Rentier Statebuilding in a Post‐Conflict Economy: The Case of Kosovo

Kosovo has been under various forms of international administration since 1999. Although the political dimension of this international experience has been widely studied by scholars — especially those associated with the critical theory of liberal peacebuilding — the economic dimension of international rule has received less attention. This article explores the economic dimension by linking insights from rentier theory with critical approaches to liberal peacebuilding and statebuilding. The postulate informing this article is that the sources of a state's income have an impact on its institutional development. The article discusses liberal peacebuilding through the lens of rentier theory, it analyses the economic management in the early years of the international administration of Kosovo, and describes and explores some of the unintended consequences of this massive international presence in Kosovo for the local economy.     

The Ore‐Dressing Grindstone Called a ‘Quimbalete’: a Mechanics‐Based Approach

The ‘quimbalete’ is a kind of grindstone used notably in Potosi (Bolivia) during the Spanish conquest of South America. It was used to grind pieces of ore gravel from centimetric sizes to the size of sand. Its physical functioning, as well as the reason why this strictly Andean tool occupied a central place in a mainly European production chain, have never been addressed. This study is aimed at answering these questions as a result of physics‐based modelling. After introducing the historical context, we address geometrical and physical parameters relevant for understanding how this oscillating grindstone was used and what one can expect in terms of grinding. Then, a suitable approach for estimating the yield makes use of the modern industrial empirical estimator: the ‘power index’. We offer our conclusions about the position of this tool, which appears as an ideal intermediate tool between the roughening process of the ore at the centimetre scale, and the suitable size for the material to be sorted by the subsequent methods in the chain (such as washing), which involve sandy‐sized grains. The study also shows how classical physics can help in addressing questions concerning minerallurgy.     

Mental maps of global regions: identifying and characterizing “hard” and “soft” regions

ABSTRACT

This article presents the quantitative synthesis of mental maps that identify different types of world regions. It is the result of a large-scale survey conducted in 18 countries, based on a sketch map approach. The number, shape, and extension of these vernacular world regions vary according to countries, cultures, and the personal styles of respondents who drew the maps. However, when we collectively analyze the regions identified by respondents, we observe that the figures of global regions are more or less recurrent. While the most commonly used division of the world is into “continents”, we can identify “hard” and “soft” regions of the world. Whereas a “hard” region, such as Africa, can be recognized relatively unambiguously as a continent, “soft” regions may include numerous regional distinctions such as East Asia, Russia, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Our methodology involves defining a set of characteristics that discriminate between “hard” and “soft” regions (measuring spatial uncertainty and the relative vagueness of limits and fringes), then accounting for the correlation of these areas on the world map.     

The Functional Resilience of an Innovative Cluster in the Montpellier Urban Area (South of France)

The aim of this article is to evaluate the resilience of territories through a study of the morphology of local firms' networks: in this case, in the Montpellier urban area. Two types of data collection were used for the analysis: a statistical survey of a sample of firms and a list of shared patents pending. The first step of the approach enabled us to analyse the motives that led firms to develop innovative partnership. In the second step, we modelled the networks, using graph theory, over different periods of time. Ultimately, the analysis revealed pivotal firms within the network. These firms played an important role in the resilience and spatial organization of the territory. We found that the geographical concentration or dispersal of the firms thus continued under certain economic conditions.     

A new military history of the Italian Risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento: the case of ‘transnational soldiers’

The article discusses new studies of foreign soldiers in the Italian armed groups of the (Anti-)Risorgimento against the background of recent scholarship on ‘transnational soldiers’, which acknowledges the complexities of foreigners' initial motives for enlistment and of the transnational processes inside the single armies. The article suggests that from the mundane structures of military life to the perceptions of the rank-and-file, many aspects of the soldiering experience in the multinational armed groups on all sides of the Risorgimento actually advanced rather than obviated national boundaries. This paper further demonstrates that the military cultures of the nationalists and the anti-unity forces were much more porous and mutually constitutive than is often recognised. The histories of the ‘transnational soldiers’ in the armed groups of the Risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento are crucial for a possibly new, comparative history of the armed groups of the (Anti-)Risorigmento. This paper explores approaches of the culturally revived ‘new military history’ and suggests that it provides much still unrealised potential for Risorgimento historiography.     

Medical science and the military: the Allies' use of amphetamine during World War II

Although amphetamine was thoroughly tested by leading scientists for its effects in boosting or maintaining physical and mental performance in fatigued subjects, the results never provided solid grounds for approving the drug's use, and, in any case, came too late to be decisive. The grounds on which amphetamine was actually adopted by both British and American militaries had less to do with the science of fatigue than with the drug's mood-altering effects, as judged by military men. It increased confidence and aggression, and elevated "morale."     

Jean-François Foucquet's Contribution to the Establishment of Chinese Book Collections in European Libraries: Circulation of Chinese Books

This article focuses on the circulation of Chinese books by looking at the books which François Foucquet carried from China to Europe. By examining different “booklists,” it investigates how books circulated not only from one concrete place to another, but also through different “lists”: bookseller lists, transportation lists, cataloguing lists, lists of forgotten books, or quotation lists. In addition, by linking the various catalogues and book lists to the holdings of European libraries and, in turn, Foucquet's library to the other systematic transfers of books from China to Europe, this study reconstructs the “communication circuit” of a library. This reconstruction is an “intercultural” communication circuit, which runs from the Chinese bookseller over the shipper to the European reader. On the basis of this analysis, this article shows the important role Foucquet and other Europeans played in a new epoch of interest in Chinese culture: the constitution of Chinese libraries in Europe.     

Ecological constraints on the first prehistoric farmers in Europe

The Neolithic Revolution, which witnessed the transformation of hunter–gatherer groups into farming communities, is traditionally viewed as the event that allowed human groups to create systems of production that, in the long run, led to present-day societies. Despite the large corpus of research focused on the mechanisms and outcomes of the Neolithic transition, relatively little effort has been devoted to evaluating whether particular production-oriented adaptations could be integrated into a broad range of ecological conditions, and if specific cultural traditions differed ecologically. In order to investigate whether the differences between the adaptations and geographic distributions of three major Early Neolithic archaeological cultures are related to the exploitation of different suites of environmental conditions, we apply genetic algorithm and maximum entropy ecological niche modeling techniques to reconstruct and compare the ecological niches within which three principal Neolithic cultures (Impressed Ware, Cardial Ware, and Linearbandkeramik) spread across Europe between ca. 8000 and 7000 cal yr BP. Results show that these cultures occupied mutually exclusive suites of environmental conditions and, thus, were adapted to distinct and essentially non-overlapping ecological niches. We argue that the historical processes behind the Neolithization of Europe were influenced by environmental factors predisposing occupation of regions most suited to specific cultural adaptations.