Museums as Relational Entities: The Politics and Poetics of Heritage

Over the last 40 years museums have become important sites to understand the politics and poetics of heritage management, display, and knowledge production. The books under consideration here all help demonstrate how museums as relational entities—containing dynamic relations between persons and things, as well as generating them—are emergent processes. Each work helps demonstrate why museums in their many guises remain critical terrains for the negotiation of identity, history, and culture in the push for more collaborative accounts of our world and the circulation and display of things.     

Book Reviews

Heritage is important for the social and cultural health of communities, whilst local stewardship of cultural heritage has the capacity to empower and recover cultural identity. This paper describes a recent project in Lakhnu – a small rural village in Uttar Pradesh, India – to restore a nineteenth century villa formerly used as the village school as an educational facility. In this discussion, we draw attention to the right of groups to manage their culture. The loss of cultural heritage is linked to a loss of identity. We argue that heritage projects have the capacity to empower communities to sustain their heritage and identity and provide useful places for social and material advancement through the concept of a shared ‘symbolic estate’. At Lakhnu, we plan to evoke grass-root conservation where local communities become the rightful stakeholders and decision-makers who are encouraged and facilitated in the realisation of their right to cultural heritage and to stimulate growth and build capacity for the community.     

Thomas Hobbes as a Theorist of Anarchy: A Theological Interpretation

Summary

Scholars of international relations generally invoke Hobbes as the quintessential theorist of international anarchy. David Armitage challenges this characterisation, arguing that Hobbes is regarded as a foundational figure in international relations theory in spite of as much as because of what he wrote on the subject. Thus, for Armitage, Hobbes is not the theorist of anarchy that he is made out to be. This article agrees with the general thrust of Armitage's critique while maintaining that it is still possible to imagine Hobbes as a theorist of anarchy. Hobbes is a theorist of anarchy, not in a political sense, but in a metaphysical sense. This conception of anarchy is a reflection of a comprehensive theological account of reality that is grounded in an omnipotent God. Any historical inquiry into the foundations of modern international thought must take account of theology, because theology defines the ultimate coordinates of reality in terms of which the concepts of international thought are intelligible.     

Book Reviews

Tommy Gärling, Thomas Laitila and Kerstin Westin (eds), Theoretical Foundations of Travel Choice Modeling
Gunnar Törnqvist, Renässans för regioner. (Renaissance for regions)
Golledge, G.R. and Stimson J.R., Spatial Behavior-A Geographic Perspective     

Reviews

EVELINE CRUICKSHANKS, ed. Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism, 1689–1759. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1982. Pp. xi, 231. $31.50 (US). Reviewed by Roger L. Emerson

JAMES PINCKNEY HARRISON. The Endless War: Fifty Years of Struggle in Vietnam. New York: The Free Press, 1981. Pp. xii, 372. $17.95 (US). Reviewed by P.J. Honey

J. ROBERT WRIGHT. The Church and the English Crown, 1305–1334: A Study based on the Register of Archbishop Walter Reynolds. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 1980. Pp. xix, 472, $27.00 paper. Reviewed by Robert Brentano

TORGIL, MAGNUSON. Rome in the Age of Bernini. Vol. I : From the election of Sixtus V to the death of Urban VIII, translated by Nancy Adler. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International, and N.J.: Humanities Press, 1982. Pp. ix, 388, $45 (US). Reviewed by Paul F. Grendler

BRUCE CUMINGS. The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes 1945–1947. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. Pp. 606. $40.00 (US); $14.50 (US) paper. Reviewed by Tae Jin Kahng

STEFANOS SARAFIS. ELAS: Greek Resistance Army. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1981. Pp. civ, 566. $26.25 (US); LAWRENCE S. WTTTNER. American Intervention in Greece, 1943–1949. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. Pp. xiv, 445. $19.95 (US). Reviewed by Dimitri Kitsikis

ANDREW ROSSOS. Russia and the Balkans: Inter-Balkan Rivalries and Russian Foreign Policy 1908–1919. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981. Pp. xiii. 313. $35.00. Reviewed by Hugh Seton-Watson

JOHN MEYENDORFF. Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian relations in the fourteenth century. Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Pp. xxi, 326. $69.50 (US). Reviewed by N. Oikonomides

THOMAS C. OWEN. Capitalism and Politics in Russia. A Social History of the Moscow Merchants, 1855–1905. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Pp. xi, 295. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by John F. Hutchinson

G. DANIELS (ed.). A Guide to the Reports of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 12. London, 1981. Pp. xxvi, 115. £12.00. Reviewed by R.J. Overy

LOUIS L. SNYDER. Global Mini-Nationalisms: Autonomy or Independence. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982. Pp. xvii, 326. $29.95 (US). Reviewed by Allan C. Smith

PAUL HAGGIE. Britannia at Bay: The Defence of the British Empire Against Japan 1931–41. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Pp. xii, 264. $59.95. Reviewed by Raymond Callahan

DAVID REYNOLDS. The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance 1937–41: A Study in Competitive Co-operation. London: Europa Publications Limited, 1981. Pp. xiv, 397. £20.00. Reviewed by Ernest Gilman

DONALD S. BIRN. The League of Nations Union: 1918–1945. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Pp. vi, 269. £69.50. Reviewed by George Egerton     

后现代主义及其对清代国际关系的新阐释

何伟亚的《怀柔远人：清代的宾礼与1793年马嘎尔尼使团》引发了一场关于后现代主义方法论的争论。何伟亚对其书题目和一些重要清史料的“误读”折射出了后现代主义对分析历史本复杂意义层结构所持的令人深思的理论。何伟亚对具体史料的解读是否准确是可以继续争论的,然而,他从“历史诗学”的角度,对马嘎尔尼使华失败背景和原因的新诠释可能会有助于破解清代占优势地位的政治化心理及其符码。     

Book Reviews

Tolley, R. and Turton, B. (1995), Transport Systems, Policy and Planning. A Geographical Approach
Soja, E.W. (1996), Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places
Cole, J. (1996), Geography of the World's Major Regions
Roberts, B.K. (1966), Landscapes of Settlement, Prehistory to the Present
Greed, Clara H. (1994), Women and Planning—Creating Gendered Realities
Auty, R.M. (1995), Patterns of Development. Resources, policy and economic growth     

Beyond Eurocentrism? Heritage conservation and the politics of difference

There is a long-standing debate concerning the suitability of European or ‘western’ approaches to the conservation of cultural heritage in other parts of world. The Cultural Charter for Africa (1976), The Burra Charter (1979) and Nara Document on Authenticity (1994) are notable manifestations of such concerns. These debates are particularly vibrant in Asia today. This article highlights a number of charters, declarations and publications that have been conceived to recalibrate the international field of heritage governance in ways that address the perceived inadequacies of documents underpinning today’s global conservation movement, such as the 1964 Venice Charter. But as Venice has come to stand as a metonym for a ‘western’ conservation approach, intriguing questions arise concerning what is driving these assertions of geographic, national or civilisational difference in Asia. To address such questions, the article moves between a number of explanatory frameworks. It argues declarations about Asia’s culture, its landscapes, and its inherited pasts are, in fact, the combined manifestations of post-colonial subjectivities, a desire for prestige on the global stage of cultural heritage governance and the practical challenges of actually doing conservation in the region.     

Early international relations teaching and teachers in Australia: institutional and disciplinary origins

Drawing on the insights of the current literature concerned with the institutions which fostered and supported the emergence of the international relations (IR) discipline, this article reassesses the Australian contribution in the interwar years. From this period, teaching materials and surviving lecture notes, as well as documentation of Australian participation in the International Studies Conference, show that, contrary to the received view, academies and institutions supported a recognisable IR, albeit in its formative stages. Even by the early 1920s there was a developing awareness that ‘international relations’ was a discrete subject worthy of presentation in a specific curriculum. The Melbourne school initiated by William Harrison Moore exerted the greatest influence; an energetic pioneering effort in Sydney under H. Duncan Hall was not maintained after his departure. Law and history departments offered such courses, though their place in wider programs depended upon the contingencies of personalities and appointments. By the 1930s, IR teachers were familiar with the major methodological debates of the era in the UK and the USA. While consistent attention was devoted to international organisation, and ‘collective security’ had its champions, the predominant view, in the terminology of the ‘first debate’, was neither idealist nor realist.     

Of Once and Future Kings: Rethinking the Anglo-American Analogy in the Rising Powers Debate

This paper seeks to advance the so-called rising powers debate of the past 15 years by interrogating its selective use of the past. Key to the debate are the impact of rising powers like China on the international order, and how to accommodate them. Historiography plays a crucial but unappreciated role in the debate, as scholars look to the past to make sense of the future. Especially in the United States, many compare the US now to Great Britain before 1940, the idea being that both faced the same difficulties of decline relative to rising challengers. This is the core case of power transition theory in the field of International Relations. It is also, fundamentally, weak. As I show, it relies on a ‘long chronology’ of British decline that the past quarter-century of historical scholarship on twentieth-century Britain has undermined. I instead propose a ‘short chronology’ of the transition away from Britain that emphasizes agency and contingency over structure and the longue durée. Bringing the work of historians to the rising powers debate thus indicates that the key factors to study are not grand systemic forces, but short-term politics and diplomacy.     

Universal,colonial, or Indonesian heritage? A multi-scalar approach to the historical representations and management of colonial heritage in the Old Town of Jakarta (Kota Tua) during its bid for World Heritage nomination in 2015–2018

ABSTRACT

Between 2015 and 2018 the Indonesian government unsuccessfully applied for World Heritage status for the old Dutch colonial neighborhood of Kota Tua in Jakarta. As this article aims to show, analyzing the process of writing a nomination dossier, especially in the case of a failed nomination, can be revealing in unraveling the inner workings of heritage conservation efforts and the many actors that are involved on different ‘scales’ and levels surrounding the heritage. As the project of writing the nomination dossier was delegated to a consortium of private actors from the elite circles of Jakarta, this article will finally address both the difficulties and advantages of involving the private sector in such nomination processes.     

Middle of nowhere: contesting rural heritage at the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum

Abstract

The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, Canada, is a rural museum located in a relatively isolated hamlet of less than 200 people. Inside the museum, small diorama boxes feature taxidermied gophers dressed in tiny clothing and posed as townspeople dining in restaurants, shooting pool and chatting at a beauty parlour, among other activities. Drawing on methods stemming from critical museum theory, critical rural studies and critical heritage studies, this article analyzes the ways in which both local residents and visitors from outside the region understand the museum, considering why it is indeed world famous, attracting over 5000 international tourists each year. It argues that the Gopher Hole Museum succeeds in part because its organisers are active agents who take pride in the museum without attempting to refute the sometimes negative responses to it, or control the ways in which outsiders interpret it. The museum in Torrington is a complex ‘open text’ that both employs and critiques the conventional methods used in natural history and heritage museums to offer multiple narratives about childhood, heritage and rural life, addressing local people as well as tourists.     

Heritage diplomacy

This paper explores the concept of heritage diplomacy. To date much of the analysis regarding the politics of heritage has focused on contestation, dissonance and conflict. Heritage diplomacy seeks to address this imbalance by critically examining themes such as cooperation, cultural aid and hard power, and the ascendency of intergovernmental and non-governmental actors as mediators of the dance between nationalism and internationalism. The paper situates heritage diplomacy within broader histories of international governance and diplomacy itself. These are offered to interpret the interplay between the shifting forces and structures, which, together, have shaped the production, governance and international mobilisation of heritage in the modern era. A distinction between heritage as diplomacy and in diplomacy is outlined in order to reframe some of the ways in which heritage has acted as a constituent of cultural nationalisms, international relations and globalisation. In mapping out directions for further enquiry, I argue the complexities of the international ordering of heritage governance have yet to be teased out. A framework of heritage diplomacy is thus offered in the hope that it can do some important analytical work in the field of critical heritage theory, opening up some important but under theorised aspects of heritage analysis.     

Becoming a conservation ‘good power’: Norway’s early World Heritage history

Abstract

States stand at the core of the World Heritage Convention and their multifaceted interstate relations have been a central subject in contemporary World Heritage research. Less research has been directed towards intrastate relations, that is relations between organisation-agencies and individual agents within a State Party. Spurring from the 40th anniversary of Norway’s ratification of the World Heritage Convention, this paper utilises archival records to explore the intrastate relations and transactional authority at play within the State Party of Norway. Inspired by recent research in international relations and political science, it analyses Norway’s ratification process (1972–1977) through its early years as an observer (1978–1983) to its first committee tenure (1983–1989). Currently known as one of the spokespersons for scientific advice, returning to the 1980s provides an opportunity to reflect on how Norway laid the foundations for becoming a conservation ‘good power’ through its actions and responses to other states’ lobbying efforts.     

Sustaining popular music’s material culture in community archives and museums

This article examines the challenges of sustainability faced by community archives and museums that are concerned with the preservation and display of the material culture of popular music’s recent past. The sustainability of grassroots sites of popular music heritage is of great concern due to their role in making accessible cultural artefacts that have limited representation in the collections of more prestigious institutions. Drawing on three sites that have ceased operation – Jazz Museum Bix Eiben Hamburg, Mutant Sounds and Holy Warbles – the article highlights difficulties faced by the founders and volunteers of physical and online archives in sustaining their ‘do-it-yourself’ heritage practices in the medium- to long-term.     

戴维·J.希尔和他的《欧洲外交史》

活跃在19、20世纪之交的美国传奇式人物戴维·J.希尔集多种身份于一身,而他最为后人记取的是他在国际关系学科领域的开创性成就。他所著的《欧洲外交史》三卷,是欧美学界的第一部国际关系史通史著作,极大地推动了19、20世纪之交欧美国际关系学科的兴起。该著作既清晰描绘了1800多年间欧洲政治的宏观轨迹,又生动展示了欧洲国际关系进程的丰富画面。它具有以下几个突出的特点:对历史主线的精当把握、对历史偶然因素的深刻揭示、对文献资料的广泛挖掘以及清新活泼的写作手法。这些特点使该著作成为国际关系史学的不朽经典。     

Stages of War,Stages of Man: Quincy Wright and the Liberal Internationalist Study of War

American legal scholar Quincy Wright's 1942 A Study of War was a milestone in the study of warfare, and a monumental text in the history of liberal internationalism and the social sciences. Yet, it was quickly forgotten, and neglected ever since. This paper seeks to recover Study by elucidating its historical significance, and placing it within the intellectual and institutional contexts of its time. Study, I argue, encapsulated both an interwar liberal internationalist conceptualisation of warfare as well as a pre-Realist social scientific approach to war in international relations. Through the 1,500 page Study Wright attempted to take the emergent discipline of international relations in new directions by developing a multidisciplinary and multidimensional historical, theoretical and empirical approach to warfare. He incorporated sociological and anthropological approaches and developed themes found more broadly in existing Anglo-American studies of war. Study's multidimensional approach was framed by liberal internationalist concerns and concepts, and yet also reflected the development of the social sciences in the interwar period. Study points to the more realist direction liberal internationalism may have turned to if it had not succumbed to the power-political realist conceptualisations international relations which would ascend in the 1940s.     

Is Australia a middle power? A systemic impact approach

This article examines whether Australia is a middle power. It identifies the three most popular approaches to defining a middle power: by a country's position, behaviour and identity. The article tests each definition against Australia, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each. Highlighting an earlier systemic approach to defining states, an alternative ‘systemic impact’ definition for middle powers is proposed. This approach, it is argued, provides a more comprehensive manner for identifying whether a country like Australia is a middle power, along with the implications for international security.     

The regressing ‘culture of anarchy’ in ancient China and its implications for Wendt's progressive constructivism

What does the qualitative increase in the brutality of international relations in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China (770–221bc) mean for the implicit progressivism of Alexander Wendt's constructivism, as espoused in his landmark text Social Theory of International Politics (1999)? Wendt's constructivism is useful in understanding international systems outside the contemporary Westphalian order and provides an excellent analytical tool for understanding ancient China. However, this article argues that Wendt's implicit teleology of progressively cooperative ‘cultures of anarchy’ in international politics is empirically questionable. It is demonstrated that such a progression is not supported by the historical evidence of ancient China, which represents an instance of an international system ‘regressing’ from a more to a less cooperative international social structure.     

The Caliphate,and the Changing Strategy of the Public Statements of al-Qaeda's Leaders

Abstract

According to the American President George Bush's administration, the establishment of a global Caliphate is a key al-Qaeda goal. This article focuses primarily on the statements of Ayman az-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, with their public words traced throughout the last three decades, from Egypt to Afghanistan, to Sudan, back to Afghanistan and through the various conflicts that have happened since they have been on the run post 9/11. By highlighting the changing strategy of their discourse according to the events around them and internationally, it is shown that far from being a critical part of al-Qaeda ideology as some would have the public believe, the Caliphate plays a minor role in their objectives and rhetoric, used primarily as a motivational and instrumental tool in uniting the ummah in its efforts to expel foreign forces from what it considers to be occupied lands.