Geographies of state failure and sophistication in maritime piracy hijackings

Many analysts are concerned about territories subject to state failure becoming safe havens for terrorists. In this article, I apply this logic to maritime piracy syndicates and their ship hijacking operations, and argue that a focus on the geographies of state failure can help us explain why pirates' behavior varies between failed and weak states. Analysis of a dataset of hijacking incidents suggests that state failure is associated with less sophisticated attacks, while state weakness encourages more sophisticated attacks. Through case studies of the process by which pirates carry out their attacks in East Africa and Southeast Asia, I argue that it is the differences in political and economic landscapes that influence how pirates embed their operations across territory, and thus how they carry out their operations. Notably, because they do not have to worry about enforcement, pirates in failed states can engage in time-intensive kidnappings for ransom, while only weak states provide the markets and transportation infrastructure necessary for operations where ships and cargo are seized and sold for profit. These findings suggest that weak states might actually be more problematic for international security in some respects than failed states.     

澳大利亚福利制度的形成

澳大利亚社会保障和福利制度是自20世纪初澳大利亚联邦成立以来的一项基本国策,福利制度的形成是澳大利亚社会改革和现代化发展的重要内容与特征之一。具有本土化扬弃功能的澳大利亚民族意识使这一移植于英国的“舶来品”植根于澳洲,进而形成适合于澳大利亚社会、拥有澳大利亚特色的社会制度,影响深远。     

Maritime Archaeology and Maritime Heritage Protection in the Disputed Territory of Northern Cyprus

Between 1967 and 1974, the island of Cyprus was a centre of maritime archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean. Individuals such as Michael and Susan Katzev, George Bass, Jeremy Green and Richard Steffy were living on and visiting the island, and testing and developing methods still common in the discipline. The hostilities on Cyprus in the summer of 1974 and the implementation of international regulations limiting archaeological work in the northern portion of the island, however, had repercussions still evident today. This article summarizes past maritime archaeological work along the northern coastline, addresses the regulations limiting archaeological activity in the region and discusses a new training program licensed by the Nautical Archaeology Society aiding in the protection of the island’s maritime heritage representing approximately 10,000 years of activity.

Economic development,marine protected areas and gendered access to fishing resources in a Polynesian lagoon

This study examines the potential socio-spatial impacts of a new series of marine protected areas (MPAs) on fishers in Moorea, French Polynesia. The establishment of the MPAs is contextualized within recent and historical processes of economic development and theories of women in development and gender, culture and development. Seventy adults from three neighborhoods in Moorea were interviewed. Analysis of the data provides new information about the characteristics of fishing in Moorea. Unlike most fishing cultures and communities throughout the Pacific Islands, men and women in Moorea have similar, as opposed to segregated, spatial patterns of fishing activities and fishing methods. The study also points out the potential negative impacts of the MPAs on both men and women, particularly younger and lower-income fishers.     

Prehistoric nearshore and littoral fishing in the eastern Tropical Pacific: An ichthyological evaluation

Marine fish bones are abundant components of human food remains at prehistoric sites in the eastern Tropical Pacific. Their quantification and interpretation in terms of human procurement strategies have been hampered by the use of large-meshed sieves and by the obstacles presented to faunal experts by fish taxonomic diversity. Since many important food fish families are speciose, this paper emphasizes the importance of species-level identifications. Making extensive use of Spanish-language articles on fish distribution and ecology, and the commercial and artisanal fisheries literature, it identifies groups of nearshore and littoral fish species that show greater and lesser tolerance for hard substrates (reefs and rocks), estuaries and coastal lagoons, and deeper clearer waters farther offshore. Most of the regional archaeological sites were located near estuarine habitats. The drab-colored fish they attract are generally poorly known. Hence, a particularly detailed analysis is offered of fish behavior within low salinity coastal inlets. Fourteen archaeofaunal fish samples from Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador are evaluated in the light of the environmental information generated by the biological and fisheries surveys. It is concluded that most sites have a broadly estuarine orientation and that the input of hard substrates is everywhere <10%. Two sites, Salango, in Ecuador, and Vidor, in Costa Rica, exploited epipelagic fish that swim in large shoals and deep water demersal predators. Sites situated more than 10 km from the coast exploited a wide variety of marine fish. In Parita Bay, Panama, a comparison of fish faunas from Cerro Mangote (6000 B.P.) and Sitio Sierra (1800 B.P.) elicits the hypothesis that regional fishing strategies shifted between these dates from a shore-based, netless strategy to a more complex one that incorporated fine-meshed gill-nets and watercraft.     

‘A sense of where you belong in the world’: national belonging,ontological security and the status of the ethnic majority in England

ABSTRACT. The significance of national forms of imagination and organisation has been increasingly questioned in an era of rapid globalisation. While theoretically stimulating, those who stress the importance of global mobility and sociability sometimes overlook what well‐established, “thick” attachments to the nation offer to disparate individuals, notably in terms of anchoring subjectivity. This first part of this paper explores how debates around belonging in England continue to define certain “ethnic” groups as more or less national, because they embody certain traits, practices or norms. It is then suggested that those who claim, and are treated as if, they belong “without question” may be offered a key sense of material and ontological security that is underpinned through routine practices, symbolic forms and institutional arrangements. The second section looks to evidence this argument by exploring how challenges to this ontological order, which focus on the agency of “perceived” others in relation to everyday spaces, practices and material objects, are debated and resisted.     

新华侨华人与民间关系发展——以中国-新加坡民间关系为例

以新加坡的中国大陆新移民为视点,在民间关系研究的框架内,探讨和阐述了新华侨华人和跨国华人的概念特征、新华侨华人与中—新民间关系的发展、海外民间关系发展的时代价值以及民间关系的模式特征和意义。研究显示,国家关系的建立,为民间关系打开了交流和交往的正式而广泛的渠道;民间关系的良性互动,为国家关系的改善、发展和地区关系的整合,奠定了厚实的民间基础;跨国移民之于民间关系、国家关系和地区关系的多元探寻,为全球化时代的移民个人和国家关系的发展,提供了双赢互利的方向。     

片山内阁与日美安全保障体制原型的构筑

尽管片山内阁是一短命的中道政权,但是若从占领时期日本政府构筑安全保障体制的角度而言,则是一不容忽视的时期。在这一时期,片山内阁不仅提出了一系列的媾和对策文件,更重要的是采取行动将日本安全保障方面的设想通过一切可能的渠道向美国方面转达,相继提出了《芦田备忘录》、《铃木备忘录》以及《天皇口信》,形成了后来的日美安全保障体制的原型。     

Java's forgotten pearls: the history and disappearance of pearl fishing in the Segara Anakan lagoon, South Java, Indonesia

Pearls have been a valued resource in most cultures that had access to them. A number of historically important pearling grounds were situated in the waters around today's Indonesia. One of these areas, now largely forgotten, was the Segara Anakan lagoon in South Java. In the seventeenth century, Dutch colonists exploited the lagoon's pearls. Afterwards, the lagoon's oysters were locally exploited as a food item until the late 1970s. While the pearl fishery attracted considerable attention in the colonial literature, its disappearance, by contrast, went largely undocumented. Nowadays, the oysters no longer are found in the lagoon as a result of extensive sedimentation processes. Their former existence is only preserved in the memory of local people. This article examines the history and fate of the pearls of Segara Anakan, providing an example of a formerly valued species whose existence simply became forgotten outside the area.     

盐统王朝:唐代后期的盐业、财政以及国家安全(英文)

盐业在唐代占有重要地位,至公元780年,唐王朝至少一半的收入来自国家的盐的垄断。安禄山叛乱之后,盐业垄断所得主要用于重建战后破败的国家、服务于君王群臣享乐。唐代对盐业的垄断成为广大贫民遭受不平等和剥削的主要根源,同时也是朝廷与地方之间贪婪与权力斗争,乃至更多利益冲突的关键因素。本文以四川、陕北、以及东南沿海等产盐地区为研究对象,从社会与国家的角度来探讨唐代晚期盐的重要性。     

我国目前面临的人口安全风险及应对措施

本文依据人口安全的基本内涵及其重要性,分析了目前我国人口安全面临的风险,并结合中共中央、国务院《关于全面加强人口和计划生育工作统筹解决人口问题的决定》精神,就如何应对我国人口安全风险进行了相应的对策探讨。     

同盟困境与美日同盟--日本的同盟政策分析

同盟是一个利益的共同体也是一个战争扩散的通道,同盟困境所显现的是同盟国间基于国家理性,围绕着利益、权力、地位等问题进行讨价还价的政策选择行为上的合作与冲突。本文以日美同盟的战后发展过程为主线,以美日政策互动为核心,考察了各个时期日本维系同盟政策行为的根源,并在同盟框架内对不同政策的相关性进行了部分梳理。