Dynamics of the Antarctic and Arctic mesosphere and lower thermosphere regions—I. The prevailing wind

The dynamics of the Antarctic and Arctic mesopause regions (ca. 95 ±15 km) are investigated through comparative analyses of winds measured by radars at the Scott Base (78°S), Molodezhnaya (68°S), and Mawson (67°S) stations in the Antarctic, and the near-conjugate stations of Heiss I. (81°N) and Poker Flat (65°N) in the Arctic region. The data were analyzed specifically to delineate hemispheric differences in mean monthly prevailing wind climatologies, and show the circulation systems in the Arctic and Antarctic mesosphere and lower thermospheres to exhibit significant asymmetries. These asymmetries may be attributable to hemispheric differences in dynamical forcing due to one or more of the following: insolation absorption by ozone, other mesospheric heat sources such as exothermic chemical reactions, tropospheric forcing of vertically or obliquely propagating gravity waves which engage in mesospheric mean-flow interactions, and dissipation of planetary waves which find ducting channels through the middle atmosphere.Interannual variability is also examined in the Molodezhnaya and Heiss I. data, which cover the periods 1967–1986 and 1968–1985, respectively. Accompanying significant year-to-year variability, eastward winds at 95 km over the Antarctic (Molodezhnaya station) exhibit a trend of decreasing amplitude from 1968 to 1977 that is not reflected in the Arctic data (Heiss I.); for instance, the annual mean wind decreases in a monotonie sense from 20–25 to 5 m s⁻¹ during this period. It cannot be unambiguously established whether this trend represents a decrease in intensity accompanying secular changes in thermal forcing, or a latitudinal contraction or shifting of the mesospheric jet system. The annual mean winds at Molodezhnaya remain at the 4–8 m s⁻¹ level from 1977 to 1986.In addition, existing empirical models are evaluated against the data, and are shown to be deficient in reproducing some salient characteristics of the high-latitude circulation systems. This latter result especially questions the common practice of deriving winds based on the geostrophic approximation in this altitude/latitude regime.     

The new resource politics: can Australia and South Africa accommodate China?

The material transformation of the Chinese economy is forcing a concomitant process of political adjustment—and not just in China. Other states are being forced to accommodate the ‘rise of China’. In this context, this article first presents a comparative analysis of China's impact on two countries, Australia and South Africa, which have little in common other than a wealth of natural resources and a possible status as middle powers; this is a particularly useful exercise because these states are geographically distant and have very different political structures and general developmental histories. Second, the authors consider how China's bilateral ties look from a Chinese perspective in these two very different relationships. Such an analysis serves as a reminder that resource dependency is a two‐way street. The article argues that underlying material realities are constraining and to some extent determining the domestic and foreign policies of three very different states that otherwise have little in common.     

Meteorological effects in the variations of ionospheric parameters—I. The lower thermosphere

The influence of the troposphere and stratosphere on variations of ionospheric D-region parameters are discussed. It is found that variations of the minimum observable ionosonde frequency (f_min) and horizontal winds are closely related to temperature and pressure fields in the lower atmosphere. Experimental data for the Central Asian and East Siberian U.S.S.R. regions have been used.     

The amplitude of auroral backscatter—I. Model estimates of the dependence on electron density

A model of the auroral backscatter amplitude, in the form discussed by Uspensky and Oksman et al., has been derived for the radar geometry appropriate to joint observations by the PGI auroral radars at Karmaselga and Essoyla and the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar. The model shows how refraction effects cause a strongly non-linear dependence of backscatter amplitude on electron density in the E-region. It also explains why the macro aspect sensitivity for auroral radar operating at a frequency of about 45 MHz is only 1–2 dB per degree for aspect angles greater than 5°.     

The Frankish tradition and new perceptions of the monarchy: Louis XV—the new pharamond?

During the last century of the ancien régime in France, perceived notions of history, the rediscovery of the past, and the recourse to tradition were closely linked to each other as well as to political considerations or implications. Notions about the past and interpretations of tradition had relevance and meaning for the political élites, enabling them to explain the origins of the monarchy as well as its nature. The purpose here is to explore these links and to show how, in one particular instance, they came to affect the artistic representation of the monarch himself.     

The communist party of Australia and the eighty‐one parties conference

In November 1960 a conference of eighty‐one communist parties convened in Moscow to try to resolve serious differences which had arisen between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Communist Party of China (CPC or CCP). It was ‘probably the most important gathering of its kind in the entire history of Communism’ (Zagoria 1962:343).

Several years later the position adopted at that conference by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) became the subject of an acrimonious and inconclusive controversy between pro‐Soviet and pro‐Chinese elements in the Australian party.

Of various scholars who commented on the CPA's stance, almost all ([Rigby] 1964:37; Mayo‐Wren 1981:87; Turner 1961:7; Turner 1965:154) claimed categorically that the CPA's delegates, Sharkey and Dixon, backed China. However in one exhaustive account of the conference (Griffith 1962) the CPA did not appear among the CPC's partisans. Most observers outside Australia relied heavily on Kremlinologist Edward Crankshaw. Crankshaw originally omitted the CPA from his list of pro‐Chinese parties (1962:10) but later revised his account (1963:61; 1965:120, 134).¹

In the standard historical work on the CPA Davidson (1969:160,152) qualified the notion that the CPA had supported China. ‘After a careful study of various views’ he concluded:

At the conference of eighty‐one communist parties in Moscow in 1960 the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) supported the Chinese interpretation of Marxist‐Leninist doctrine in preference to that of the Soviet party. Previous emphasis on the CPA's commitment to international communist unity has tended to obscure and even deny this.     

The Campbell Committee and the origins of ‘deregulation’ in Australia

The 1981 Australian Financial System Inquiry, known as the Campbell Committee, is widely seen as the start of the reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Accounts of its origins have been dominated by a debate about which policy actor can take credit. This paper utilises cabinet and Reserve Bank archives to reassess the origins of the Campbell Committee. The inquiry had its origins in an earlier attempt by the Whitlam government to take federal control of the regulation for non-bank financial institutions and the building society crisis of the mid-1970s. In its response to these political and economic challenges we can identify the moment in which the Fraser cabinet turned towards market-based reform. The political decisions made in the context of crisis set the path for regulatory change in subsequent decades, particularly in the area of prudential regulation, where we have seen regulatory consolidation and expansion rather than ‘deregulation’.     

The poverty of Australian defence and security studies: The ‘secure Australia project’ and its critics

Graeme Cheeseman and StJohn Kettle (eds), The New Australian Militarism: Undermining Our Future Security (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1990).

Gary Smith and StJohn Kettle (eds), Threats Without Enemies: Rethinking Australia's Security (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1992).

Peter Jennings, Searching For Insecurity: Why the ‘Secure Australia Project’ is Wrong About Defence (Current Issues, Institute of Public Affairs, June 1994).