Operation Allied Force: handmaiden of independent Kosovo

This article challenges the historical amnesia surrounding the whirlwind of international recognition of the state of Kosovo. It explores three theses concerning the role of international intervention and local politics in state formation. First, the article contends that Kosovar Albanians were 'backed into' the independent state option. Second, it makes a distinction between 'parallel states' and 'parallel societies', and explores the inadequacy of the thesis that, in the case of Kosovo, a parallel entity was waiting in the wings, prepared to step up and assume the mantle of a fully operational independent state. Third, it argues that Operation Allied Force was central to the eventual recognition of the independent State of Kosovo.     

Oral History in a Wounded Country: Interactive Interviewing in South Africa

The utility of oral history has always seemed most evident whengreat change occurs. Political, social, and cultural upheavalscall for documentation of the direct participants, and the printedarchives inevitably reflect the viewpoint of the old regime.Nowhere has such change been more dramatic and breathtakingthan in South Africa since the 1990s, when decades of strictapartheid collapsed into a multiracial, multicultural societythat is now ruled by its former political prisoners. Although     

Benevolent and Benign? Using Environmental Justice to Investigate Waste‐related Impacts of Ecotourism in Destination Communities

Abstract:  We contribute to the diversification of environmental justice (EJ) by using it to frame ecotourism-related solid waste management problems. Ecotourism is a service industry portrayed as benevolent (providing benefits), and benign (reducing negative impacts). We propose four characteristics shared by ecotourism-based communities in the Global South and communities struggling with more conventional EJ conflicts. We apply these characteristics to the solid waste crisis in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, a renowned ecotourism destination. First, we show that, despite their general absences from the EJ literature, service industries such as tourism and hospitality can create environmental injustices that disproportionately impact certain types of communities. Second, we highlight the roles of location and socio-economic marginality in siting ecotourism development, in complicating related environmental impact management, and in limiting local abilities to respond to environmental management shortcomings. Third, we provide an example of opportunities to introduce EJ concepts and theory into the study of tourism.     

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.     

Capital's search for order: Foreign direct investment in Singapore's overseas parks in Southeast and East Asia

If countries compete for capital in the shape of foreign direct investment (FDI), from the point of view of multinational enterprises (MNEs), there is a market for the social order on offer in different nation states. MNEs seek out particular models of social order for their FDI projects. In the middle is a diverse set of organisations who mediate between supply and demand in a world market for social order. East and Southeast Asia represent interesting and complicated cases in point. Different national models of social order are also overlain and punctured by the hybrid models apparent in cross-border zones of economic integration and joint venture industrial park enclaves. This paper examines the engagement between states, MNEs and intermediaries in this variegated FDI policy landscape.     

Subsistence and mobility strategies in the Epipalaeolithic: a stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains at 'Uyun al-Hammam,northern Jordan

This paper investigates evidence for subsistence and settlement activities in the Levantine Middle Epipalaeolithic through the application of stable isotope analysis to human and non-human remains from the site of 'Uyun al-Hammam, northern Jordan. In general, bone from the site suffers a high degree of diagenesis and collagen could not be extracted for analysis here. Carbon and oxygen isotopic values from human tooth enamel samples were variable, but within expected values for the Middle Epipalaeolithic, whereas animal carbon and oxygen isotopic values varied widely, most likely due to hydrological and climatological factors. Carbon and isotopic values for the human samples indicated a predominantly C₃ plant dietary input, while animal samples appeared to have varying amounts of C₄ inputs into their diet. This is the first isotopic analysis conducted on material from the Middle Epipalaeolithic of the southern Levant and, as such, even results constrained by temporal and climatological variants within the region contribute to the overall knowledge of settlement and subsistence strategies during this cultural period.