Hedging between the United States and China? South Korea’s ideology-driven behavior and its implications for national security

Given the limits of the prevailing hedging account for Seoul’s puzzling behavior that is in conformity with the interests of its adversary (i.e. North Korea) and potential threat (i.e. China) rather than those of its principal ally (i.e. the United States) and security cooperation partner (i.e. Japan), this article emphasizes the impact of the progressive ideology on Seoul’s security policy. In doing so, it calls for attention to a domestic source of ideology in explaining the security behaviors of a secondary state, which is under-researched and thus is poorly understood.

Investigating the triangle: The school principal’s role, term of office, and school improvement in Greece

The aim of this study was to explore the role of school principals and their term of office in regard to school improvement. In particular, we investigated the convergences and divergences between the views of school principals in Greece and the findings of relevant international literature. To this end, we collected and analysed data from 66 school principals across 89 secondary state schools in Achaia, Greece, using an anonymous questionnaire. Survey data revealed that most participants assessed positively the contribution of essential aspects of international literature to school improvement. The same applied for the role and term of office of school principals in Greece, despite the factors that were acknowledged to limit their autonomy. More-qualified school principals appeared to have a more positive stance on assessment and human resource management. In contrast, novices had greater difficulty in managing priorities and tended to be more cautious at the prospect of being assessed. They also appeared to be more satisfied with the institution of term of office as per the Greek model. Conclusions on the implications are presented.

Covert balancing: Great Powers, secondary states and US balancing strategies against China

Throughout history, Great Powers have devised balancing strategies aimed at checking the ambitions of rival Great Powers. To do that, they have sought to enter and mobilize alliances and security partnerships with secondary states. Yet, the influence of secondary states on the balancing strategies of Great Powers remains largely underestimated in the International Relations literature. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we posit that secondary state preferences play a key enabling or constraining role in shaping the balancing choices of Great Powers. We focus specifically on how the adoption of hedging strategies on the part of secondary states affects the balancing strategies of established Great Powers. We argue that when secondary states adopt a hedging strategy established Great Powers are incentivized to engage in what we call ‘covert balancing’. Covert balancing occurs when an established Great Power conceals its security cooperation with a secondary state beneath a cover that is seemingly unrelated to balancing a rising Great Power, thus working around the secondary state's hedging strategy while at the same time helping generate a latent capacity to balance. We probe our argument by examining US balancing strategy against China in the Asia–Pacific.

On the Dutch temporal adverbial goed en wel

The paper investigates the origin, the development, the semantics and the pragmatics of the temporal use of the Dutch expression goed en wel ‘good and well’. We argue that the expression has developed from a meaning “safe and sound” into an indicator of the end of a preparatory phase or transition period, as well as a marker of the beginning of a new state. We observe that temporal goed en wel always requires a secondary state of affairs that is temporally related to the transition point initiating the primary state of affairs, and we show that the expression is increasingly being employed for rhetorical purposes.

Using Reading to Learn for EFL students’ reading of explanations

Reading to Learn (R2L) is an instructional approach that leads students from aided to independent creation of meaning in reading and writing. The approach uses whole texts as the point of departure for instruction. This case study explored how R2L promoted ninth graders’ comprehension of explanation texts in EFL during six lessons and students’ perceptions about R2L. The study involved a group of ninth graders from a secondary state school in Colombia whose results in national standardized tests had been traditionally low, particularly in EFL reading. Results revealed that students became better readers of explanation texts and perceived R2L as a useful approach to develop their ability to understand written texts in EFL. The study highlights the benefits of R2L for enhancing L2 students’ meaning-making potential.

Hedging in South Asia: balancing economic and security interests amid Sino-Indian competition

The literature on hedging as a secondary state strategy – built largely on evidence from United States-China competition in East and Southeast Asia – focuses on conditions where a major power presents both an economic opportunity and a security threat. In South Asia, in contrast, secondary states facing strategic competition between India and China have pursued hedging strategies in the absence of a security threat. We develop a theoretical reconciliation of these two phenomena. Hedging at its core involves a trade-off between the material benefits and autonomy costs of cooperating with a major power in a competitive environment. States are likely to hedge when these benefits and costs are simultaneously rising. We test the plausibility of this theory in the cases of the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The autonomy trade-off operates both in the absence and in the presence of a security threat, thus offering a theoretical advancement with greater empirical scope.