The South African Military in Transition

This paper assesses the process of military restructuring in South Africa in the context of that country's negotiated transition. A number of key issues, ranging from the practicalities of the integration process to future defence doctrines, are explored. It is concluded that the restructuring in the military has mirrored the process of elite pacting between key sociopolitical actors. On the one hand, this has ensured the stability of the transition. On the other, radical restructuring has been deferred, and the organisational structures of the former South African Defence Force retained. While a reduction of force levels is planned, the military has rapidly expanded in the past five years.     

明代设置的军民指挥使司考论

军民指挥使司是明代设置于西部边疆和民族地区的一种特殊行政建置,其创制并大规模实施于洪武年间。"军卫牧民"是制度设计的初衷,而民户数量是设置与否的根本指标,少数民族地区仅是外在表现形式。军民指挥使司管理体制有利于减轻百姓负担、安抚和教化地方、沟通中央与地方的关系;但因明中后期世袭武官体制的腐化、人口的增殖等因素,军民指挥使司亦逐步失去了管理地方的活力,在明中后期、清前期渐次由流官充任的府(州、县、厅)等建置所取代。     

Alarm Bells from the Past: The Troubling History of American Military Commissions

Among the most controversial of President George W. Bush's responses to the deadly September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was his issuance two months later of an order authorizing the trial before military commissions of aliens suspected of membership in that murderous organization or of involvement in terrorist activities. ¹ Two years after Bush's promulgation of that November 13, 2001 military order, no terrorist has yet stood trial before such a tribunal. That is not a bad thing. The history of American military commissions suggests that this is a legal device vulnerable to abuse that should be used only with the utmost caution.     

Punctuated Equilibrium and Bureaucratic Autonomy in American City Governments

Several recent applications of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) have yielded compelling findings linking institutional design and change distributions, yet, much more work needs to be done to understand institutional arrangements that make punctuated processes more or less likely. In responding to the recent call for more research on unraveling particular mechanisms through which bureaucracy moderates the odds of policy punctuations, this research explores the potential of bureaucratic expertise and professionalism in fostering rational decision making, and thus the stability in change dynamics. One important feature of urban government receives close attention: the position by professionalized, trained bureaucrats in municipalities (city manager and chief administrative officer) and the effects of their discretion on altering municipal budgetary change distributions. Analysis of a novel dataset of fiscal policy changes, charter and census information of city governments in the State of Michigan, 2005–11, suggests city governments, on average, produce change patterns that conform to the expectations of PET; more importantly, it reveals that heightened levels of managerial discretion can have a significant implication for helping cities experience less abrupt, punctuated budget changes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for PET, policy change dynamics, and the design of city-governing institutions.     

明代军民指挥使司建置标准考论

军民指挥使司是明代创制的兼管军民的特殊行政建置,而其建置标准学界认知多有不同。本文认为民户是军民指挥使司建立的关键要素,并利用大量的明代文献材料,证实了军民指挥使司直接或间接的辖有相当数量的编户齐民。而集中分布在北边一线的实土卫所并未建立起军民共管的军民卫所体制,进一步印证了民户对军民指挥使司建立的重要意义。这决定了军民指挥使司具有"军"与"民"的两面性特征,游走于都司与布政司两套管理系统之间。     

从玉器考察南中国史前文化传播和影响

位于南中国不同地区的新石器晚期不同文化之间存在着传播、影响等现象,这一现象在玉器中尤为明显。大致传播方向是从今浙江东部滨海地区向西传播,影响至为深远。     

The Canadian Rebellion,the American South,and Slavery

ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, thanks in large part to the work of several historians that appears in my edited collection, Revolutions Across Borders: Jacksonian America and the Canadian Rebellion (2019), there is a growing trend to consider the Canadian Rebellion within an American historical and historiographical context. Despite this exciting new research, most studies on the Rebellion and the United States continue to focus on the northern borderland. However, the Canadian Rebellion was a significant event that gained attention all over the United States, including the American South. Similar to the North, the American South was also invested in the outcome of the Rebellion. This was due to one reason: slavery. By specifically focusing on the American South and, more importantly, its influence on American foreign policy during the period, I want to encourage historians to take a more definitive stance; that slavery—just like the Panic of 1837, the Anglo-American rapprochement of thepost-War-of-1812 period, or the fear of British retaliation—played a major role in the United States Government’s official opposition to the Rebellion.     

The Archaeology of War: A North American Perspective

This article reviews recent archaeological research on warfare in prestate societies of native North America. This survey comprises six regions: Arctic/Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Southwest/Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Two lines of evidence, defensive settlement behavior and injuries in human skeletal remains, figure prominently in archaeological reconstructions of violence and warfare in these regions. Burning of sites and settlements also has been important for identifying the consequences of war and investigating more subtle aspects of strategy and directionality. Weaponry and iconography have to date provided important but more limited insights. Although considerable disparities exist between regions in the archaeological evidence for intra- and intergroup violence, all regions show a marked increase after A.D. 1000. These findings suggest that larger forces may have been responsible for escalating violence throughout North America at this time.