Shifting Reputations for “Moderation”: Evidence from Qatar, Jordan, and Morocco

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Annelle R. Sheline
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Strategic Maneuvering ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Religious Intolerance ◽  
The Government

The article examines the monarchies of Qatar, Jordan, and Morocco to demonstrate how specific policies and ideologies do not necessarily correspond with the label of “moderate,” which instead primarily reflects a reputational strategy. Prior to 2011, Qatar had cultivated an image as a relatively “liberal” Gulf monarchy, but although few policy changes occurred, after 2011 the emirate was seen as sponsoring terrorism. The government of Morocco developed a reputation for promoting “moderate Islam,” yet religious intolerance persists, while the Jordanian regime has focused less on cultivating a moderate image than previously. Government efforts to develop a specific reputation reflect strategic maneuvering for both international religious soft power as well as consolidation of domestic control. Combining nine months of ethnographic fieldwork involving interviews with government officials, religious bureaucrats, and embassy personnel, the paper offers insights into how the strategic use of reputation has shifted in the post-2011 context.

The soft power and paradiplomacy of Hong Kong

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-172
Author(s):  
Wai Yin Chan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Global Context ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
The Government

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to map out the connection between paradiplomacy, policy instruments and soft power and propose a theoretical framework for consideration. Design/methodology/approach This research adopted a qualitative research approach involving in-depth interviews with government officials from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices and two Hong Kong film directors. Findings The research has discovered that the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) lacks a holistic strategy and policy to boost Hong Kong’s visibility in the global context. The HKSAR Government exhibits an incomplete understanding of the concept of soft power and ignores the values cherished in the civil society. Practical implications This investigation provides a background against which Hong Kong’s policymakers could devise a paradiplomatic strategy. This study suggests that political and social actors in Hong Kong must help to strengthen the city’s global position through strategic investments and the deployment of its soft power at home and aboard. The paradiplomacy of Hong Kong can serve as one of the effective tools to improve the legitimacy of “One Country, Two Systems.” Originality/value There is no study on the application of soft power under the framework of paradiplomacy. This paper represents a new direction of research in the area of Hong Kong, international status and its external affairs.

scholarly journals Pembelajaran Kebijakan Masa Pandemi Covid-19: Sebuah Sanggahan Atas Artikel Widaningrum dan Mas'udi (2020)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Anggalih Bayu Muh. Kamim
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
Policy Conflict ◽  
Policy Conflicts ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Coalition

Widaningrum and Mas'udi (2020) believe that the government's stuttering in handling the COVID-19 pandemic trigger policy conflicts between government officials and at the society level. Widaningrum and Mas'udi (2020) view that strengthening leadership and coördination are important steps to prevent widespread policy conflicts. However, in using the PCF framework, Widaningrum and Mas'udi (2020) forgot to place the policy conflict on what level was the political system, policy subsystem or policy action? We use literature review to explore COVID-19 policy in Indonesia. We offer the ACF framework to look further with existing features and find that there are two core competing beliefs in the COVID-19 policy handling subsystem, namely the drive to safeguard the economy that the central government believes in and insistence on handling the outbreak seriously from a coalition of people, scientists and media. Cross-coalition policy learning did not take place, even though the COVID-19 Task Force had a role as a broker to bring together the core beliefs of each coalition. The government made adjustments to encourage policy changes that were consistent with its core beliefs, despite changes in public opinion and changes in members of the government coalition.   Widaningrum dan Mas’udi (2020) meyakini bahwa kegagapan pemerintah dalam menangani pandemi Covid-19 dapat menimbulkan konflik kebijakan di antara aparat pemerintahan dan pada level masyarakat. Widaningrum dan Mas’udi (2020) memandang bahwa penguatan kepemimpinan dan koordinasi menjadi langkah penting untuk mencegah terjadinya konflik kebijakan meluas. Namun dalam menggunakan kerangka kerja PCF, Widaningrum dan Mas’udi (2020) lupa mendudukan konflik kebijakan terjadi pada level yang mana apakah sistem politik, subsitem kebijakan atau tindakan kebijakan? Kami menggunakan studi literatur untuk lebih lanjut mendalami kebijakan penanganan Covid-19 di Indonesia. Kami menawarkan kerangka kerja ACF untuk melihat lebih jauh dengan fitur-fitur yang ada dan menemukan bahwa pada dasarnya ada dua keyakinan inti yang saling bersaing dalam subsistem kebijakan penanganan Covid-19, yakni dorongan untuk menjaga perekonomian yang diyakini pemerintah pusat dan desakan menangani wabah secara serius dari koalisi masyarakat, ilmuwan dan media massa. Pembelajaran kebijakan lintas koalisi tidak terjadi, meskipun telah ada Gugus Tugas Covid-19 yang berperan sebagai broker untuk mempertemukan keyakinan inti tiap koalisi. Pemerintah melakukan penyesuaian untuk mendorong perubahan kebijakan yang sesuai dengan keyakinan intinya, meskipun terdapat perubahan opini publik dan perubahan anggota koalisi pemerintah.

The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Laurence
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Integration Problems ◽  
Muslim Minorities

This book traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and religious leaders in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey, the book challenges the widespread notion that Europe's Muslim minorities represent a threat to liberal democracy. The book documents how European governments in the 1970s and 1980s excluded Islam from domestic institutions, instead inviting foreign powers like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Turkey to oversee the practice of Islam among immigrants in European host societies. But since the 1990s, amid rising integration problems and fears about terrorism, governments have aggressively stepped up efforts to reach out to their Muslim communities and incorporate them into the institutional, political, and cultural fabrics of European democracy. The book places these efforts—particularly the government-led creation of Islamic councils—within a broader theoretical context and gleans insights from government interactions with groups such as trade unions and Jewish communities at previous critical junctures in European state-building. By examining how state–mosque relations in Europe are linked to the ongoing struggle for religious and political authority in the Muslim-majority world, the book sheds light on the geopolitical implications of a religious minority's transition from outsiders to citizens. This book offers a much-needed reassessment that foresees the continuing integration of Muslims into European civil society and politics in the coming decades.

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

The Arthur Crawford Scandal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Metelits
Keyword(s):  
Retirement Age ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
High Court ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Government ◽  
To Receive

The Arthur Crawford Scandal explores how nineteenth century Bombay tried a British official for corruption. The presidency government persuaded Indians, government officials, to testify against the very person who controlled their career by offering immunity from legal action and career punishment. A criminal conviction of Crawford’s henchman established the modus operandi of a bribery network. Subsequent efforts to intimidate Indian witnesses led to litigation at the high court level, resulting in a political pressure campaign in London based on biased press reports from India. These reports evoked questions in the House of Commons; questions became demands that Indians witnesses against Crawford be fired from government service. The secretary of state for India and the Bombay government negotiated about the fate of the Indian witnesses. At first, the secretary of state accepted the Bombay government’s proposals. But the press campaign against the Indian witnesses eventually led him to order the Government of India, in consultation with the Government of Bombay, to pass a law ordering those officials who paid Crawford willingly, to be fired. Those whom the Bombay government determined to be extorted were not to be fired. Both groups retained immunity from further actions at law. Thus, Bombay won a victory that almost saved its original guarantee of immunity: those who were fired were to receive their salary (along with periodic step increases) until they reached retirement age, at which time they would receive a pension. However, this ‘solution’ did little to overcome the stigma and suffering of the fired officials.

Reflections on the Acquisition of Land by Non-citizens in Botswana

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-204
Author(s):  
Boga Thura Manatsha
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Policy ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Government ◽  
Tribal Land ◽  
Ownership Of Land ◽  
Land Transactions

There are rising public concerns about the acquisition of prime land by non-citizens/foreigners in Botswana, especially in the sprawling urban and peri-urban areas. Indians, Nigerians and Chinese, among others, are allegedly involved in such land transactions. There is a salient local resentment towards them and/or such transactions. Sensational media reports, emotive public statements by politicians, chiefs and government officials, and anger from ordinary citizens dominate the discourse. These emotive public debates about this issue warrant some academic comment. This article argues that the acquisition of land by foreigners in Botswana, in each land category—tribal, state and freehold—is legally allowed by the relevant laws. But this does not mean that citizens have no right to raise concerns and/or show their disapproval of some of these legal provisions. Aware of the public outcry, the government has since passed the Land Policy in 2015, revised in 2019, and amended the Tribal Land Act in 2018, not yet operational, to try and strictly regulate the acquisition of land by non-citizens. There is no readily available statistical data, indicating the ownership of land by foreigners in each land category. This issue is multifaceted and needs to be cautiously handled, lest it breeds xenophobia or the anti-foreigner sentiments.

The Impact of the Nicaragua Case on Matters of Evidence and Fact-Finding

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-156
Author(s):  
PAUL S. REICHLER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pulp Mills ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Government ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Day To Day Operations ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe Nicaragua case demonstrates the Court's competence in receiving and interpreting evidence, and in making reasoned findings of fact, even in the most complicated evidentiary context, as is often presented in cases involving use of force and armed conflict. The Court applied well-established standards for evaluating the conflicting evidence presented to it. In particular, the Court determined that greater weight should be given to statements against interest made by high-level government officials than to a state's self-serving declarations. The Court also determined that statements by disinterested witnesses with first-hand knowledge should receive greater weight than mere statements of opinion or press reports. In applying these guidelines, the Court found, correctly, that (i) the United States had used military and paramilitary force against Nicaragua both directly and indirectly, by organizing, financing, arming, and training the Contra guerrillas to attack Nicaragua; (ii) the evidence did not support a finding that the United States exercised direct control over the Contras’ day-to-day operations; and (iii) there was no evidence that Nicaragua supplied arms to guerrillas fighting against the government of El Salvador during the relevant period, or carried out an armed attack against that state. While Judge Schwebel's dissent criticized the last of these findings, in fact, the evidence fully supported the Court's conclusion. In subsequent decisions during the past 25 years, the Court has continued to rely on the approach to evidence first elaborated in the Nicaragua case and has continued to demonstrate its competence as a finder of fact, including in cases involving armed conflict (Bosnia Genocide) and complex scientific and technical issues (Pulp Mills).

Government Officials, Academics, and the Process of Formulating U.S. National Security Policy Toward Africa

1990 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Larry W. Bowman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Phone Call ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Government ◽  
Research Contract ◽  
The U.S

Relationships between U.S. government officials and academic specialists working on national security and foreign policy issues with respect to Africa are many and complex. They can be as informal as a phone call or passing conversation or as formalized as a consulting arrangement or research contract. Many contacts exist and there is no doubt that many in both government and the academy value these ties. There have been, however, ongoing controversies about what settings and what topics are appropriate to the government/academic interchange. National security and foreign policy-making in the U.S. is an extremely diffuse process.

Turkey’s Islamic Public Diplomacy in the Post-Davutoğlu Era: Neo-Ottomanism, Humanitarianism and the Legitimation of Hamas after the Arab Spring

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Hae Won Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Turkish Government ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

Summary What are the public diplomacy strategies for legitimising a pro-Islamist foreign policy? This research unveils how Turkey, which has been a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates across the Middle East since the Arab Spring, draws on pan-Islamic soft power, neo-Ottoman myth-making and public diplomacy strategies embedded in the precepts of the strategic depth doctrine to rationalise its pro-Hamas foreign policy position under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). By employing critical discourse analysis to the political speeches delivered by the Turkish government officials in domestic and international fora, this article suggests that Turkey has sought to legitimise its pro-Islamist foreign policy and subvert the terrorist designation of Hamas internationally through the humanitarian, Islamic and neo-Ottoman framings of the Palestinian issue. It is argued that Turkey’s public diplomacy of Hamas constitutes part and parcel of the AKP’s grand strategy to project Islamic soft power.

Is bribing a good strategy? Imbalanced interdependence and hazard of opportunism in bribery

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Wook Shin ◽  
Jinsil Kim ◽  
Seung-hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Contract ◽  
Current Resource ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Current

PurposeIn fragile institutional environments, firms often have no choice but bribery as the means to access the services monopolized by the government. Corrupt government officials whose resources are valuable to many different firms can easily find other firms willing to offer bribes. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how this imbalanced interdependence exposes the bribing firm to the hazard of opportunism from the bribed officials.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on World Business Environment Survey (WBES) data and the instrumental variable (IV) Probit estimator with Heckman correction for the potential selection bias.FindingsThe authors find that the more firms depend on bribery to acquire governmental resources, the severer the level of opportunism they encounter from the government officials. In addition, the authors find that although the presence of a legal alternative to bribery reduces the level of a corrupt government official's opportunism that a bribing firm experiences, the more firms depend on bribery despite the presence of a legal alternative, the higher the level of the corrupt official's opportunism that the firm will experience. Finally, the authors find that establishing a relational contract with government officials reduces the hazard of opportunism.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the resource dependence literature by finding that a greater imbalance in the interdependence between two parties in bribery exposes the more dependent party to a larger hazard of opportunism. The finding that an ineffective alternative to a current resource provider would not strengthen but weaken a resource seeker's bargaining power expands the literature. The authors also contribute to the corruption research by showing the significant strategic, not legal, risk to bribing firms of engaging in bribery, which to date has not been sufficiently discussed.

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