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The politics of tourism has not been studied in depth, even though many recognize the growing importance of political factors in tourism economy. As China has risen, it has used its massive volume of outbound tourists and its tourist industry for political gain, with both positive and negative consequences for partner countries. And the recipient countries' state and society respond to these external impacts from China in various ways. In recent years, this development has alarmed students of tourism and politics in the Pacific Basin. In this context, the case of Chinese tourism in South Korea throughout 2010s sheds light on many aspects of this new and controversial phenomenon and ensuing interactions of various actors at both domestic and international political arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlight • We study affirmative action in contests with productivity heterogeneity. • The affirmative action policy increases overall participation in the contest. • The policy increases overall contest effort. • The possibility of retaliation undermines the effectiveness of the policy. Abstract We conduct a real-effort experiment to test the effects of an affirmative action policy that reserves a share of the prize to subjects of a disadvantaged category in rent-seeking contests. We test three potential pitfalls of the affirmative action policy: (i) whether the introduction of the policy distorts effort and selection in the contest, (ii) whether it leads to reverse discrimination, that is, discourages entry from the advantaged category and (iii) whether the possibility of ex-post retaliatory actions undermines the effectiveness of the policy. We find that the affirmative action contest increases entry of players from the disadvantaged category without affecting entry of advantaged players. This increases overall effort in the contest. However, we find that the possibility of retaliation can undermine the benefits of the affirmative action policy reducing contest participation. This suggests that retaliation is an important aspect to consider when implementing affirmative action policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, the international society was also characterised by the fact that, in lack of international organisations, in case of armed attack or other violation of international laws, the personal self-defence was predominant, with the affected state being the only one which had the possibility to react towards what it considered a violation of its rights, resorting to force in order to protect its own interests. The events occurred after the Second World War, especially consecrating in art. 2 p. 4 from the UN Charter, the principle regarding the prohibition of force or force threatening in the international relations, had as a result the fact that reactions with the title "armed countermeasures" were, mainly, forbidden, with only the use of countermeasures without weapons being accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I investigate trade relations between Norway and China after the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident. It is a case study o f China's political use of economic levers in its international relations. Concluding that Sino-Norwegian trade relationship did not suffer the severe impact that many predicted, I argue that the threshold for China to enact punitive economic actions seems higher than is often acknowledged. China's sensitivity is to the costs and benefits of the relevant country's trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the escalation of reprisal policy in Germany. The author mentioned the role of the Wehrmacht, the country's armed forces, during the war of extermination has been a focal point of historiography. A workshop was organized at the German Historical Institute on the role of the Wehrmacht in the radicalization of violence. The objective of this workshop is to close the discussion regarding this issue.

A major issue intriguing students of international relations is determining to what extent, if at all, do norms and standard operating procedures (SOPs) affect foreign policy. This question is addressed in this article in the case of Israel's policy of military retaliation. Alternative rules of conduct associated with this policy were deduced from strategic and normative arguments presented by Israeli decision-makers in order to justify military reprisal attacks against Arab countries. These rules of conduct were then formulized into hypotheses and empirically tested with the aid of a database that contained daily accounts of Arab and Israeli acts of aggression towards each other between 1949 and 1982. In this manner it was possible to identify different decision rules that dominated Israel's reprisal policy at different periods of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major features of Arab-Israeli conflict has been excessive use of military force by Israel on the territory of its neighbors. These actions, known as reprisals, have been directed at military and civilian targets in the bordering states, ostensibly in response to acts or omissions on the part of the target governments, which Israel perceived to be provocative. More than one hundred such events have occurred since 1948. They range from minor operations by a dozen or fewer men to brigade-size assaults, and include artillery salvos, air strikes, and heliborne commando raids, as well as conventional ground attacks. The article tries to find some of the consequences of the reprisals. Specifically the concerns are with effects of the reprisals pertaining to behavior of the Arab states directed at Israel. It has been tried to assess the degree to which Israeli reprisals seem to have caused modifications in that behavior. It should be borne in mind that the reprisals are viewed strictly in the context of Israeli goals, values, and perceptions. Thus a "negative consequence" should be interpreted as one undesirable from an Israeli viewpoint; similarly a "positive consequence" refers to a result that would be viewed as beneficial in Israel.

The article presents a discussion regarding the article "Some Difficulties of Self-Enforcing Arms Agreements," by Paul Y. Hammond in the June 1962 issue. Roger D. Masters of the Department of Political Science at Yale University states that the article reflects the dangers inherent in agreements with the Soviet Union which do not include effective international enforcement and that it emphasizes the dilemma facing the nation which must react to a violation of self-enforcing agreement. Hammond defends his argument that countermeasures might not be undertaken out of fear that they would go on escalating.

The article discusses some difficulties of self-enforcing arms agreements and the steps to make them effective in instances of violation. Two kinds of self-enforcing arms agreements are discussed. For both kinds of self-enforcing agreements to take effect when violated by the parties, five steps must be observed. The first one is to collect adequate data about the violation. Second, someone must interpret the data and organize them. Then, there must be attribution of responsibility for the violation, there should be some resolve for taking countermeasures and, the countermeasures selected must restore the equilibrium.

This article focuses on political questions which find a natural place for expression in a system celebrating national victory. It is the politically peripheral nature of sport which allows the Olympics to be called "apolitical." The fact that a sporting defeat will not normally be avenged by political or military reprisals does not mean that international sport has no political content.