AAUP September 2023 Newsletter: The NarrativeIdeological Wars and the Academy

The AAUP September newsletter offers a preview of selected articles from the forthcoming fall issue of Academe, including a series of dispatches from states where legislative attacks on higher education pose severe threats to academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and teaching about race; an article about enrollment trends and racial justice in the Illinois higher education system; a review of a book that reflects on diversity and debate at a small Quaker college; and a profile of the new collective bargaining chapter at Miami University of Ohio. The full issue will be available in October.

Titles and Links follow below.

Event Announcement: "China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations" (26 September) The Carter Center (Emory University)

 

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We are pleased to announce an upcoming hybrid symposium titled “China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations” organized by The Carter Center, Emory University, China Research Center, Georgia State University, and Spellman College. 

Event Details:

Date: September 26, 2023 Time: 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Location (in-person): Cyprus Room, The Carter Center , 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE | Atlanta, GA 30307

Virtual Attendance Registration: Register Here

Event Description:

The relationship between the United States and China is currently facing significant challenges, particularly in the areas of technology and national security. Unfortunately, many misconceptions surround the development of the Chinese data governance system, often exacerbated by sensationalized discussions in the public discourse on US-China relations. This symposium aims to dispel these myths and provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese data governance and its implications for US-China relations. It seeks to foster open and critical dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, offering an in-depth update on the topic.

Speakers:

• Obse Ababiya, Associate Director, Office of Global Strategy and Initiatives at Emory University
• Larry Catá Backer, Professor of Law and International Affairs, Penn State University
• Jamie Horsley, Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School | John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings Institution
• Aynne Kokas, C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia
• Maria Repnikova, Associate Professor in Global Communication, Georgia State University
• Keren Wang, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures

The symposium is being convened by Dr. Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor on China at The Carter Center and Dr. Keren Wang of Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures

Agenda:

1:30 pm: Ms. Obse Ababiya opens the meeting, introducing the organizers and sponsors

1:35 pm: Opening remarks by Dr. Maria Repnikova

1:40 pm to 2:10 pm: Dr. Aynne Kokas – “Is China Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty?”

2:10 pm to 3:20 pm: Discussion: Demystifying China’s Data Governance, Moderated by Dr. Aynne Kokas, presentations by Dr. Larry Catá Backer, Ms. Jamie Horsley and Dr. Keren Wang

3:20 pm to 3:50 pm: Q&A

3:50 pm to 4:00 pm: Concluding remarks by Jamie Horsley

Join us for this symposium on September 26, 2023, 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm.  To attend in person, please visit Cyprus Room, The Carter Center , 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE | Atlanta, GA 30307. To attend virtually, please register here.

Now Available: Video Recording of Workshop-Conference: "The Current State and Future Trajectories of Human Rights Due Diligence Laws" (Virtual--6 September 2023)

 

 I am delighted to announce that the video recording of the Workshop-Conference: "The Current State and Future Trajectories of Human Rights Due Diligence Laws" (Virtual) is now available. The video recording are available in two parts:

Morning Session

Afternoon Session

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On 6 September 2023 this Workshop-Conference brought together a number of the contributors to the exploration of the critical issues that arise from mandatory human rights due diligence laws to be published in book The current state and future trajectories of human rights due diligence laws: New Legal Norms on Human Rights Due Diligence (Larry Catá Backer and Claire Methven O’Brien (eds); Routledge, forthcoming 2024). Collectively, through this volume, these analysts will contribute to a deeper understanding on the emerging law of due diligence, especially as it touches on the human rights and sustainability elements of economic activities, whether undertaken by public or private organizations. These essays will weave together the emerging trajectories of due diligence and its critical role in framing contemporary systems of human rights and sustainability measures.

 

For those interested, links to Workshop-Conference information: 

Program

Workshop Concept Note

Presentation Titles and Abstracts

Presentation PowerPoint

Participant Information

Video Recording of Workshop-Conference

 

Presentation PPTs: "Human Rights Due Diligence n the UNGPs" for Workshop-Conference The Current State and Future Trajectories of Human Rights Due Diligence Laws: New Legal Norms on Human Rights Due Diligence (6 Sept. 2023)

 As part of the preparation the book, Human Rights Due Diligence Laws: From Due Diligence Standards to New Legal Norms, Claire Methven O'Brien and I organized a Workshop-Conference at which the book's contributors could introduce their work to a wider audience and engage with other authors.

My task for that event was to consider a conceptual framework, grounded in the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, that might provide insights for the increasingly vigorous movement among states and international organizations, to develop regulatory frameworks around the concept "human rights due diligence."

Abstract: This contribution seeks to situate the concept of due diligence from its origins in the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. The development of the concept is examined with reference to its development between 2006 and the start of the mandate of John Ruggie as Special Representative to the UN Secretary General to the unanimous endorsement of the UNGP in 2011 by the Human Rights Council. The transformation of the concept from an operational level mechanism at the core of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights in the UNGP 2nd Pillar to its key role as the embodiment of compliance based legality respecting the management of global production is then considered. Due diligence has become more than a method for more efficient operation of markets driven nudging (and thus disciplining) of economic behaviors. Due diligence has assumed a normative role as well. It serves as the means through which economic actors may become embedded in complex webs of interlinked administrative legalities that start with international normative projects, their transposition into domestic (or multilateral) legal orders, and their delegation first to the national administrative apparatus and then in its operational elements to the private actors who are expected to serve as the front line administrators of a global multi-layered system. The relationship between the precisely drawn 2nd Pillar due diligence concept, and the 1st Pillar state duty to protect human rights, along with the 3rd Pillar remedial obligation is considered. The transposition of these mechanisms to other regulatory frameworks is then explored.

The PPT of that presentation may be accessed HERE and follow below.  The video recording of the Workshop-Conference may be accessed HERE. 

Human Trafficking and Military Recruitment--Cuba Seeks to End Forced Recruitment to Fight for Russia

 

 

Human Trafficking appears to have become an issue in the Russo-Ukrainian War.  But the way that it has emerged ought to raise eyebrows. Russia  has been seeking to (re)build its military strength.  It has become more difficult to do so as its losses increase and the taste for war decreases among Russian youth.  Now it appears that someone either directly or indirectly aligned with the state, has attempted to traffic in Cubans, many already in Russia as economic refugees. That appears to be the gist of a quite curious statement republished in Spanish and other languages in Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party:

The Ministry of the Interior has detected and it is working to neutralize and dismantle a human trafficking network that operates from Russia in order to incorporate Cuban citizens living there and even some living in Cuba, into the military forces that participate in military operations in Ukraine. Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against those involved in these activities.

Cuba’s enemies are promoting distorted information that seeks to tarnish the country’s image and present it as an accomplice to these actactions [sic] that we firmly reject.

Cuba has a firm and clear historical position against mercenarism, and it plays an active role in the United Nations in rejection of the aforementioned practice, being the author of several of the initiatives approved in that forum.

Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine. It is acting and it will firmly act against those who within the national territory participate in any form of human trafficking for mercenarism or recruitment purposes so that Cuban citizens may raise weapons against any country.

Havana, September 4th, 2023 (Cuba counters human trafficking operations aimed for military recruitment purposes)

El Ministerio del Interior detectó y trabaja en la neutralización y desarticulación de una red de tráfico de personas que opera desde Rusia para incorporar a ciudadanos cubanos allí radicados, e incluso algunos procedentes de Cuba, a las fuerzas militares que participan en operaciones bélicas en Ucrania. Se han neutralizado intentos de esta naturaleza y se han iniciado procesos penales sobre personas involucradas en estas actividades.

Los enemigos de Cuba promueven informaciones distorsionadas que buscan empañar la imagen del país y presentarlo como cómplice de estas acciones, que rechazamos categóricamente.

Cuba tiene una firme y clara posición histórica en contra del mercenarismo y desempeña un papel activo en las Naciones Unidas en repudio de esa práctica, siendo autor de varias de las iniciativas que se aprueban en ese foro.

Cuba no forma parte del conflicto bélico en Ucrania. Está actuando y actuará de manera enérgica contra quien, desde el territorio nacional, participe en cualquier forma de trata de personas con fines de reclutamiento o mercenarismo para que ciudadanos cubanos hagan uso de las armas contra cualquier país.
La Habana, 4 de septiembre de 2023 (Cuba enfrenta operaciones de trata de personas con fines de reclutamiento militar)

Two points are worth making here.

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1. The first is that, as customary, the English and Spanish versions are not identical though they are very close. The differences suggest some different focus for quite different audiences. The Spanish language version underlined the Cuban position against fostering cultures of mercenaries, especially as state policy.  That might well have been a message directed at Cubans who now find themselves  forcibly conscripted in a state in which they were seeking economic opportunity.

2. Cuba is walking a tightrope. It does not want to be drawn into the Russian adventure and risk substantial deterioration of its relationship with the US and the EU. That the statement comes around the time of the renegotiation of Cuba's Paris Club debt may be especially telling. 

3. At the same time, the Cuba-Russia-Iran axis cannot be undermined. These are essential outlets for Cuban efforts to avoid catastrophe. For the moment the Russians are supporting the Cuban line that neither state was involved (see Moscow Times story here). And indeed, the need to blame (even if in the most indirect way) Wagner Group may serve Russia's interests here in demonizing that organization and its leader.

4.  Yet this trafficking can also put at risk the now decades long cultivation of Cuban programs to supply labor to many developing states--especially doctors and other medical personnel.  If it is now possible to begin to see Cuba exporting mercenaries as well as doctors, those non-military projects of human capital could be threatened.   

5. Any connection between the Cuban and Russian state apparatus respective the supply of Cuban soldiers in the Ukraine war might also expose Cuba to international actions as state accomplices of Russian aggression, and thus perhaps liable for gross breaches of international law as a conspirator or facilitator. 

6. Companies worried about complicity in human trafficking will now have to add additional protocols in conflict and ear zones respecting vulnerable people who may be subject to forced conscription--especially economic migrants.  The issue of private facilitation now becomes more complicated. That is particularly the case since the intimation is that a private (or non-state) criminal group is responsible.

7. As Cuba suggested, it is for the US and EU to make the next move. 

Reporting from Reuters follows, echoed for the most part by other press organs.

Summary and PPT of my Presentation: "The Just Transitions of Risk—Human Rights, Sustainability and the ESG Wars" to be Given at the Just Transitions Conference (University of Dundee; 7 September 2023)

 

I was delighted to join a number of esteemed colleagues for a consideration of Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk (ESG) measures as a phenomenon, as a method, and as a means of shifting the fundamentals nor ative narratives of economic activity in liberal democratic and post colonial states (ESG in Marxist Leninist states follows its own trajectories, those are closely parallel in effect to the liberal democratic developments).  Our panel is part of the upcoming Just Transitions Conference 7-8 September 2023; University of Dundee (7-8 September 2023)  (registration here; program here). 

 Out panel, "Just Transition and Business – Chair Claire O'Brien, University of Dundee) includes a number of marvelous speakers:

• Tara Van Ho -Without Reforming the Corporate Purpose, All Of This Is Pointless
• Alexandra R Harrington – Multisectoral Just Transitions to a Low Carbon Economy in a Post-Pandemic World
• Caroline Lichuma – The Vernacularization of the Just Transition Concept: A Role for National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights
• Larry Catá Backer – The Just Transitions of Risk—Human Rights, Sustainability and the ESG Wars
• Zoumpoulia Amaxilati – Decarbonisation of the Shipping Industry, Just Transition, and the Role of International Maritime Labour Law

My presentation, "The Just Transitions of Risk—Human Rights, Sustainability and the ESG Wars," builds on recent work around the sometimes not so subtle and not so hidden agendas of some who seek to advance a particular vision of ESG modalities:

The presentation considers the context and consequences of the movement toward the insertion of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risk/impact factors in a variety of contexts around investment, economic activity, and the management of systemic risk. This, in turn, is aligned with movements toward private and public efforts to achieve convergence with human rights, sustainability, and climate change related principles, and to embed these risk/impact parameters through mandatory measures. The result has been the transformation of ESG from risk to impact measures, and its reconstitution as a platform within which producers and consumers of risk and related standards of acceptable decision making within risk parameters, is sketched out. To that end, the evolution of the character of ESG from an investment risk assessment devices toward more comprehensive systems for the evaluation of project risk, and as a means of implementing risk reduction cultures grounded in the principle of prevention-mitigation-remedy was discussed. The application of ESG as risk factors bearing on financial decisions making, decisions to engage in specific projects, the use of ESG risk assessment as impact measures guiding decisions abut internal operations and corporate business, and its use in organizing the private law of production chains, is considered. The effects of growing and robust markets in ESG assessments suggest challenges to the character and utility of ESG modalities as a means of nudging cultures of acceptable business behaviors and forms of decision making. That, in turn, requires unpacking the great utility of ESG--as a vessel through which ideological battles over the normative structures of economic activity can be undertaken beyond the spotlight of democratic engagement and in the shadows of apparently technical methodological techniques. At the same time, the utility of ESG as a vessel for undertaking this ideologically charged narrative of economic activity (including the role of markets, acceptability of risk taking, the profit principle, and corporate purpose) narrative is undertaken. Here, one encounters a continuation of the underlying normative battles over the meta-narratives of a half generation of soft law measures--the SGDs and the UN Guiding principles for Business and Human Rights among them--and their implications (through the language and modalities built into ESG of risk-response principles) for rationalizing economic activity as social and political instruments. It is in this context that one can better understand the just transitions of risk.

The PPT follows.  PPT may be accessed HERE. Paper draft will be circulated when completed.

 

习近平 在文化传承发展座谈会上的讲话 [Xi Jinping, Speech at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development]

 

 There are a number of ways in which a society confronts its past as it seeks to "move forward" (whatever that means.  One way is to embrace the past and seek to relive it.  That is the essence of traditional or tradition bounded social collectives.  Another is to seek to obliterate a historical past as a society seeks to reinvent itself. That, for example has been a hallmark of late Roman practice (where all temples were destroyed along with much of the writings of that era); or now the quest to obliterate history in the dawn of the era of social justice.  Another manifestation in Marxist Leninist States was  the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which sought to obliterate traditional Chinese culture as it had come down after the purges of the centuries before the end of the Roman Republic. 

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And yet another way is to embrace the past but to naturalize it within the present. That has been a defining characteristic of the maturing discourse of New Era Marxist Leninist thought (e.g.,Breaking With the Past or Absorbing it--The Current View From China: “第二个结合”是又一次的思想解放（深入学习贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想）["The second combination" is another ideological emancipation (in-depth study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)]). It was recently reinforced in a speech by Xi Jinping, given substantial prominence in the flagship theoretical journal of the Chinese Communist Party.  That address, 习近平 在文化传承发展座谈会上的讲话 《求是》2023/17 [Xi Jinping, Speech at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development], follows below in the original Chinese and a crude English translation.

 To open up and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics based on the profound foundation of Chinese civilization of more than 5,000 years, it is the only way to integrate the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality and with China's excellent traditional culture. This is the regular understanding we have come to in exploring the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. [在五千多年中华文明深厚基础上开辟和发展中国特色社会主义，把马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际、同中华优秀传统文化相结合是必由之路。这是我们在探索中国特色社会主义道路中得出的规律性认识。]

 

As my friend and colleague Chris Mittelstadt noted: "First integration: Marxism with China's realities Second integration: Marxism with China's traditional culture Context - 2021 History Resolution: 1) is where phrase emerged first 2) XJP Thought redefined as “embodying the best of the Chinese culture and ethos”. . . "The "second integration" 第二个结合 makes Marxism Chinese and Chinese excellent traditional culture modern, allowing the newly formed culture through "combination" to become a cultural form of Chinese-style modernization."  

Key text:

"What sets our socialism apart?... The key lies in Chinese characteristics. The essence of Chinese characteristics lies in the "two integrations." The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is fundamentally socialism, rooted in Marxism.""Chinese-style modernization is the modernization that carries forward ancient civilizations, not erases them. It emerges from the Chinese land, not simply copying other countries. It's a result of civilizational renewal, not a product of civilizational rupture."

The Law of Algorithms--SEC Proposes Rules on "Conflicts of Interest Associated with the Use of Predictive Data Analytics by Broker- Dealers and Investment Advisers" (2023)

 

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 The Securities and Exchange Commission has distributed notice of proposed rulemaking-- Conflicts of Interest Associated with the Use of Predictive Data Analytics by Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers (2023)

 The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”) is proposing new rules (“proposed conflicts rules”) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) to eliminate, or neutralize the effect of, certain conflicts of interest associated with broker-dealers’ or investment advisers’  interactions with investors through these firms’ use of technologies that optimize for, predict, guide, forecast, or direct investment-related behaviors or outcomes. The Commission is also proposing amendments to rules under the Exchange Act and Advisers Act that would require firms to make and maintain certain records in accordance with the proposed conflicts rules. (SEC, Conflicts of Interest Associated with the Use of Predictive Data Analytics by Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers (2023).

 Comments may be received by 10 October 2023. Electronic Comments: Use the Commission’s internet comment form (https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed.shtml); or  Send an email to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include File Number S7-12-23 on the subject line. Paper Comments: Send paper comments to Vanessa A. Countryman, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.

The SEC Press Release follows below. For commentary see here, here, here, here, and here.

Workshop-Conference: "The Current State and Future Trajectories of Human Rights Due Diligence Laws" (Virtual--6 September 2023)--Workshop and Registration Information

 

This Workshop-Conference brings together a number of the contributors to the exploration of the critical issues that arise from mandatory human rights due diligence laws to be published in book The current state and future trajectories of human rights due diligence laws: New Legal Norms on Human Rights Due Diligence (Larry Catá Backer and Claire Methven O’Bren (eds); Routledge, forthcoming 2024). Collectively, through this volume, these analysts will contribute to a deeper understanding on the emerging law of due diligence, especially as it touches on the human rights and sustainability elements of economic activities, whether undertaken by public or private organizations. These essays will weave together the emerging trajectories of due diligence and its critical role in framing contemporary systems of human rights and sustainability measures.

 

For those interested, links to Workshop-Conference information: 

Workshop-Conference Homepage

Program

Workshop Concept Note

Presentation Titles and Abstracts

Participant Information

REGISTER HERE

 A recording of the Conference will be posted after the event.

 

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The Dance of Debt and the Stability of Strategic Economic Misery: Cuba (Again) Restructures its (Unpayable) Foreign Debt

 

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 In my last consideration of the state of Cuba (The Cuban Economic Condition--The Abyss is not an Empty Space), I noted  the odd but stable state of desperation that Cuba and its enemies have now comfortably institutionalized.  Cuba obtains its purported independence and a stabilizing measure of discursive  space in which it can blame all of its problems on capitalism, foreign interference and the United States as the once and only evil hegemon of choice. Foreign capitalist, Marxist-Leninist, and other monied or interested states (whatever their ideological camp) get what they think is a measure of leverage (though it is hard to measure the trajectories of leverage when it is the Cubans who have the money). They also get a measure of narrative trope space--able to use Cuba as the paragon of states that go wrong, and always as a way f virtue signal to the intended target--not Cuba bit the mass of developing and post-colonial states whose exploitation is essential to the constitution of post-global empire. 

Everyone loves to play.

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And there is a measure of stability in this playground of self-loving states with incompatible agendas except this: to use Cuba to its own discursive advantage. And Cuba has gotten good (not quite as good as the Argentines, but good enough) to play these monied states with agendas and the ability to pay for the privilege of appearing to advance them with and against themselves.  

Everybody wins. The lending states can continue to develop the narrative of Cuba as a state of crisis and its political economic model as incapable of any fix that can make it viable, but without the bother of cleaning up the mess of a collapsed Cuba. The Cubans continue to get what they want--money with a quite flexible repayment plan. Their vanguard and nomenklatura can keep the state at the point of crisis but without a substantial danger of collapse. That feeds the narrative of the craven capitalist imperialists, the Chinese Marxists  who betrayed the core principles of Marxist-Leninism, and the ability to play the new Russia-Iran-Venezuela-North Korea united front. "Or better put--Cuba will remain in stasis as long as it suits those who make use of it.  And in the process Cuba has effectively lost what it has claimed is one of the few things it has managed to preserve since 1959--its sovereign autonomy.  Irony." (Cuba's Central Contradiction--A rejection of markets and the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production).

And thus one has the state of Cuba's foreign financial relations with the liberal democratic (Paris) club. As reported by Reuters:

Representatives of 14 western creditor nations, grouped in the Paris Club, were in Cuba this week to salvage a debt agreement with the import dependent country which is expected to default on payments for a fourth consecutive year. . . Reuters, which has seen the agreement, estimates Cuba has failed to pay the creditors more than $500 million as it struggles with shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and other basic goods amid rising social tensions. The estimate includes money due by November. Cuba, which last reported foreign debt of $19.7 billion for 2020, has restructured debt with Russia, China and some other creditors since then. The Caribbean island nation is not a member of the International Monetary Fund nor the World Bank. The Cuba group of the 22-member Paris Club, which manages old sovereign debt, comprises Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. (Western creditors and Cuba pledge to salvage debt deal)

Cuba and its monied friends have been here before.  And they will be here again . . . as long as it is necessary to maintain the status quo because it suits everyone (everyone who counts anyway).  And thus the perpetuation of the stability of strategic economic misery wrapped up on narrative excuses that suit all of the ruling elites and their apparatus. 

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Tied to the politics of debt relief is that of charity. Cuba subsists, to some extent, on the success of its self promotion as a value added recipient of public and private charity from states and foundations. That has been successful enough in the past It is likely to be more so in the future. The key, though, is the ability to maintaon at least the optics of suffering through the policy of economic misery (all donors like to see suffering sufficient to add value to their offerings). In a sense, then, state charity creates incentives to ensuring that the economic crisis is unresolved. . . at least entirely. And lastly foreign investment remains unchanged. Cuban stability is still (in the opinion of those who run the state) essentially a function of preventing dfoect contact with foreigners that is not carefully supervised. The boundaries of the national territory are a barrier (natural and artificial) through which the state can control the quality and quantity of interactions with foreigners and their footprint within the national territory. Though it is expensive in terms of foregone investment, the price appears to be cheap enough to prevent change. Again the optics and discourse of foreign investment and its reality are quite different things. (The Management of Misery and the Risks to Cuban Stability: Brief Reflections on Domingo Amuchastegui, "Mirando a Cuba el el 2023" ["A Look at Cuba in 2023])

The reporting of Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta follows: