海湾风云的地缘政治分析

本文全面回顾分析了海湾风云中,伊科冲突和美国出兵海湾的地缘政治背景,以及苏联和阿拉伯世界基于地缘政治的考虑和选择。     

An Assessment of the Influence of the Inter-Tropical Discontinuity on Inter-Annual Rainfall Characteristics in Nigeria

This study assessed the influence of the Inter-Tropical Discontinuity (ITD) on inter-annual rainfall characteristics in Nigeria between 1970 and 2000. This involved determining the strength and direction of the relationships between the total annual rainfalls in the extreme southern and northern parts of the country and the total annual rainfalls during the period of the Little Dry Season in southwestern Nigeria, and the surface locations of the ITD over Nigeria and some other factors that may impact ITD characteristics (such as the pressure differences between Azores, Libyan and St. Helena anticyclones and the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Guinea). Results indicate that although the surface location of the ITD significantly accounts for rainfall inter-annual variability in Nigeria, it does so in the northern part of the country only. Pressure differences between the various anticyclones were observed to be another significant factor influencing inter-annual rainfall variability in the north. However, the influence of the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Guinea on the rainfall characteristics in the northern region is ill-defined. It was also noted that the only factor influencing inter-annual variability in the Little Dry Season rainfall in the southwest and the total annual rainfalls in the south is the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Guinea. The results obtained indicate that the total annual rainfalls in the north have significant positive relationships with the surface location of the ITD but significant negative relationships with the pressure differences between the Azores, Libyan and St. Helena anticyclones. The Little Dry Season rainfalls and total annual rainfalls in the south have significant positive relationships with the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Guinea.     

Ceramic form and function in the Neolithic Gulf. A view from Bahra 1

This paper discusses the possible functions of ceramic vessels in the Neolithic Gulf, based on new data from the Ubaid-related settlement of Bahra 1 (Kuwait). Two pottery groups identified at the site—Ubaid Ware and Coarse Red Ware—are found in great numbers and variety of forms which provides grounds for a reconsideration of the role of pottery vessels in the societies of the Gulf. Analysis of this material reveals a more varied function of pottery vessels compared to that suggested in earlier studies. It was also possible to define the function of certain pottery vessels in more detail, both in their economic and social context.     

After the Fanfare: Education,the Lasting Legacy

Shipwrecks are resource rich. The recent Gulf of Mexico Deep Gulf Wrecks Project was meant to be shared and explored, not only by professional scientists but also by the public. The project website was the public link to the deepest reaches of the Gulf of Mexico during the scientific expedition. The website welcomed hundreds of visitors each day during the project. The audience composed of professionals and interested public followed the daily logs and videos. The overall scientific and educational data sets amassed from the project were, at times, overwhelmingly vast, but when segmented by topic, became manageable. After the fanfare generated by following along with the expedition ended, the primary project goals shifted to analysis and the creation of a lasting educational legacy. This legacy is presented digitally via the web. Project curriculum gives classrooms around the globe long-term access to the exciting scientific data. Along with the documentary film project the Deep Gulf Wrecks Project ensures that the legacy at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is indeed a lasting legacy.     

A characterisation study of Ubaid period ceramics from As-Sabbiya,Kuwait, using a non-destructive portable X-Ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer and petrographic analyses

The Ubaid cultural phenomena (6500–4200 BC) of southern Mesopotamia has been used to characterise other archaeological sites in the Arabian Gulf region. The aim of this inquiry is to explore the nature of the interaction between the homeland of the Ubaid and the wider Gulf region. Through the use of a non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer, this study seeks to characterise and identify the chemical and mineralogical compositions of the ceramic assemblage from the Bahra 1 site of the As-Sabbiya region, Kuwait. The chemical results demonstrated that a combination of six trace elements [rubidium (Rb), strontium (Sr), yttrium (Y), zirconium (Zr), niobium (Nb) and barium (Ba)] occur significantly enough to delineate clay-based artifact groups—local red coarse from Ubaid, while the mineralogical analysis confirms the pXRF result and identifies the source of the raw materials and temper as well. Also, the comparison between the Ubaid and Bronze Age assemblage results suggests that potters used different clay resources within their own regions and/or production techniques.     

Christianity in the Gulf during the first centuries of Islam

This article re-examines the ceramics of SBY-9, a church and monastery site on the island of Sir Bani Yas, Abu Dhabi emirate, U.A.E. It then explores other archaeological evidence for Christianity in the Arabian Gulf and compares it to the textual data, resulting in a reconsideration of the history and activities of the Church of the East. The pottery of SBY-9 indicates that the monastery complex was occupied some time between the second half of the seventh century and the mid-eighth century AD and not, as previously believed, the sixth–seventh centuries AD. Other excavated churches and monasteries in the Gulf region should also be redated to the eighth and ninth centuries AD (al-Qusur, Kharg). These findings cast a new light on the history of Christianity in the Arabian Gulf after the Muslim conquest.     

Provenance of glass shards in archaeological lime plasters by LA-ICP-MS: implications for the ancient routes from the Gulf of Mexico to Teotihuacan in Central Mexico

We present the chemical characteristics of samples collected from the central courtyard of Teopancazco, a neighbourhood centre in Teotihuacan (Mexico), the most important classic Mesoamerican city. The rhyolitic glass shards used as aggregates have a composition comparable to the glass material sourced from the magmatic system of Altotonga (located along the route to the Gulf Coast). People travelling from the Gulf Coast may have transported the glass shards to Teotihuacan during the Xolalpan phase (350–550 AD). However, the reasons for using glass shards as a construction material remain unknown. These new data confirm the close relationship between inhabitants of Teopancazco and the Gulf Coast already revealed by previous archaeological and archaeometric studies.     

Consequences of Displacement after the Gulf Crisis: A Study of the Responses of 207 Displaced Palestinian and Jordanian Workers

Throughout the war period and immediately thereafter, punitive measures were instituted against Jordanian nationals working in the Gulf; hundreds of thousands were dismissed from their jobs without compensation, and many more were expelled from the Gulf, leaving behind personal belongings, as well as bitter memories. The purpose of this study is to: (1) investigate the effects of the Gulf Crisis on the amount of annual contributions to Jordan's economy by Gulf workers; (2) measure the amount of property loss incurred by Gulf workers as a result of the displacement; (3) examine the duration of unemployment caused among the displaced workers; and (4) measure attitudinal changes among the displaced workers regarding their economic future and the future of Jordan's economy.     

Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico

The Gulf Coast of Mesoamerica is a culturally and environmentally heterogeneous area that encompasses the lowlands along the Gulf of Mexico as well as rugged inland highlands. Blessed with a wealth of valued resources and a favorable geographical setting, the pre-Hispanic Gulf Coast played a critical role as a cultural and economic crossroads, and its cultures contributed vital elements to other Mesoamerican traditions. Gulf Coast archaeology currently is experiencing the most active period in its history. This recent research underscores the diversity and dynamism of the area's cultures and environment. An enormous expansion of settlement pattern studies reveals considerable diversity in sociopolitical organization, urbanism, and human–land relationships. A second important trend focuses on documenting and understanding variation in craft production and exchange systems. A third is the continuing emphasis on interregional interaction through all time periods. These three foci merge in a growing interest in variation and change in Gulf Coast political economies. Future research will need to incorporate theoretical perspectives that focus on the generation of cultural variation, including agency-based models of technological choice and political economy, as well as those, like Darwinian approaches, that emphasize the differential persistence of variation.     

Ethics and transparency in the field: lessons from the Arab Gulf

This viewpoint draws from feminist scholarship to critically examine an academic partnership between two universities based in the USA and in the Arab Gulf. In particular, feminist geography is used to inform cross-cultural projects such as this academic exchange among Arabs and Americans by focusing on ethics and transparency in the field. The complexity of cultural and institutional dynamics in this and related projects impacts our work with participants and in places where we conduct research. This analysis is based on collaboration between a public university in the USA and an all-women's university located in Bahrain, an Arab Gulf monarchy that has experienced violence stemming from socio-economic disparities and political tensions between the ruling Sunnis and the majority Shiite population. The project exemplifies a growing trend among Western universities to participate in academic partnerships that will generate financial resources while educating students in regions with limited access to higher education. The contradictions and dilemmas that arise in this academic engagement highlight the importance of ethics and transparency in cross-cultural university partnerships.     

A seal in the collections of the National Museum, Bahrain

This article describes a Murghab seal amulet recently identified in the collections of the National Museum of Bahrain and discusses some of the other evidence for contact between Central Asia and the Gulf in the early second millennium.     

Britain's Decision to Withdraw from the Persian Gulf: A Pattern Not a Puzzle

The reasons for the British decision to withdraw from the Gulf are highly contentious. While some scholars have focused on short-term considerations, especially the devaluation of sterling towards the end of 1967, in the British determination to quit the Gulf, others have concentrated on longer-term trends in British policy-making for the region. This article sides with the latter. Britain's Gulf role came under increasing scrutiny following the 1956 Suez crisis as part of an ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of Britain's Gulf presence. In this sense, British withdrawal fitted into a wider pattern of British decolonisation. By the 1960s, the Treasury, in particular, strongly questioned the necessity and cost-effectiveness of the maintenance of empire in the Gulf to safeguard British economic interests there. Recent interpretations which seek to disaggregate the British decision to leave Southeast Asia from the decision to depart from the Gulf are also questionable. By mid-1967, it had already been determined that Britain would leave both regions by the mid-1970s, the only difference being that this decision was formally announced with respect to Southeast Asia, but not with regard to the Gulf. The devaluation of sterling in November 1967, therefore, merely hastened and facilitated decisions which had already been taken. Despite the end of formal empire in the Gulf, Britain did seek, not always successfully, to preserve its interests into the 1970s and beyond.     

Inquiry in the Physical Geology Classroom: Supporting Students' Conceptual Model Development

This study characterizes the impact of an inquiry-based learning (IBL) module versus a traditionally structured laboratory exercise. Laboratory sections were randomized into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught using IBL pedagogical techniques and included manipulation of large-scale data-sets, use of multiple representations and a physical model and exposure to ill-constrained problems common to the Texas Gulf Coast. The control groups were taught using traditional laboratory activities. The groups were not significantly different prior to exposure. Pre/post-expressed conceptual models and final written reports indicate that the experimental group had greater increases in their conceptual model development of sand-sediment transport.     

The Intersection of Citizenship Status,STEM Education,and Expected Labor Market Participation in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Citizenship status influences the impact of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education on the youth labor market participation in the Arabian Gulf. This research examines the relationship between citizenship status, STEM education, and expected labor market participation in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and examines the intervening effects of information and communication technology (ICT) based instruction, specifically. The 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides both labor market expectations and STEM education data from all participating GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Results suggest that ICT‐enhanced STEM education differently influences the human capital development of Gulf national and expatriate youth. For example, GCC nationals do not emphasize STEM education as an avenue for employment, while expatriate youth do. In particular, as Gulf national youths' parents' education level increases, students are less likely to think they need to do well in science to get the job they want. This is indicative of a broader trend in the Gulf nations to rely more on non‐education‐related factors such as family influence or connections for social, economic, and political mobility. In contrast, results also suggest that while STEM education contributes to potential private sector labor market participation among Gulf national youth, expatriate youth are more likely to expect to need or use STEM in the labor market.     

From ‘ovoid jars’ to ‘torpedo jars’: Investigations into bitumen-lined transport containers in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean in antiquity (second century BCE–third century CE)

Research into bitumen-lined ‘torpedo jars’, widely distributed throughout the Gulf and the Indian Ocean between the third and ninth centuries CE, has developed considerably in recent years, shedding new light on maritime trade connections during the Sasanian and early Islamic periods. Based on pottery finds from Failaka (Kuwait) and Thaj (Saudi Arabia), recently studied by the author, this article draws attention to an earlier type of bitumen-lined jar characterised by an ovoid profile and a greenish fabric, including vegetal temper. These ovoid jars, presumably of Mesopotamian origin, are commonly found on ‘Classical’/pre-Sasanian sites located along the Gulf’s shores, and their specific fabric has also been identified recently in Oman and southern India. They provide evidence for the existence of extensive Mesopotamian trade, probably in wine, with the Gulf region and more broadly with the Indian Ocean during the late Seleucid and Characenian periods.     

Monks,dinars and date palms: hagiographical production and the expansion of monastic institutions in the early Islamic Persian Gulf

Recent archaeological studies have documented an expansion of monastic institutions in the Persian Gulf after the Islamic conquest, between the middle of the seventh and the end of the eighth centuries. Although the literary sources have often been invoked to support an earlier dating for the diffusion of coenobitic monasticism in the region, our principal source for the phenomenon — the History of Mar Yonan, hitherto misdated to the fourth century — confirms recent archaeologically informed interpretations. The narrative, moreover, provides an insight into the social and economic structures of monasticism in the seventh‐ and eighth‐century Persian Gulf as well as the ideological conflicts that attended the emergence of those structures.     

The dissolution of ancient Kvenland and the transformation of the Kvens as an ethnic group of people. On changing ethnic categorizations in communicative and collective memories

ABSTRACT

The aim is to trace how the ethnonym Kven and the interrelated imagination of Kvenland changed over time in Nordic political discourse from the Viking Age to the mid-eighteenth century. In the negotiations over fixed borders between Sweden, Denmark and Russia, recognition of ethnic groups played an important political role in legitimating the territorial claims of the states. It brought the history of ethnic groups to the table and in the process made visible ethnonyms and names for provinces used previously. The continuity of the ethnonyms is investigated as a chronological chain of communicative and collective memory. The ethnonym and the territory of Kvenland were used by the Norwegians to maintain an ethnic boundary with the Finnish speakers in the upper Bothnian area. The names Kven and Kvenland were never used in Sweden. The investigation shows that the Kvens constituted a group of Finnish speaking people existing in continuity from the Viking Age. Their core territory was situated in the upper Gulf of Bothnia area. When this was integrated into the Swedish kingdom the inhabitants were designated Finns by the Swedes. The Finnish speakers in Tornedalen, thus, kept their linguistic and cultural continuity but lost their western Scandinavian ethnonym Kven.     

Britain,the United Arab Emirates and the defence of the Gulf revisited

This article investigates the deepening of the UK's security and defence arrangements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In recent years there has been a flurry of diplomatic activity indicating far closer engagement between London and Abu Dhabi. Rather than being an innovative initiative of the Cameron government, the interaction has deeper roots, with this article uncovering the importance of the relatively unknown Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) of 1996, signed by the Major government. Furthermore, the UK‐UAE defence relationship is shown to have endured beyond the infamous UK withdrawal from ‘east of Suez’ in 1971. The current engagement is, however, more intense and potentially far‐reaching than it had been in recent decades, with the defence sector being placed at the forefront of UK efforts to bolster the relationship with the oil‐rich Gulf emirate. Using official statements from London and Abu Dhabi, this article suggests that the UK‐UAE relationship has always remained intact, although it lost focus following the end of the Major government until the refocusing on the Gulf by the Cameron government. The article concludes with an assessment of the expectations of the UAE, and the strategic drivers underpinning UK policy.     

Essential Threats to the Security of the GCC Countries in the Post Arab Spring Era

The so called Arab Spring has brought more challenges to the security of the Arabian Gulf states members of the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC). This article aims to reach a better understanding of the main threats facing the GCC states in the post Arab Spring era. It argues that the conservative system of the GCC states, originated in the paternalistic conservatism, is facing an essential threat from three very important elements that are instigated by the eruption of the so called Arab Spring: political liberal ideas, political Islamic movement, and sectarianism. The article investigates the impact of these elements on the GCC states.