In Whose Interest? The UN's Strategic Rapprochement with Business in the Sustainable Development Agenda

Following the Rio+20 conference and in anticipation of the end of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations is at the centre of debates on the future of sustainable development. In these debates, the UN Secretariat has positioned transnational corporations as essential and legitimate actors for new sustainable development goals. This policy does not follow a direct mandate from member states. Rather, the UN's rapprochement with business in the ‘Post-2015’ process should be seen as an example of independent decision-making by the organization within the constraints of the current world order. This strategy dates back to the late 1990s and is meant to increase the UN's authority and legitimacy and expand its mandate by making it more relevant to powerful actors in the international arena. The article questions whether the organization's strategy vis-à-vis business is producing the anticipated effects, or rather reveals institutional dysfunction.     

Jewish power and powerlessness: Prague Zionists and the Paris Peace Conference

This article explores how perceptions of Jewish power shaped the negotiations between Czechoslovak leaders and Jewish minority representatives at the time of the Paris Peace Conference. In the aftermath of the First World War, Prague-based Zionists embarked on a mission to convince Czechoslovak elites that attacks on Jews were detrimental to the internal stability of the new state and to Czechoslovak interests abroad. As Edvard Bene?, the head of the Czechoslovak delegation in Paris, worked to cultivate an image of the new state as more “Western” and “civilised” than other successor states – a strategy meant to garner international support for Czechoslovak territorial demands and its projected absorption of large minority populations – Jewish activists encouraged his uncertainty with regard to Jews' influence on Western audiences and statesmen. They did so in order to convince him to accept their demands for special protection clauses for the new country's Jews. The paper thus shows that the unprecedented victimisation of Jews and the upsurge in antisemitism during and after the war coexisted with a new bold and public Jewish activism. Yet, Jewish leaders did not in the end have the ability to convince Bene? and his colleagues to give in to international Jewish demands for special protection. Instead, they sought to cultivate a strategic alliance between the state's Czech elite and the Jewish minority which centred on the claim that Czechoslovakia was a particularly welcoming and tolerant place for Jews, an image that would evolve into a significant component of the myth of Czechoslovakia as an island of democracy in Eastern Europe.     

Intergenerational-Multigenerational Relationships

Abstract

Multigenerational and intergenerational relations are used interchangeably by the United Nations in official documents. However, the terms are not universally considered synonymous. This article explores the origin of terminology usage and how these terms are used differentially in the literature on intergenerational relationships. It also places the discussion within a global framework by linking it to the United Nations Second World Assembly on Ageing and the International Plan of Action on Ageing Madrid 2002.     

OPTIMAL SOFTWARE RELEASE POLICY BASED ON MARKOVIAN PERFECT DEBUGGING MODEL

In this paper we consider a Markovian perfect debugging model for which the software failure is caused by two types of faults, one which is easily detected and the other which is difficult to detect. When a failure occurs, a perfect debugging is immediately performed and consequently one fault is reduced from fault contents. We also treat the debugging time as a variable to develop a new debugging model. Based on the perfect debugging model, we propose an optimal software release policy that satisfies the requirements for both software reliability and expected number of faults which are required to achieve before releasing the software. Several measures, including the distribution of first passage time to the specified number of removed faults, are also obtained using the proposed debugging model.     

析伊恩·麦克尤恩《最初的爱情，最后的仪式》的多重情感

摘要：现代工业文明对人类情感的压制是西方作家的传统创作主题，英国当代作家伊恩·麦克尤恩在其代表作《最初的爱情，最后的仪式》中延续了对现代工业文明下情感状态的思考。小说集包含的八个短篇小说构成了一张由孤独、荒谬和欲望其中又掺杂纯真在内的多重情感交织的网，以此反映当代人类面临的生存境遇。麦克尤恩的创作立足于当今英国社会现实，很好地体现了文学反映社会现实的功能。     

"政教分离"与美国政治哲学

"政教分离"被许多人视为美国宪法基本原则.由于种种原因,它在20世纪又一次成为公众激烈争论的焦点.如果从政治哲学的角度看,"政教分离"的核心是价值中立,而这并不是美国立宪者的主要关注点.但是现代以来,它确实已日益上升为政治哲学的一个重要原则.它的形成不是一个统一的自由主义理念的展开,毋宁说存在着许多不同的原因,其中既有来自世俗自由主义的,也有来自宗教本身的,甚至还有相当"反自由主义"的.故而,"政教分离"可以视为是政治哲学中常常有的复杂的"交叉共识"的一个典例.     

西部开发的历史与现实思考

以 5 0年代 15 6项工程建设为开端 ,到 90年代西部大开发战略的实施 ,国家对西部地区已进行了三次大规模的开发建设。前两次西部开发是在毛泽东区域经济均衡发展战略思想指导下进行的 ,对于促进中国工业化建设 ,加快西部地区的发展起了重要作用。目前正在实施的西部大开发是在邓小平“两个大局”思想指导下 ,第三代领导集体为实现现代化建设第三步目标而采取的重大战略步骤。由于时代主题和所处国际环境的变化 ,这次西部大开发应有新的思路和新的举措     

论默许恐怖分子活动国家的国家责任

"9.11"事件后联合国安理会反恐决议填补了现行国际法的空白,加诸各国不得默许恐怖分子在其境内活动的义务。美国完全可以依法追究阿富汗的国家责任,以有效打击国际恐怖主义。今后,各国都应严格遵守安理会决议确立的国际法义务,坚决制止某些国家默许恐怖分子在其境内活动,同时还需加强合作,进一步完善反恐国际法。     

岑参赴安西路途考证

唐代著名诗人岑参以边塞诗名世,从文学史的角度结合岑参诗作描述岑参西域经历的论述颇多,但分歧亦大,尤以首赴安西路途为最。运用当今学界对唐代西域之政治、军事、商贸、地理、交通及出土文物的研究成果,基本可以说明,岑参首途安西出瓜州后,按常理应该不走丝路南道,不到敦煌,亦不过阳关,而是径由玉门关,走最安全、通畅之丝路中道。     

商业贿赂犯罪的全球考察——比较刑法视角下的法律启示

通过比较研究的方法，从多个角度分析各国商业贿赂犯罪立法、司法的特点，结合《联合国反腐败公约》的相关规定，分析了中国反商业贿赂犯罪法律实践存在的缺陷，得到了一些法律启示，为相关法律改革提供依据。