The Euromaidan protests showed Ukraine to be a state between East and West European paths. Ukraine's search for an identity and future is deeply rooted in historical fractures, which indicate its ...longstanding ties beyond its borders. In this volume, distinguished scholars provide empirical analysis and theoretical reflections on Ukraine's transnational embeddedness, which surfaced with an unexpected intensity in the recent political conflict. The essays have subjects including the role of international media and of diaspora communities in Euromaidan's aftermath, the transnational roots of memory and the search for collective identity, and transnational linkages of elites within Ukrainian political and economic regimes. The anthology demonstrates the theoretical and analytical value of the concept of transnationalism for studying the ambivalent processes of post-Soviet modernization.
. The vital attribute system of Noble & Slatyer (1980) was used to classify the fire‐prone flora of Brisbane Water National Park (New South Wales, Australia) into plant functional types (PFTs), ...reflecting sensitivity to fire frequency (intervals between fire). A variety of information was used to assess the vital attributes of species in the predominant woodland/open‐forest vegetation within the Park. This was sufficient to allocate 54% of the species to functional types. Ca. 20% of the species belonged to PFTs defined as sensitive to either frequent or infrequent fire (e.g. obligate seeder types). Varied methods, based on the nature and quality of data were used to estimate juvenile periods and life spans among species in these types, however the estimates derived in each case were similar. On this basis, a domain of ‘acceptable’ fire intervals (7 to 30 yr) was derived for the woodland/open‐forest vegetation. Given the overall proportion of species considered, plus congruence between differing methods and sources of data, this domain was relatively robust. A landscape analysis using the domain indicated that the current trend in fire intervals, across the Park, may be adverse to floristic conservation.
Interrogates whether the British government has learned anything from its interventions in the Middle East, from the 1950s to 2016
Learning from history helps states to create foreign and security ...policy that builds upon successes and avoids past mistakes. Drawing on a wealth of previously unseen documents, sourced by Freedom of Information requests, together with interviews with government and intelligence agency officials, Louise Kettle questions whether the British government has learned anything from its military interventions in the Middle East. She provides an extended commentary on military interventions in the Middle East since the 1950s, including a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Whitehall decision-making and a critical examination of the 2016 Iraq Inquiry report.
The result is a highly original account of key political events that challenges the claims of lessons being learned from recent wars. This book comes at a decisive moment as the ongoing war against Daesh, conflicts in Syria, and Saudi–Iran tensions continue to leave British action in the region as a contemporary reality where lessons from the past could prevent the British government from making the same mistakes again and again.
Case Studies
1956: Suez – Operation Musketeer
1958: Jordan – Operation Fortitude
1961: Kuwait – Operation Vantage
1990–1: Gulf – Operation Granby
2003–9: Iraq – Operation Telic
Key Features
Reveals the relationship between history and policy in No 10, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and across the intelligence community
Exposes the tensions between government departments over crucial foreign policy decisions
Draws on documents obtained through over 30 Freedom of Information requests, including reports from the Gulf and Iraq wars, documents from the Joint Intelligence Committee after Suez and Policy Planning documents from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The author conducted interviews with current and past officials from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and the intelligence agencies, including diplomats, Ambassadors, research analysts, service personnel, members of the JIC, MoD lessons teams, official historians and witnesses to the Iraq Inquiry
Central Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. Although relative latecomers on the international scene, the Central Asian states see themselves as ...globalized, and yet in spite of – or perhaps precisely because of – this, they hold a very classical vision of the nation-state, rejecting the abolition of boundaries and the theory of the ‘death of the nation’. Their unabashed celebration of very classical nationhoods built on post-modern premises challenges the Western view of nationalism as a dying ideology that ought to have been transcended by post-national cosmopolitanism. Marlene Laruelle looks at how states in the region have been navigating the construction of a nation in a post-imperial context where Russia remains the dominant power and cultural reference. She takes into consideration the ways in which the Soviet past has influenced the construction of national storylines, as well as the diversity of each state’s narratives and use of symbolic politics. Exploring state discourses, academic narratives and different forms of popular nationalist storytelling allows Laruelle to depict the complex construction of the national pantheon in the three decades since independence. The second half of the book focuses on Kazakhstan as the most hybrid national construction and a unique case study of nationhood in Eurasia. Based on the principle that only multidisciplinarity can help us to untangle the puzzle of nationhood, Central Peripheries uses mixed methods, combining political science, intellectual history, sociology and cultural anthropology. It is inspired by two decades of fieldwork in the region and a deep knowledge of the region’s academia and political environment.Praise for Central Peripheries ‘Marlene Laruelle paves the way to the more focused and necessary outlook on Central Asia, a region that is not a periphery but a central space for emerging conceptual debates and complexities. Above all, the book is a product of Laruelle's trademark excellence in balancing empirical depth with vigorous theoretical advancements.’ –Diana T. Kudaibergenova, University of Cambridge ‘Using the concept of hybridity, Laruelle explores the multitude of historical, political and geopolitical factors that predetermine different ways of looking at nations and various configurations of nation-building in post-Soviet Central Asia. Those manifold contexts present a general picture of the transformation that the former southern periphery of the USSR has been going through in the past decades.’ – Sergey Abashin, European University at St Petersburg
This volume brings together multidisciplinary, situated and nuanced analyses of contingent issues framing a rapidly changing India in the 21st century. It moves beyond the ready dichotomies that are ...often extended to understand India as a series of contrasts and offers new insights into the complex realities of India today, thereby enabling us to anticipate the decades to come.The editors focus on three major themes, each discussed in a section: The first section, Framing the Macro-Economic Environment, defines the framework for interrogatingglobalisation and socio-economic changes in India over the last few decades ofthe 20th century spiraling into India in the 21st century. The next section,Food Security and Natural Resources, highlights critical considerationsinvolved in feeding a burgeoning population. The discussions pose importantquestions in relation to the resilience of both people and planet confrontingincreasingly unpredictable climate-induced scenarios. The final section,Development, Activism and Changing Technologies, discusses some of the socialchallenges of contemporary India through the lens of inequalities and emergentactivisms. The section concludes with an elaboration of the potential and promise of changing technologies and new social media to build an informed and active citizenry across existing social divides.
In sum, by showing how and why local regional disputes quickly develop into global crises through the paired power of historical memory and time-space compression, Near Abroad reshapes our ...understanding of the current conflict raging in the center of the Eurasian landmass and international politics as a whole.
Crystallization (dacite) and interaction (dacite-peridotite) experiments have been performed on the 1991 Pinatubo dacite (Luzon Island, Philippines) to constrain its petrogenesis. In the dacite-H2O ...system at 960 MPa, magnetite and either clinopyroxene (low H2O) or amphibole (high H2O) are the liquidus phases. No garnet is observed at this pressure. Dacite- peridotite interaction at 920 MPa produces massive orthopyroxene crystallization, in addition to amphibole + or - phlogopite. Amphibole crystallizing in dacite at 960 MPa has the same composition as the aluminium-rich hornblende preserved in the cores of amphibole phenocrysts in the 1991 dacite, suggesting a high-pressure stage of dacite crystallization with high melt H2O contents (>10 wt %) at relatively low temperature (<950degreesC). The compositions of plagioclase, amphibole and melt inclusion suggest that the Pinatubo dacite was water-rich, oxidized and not much hotter than 900degreesC, when emplaced into the shallow magma reservoir in which most phenocrysts precipitated before the onset of the 1991 eruption. The LREE-enriched REE pattern of the whole-rock dacite demands garnet somewhere during its petrogenesis, which in turn suggests high-pressure derivation. Partial melting of subducted oceanic crust yields melts unlike the Pinatubo dacite. Interaction of these slab melts with sub-arc peridotite is unable to produce a Pinatubo type of dacite, nor is a direct mantle origin conceivable on the basis of our peridotite-dacite interaction experimental results. Dehydration melting of underplated basalts requires unrealistically high temperatures and does not yield dacite with the low FeO/MgO, and high H2O, Ni and Cr contents typical of the Pinatubo dacite. The most plausible origin of the Pinatubo dacite is via high-pressure fractionation of a hydrous, oxidized, primitive basalt that crystallized amphibole and garnet upon cooling. Dacite melts produced in this way were directly expelled from the uppermost mantle or lower crust to shallow-level reservoirs from which they erupted occasionally. Magmas such as the Pinatubo dacite may provide evidence for the existence of particularly H2O-rich conditions in the sub-arc mantle wedge rather than the melting of the young, hot subducting oceanic plate.
This book describes the rise of independent mass media in Russia, from the loosening of censorship under Gorbachev's policy of glasnost to the proliferation of independent newspapers and the rise of ...media barons during the Yeltsin years. The role of the Internet, the impact of the 1998 financial crisis, the succession of Putin, and the effort to reimpose central power over privately controlled media empires mark the end of the first decade of a Russian free press. Throughout the book, there is a focus on the close intermingling of political power and media power, as the propaganda function of the press in fact never disappeared, but rather has been harnessed to multiple and conflicting ideological interests. More than a guide to the volatile Russian media scene and its players, Media and Power in Post-Soviet Russia poses questions of importance and relevance in any functioning democracy.
Preface 1. Word and Deed 2. The Case of Nezavisimaya Gazeta 3. The "Mediatization" of Politics 4. Reconstructing Russia 5. The Internet in Russia 6. The Media System Afterword
Duncan Leitch exposes the unexpected consequences of international aid for post-communist transitions. Examining the efforts to reform relations between Kiev and the regions of Ukraine, Duncan Leitch ...explores how and why fiscal decentralization and regional policy programs initiated by the Ukrainian government and supported by the Western donor community failed to achieve a sustainable outcome. Drawing on concepts from institutional theory, comparative politics, and development studies, Leitch explains the complex interactions between external donors and the domestic recipients of their advice. His findings shed light on the narrow circumstances under which short- term success can be achieved, but also point towards the failings of the donor community to lay the groundwork for lasting reform. A valuable resource for anyone working in the development sector in Eastern Europe or beyond, this book provides a new outlook on the political realities of the reform process, the relevance of international advice, and the domestic pressures leading to the Maidan uprising of 2013.
