, the sacredness of foundation, the law (lex), as well as the political significance of promise and forgiveness, the Romans opened up a dimension of political sedimentation which was alien to the Greeks. Political sedimentation provides safeguards, without which a sustainable political existence would become impossible.

Roberto Mangabeiros Ungerio įgalintos demokratijos teorija: ar liberalios demokratijos antinomijos gali būti išspręstos?

The purpose of this article is to analyze Roberto Mangabeira Unger’s theory of empowered democracy and to evaluate it with regard to antinomies of liberal thought as formulated by the author himself. This article discusses the main presumptions of Unger’s political philosophy and his conceptualization of politics. The theory of empowered democracy is analyzed as an attempt to overcome the antinomy of the universal and the particular, which permeates the liberal worldview. Unger criticizes liberal thought and its central components – liberal psychology and ethics. This critique of liberalism serves as a basis for the philosopher’s vision of politics, at the centre of which is an emancipated and autonomous individual. “Negative capability”, which is the power of individuals to review and rebuild their social contexts, helps them create a political order, which aims to create a “bigger life for all”. To empower individuals, Unger offers a wide-ranging set of changes – starting with more plasticity in political institutions and ending with political protection of the individual ensured by “immunity rights” and prevention of “false necessities”. This article aims to show that Unger’s theory ultimately fails in this goal due to contradictions between the theory of empowered democracy and the author’s own conception of politics as well as due to questionable sustainability of such solution.

Volver la mirada al sur. Una criminología para América Latina

From a decolonial perspective, and taking Latin America as its case study, this article discusses southern criminology —a body of work that has consolidated in the region and other Global South countries, and that aims at explaining crime and violence, together with the social control responses they elicit, as part of the colonial matrix of power. The article claims that southern criminology has the potential to contribute to the discussion of crime, violence, and social control in Latin America in at least two aspects: first, it may provide an incisive analysis of the relations between diffearent forms of violence and subordination, on the one hand, and the punitive and exclusive responses of Latin American political regimes to these phenomena, on the other. Second, it may contribute a suggestive explanation of how the forms of social control that have emerged in different countries of the region since their birth as independent republics are closely linked to the construction of political, economic, and social orders that are part of the colonial matrix of power.

Sovereignty, Territoriality, and Private International Law in Classical Muslim International Law

Abstract Scholars in recent years have shown interest in challenging the historical origins of international law and its normative claims to universality. This Article challenges the prevailing conceptions of Islamic international law (al-siyar), first set out in English-language scholarship by Majid Khadduri, as primarily an ad-hoc response to the failed aspiration of a universal Muslim commonwealth. It shows that Islamic international law, in its classical phase (eighth–thirteenth centuries), as first formulated by Iraqi, and later, Central Asian, scholars (who together later came to be known as Ḥanafīs), understood all legal order as being rooted in sovereignty and territoriality, with shared religion a secondary concern. This theory of legal order arose out of an understanding of political order as emerging from a natural and universal condition of war that is incidental to the individual’s natural sovereignty. I trace the genealogy of this conception to the founding moment of the Muslim commonwealth and describe its manifestation in classical Ḥanafī solutions to a series of cases in “private international law.”

Political Bondage (Ijon) and Democracy: How do Natural Resources Build High Electoral Political Financing Orders?

The practice of political bondage (ijon) in electoral political events is a threat to democracy, which to this day is still relatively limitedly studied. This creates minimal gaps in how to view the phenomenon of high electoral political financing from the perspective of natural resource politics. So far, natural resources have always been viewed as inanimate objects. However, in the study of natural resource politics, this object is not neutral. The presence of the political bondage system which is a small part of the form of transactional politics in the informal democratic space has actually become the identity and characteristic of electoral politics in Indonesia. In the context of political bondage, the exchange of roles between patron becoming client and, vice versa, client becoming patron will continue to recur. This research uses a qualitative approach with library research methodology. Researchers collect data through secondary data, namely various relevant literature, starting from media, books, journals, news reports, formal institutional data, and other data which is sorted according to research needs. The results show that the practice of political bondage still fulfils and always colors electoral politics in Indonesia. This informal democratic practice leads to high levels of financing of electoral politics. Interestingly, the involvement of corporations in funding general elections outside of political party funds also has an impact on reciprocation for the management of natural resources. The development of transactional political practices in informal spaces will create challenges for the quality of democracy: the birth of corrupt behavior, the weakening of the government structure, dynastic-oligarchic politics, and the increase in electoral political financing. The conclusion is that the practice of political bondage will always grow in the space of informal democracy. The relationship between the public sector, elites and the private sector will always exchange roles as patron and client according to the conditions and electoral political map in the field.

Minoritized Communities in Iran: The Struggle for Unconditional Equality

Following the tragic murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, in 2022, subsequent protests in 2022–23 presented a significant intersectional challenge to the Islamic Republic of Iran's (IRI) political order, revealing deep-seated issues of ethnic, economic, gender, and political discrimination. Originating in the Kurdish region, these protests quickly spread across Iran and its diaspora, offering a glimpse of potential intersectional solidarity cutting across ethnic, gender, and religious lines. Notably, Kurds and Baluchis played a leading role in the protests, bearing the highest toll in terms of lives lost and injuries sustained. The Iranian regime responded ruthlessly, employing military violence to supress dissent and systematically dehumanizing these communities in an attempt to undermine their vocal opposition to the exclusionary and hierarchical rule rooted in Persian and Shiite dominance. Throughout history, the Kurds have consistently stood at the vanguard of resistance against the political authority in Tehran, as well as challenging the dominance of Persian and Shiite supremacy. This enduring opposition is instrumental to understanding the widespread, well-articulated, and mobilized resistance to the IRI's abuses of power. This resistance finds its epitome in the Women, Life, Freedom social movement.1

A Refuge from Liberalism?

Abstract: Bryan Garsten claims that most treatments of liberalism today take the form either of "autopsy" or "demonology," and that defenses of liberalism are either "plaintive or desperate." While the former might be true, the latter description misses the mark. In the American case, "Refuge" as the basis of a political order is merely the progressive telling not just of what become hidden forms of "exodus," but a particular kind of exodus that has been bound up with liberalism's origin and history. In the current era, the state is seen forcing "refuges" such as churches, religious organizations, and other traditional communities to conform to progressivist ideology. Even as the progressive liberal state has insinuated itself into every facet of life, a different kind of exodus has predominated in contemporary U.S. society. That exodus—no longer inspired by a belief in "refuge"—takes the form of individual detachment from any community or membership. We are faced now with the prospect of having to live together, a nation of refugees who must cease an exodus into our interior deserts and instead learn the art of making a common home.

The Intersection between Diplomatic Security and Cooperation: South Korea’s Veteran Diplomacy toward Türkiye

The article attempts to probe veteran diplomacy with the case of Türkiye and adopts its meaning from the distinct historical case of the Korean War. Veteran diplomacy gets attention as a means of new diplomacy as the changes in global political and economic order have brought limitations to state-centric diplomatic relations since the late 20th century. Veteran diplomacy can be utilized as an opportunity to expand South Korea’s soft power in the new public diplomacy era of the 21st century. It engages diverse diplomatic actors and interacts with war veterans of the UN allied nations based on diplomatic security policies. It led to the effect of public diplomacy via open and multilateral communication between the countries and creating amicable and favorable environments to strengthen ties as well as improve South Korea’s reputation in international society. It also paves the way for security cooperation with Türkiye.

世界历史理论视域下《马克思恩格斯论中国》对新时代建设“人类命运共同体”的启示

Abstract: Makesi Engesi Lun Zhongguo explains the formation of modern world history and explores the development path of modern China from an international perspective. The world historical theory reflected in its discussion provides us with Basically theoretical perspective under historical materialism to elaborate on the construction of the “community with a shared future for mankind” in the new era. This article first analyzes the academic logic of the formation of Marx and Engels’ world history theory, and then elaborates on the theoretical basis and practical exploration of building the “community with a shared future for mankind” under the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It believes that the “community with a shared future for mankind” is the application of world history theory. The theory’s serious criticism of the capitalist logic in the past international political and economic order and the sublimation of the goal of “common values for all mankind” are the inheritance and innovative development of Marxist historical materialism and the concept of “community”. Makesi Engesi Lun Zhongguo has important enlightenment and reference significance for building the contemporary “community with a shared future for mankind”.

Virtues and institutions as the foundations of a res publica in Wawrzyniec Goślicki and Gasparo Contarini

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to examine and compare two republican approaches to politics and res publica presented in the sixteenth century by Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goślicki and Gasparo Contarini.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Both authors define the core elements of a republican scientia civilis but emphasize different aspects as being of primary importance for a well‑ordered civitas libera. Goślicki saw the best safeguards of a free and well‑ordered commonwealth in the character and virtues of the rulers and citizens, whereas Contarini believed that such safeguards could only be found in a good legal and institutional structure that kept corruption at bay. The article follows the contextual method typical for intellectual history to present different arguments that Contarini and Goślicki formulated in their understanding of scientia civilis and the best commonwealth looking at both the context of their works and their arguments.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: After introducing the context for the two works the next two parts focus on Goslicki’s and then Contarini’s vision of scientia civilis and the most effective ways to keep corruption and decay at bay followed by comparison and conclusion.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: A comparison of these two visions should shed some light on the later development of both polities and republicanism in modern Europe more generally which largely followed Contarini and not Goślicki. It can also provide an important lesson for our own understanding of politics and political philosophy that should underpin a political order to make it resilient to corruption and backsliding.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Examining these two authors and their prominent works helps better situate political discourses in the two countries that explain different trajectories of their constitutions and political developments, and for us today provide an interesting lesson on how we should understand politics and respublica.

THE NATIONAL STATE IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION AND GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

The article provides a theoretical and methodological analysis of the processes of globalization and global democracy, examining how these processes alter the position, role, and functions of the modern nation-state while it contends with challenges posed by globalization yet strives to maintain its sovereignty.
 It is characterized that under the pressure of globalization, changes are occurring in the political and economic spheres that influence nation-states, leading to a gradual erosion of their sovereignty and increased susceptibility to economic influences from other states or transnational corporations.
 It is noted that the processes of globalization demonstrate the inability of states to fully protect their own interests and citizens from global economic and financial crises, informational impacts, environmental degradation, etc. In such circumstances, the nation-state is no longer the primary actor in the system of international relations, resulting in weakened centralized state institutions, shifts in the perception of state sovereignty, and the emergence of new structures within the global governance system.
 It is substantiated that global democracy, as a phenomenon introduced by the processes of globalization, is a form of implementation of the universal system of political democratic values as the basis for building a democratic society and the formation of public institutions that are the basis of democracy.
 It is determined that global democracy is a process of relations between states based on a certain value and normative basis that unites them and keeps them active in the field of certain relations, characterized by the improvement of interconnection between states through the formation of a single information space and the need for a new political order of the world.
 It is emphasized that the processes of globalization and global democracy are objective processes of convergence of political systems of the world, formation of a policy of common standards and approaches to solving common civilization problems.
 It is concluded that for Ukraine, in the context of globalization and global democracy, the main factors of strengthening its sovereignty are the establishment of relations with the international community on the principles of democratic governance, development of a competitive economy, democratization of all spheres of public life, socio-political unity of a civil nation, territorial integrity, and sustainable development of the state.

The gender dimension of social mood in modern Russia: the experience of historical and sociological analysis

Social mood is the most developed phenomenon of sociological theory and practice, the consideration of which is important for assessment and expertise in times of crises and obvious social changes. Social mood is considered as a phenomenon and an integral characteristic of the perception of life in society, the state of the human spiritual world, an integral form of life perception, the dominant of a really functioning social consciousness and behavior. To identify the gender characteristics of social positions, a primary analysis of the data of the All-Russian sociological monitoring "How are you, Russia?" (1992-2022) during the crisis and turning points of three decades of the modern history of Russia was carried out– 1993, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2022, The data of the research institute "Precariat: a new phenomenon in the socio-economic structure of society" are involved (RNF No.18-18-00024). The empirical basis for the secondary analysis was the data of the All-Russian centers for sociological research, statistical information, and publications in the media in current periods. A comparison of respondents' responses to problems, their prioritization in the opinions of women and men allowed us to identify dominant events, emerging new combinations of crisis phenomena of economic, political, and spiritual orders in the development of Russian society at mega-, meso-, and microlevels. The conclusion is made about the presence of common constants in the social positions of 1993, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2022, the stable reaction of society with the designation of the main problems of high cost of living, crime, social stratification. The situation of gender communities in the periods under review is characterized by an insufficient "safety cushion", alienation from a power resource, differences in assessments of social expectations about a woman's happiness from the point of view of men and women themselves, and the presence of gender-sensitive problems for both women and men.

Organising for System Change: “From the Sea to the City” and the Movement Ecology of Migrant Solidarity in Europe

AbstractThis paper engages with the relationship between dissident European mayors and the migrant solidarity movement in Europe after 2015. With the case study of the coalition “From the Sea to the City”, I examine how its members institutionalise mayors’ dissent at a transnational level through the International Alliance of Safe Harbours. Employing primary empirical data, the study finds that coalition members create a political sequence in four ways: developing a storyline and setting up a broad coalition of migrant solidarity; referencing mayors’ disruptive acts; nurturing counter‐imaginaries; and laying the foundation for further action towards transforming the instituted order of European migration politics. To conceptualise the empirical findings, I draw on concepts of political organisation. In this vein, the paper calls for an assessment of movement politics that goes beyond the belief that local disruptions will suffice to set in motion a progressive transformation of European migration politics.

A Novel Money Laundering Prediction Model Based on a Dynamic Graph Convolutional Neural Network and Long Short-Term Memory

Money laundering is an illicit activity that seeks to conceal the nature and origins of criminal proceeds, posing a substantial threat to the national economy, the political order, and social stability. To scientifically and reasonably predict money laundering risks, this paper focuses on the “layering” stage of the money laundering process in the field of supervised learning for money laundering fraud prediction. A money laundering and fraud prediction model based on deep learning, referred to as MDGC-LSTM, is proposed. The model combines the use of a dynamic graph convolutional network (MDGC) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network to efficiently identify illegal money laundering activities within financial transactions. MDGC-LSTM constructs dynamic graph snapshots with symmetrical spatiotemporal structures based on transaction information, representing transaction nodes and currency flows as graph nodes and edges, respectively, and effectively captures the relationships between temporal and spatial structures, thus achieving the dynamic prediction of fraudulent transactions. The experimental results demonstrate that compared with traditional algorithms and other deep learning models, MDGC-LSTM achieves significant advantages in comprehensive spatiotemporal feature modeling. Specifically, based on the Elliptic dataset, MDGC-LSTM improves the Macro-F1 score by 0.25 compared to that of the anti-money laundering fraud prediction model currently considered optimal.