{"title":"Techno-Racial dynamics of denial & difference in weapons control","authors":"R. Mathur","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1515640","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1515640","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper argues that there is an urgent need for postcolonial scholars to engage with the problem of arms control and disarmament. It is also an invitation for experts on arms control and disarmament to gain insights from existing postcolonial perspectives on problems of violence. A violence that is resurfacing with the simultaneous emergence of the ‘dynamic of difference’ through civilizational posturing of West and the Rest and the ‘dynamic of denial’ that encourages erasure and reclusion of colonial violence, Hiroshima and the contribution of the Global South towards arms control and disarmament. This paper seeks to make visible how the ‘dynamic of difference’ and the ‘dynamic of denial’ work in tandem with each other in everyday practices of weapons control. It introduces the concept of ‘techno-racism’ to understand the circulating power of discourses on racial reductionism and technological determinism that are productive forces having an effect on the intersecting dynamics of difference and denial in weapons control. This is demonstrated with reference to the historical trajectory of representation and memory of Hiroshima in contemporary discourses on arms control and disarmament.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"297 - 313"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1515640","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41653916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Administrative reform in India: retaining the British steel frame","authors":"Noor Mohammad Masum","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1525570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1525570","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study analyses administrative reforms in India to identify the philosophical, cultural and ideological underpinnings of these reforms and their impacts. The study hypothesizes that despite differences in state ideologies, Indian leaders have followed the ‘democratic incremental approach of reform’, which has contributed significantly in achieving the continuity of the bureaucracy and ongoing development in India. There has been continuity in diverse administrative legacies in India. Muslim and British rulers modernized the ancient Indian district administration to serve their purposes while independent India takes pride in the revival of its ancient legacy. Before British rule, Indian rulers—Muslims and Hindus—maintained a semi-retainer bureaucracy; whereas the British adopted the philosophy of a mandarin bureaucracy. After independence, India replaced the British administrative philosophy of a mandarin bureaucracy with ‘the democratic philosophy of a semi-retainer bureaucracy’. Influenced by this philosophy, Indian leaders retained the inherited steel frame and made only incremental changes. As a result, Indian bureaucracy remains almost as strong as it was during the British era in terms of structural and procedural perspectives. Overall, the bureaucracy is still performing reasonably well in maintaining continuity of administration and, in the process, cultural integration of society, ongoing economic development and political stability in India.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"431 - 446"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1525570","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42776381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nepal, federalism and participatory constitution-making: deliberative democracy and divided societies","authors":"M. Breen","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1515639","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1515639","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In 2008, Nepal reintroduced democracy and elected a Constituent Assembly whose first act was to declare a secular federal democratic republic. The Assembly was tasked with engaging the public in a participatory and deliberative process as it drafted, debated and decided a new federal constitution. This article asks how evaluates how deliberative the process was in practice, and whether the deliberative components influenced decision-making. It demonstrates that, although the political parties assumed the primary role of negotiating the constitution, deliberation occurred at the local level and through the Assembly’s structures and systems. After more than seven years of once polarized debate about whether ethnicity or territory should be the basis of the new federal provinces, the political elite reached a decision that was consistent with the deliberated outcomes that permeated upwards. The experience of Nepal’s constitution-making process demonstrates that deliberative practices, in combination with consociational features, can be effective in a divided society and regarding fundamental constitutional issues, ultimately moderating extreme positions, influencing key decisions and building popular support for their adoption. The Nepali experience also provides lessons for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and other countries, which are embarking on similar processes towards federal constitutional change.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"410 - 430"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1515639","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44944768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ‘-Pacific’ part of ‘Asia-Pacific’: Oceanic diplomacy in the 2017 treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons","authors":"M. Bolton","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1515641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1515641","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The 2017 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was negotiated at the UN over the objections of nuclear-armed and -allied states and established a global categorical ban on nuclear weapons framed in terms of humanitarianism, human rights and environmentalism. The TPNW also placed ‘positive obligations’ on states to assist victims of nuclear weapons use and testing and remediate contaminated environments. States and NGOs from the Pacific region advocated for a strong treaty text, particularly its positive obligations. They were influenced by the region’s history as a site of nuclear weapons testing in Marshall Islands, Kiribati and French Polynesia/Te Ao Maohi; the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone’s precedent; and earlier diplomatic efforts and activism linking denuclearization with decolonization. In doing so, Pacific and other formerly colonized states flipped the ‘standard of civilization’ script embedded in humanitarian disarmament law and applied it to their former colonizers. The paper demonstrates the agency of small states—the ‘-Pacific’ part of ‘Asia-Pacific’—in multilateral policymaking on peace and security, often overlooked in international relations scholarship. It draws on my participant observation in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning advocacy of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) during the TPNW negotiations.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"371 - 389"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1515641","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46841476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal governance of NGOs in China under Xi Jinping: Reinforcing divide and rule","authors":"Heejin Han","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1506994","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1506994","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The year 2016 seemed to mark a critical juncture in China’s non-profit sector as the government passed several laws and regulations, including the Charity Law. This study examines this development as part of the historical evolution of legal regimes governing NGOs, and considers the contexts of these recent legal changes. By doing so, this paper aims to infer the implications for the governance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China. Compared to previous laws and regulations, those introduced by Xi Jinping’s administration suggest the party-state’s heightened willingness to acknowledge the numerical growth and diversification of NGOs and their contributions to Chinese society. However, the new laws and regulations also indicate the government’s willingness to adopt a more explicit divide-and-rule approach to NGOs. On the one hand, the government aims to actively incorporate those NGOs that it considers useful and innocuous into an increasingly institutionalized system of social governance and rule of law. On the other, the government is likely to apply the policy of outright rejection and repression to those it identifies as threatening the party-state’s authority.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"390 - 409"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1506994","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44500140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resignifying ‘responsibility’: India, exceptionalism and nuclear non-proliferation","authors":"P. Chacko, Alexander E. Davis","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1486218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1486218","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Postcolonial scholarship on nuclear weapons has demonstrated that mainstream literature perpetuates a set of orientalist discourses about ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘civilization’ which legitimizes global hierarchies. What has been less studied is the role of non-Western countries in challenging or perpetuating these discourses. This article focuses on the discourse of ‘nuclear responsibility’ as it has been deployed by Indian official to challenge Western discourses of nuclear responsibility that are linked to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Using Judith Butler's concept of resignification, we argue that India has sought to resignify the Western discourse of nuclear responsibility such that it is linked to nuclear disarmament and equality rather than nuclear non-proliferation and hierarchy. In its discourse on nuclear responsibility, India's status as a responsible nuclear power is based, not on its compliance with international regimes or norms, but on its ‘civilizational exceptionalism’. We argue that resignification is a form of non-western agency but is highly circumscribed. Its success has been dependent upon the broader global political context and has been limited to moving India up the global nuclear hierarchy rather than challenging the hierarchy itself.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"352 - 370"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1486218","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46868725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iran v ‘the international community’: a postcolonial analysis of the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program*","authors":"Shampa Biswas","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1481441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1481441","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper undertakes an analysis of the underlying presuppositions and terms of the international negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme as covered in the mainstream Western media during 2013–14. Examining the deep-seated Orientalist presuppositions underlying the civilizational narrative through which the rivalry between the US/West and Iran is described, the paper argues that the notions of ‘nuclear responsibility’, ‘international community’, and ‘global peace’ generated by such representations obscure global power and hierarchy. In effect, such a discourse ensures that Iran remains caught in the spotlight of dangerous nuclear transgressions while the nuclear programme of a normative West is rendered unremarkable.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"331 - 351"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1481441","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42233661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decolonizing arms control: the Asian African Legal Consultative Committee and the legality of nuclear testing, 1960–64","authors":"Itty Abraham","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1485588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1485588","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article seeks to contribute to a global history of disarmament by arguing for the importance of a largely forgotten moment in the history of arms control, namely, the report on the legality of nuclear testing issued by the Asian African Legal Consultative Committee (AALCC) in 1964. By focusing on the legality of nuclear testing during peacetime, the AALCC report was able to advance its objective of delegitimizing the possession of nuclear weapons without confronting the issue directly, a battle that militarily weak countries could not win. Using international law to compensate for political marginality was a novel anti-nuclear weapons strategy that would be adopted by other campaigns in decades to come. The article offers a critical genealogy of the dominant narrative of international arms control by situating the AALCC report within the historical context of decolonization and pointing out the importance of taking seriously the influence of global public opinion on superpower negotiating tactics. This approach adds a new dimension to our understanding of the global pressures shaping negotiations over the Partial Test Ban Treaty.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"314 - 330"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1485588","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44088022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Personality traits and individual feeling of national pride in South Korea","authors":"Ching-Hsing Wang, D. Weng","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1485586","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1485586","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Given the lack of studies on the relationship between personality and national pride, this study represents the first attempt to examine the impact of the Big Five personality traits on individual feeling of national pride in South Korea. The data for this study are obtained from the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) of 2011 and 2012. The empirical evidence consistently shows that extraversion and agreeableness are significantly associated with individual feeling of national pride. Specifically, people who report elevated levels of extraversion and agreeableness are more likely to display a strong feeling of national pride. Contrary to theoretical expectations, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience are not associated with individual feeling of national pride. Overall, the findings lend some support to the view that personality traits exert a significant influence on individual feeling of national pride and suggest that except for contextual factors, psychological factors also offer some explanatory power for individual feeling of national pride.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"257 - 275"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1485586","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45382149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The challenge of assessing governance in Asian states: Hong Kong in the Worldwide Governance Indicators ranking","authors":"A. Huque, Patamawadee Jongruck","doi":"10.1080/02185377.2018.1485587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2018.1485587","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As countries in Asia work towards achieving development, the state of governance emerged as a benchmark for them. Assessing governance is an important exercise because a country’s image is influenced by its position in world rankings which plays a role in decisions by the international community regarding aid and trade. The methodology adopted in preparing the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) rankings underlines the preference for some values that are dominant in Western liberal democratic systems. This places Asian states at a disadvantage as other traditional values are ignored in assessing the state of governance. This article examines the methods and criteria of the WGI with reference to the case of Hong Kong. An overview of the critiques of WGI and analysis of the scores awarded to Hong Kong reveal the challenge of assessing governance across countries with the same instrument without taking into consideration the context of the units. The article argues that there is a need for developing alternative criteria for accommodating indigenous institutional structures, processes, and practices to ensure that Asian countries can benefit from the desired values of governance and help overcome the partial picture of governance that emerges in the WGI.","PeriodicalId":44333,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Political Science","volume":"26 1","pages":"276 - 291"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2018-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02185377.2018.1485587","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45257157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}