Welcome to Volume 10 Number 1 of the Journal of International and Global Studies. We continue to increase our subscriptions to this free open access online interdisciplinary journal. If you would like to subscribe to the journal, just click on the Subscribe tab below the journal title. We will be sure to send you the web link to the journal so that you can read and download the essays and book reviews in accordance with your interests. You will also provide us with a database so that we can draw on your expertise for peer reviewing essays for the journal.

This Fall/Winter 2018 issue features nine essays from a variety of different disciplines, two Review Essays, and 28 book reviews on globalization topics (defined broadly), a predominant theme of the journal.

The first essay deals with some classical issues by Maximilian Lakitsch from the Department of Comparative Political and Legal Studies – Institute of Legal Foundations at the University of Graz in Austria. Lakitsch argues that within the state of nature, as espoused by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, a state of fear and anxiety resembles the deep-rooted mistrust that haunts most post-conflict societies. His paper describes human desires as the foundation of political power. He argues that the desires and interests of every individual must be included to create a common social order for peace. Lakitsch notes that most peacebuilding efforts in areas such as Libya and Afghanistan have failed because of purported implementation strategies. He concludes that applying a context-sensitive Hobbesian approach that takes into account multiple interests and desires can provide a framework for effective peacebuilding.

The second essay is by Shawn Smallman of Department of International and Global Studies at Portland State University. He investigates the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in 1997 Hong Kong by making field observations and collecting data from live or ‘wet’ (animal) street markets in Hong Kong, Macao, and Shenzhen, China. Since the Avian influenza emergence is related to contact with poultry in these live wet markets, in addition to his field observations, Smallman interviewed many experts in the field. He begins the essay by noting how an outbreak of a respiratory virus like avian influenza could be similar to the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 to 100 million people. A hundred years later in 2018, a new strain of highly pathogenic H5N7 avian influenza was circulating in Guandong province in China. Thus, Smallman wanted to investigate the risks of live wet markets and the procedures adopted by the Chinese authorities to control outbreaks of Avian influenza. Despite the attempt by the Chinese authorities to ban the live wet markets, many black markets replaced them and the virus was not controlled. Based on his observations of live wet markets, Smallman found that there were inconsistencies and some sanitary and health problems in some of the markets. Although it appears that many younger people preferred to buy chilled poultry at supermarkets rather than face the dangers posed by live wet markets, there were still problems. Smallman recommends that the Chinese authorities ought to encourage companies to produce chilled poultry and hopefully over time the live wet markets will disappear and the threat of influenza outbreaks will be reduced.

The third essay is by Azlan Tajuddin at the Sociology and International Studies Department at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His essay focuses on the Chinese community in Malaysia and their attempts to retain their cultural identity in the multiethnic capitalist and colonial society of Malaya. As a migrant minority in a diasporic situation during the period of British colonialism from 1826-1957, it was difficult to return home. Drawing on theories of political identity-building among minorities, the essay provides an historical overview of the Chinese diaspora and its issues in colonial Malaya. Tajuddin demonstrates that there were differences within the Chinese community regarding identity building. The Chinese community in Malaya faced the same problems as other ethnic minorities under European colonialism. They were never treated or perceived as equals in because of their race, ethnicity, or cultural origins based on their customs, values, and physical appearance, which created uncertainties regarding their status. Tajuddin provides a wealth of historical detail in regards to how the diverse Chinese and Malay communities were transformed by the British into racialized and class structures. The middle class Chinese promoted an emphasis on Chinese identity and culture for the diasporic community and founded Chinese schools and associations, as well as providing capital as well as loyalty to the government in China. Later uncertainties about Chinese identity became problematic following independence from the British and the communist revolution in China. Tajuddin concludes that the tensions between their ethno-cultural identity, changing political loyalties, and their social and economic interests played a role in the eventual construction of a diasporic Chinese-Malaysian identity.

The fourth essay is by Ese C. Ujara and Jide Ibietan in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Covenant University in Ogun State in Nigeria. They assess Nigeria’s foreign policy since independence from the British but especially during the Fourth Republic (1999-2017) and offer recommendations following their critical analysis. Ujara and Ibietan describe the transformation of military-based governments into more democratic-based governments that influenced foreign policies. They apply ‘Linkage Theory’ derived from systems analysis that connects domestic and foreign policies together to explain the evolution of international relations. Ujara and Ibietan note the poor treatment of migrant Nigerians to other countries, as well as the international image crisis produced by the terrorism of Boko Haram and other insurgents and militants that has afflicted Nigeria. They conclude that political instability, economic crises, civil/terrorist activities, and government deficits need to be addressed. The essay ends with recommendations for the improvement of foreign policy including reforming some aspects of the constitution, improving national security, investments in cybersecurity and electronic surveillance and monitoring of fraudulent individuals that have harmed Nigeria’s image, enhanced reciprocal bilateral and multilateral foreign relationships, more political pragmatism, and adequate funding for embassies and staffs involved in diplomacy.

The fifth essay is authored by Antonio Martín-Cabello and Almudena García-Manso of the Department of Communication and Sociology at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain. The essay investigates the subculture among Spanish corporate expatriates based on semistructured interviews. Based on these interviews, the authors reveal a common set of cultural patterns. They begin the essay stating that the process of globalization has changed studying culture based on a nation-state orientation. They refer to Clifford’s famed understanding of ‘traveling cultures,’ as culture is no longer bounded or static, rather various fluid subcultures are formed by thousands of interrelations that are experienced. After providing the statistics of corporate expatriates around the world (about a half million), including 4,000 Spanish corporate expats, the authors describe the common and diverse living and working conditions for these expats in various countries. They hypothesize that all expatriates tend to create enclaves and meaningful relationships more with other expatriates than with the local population of the host country, perceive themselves as other and to create a certain degree of identity as a member of a separate collective, feeling settled in their positions as expatriates, and they tend to magnify the differences and problems with the culture of the country of residence compared to the culture of their country of origin. All of the Spanish expats interviewed had lived abroad for more than a year. The results of the research suggest that the idea of a global subculture of expatriates carries a certain amount of weight. Spanish expats tend to create their own enclaves. The study concludes that Spanish corporate expatriates seem to feel primarily Spanish, acting as a globalized national elite and interacting with other corporate expats from different countries. The authors conclude that nationality, a common language, and the situation of expatriation are key when it comes to constructing enclaves and establishing social relationships with other expatriates.

The sixth essay is by Javier Tapia who is an anthropologist in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Carla Dorn who was his research assistant. They explore how globalization and NAFTA brought about economic and social integration between the U.S. and Mexico with consequences for Mexican migration to the U.S. The Hispanic growth in the U.S. led to shortages in bilingual education programs and professional staff. The authors note that a revised form of NAFTA will probably be developed by the Trump administration to sustain the interdependency between the U.S. and Mexico. They note how the Latino students will continue to increase in the U.S., but they continue to fall behind in educational progress, which is problematic for U.S. society as a whole. They apply a public anthropology approach to emphasize how anthropologists and other academics can foster more beneficial education process for Mexican migrants. They focus on how the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and government and educational officials in Mexico and the U.S. has demonstrated how this approach can be effective. The University developed an exchange program with the state of Guanajuato, Mexico to help identify bilingual teachers on 1-3 year non-renewable visas for teaching in the U.S. Other programs developed by institutions such as the University of California and Southern Methodist University area also collaborating in exchange programs with Mexico.

The seventh essay is authored by Marcos Mendoza and Emily Warner of the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. The essay examines the financial media discourses of the Greek debt crisis of 2010 to 2015 by focusing on six major news outlets in the U.S. and U.K. that emphasized a reference to the economic conditions of contemporary Argentina. The authors argue that the financial media in these countries are based on the neoliberal policies of pro-growth, liberalization, privatization, deregulation, and labor flexibilization. These media outlets utilized the historical aspects of the Argentinian financial crisis as a framework for analyzing the Greek debt crisis. The essay draws on content analysis of the six major U.S. and U.K. media outlets the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Times, and The Guardian based on Lexus Nexus Academic searches. The essay indicates that the U.S. and U.K. media outlets promote the neoliberal view that the Greek politicians should not adopt illiberal and anti-neoliberal policies like the failed solutions of the ‘pariah’ nation of Argentina. This research project is part of the new emerging interdisciplinary field of financial media studies and definitely contributes to this recent field that examines international and transnational finance.

The eighth essay is by Max Ratnikov of Department of International Relations at Cherkasy State University, Ukraine. The objective of the essay is to test the theory that the U.S. considers the policies of countries when deciding whether to provide economic or military aid. In order to test this hypothesis, Ratnikov does a statistical analysis of the votes in the UN General Assembly during the period of 2005 to 2014. The analysis is done to determine how the U.S. policies may influence decisions regarding economic and military aid to Ukraine, especially within the context of the Russian occupation of Crimea. Ukraine had pleaded for economic and military assistance from the U.S. for years prior to its crisis with Russia, but was not given aid until 2018. The essay attempts to answer the query as to why the U.S. did not provide this aid to Ukraine. Was it due to neorealist policies, i.e., aid was provided as a political tool of foreign policy or some other factors? Ratnikov concludes that the statistical test of the UN voting was not able to determine predictive algorithms as to whether the U.S. would provide aid to other countries. Other factors such as the costs of the inability of countries to repay loans, definitive military contracts between countries and industries, competition between countries in military supplies, legislative bodies and lobbying groups in support of aid, and political interests between allied countries all played a role in the U.S. eventually providing assistance to Ukraine in 2018.

The ninth essay is authored by Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat from the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of), but who was also a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Departments of Political Science & Historical Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada. The author discusses modern Persia (Iranian) foreign policy from the time of the Safavid dynasty up until the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty. Houshisadat explores nationalist and ultranationalist factors including the beliefs system of the policy makers, the political economy, geopolitics of Iran, geography, and the global order, symmetrical and asymmetrical interdependence, and regional systemic status. He provides an extensive detailed history of Persia from the time that the Safavids founded Shīism as the official religion tied to political authorities up through the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty. The theoretical emphasis is on combining structure and agency, along with symmetrical or asymmetrical interdependence in the analysis of Iranian foreign policy. Houshisadat concludes that there were very negative dialectics in Persian/Iranian foreign policy in its relationship with other Middle Eastern nations during various periods, but has also developed more cooperative dynamics in other phases.

Volume 10 Number 1 includes two superb review essays. The first review essay is authored by Maureen Heffern Ponicki from the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her review essay is about the country of Bolivia as she reviews books by Carolina Borda-Niño-Wildman The Medicalisation of Incest and Abuse: Biomedical and Indigenous Perceptions in Rural Bolivia published by Routledge in 2018 and by Susan Helen Ellison Domesticating Democracy: The Politics of Conflict Resolution in Bolivia published by Duke University Press, 2018. The other review essay is by Michael G. Vann of the Department of History & Asian Studies at Sacramento State University. He reviews two books regarding East and Southeast Asia. One book is by Sheena Chestnut Greitens Dictators and Their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence published by Cambridge University Press in 2016 and Jan M. Padios A Nation on the Line: Call Centers as Postcolonial Predicaments in the Philippines published by Duke University Press in 2018.

Volume 10 Number 1 also includes 28 book reviews dealing with global trends throughout the world; we intend to maintain this standard of generalized interdisciplinary readability for all of our essays and book reviews in future issues of our journal. We hope that you will subscribe to our journal to read future essays, review essays, and book reviews. We also invite you to submit essays, review essays, book reviews, and suggest possible book reviews for the journal.

Sincerely,

Raymond Scupin, PhD Director: Center for International and Global Studies Professor of Anthropology and International Studies Lindenwood University Email: [email protected]