Normalizing US–Cuba relations: escaping the shackles of the past

President Barack Obama explained his historic reversal of half a century of US antagonism towards Cuba as necessary because of the failure of the policy of hostility pursued by his ten predecessors. But the old policy's failure was not new, and thus was not, in itself, an adequate explanation for the dramatic shift. This article uses theories of agenda‐setting, policy failure and policy change to explain the persistence of the US policy of hostility from 1959 to 2014 and the policy change announced by President Barack Obama in December 2014. Four structural factors account for the continuity in policy and, as a result of gradual changes in those factors, the eventual policy shift. They are: the security threat Cuba posed to the United States during the Cold War; the political influence of the Cuban American community; the diplomatic cost to Washington, especially in Latin America, of maintaining the status quo; and domestic changes under way in Cuba.     

Economic inequality in Australia: A reassessment

This article reviews and analyses the evidence on the distribution of income and wealth in Australia since the 1960s. A number of scholars – most prominently among them Thomas Piketty – suggest that inequality has been increasing across the advanced capitalist world. Kuznets’ benign picture of an ‘inverted u-curve’ depicting declining inequality in modern industrial society is replaced with an altogether different and potentially quite alarming one. Does this hold for Australia? Surveying 25 income trend and 17 wealth distribution studies, we draw on the best available evidence and find that overall there has been far less of a rising inequality trend than is often assumed or argued.

本文分析了1960年代以来澳大利亚的收入及财富分配。有一些学者——其中最著名的是托马斯·皮凯提——认为所有发达资本主义国家的不平等都在加大。库兹涅倒U曲线所描绘的近代工业社会不平等不断减弱的美丽图画被一个全然不同、令人震惊的景象所取代。那么澳大利亚也是这样么？笔者考察25种收入趋势、17种财富分配的研究后发现,总的来说,不平等远并不像人们所常说的那样增加。     

Place Identity of the Israeli Kibbutz

Place identity of the kibbutz in Israel is shaped by its collective identity which is reflected in the landscape. The individuality of a kibbutz member is expressed in a single landscape element: private gardens in front of the family residences. The kibbutz center is regarded as sacred space; concentrated in it are all the communal institutions including the most important and conspicuous structure, the dining hall. Behavior circuits strengthen the ties between man and the public center. Everyday interaction and identification with the kibbutz is reinforced by the symbolic importance inherent in the center and in peripheral symbols which act as the loci of the kibbutz ideals of socialism and zionism. The landscape of the kibbutz reflects elements of ideals such as conquering the land through hard labor, farming as a way of life and defense.     

Increasing inequality in Chalcolithic Southeast Europe: the case of Durankulak

Economic measurement tools allow a quantification of social differences not only for modern societies, but also for prehistoric communities. The use of Gini indices and Lorenz curves for the much discussed Chalcolithic cemetery of Durankulak (Bulgaria) indicates an average increase in material items from 5000 cal BC onwards and a tendency of these items to be distributed somewhat more equally. Towards the end of the Chalcolithic sequence, however, strongly growing inequality was associated with lower average welfare. The steep increase in social inequality might be one of the main reasons for the collapse of Chalcolithic societies around 4100 cal BC in Durankulak, but also in other South East European regions.     

The beach at the end of the world: Eilat in Israeli popular culture

Located on the southernmost tip of Israel, at the meeting point of the Negev desert and the Red Sea, Eilat was occupied in March 1949 in the last military operation of Israel's War of Independence. Notwithstanding official notions of Eilat as a strategic asset and efforts to sustain Israeli presence there in the form of a permanent settlement, in Israeli popular culture Eilat, which later evolved into a thriving tourist resort, has had from the outset the reputation of being ‘different, special, distinct’. This article explores the unique position of Eilat in Israeli popular culture. The underlying argument is that this unique position of Eilat both evinced and reflected a dynamic interplay of liminal conditions and phenomena that rendered Eilat an exceptional experience. Furthermore, being situated at the southernmost tip of Israel, the location of Eilat at the geographical margin of Israel was productive of its image as an extraordinary place and sustained its prominence in popular imagination. The article charts and analyses a variety of liminal phenomena in their social and cultural contexts in different periods of Eilat's history.     

From dialogue to polylogue: Exploring the Israeli and Palestinian past in the present

Resumen Este artículo trata sobre un proyecto centrado en el pasado contencioso en Israel y Palestina. Frente a un escenario de incesantes conflictos, los participantes árabes y los judíos descubrieron sus compromisos mutuos, con distintos puntos de vista, en las comunidades en las que trabajaron. Partiendo de esta base común los participantes exploraron las áreas en las que coinciden o discrepan. No obstante, el espíritu predominante del proyecto era el de la colaboración. Un ejemplo de ese espíritu fue el éxito del esfuerzo de los participantes del proyecto por proteger un antiguo asentamiento que iba a ser destruido por la construcción de un muro de seguridad, a través del West Bank, por Israel.

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Résumé Cet article traite d'un projet au sujet du passé de discorde entre l'lsra?l et la Palestine. Avec pour arrière-plan un conflit incessant, les participants arabes et juifs ont découvert qu'ils étaient mutuellement impliqués dans les communautés dans lesquelles ils travaillaient. Dans le context de ce point commun, les participants on exploré les zones d'accord et de désaccord. La mentalité prédominante dans ce projet a été une de coopération. Le symbole de cet esprit de coopération a été le succès de l'effort des participants du projet pour sauver un ancien établissement menacé de destruction certaine lors de la construction du mur de sécurité par l'lsra?l à travers la West Bank.

     

规范市场经济秩序 优化发展环境

市场经济秩序如何公平、有序发展,关键在于规范。本文在分析问题、寻找原因的基础上,从转变政府职能、完善产权制度、加快信用体系建设等五个方面就规范市场经济秩序进行了较为全面的分析。     

German–Israeli ties in 2015 and 1965: the difficult special relationship

This article marks the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Israel. It is divided into two parts, assessing the status of this unique relationship in 2015 and in 1965, respectively. Angela Merkel's recent criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's stance on the peace process with the Palestinians and the heavy protests that took place in Germany in the wake of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in summer 2014 have cast doubt on the strength of the bilateral partnership fifty years after the first exchange of ambassadors between the two countries. However, by examining the state of German–Israeli cooperation in a number of areas (security, commerce and knowledge exchange, among others), the first part of the article challenges popular interpretations of contemporary German–Israeli relations as being ‘at a nadir’. Fifty years ago, Chancellor Ludwig Erhard proposed to his Israeli counterpart Levi Eshkol the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries amid a severe political crisis in Bonn, following a visit of the East German leader Walter Ulbricht to Gamal Abdel Nasser. While much has changed since then, the second part of the article argues that looking at the momentous events of 1965 can provide useful reference points for understanding the current state of relations between Germany and Israel.