Issue 3, 2022 

A Great Transformation Approaches: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Reshapes the World

Contents

▍Overseas

Get Rid of the “Resource Curse”? — Industrialization and Economic Diversification of the Six Gulf Countries Zhang Ruofeng

Biden Team’s China DoctrineYang Bowen

▍Cover Story: The Great Change is Coming — The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Changes the World

Stride Across the Russia-Ukraine Conflict Trap: Rethinking the Rules-Centric International Order Cao Yuanzheng

Building the “New Three Rings”: China’s Choice in the Face of a Possible Comprehensive Decoupling Cheng Yawen

The Russia-Ukraine War as an Inter-Imperial Conflict Zhang Xin

This essay portrays the ongoing Russian military operation in Ukraine as an inter-imperial rivalry between a trans-Atlantic empire and a Eurasian empire that Russia tries to rebuild. Spatially, the Russian state promotes ethno-territorial claims based on revanchist principles in her imperial expansion. Temporal-historically, it makes highly selective use of the Soviet legacy and aims to construct a historical continuity for the “Russian world” based on civilizational claims to justify the military operation. Countering Trans-Atlantic hypocrisy with Russia cynicism, Russia brings about a series of challenges to the international system based on nation-states and international law. 

Why Cannot Europe Be in Charge of Its Own Destiny? Wei Nanzhi

It is Europe that has paid a huge price for the Russia-Ukraine Conflict. After the Second World War, the United States transformed many European countries and established the domination of the market empire. The end of the Cold War created opportunities for Europe to become independent, but the United States suppressed Europe’s independence in various forms. Tensions within Europe itself lead to the difficulty to achieve political integration. Due to the vulnerability of Europe’s population, economy, and energy resources, and the fear of losing its privileged position compared with countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Europe had no choice but to be a vassal of American hegemony.

Reinvigorating Leadership: British Strategy in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict Kong Yuan

By actively participating in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Britain intends to step into the struggle between the United States, Europe, China, and Russia, and maintain the unity of the transatlantic camp by working with America to suppress the strategic autonomy of Europe. It attempts to drag the world into a bipolar system by demonizing China and Russia and pretends to become a “leader” in shaping a new European security architecture by taking preemptive measures. 

▍Special：The New Model for Human Civilization

The Transformation between the Opening Ceremonies of the Two Olympic Games: The Rise of the New Universalism Jiang Shigong

“Confucian Tradition-Communism”—The Chinese Path to Modernization and the New Model for Human Civilization Wang Lisheng, Yan Kuoming

▍Observation·Culture

Reconstruction of Historical Views: From “Main Theme” to “New Mainstream” Tao Qingmei

Re-narrating the History of Reform and Opening-up: The Breakthrough of Like a Flowing River Zhou An’an   Wu Jing

The television drama Like a Flowing River breaks through the limitations of traditional melodramatic cultural works in depicting China’s development path on two levels: first, it positively depicts China’s economic and social construction experience and history since the reform era, and second, it breaks through the narrative paradigm of China’s reform and opening-up history at the level of popular culture by placing large state-owned industrial enterprises at the center of the reopening historical narrative.

From “Future Man” to “Playful Child”: The Tension between Japanese Anime and Social Order Pan Ni’ni

Japanese anime has demonstrated a combination of entertainment and resistance regarding the homogenization of Japanese society, which is akin to the relationship between adolescence and adulthood. During post-war times, the tension between representative anime content and social order indicates another clue to social change. As a pioneer, Osamu Tezuka who lived through the defeat of the war promoted a positive vision of the future to young audiences. During the boom years, anime content balanced the needs of teenage passion with the social indoctrination of the masses. And, from the 1990s, this culture became a force quietly deconstructing the post-war landscape.

▍Social Structure Transition 

“Polanyi Moment” in Contemporary China Li Jing

In The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi theorized the seemingly cyclic double movements between forces of marketization and social protection. By overviewing the policy paradigm shift in contemporary China in the last year or two, this paper contends that these stringent new policies constituted part of the recent global wave of social protection, while the state was the sole agent. On the one hand, it aimed to redress the economic and social disparity brought by marketization, financialization, and platformization; on the other hand, it bypassed the necessary social realignment to support social protective policies and might very well end up in over-bureaucratization, conservative solidarity, and possibly also rent-seeki Theories and Practices in Philanthropy 

The Chinese Practice of Social Organization Specialization: The Exploration of Cihong Charity Foundation Zhang Jing

▍World View

Re-examining “Geopolitics” — A World History Perspective Fang Xu

The Myth and Reality of the “Single Nation” of Korea Zheng Lifei