Who Decides? The Rule of Law, Constitutional Structures and the Judiciary in the United Kingdom, the United States, China and South Korea

AbstractThis article analyses the decision-making process of the UN Security Council when it adopts outcome documents, such as resolutions, Presidential statements and press statements. It is commonly assumed that because of their veto power and permanency China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have greater influence than their elected counterparts in shaping those outcomes. In recent years, that control has been strengthened by the penholdership system. Under this practice, one or more members, usually France, the United States or the United Kingdom (P3), take leadership over a situation on the agenda of the Council. When ‘holding the pen’ a member often decides what action the Council should take, then drafts an outcome document that it negotiates with other permanent members before sharing the text with elected members. This article explores the development of this practice and its impact on the respect for the rule of law in the Security Council’s decision-making process. It argues that, while concentrating power in the hands of the P3, hence diminishing transparency and the opportunity for all members to participate in the decision-making of the Council, at the same time the penholdership system also provides an avenue to strengthen elected members’ influence in ways that promote respect for the international rule of law.

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Evolution of public sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic: Case comparisons of India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.31473 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

May Oo Lwin ◽

Anita Sheldenkar ◽

Jiahui Lu ◽

Peter Johannes Schulz ◽

Wonsun Shin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Media ◽

United Kingdom ◽

South Korea ◽

Initial Period ◽

The United States ◽

Crisis Response ◽

Important Indicator ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Communication Space

BACKGROUND Public sentiments are an important indicator of crisis response, with the need to balance exigency without adding to panic or projecting overconfidence. Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments have enacted various nationwide measures against the disease with social media platforms providing the previously unparalleled communication space for the global populations. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine and provide a macro-level narrative of the evolution of public sentiments on social media at national levels, by comparing Twitter data from India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the current pandemic. METHODS Over 67,363,091 million Twitter posts on COVID-19 from 28 January 2020 to 28 April 2021 were analyzed from the five countries with "wuhan", "corona", "nCov", and "covid" as search keywords. Change in sentiments ("very negative", " negative", "neutral or mixed", "positive”, “very positive”) were compared between countries in connection with disease milestones and public health directives. RESULTS Country-specific assessments show that negative sentiments were predominant across all five countries during the initial period of the global pandemic. However, positive sentiments encompassing hope, resilience, and support arose at differing intensities across the five countries, particularly in Asian countries. In the next stage of the pandemic, India, Singapore, and South Korea faced escalating waves of COVID-19 cases, resulting in negative sentiments, but positive sentiments appeared simultaneously. In contrast, while UK and US negative sentiments increased sharply and dramatically after the declaration of a national public emergency, strong parallel positive sentiments were slow to surface. CONCLUSIONS Our findings on sentiments across countries facing similar outbreak concerns suggest potential associations between government response actions both in terms of policy and communications, and public sentiment trends. Overall, a more concerted approach of government crisis communication appears to be associated with more stable public sentiments balanced between positives and negatives over the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Evaluating China’s aspirations for cultural soft power in a post-globalisation era

Media International Australia ◽

10.1177/1329878x16638743 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 159 (1) ◽

pp. 32-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Terry Flew

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Cultural Studies ◽

South Korea ◽

Case Studies ◽

Soft Power ◽

The United States ◽

Economic Significance ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Challenges And Opportunities

‘Soft power’ has been a concept that has generated great political and scholarly interest in China, as it raises the question of how to achieve cultural standing commensurate with the nation’s growing economic significance. But from the perspectives of communication and cultural studies, we can identify limits with both ‘soft power’ as a concept and how it understands culture and communication, and the assumptions made about the capacities of state cultural promotion through media to appeal to global audiences. Drawing upon case studies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea, this article identified challenges and opportunities for China in growing its international cultural soft power in a ‘post-globalisation’ era.

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Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparison of Strategies in Six Countries

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.708496 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Haiqian Chen ◽

Leiyu Shi ◽

Yuyao Zhang ◽

Xiaohan Wang ◽

Jun Jiao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Mortality Rate ◽

South Korea ◽

The United States ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

And Control ◽

Close Contacts

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of containment strategies and mitigation strategies to provide a reference for controlling the ongoing global spread of the pandemic.Methods: We extracted publicly available data from various official websites between January 1 and December 31, 2020, summarized the strategies implemented in China, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, and assessed the effectiveness of the prevention and control measures adopted by these countries with the daily new cases and mortality rate per 100,000 population.Results: China, South Korea, and Singapore adopted containment strategies, which maintained a proactive approach by identifying and managing cases, tracking and isolating close contacts. China and Singapore had a similar epidemic curve and the new daily cases. As of December 31, 2020, the new daily cases of China and Singapore were below 100 with the mortality rates per 100,000 population of 0.3 and 0.5, respectively. But the new daily case of South Korea was as high as 1,029, with a mortality rate per 100,000 population of 1.8. In contrast, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France responded with mitigation strategies that focus on treating severe cases and those with underlying conditions. They had similar epidemic curves and mortality rates per 100,000 population. The United States had up to 234,133 new confirmed cases per day, and the mortality rate per 100,000 population was 107, while the United Kingdom had 56,029 new confirmed cases per day and the mortality rate per 100,000 population was 108, and France had 20,042 new cases per day, with a mortality rate per 100,000 population of 99.Conclusions: China, Korea, and Singapore, which implemented strict containment measures, had significant outbreak control. Meanwhile, the successful practices in China, Singapore, and South Korea show that the containment strategies were practices that work especially at the individual level identifying and managing the infected patients and their close contacts. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, which implemented the mitigation policies, the effect of epidemic prevention and control was not significant that the epidemic continued or even increased epidemic relatively quickly.

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