The ‘R’ in BRICs: is Russia an emerging power?

The concept of emerging powers presupposes several features shared by the states in question including regional preponderance, aspiration to a global role and the contesting of US unipolarity. This article assesses the role of Russia as an emerging power. It asks how Russians interpret the international system, what kind of system they would prefer, what they are trying to do in the current system and why, and how these considerations affect their relations with the US hegemony, other centres of power such as the EU, and other emerging powers. The author discusses the structural, liberal and regional interpretations of state behaviour and how they relate to the Russian model, arguing that Russia's policy is strongly affected by its domestic economic and political context. Russia is highly responsive to trends in the former Soviet Union and regions it perceives to be in its own space (e.g. EU and NATO Europe and north-east Asia). In the larger international system, Russia's approach is a mix of partnership or acquiescence on matters of vital interest to the hegemonic power, and more competitive behaviour on issues deemed central to Russian but peripheral to US interests. The article concludes that Russia is not an emerging power in the conventional sense. Its foreign policy is dominated by efforts to reverse the decline of the 1980s and 1990s. This entails fostering international conditions conducive to allowing reconsolidation without external hindrance. Its second major priority is regional: to restore Russian influence over the former Soviet states. In essence, Russian policy aims to limit further losses and promote conditions that will allow it to re-emerge as a great power.     

A STUDY OF THE DECAY PROCESSES OF HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS FROM THE PARISH CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, ROTHWELL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Summary. The 13th century charnel house (or 'bone crypt') situated underneath the church of the Holy Trinity, Rothwell is one of only two surviving charnel houses in Britain and is therefore important not only in structural terms but also as a reservoir of human osteoarchaeological material. Over the last 60 years concern has been expressed about the condition of the crypt and the 'deterioration' of the bones. In this paper the authors outline their multidisciplinary approach to the study of the bone degradation and conditions within the crypt and stress the role of histology in such an approach. The implications of their findings are discussed and action for the long term preservation of the bones are recommended.     

From the Inside Looking out and the Outside Looking in: Whatever Happened to ‘Behavioural Geography’?

As part of the Institute of Australian Geographers' Millennium Project, this article examines the shift of behavioural geography from a cutting edge sub-discipline to a branch of enquiry that is now much less prominent in mainstream human geography, especially in Australia. Through an exploration of the rationale for behavioural geography, a brief outline of the nature of the work that was done, and a consideration of the critiques of behavioural geography, the paper argues that behavioural geography enriched the discipline in several ways: it was instrumental in encouraging geographers to consider the epistemological foundations of the discipline; it fostered consideration of a variety of philosophical and methodological positions; and it highlighted the need to consider interrelationships between individuals, groups, society and environment thereby bringing into prominence the ways in which shared environmental meanings are contested and negotiated. Behavioural geography might be a term that is used much less than it once was and behaviourally-orientated research might increasingly find expression in interdisciplinary outlets rather than in mainstream geography journals but contemporary geography is heir to the endeavours of behavioural geography.     

When Words Fail: William Pitt, Benjamin Franklin and the Imperial Crisis of 1766

Passage of an American stamp tax in 1765 produced a sharp political backlash before the year was out. That new tax was part of a larger programme of imperial reform championed by the Grenville ministry. Now out of power, Grenville and his supporters resisted the growing desire in both houses of parliament to end the imperial crisis by repealing the new tax. During debates that began in early 1766 there were those few, most notably William Pitt, who wanted to discuss constitutional ultimates as part of the move toward repeal. Pitt contended that parliament did not have the authority to tax the colonies directly. Grenville disagreed and warned that if parliament accepted any limit to its supremacy the colonists would eventually claim legislative autonomy. When debating the distinction – if indeed any such distinction existed – between taxation and legislation, and between internal and external taxes, Pitt, Grenville and their parliamentary contemporaries raised questions about authority and power that they could not answer. There were no words to describe perfectly the imperial relationship, a relationship that, as Benjamin Franklin hinted in his testimony to the Commons, was always subject to change anyway. Avoiding constitutional questions had not seemed to work; trying to answer them did not work any better, at least in the contentious atmosphere of that moment.     

THE SURVIVAL of ROMAN SETTLEMENT ALONG the MIDDLE DANUBE: PANNONIA FROM the FOURTH to the TENTH CENTURY AD

Summary: As guardian of the long and important Middle Danubian limes, Roman Pannonia protected the central provinces of the Empire. Despite a mass of defensive structures, the limes was progressively overrun from the later 4th century and Pannonia was eventually ceded to the Huns in 430. Subsequently the region fell victim to Germans and eastern nomads and stability of a sort was only restored with the establishment of the Hungarian State in the late 10th century. This paper examines the question of settlement change between the 4th and 10th centuries, viewing the degree to which the various invaders maintained, ignored or replaced the network of Roman structures. It is argued that only with difficulty can physical continuity be securely traced and in these instances the character of settlement changes greatly over time.