Welcome to the Volume 4 Number 1 issue of the Journal of International and Global Studies. We continue to increase our subscriptions to this peer reviewed and free open access online interdisciplinary journal. If you would like to subscribe to the journal, just click on the tab at the top of the page 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 in accordance with your interests. You will also provide us with a data base so that we can draw on your expertise for peer reviewing essays for the journal.

This Fall issue for Volume 4 Number 1 features the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary essays, a review essay, and book reviews on globalization topics (defined broadly) that is a predominant theme of the journal.

The lead essay “Neoliberal Globalization and the Politics of Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa” by Saul Tobias continues an important theme of this journal in investigating the global impact of migration on different communities throughout the world. Tobias explores how antiimmigration policies have created negative conditions for economic exploitation, violence, and harassment on migrants in Sub-Saharan Africa. As Tobias emphasizes, this is not a north-south problem. Modeling the post-Cold War neoliberal policies of the global north, the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa have produced economic and political elites who adopt anti-immigration mentalities that exacerbate the problems for migrants. This paper has both a critical edge and an alerting function that can serve human rights activists, development specialists, diplomats, and scholars of migration who want to offer improvements in these conditions.

The second essay “State sponsored famine: Conceptualizing politically induced famine as a crime against humanity” by Jlateh Vincent Jappah and Danielle Taana Smith is also a critical paper with an alerting function for development and human rights activists. The essay illuminates how state policies can induce famines and offers suggestive solutions for criminalizing these politically-based faminogenic policies. Applying Foucault’s concept of governmentality and critically evaluating Amartya Sen’s notions of famine, these scholars provide a format for criminalizing these state policies. They agree that currently some argue against such criminalization because there is no clear consensus on how to designate a famine as state-sponsored. However, they demonstrate that there are precedents in the UN declarations about genocide and deliberate attempts to starve populations that can be used to promote the criminalization of these faminogenic policies.

Aidan Borcan addresses questions regarding diplomacy, globalization, and cosmopolitanism in the third essay, another theme discussed in earlier issues of the journal. Borcan draws on the work of Hannerz, Simmel, Merton, Luckmann, Nussbaum, and Stonequist to provide a framework for analyzing the relationships among diplomacy, cosmopolitanism, and globalization. The diplomat occupies a position as an individual representing their own society and culture, but within a perspective shaped by knowledge of the world. The diplomat’s identification with both local and global worlds reminds one of the epistemological position of the anthropologist. The fourth essay by Nadja Johnson, a recent PhD, focuses on diasporic studies and global issues. She synthesizes the traditional sociological theories of migration with the diaspora theories that have emerged from the cultural studies arena. Johnson describes how diasporic communities have evolved in the academic literature from “victim” diasporas such as the Jewish or Palestinian diasporas to a more generalized transnational era in which agency and mobilization are featured in both the homeland and host areas. Johnson calls for a multidisciplinary approach to study diasporic communities that differ from one another in various areas of the world.

The final essay by Linsun Cheng investigates the development of the city of Shanghai in order to shed light on economic globalization processes in China. Tracing the history of globalization, deglobalization, and re-globalization of Shanghai’s economy since the nineteenth century Opium War, Cheng demonstrates how a part state-owned-part private and part multinational enterprises hybrid economy with a strong manufacturing base as well as a solid tertiary sector has evolved. He shows how Shanghai has weathered the recent financial downturn since 2008 with wise policies led by the current mayor. The full embrace of these economic trends has led Shanghai and China towards more integration into the global economy. The essay provides an up-to-date empirical account of Shanghai’s role in this development.

We have one review essay of two Routledge published books on China’s development and crisis management by Raviprasad Narayanan who is based in Taipei. As in the past, we have a number of book reviews for those scholars who have an interest in interdisciplinary research and in globalization and its consequences throughout the world. Again, as we stated in our first issue of the journal, 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, Ph.D. Director: Center for International and Global Studies Professor of Anthropology and International Studies Lindenwood University