Of Demons and Angels and Historical Humans: Some Events and Questions in Translation and Post-colonial Theory

In what follows, I attempt to show that a look at some curious examples of translations from European texts makes us think about issues in translation theory and post-colonial theory from a slightly different angle. The metaphor of translation can very well be employed for understanding the relation between European texts, and some texts and some social and political practices in India in the colonial period, and this in turn helps us look critically at what I shall call our fuzzy post-colonialism. I also argue that Walter Benjamin's metaphor of translation as the after-life of a work can be extended to posit two basic modes of after-life.     

Myths, Motivations and 'Misunderestimations': the Bush Administration and Iraq

This article explores the myths and motivations behind US foreign policy towards Iraq in America's 'war on terrorism'. It argues that the foreign policy of the Bush administration is widely misunderstood and that much of the debate about Iraq policy that has taken place has been conducted at an unhelpful level of analysis. It addresses arguments that the Bush administration is motivated by oil, revenge or hubris as well as the more mainstream arguments that an attack on Iraq would provoke instability through the entire Middle East, as well as encouraging further acts of and support for murderous terrorism; that there is no urgency to act against Iraq as containment and deterrence remain adequate means to manage this threat; and that Iraq should be a lower priority than dealing with North Korea. It does this by analysing the development of American foreign policy thinking on the war on terrorism, what motivates it, and why it rejects the arguments of its critics. The article explains the intellectual process by which the US decided upon this course of action and how Europe's failure to understand this process added to its incomprehension of American policy. It does not argue that European's opposition would have been swept aside had they better understood the Bush administration, the central disagreement about the necessity and prudence of military action versus containment remains, but that such an understanding would have allowed for a better and more focused level of debate than the one which has got us to this point. Nor does it argue that the Bush administration approach is necessarily persuasive or justified, merely that its case is reasoned and explicable in terms of America's foreign policy traditions.     

‘Quacking like a duck’? Bush II and presidential power in the second term

It seems a truism of American politics that second presidential terms are destined to be less successful than the period of office which they follow and yet there is very little academic analysis as to why this is the case. Whether there are inherent or structural features of the US political system that unduly affects second-term presidencies and what impact these features might have on the remainder of the Bush administration is the subject of this article. While the impact of this phenomenon is analysed in general, particular attention is focused on the effect of American foreign policy since the Bush presidency, because of Iraq, this subject will ultimately determine the success or failure of the second term. This focus also reflects the fact that second-term administrations tend to be dominated by a focus on foreign policy. The article argues that despite being returned to power with a considerable number of political advantages compared with previous presidents at this stage of their tenure, the Bush administration is already displaying many of the characteristics of an underachieving second term. The article consists of three sections: part one examines the presidential record and analyses the contention that second terms are somehow different; part two sets out the reasons that might account for this factor; and part three applies these factors to the Bush administration to see which of these features apply to the present incumbent and thus what can be expected for the remainder of his second term in office until January 2009.     

THE ECOSYSTEM HEALTH METAPHOR IN SCIENCE AND POLICY

Ecosystem health' is an increasingly common metaphor in the langauge of science and policy. Given the prominence of both the ecosystem and health concepts within geography, this paper examines the meanings generated by the adoption of the metaphor for scientific research and for environmental policy on the North American Great Lakes. 'Ecosystem' can be characterized as an entity, an abstract concept, or a perspective. As perspective, ecosystem shares many features of postmodern science, emphasizing complexity and holism and calling for the inclusion of human beings in our considerations of nature. The ecosystem health metaphor is politically powerful in its ability to evoke action and concern for the environment with an appeal to the universal experiences of human ill-health. The organismic ecosystem health metaphor provides a new, relevant way of thinking about the natural world. In policy discourse, however, metaphor can be problematic in that there is potential for the author or speaker to hide behind the nonliteral language. Moreover, the acceptance of the ecosystem health metaphor which can draw upon widely held beliefs and norms implies that other ways of knowing the world are necessarily omitted. We highlight some of these issues in a case study of a policy document prepared by the Ecological Committee of the Great Lakes International Joint Commission. To continue to know how to study nature in new ways, metaphors must be encouraged, but their meanings must also be widely explored     

US democracy promotion in the Arab Middle East since 11 September 2001: a critique

Promoting democracy in the Middle East has been a key foreign policy objective of the Bush administration since n September 2001. Democratizing the Arab world, in particular, is seen as an important instrument in the ‘war on terror’. To help democratize the Arab Middle East, the US initiated a number of policies which, it claims, have encouraged reform. But what has really been the impact of US initiatives? This article examines the implementation of US democracy promotion policies across the Arab region, and in particular Arab countries, and argues that it has had mixed results. The article suggests three reasons why this is so. First, democracy is part of a wider set of US interests and concerns with which it is frequently in contradiction. Second, the Bush administration conceives democracy as a panacea: it overlooks the problems its implementation may cause and lacks clear ideas about achieving this implementation. Third, democracy promotion policies have limited outcomes because neither a politically neutral nor a more interventionist approach can initiate a reform process if it is not already underway for domestic reasons. On the basis of the three critiques, the article concludes with recommendations for US policy.     

U.S. Financial Aid for Iraq Under the Engagement Policy, 1988–1990

Abstract

This article reframes our understanding of the pre-Gulf War U.S. policy toward Iraq away from the issue of why the Bush administration ignored evidence that Saddam Hussein was not reciprocating U.S. efforts to moderate his behavior. Rather, it asks why the Bush administration did not consider Saddam’s abuse of U.S. export credit programs as relevant for evaluating Iraqi intentions and the efficacy of the engagement policy. It traces debates among federal agencies about two export credit programs to show that strategic considerations drove decisions to preserve or suspend these programs even though Iraq’s financial behavior offered insights earlier in time about its strategic intentions. While the Bush administration intended for engagement to reward or punish Saddam depending on his behavior, my examination of export credit controversies shows that it did not establish a rationale for deciding when and how to punish Iraq for threatening or abusive behavior.     

The future of molecular medicine

Abstract

Humanities computing is an ‘interdiscipline’ concerned with the application of computing to the arts and letters. Although it has been practised since the late 1940s, it has only recently begun to gain institutional recognition and a measure of self-awareness. In this contribution to the vigorous debate among practitioners, I argue for a common methodological ground shared by computer using scholars and students across the disciplines of the humanities. In large part because of the commons, these individuals tend to come together physically in laboratory settings as well as virtually online, pursuing traditional research goals by the means they now share, or collaborating on numerous larger projects that computing has enabled. A useful model of their collaboration is Peter Galison's ‘trading zone’, an anthropological–linguistic metaphor he uses to describe interchange among researchers and technicians of the Manhattan Project. Humanities computing functions like a merchant trader in a Galisonian trading zone: it sees to a similar interchange of tools and techniques among the departmentalised cultures with which it deals, and for itself studies the effects and consequences. It thus exemplifies a true interdisciplinarity. Sufficient work has now been done for us to begin to map out a research agenda for humanitites computing as an interdiscipline, and this will help to identify the essential habits of mind and skills our colleagues and students must have to refurbish the humanities in the twenty-first century. Computing presents the humanities with the need and opportunity to reconceptualise and rebuild our inherited scholarly forms, which are as historically contingent as any human artefact. Rethinking how we do what we do in turn requires what Clifford Geertz has called ‘intellectual weed control’. A central project of humanities computing is to help in the construction of a worldwide digital library of resources and tools. Its role within this project is, I argue, primarily to articulate the powers of imagination that computing in the humanities demands of us.     

Narratives in Anecdotes,Memory and Interlocutors: An Early Engagement with Neville Alexander’s Story

In this article, I present a story about South African Marxist and activist-scholar Neville Edward Alexander. As historians, social scientists and intellectuals embedded in the humanities, a part of the job we have awarded ourselves or that we assume to be part of our disciplinary reasoning, our intellectual orbit, is to bring to life the periods that, and the people about whom, we reflect. This we do through writing and telling stories, often constructed with a “moral message” of sorts. In these acts of writing and story-telling, objectivity plays a disputed and a precarious role, and misrepresentations could be conscious or unwitting. The lack of objectivity in bringing to life the period and the people we talk about in our stories, in our exaggeration and our understatement about what we have read, about what we have heard, and then about what we write, is part of an academic’s narrative. These human traits of exaggeration and understatement can lead to historical error. In this early exploration of seeking answers to the questions, “Who is Neville Alexander?” and “What can we learn from his writings?” I offer two anecdotes about the man. My proposition is that overcoming historical error does not rest exclusively with factual verification. It has to factor in an appraisal of the ideological intention or even political wish of the people telling the stories, in written texts and orally, and of the interlocutors’ context that we recover in our historical studies. In writing this preliminary sketch of Alexander, I take a detour into higher education issues, particularly the field of doctoral studies, and I paraphrase some of the concerns that have been raised by Alexander. I conclude this introductory study with some thoughts on Alexander’s contributions to social change, to “race,” and to language policy and multilingualism.     

The political support system for American primacy

The United States persists in aggressively exploiting primacy because the policy has been popular across the domestic political spectrum and is tolerated abroad despite unhappiness with it. Objections prove to be much more about style than substance. Although Democrats in the US criticize Bush for unilateralism, they seldom make the alternative of multilateralism a precondition for American action. When Washington genuflects to principles of multilateral consultation, allied governments allow themselves to be pulled along on US initiatives. Differences between the Bush and Kerry views of the American role in the world have been less than meets the eye. Only a significant disaster-such as the total unravelling of the project in Iraq-is likely to turn either party away from the urge to control the development of world order.     

Metaphor and the Anthropocene: Presenting Humans as a Geological Force

Intellectually as well as materially, the Anthropocene is a deeply cultural phenomenon. This includes its communicative form, which is a contested trope‐rich narrative, even within the sciences. In this essay I focus on the role of metaphor in Anthropocene thought and in particular, on the provocative, ambiguous, and potentially far‐reaching idea of humans as a geological force. By considering the different interpretations and meaning this metaphor encourages – including differences in what is meant by geological and force, both within and beyond stratigraphy and Earth System Science – we gain a stronger sense of the deeply allegorical and theological character of the Anthropocene story and the way it promises to reposition humans in the world.     

The Atlantic crisis of confidence

As the ultimate enforcer of such international rules and order as can be said to exist, the United States will often find itself in tension with those rules, and at times may be to stand outside them altogether. Yet for this sort of dispensation to have any international acceptance whatsoever depends on a high level of international confidence that American power will be exercised prudently, wisely and benevolently. Such confidence is precisely what the Bush administration has squandered, a loss that is far more damaging and vital than abstract arguments about force and legitimacy, or contending visions of international order. Confidence will not be restored by continued ideological argument. Rather, the transatlantic alliance needs to concentrate pragmatically on the key issues of international security: fighting terrorism, controlling WMD proliferation, and strategically selective state-building. If this focused cooperation can survive further probable setbacks in Iraq, then there is hope for reversing a deepening transatlantic alienation.     

Empire by denial: the strange case of the United States

The issue of empire has once again become a major political question in American foreign policy discourse. But whereas in the 1960s the discussion was one that mainly concerned the radical left, over the past few years the debate has largely been conducted within neo-conservative circles. The discussion is one that should be taken seriously-in part because of its intrinsically interesting character and in part because of what it tells us about the Bush grand strategy. In the end, though, the issue of whether or not there is-or is not- an American empire, is perhaps of less importance than the fact that most Americans deny that such an empire exists. This has consequences both for the conduct of American foreign policy and for its successful execution.     

The double interregnum: UK–US relations beyond Blair and Bush

The downturn in relations between the UK and the US under the premiership of Gordon Brown presents an interesting opportunity to analyse the nature of the relationship between the two states. Brown's policy of creating distance between his approach and that of his predecessor, Tony Blair, and between himself and President Bush, offers a case‐study in whether it is possible to be cool towards an incumbent leader while remaining close to the state he leads. In other words: is it feasible to be anti‐Bush and pro‐American? It also provides an opportunity to analyse the role of political timing in inter‐state relations. By appearing driven by reaction to the events of 2003 despite taking office in 2007, Brown put himself out of step with the prevailing mood of the time. By also acting as if the Bush administration was a lame duck counting out its time to retirement in 2009, Brown allowed himself to be outmanoeuvred in his bid for America's attention by the conciliatorily pro‐American new leaders of France and Germany. By acting as if the Bush administration is a political interregnum, the Brown government has invited the United States to treat his own administration the same way. The result is a dual interregnum in UK–US relations, with each incumbent leader awaiting the political demise of the other before better relations can be resumed.     

基于概念隐喻英语词汇教学与传统词汇教学之探讨

概念隐喻是一种思维方式和认知方式,井在语言学习过程中发挥着重要作用,尤其是在词汇习得方面。本文正是一次英语词汇教学改革实证性研究,通过实验对比发现基于概念隐喻的词汇教学优干传统词汇教学,从而使得概念隐喻理论价值得以具体应用。     

MONEY FLOWS LIKE MERCURY: THE GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL FINANCE

ABSTRACT. If the social relations and inherited configuration of production were at the core of economic geography a decade ago, these aspects of the world are increasingly taken for granted. The global scope of industry and corporate strategy has claimed increasing attention over the past decade. And while any 'new' economic geography must have something to say about the nature of human agency and the role of institutions in structuring the landscape, care must be taken not to exaggerate their significance for constructive interaction. In point of fact, the global finance industry is an essential lens through which to study contemporary capitalism from the top-down and the bottom-up. If we are to understand the economic landscape of twenty-first century capitalism, it should be understood through global financial institutions, its social formations and investment practices. This argument is developed by reference to the recent literature on the geography of finance and a metaphor – money flows like mercury – designed to explicate the spatial and temporal logic of global capital flows. Some may dispute this argument, but in doing so they lament the passing of an era rather than advancing a convincing counterclaim about how the world is and what it might become. All this means that we have to rethink the significance of geographical scale and organizational processes as opposed to an unquestioned commitment to localities.     

Young islanders,the meteorological imagination,and the art of geopolitical engagement

There is scant literature analysing how young islanders regard climate change, particularly in terms of resilience, agency and a geopolitical aesthetic. To address that gap, this paper offers a theoretical framework and empirical example responding to such issues. The work's theoretical foci are upon the role of the artist as interlocutor; the importance of arts practices in encouraging children to participate in climate change debates and actions; and the potential of what anthropologist Tim Ingold has called the meteorological imagination. These three matters inform a two-year praxis project – A Map of a Dream of the Future – involving methods from the geohumanities and engagement with young islanders, academics, artists and writers, community cultural development workers, and educators. Together, we worked on various activities to draw out our individual and collective ideas about islands, arts, climate change, and geopolitics. In the process were created an education kit, children's workshops and exhibitions, and a professional art installation at a major national arts festival. At the same time, new insights have been gained about how the meteorological imagination may be a significant resource by which to work with children as they come to terms with a future whose climate has changed.     

American power: from ‘compellance’ to cosmopolitanism?

This article argues that the Bush strategy of 'spectacle war' is caught in an earlier Cold War paradigm primarily aimed at influencing American public opinion and that it fails to take into account the reality of the current global context, especially with regard to changes in the nature of sovereignty and in the role of military force. The United States, in its current posture, has the capability to be very destructive but is much less able to do 'compellance', that is to say, to impose its will on others. In particular, the current strategy cannot defeat terrorism.
The article draws up a typology of different visions of how American power is, or should be, exercised based on different assumptions about sovereignty and military power. It concludes that American power can only be exercised constructively within a cosmopolitan framework. Such a framework is best suited to the containment, and possibly, the defeat of terrorism. It would contribute both to global economic growth and to American democracy.     

George Bush and Executive Branch Domestic Policymaking Competence

This article critiques the George Bush domestic policymaking process and argues that Bush had the second-lowest level of policy competence among postwar presidents, ranking above only Ronald Reagan. Although not overtly antianalytic like Reagan, Bush gave little thought and effort to restoring the badly damaged executive branch domestic policymaking process. The article closes with suggestions about the steps needed for, and the difficulties in establishing, a strong White House policymaking process that generates fruitful interaction among key policy advocates over time and that establishes sufficient Executive Office of the President (EOP) capacity to monitor the implementation and management of presidential policies.     

The coming revolution in foreign affairs: rethinking American national security

For the last two decades the US has pursued what some analysts have called the ‘fantastical idea’ of military transformation that would enable the US to change the very nature of war. Known as the ‘revolution in military affairs’, this process would use technology to provide the US with battlefield dominance that no opponent could overcome. Motivated by the politics of the Cold War, however, this exit from reality has proved less than effective in what has become known as the ‘war on terror’. The US has been pulled into nasty, ‘small’ wars, against enemies utilizing asymmetric tactics. The Bush administration has tried to destroy these groups through the use of military force, failing, or even worse refusing, to recognize that these enemies feed off the economical, political and social rot of weak and failing states. For the last eight years the US government has addressed the symptoms of a problem rather than the actual disease. If America wants to make serious progress with the most pressing national security risks, the next American president must enact a revolution in foreign affairs that sees a massive overhaul and substantial investment in the State Department and USAID. A critical mass of research exists to illustrate the links between development and security—it is time Washington gets serious and embraces a conception of security that is more holistic, and ultimately, more effective.     

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: THOMAS JACKSON AND THE CONTROVERSY OVER PRODIGIES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I

Abstract

This article focuses on Hobbes's use of metaphor, particularly the larger structural metaphor of the artificial man in Leviathan. Hobbes claims to draw his political animal according to the figurative outlines of the natural one, despite the significant differences between these two bodies. In Part I we see the scientifically-minded Hobbes reject the old dualistic imagery of body and soul, act and will; but in Part II the politically-minded Hobbes appeals to exactly these dualistic distinctions in order to lend his radical vision of the state the numinous appeal of the medieval and Tudor formulations. An understanding of Hobbes's rhetorical strategy, and what I call his strategic use of dualism, can show how the recent linguistic turn in Hobbes studies can in fact re-open the much older debate on the overall unity of his philosophical system.