Paradoxes of The Technogenic Society. On Nikolai Tverdynin’s Book Technics In the Literature of Different Countries and Periods: an Essay Monograph

The review on the book of a former Emergency Ministry official and a philosophy professor Nikolai Mikhailovich Tverdynin published in 2020 in ANO Dialog Kul’tur publishing house analyses views on technology and technics that are manifested by acknowledged people across the globe. Two major beliefs are as follows: technophobic and technocratic. Dr. Tverdynin provides an unbiased description of their application to practice, as it becomes clear that technological threat awareness is a key feature of both attitudes. The book suggests that modern technical boom and its increasing involvement in education and personal development shall remain a vital, but not central method of acquiring new skills, as direct experience teaches not only to operate, but also to be a qualified worker and an individual even in sciences. Despite this and other opinion messages (remember the author’s past service), the book is not a journalist, but a scientific work, as it is void of ideology that accompanies technology. Overall, the book serves as an example of a rare accurate review of such an urgent issue and on such a thorough source collection.

On Being a (Good) Muslim in the West: Four Contributions by Dutch Muslim Publicists

This review essay discusses four books published in Dutch by three Muslims and an ‘ex-Muslim’ in 2014 and 2015 that present different approaches to how to live as a (‘good’) Muslim in the West. The former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali pleads for far-reaching amendments to Islamic rules concerning belief, ethics and law. Her view differs fundamentally from that of the Muslim theologian Razi Quadir (VU Amsterdam), who positions himself within the Sunni legal tradition. The third author, Muslim theologian and ministry official Mohamed Ajouaou (VU Amsterdam) argues that one should focus primarily on the diversity of Muslim religiosity in the Dutch secular context. Finally, in his autobiographical portrait, Dennis Abdelkarim Honing explains how he discovered legitimate options for living as a pious Muslim in the West. Each in their own way, the authors point to the phenomenon of accusing fellow Muslims being heretical or going astray, and its heavy impact on internal Islamic debate.

Rearranging International Relations? How Mao's China and de Gaulle's France Recognized Each Other in 1963–1964

The decision by France and the People's Republic of China (PRC) to establish diplomatic relations in late January 1964 has undergone relatively little scrutiny among scholars. Garret Martin's path-breaking article in the Winter 2008 issue of the JCWS is the most important account to date of this episode, but it focuses on the French side of the story. The account here provides a much fuller picture by drawing on declassified records of the PRC Foreign Ministry, official collections of formerly secret CCP documents, and materials from archives in former Soviet-bloc countries. These sources help illuminate two important but hitherto unknown or poorly understood aspects of Sino-French recognition in the period from August 1963 to January 1964: the French and Chinese thinking behind the decision to recognize each other, and the negotiation process itself.

Policy Ideas and Change in Japanese Bureaucratic Politics: The Ministry of Finance in International Monetary Crisis, 1969–1971

Under what conditions do dominant policy ideas change in Japanese bureaucratic organizations? The answer is developed in reference to a rare empirical case in which critical information has been released about intra-bureaucracy politics, the Japanese Ministry of Finance during the 1969–1971 international monetary crisis. The paper contends, first, that the crisis did not automatically lead to a change of a dominant policy idea prevalent in the Ministry. A policy change occurred only after tactful leadership was exercised by the highest Ministry official. Second, dynamics of paralysis and change were strongly shaped by structures and norms characteristic of Japanese organizations. At a more general level, the case study shows that the exercise of policy-changing leadership vis-á-vis bureaucracies depends on two intra- governmental structure variables: institutional arrangements within and surrounding bureaucracies; and the level of information control exercised by bureaucracies.