Violence research in Northeast and Southeast Asia: main themes and directions

The study analyses research on violence in the Northeast and Southeast Asia with respect to four types: political, urban, domestic and youth violence, highlighting current research themes, tendencies and gaps in violence research on and in the region, and identifying needs for further research. Commonalities and differences between countries and subregions are examined, along with a treatment of the colonial experience that influenced political violence in postcolonial countries

Where Is the Power? Transnational Networks, Authority and the Dispute over the Xayaburi Dam on the Lower Mekong Mainstream

Accounts of hydro-hegemony and counter hydro-hegemony provide state-based conceptions of power in international river basins. However, authority should be seen as transnationalized as small states develop coping strategies to augment their authority over decision-making processes. The article engages Rosenau’s spheres of authority concept to argue that hydro-hegemony is exercised by actors embedded in spheres of authority that reshape actor configurations as they emerge. These spheres consist of complex networks challenging customary notions of the local-global dichotomy and hydro-hegemony. Hydro-hegemony is therefore not fixed. The article examines these processes by analysing the dispute over the Xayaburi Dam in the Mekong Basin

Chinese hydropower companies and environmental norms in countries of the global South: the involvement of Sinohydro in Ghana’s Bui Dam

The paper examines the role of environmental norms in Chinese overseas investment in hydropower dams, exemplified by Sinohydro’s involvement in the Bui Dam in Ghana. While the investment of Western companies in hydropower dams in the global South is decreasing owing to changing notions of sustainability in the West, the investment of Chinese companies in hydro dams in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America is accelerating at great speed. The emergence of Chinese companies in international markets in the context of China’s Going Abroad strategy has sparked a debate on whether China can be considered a norm-changer in international development. The paper considers this question in the context of the status of environmental norms in Sinohydro’s investment in Ghana’s Bui Dam. The paper argues that the role of international norms in Chinese investment is dependent on two factors: the contractual arrangements under which Chinese companies operate abroad and the political institutions of host countries

Election 2011: The more Turkey changes, the more its political parties stay the same

As China’s population grows and the Chinese economy is booming, China is seeing an ever-widening freshwater problem. China notably has both water scarcity and water stress, sees rising protest against its dam-building programme, and the population is increasingly willing to demonstrate against the ongoing environmental pollution. This should make Beijing attentive to similar problems in countries of continental Southeast Asia, particularly as Chinese investment is exacerbating the environmental degradation in those countries

A special relationship with issues to address

As Barack Obama heads to the UK fresh from the bounce to his own ego and the US polls that only the adoration of the Irish can provide, the President will find a British government with similar foreign policy priorities and goals to his own. Yet at the same time, there are real divisions surrounding the ways in which the two nations might about achieving them

South-South technology transfer: Who benefits? A case study of the Chinese-built Bui dam in Ghana

The literature on technology transfer has focussed on North-South transfer and has analysed transfer as a largely technical process. This is despite the increasing influence of rising powers in technology transfer, specifically in the area of energy generation. China is an important player in this field. This article has two aims: firstly, it adds to the small but emerging literature on South-South technology transfer by exploring the role of Chinese actors, using the Bui dam in Ghana as a case study. Secondly, the article develops an expanded notion of technology transfer by arguing that technology transfer is not only a technical process, but it is inherently political as it includes crucial issues on decision-making regarding the type of technology that is transferred, who is granted access to the decision-making process, and who benefits from the new technology. In examining technology transfer from this perspective, the article draws on the sociology of technologies approach and the sustainable transitions literature arguing that technology transfer is a contested process that takes place within complex political, economic, social and cultural settings and actor networks. This determines the technology that is transferred, who benefits most, and who is marginalized in the process

The role of water in re-structuring China’s security relations with Cambodia and Laos. What effects on the environment?

As China’s population grows and the Chinese economy is booming, China is seeing an ever-widening freshwater problem. China notably has both water scarcity and water stress, sees rising protest against its dam-building programme, and the population is increasingly willing to demonstrate against the ongoing environmental pollution. This should make Beijing attentive to similar problems in countries of continental Southeast Asia, particularly as Chinese investment is exacerbating the environmental degradation in those countries

Interaction of Chinese institutions with host governments in dam construction : The Bui dam in Ghana

The study analyses the role of Chinese companies and financing institutions and Ghanaian governmental agencies in planning and constructing the Bui Dam. The analysis focuses on the division of responsibilities between Sinohydro and China Exim Bank on the one side and the Ghanaian government on the other side. The findings show that environmental and resettlement planning for Bui was commissioned and financed by the Government of Ghana without Sinohydro’s involvement. The obligation of the firm is to abide by the environmental regulations that are monitored by the regulatory authorities. The role of Sinohydro consists in building the dam, maintaining the construction site, contracting workers, and providing for workers’ health and safety. The firm has no role in resettlement, which is carried out by the Bui Power Authority. While there is clear evidence that the Bui Power Authority does not follow the recommendations of the Resettlement Planning Framework, Sinohydro appears to abide largely by the conditions set out in the Environmental Impact Assessment study whose implementation is monitored by the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency and the Ghanaian Water Resources Commission

Politische und gesellschaftliche Brüche nach dem Krieg: Jugendgewalt in Kambodscha und Guatemala

"Das Ende eines organisierten Gewaltkonflikts stellt in der Regel weder einen Bruch mit der Vergangenheit noch einen Neuanfang dar. Bestenfalls bietet es die Chance auf Veränderungen und auf die Verringerung und Einhegung von Gewalt. Gewaltkontrolle ist eine zentrale Herausforderung für Nachkriegsgesellschaften, weil sie die unterschiedlichen Transformationsprozesse in Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft beeinflusst. Forschung und politische Praxis haben sich hierbei allerdings entweder auf das Problem des Rückfalls in den Krieg konzentriert oder aber Nachkriegsgewalt als gänzlich neues, mit dem Krieg allenfalls indirekt verbundenes Phänomen betrachtet. Die Frage von Kontinuität und Wandel der Gewalt nach einer formalen Kriegsbeendigung ist bisher nicht systematisch analysiert worden. Die vorliegende Studie will hierzu einen Beitrag leisten und konzentriert sich dabei auf die Frage von Jugendgewalt. (...)" (Autorenreferat)"Termination of organized violence in most cases is neither a rupture nor a completely new beginning for the affected societies. At best the termination of war offers possibilities for change and for a reduction of violence. Violence control is a major challenge for postwar societies because violence influences the different transformation processes that occur in politics, economy and society. Research and policy have treated violence in postwar societies either under the perspective of a backslide into war or as an entirely new problem that is only indirectly related to the preceding war. The question of how violence in fact continues or changes despite a formal termination of war has not been analysed systematically. This study aims to narrow this gap by focussing on youth violence. (...)" (author's abstract