Renewed Tensions Research Articles

Can Renewed Tensions of Tourist Areas Be Resolved? The Key Issue of Stakeholders’ Alignment

Tensions in tourist areas (over-visiting, waste management, traffic jams, conflicts of use, etc.) raise fundamental questions about sustainable development, the distribution of wealth, social justice, cultural identity and inclusion. Paradoxically, few decisions are taken to resolve these tensions, despite the dissatisfaction of all tourism stakeholders. The aim of this study is to help resolve the tensions in tourism areas by identifying a global method for aligning stakeholders. We conducted 72 interviews with all the tourism stakeholders in two very different tourist areas (Brittany and Bali) and used the concepts of sustainable tourism, stakeholders and strategic alignment. The results show that (1) the stakeholders, whether in favour of tourism development or not, all agree on the need to resolve the tensions in the tourist areas; (2) the obstacles and levers of the stakeholders play a decisive role in their commitment to collectively resolving the tensions in the tourist areas; (3) the existing data on tourist numbers are the subject of debate among the stakeholders and slow down the commitment to concrete action. Our conclusions are encouraging, since tensions in tourist areas constitute a problem like any other, which makes it possible to envisage a global methodology for aligning stakeholders. However, the subject of tourist numbers remains a stumbling block in the project to resolve tourism tensions in these areas. Three avenues of research are proposed to help overcome this dead end: integrating the notion of perceived value into measures of tourist numbers in tourist areas, mobilising participatory science to increase the potential of measures of tourist numbers, and adapting the technological acceptance model to tourist numbers.

Hamlet at the Himalayan Border: Frontier Imaginaries in Hu Xuehua’s Prince of the Himalayas and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider

ABSTRACT This article discusses Hu Xuehua’s Prince of the Himalayas (2006) and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider (2014) across overlapping local, regional and (inter)national imaginaries of Tibet and Kashmir, and considers the possibilities of rendering the story and circumstances of Hamlet legible within these borderland contact zones. With their exotic backdrop of snowy mountains, rugged frontiers and majestic rivers, these two films can be seen recreating a troubling politics of appropriation at a time of renewed tensions in the Himalayan region. I argue that despite using Shakespeare’s cultural capital to depict local conditions and affirm their own political agency, Hu and Bhardwaj’s ultimate rejection of Hamlet’s revenge motif continue to challenge domestic and international viewers, particularly in their attempts to situate these films within a heterogeneous national cinema encompassing minority cultures in New Chinese Cinema and Bollywood respectively.

Governance as subversion of democratisation in South African schools

ABSTRACT In post-apartheid South Africa, a foregrounding of democratic citizenship education through broadened and inclusive participation is especially evident in a decentralised school-based leadership, management, and governance system. Policy-wise, the involvement of parents in School Governing Body (SGB) structures is seen as an enactment of representative and collective consultation, key to the democratisation of schooling and education. In practice, however, the wide-sweeping authority of SGBs, has allowed several schools to continue a historical narrative of exclusion and inequality, effectively widening the gaps between historically advantaged and disadvantaged schools, and putting into effect renewed tensions of inequality and inequity. Key questions arise: has the state erred in its trust of SGBs to enact democratisation? Or are there limits to what democratisation can achieve? In considering these questions, the article explores re-considerations of governance so that interpretations of democratisation of schools are not used in the subversion of education as a public good.

Differentiation of education through juridification

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to explore differentiation of education through juridification. We examine changes in school governing, including trends towards globalization and marketization, as well as increased regulatory intervention in addressing complex social problems. Drawing on Luhmann’s theory of functional differentiation and Teubner’s problematization of juridification, we scrutinize three sets of distinct legislative regulations in a Swedish context. We uncover a multifaceted juridification alongside a multifunctional school organization nested in a complex web of differentiated and interconnected subsystems. Traditional forms of differentiation persist, albeit with juridification as a lever, thus sparking renewed tensions.

One Cold War Among Many?

Pierre Hassner, who died in May 2018 at the age of 85, was a long-standing friend of the IISS and contributor to Survival. His acclaimed Adelphi paper, Change and Security in Europe, appeared in 1968. His first book review for Survival was published in 1965, and his first original article, ‘Eurocommunism and Detente’, appeared in 1977. When the journal was relaunched in 2008, he accepted our invitation to become a Contributing Editor, and regularly contributed book reviews and articles until poor health forced him to stop in 2016.One of those articles is reprinted below. We asked him to write it after the August 2008 Russian attack on Georgia, knowing that a native of pre- and Second World War Romania who emigrated with his family to France to escape communism, and who became one of France’s most celebrated and profound philosophers on the canvas of international relations, would have something wise and important to say. He did not disappoint, and it seems especially valuable to reread this early assessment of renewed tension between Russia and the West that has now, 15 years later, metastasised into full-blown hostility.

Change Is Inevitable

Change Is Inevitable

La Organización Mundial de Comercio. Entre las normas del siglo XX y la política comercial del siglo XXI

Las relaciones comerciales internacionales atraviesan un período de transformaciones. A partir del análisis de estadísticas y documentos, se identifica en este trabajo una tendencia hacia la configuración de una nueva política comercial externa a nivel global, con mayores niveles de proteccionismo y uso distorsivo de subsidios. Esta nueva configuración ha provocado renovadas tensiones en las relaciones entre los Estados, planteando el interrogante respecto del tipo de acciones estratégicas que requiere su abordaje. Se argumenta, que el multilateralismo sigue presentado las mayores fortalezas frente a este tipo de problemas. De allí que exista un rol para la Organización Mundial de Comercio, llenando el gap que existe entre las «normas del comercio internacional del siglo XX» y las «nuevas políticas comerciales del siglo XXI».

The ebb and flow of adaptive co-management: A longitudinal evaluation of a conservation conflict

Adaptive co-management (ACM) is an emerging approach to the governance of social-ecological systems, but there are few long-term assessments of its efficacy. This is especially true in conservation conflicts, where ACM can mitigate disputes between polarised stakeholders. We evaluated ACM that emerged in 2005 to address conflict between seal conservation and fisheries interests in the Moray Firth, Scotland. We interviewed 20 stakeholders in 2015, repeating a survey carried out in 2011 which applied an indicator framework to measure outcomes and pre-conditions for ACM to continue. In 2015, all but one of the 12 outcome indicators were positive, the exception being the conservation status of salmon. However, pre-conditions for ACM’s continuation had weakened, with declines between 2005, 2011 and 2015. These were most marked for three indicators: leaders prepared to champion the process, presence of a bridging organisation or individual, and participation of all impacted stakeholders. The results show that ACM in this conservation conflict is dynamic. Perceived declines in salmon abundance and increases in seal numbers have renewed tensions amongst stakeholders, triggering a ‘revival’ phase of ACM initiated by fishery interests. Our study provides empirical evidence of ACM’s fluid nature, and how resource crises can reignite ACM. We suggest that participatory evaluation is a potentially important early-warning mechanism that can identify remedial action and galvanise stakeholders to respond to the re-emergence of conflict.

Divided Memory and the “New Cold War” Thesis: The Rise and Decline of a Double-Edged Analogy

During the last decade, renewed tensions between Russia and the West have inspired efforts to conceptualize current international relations in terms of a “new Cold War” (NCW). In this article, we explore the historical origins of the NCW analogy, its rise and decline in public discourse, and the terms of recent debates over its appropriateness. Whereas historical analogies are often employed to foster consensus, the NCW analogy is shown to be peculiarly divisive and double-edged—driving a wedge not only between proponents and their critics, but also between rival factions of proponents. Broadly, we suggest that analogies become double-edged, and potentially explosive, when they rely on divided memories of an earlier era.

“After the Storms: Reflections on the US Virgin Islands”

AbstractThis essay explores the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on the American‐owned islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. It details the ambivalence with which the US engages with the Virgin Islands (given the regular elision of these islands from the category of “United States” in media coverage and by US government officials), as well as the ways in which these storms have revealed and brought to the fore long‐standing tensions in relation to the ways the islands relate both to each other and to the United States. In particular, there have been renewed tensions between St. Thomas and St. Croix around federal relief funding and awareness of conditions on the ground.

Disequilibrium in Development Finance: The Contested Politics of Institutional Accountability and Transparency at the World Bank Inspection Panel

ABSTRACTThis article examines the dynamic nature with which independent accountability mechanisms operate. Focusing on the World Bank, the authors argue that its Inspection Panel evolves according to internal and external pressures. In seeking to achieve equilibrium, and protect its authority and independence, the Panel has gone through several distinct phases: negotiation, emergence, protracted resistance, assertion of independence and authority, renewed tension, and contestation. The core novelty of the article is its application of concepts from outside the field of development studies — notably institutional accountability from the governance literature, and judicialization from the legal studies literature — to the topic of the Inspection Panel. Examining the Panel in this way demonstrates that accountability mechanisms represent a hybrid of transnational governance influenced by a range of actors including project‐affected peoples, national governments, managers and development donors. Accountability in development finance is about competing interests as well as competing conceptions and expectations of accountability. In such a complex and multi‐scalar system, the Panel is not only concerned with delivering well‐researched investigation reports; it is also an entity seeking to ensure its own survival, as well as an arbiter of its own brand of legitimacy and accountability.

From the Arab Spring to the Damascus Winter: The United States, Russia, and the New Cold War

As the war in Syria tragically approaches its fifth anniversary, more and more concerns are emerging around questions surrounding the extent and the scope of military involvement of foreign powers, which are crystallizing the feeling that the real objectives and interests at stake in the current Syrian War extend well beyond the Middle East. Intertwining the story of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (The ISIS) rise to power with the US foreign policy toward the Assad government and the renewed tensions between Russia and the United States, this article examines the implications of the current regional conflict for the international balance of power and for the prospect of democracy in Syria.

Rotfeld, Adam Daniel and Torkunov, Anatoly V. (eds) White Spots — Black Spots: Difficult Matters in Polish-Russian Relations 1918–2008 (review)

REVIEWS 557 Vasyl Rasevych’s chapter on the Galician Ukrainians shows how reluctant they were to liberate themselves from Habsburg tutelage, even in late 1918. Georgiy Kasianov provides an excellent overview of the ups and downs of the various Ukrainian governments after 1917, ending his account of ‘the Ukrainian Revolution’ in ‘November 1920, when Ukrainian troops engaged in the Soviet-Polish war retreated to Galicia’ (p. 76). There are many excellent maps, particularly in the material on military campaigns. Wolfram Dornik is sceptical that the occupation of Ukraine by the Central Powers in 1918 was anything but ‘a fiasco for all those involved’ (p. 399). He also raises the question of ‘whether the Central Powers were well-advised when they overthrew the Rada’ (p. 400) in April 1918. Peter Lieb and Wolfram Dornik are interesting on why the Habsburgs deferred to the Germans during the occupation (p. 62). ‘A Ukraine under the protection of Vienna was seen as a possibility, but the Austrians were realistic enough to know that it was not very likely. Their real fear was that Kyiv would come under the influence of Russia or Germany, and this would put strategic pressure on the Danube Monarchy’ (p. 403). Hannes Leidinger and Wolfram Dornik provide an excellent analysis of the (lack of) interest shown by the Allied Powers towards Ukraine, particularly after the end of the war in the West in November 1918. Bogdan Musial is very good on the vicissitudes of Poland’s policy, and on Piłsudski’s genuine desire for a ‘cessation of attacks on Petliura’ (p. 377) in 1919 and ‘attempt to restore Ukrainian statehood’ (p. 382) in 1920. This is an ideal book for students, containing as it does both summary chapters and in-depth detail where needed. But there is also much to interest the specialist. UCL SSEES Andrew Wilson Rotfeld, Adam Daniel and Torkunov, Anatoly V. (eds). White Spots — Black Spots: Difficult Matters in Polish-Russian Relations 1918–2008. Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies. Pittsburgh University Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015. xi + 666 pages. Notes. Appendices. Index. $65.00. This is a remarkable book, not so much for its insights drawn from new historical research but as an important document of collaborative PolishRussian efforts to remove from their contemporary political relationship conflicts over ‘difficult matters’ in their common twentieth-century history. The Polish-Russian Group on Difficult Matters was originally formed in 2002 on the initiative of both governments, but suffered a false start due to renewed tensions in their relations. The Group was revived in 2008 and its composition SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 558 significantly altered, bringing together individuals from a variety of academic disciplines, professional fields and government agencies to ‘support state institutions in addressing those problems from the past that hinder mutual relations and inhibited their development’ (p. 5). The 2008 ‘reset’ would produce concrete results, including fifteen paired Polish-Russian perspectives from thirty-one contributors on their bilateral relations over a ninety-year period, of which the English-language edition under review is an abridge version of the Polish and Russian originals. Led by the former Polish foreign minister, Adam Daniel Rotfeld and the Russian academician and former diplomat Anatoly V. Torkunov, the Group could also claim credit for inspiring the joint 70th anniversary commemoration of Polish officers shot and killed in the Katyn Forest by the NKVD in April 1940. To be sure Katyn has been the most difficult of all matters, beginning with the crime itself, followed by decades of denial and obfuscation on the Soviet side and bitterness and resentment from the Poles. An early breakthrough occurred in March 1990 with the publication of an article in Moskovskie Novosti by Natalia S. Lebedeva, one of the contributors to this volume. Lebedeva’s ‘bombshell’ revelation of Katyn documents was followed three weeks later by an official statement in which the highest Soviet authorities admitted the responsibility of the NKVD for the murders. However, the most important materials remained hidden until October 1992, when authorized copies of the top secret folders of the Politburo related to the decision to execute the Poles in captivity were turned over to then Polish President Lech Wa...

Governmental assemblages of internationalising universities: Mediating circulation and containment in East Asia

This paper critically appraises the internationalization practices currently embraced by some of East Asia’s leading universities. We examine the ‘governmental assemblage’ that constitutes the ‘international university’ with a particular focus on the ways in which this transformation has involved an increased circulation of international students. Mobile students are caught up in the desires of universities and national governments to craft ‘world-class universities’, cosmopolitanise campus spaces, achieve demographic renewal and harness the human capital of international graduates by implementing policies of internationalisation. Analyses of practices on-the-ground reveal that formulations to capture the potentialities from circulating international students rarely achieving the global teaching and learning experiences they aspire to. Instead, fragmented encounters with domestic students, ethno-cultural essentialisms and renewed tensions around the politics of language and learning, create the possibilities for container models of international education. At the same time, practices of self-government by international students can succeed in (re)working such containment logics by refusing to be seen simply as units of human capital. Our argument points to the importance of a more critical and engaged approach to internationalization in universities by policymakers and institutional leaders.

Agricultural frontier, land tenure changes and conflicts along the Gucha-Trans Mara boundary in Kenya

ABSTRACTAdministrative limits do not ordinarily constitute internal boundaries, yet this is the case of the Gucha and Trans Mara boundary between the current counties of Kisii and Narok Countries in south-western Kenya. This boundary which served as a tool for political and administrative control has had a lasting impact on land settlement. Kenya’s territorial heritage proved resilient. It confined the Gusii and the Maasai on either side of the boundary until the 1970s, when the easing of the boundary led to a new phase in the Gusii agricultural frontier to the South, later stopped when land registration started in the 1980s in Trans Mara. The introduction of legal privatization created renewed tension which took a violent turn during the 1990s politically instigated land clashes. ‘Indigenous’ territorial claims coincided with these inherited colonial divisions. Contrasting population densities are found on either side of the boundary with high population densities in the former Gusii reserve compared to the neighbouring Trans Mara. The agricultural frontier was observed in a detailed survey conducted in 1997 and 1998 at the height of politically instigated land clashes. Along this boundary, in half a century, land use was transformed from occasional grazing to intensive agricultural use, with two harvests a year, depending on the political context. The 1990s violent crises lent new vigour to the internal boundary and contributed to the rise of a semi-permanent agricultural frontier located along the boundary itself.

Just Peace at War’s End

The contemporary period is characterized by intense scholarly, legal and socio-political debates about the conceptual framework, which ought to guide state responses to unmitigated violence resulting from protracted armed conflicts across the globe. The prevalence of military interventionist discourse in the media and governmental organizations necessitates further reflection on the international community’s legal obligations not only with respect to putting an end to violence, but holding aggressors of armed perpetrations individually accountable for political unrest, economic destabilization and loss of life as well as responsible for the reestablishment of social and political order on the ground, which are to ensure human security in the process of post-conflict nation-building. The analysis of two recent conflicts in Kosovo and Iraq will provide a critical foundation for the examination of international bodies’ and state actors’, such as the United Nations (in the case of Kosovo) and of the United States (in the case of Iraq), implementation of legal mechanisms by which the jus post bellum principles can be made useful for, both, (i) the purposes of providing justifications for war and (ii) post-conflict restoration of order. In addition, relevant connections will be examined between the principles guiding humanitarian interventions and just war narratives, which make military intermediations publically palpable. The study and conclusions drawn may prove especially pertinent to a continuing diplomatic stalemate with regard to armed conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, renewed tensions in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and various micro-insurgencies in Somalia, Libya or Mali.

Spanish Naval Strategy and the United States, 1763–1819

This article examines the naval strategies conceived by the Spanish government to deal with Anglo-American expansion in North America. The political, social and diplomatic aspects of this process have been thoroughly approached by historiography. However, its impact on Spanish naval policy has received little attention. After the Louisiana purchase, the Spanish navy made a plan for a full-scale war against the United States, involving battlefleet action, blockade, amphibious operations and guerre de course. The War of the Third Coalition prevented it from taking place, and the Napoleonic invasion of 1808 practically obliterated the Spanish Navy. After the restoration of the Spanish Monarchy there were renewed tensions with the United States, and in 1816 the project was redrawn, albeit on a more modest scale. This article examines the contents of the war plans in detail, in order to understand the objectives of Spanish grand strategy and the manner in which naval forces were to be employed. Also, it aims at understanding the intellectual origins of the ideas expressed by the authors of these plans. Finally, it aims to underline the consequences that the failure to implement an effective diplomatic, military and naval strategy had for Spain's position in North America.

Contesting and upholding the rights of the Irish Parliament in 1698: the arguments of William Molyneux and Simon Clement

SUMMARYThis paper explores the constitutional relationship between England and Ireland at the end of the seventeenth century with a focus on the contemporary debate around the prerogative of the Irish legislature. It examines and contrasts the arguments developed in the pamphlets of William Molyneux of Dublin (1656–98), representing the ruling Irish Protestant nation, and of English Whig Simon Clement (1654?–1730?), asserting the rights of the English empire. Molyneux's The Case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated (Dublin, 1698) and Clement's An answer to Mr. Molyneux his case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England, stated: and his dangerous notion of Ireland's being under no subordination to the parliamentary authority of England refuted by reasoning from his own arguments and authorities (London, 1698) are compared and analysed in the context of renewed tensions around the woollen trade. These pamphlets highlight the nature, and the perceived nature, of the constitutional relationship between the two polities in the aftermath of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688. The main discussion was whether Ireland was a colony of England or an independent kingdom, and how its nature affected the relationship between both legislatures. Molyneux argued that Ireland, although sharing a monarch with England, was an independent kingdom. To Molyneux, Ireland's independence, as a kingdom, signified the independence of its legislature and the unconstitutionality of the English Parliament's claim to legislate for Ireland. Clement refuted Molyneux's assertions point by point, contending that Ireland was part and parcel of an empire. In Clement's opinion, Ireland's subjection to England meant that the English Parliament had a legitimate right to legislate for Ireland.

Behind recent gunboat diplomacy in the South China Sea

The recent launch of China's first aircraft carrier for sea trials may not affect the balance of power in East Asia immediately, but it is a milestone in the modernisation of the Chinese navy. As a revamped old Soviet ship, the former Varyag (widely expected to be renamed the Shi Lang) is hardly a state-of-the-art vessel, and her utility may be limited. However Beijing's maritime rivals may be perturbed by her presence on the horizon at a time of renewed territorial tensions in the South China Sea.

The Politics of Remediation: Mise-en-scene and the Subjunctive Body in Chinese Opera Film

Chinese opera films, which flourished during the early decades of the People's Republic of China, were by no means a clearly demarcated territory. Nor was the label for the emerging genre fixed. Between 1949 and 1963, filmmakers, dramatists, and critics engaged in heated debates on the conception, form, and techniques for the making of opera films. These debates were highlighted in three major forums (1956, 1959, 1962) jointly held by the Chinese Dramatists Association and the Chinese Film Association along with other parties, stimulating further discussions published in the major film and drama journals such as Chinese Cinema (Zhongguo dianying), Film Art (Dianying yishu), The People's Cinema (Dazhong dianying), and The Drama Monthly (Xiju bao).1 The debates regarding the making of opera films in the 1950s and early 1960s strike me as unparalleled. Few moments in the history of Chinese film criticism have been so intensely focused on questions of form and medium. At first sight, the multiple labels given to opera films—“opera art documentary,” “opera art film,” and “indigenous musical”—did not so much highlight the instability of opera film as an emerging genre as they reflected the renewed tensions and affinities between cinema and theater: between realistic settings and symbolic performance, between sound and image, between cinematic and theatrical organization of space and time, and between the centrality of the actor's body and the role of the filmmaker and film editor.