Minting in Vandal North Africa: coins of the Vandal period in the Coin Cabinet of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum

This paper offers a re‐examination of some problems regarding the coinage of Vandal North Africa. The coinage of this barbarian successor state is one of the first non‐imperial coinages in the Mediterranean world of the fifth and sixth centuries. Based on the fine collection in the Coin Cabinet of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, this article questions the chronology of the various issues and monetary relations between the denominations under the Vandal kings, especially after the reign of Gunthamund (484–96). The Vandals needed and created a solid financial system. In terms of political, administrative and economic structures they tried to integrate their realm into the changing world of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.     

The second North Korean nuclear crisis

In 2002 the inclusion of North Korea by the Bush administration within the 'axis of evil' portended a break from the Clinton policy of engagement. Despite the apparent inconsistencies of this categorisation, North Korea's undoubted possession of some weapons of mass destruction capability seemed to make it a possible target for US containment if not preemption. However, Pyongyang's chief motive in such weapons development might actually be to guarantee regime survival. The revelation that North Korea had been developing a covert uranium enrichment program led US policymakers in the Bush administration to contemplate a policy of quarantine and containment. The wider policy community is divided on the question of whether Pyongyang was seeking a new bargain with the US, or whether this program was intended to produce a deterrent from possible US attack. These alternatives prescribe, respectively, a new negotiating approach or a strategy designed to dissuade. But the actual policy choice hinges on the outcome in Iraq.     

Introduction: North Africa and Britain

This special issue of International Affairs seeks to stimulate more debate and interest in Britain on North Africa. This relatively neglected area of British foreign policy has largely been funneled through the European Union (EU), where the focus of policy has been on preventive security, above all policing against illegal migration and the spread of radicalism and terrorism. The main driver for regional change and potential insecurity is now demographic, evident in the high levels of youth unemployment across North Africa. In facing the challenge of leadership successions over the next decade, it is in the interest of the EU, and in turn, Britain, to engage more closely with North Africa's younger generations to ensure the region's longer term security and stability. Britain has few strong bilateral links with North African societies, however, with the exception of private sector investments in the energy sector and security cooperation. New investment opportunities and a demand for English language and other forms of training for employment could put Britain at an advantage in responding to North African demands for diversified international relationships. A greater focus is also needed on local development opportunities to assist new actors to assume their own economic and political roles, as a better means of delivering security and jobs than relying on central states to deliver both. The articles in this special issue offer new insights into developments in the region, as well as analyses of European and American policy responses to the challenges identified. A common theme is that the region has been held back by a combined lack of institutional safeguards and political participation, with negative impacts on the spread of the economic benefits of higher growth rates and investment. Authoritarian leaderships have proved reliable partners for the EU and Britain in the past, but will they continue to do so in future?     

北朝时期的孝治

北朝时期社会动荡,战乱迭起,老年人的生活很难得到有效保障,但是为了达到稳定统治的目的,各国统治者又程度不同地推行了一些有利于孝治的敬老政策.由于统治方略和社会环境的差异,各国在推行孝道时力度大小不一,所获成效也迥异.     

North and south in the current crisis

The Italian Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Carlo Trigilia, reviews the current condition of the Italian south (the Mezzogiorno) and sets out the policies that the present government is seeking to implement. Underlining the need for long-term strategies and for close cooperation with European Union funding agencies, the Minister emphasizes the need to remove the political and institutional obstacles to development and promote human capital through measures designed to improve training, education and welfare programmes. He concludes the lack of economic growth in the southern regions poses serious dangers to the growth prospects of the national economy.     

Political dynamics in North Africa

North Africa is notable for the remarkable stability of its political systems despite the increasingly hostile social and economic environment in which they operate. In part this results from their current security engagement with Europe but more important, perhaps, is the shared political culture that informs them despite the great differences between them and their failure to fulfill the principles upon which they were, for the most part, founded. This is, in part, typified by the very similar mechanisms they have each developed to ensure political continuity, based either on monarchical succession or dynastic republicanism. It is less clear, however, that they will be able to resist the most recent challenges arising from Islamist social movements, although the new political dispensations that might emerge may not be so very different from their predecessors.     

North Africa between Christians and Arabs

Vandals, Romans and Berbers. New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa. Edited by Andy H. Merrills (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), xv + 347 pp. £55.00 cloth.     

The persistence of authoritarianism as a source of radicalization in North Africa

September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks across the globe have led to an increased emphasis on security issues among political leaders globally. While this preoccupation with security has not led to the abandonment of democracy promotion efforts, there is no doubt that initiatives that have the demise of authoritarianism as their core objective, have become less of a priority in recent years, with spending on projects seemingly unrelated to security issues and the 'war on terror' declining, and pressure on heads of state to embark on democratization processes weakening. This article contends that the relieving of pressure on heads of state to introduce democratic reforms is detrimental to the desired goal of increased security, given that the radicalization of Islamists is closely related to the prevalence of authoritarianism. In short, it is argued that there is reason to believe that the West's tendency to allow violations of basic democratic principles, and failing to employ genuine pressure for regime change in the various MENA states, which are actively partaking in the 'war on terror' on the side of the US, is counterproductive in the longer run. While it is impossible to predict when terrorism committed by radicalized Islamists will end, and it is almost certain that terrorist attacks will recur in the future and that we have to learn to live with the risks, it is possible however to do something about the scale and frequency of such incidents. This article argues that through positive democracy promotion resulting in real democratization, it is indeed possible to obtain increased security.     

满城汉墓发掘秘闻之二

<正>●军事警戒下的神秘发掘为了确保这次考古发掘工作的顺利进行,以及考古人员和出土文物的安全,考古工作队由中国科学院考古研究所、河北省文管会和北京军区工程兵某部联合组成。一切准备就绪,考古工作队于1968年6月27日在严格保密的状态下,开始进驻河北省保定市满城县的陵山"军事禁区"。于是,20世纪中国一次极为重大的考古发掘活动,在当地驻军极其森严的军事警戒下开始了。     

论北非文明交往与利比亚城市的历史变迁

本从明交往的角度对利比亚城市的发展进行了历史考察：分析了古典明的扩张对利比亚城市早期发展的影响,伊斯兰明的传播对利比亚伊斯兰城市的兴起以及西方工业明的入侵对利比亚城市现代化所产生的历史作用。利比亚作为世界上多种明的交叉之地,它的城市对于人类明的演进和交往做出了重要贡献。     

满城汉墓发掘秘闻之三

<正>郭沫若上山点新墓1968年7月20日晚,当郭老在北京得知满城古墓发掘出"金缕玉衣"的消息后,兴奋地要求中央能安排他前往发掘现场予以证实。第二天,当中     

满城汉墓发掘秘闻之一

<正>距离作为"中国20世纪100项考古重大发现"之一的满城汉墓的发掘,已经过去了整整40年,但发掘过程中的惊险和神秘,至今仍然是人们关注的一个热门话题。确实,在"文革"烽烟正浓中进行如此重大的考古发掘,不仅不合时宜,而且即便发掘出珍贵的文物也时刻都有遭受毁灭的危险。不过,发掘被埋藏在坚硬岩石中长达2100多年的这座汉墓,虽然是在非常状态下的一个偶然发现,但它的发掘却非常成功。那么,在那种特别政治气候和极度混乱的社会状态下,满城汉墓的发掘为何能够得以顺利进行呢?目前,满城汉墓遗址已经成了著名的旅游景区,为了解答这一系列的问题,笔者亲赴满城,以普通游客的身份对汉墓的发掘过程进行了深度