The Dominican Republic–Central American Free Trade Agreement’s Symbolic Nod to Environmental Protection: Legal Perspectives on the Citizen Submission Process

The Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) contains a chapter on the environment, ostensibly included to mitigate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) environmental oversights. The environment chapter created a citizen submission process designed to foster public participation in supporting each participating nation’s environmental laws. This article examines the outcomes to date of the citizen submission process, based on an analysis of the articles of the agreement and an examination of the rulings made on each case submitted under the citizen submission process. The analysis shows that CAFTA poses significant obstacles to citizen participation and has made minimal, if any, contributions to environmental law enforcement among the Parties to the agreement.     

Immigrant groups and the local environment: socio-spatial differentiation in Czech metropolitan areas

The spatial distribution of immigrant groups is a more relevant topic now than ever before. While the study of this topic has a long tradition in the “traditional” immigration countries, it is rare in the very different context of Central and Eastern Europe, especially at the level of metropolitan areas. This study aims to address this gap by providing an analysis of the spatial distribution of various immigrant groups (defined by country of citizenship) in 17 Czech metropolitan areas, and its determinants. First, we characterize the specific situation of the Czech immigration system. Then we use cluster analysis to create a typology of neighbourhoods and compare the distribution of immigrant groups in each type of neighbourhood. Finally, we use regression analysis to examine which characteristics of the local environment are connected to concentrations of different immigrant groups. We show that the presence of foreigners remains associated with core urban areas. Some predominantly Western citizens act as gentrifiers, being associated with spacious pre-war apartments in prestigious inner-city areas, but there are also signs of suburbanization among more well-off immigrants to Czech metropolitan areas. We identify little evidence of ghettoization of immigrants into socially excluded areas.     

Robustness and the Paradox of Bridging Organizations: The Exit Problem in Regional Water Governance Networks in Central America

Bridging organizations facilitate a range of governance processes, including cooperation and social learning, and are theorized to be a key component of robust governance systems. In this article, we use node removal simulations to test structural hypotheses of robustness in a regional water governance network in Central America. We investigate the response of network measures supporting core governance processes to the targeted removal of bridging organizations and other actors, which we compare to random and centrality-based simulations. The results indicate removing bridging organizations has a greater impact on the network than any other type of actor, suggesting bridging organizations are critical to the robustness of the governance system. Furthermore, network structures supporting cooperation may be less robust than structures facilitating social learning. We conclude with policy implications of the research findings as they relate to the exit problem in governance systems with a large presence of international development actors.     

Maritime network dynamics before and after international events

Investigating the influence of international events on global maritime networks is a challenging task that must comprehensively incorporate geographical, political, and maritime sciences. Understanding global maritime network dynamics is an initial and critical step in this investigation. This study proposes an automatic identification system (AIS)-based approach to understanding maritime network dynamics before and after international events. In this approach, a spatiotemporal modeling method is introduced to measure the similarity in shipping trends before and after international events. Then, a spatiotemporal analytic framework is proposed to understand the maritime network dynamics by grouping similar situation, and assessing possible indirect effects within a network. Finally, three case studies of international events, military conflict, lifted economic sanctions, and government elections, were used to investigate the observed network dynamics possibly affected by international events. The results indicate that container, tanker, and bulk shipping between India and its connected countries all declined more than 69% after military conflicts between India and Pakistan in August 2015. Tanker shipping between Iran and the United Arab Emirates increased 51% after economic sanctions on Iran were lifted. Container shipping between Sri Lanka and Singapore, Malaysia, and India increased more than 74% after the general election in Sri Lanka. These investigations demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach in assessing the possible effects of international events on maritime network dynamics.     

Quantitative Analysis of Central Asian Countries’ Energy Security and Its Political Influence Factors

Central Asian countries are located in the heartland of the Eurasian Continent. Their geographic location puts their energy flows under tremendous geopolitical pressure from the countries along their limited number of pipelines. With energy trade data from the United Nations Comtrade Statistics Database in the period from 2005 to 2016, this paper evaluates energy security of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan (exporter) and Kyrgyzstan (importer) using three standards: correlativeness, diversity, and the impact of international relations. It concludes that Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan’s oil markets are balanced in terms of correlation and diversification, and thus less subject to geopolitical pressure. Turkmenistan’s gas markets, on the other hand, still have tremendous exposure to geopolitical risks for lack of diversification. Kyrgyzstan, as an energy importer, could rely on a few neighboring countries for energy supply. We found out that the three Central Asian countries’ energy security is largely determined by four political factors: the relationship with Russia, the new “great game” in Eurasia, the rise of China, and Central Asian regional geopolitical configuration.     

风云气象卫星与潜在国际移动通信系统用户终端在1695~1710 MHz频段兼容性分析

目前我国风云气象卫星广泛使用的1695~1710 MHz频段被2015年世界无线电大会考虑作为国际移动通信(IMT)系统新增划分的候选频段。为了保护气象卫星的频谱资源并了解气象卫星和IMT系统用户端的同频共用干扰情况,本文阐述了风云气象卫星地球站和IMT系统用户终端在1695~1710 MHz频段的特性参数,建立了IMT用户终端的干扰模型,分别仿真分析了潜在的IMT用户端对太阳同步轨道和静止轨道风云气象卫星地面接收链路的干扰,结果表明:工作在1695~1710 MHz频段的IMT用户端对静止和极轨卫星地球站的保护隔离距离至少分别是46km和61km。由于我国布设了大量该频段的气象卫星数据国家级站和省级用户接收站,且移动终端随机移动的特点,这两种业务实际运行中无法兼容共用1695~1710 MHz频段。     

国际游客凝视与旅游文明——基于“印象·刘三姐”的实证研究

在旅游场景中,旅游交往与凝视无处不在。国际游客来华旅行,接触普通的中国游客、百姓,在最生活化的凝视中强化对中国社会、生活、文明各个方面的认知。本研究以中国最知名的山水实景演出——"印象·刘三姐",为研究场景,以国际游客的自由评论为数据来源,利用Leximancer分析国际游客的"印象·刘三姐"观看体验。研究表明,东道主与在场观众的互动是国际游客体验的重要部分。进一步分析发现,国际游客对演出感到满意,对东道主(当地农民、渔民)的表演大加赞赏。可是,不少国际游客对在场的部分中国游客行为,特别是观演礼仪,感到不满。本研究对旅游资源开发、游客教育、塑造公民文明旅游行为起一定的借鉴意义。     

中国城市网络核心-边缘结构演化及影响因素研究——基于制造业企业网络视角

基于制造业企业网络视角的城市网络核心—边缘结构的研究将加深对城市网络演化规律的理解。利用2020年中国制造业500强企业网络数据和隶属联系模型构建城市网络,研究了中国城市网络核心—边缘结构的演化特征,定量测度了核心—边缘结构的影响因素,并根据国际生产折衷理论解析了城市网络地位分异的动力机制。研究发现: 2005—2020年,核心区块的城市数量逐渐增加,主要由直辖市、经济特区以及东、中部地区的省会城市组成,这些城市通过互惠性的链接关系形成了凝聚子群,网络权力较为集中;边缘区块的城市则主要位于中、西部地区,城市间经济联系相对稀疏,整体网络结构并不稳定,城市的发展受到了网络资本的约束。关键资源、基础设施和区位优势是影响中国城市网络地位的决定性因素,择优选择、网络邻近和路径依赖构成了中国城市网络核心—边缘结构演化的动力机制,这将进一步增强核心城市的网络地位。在网络环境下,城市间的差距趋于扩大,城市网络地位的提升取决于城市在网络中的影响力,中国城市化政策需要做出相应调整。     

南极海豹类生态学

描述了南极海豹的种类组成、资源量和种类状况等一般性生态学问题,着重讲述了这些海豹在研究全球变化中所起的作用等科学前沿问题;同时,就海豹研究在各国际组织中的地位阐述了意见。     

A watershed on the Rhine: Changing approaches to international environmental cooperation

Since the 1950s, the governments of the riparian countries of the Rhine have attempted to protect the ecosystems of the river basin through international cooperation. Before 1987, their relations were unproductive and antagonistic. International programs for the protection of Rhine were far less effective than domestic policies. From 1987 onwards, international cooperation on the protection of the Rhine has been exemplary, and has led the way in domestic and international water protection policies. Many existing frameworks of international relations are not able to offer an adequate account of this wholesale change. In this article, an attempt is undertaken with the help of grid-group theory. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.