Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen

American Missionary Universities in China and the Middle East and American Philanthropy: Interacting Soft Power of Transnational Actors

This article investigates the interacting soft power of two important categories of American transnational actors: American missionary universities in China and the Middle East and American religious, foundation and individual philanthropy. These transnational actors have had and have soft power in Chinese and Middle East societies based on academic excellence and biculturalism. However, this transnational actor soft power has historically been limited by religious proselytising, unequal treaties between China and the West, the humiliation of China, and American China and Middle East policy. The universities have had and continue to have reverse soft power in the USA attracting resources and advocating on behalf of China and the Middle East. Philanthropic support for the educational, research, healthcare and social development work of these universities has contributed to university soft power in the host societies. The universities and their philanthropic donors have strengthened US national soft power regarding milieu goals of elite attraction to education, language and liberal norms. However, US national soft power concerning possession goals of acceptance of foreign policies in China and the Middle East has not been strengthened, and was also not a university, philanthropic or government goal.

The Role of Science Diplomacy: A Historical Development and International Legal Framework of Arctic Research Stations under Conditions of Climate Change Post-Cold War Geopolitics and Globalization/Power Transition

The Arctic is undergoing transformation, where three important drivers are climate change, post-Cold War geopolitics and globalization/power transition from the rise of China. This transformation defines the nexus between science diplomacy, geopolitics, law and globalization under climate change, which is shaping the future of the Arctic and will bring considerable opportunity at national, regional and global levels. Research infrastructures (research stations both military and non-military, observation and monitoring networks) are opening access and data to new Arctic and non-Arctic players. Additional logistics hubs than those already existing are and should be established. Countries are sustaining and building new research as well as search and rescue bases/stations. Stations can be used as indicator of this transformation as well as their implications to improve cooperation, engage in multilateral rather than unilateral actions to protect the Arctic infrastructures and to improve military capabilities. These actions have started to attract also non-Arctic actors, such as China and the European Union (EU), which are developing new policies. Stations may not be developed and maintained only not only for the purpose of the scientific understanding of climatic and environmental impacts but also for function as entities that legitimize national or sovereign claims. At the nexus are the scientists that utilize the research bases and their international colleagues. Arctic/Northern bases are primarily military for historical reasons and for reasons of logistics and expertise, as historically indicated through the American presence in Alaska. This is not the same as saying that the bases are militarized—or part of some national militarization strategy in the Arctic. New steps to identify the role of stations at national, regional and global levels are needed. In this essay, we explore the implications and opportunities for these stations to act as pivots between scientific and geopolitical issues. We argue that where there is scientific collaboration, there is less risk of military conflict and that the Arctic is not “militarized” based on the international politics and science diplomacy of the Arctic.

Knowledge-Based Institutions in Sino-Arctic Engagement: Lessons for the Belt and Road Initiative

Arctic knowledge-based institutions, some initiated by China, are key regional institutions for Sino-Arctic engagement. Against the backdrop of power transition, institutionalized scientific cooperation helps China to change its image from an ambitious rising power into a science-focused Arctic actor. This illuminative lesson could be applied to other Chinese foreign policy fields, including the Belt and Road Initiative (BR). While this huge project mainly serves China’s domestic purposes, it has complex international dimensions and requires a long-term outlook. As a learner in the international system, China needs to increase its experience by promoting scientific collaboration and research networks. Knowledge-based institutions can be of great help to China in enhancing mutual understanding and facilitating cooperation within the BR.

Energy as a Developmental Strategy: Creating Knowledge-Based Energy Sectors in Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland

Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland share a history as overseas autonomies of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is relevant to compare their constitutional, political and socioeconomic trajectories, since there are processes of learning and spillover between these three microstates. Although only Iceland is fully independent, we refer to them as ‘microstates’ in this chapter, because that term highlights a central aspect of these societies: how they face the challenge of being very small societies located on the periphery. The three societies differ in size: Iceland has a population of about 310 000; the Faroe Islands, 48 000; and Greenland, 56 000. Some Icelandic commentators object to the label of ‘microstate’ for the island, but it is precisely Iceland’s socioeconomic success despite its very small population and remote location that is of interest here. Iceland is in a different position than the other Nordic countries that are typical small states. In this chapter, we examine the role of energy as a developmental strategy for these societies: historically, today and in the future. We enquire into the role of knowledge, competences and human capital for an environmental, socially and culturally sustainable use of energy resources for development. All three societies have been working determinedly to increase their political and fiscal independence, to diversify very narrow economic bases and to ensure human development and economic growth. And, as we will see in this chapter, energy continues to play a key role in these endeavours. These three North Atlantic societies came to be overseas territories of the Kingdom of Denmark through the early mediaeval expansion of the Kingdom of Norway for control of the Viking settlements of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, followed by the 1397 Kalmar Union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the Danish– Norwegian recolonization of Greenland in the 1700s. This constitutionalpolitical status defined Icelandic history, and has continued to define Faroese and Greenlandic politics and society. Iceland progressed through home rule to, first, sovereignty and then to a republic through a political process from 1845 to 1944. In 1845, the Icelandic Vikingage assembly, Althingi, was reconstituted as an advisory assembly to the absolute Danish monarch, and remained so until 1874 (Denmark became a constitutional monarchy in 1848, but Iceland kept its separate overseas status by remaining outside the unitary state). In 1874, the Althingi gained legislative and budgetary power, although executive and judiciary power remained Danish, with the administration of Iceland led by a Danish Minister for

Sino-Danish brain circulation: scholarship, capacity and policy

China is faced with urgent needs to develop an economically and environmentally sustainable economy based on innovation and knowledge. Brain circulation and research and business investments from the outside are central for this development. Sino-American brain circulation and research and investment by overseas researchers and entrepreneurs are well described. In that case, the US is the centre of global R&D and S&T. However, the brain circulation and research and investments between a small open Scandinavian economy, such as Denmark, and the huge developing economy of China are not well understood. In this case, Denmark is very highly developed, but a satellite in the global R&D and S&T system. With time and the growth of China as a R&D and S&T power house, both Denmark and China will benefit from brain circulation between them. Such brain circulation is likely to play a key role in flows of knowledge, technology and investments between Denmark and China. This paper describes these activities and analys...

The Arctic as a Laboratory of Global Governance: The Case of Knowledge-Based Cooperation and Science Diplomacy

The take-away message from this chapter is that while the Arctic has historically been heavily influenced by the international political, economic, and security system, the area may now offer important lessons for managing very complex and dangerous systemic processes of power transition. Popular and even academic writing on the Arctic has described international and geopolitical attention to the Arctic as something new (Rosen 2016). This new attention is supposed to have been driven by climate change, which has made natural resources and shipping routes more accessible. There have also been alarmist writings about a sudden new risk of conflict in the Arctic over these natural resources (Bittner 2016). Such “presentism” (Halliday 2001) concerning the Arctic has clouded the research and policy lessons of the Arctic.

The International Political Systemic Context of Arctic Marine Resource Governance

The Arctic has been an integrated part of the international system for centuries, and systemic developments have deeply influenced the region and its communities. Central Arctic Ocean marine resource governance is in the nexus of climate change and international systemic developments. The international systemic context for the Arctic is: The rise of China and emerging Asian economies driving gradual power transition from Western to Eastern states. Struggles continue over the domestic order and international position of post-Soviet Russia, where either side considers whether to escalate the Ukraine crisis horizontally to the Arctic. The USA and China interact concerning governing Arctic marine resources as Arctic Ocean coastal state/status quo power and fishing nation/rising power. Russia and the West choose not to escalate the Ukraine crisis horizontally into Arctic marine resource management. Co-creating of knowledge and epistemic communities are important for Arctic status quo and rising Asian countries to manage power transition in the Arctic and for Russia and the West to continue Arctic cooperation despite political crisis elsewhere.

Networks around entrepreneurs: gendering in China and countries around the Persian Gulf

Entrepreneurs are networking with others to get advice for their businesses. The networking differs between men and women; notably, men are more often networking for advice in the public sphere and women are more often networking for advice in the private sphere. The purpose of this study is to account for how such gendering of entrepreneurs’ networks of advisors differs between societies and cultures.,Based on survey data from the Global Entrepreneurships Monitor, a sample of 16,365 entrepreneurs is used to compare the gendering of entrepreneurs’ networks in China and five countries largely located around the Persian Gulf, namely Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.,Analyses show that female entrepreneurs tend to have slightly larger private sphere networks than male entrepreneurs. The differences between male and female entrepreneurs’ networking in the public sphere are considerably larger. Societal differences in the relative prominence of networking in the public and private spheres, and the gendering hereof, correspond well to cultural and socio-economic societal differences. In particular, the authors found marked differences among the religiously conservative and politically autocratic Gulf states.,As a main limitation to this study, the data disclose only the gender of the entrepreneur, but not the gender of each advisor in the network around the entrepreneur. Thus, the authors cannot tell the extent to which men and women interact with each other. This limitation along with the findings of this study point to a need for further research on the extent to which genders are structurally mixed or separated as entrepreneurs network for advice in the public sphere. In addition, the large migrant populations in some Arab states raise questions of the ethnicity of entrepreneurs and advisors.,Results from this study create novel and nuanced understandings about the differences in the gendering of entrepreneurs’ networking in China and countries around Persian Gulf. Such understandings provide valuable input to the knowledge of how to better use the entrepreneurial potential from both men and women in different cultures. The sample is fairly representative of entrepreneur populations, and the results can be generalized to these countries.

Transnational science guanxi: a necessary, but insufficient, condition for Sino-Danish flows of knowledge, talent and capital in genetics

Genetics is observed as a particularly active field of Sino-Danish science collaboration, brain circulation and funding. Explaining the level of activity of this scientific field is therefore valuable for understanding the conditions allowing such activity. This paper identifies Danish scientific excellence as a necessary, but insufficient, condition. This condition becomes sufficient together with another necessary, but insufficient, condition, which is Sino-Danish transnational science guanxi, or networks and acquaintanceship. This guanxi is based on the previous graduate studies of Chinese in Denmark, or brain circulation. The paper finds that brain circulation in the form of graduate students can have revolutionary long-term effects on Sino-Danish science collaboration and investments, exemplified in the location of Beijing Genomics Institute Europe in Copenhagen.

Devolution and withdrawal: Denmark and the North Atlantic, 1800-2100

The history of the North Atlantic encompasses the Kingdoms of Norway, Denmark — Norway and Denmark since 1814. These kingdoms have faced geopolitical pressures in the North Atlantic, especially since the Napoleonic Wars. Together with internal national-liberal pressures of national awakening, calls for self-determination have shaped the development of the Kingdom of Denmark in the North Atlantic. Iceland developed through a national awakening in the 1840s from a self-government to a sovereignty in 1918 and subsequently a republic in 1944. The Faroe Islands obtained home rule in 1948, Greenland in 1979. Both home rules were expanded in 2005 and Greenland transformed to self-rule in 2009. The Kingdom of Denmark will continue to be marked by devolution and withdrawal far into the 21st century.