The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the South Sudan question: reconsidering moderation

This article examines the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement's stand on the South Sudan question. The aim here is to contribute to the ongoing debate over the MB's moderation. Throughout the civil war in Sudan, the MB consistently objected to South Sudanese secession. Yet, while it had traditionally framed its objection in religious terms, describing the South Sudanese struggle as a Christian conspiracy against Islam, in the decade preceding South Sudan's declaration of independence it moved to base its opposition on more practical grounds, revolving around issues such the absence of democracy, stability and infrastructure in South Sudan. This correlated with wider shifts in the MB. Since the 1990s, the movement has claimed to have undergone a transformation, adopting a moderate, pro‐democratic stance. These statements persuaded many scholars that the MB has come to represent political moderation in both its domestic and international agenda. More recent works on the movement, however, have come to question the MB's moderation hypothesis, suggesting that even though the movement has changed its discourse and some aspects of its activism, this could not be seen as a linear process of moderation. This article uses the South Sudan case to further support this critique from a foreign policy perspective. It demonstrates that even though the MB changed its tactics and discourse, its goals remained unchanged— even when the circumstances and the normative environment changed dramatically. Moreover, it shows that at times of crisis, the liberal discourse gave way to the old‐fashioned radical discourse of previous decades.     

对青海报纸媒介的环境分析

本文结合青海实际,就青海报纸媒介的宏观环境和微观环境进行了分析。宏观上,信息时代的大环境和西部大开发战略的实施,为青海报纸媒介的发展提供了机遇。微观上,报纸数量和品种有了较大增加,结构趋于完善;新闻观念和指导思想发生了变化;内容多样化,报纸功能更全面;报业广告竞争激烈,发行稳步上升;报社硬件改善,新技术应用广泛;报业同互联网接轨,开始树立网站经营意识;报业经济初见端倪,经济效益急需提高;战略意识增强,报业管理走向现代化。这又对青海报纸媒介的发展提出了挑战。     

商代马车及其相关问题研究

殷墟发掘以来 ,曾多次发现商代车马坑。但在解放前 ,因受当时发掘条件所限 ,都未能将坑中的木质车子的遗迹清理出来。19 5 0年在河南辉县琉璃阁战国墓地 ,夏鼐先生带领数名技工 ,通过精心操作 ,剥剔出十几辆已朽为尘土的木车遗迹。后来 ,随着发掘经验的积累和发掘技术的提高 ,新中国考古工作者先后在大司空村、孝民屯南地、白家坟西地、郭家庄西南、刘家庄北地、梅园庄东南等处的商代车马坑的发掘中 ,经过精心细致剥剔清理 ,将数十辆殷代车子发掘出来 ,为复原商代车子提供了可靠的依据 ,也为研究商代车制及其相关问题提供了珍贵的科学资料。…     

Archaeological Intelligence

The county of Norfolk is well known for its huge number of ruined and abandoned medieval churches. ‘St Mary's Chapel’ at Ashwellthorpe has not usually been, reckoned among these. Although local tradition always maintained that it was the parish church of the lost village of Ashwell, some architectural historians have been sceptical, suggesting that it is merely a post-medieval domestic building on which part of a church roof has been re-used. Renovation of the property has not only confirmed its ecclesiastical origin, but revealed that it is the chancel of a church later used as a chantry chapel, with a major refurbishment in the fifteenth century.     

A Saxon Fish Weir and Undated Fish Trap Frames Near Ashlett Creek,Hampshire, UK: Static Structures on a Dynamic Foreshore

The remains of a wooden V-shaped fish weir and associated structures have been discovered near Ashlett Creek on the tidal mudflats of Southampton Water in Hampshire, southern Britain. Radiocarbon dating of oak roundwood stakes taken from the main weir structure date it to the middle Saxon period. Clusters of as-yet undated roundwood posts within the catchment area of the weir are interpreted as the frames for fish traps that are assumed to pre- or post-date the operational period of the weir itself. The weir is contemporary with wooden V-shaped fish weirs found elsewhere in southern and central Britain, and also Ireland, but its circular catchment ‘pound’ remains restricted, in these islands, to the Solent and Severn estuaries: it has a close parallel with another Saxon-era weir on the nearby Isle of Wight. It also shows striking structural similarities with examples in use today in Basse Normandy, on the southern shore of the English Channel. The paper discusses the function and operation of the weir, and places it in its social and historical context. Regressive cartography demonstrates that the structures have become exposed as a result of saltmarsh retreat in this area of Southampton Water since the nineteenth century. The radiocarbon dates returned for the posts demonstrate that this transgression of the marsh must have been preceded by a prolonged period of progradation, which covered and preserved the site; its subsequent re-exposure has negative implications for its survival.     

Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History

This article aims to consider the robust field of environmental history as a whole, as it stands and as it has developed over the past twenty‐five years around the world. It necessarily adopts a selective approach but still offers more breadth than depth. It treats the links between environmental history and other fields within history, and with other related disciplines such as geography. It considers the precursors of environmental history, its emergence since the 1970s, its condition in several settings and historiographies. Finally it touches on environmental history's relationship to social theory and to the natural sciences as they have evolved in recent decades. It concludes that while there remains plenty of interesting work yet to do, environmental history has successfully established itself as a legitimate field within the historical profession, and has a bright future, if perhaps for discouraging reasons.     

What's nature got to do with it? A situated historical perspective on socio-natural commodities

Nature(s) have been commodified since the early days of capitalism, but through processes and socio-natural relationships mediated by their times, histories and localities. While the conditions under which nature's commodities are being trademarked today may be new, their potential for commodification is not. Commodifications of nature should not come as a surprise to environmental social scientists and activists. In this article, I argue that commodification of ‘nature's products, places and processes’ produces new sorts of socio-natures. Situated histories of rubber are particularly relevant because, like carbon, ecosystem services and other recently commodified natures, rubber sits comfortably on the line between a fictitious commodity and a commodity produced explicitly for market: the latex alone has almost no use value, and to give it any exchange value, it requires processing. Yet analytically, it is still considered a ‘natural commodity’, different from ‘synthetic rubber’ and other tradable tree latexes in qualities and socio-natural characteristics. However, it is the social relations constituting rubber's production and trade in various rainforest and agro-forestry environments that have given it a positive or negative connotation, rather than its natural properties or the ecological contexts within which it has been produced. By situating rubber in three of its globally important temporal and spatial contexts, I show how it has been subjected to fairy-tale-like stories that masked and naturalized its commodity lives of the moment. Understanding how history is told or remains untold is thus an essential part of the politics of knowledge production, but also of human experience and mobilization for change. It should be part of any political ecology analysis.     

L’histoire des mathématiques de l’Antiquité

Historical research, during the last half-century, has improved our knowledge of the mathematics of Antiquity. Texts from Egypt and Mesopotamia have been better understood and their elucidation has left behind the crude alternative between empricism and rationalism. The landscape offered by Greek science grew richer and became more varied: it is no longer possible to reduce it to the sole geometrical theory. The main problems which were raised by its history have been deeply discussed. Things being so, more general questions arise, from an epistemological or philosophical point of view. Does the search into some far past of a single «birth» of mathematics make any sense? What link, if any, is there between the form of mathematics in such and such a civilization and its social structure? Can cultural anthropology help to elucidate the variety and unity of mathematics among various peoples? From what time and under what conditions is it possible for a single united historical progress of mathematics to begin?     

Right-Sizing International Criminal Justice: The Hybrid Experiment at the Special Court for Sierra Leone

In the decade since their establishment, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have made great advancements in the development of international criminal justice. Nonetheless, the ad hoc tribunals have been roundly criticized for their expense, inefficiency and slowness. When the Security Council decided to set up a court for Sierra Leone, it wanted to find a new model. The hybrid Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) is an effort to right-size international criminal justice: it has a pared-down budget, tightly focused mandate, limited time of operation, and a lack of institutional links to the Security Council. The negotiations over these issues led to repeated clashes between the UN Secretary General and the Security Council, with the Security Council consistently favouring a more modestly sized court. The SCSL has much to recommend it but its promise is shadowed by the paltry resources available to it. In its efforts to avoid creating another over-sized tribunal, the Security Council swung too far in the other direction. The lofty goals of ending impunity and providing justice demand more than a court on the cheap.     

MINDING THE BUSINESS OF THE SUPREME COURT: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE EFFECTS OF THE JUDGES' BILL OF 1925*

Twice at least in the Court's first too centuries it has found itself inundated with litigation that has outstripped its abilities to process it. Congress has from time to time had to make adjustments in the Supreme Court's jurisdiction so that the court could cope with its caseload. These “reforms” are potentially quite, important., yet few scholars have studied the effects, intended and unintended, of them. This paper reviews and criticize the scholarship on the effects of one especially interesting reform, the Judges' Bill of 1925, Along the way I offer a number of suggestions ore offered on how social scientists might in the future go about studying the effects of judical-reform.     

Footfalls echoing in the memory. Britain and Europe: the historical perspective

Britain's difficulties with the European Union have deep historical roots. The events of the Second World War served to emphasize Britain's separation from the continent. Because Britain was fortunate enough not to share the wartime experiences of the continent, it was not exposed to the ideology of European unity, an attempt to transcend the forces of nationalism that had twice involved the continent in ruinous wars.
During the immediate postwar years, leaders of both of the major parties in Britain continued to believe in its special global role. Even when Britain finally entered the Community in 1973, differences between its institutions and those of the other member states caused problems. Perhaps these difficulties would have been equally apparent if Britain had joined the European Community at an earlier stage.
It can be argued that the main division in postwar British politics has been between those who saw its separation from the continent as a historically transient phenomenon, and those who regarded it as a defining feature of Britain's experience. This division cuts across left and right and still has to be resolved.     

Scientific Exploration of the Moon

Abstract

The exploration of the Moon has involved a highly successful interdisciplinary approach to solving a number of scientific problems. It has required the interactions of astronomers to classify surface features; cartographers to map interesting areas; geologists to unravel the history of the lunar crust; geochemists to decipher its chemical makeup; geophysicists to establish its structure; physicists to study the environment; and mathematician to work with engineers on optimizing the delivery to and from the Moon of exploration tools. Although, to date, the harvest of lunar science has not answered all the questions posed, it has already given us a much better understanding of the Moon and its history. Additionally, the lessons learned from this endeavor have been applied successfully to planetary missions. The scientific exploration of the Moon has not ended; it continues to this day and plans are being formulated for future lunar missions.     

科技强军推动军队质量建设实现历史性跨越

以江泽民为核心的党中央和中央军委及时把握军事领域的新变化 ,做出了实施科技强军战略推进军队质量建设的重大决策。人民解放军按照“两个根本性转变”的要求 ,坚定不移地贯彻科技强军战略 ,全面加强以现代化为中心的各项建设 :依靠科技进步 ,加快武器装备研制步伐 ;掀起科技练兵高潮 ,创新作战理论 ;继续裁减军队员额 ,优化组织结构 ;深化后勤体制改革 ,提高保障能力 ;着眼未来战争需要 ,培养高素质新型军事人才。我军质量建设提高到新的历史高度 ,在现代条件下防卫作战能力进一步增强     

The Piketty phenomenon: why has Capital become a publishing sensation?

Why has Piketty's Capital become a publishing sensation? Not for revolutionary findings; its message that western societies have experienced increases in inequality of income and wealth over the long term is hardly new. Of the several reasons discussed in this article, attention is paid in particular to the book's timing and its claim to reveal the laws of income and wealth distribution in western societies. Had the book been published before 2008 it would have been much less successful. Piketty's revelation of the big trends and their underlying logic helps to objectify, legitimize and offer a kind of catharsis for surging middle‐class anxieties during the Great Recession. These anxieties have been further intensified by evidence that over 90 per cent of the increase in disposable income in the United States has accrued to the top 1 per cent of the population in the past several years, and a not much lower percentage to the top 1 per cent in Britain. In the conclusion it is argued that if Piketty's forecasts are even remotely accurate, capitalism will lose its core claim to legitimacy.     

China's energy security

As the Chinese energy deficit increases at rates equal to or exceeding its economic growth, energy security raises an alarm among its policy-makers and the international community. This article asks whether China faces any threat to its energy security; and whether China's worldwide quest for energy is a threat to the regional and international stability. The main argument is that while China faces serious challenges in meeting its rising energy demand, its efforts to do so have been primarily domestically focused. In its foreign energy policy, China has behaved like a normal player in the international energy market, buying as much oil as it can and investing in as many places as it can afford. It is unlikely that the country is willing to seek overseas energy supplies at the expense of a peaceful regional and international environment which is a necessary condition for its continuing economic development.     

Whose Mandate? Policy Promises,Strong Bicameralism and Polled Opinion

The political theory of Australian politics has been dominated, since the election of a Liberal-National Party government in 1996, by claims and counterclaims about electoral mandates. The government has privileged its position in the House of Representatives; opposition parties have pointed to their support in the Senate. This paper provides a historical re-examination of the meanings and merits of mandate theories; it outlines the difficulties posed by strong bicameralism for any mandate theory; and it shows how the rise of survey research has strengthened some claims to a mandate, especially in bicameral systems, while weakening others.     

刍议税务稽查体制的改革与创新

现行的税务稽查体制还存在着一些不足,与社会主义市场经济的要求尚有一定的差距。因此,必须着眼于时代要求,进一步加快税务稽查体制的改革与创新,提高税务稽查工作的效率和质量。     

What consensus? Geopolitics and policy paradigms in China and the United States

The Washington Consensus is not what it was. A model of development associated with the Untied States, it has been diminished both by apparent failures, widespread criticism and by the recent economic crisis that had its origins in the US. Anglo‐American capitalism has lost a good deal of its influence and attractiveness. As a consequence, alternative models of development have become more prominent, especially the so‐called Beijing Consensus. The authors argue that at one level this evolving policy discourse and debate reflects a long‐term structural change in the relative positions of China and the United States. However, it is far from clear that this transformation has gone far enough to underpin a significant ideational or policy challenge on China's part. On the contrary, the debate in China demonstrates that there is little appetite for, or expectation of, a major paradigm change in the near future.     

Anti‐nationalist nationalism: the paradox of Dutch national identity

Academic research on contemporary Dutch nationalism has mainly focused on its overt, xenophobic and chauvinist manifestations, which have become normalised since the early 2000s. As a result, less radical, more nuanced versions of Dutch nationalism have been overlooked. This article attempts to fill this gap by drawing attention to a peculiar self‐image among Dutch progressive intellectuals we call anti‐nationalist nationalism. Whereas this self‐image has had a long history as banal nationalism, it has come to be employed more explicitly for political positioning in an intensified nationalist climate. By dissecting it into its three constitutive dimensions – constructivism, lightness and essentialism – we show how this image of Dutchness is evoked precisely through the simultaneous rejection of ‘bad’ and enactment of ‘good’ nationalism. More generally, this article provides a nuanced understanding of contemporary Dutch nationalism. It also challenges prevalent assumptions in nationalism studies by showing that post‐modern anti‐nationalism does not exclude but rather constitutes essentialist nationalism.