Afghanistan–Pakistan relations: border controversies as counter-terrorist impediments

When the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan in late 2001, there was much optimism that, with the anticipated and unprecedented economic, political and military engagement of the international community with Afghanistan, the country would become stable. However, resurgent violence indicates that this is not happening. An important reason for the continuing instability lies in the fact that the international effort has failed to address longstanding disagreements between Afghanistan and Pakistan—the Durand Line border dispute and the Pushtunistan issue—which in turn impairs the two countries’ cooperative capacity in the anti-Taliban campaign. Resolution of these disputes would go a long way to help the situation. This article analyses the dynamics of the border dispute, the Pushtunistan issue and the Taliban insurgency as an outgrowth of longstanding historical disputes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.     

Intergroup Dialogue as a Just Dialogue: Challenging and Preventing Normalization in Campus Dialogues

The tensions from the Israeli occupation of Palestine reach around the globe and heated debates over the struggles of these two peoples are evident on U.S. college campuses. The power imbalance represented in the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis is replicated on college campuses. BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) is a response to this inequality, is a movement to end the occupation, and has raised the issue of normalization. Teaching about this conflict presents particular challenges for faculty who negotiate this highly contested issue in classrooms or campus communities, and intergroup dialogue is an important pedagogy that can be used. It is critical to address normalization in intergroup dialogue. We discuss examples and themes of normalization in intergroup dialogue, and present pedagogical and other strategies to prevent and address normalization in intergroup dialogue and in other similar intergroup contact approaches with Arab or Palestinian and Jewish or Israeli participants.     

明早期官窑青花瓷器所用钴料的产地特征和晕散成因分析

为揭示明早期官窑青花瓷器所用钴料的产地特征和"色散而不收"的原因,以明早期官窑青花瓷器和阿联酋采集的伊斯兰蓝彩器标本为研究对象,采用能量色散X射线荧光光谱仪(EDXRF)和激光诱导击穿光谱分析(LIBS)分析方法分别对青花或者蓝彩纹饰部位以及釉的常规元素组成含量和氧化硼含量进行测试分析。结果表明:1)景德镇明早期青花瓷器所用钴料与伊斯兰蓝彩器标本类似,均为含有硼元素的经过预熔处理的低锰型钴料。2)明早期官窑青花瓷器"色散而不收"的主要原因在于其采用了含有硼的高钠、高钙以及低铝、低硅的预熔处理过的钴玻璃料。研究结果从硼元素角度佐证了明早期官窑青花瓷器所用的进口钴料可能来自于伊斯兰地区,为今后青花钴料的产地研究提供了新的视角和数据。     

Islamic Law: a Review Essay

Book reviewed in this article: Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century: Rudolph Peters