Book review

R.K.I. Quested, Sino‐Russian Relations: A Short History. George Allen & Unjvin, Sydney, 1984, pp. 194. $22.95 (cloth), $10.95 (paper).

Jonathan Steele, The Limits of Soviet Power: The Kremlin's Foreign Policy — Brezhnev to Chernenko. Revised and updated edition. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, Vic., 1984, pp. xii + 290. $8.95.

Joseph L. Nogee and Robert H. Donaldson, Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II. Second edition. Pergamon Press, New York, 1984, pp. vii + 352. No price given.

Jiri Hochman, The Soviet Union and the Failure of Collective Security, 1934–1938. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1984, pp. 253. $74.95.

Robert V. Daniels, Russia: The Roots of Confrontation. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1985, pp. xiii + 411. No price given.

Wolf Mendl, Western Europe and Japan Between The Superpowers. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984, pp. 181. $31.95.

G. Flynn and H. Rattinger, The Public and Atlantic Defense. Rowman and Allanheld, and Croom Helm, London, 1985, pp. xviii + 398. No price given.

The United Nations Library and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, The League of Nations in Retrospect. Walter de Gryter, Berlin, 1983, pp. xii + 427. $74.70.

T.B. Millar with Robin Ward (eds), Current International Treaties, Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984, pp. 558. $59.95.

Susan Strange (ed.), Paths to International Political Economy. George Allen Unwin, London, 1985, pp.xi + 209. $45.00 (cloth), $17.95 (paper).

Andrew J. Pierre (ed.), Europe‐America: vol 2, Unemployment and Growth in the Western Economies. Council on Foreign Relations, New York, 1984, pp x + 142. $US5.95.

D.K. Forbes and P.J. Rimmer (eds), Uneven Development and the Geographical Transfer of Value. Human Geography Monograph 16, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1984, pp. xiii + 297. $12.00.

B.A. Santamaria, Daniel Mannix, The Quality of Leadership. Melbourne University Press, 1984, xi + 272, $27.50.

Stuart Harris (ed.), Australia's Antarctic Policy Options. CRES Mongraph 11. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1984, pp.xxi + 412. $15.95.

Ramesh Thakur, In Defence of New Zealand: Foreign Policy Choices in a Nuclear Age. Pamphlet No. 46, New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Wellington, 1984, pp.164. $NZ9.95.

Paul G. Lewis (ed.), Eastern Europe: Political Crisis and Legitimation. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984, pp. 202. $33.95.

George Sanford, Polish Communism in Crisis. Croom Helm, London and Canberra; St Martin's Press, New York, 1983, pp. 249. $27.50.

Eva Kolinsky, Parties, Opposition and Society in West Germany. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984, pp. 357, $37.95.

Romuld J. Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940–1980. C. Hurst, London, 1983, pp. xvi + 333. $29.95.

Anthony Hyman, Afghanistan Under Soviet Domination, 1964–83. Second Edition. McMillan, London, 1984, pp. 247. $18.95.

David Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch. Second edition. Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1984, pp. 475. $29.95.

Ritchie Ovendale, The Origins of the Arab‐Israeli Wars. Longman, New York, 1984, pp. v + 232. $16.70.

Juliana Peck, The Reagan Administration and the Palestinian Question: The First Thousand Days. Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, 1984, pp xi + 138. $US7.00.

Institute for Palestine Studies, The Karp Report (an Israeli Government Inquiry into Settler Violence against Palestinians on the West Bank). Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, 1984, pp. 90. $US3.95.

Mohamed Heikal, Autumn of Fury. Deutsch, London, 1983, pp. 290. $19.95.

Anthony Payne, The International Crisis in the Caribbean. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1984, pp. 177. $29.95.

Anthony Payne, Paul Sutton and Tony Thorndike, Grenada: Revolution and Invasion. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984, pp. 233. $35.95.

Ian Hancock, White Liberals, Moderates and Radicals in Rhodesia 1953–1980, Croom Helm, London and Sydney; St Martin's Press, New York 1984, pp. 230. $31.95.

A.J.Christopher, Colonial Africa. Croom Helm, London and Canberra; Barnes & Noble Books, New Jersey, 1984, pp. 232. $39.95.

T.B. Millar. South African Dilemmas. Canberra Studies in World Affairs No. 17. Department of International Relations, Australian National University, Canberra, 1983, pp. 82 $7.00.

J.K. Cilliers, Counter‐Insurgency in Rhodesia. Croom Helm, London, 1985, pp. 266. $33.95.

R.J. May and Francisco Nemenzo (eds), The Philippines After Marcos. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1985, pp. 239. $35.95.

F. Poole and M. Vanzi, Revolution in the Philippines: the United States in a Hall of Cracked Mirrors. McGraw‐Hill, New York, 1984, pp. 357. $US18.95.

Community Aid Aboard, The Third World War. The Philippines Front. Community Aid Abroad, Melbourne, 1984, pp. 51, plus Study Guide (pp. 24). $5.00, $2.00.

A.W. McCoy, Priests on Trial, Penguin Books Australia, Ring‐wood, Vic., 1984, pp. xii + 239. $6.95.

David K. Wyatt, Thailand — A Short History. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984, pp. xviii + 350. $US27.50.

Leslie Russell Oates, Populist Nationalism in Prewar Japan: A Biography of Nakano Seigo. George Allen & Unwin Australia, Sydney, 1985, pp. 135. $14.95.

Robert W. Barnett, Beyond War. Japan's Concept of Comprehensive National Security. Pergamon‐Brassey's International Defence Publishers, Washington, 1984, pp. xv + 155. $21.00 (cloth), $14.00 (paper).

Stephen D. Cohen, Uneady Partnership: Competition and Conflict in U.S.‐Japanese Trade Relations. Ballinger Publishing, Cambridge, Mass., 1985, pp xvi + 228, $67.00.     

Pitfalls in the environmental interpretation of insect death assemblages

Attention is drawn to the absence of an established basis for the reconstruction of past environments from insect death assemblages. A naïve reconstruction based on a modern death assemblage from a drain in the City of York is tested and shown to be inadequate in a number of respects. Certain of the habitats indicated by the fauna are absent from the surroundings, while the importance of some others is exaggerated. It is concluded that these errors were brought about by the active or passive long distance transport of insects.     

RECESSIONARY SHOCKS AND REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT: EVIDENCE ON THE RESILIENCE OF U.K. REGIONS*

ABSTRACT We analyze the resilience of U.K. regions to employment shocks. Two basic notions of resilience are distinguished. With engineering resilience, there is an underlying stable growth path to which a regional economy rebounds following a shock. With ecological resilience, shocks can permanently affect the growth path of the regional economy. Our data set consists of quarterly employment series for 12 U.K. regions (NUTS I) for the period 1971–2010. Using a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model specification, we test for the relevance of (engineering) resilience of U.K. regional employment to the four recessionary shocks in our sample. It turns out that U.K. regions do indeed differ in their resilience, but that these differences mainly concern the initial resistance to these shocks and not so much the recovery stage. The SUR model does not allow shocks to have permanent effects and it also does not take the possibility of time differentiated shock spillovers between the 12 regions into account. To this end, we also estimate a vector error‐correction model (VECM) specification where employment shocks can have permanent effects and where also interregional employment linkages are included. We find that employment shocks typically have permanent effects when it concerns the own‐region effects. Permanent effects can also be found for the impact on other regions but the interregional effects are typically only significant for nearby regions.