The Abstracts of Vol.3,2014
Releasing Time：05.16.2014Source：
ABSTRACTS
Saudi Arabia: the Strategic Pivot of American Middle East Policy
Feng Jihua
The U.S. pursued different strategies toward the Middle East in and after the Old War. During the Old War, the major strategic goals of the U.S. included ensuring stable oil supply from the Middle East and security of Israel, and containing the Soviet expansion in the region. In the post Cold War era, in addition to ensuring stable oil supply and security of Israel, its Middle East strategy also includes actively promotion of Western style democracy in the region. As the ideologies of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are totally different and they have contrasting stances over the Palestinian-Israeli issue, there have been some collisions between the two countries since they established diplomatic relations. Nonetheless, their relationship has been built upon the basis of practical interest, which has transcended their differences in political systems, ideology and foreign policies, and their strategic cooperation continues. In the near future, Saudi Arabia will maintain the important position as a strategic pivot for American Middle East policy.
A Probe into the Development of Turkey-European Relationship
Ding Gong
Although Turkey’s relationship with Europe has been further improved by frequent bilateral visits of high officials recently and Turkey will hopefully make a new step forward on its march towards joining the EU, its policy choice will fluctuate in the long run and the prospect of this round of negotiation is not optimistic, which is likely to fall once again into a circle of negotiation-standstill-renegotiation-standstill. With the rise and fall of power between Turkey and Europe, the change of collective mentality of the nationals and the cognition of national interest in Turkey will exert fundamental and directional impact on Turkey’s choice of strategy and tactics to join the EU.
Al-Qaeda’s Current Activities to “Establish a State” and Its Trends
Niu Song, Xu Chaoyu
The international community is closely observing Al-Qaeda’s recent activities to “establish a state” in a gradual way. Al-Qaeda’s “view of a state” at present is deeply rooted in the original teachings of Islam and modified somewhat in view of the current international relations. It is not accidental that Al-Qaeda’s practice of “establishing a state” first appeared in Yemen and the region between Iraq and Syria, as these states or regions have long been immersed in civil wars or political conflicts. The imbalance and antinomy of American strategy toward the Middle East have provided the “convoy” for the growth of Al-Qaeda and its intention to “establish a state”. Meanwhile, the activities to “establish a state” have also caused some insurmountable contradictions in organization, tactics and thinking within Al-Qaeda.
The Factor of Trust in the Mekong River Security Cooperation
and China’s Strategic Choice
Bao Guangjiang
Mutual trust plays a key role in the Mekong River security cooperation among China, the Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Nevertheless, the issue of trust is often neglected in the study of international security cooperation, and even the much matured international mechanism theory and international public goods theory lacked systematic analysis. Although the former stressed that international mechanism ensures trust, it neglected the fact that trust itself is the precondition for establishing international mechanisms, while the latter is too much concerned with the lack of public goods to notice the fact that the lack of trust has made the public goods relatively excessive and compet among themselves. In view of this, this paper, after an analysis of the missing factor of trust in the two international cooperation theories, analyzed the path of mutual trust growth among the four countries and pointed out China’s strategic choice in the Mekong River security cooperation.
A Probe into the Construction of the Bengal-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor
Yang Siling, Gao Huiping
The construction of the Bengal-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor does not only accord with the needs of China’s external strategy and India’s policy of opening to the outside world and Eastward Policy, but also consist with the needs of social and economic development of Bengal and Myanmar. But as the situation in the sub-region involved with Bengal, China, India and Myanmar is very complicated and the development of political, social and security situation in some countries remains uncertain, the construction and development of the Bengal-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor may in a sense be affected.
Cooperation between China and ROK to Cope with the Peninsula Crisis
Cui Ge
When the newly elected president of ROK Park Geun-hye visited China in June 2013, she raised a concept of “the process of trust-building on the Korean Peninsula” to ease the tension and ensure durable peace on the peninsula, which has provided a new opportunity for China-ROK to cope with the peninsula crisis through cooperation. The process may enable China and ROK to develop mutual trust, enrich and upgrade strategic partnership, strengthen security cooperation, commonly restrain any act of DPRK and the U.S. to endanger the regional security and stability, lead DPRK to economic transformation, and achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
The Role Positioning of India in China’s Geo-Political Strategy and Its Impact
Li Yingming
As the U.S. is pursuing a re-balancing strategy in the Asian-Pacific region, how to breach the containment of the U.S. to ensure self development has become the current kernel of China’s geo-political strategy. Under the common pressure from the U.S., China may upgrade strategic cooperation with the regional power India, which is conducive for China not only to break the dilemma, but also keep its neighborhood peaceful and stable, and promote the establishment of a better global cooperation body for the developing countries. This endeavor will exert positive effects on China’s particular strategic arrangements in Central，South and Southeast Asia, and consists with China’s current geo-political layout on the macro level.
The Features of India-Russian Military Cooperation in the New Century
Huo Wenle, Zhang Shulan
India and Russia (former USSR) have been engaged in cooperation in military technology for decades, with the India-Russian strategic partnership established in 2000 further upgrading such cooperation to a new level. Their current cooperation in military technology has shown the following unprecedented features: their military cooperation has become institutionalized and regularized; their military cooperation has expanded not only in areas and scale, but also in depth; their relationship in military cooperation has changed from unequal to equal; the prospect of their military cooperation is becoming clear. An analysis of the new features of India-Russian military cooperation in the new century may help us see the whole of India-Russian relationship in the new century.
The Effectiveness of African Economic Development and Structural Constraint
Xue Lin, Ding Wei
Since the beginning of the new century, Africa has achieved fast economic development on the basis of resource and demographic advantages and coupled with the development of regional integration. But African countries are still faced with grim development issues, with the economic marginalization of Africa in the unequal international economic system as the fundamental cause of all African development issues. This paper uses the world system theory as a major theoretical tool to analyze the development issues faced by African countries and way out for African economic development.
Islam and Kenya’s Political Changes
Li Wengang
Although Islam is a minority religion in Kenya, it has had certain influence over Kenyan politics from the very beginning as the economy of Muslim communities and their strategic positions have been very important to Kenya’s political stability, territorial integrity and social-economic development. On the whole, successive Kenyan governments have been very cautious in dealing with the relations between Christian and Islam, resulting in long term peaceful co-existence of Muslims and Christians, which has been conducive to national stability and the process of national integration. Since the beginning of 1990s, with the introduction of multiparty democracy, religion has become politicized. On the one hand, Muslims deem that they are marginalized and tend to use Islam as a platform for their appeals; while on the other hand, Islamic fundamentalism develops very fast in Kenya and increasingly challenges the government. Encouraged by internal and external factors, Islamic extremist and terrorist forces are more prominent in Kenya, which calls for an urgent resolution.
The Evolution of Rebels in Sub-Saharan Africa and their Contemporary Features
Wang Tao, Wang Meng
The activities of rebels in Sub-Sahara Africa have been there for a long time. The struggle for independence from colonial rule saw the rise of rebels against colonial governments. In some African countries after their independence, political differences and ethnic contradictions have made the opposition groups form armed rebels against their governments. During the Cold War, contention for hegemony in Africa between the U.S. and the Soviet Union helped produce some rebel groups with international background. Since the end of Cold War, redistribution of political and economic interest within Africa, ethnic confrontation and conflicts, religious contradiction and extremalization have produced a new generation of rebels with such obvious characteristics as wide spreading, long duration, destructive and infectious. The delayed resolution of the rebel issue has hampered the effort of the African countries to achieve peace and development, while the existence of rebels has worsened the social crises within African countries and has become the driving factor for the existing contradictions to turn more complicated.