Herzl and the Palestinian Arabs: Myth and Counter-Myth

According to conventional Zionist historiography, Herzl thought little about Arabs, and what he did have to say about them reflected benign and progressive, albeit paternalistic, sentiment. Critics of Zionism, on the other hand, claim that underlying the paucity of Herzl's comments on Arabs was a conspiracy of silence, for already in 1895 he was allegedly planning the expulsion of the Palestinians, although he only confided this dark scheme to his diary. This essay throws new light upon Herzl's attitudes towards Palestine's Arabs. It explores a variety of historiographical questions raised by the gulf that separates the camps of scholars who have written on this subject, and it critiques the way that historians have read Herzl's diary and privileged it over his other writings.     

The strategic culture of the European Union: a progress report

This article re‐examines the EU's character and potential as a strategic actor, setting that analysis in the context of the debate on strategic culture. The definition of strategic culture as the political and institutional confidence and processes to manage and deploy military force, coupled with external recognition of the EU as a legitimate actor in the military sphere, lends itself to a reappraisal around four core questions. First, military capabilities: establishing a European strategic culture is vital in order to rationalize the acquisition of capabilities necessary for the range of humanitarian and peacekeeping tasks envisaged. Equally, without military capabilities, all talk of a strategic culture would ring hollow. This article discusses how much closer the EU has come to acquiring those essential capabilities. Second, while the EU has gained significant experience of, albeit limited, military/policing experiences and established a growing reputation and some credibility for ad hoc action, to what extent and in what quarters have these experiences engendered a sense of reliability and legitimacy for autonomous EU action? Third, given that so far operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Balkans have depended on an integrated civil–military effort, do the policy‐making processes of the EU now ensure the appropriate level and depth of civil–military integration? Finally, considering that EU operations have been limited in time and scope, and that much of the EU's work in the Balkans has depended upon cooperation with NATO, what can be said of the evolving relationship between the EU and NATO?     

National defence in the age of austerity

Preparations for the next UK defence review are under way; a struggle is imminent and the lines of battle are being drawn. There is a grave danger that in the new 'age of austerity' defence planning—and strategy generally—will be driven by tribal conflicts, either between supporters of one or other of the armed services or between contending viewpoints about the nature of conflict. And there will be others who will argue that the defence review should be driven simply by the need to reduce government expenditure, as quickly as possible. These arguments not only reduce the defence debate to a struggle between various incompatible and uncompromising tribal beliefs—'war among the fetishes', perhaps—they also miss the point. This article gauges the extent of the economic challenges which the UK defence establishment will confront over the coming decade. The authors consider how best to approach the problem of undiminished (and even expanding) commitments at a time of decreasing resources. They argue that defence planning should be driven by the notion of value (the ratio of function to cost), which in turn requires both a clear national political vision and a defence establishment which is output- rather than input-oriented. Finally, the authors assert that defence must transform itself to be able to achieve the outputs required in the most efficient and responsive manner.     

A Comparison of Holocene and Historical Channel Change along the Macdonald River,Australia

Changes in channel morphology that occurred along the Macdonald River between 1949 and 1955 are often cited as an example of catastrophic channel change. However, the question of whether these changes represented one component of a cyclical evolutionary pattern, or a systematic and persistent shift to a new morphologic state remains to be clearly defined, as does the significance of these dramatic channel changes when viewed against the river's longer‐term Holocene history. In this paper, new measurements of the Macdonald River's channel morphology are used to resolve the river's evolution in the ～50 years since these major channel‐altering floods. By 2002, the Macdonald River's bed had narrowed considerably from its 1955 post‐flood maximum due to the construction of a new floodplain surface within the widened channel. In some locations, the 2002 bed width is comparable to that of the pre‐1949 channel. This aspect of the river's evolution follows models of cyclical channel evolution proposed for the region. However, in light of recent research into the river's longer term Holocene evolution, it is clear that other channel changes that occurred in response to the 1949–1955 floods, particularly the 2 metres of river bed aggradation and 7 kilometres down‐valley shift in the thalweg's intersection with mean sea level, are less cyclic in nature. The capacity of coastal rivers to prograde into estuaries, which in turn induces river bed aggradation, can be seen in this case to counteract the incisional tendencies associated with post‐flood channel contraction, such that persistent river bed aggradation occurs.     

History and Effects of Channelisation on the Latrobe River,Victoria

Channel changes on the lower Latrobe River since the late 1800s include a 25 per cent reduction in channel length due to artificial meander cutoffs, increases in mean channel width, increased channel instability and incision of up to 1.05 m. Hydraulic changes at the Rosedale gauge include increases in bankfull flow velocity and a 67 per cent increase in channel capacity, resulting in a threefold reduction of over-bank flow duration. The extensive channelisation works have reduced the frequency of minor flooding and the period offloodplain inundation, but these and other human impacts have severely degraded the stream environment.     

Auto-production systems in Japan: organisational and locational features

Through their highly controlled production systems Japanese auto-makers have succeeded to a considerable degree in extending the basic principles of modern factory production–specialisation and timing–to regional space. Thousands of firms, large and small, hierarchically connected in subcontracting layers supply a myriad of parts and engineering services to the auto-makers. Automakers minimise the level of stocks of parts at their plants by requiring their direct suppliers to make frequent deliveries. These firms function as extensions of the auto-maker's plant with the result that the regional production system functions with precision approaching that of a single well-organised factory.     

THE METAPHORICAL VISION IN THE LITERARY LANDSCAPE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Despite a considerable amount of research in literary geography since the 1970s, particularly upon 19th-century rural novels, relatively little attention has been focused on Elizabethan literature, drama, and poetry. This paper addresses the literary landscape of William Shakespeare with specific reference to the use of the body-landscape metaphor in his dramatic work. It is undertaken in the belief that by conducting this type of investigation we are not merely exploring an intriguing aspect of the literary landscape of a highly creative Elizabethan, but we are also improving our understanding of the environmental perceptions of the culture in which these plays were written. The study begins by exploring the origins of this particular metaphorical vision, and then examines how Shakespeare employs this concept by superimposing elements of the celestial and the terrestrial landscape onto the human body and vice versa. Research reveals that although Shakespeare makes extensive use of this metaphorical device, some important types of body-landscape metaphors are absent in his work, and possible reasons for this are explored. The study concludes by noting that although this way of understanding the world was later superseded by other metaphors, some interesting parallels can be drawn between the body-landscape metaphor employed by the Elizabethans and the more recent Gala hypothesis. Malgré le nombre considérable de recherches effectuées en géographie littéraire depuis les années 1970 et plus particulierèment dans le domaine des romans ruraux du 19^e siècle, les géographes se sont très peu intéressés à la littérature élisabéthaine ou au thAeatre et à la poésie. Cet article examine le paysage littéraire de William Shakespeare et plus particulièrement l'utilisation de la métaphore du corps comme paysage. Nous entre-prenons cette étude avec la conviction qu'en faisant ce genre de recherche, on n'explore pas seulement un côte fascinant du paysage littéraire d'un Elisabéthain hautement créatif mais que nous améliorons aussi notre compréhension des perceptions de I'environnement de la culture dans laquelle ces pieces ont ete icrites. Cette etude se penche tout d'abord sur les origines de cette vision metaphorique particuliere. Elle examine ensuite comment Shakespeare utilise ce concept en superposant des éléments des paysages célestes et terrestres au corps humain et vice-versa. L'étude démontre que malgré l'utilisation fréquente de cette figure métaphorique par Shakespeare, de nom-breuses formes de la métaphore du corps comme paysage sont absentes de son oeuvre et les raisons possibles de cette carence sont explorés. L 'étude s'acheve en notant que même si cette façon de comprendre I'univers a été plus tard remplacée par d'autrès métaphores, des interpretations paralleles inte-ressantes peuvent être faites entre la métaphore du corps comme paysage et I'hypothèse plus récente de Gaïa.