Mixed Outcomes: The Impact of Regional Autonomy and Decentralization on Indigenous Ethnic Minorities in Indonesia

This article examines how indigenous ethnic minorities in Indonesia are being affected by the implementation of decentralization and regional autonomy policies. New legislation transferred responsibility and authority over various issues, including resource extraction and local governance, from the central government to regional authorities at the district level. Members of the growing indigenous rights movement hoped that this decentralization process would allow ethnic minority communities to retain or regain control over natural resources through local‐level politics. Furthermore, some ethnic minorities saw the implementation of decentralization as an opportunity to return to local forms of land tenure and resource management that had been disparaged by the national government for most of the twentieth century. However, these new laws also encourage district level governments to generate income through natural resource exploitation, as they will receive a certain percentage of these revenues. Minority communities could be adversely affected as local governments disregard their land rights in efforts to raise income to cover their new expenses, essentially continuing the practices of previous governments. This article examines the new opportunities, as well as the new threats, posed by decentralization to ethnic minorities throughout Indonesia.     

民族地区政区调整与民族区域自治的实现路径--以20世纪50年代广西都安瑶族自治县设置为中心的探讨

20世纪50年代初期,以民族为名称的各层级自治区非均衡地建立,致使政府在已建立民族区域自治的地区与尚未建立区域自治的民族地区执行经济政策时出现偏差,经济政策偏差产生的优惠差异引发了都安瑶族群众谋求民族区域自治的问题。为了解决瑶族谋求民族区域自治问题,在采取经济政策调整和相应政治措施调整无果之后,为配合民族区域自治政策的落实,政府继而采取政区调整的方式,通过一系列行政区划调整的探索,最大限度地将瑶族纳入瑶族自治县内。最终,通过政区调整满足了少数民族对民族区域自治的需求,实现了民族地区各民族的和解与社会稳定。     

Assyrian Attitude Towards Captive Enemies: A 2700‐year‐old Paleo‐forensic Study

The Assyrians, who ruled at the height of their power between Egypt and the Persian Gulf (745–630 BC), are known from historical records to have been cruel and unrelenting towards their enemies. However, osteological evidence for this behavior is scarce. We herein present a case of an adult male skeleton, dated to the Iron Age IIB period (second half of the 8th century BC), who manifests traumatic injuries to the skull, left forearm, vertebrae, and ribs. Using modern forensic methods, the injuries were studied, and the consequences that led to these injuries reconstructed. Three possible scenarios are presented: (i) wounds inflicted during a chaotic battle; (ii) wounds caused by the chasing and capturing of a victim; and (iii) a commonly practiced violent attitude of Assyrian soldiers towards a captive combatant. Combining all the evidence at hand, the latter scenario appears more likely. This skeleton may therefore be one of the sole tangible physical evidence for the veracity of the Assyrians’ post‐battle behavior, as depicted in ancient texts and reliefs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Difference Context Makes: Planning and Ethnic Minorities in Northern Ireland

The ways the British planning system fosters racial disadvantage and the initiatives taken by local authorities to address such bias have been subject to a number of studies over the last 17 years. This body of research has revealed isolated examples of progressive professional practice within a general pattern of inaction and ignorance. This paper looks at how the needs of ethnic minorities have been accommodated by the planning system in Northern Ireland that has a very different institutional and political context than other parts of the UK. The nature of 'race' relations in Northern Ireland is examined and the concept of 'policy processes' is used to explain why ethnic minorities in the region face similar difficulties to those in Britain. The influence of the political and cultural context is shown to play a key role in framing the policy processes that shape patterns of discrimination. The paper suggests that a full understanding of this context is required if multiculturalism is to be fully accommodated by planning in Europe.     

The political parameters of post‐withdrawal Iraq

The withdrawal of US combat forces presents new challenges and opportunities for Iraqis over the coming months and years. This special issue of International Affairs seeks to provide an assessment and analysis of many of these challenges and opportunities from the perspective of Iraqi actors, while also considering the interests of the wider regional and international community. Iraq remains important, fundamentally so. The main challenges that now face Iraqi leaders are not of recent origin but have never been fully confronted—to some degree the US presence has acted to ameliorate tensions at difficult times and helped to find compromise solutions that have left situations calm but also put on hold. The articles in this special issue focus on a range of these challenges, questioning orthodox views on Iraqi political development and considering the possibilities that lie ahead. They present not only ‘post‐American Iraq’ but also ‘post‐Iraq America’. By facing these challenges successfully, political, economic and social opportunities clearly unfold. These opportunities, if exploited to the full, would see Iraq's security become normalized, its economy and social structures repaired, and the prominence of the country in international affairs as a constructive rather than destructive force increased. However, the reverse of this is also starkly apparent. The failure of Iraqi leaders to meet the challenges may present very serious problems in the near future—problems possibly made all the more severe due to the lack of a US military presence and the perceived weakening of US will to impose itself on the political direction of the country.     

Rhetoric in the Representation of a Multi‐Ethnic Neighbourhood: The Case of Via Padova,Milan

This paper analyses how the neighbourhood of Via Padova in Milan, Italy has been represented and problematized by the media and the last two municipal administrations over the last decade. Since the late 1990s, Via Padova has undergone a significant socio‐demographic transformation, one which has eventually characterised the area as one of the most multi‐ethnic and diverse districts in the whole city. However, this transformation process and the upcoming new framework for the neighbourhood have been explained and approached in very different (and contested) ways. The aim of this paper is to compare the different narratives provided by both the media and also governmental institutions during the formerly right‐wing and current left‐wing administrations, and the implications of this, both in the shaping of a collective image of the area and in the development of local policies.     

亚述帝国邮驿制度辨析

亚述帝国的邮驿制度尚处于初创阶段,还存在一些需要完善之处:其一,亚述帝国的御道只修建在本土的部分地区,况且有些路段的路况不能令人满意;其二,亚述帝国的驿站仅仅设立在边远地区,它们的服务尚未尽如人意。但是,亚述帝国的御道与其他道路一起构成了贯通全国的交通网,为国王管理控制地域广阔的帝国创造了条件。驿站是亚述帝国通信体系的重要组成部分,有助于国王加强对边远地区的控制。亚述国王选派亲信奔赴各地,他们不仅传达国王的政令,而且可以代表国王处理行省事务。总之,亚述帝国的邮驿制度是国王加强统治的一种重要工具。     

Ethnic Minorities and the Politics of Identity in Iran

The present review essay is of a novel format: two authors working in the same field introduce each other's works, and then pose a number of questions to each other. The aim is to facilitate dialogue between scholars occupied with similar issues, theories, methods or problems, and to share their discussions with others. Here, Alam Saleh, Lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics, University of Exeter, and Rasmus Christian Elling, Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies, University of Copenhagen, introduce each other's recent books on ethnic minorities, identity and nationalism in post-revolution Iran. These introductions are then followed by questions and answers in relation to the topics covered by the books.     

中国民族学田野工作反思--以五六十年代民族大调查为例

民族学与人类学同体异名,从西方来说,民族学一般指的是欧陆传统,而人类学指的是英美传统。1949年以前的中国大体上也是遵循了这个区分,从学者各自选择的学科称谓上大致可以判断其学术背景。     

Enclosing Ethnic Minorities and Forests in the Golden Economic Quadrangle

Ethnic minority farmers in the infamous Golden Triangle were first incorporated into the nation states of China, Laos and Thailand, and later into the economic region called the Golden Economic Quadrangle. This article traces policies in each country for minorities, development and the environment, followed by an analysis of agrarian transitions under economic regionalization. Using the framework of powers of exclusion and racialization, our findings show the changes for ethnic minorities who, with the exception of those in the lowlands, face environmental enclosures that dispossess them from lands on which livelihoods are based. Ideological legacies from the Golden Triangle, including ‘backward’ minorities, the fight against drugs, and threats to national security, continue to inform policies and development projects. While some farmers have become entrepreneurs planting cash crops, most face increasing marginalization under deepening regional capitalism.     

20世纪美国少数族裔的命运变迁

美国的少数族裔主要包括黑人、拉美裔人、亚裔人和原土著印第安人。20世纪是美国少数族裔经历重大命运转折的历史时期：20世纪上半期．各少数族裔深受种族歧视之苦,毫无权利可言．生活一贫如洗;从50年代中期开始,少数族裔开展了民权运动,自此处境有了很大的改善,然而种族问题在美国并没有得到最终解决;90年代以来,美国的种族矛盾再次激化。可见,在将来很长时间里,种族问题仍将是美国国内最棘手的社会问题,少数族裔要在美国社会取得真正的平等,其道路是漫长而艰辛的。     

The ideological roots of failure: the application of kinetic neo‐liberalism to Iraq

This article argues that American policy towards Iraq went through four major shifts between the invasion in 2003 and the announcement of the surge in 2007. The best way to understand the Bush administration's evolving policy towards Iraq is by examining the ideological parameters within which it was made. The article assesses various approaches to understanding the relationship between ideology, policy making and foreign policy, concluding that ideology shapes the paradigm and analytical categories within which foreign policy is made. A major change in foreign policy originates either from the decision‐maker consciously recognizing and attempting to rework the ideational parameters within which policy is made or in reaction to ‘discrepant information’ or ‘anomalies’ that destabilize the paradigm and its analytical categories. The article goes on to examine the extent to which both neo‐liberalism and neo‐conservatism shaped George W. Bush's foreign policy. It identifies a series of major analytical categories that originate from within these two doctrines and shaped policy towards Iraq. The article argues that the four major shifts in Bush's policy towards Iraq were forced upon the administration by the rising tide of politically motivated violence. Ultimately this violence forced Bush to abandon the major analytical categories that, up to 2007, had given his policy coherence. In order to extricate his administration from the quagmire that Iraq had become by 2006, Bush totally transformed his approach, dropping the previously dominant neo‐liberal paradigm and adopting a counter‐insurgency doctrine.     

少数民族华侨华人研究中的若干问题

我国少数民族华侨华人研究 ,是整个华侨华人研究中的一个新的领域与薄弱环节 ,需要填补的空白众多 ,有待探讨的问题不少。本文就少数民族华人的辨识标准、人数估计、出国原因、经济活动和重大贡献等问题提出了自己的看法     

The ABC and Anti-Americanism: The Case of the 2003 Iraq War and Minister Alston

With noted protagonists on either side, the debate about anti-American bias within the Australian national broadcaster was one of the more obvious examples in the so-called ‘culture wars’ of the Howard era. This article aims to transcend the claims and counter claims of this ongoing debate by analysing a case study that not only documents both sides of the argument but also provides evidence to judge the veracity of claims of anti-Americanism. The case study used is Minister Richard Alston's claims of anti-American bias by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in their coverage of the 2003 Iraq War. Examining Alston's allegations and the three subsequent inquiries they initiated offers an opportunity to distinguish between anti-Americanism and criticism.     

中国少数民族原始形态家谱调研报告

上海图书馆家谱课题组自2011年起,历时10年,赴东北内蒙、西北、西南、中南东南地区,以少数民族口传家谱、实物家谱、单页谱单和石碑家谱等原始形态家谱为重点,进行有计划、有重点的调研工作.少数民族原始形态家谱具有诸多独特而重要的历史文化价值,当下面临失传消亡、亟待抢救的紧迫境地,有关部门理应高度重视,抓紧做好抢救、保护和传承工作.     

Iraq: The Military Campaign

This article draws together early military implications of a campaign where intensive operations lasted barely a month. The deeper insights will need much more time for the post operations reports to be written, detailed battle assessments to be made, and the key decision-makers to record their thinking. As far as is possible, the article deals with the purely military aspects of the campaign. The promise of a decade of development of high technology air power was expected by some to show a new way of fighting wars. The evidence from the campaign appears to give a more mixed message. Certainly, a higher proportion of air weapons was guided in this conflict than in any previous war. Strategic intelligence appears to have been less accurate than had been expected. The unexpected initial resistance by Iraqi forces, followed by later capitulation, required flexible coalition operations. The spectre of the use of chemical and biological weapons proved unfounded. The effectiveness of special operations will be one area for deeper study. The media strategy will need reviewing for future operations. At this stage, the article does no more than record the sequence of events, make broad judgements about the strategic and tactical approaches of both the Coalition and Iraqi forces, and highlights areas where further investigation may be useful to draw firmer conclusions.