‘Saving the Solomons’: a New Geopolitics in the ‘Arc of Instability’?

The recent crisis in the Solomon Islands is reviewed in the context of historical and regional antecedents. In the past two decades political and ethnic disputes have flared in several parts of Melanesia and nearby parts of the ‘arc of instability’. Tensions and violence in the Solomon Islands, based on social, economic and political issues, exemplify regional development concerns. The collapse of the economy and civil order resulted in the Solomon Islands being characterised as a ‘failed State’. Localised warfare brought external military intervention, with a regional assistance mission led by Australia, which paralleled other involvement in the region. Involvement has emphasised renewed Australian interest in the region, in the light of global geopolitical shifts, and a more controversial approach to regional security and development.     

Eco‐urbanism and the Eco‐city,or, Denying the Right to the City?

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco‐cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new‐build eco‐city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco‐cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change: the citizens of the world's least wealthy states. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco‐city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco‐cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on the multiplication of workers’ geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the ordinary urban spaces and lives of the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.     

How many Gs are there in ‘global governance’ after the crisis? The perspectives of the ‘marginal majority’ of the world's states

The G20 summit has recently emerged as the dominant agency of global governance. It claims that its economic weight and broad membership give it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system. But the G20 still excludes from membership some 150 other countries, all of which have interests at stake within the contours of contemporary global governance. In the financial arena these excluded countries contributed significantly to the alternative agenda for dealing with the global financial crisis proposed by the United Nations conference that met in June 2009. In the trade arena they engaged extensively in a variety of coalitions within the World Trade Organization during the so‐called Doha Round and played a part in preventing a deal emerging that was unsatisfactory from their perspective. Questions are raised about the legitimacy of the G20 by the active presence of so many other country voices outside its remit and it can be expected that the excluded ‘G150’ will increasingly explore different ways to engage with the members of the G20 over the next few years.     

Will the ‘global war on terrorism’ be the new Cold War?

The Bush administration is trying to persuade itself and everyone else that the ‘global war on terrorism’ (GWoT) will, like the Cold War, be a ‘long war’ requiring sustained mobilization against an implacable foe. It has had some success in projecting this idea, and if it takes root the GWoT could indeed become a durable, dominant, unifying idea that would enable Washington to reassert and legitimize both its special claims as the sole superpower and US leadership of global security. The question is: how likely is this to happen? By looking at the surrounding events and contexts that could support or undermine the elevation of the GWoT to the status of the new Cold War, the author argues that it is not all that likely. Many factors could undermine it, not least that most of the strategies on off er corrode the liberal values that they are supposed to defend.     

Deterritorialising the nation? Internet and the politics of the Greek‐American diaspora

In this article, analysis focuses on the websites of Greek‐American diaspora organisations. The aim is to study these media outlets on two levels: (1) with regard to their communication function(s), in order to understand the spectrum of usages they offer to their visitors; and (2) with regard to the way they signify identity specificity at the crossroads of a parallel ethnic or national adherence. The low interactivity constitutes one of the general features of the media analysed. The persistence of the nation as the framework to apprehend collective belonging and the interaction with the ‘other’ is another recurrent and important element. The ‘identity specificity’ of the Greek diaspora community is not presented in articulation to the host society, but in terms of a continuous attachment to a ‘mother‐nation’, as a historic and cultural entity. The nationhood claimed and promoted in this manner is ethnic and cultural, and it espouses the form of an ecumenical and transcendent Hellenism.     

‘Ulster's love in letter'd gold’: the Battle of the Somme and the Ulster Memorial Tower, 1918–1935

This paper employs ideas of distance and proximity in exploring the diverse meanings of the Ulster Memorial Tower at Thiepval, France, between 1918, when the idea of an Ulster memorial was first proposed, and 1935, when responsibility for its maintenance was passed to the Imperial War Graves Commission. The Tower, erected in 1921 as a memorial to men from Ulster who died in the Great War, can be read in a number of different but not necessarily easily reconciled ways. The construction and subsequent life of the memorial is inseparable from the politics of Irish partition and the consolidation of a unionist state in Northern Ireland. It is argued that that the meanings of the Tower were constructed both internally within Northern Ireland as an identity marker but also externally directed as the prime symbol of Britain's debt to Protestant Ulster. The paper concludes that the Tower's geographical distance from the society which had erected it was crucial, both to the external statements it made and to its ultimate lack of internal relevance to Ulster.     

Is “Threat” in the Eye of the Researcher? Theory and Measurement in the Study of State‐Level Immigration Policymaking

This study initiates a methodological critique of the state‐level immigration policy literature through the lens of the racial threat and group power perspectives. First, I highlight the conceptual problems related to the application of such theories to legislature‐level data analysis. Next, I demonstrate the methodological and analytical problems that raise concerns about ad hoc theorizing in this field. Using counts of hostile and welcoming immigration legislation (2005–2011), I demonstrate that outgroup size measures correlate positively with both dependent variables while measures of population growth rate yield null results unless used on their own. These results suggest that the use of legislature‐level models with demographic indicators does not allow us to gain a clear understanding of whether and how population dynamics influence immigration policymaking. Based on these findings, I recommend that when using demographic indicators as key explanatory variables, researchers provide evidence of result consistency across multiple model specifications and also test the models with both hostile and inclusive policy variables. Such protocols would help avoid ad hoc theorizing.     

Where Do the Lead Ingots of the Saintes‐maries‐de‐la‐mer Wreck Come From? Archaeology Compared With Physics

The lead isotope compositions of many different samples from lead ingots of Roman age from two relicts (from Cabrera, and from Saintes‐Maries‐de‐la‐Mer) of the Western Mediterranean have been measured. Other lead isotope analyses of ores, metals or lead ingots from mines of Sierra Morena and from Cartagena and Sardinia have been accomplished. All the lead isotope measurements have been performed at the Joint Research Centre of the European Union, Ispra (Va), Italy. The samples have been prepared in a class 100 clean room, using only ultrapure reagents and FEP materials. In view of the archaeological arguments, it was possible to believe that the Roman lead ingots of the Saintes‐Maries‐de‐la‐Mer 1 wreck came from Spanish lodes, as well as those of the Cabrera 5 wreck. In fact, while the comparison between the first group of ingots (Cabrera 5) and the lead from Sierra Morena is consistent, the correspondence between the second group of ingots (Saintes‐Maries‐de‐la‐Mer 1) and the Cevennes ores (southern France) gives rise to several problems concerning the archaeological and physical origins. These problems are discussed.     

What’s new in the ‘New Partnership for Africa’s Development’?

This article provides an overview of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) in the context of Africa's current economic and governance crises, the attempt to establish an Africa Union, and the interest in Africa displayed by the G8 leadership and in particular by the UK's prime minister Tony Blair.
NEPAD has to be seen simultaneously as a 'big idea', a new way of doing business, and a comprehensive development framework. The 'big idea' is to put Africa's concerns on the table of the G8 and seek a much better deal for Africa in terms of international aid, debt relief and access to markets. The new way of doing business is a new form of 'enhanced' development partnership that makes both donor and recipient mutually accountable for development outcomes. The development framework is a long—and expanding—list of programmes and projects, akin to those that have been tried before.
The heart of NEPAD is a commitment to good governance, operationalized through a radical plan for 'peer review' of governance performance. This promises a radical new approach to development partnership, but it also faces political hazards. The governance component is also analysed in the context of the pan–Africa institutions envisaged by the African Union. There is a need for coordinating and rationalizing peace and security initiatives. NEPAD may unlock additional financing for development, but it should not be seen as a cash cow.
The challenges for NEPAD include opening up the process to make it more participatory, including greater focus on HIV/AIDS. NEPAD faces the real danger of being over–sold and of raising unrealistic expectations among Africans. It is, nevertheless, an outstanding opportunity for Africa's development.     

Towards Free Trade in the Pacific? The Genesis of the ‘Kava‐Biscuit War’ between Fiji and Vanuatu

Contemporary movements towards trade liberalisation have influenced economic development in Pacific island states, where opportunities for growth have always been restricted. The new free trade, centred on comparative advantage, is especially challenging for countries producing sugar, where diversification is difficult, and for the smallest states where trade options have always been limited. New regional trade agreements have been introduced in the Pacific as a step towards global free trade, but have emphasised trade rivalry and conflict, characterised by the ‘kava‐biscuit war’ between Fiji and Vanuatu, rather than complementary trade and cooperation. Movement towards free trade poses acute problems for island states, yet international agreements have not recognised their particular disadvantages, and continue to stress benefits that are nowhere apparent in the Pacific.     

Mapping the desert: Arthur Rimbaud,Charles de Foucauld,and the Société de Géographie, 1884–85

This article focuses on two disparate figures in the French colonial period in Africa, the ex-poet Arthur Rimbaud and the ex-soldier Charles de Foucauld. Between 1883 and 1884, each lived in Africa in self-imposed exile of a sort, and undertook rigorous exploration of the region to which he had relocated himself. Both composed reports on their regions of the ‘dark continent,’ and both reports were submitted to, and recognized by, the Société de Géographie back in Paris. The two geographical texts – Rimbaud's Rapport sur l'Ogadine and de Foucauld's Reconnaissance au Maroc – are watersheds of life-writing, as much as they are representations of colonial Africa observed by Frenchmen. Through comparing the two desert narratives, and considering the two authors' African lives, I argue that the process of writing about the desert actually evokes the essential character of each writer's voice, a voice to which he only found access in the desert. Finally, these voices in turn provide valuable information about the relationship between France and Africa, colonial force and colony, and about the various forms of resistance to each of those roles.     

FAY‐NE15 — Another Neolithic graveyard in the Central Region of the Sharjah Emirate?

The paper describes indications for the existence of another substantial Neolithic graveyard of the fifth millennium BC besides al‐Buhais 18 (BHS18) in the Central Region of the Sharjah Emirate. Archaeological explorations in 2006 recovered skeletal remains of three individuals from a primary burial. Deposition of the deceased was similar to BHS18. All three were richly adorned with different kinds of beads found in the head and neck areas. A total of 949 finds of beads from FAY‐NE15 are compared to the large complex of personal adornments from BHS18. There are slight deviations that might indicate that the two graveyards were used by different groups. Implications for the relations between the groups are discussed.     

‘Garden City’ in the tropics? French Dakar in comparative perspective

The aim of this article is to examine the transmission of garden city notions into the colonial context by focussing on French Dakar, a key site of colonisation in West Africa. Although there is an abundance of literature on the diffusion of urban ideas in general and garden city notions in particular, publications about extra-European planning history, especially in the formerly colonised territories and sub-Saharan Africa, are scant. The article analyses the conception and communication of garden city schemes from late nineteenth-century Britain to early twentieth-century France in terms of cité-jardin applications within the colonial urban sphere of French West Africa. It will also be shown that in interwar Dakar, the practical and terminological usages of the cité-jardin served mainly to create a prestigious image for the designated residential quarters of administrative employees. As a result, unofficial class segregation within the expatriate society was enforced as was unofficial racial segregation between the colonisers and the colonised.     

‘All the king's men’? Refashioning global nuclear order

Is the moment auspicious, as William Walker has argued, for a rebirth of the world nuclear ordering project? An auspicious moment would be marked by three key factors. First, the United States would seek to assert significant leadership and moreover would be able to do so on a sustained, bipartisan basis. Second, other actors essential to the project would be ready to lend their thinking and power to this effort. Third, a few key ideas about the management of the emerging challenges of deterrence and abstinence would have emerged and garnered substantial international support. All three factors are lacking today. But the time will come. To accelerate the arrival of the necessary vision and will, the policy and analytical communities should set some priorities and focus on a few hard problems.     

May It Please the Court? The Solicitor General's Not‐So‐“Special” Relationship: Archibald Cox and the 1963–1964 Reapportionment Cases

Forty-two years ago, the Warren Court decided the jurisprudential progeny of Baker v. Carr . ¹ Six cases, headed by Reynolds v. Sims , ² continued to remake the legal landscape of legislative apportionment using the "one person, one vote" principle. For President John F. Kennedy's Solicitor General, Archibald Cox, the Reynolds decisions were dangerous. He feared they would precipitate a constitutional crisis that would underscore why Justice Felix Frankfurter, his mentor, had urged his judicial colleagues to avoid entangling their institution in the "political thicket" of legislative apportionment.     

The acid test? Competing theses on the nationality – democracy nexus and the case of Switzerland†

ABSTRACT. This article deals with the connection between nationality and democracy and explores the role Switzerland plays in the scholarly debate on this question. It identifies three main theses – liberal‐nationalist, liberal‐multinationalist and liberal‐postnationalist – and shows that each of them uses the Swiss case to claim empirical support. It then analyses the connections between nationality and democracy in Switzerland and demonstrates that the country is neither multinational nor postnational, but is best characterised as a mononational state. These findings expose the fallacy of using Switzerland to claim support for either the multinational or the postnational thesis and call for a reconsideration of them. Additionally, they show that “civic nationalism” and “civic republicanism” can be conflated and that a predominantly civic nation is viable and sustainable and is not necessarily an ethnic nation in disguise. The Swiss case thus provides qualified empirical support for the liberal‐nationalist thesis.     

Sami self‐determination in the making?*

Abstract. The article discusses whether principles of territorial or non‐territorial jurisdiction ought to guide the future distribution of decision‐making power between the Norwegian Sami Parliament and the Norwegian Parliament. It argues that an acceptable distribution of powers must satisfy two normative criteria: first, decision‐making power ought to be distributed on the basis of individuals' desire to be politically associated with some people rather than with others. Second, a normatively defensible distribution of decision‐making power must ensure that those who are subject to the jurisdiction of a particular body have the right to vote in elections for, and thus have the possibility to affect the composition of, that particular body. The article concludes that a non‐territorial principle for distribution of decision‐making power provides a more fruitful point of departure for discussions of the future status of the Sami Parliament in the Norwegian political system than do notions of territorial jurisdiction.     

Post‐Kyoto? Post‐Bush? Towards an effective ‘climate coalition of the willing’

Weak early compliance with the Kyoto Protocol's current emissions reduction targets and the longer term impact of the US's defection point to emerging problems for the Protocol's effectiveness and legitimacy. This article argues that such problems could in part be addressed by shifting the emphasis of negotiations over the Protocol's second commitment period away from attempts to reengage the United States. Instead, these negotiations and key actors like the European Union should aim for a framework and 'culture of compliance' that actively engage the 'emergent major emitters', China, India and Brazil, either by including them in the Protocol's Annex B list of states, or in a new annex created specially to accommodate them.