Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper rejects the implicit assumption in migration literature that migrant networks simply “come” with migrants and remain an exogenous variable to the migration process, more-or-less unchanged. By treating network relationship not as one-dimensional connections but as bundles of obligations and claims, this paper suggests that migrants actively manage their network of obligations to accommodate external circumstances, by accepting, rejecting or attempting to negotiate their obligations, and attempting to have others accept these changed claims. This changes tend to concentrate on four areas of redefinition: 1) assessment of the reasonableness of the cost and benefits of claims to obligation and the determination of undue burdens; 2) redefinition of fair exchange rates for favors and of valid mutual obligations; 3) redefinition of membership claims and of relative proximity to ego; 4) redefinition of the hierarchies and legitimate enforcement structures of the group. These strategies cause egocentric networks that built upon kin and hometown in the “village” to mutate dramatically in new locations. Using ethnographic data on migrant businesspeople in Lhasa collected over three years, the paper illustrates the processes of these network management.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Although there exists a substantial philosophical literature on the concept of friendship and its connections to politics, the possibility that groups such as states could be friends has largely been ignored. This is puzzling insofar as the description of political communities as friends is one that goes back to Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War. Moreover, contemporary international politics is replete with references to the concepts of friend and friendship. The first part of this paper will briefly set out three understandings of international friendship: friendship as alliance, as economic partnership, and as a practice. The remaining sections of the paper will consider whether these understandings have any ethical content. Many thinkers have argued that personal friendships create a set of special obligations that may override our general duties to others. Ordinarily we owe things to our friends that we do not owe to others, and our friends have a license to intervene in our affairs in a way that others do not. The possibility that international friendship could have normative content would add an additional element to international ethics beyond what is claimed by cosmopolitans and nationalists.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: De-Moralizing Political Obligations

Margaret Gilbert

Abstract: There are many versions of “the problem of political obligation”. One, which goes back as far as Plato’s Crito, is this: does one have a special obligation to support the political institutions of one’s own country in particular---and if so, what is the ground of this obligation? The qualifier “moral” is left out of this particular statement, and, I argue, with good reason. The existence and nature of any such special obligations should be of interest, whether or not these obligations are moral obligations as these are generally understood---as moral requirements. Yet what other kind of obligation is there, that makes a difference to what one has reason to do? Encapsulating the argument of my 2006 book A Theory of Political Obligation: Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society, (Oxford: Oxford University Press) I argue that there is such a kind of obligation and that both political philosophers and political scientists need to understand this.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to find an adequate moral reason why the rich in rich countries should help the poor in poor countries. Many scholars have denied the existence of such a transnational obligation. Criticizing this perspective which I call the “parochial” perspective, this paper will reveal the morality of transnational aid. This paper begins with a critical review of parochial arguments (including neo-Malthusian argument, local-responsibility argument, Realpolitik argument, libertarian argument, communitarian argument, and self-interest argument) and moves to the examination of cosmopolitan arguments (including consequentialist argument, compensation argument, entitlement argument, human rights argument, Kantian argument, and Pogge’s negative responsibility argument). This paper then concludes that, of various cosmopolitan arguments, Pogge’s negative responsibility argument can provide a more adequate moral ground for transnational obligation. Revealing the morality of transnational aid, this paper reminds us that we should do something to relieve global poverty and hunger.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this paper, we use a framework rooted in the new institutional economics to examine the factors underlying the main trajectories of China’s telecom reform, which constitute a unique mix of policies shaped by domestic policy goals and international obligations, most importantly those adopted in the context of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). We show that the specific institutional context of Chinese policy-making has led to the adoption of a distinctive reform strategy, characterized by increased reliance on competition in a framework of state ownership and vague regulation. Although China is still struggling to reconcile domestic objectives and international obligations and has not yet established a transparent and stable regulatory framework, its reform model has expanded access rapidly and facilitated the introduction of innovative services. These observations illustrate the primary importance of competition and decentralized decision-making and the more secondary nature of ownership and specific regulations. Also, we examine the tensions between the goals of the international community to create a more homogenous policy framework and China’s national constraints and policy goals. We conclude that some degree of diversity can be beneficial for China in the presence of its national constraints.