Driving Japan's multilateral activities

Impact ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (7) ◽  
pp. 4-5
Author(s):  
Mayu Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Peace

The Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR) is one of the few think tanks in Japan with a long history in diplomacy and international affairs. As a private, non-profit, independent and non-partisan organisation, JFIR conducts research and makes recommendations on solutions to the problems facing the world and on Japan's role in contributing to global peace and prosperity.

The limits of influence: foreign policy think tanks in Britain and the USA

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Higgott ◽  
Diane Stone
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The One

International non–governmental organizations and their influence over policy in international relations have become subjects of scholarly attention in recent years. One sector of the international policy-cum-analytic community that has received little attention, however, is that group of nationally based non-profit independent policy research institutes—popularly known as ‘think tanks’. This is a strange omission. Foreign policy think tanks and institutes of international affairs are of interest to the wider debates in international relations for two reasons. On the one hand, they aspire to be participants—if mostly marginal ones—in the foreign policy making process. On the other hand, notwithstanding the tension between these two roles, some contribute directly to international relationsas a field of study. Yet a common theme prevails. All foreign policy institutes are founded upon a conviction thatideas are important. Researchers and executives of institutes, as well as their corporate, government and foundation supporters, often believe that their intellectual input into policy debates makes a difference. While this can be the case, we suggest that it is less so than many advocates often assume.

scholarly journals O potrzebie rekonstrukcji przestrzeni badawczej w nauce o stosunkach międzynarodowych. Refleksje natury polityczno-normatywnej, systemowej i metaforycznej

2018 ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa ŁOŚ-NOWAK
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
International Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
The Relationship

The world of the 21st century provides an intriguing space for academic reflection, offering new challenges and stimulating new concepts of international relations. In this context there emerges the significant question of the essence and direction of these concepts. They may entail deconstruction followed by a reconstruction of the research space in this field. Astrategy of resetting cannot be excluded here, either. Assuming that reconstruction is the appropriate solution there are significant issues of its scope and direction. If a total reset is considered rational we need to address the issue of what it should involve. This is a difficult question for researchers into international relations because it would mean that the hitherto achievements of this subject are being questioned. The post-positivist approach of numerous researchers, which manifests their response to the positivist methodology in the field of international relations, has not so far produced a unified methodological formula or a relatively coherent theory of international relations. Questions concerning the function of science, the nature of the social world (ontology) and the relationship between knowledge and the world (epistemology) remain open. Therefore, it may be worth going back to M. Wight’s provocative thesis that it is impossible to construct a reasonable theory of international relations, mainly owing to the dichotomy of the two fields of research that – in his opinion – cannot be overcome, namely the dichotomy of the ‘international’ (the realm of external affairs of states) and ‘internal’ (the realm of internal affairs within state), which are mutually exclusive because of their specificity; and once again ask the questions of how sensible the thesis of the dichotomy of both these environments is in a world that is strongly conditioned by the cross-border actors, interdependence and globalization. While the separateness of the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ state environments was, for Wight, an important obstacle, making it impossible to construct an academic theory explaining international relations, at the same time the current theory regarding their exclusivity in the context of the internalization of international affairs and the externalization of conditions inside states seems unsustainable. This phenomenon currently allows us to explain the imperative for combining these two environments, overlapping them …breaking down the old, established orders as a result of the now clearly visible phenomena and processes of the ‘internal state’ merging into the ‘international environment’ and vice versa, the disappearance of the traditional functions of borders, the weakening of old institutions and structures for steering the international environment as well as replacing them with entirely new institutions and structures.

Cities and International Relations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Pejic
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Global North

The literature on cities and international relations (IR), or “global urban politics,” as it is sometimes termed, is a diverse stream of social science research that has developed in response to major demographic and economic shifts that began in second half of the 20th century and continue to today. During this time the world has witnessed dramatic globalization and urbanization, centralizing populations in cities. It is predicted that by 2050 close to 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, meaning that 21st-century challenges will be largely urban in nature. Across areas such as migration, health, environmental sustainability, and economic development, citizens and city governments are constantly exposed, and need to respond to, the impacts of globalization on cities. At the international level, multilateral organizations have recognized this shift and are increasingly involving cities, or networks of cities, as interlocutors in global forums. IR has been slow to acknowledge the increasing importance of cities in international affairs, as it conflicts with the state-centric paradigm of mainstream theory. Most early scholarship on cities and globalization came from urbanists and political economists, who studied the development of “global cities” that were acting as the critical nodes in the architecture of the world economy. This literature predominately identified cities as the sites of global processes, with limited capacity to influence or shape them. It also offered a narrow, economistic conception of cities that vastly prioritized the experiences of wealthy cities in the Global North. More recently, scholars have begun to study and theorize the role of cities as actors in global affairs, particularly through forms of networked governance and involvement in key multilateral discussions. This bibliography tracks the evolution of this research agenda from its conception to the present day. It begins with a limited background in the study of urban politics, providing a crucial framework for understanding how the diverse streams of research developed. It then details the continuing work on “global cities,” which recognized the increasing importance of cities to international affairs in the late 20th century, although largely defined in narrow economic terms. What follows is a broader theorization of the role of cities in global governance, which begins to afford some agency to cities to shape international affairs across a range of policy areas and brings them directly into the purview of IR. While most of this literature has still been driven by, and focused on, cities of the Global North, there have been efforts to broaden the geographic focus and recognize the way globalization and urbanization have been experienced differently in cities across the globe. Finally, the bibliography draws on a recent literature exploring some of the political and legal implications of this shift to the “urban century.”

III. Peacemaking, Old And New

1923 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-60
Author(s):  
Ernest Satow
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
World War ◽  
German Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
The World ◽  
British Institute

Anotion seems to be gaining currency that the methods of diplomacy as now pursued differ in some way from those of what may be called the Victorian period. It has perhaps arisen from the first of President Wilson's Fourteen Points of January 8, 1918, as constituting the only possible programme for giving peace to the world, set forth in these words: “Open covenants of peace openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international undertakings of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.” The Fourteen Points were accepted by both Germany and the Allies and Associated Powers of the Entente as “the necessary terms of such an armistice as would fully protect the interest of the peoples involved and ensure to the associated Governments the unrestricted power to safeguard and enforce the details of the peace to which the German Government had agreed”. And it has been rather hastily assumed that this agreement had put an end to the secret diplomacy which hitherto had distorted the policy of the European Allies. A paper read by Sir Maurice Hankey before the British Institute of International Affairs on November 2, 1920, confirmed the view that diplomacy by conference between the principal Ministers of the Powers concerned has to an important extent superseded the old way of conducting international relations through professional diplomatists accredited by the governments concerned, and that this change was brought about by the World War.

World Economy: Forecast for the Year 2050

2008 ◽  
pp. 62-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Klinov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Geographic Structure ◽  
Catching Up ◽  
The World ◽  
Crucial Problem ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Long Term Trends

Forecasting long-term trends in the world economy is a necessary element of elaborating a strategy of economic development. The forecast for 2025 and 2050 has been worked out using concepts of Kondratieff long waves, catching-up pathways of development as well as modern trends in demographic processes. The estimates of changes in the geographic structure of the world economy, so derived, are compared with forecasts based on extrapolation of trends in the last 30 years of the 20th century, made up by prominent think tanks. The formation of the multi-center structure of the world economy and probable emergence of Russia as one of the global powers may imply that worldwide cooperation in securing supply of natural resources and protecting the environment will become a crucial problem of international relations.

An Anatomy of International Thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Independent States ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
International Thought

International relations encompass three aspects: international anarchy, with sovereign states recognizing no political superior; routine interactions in diplomatic, legal, and commercial institutions; and moral solidarity, with cultural and psychological links more profound than those of politics and economics. Thinkers who underscore international anarchy regard the idea of international society as fictional. Hobbes, for example, maintains that the only remedy for anarchical competition is to make a contract for a ruler or an assembly to take power and act to ensure security. Grotius and other thinkers who emphasize the extensive informal, legal, and customary interactions in international affairs highlight humanity’s sociability and its potential for constitutionalism and the rule of law. Kant and others anticipate the vindication of humanity’s potential for peace through the deepening of the material and moral interdependence of people around the world. This may come about through uniformity of independent states in standards of virtue and legitimacy or through the political and moral unification of humanity.

scholarly journals International relations in the interpretation of theories of Historical sociology

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-70
Author(s):  
V. V. Kochetkov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
The Third ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Realities

International affairs specialists turn to historical sociology to explain the world political realities that remain hidden to other theories of international relations. However, in the national scientific tradition, historians, sociologists, and international affairs specialists give it unjustly little attention, despite the fact that the science of international relations is at the intersection of history and sociology. This article intended to compensate to some extent for the lack of information about this most interesting and promising approach to the study of international relations. The author formulates the concept of historical sociology and characterizes three main directions in its development. The first direction gives priority to the explanation of international relations of such factors, as types of power and methods of production. The second direction considers the events of international life through the prism of morality, culture, emotions and other spiritual components. The third direction seeks to unite the first two groups of research approaches within a single explanatory framework.

scholarly journals School of Diplomatic English

2014 ◽  
pp. 203-205
Author(s):  
D. A. Kryachkov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
International Relations ◽  
English Language ◽  
State University ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Language Communication ◽  
Moscow State University

Chair of English Language № 1 considers itself the successor of the English Language Chair, established at the Faculty of International Relations at the Moscow State University during the World War II. After the Faculty was reformed into MGIMO the Department of English Language began to grow rapidly. Members of the chair develop textbooks and teaching materials designed to provide competence-based approach in the education in field of international affairs, the development of the professional proficiency in English, which are necessary for future participants of our foreign policy. To date, the chair staff consists of 60 professionals, including 26 PhDs. Teachers of the department also conduct research and take part in educational conferences both in Russia and abroad, including those devoted to the professional foreign language communication. Members of the chair also publish scientific articles in this field.

NGO Accountability: A Conceptual Review across the Engaged Disciplines

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Kaba
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

AbstractNon-governmental organizations (NGOs) are pivotal actors in international affairs. They manage billions of dollars in funding, work all around the world, and shape global policies and standards. It thus comes as no surprise that the subject of accountability has drawn the interest of an increasing number of scholars across disciplines. Though there seems to be agreement about its desirability, accountability is also described as chameleon-like and ambiguous. And despite calls for more cross-disciplinary learning and conceptual clarity, there does not exist a comprehensive review of accountability conceptualizations across and within disciplines, or how the different meanings relate to each other. Based on the conceptual review of 217 research articles published within the last twenty years, this study identifies and analyzes conceptualizations of accountability in the major journals of five engaged disciplines: accounting, development studies, international relations and political science, organization studies and management, and public administration. Integrating this broad scholarship reveals that: (1) there exist 113 different conceptualizations of accountability, 90 of which are rarely used and appear in less than 5 percent of all analyzed articles, (2) scholars have used forty-three different conceptualizations in 2019 compared to seventeen conceptualizations in 2009, (3) many conceptualizations refer to same phenomena by different name (duplication), and different phenomena by the same name (conflict), and that (4) conceptual ambiguity contributes to ambiguity among the forty different terms used to measure and operationalize accountability. These findings illustrate a lack of cross-disciplinary learning and accumulation of knowledge, and suggest that new conceptualizations be introduced only if one or more of the 113 existing ones don't already capture an idea sufficiently. The purpose of this article is to serve as a concept map for scholars when debating and charting new directions for the study of accountability.

scholarly journals WAYS OF EXPRESSING DISAGREEMENT IN MEDIA TEXTS ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-200
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Aleksandrova
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
The Other ◽  
Family Roles ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The World ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Distinctive Aspect ◽  
Break Up ◽  
The Eu

In media text on international relations, disagreement between countries is presented metaphorically as a disagreement between people.The relation between metaphor and discourse is studied by Zinken and Musollf (2009). Mussolf studies metaphors related to the EU organized in “scenarios”. In his view, the thematic target (for instance, EU politics) is accessed through a source input for the metaphor complex (family/marriage/concepts) (Mussolf 2006) and this is “characterized by the dominance of a few traditional, gender-coded stereotypes of family roles” (Mussolf 2009: 1).The present paper traces the ways disagreement in the sphere of international relations is presented in the media.In this study, the observed patterns used to represent disagreement between countries are argument, disagreement, conflict, and fight. The level of disagreement varies depending on the metaphoric scenario used to represent it. It was observed that the strongest way of expressing disagreement is based on the “split up”, and “break up” scenario, followed by the “fight”, “conflict” and the “argument” scenario.In expressing disagreement in media text on international affairs, Lakoff’s STATE IS A PERSON metaphor (Lakoff 1990, 1995) is used. In Chilton and Lakoff’s view, metaphors are not mere words or fanciful notions, but one of our primary means of conceptualizing the world. As they have stated, a metaphor is “a means of understanding one domain of one’s experience in terms of another” (Chilton, Lakoff 1989). Member states are presented as people who quarrel and disagree over issues related to international relations or policies. Along with that metaphor, a place for the institution metonymy is used. As Barcelona has stated, proper names are often metonymic in origin, i. e. they refer to a circumstance or distinctive aspect linked to their referent (Barcelona 2004, 2005).The place for the institution metonymy is found in two variants: the country for the institution and the capital for the institution. For instance, a disagreement between the governments of two countries is presented as disagreement between their capitals, as in “Paris and Berlin fundamentally “disagree” on who should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker” (https://www.express.co.uk)”. The same situation is presented as a disagreement between countries: „Germany and France ‘DISAGREE’ over Juncker replacement” (ibid). In the abovementioned examples, an item from one of the two metonymic chains is juxtaposed to a corresponding item in the other chain:Paris (place name - capital) — Berlin (place name - capital)Germany (place name- country) — France (place name- country)It seems that names from one metonymic chain belonging to a certain class of names (country name, names of cities, capitals, regions, continents, etc.) are juxtaposed to names from another metonymic chain, belonging to the same class of names. However, there are texts in which this is not necessarily the case. A name of city (capital) is often juxtaposed to a name of a country, as in “Paris put its foot down, and won’t let Germany get its way” (www.politico.eu). Expressions may vary depending on the stregth of disagreement, ranging from “disagree”, “argue”, “conflict” to “fight’, “split up” and “break up”.

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