Why China s Thirst for Energy does not Trigger Resource Wars
The realistic notion of great power competition over shrinking oil reserves seems to fit in the patterns of China s oil diplomacy. Indeed, many pundits and politicians in Washington and elsewhere are stoking fears about the worldwide implications of China s insatiable demand for energy . In this paper, it will be argued that this view is not able to grasp the complexity of the international energy economy. It cannot provide sufficient explanations why cooperation and confrontation among China and its potential great power rivals exists in parallel. Rather the perception of the other nation s intentions and the world energy economy seems to cause both conflict and cooperation. Furthermore, the analysis shows that China s international energy policy clearly follows cooperative and market oriented lines. In order to further understand and explain China s international energy policy, alternative theoretical frameworks, beyond realism, need to be applied.
How to Improve U.S.-China Relations in the Wake of CNOOC
The increasingly confrontational approach the U.S. Congress is taking toward China, as witnessed by the surge of anti-China legislation and by the excessive politicization of the proposed merger between CNOOC Ltd., a subsidiary of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Company, and Unocal is leading to “creeping protectionism,” often in the guise of protecting U.S. national security. Although it is proper to criticize China for its human rights violations and its lack of a transparent legal system, we should not ignore the substantial progress China has made since it embarked on economic liberalization in 1978. A policy of engagement—or what Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, calls “peaceful development”—is a necessary condition for constructive U.S.-China relations. Although China’s competitiveness does pose a threat to certain U.S. economic interests, it also benefits American consumers and exporters. Protectionism would harm both the United States and China and would increase the likelihood of conflict. Hardliners would gain at the expense of more reasonable voices. To avert the risk of conflict, the United States needs to treat China as a normal great power, not as an adversary, and ensure that only those commercial transactions that genuinely threaten national security are
Letting Women in? Gender Mainstreaming in Regional Policies
Gender mainstreaming has over the last ten years become the dominant strategy of integrating gender issues in public policy. This article presents regional policy as a broad and increasingly important policy field to study, and analyses gender mainstreaming in this policy field in the Norwegian and the Swedish contexts. How do problem representations surrounding “gender equality” and “gender mainstreaming” produce meanings of gender as well as construct possibilities for change? The article shows that, despite some differences between the two countries, gender mainstreaming in regional policy can to a large extent be read as meaning “women”. Women are in this context given a narrow subject position and are constructed as lacking what it takes to produce sustainable regional growth. The concluding discussion highlights the relations between the implementation of gender mainstreaming and neo‐liberal political trends.