PROSPECTS FOR SOVIET GAS EXPORTS: OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS

This paper assesses the prospects for Soviet gas exports to Western Europe, analyzing both supply (domestic) factors, such as gas production, consumption, and transportation, and demand (foreign) factors such as gas demand and market share. This is done using a network allocation model of the Soviet gas pipeline network (for 1985, 1990, and 1995) and a country-by-country analysis of the gas market in Western Europe. In general, the outlook for increased gas exports to Western Europe, at least to the turn of the century, is rather bleak. This is mainly due to a relatively slower rate of growth of gas demand in Western Europe than projected earlier, coupled with overcontracting of gas supplies, because the USSR has enormous gas reserves, ample production, and no major pipeline bottlenecks restricting export volumes. Its huge pipeline construction program allows both domestic consumption and exports to be comfortably accommodated     

Book Reviews

Baer, Kenneth S. Reinventing Democrats: The Politics of Liberalism from Reagan to Clinton. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2000. Pp. xi, 361. $29.95, hardbound.

Canon, David T. Race, Redistricting, and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Pp.'xiv, 324. $50.00, hardbound; $18.00, paper.

Crabb, Cecil V., Glenn J. Antizzo, and Leila E. Sarieddine. Congress and the Foreign Policy Process: Modes of Legislative Behavior. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000. Pp. xi, 247. $39.95, hardbound; $24.95, softbound.

Goldstein, Kenneth M. Interest Groups, Lobbying, and Participation in America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp xii, 158. $49.95, hardbound; $16.95, softbound.

Gronke, Paul. The Electorate, the Campaign, and the Office: A Unified Approach to Senate and House Elections. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. Pp. xiv, 202. $39.50, hardbound.

Jones, Charles O. Clinton and Congress: Risk, Restoration, and Reelection. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Pp. xvi, 221. $26.95, hardbound.

Landy, Marc, and Sidney M. Milkis. Presidential Greatness. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2000. Pp. 288. $34.95, hardbound.

Morris, Irwin L. Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve: The Politics of American Monetary Policy-Making. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. Pp. vii, 165. $39.50, hardbound.

Palazzolo, Daniel J. Done Deal: The Politics of the 1997 Budget Agreement. New York: Chatham House Publishers, 1999. Pp. xii, 244. $24.95, softbound.

Uslaner, Eric M. The Movers and the Shirkers: Representatives and Ideologues in the Senate. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999. Pp. xii, 234. $44.50, hardbound.     

Site formation processes in caves: The Holocene sediments of the Haua Fteah,Cyrenaica, Libya

Caves have yielded some of the most globally important archaeological sequences, but often their interpretation has suffered from assumptions about cave sedimentary processes. Caves contain distinctive sedimentary environments: this has major implications for the understanding of contained archaeological materials. This paper describes and analyses the Holocene sediments in the Haua Fteah, a sequence regarded as essentially continuous by the original excavator. 50 years after it was first excavated, the Haua's Epipalaeolithic to post-Classical chronological range and rich finds make it still the key Holocene archaeological site in North Africa. The reassessment shows, however, that the sequence is strongly discontinuous and this has major implications for the reinterpretation of the site, as the highly-resolved archaeological record is thus likely to reflect a series of brief occupations, rather than continuous human activity. As with many caves, the sedimentary record in the Haua Fteah is an extremely sensitive indicator of environments and processes in the wider landscape. Secure understanding of sedimentary process, from analysis of the highly individual records found in caves, is essential for full understanding of their contained archaeology.     

The Madrasas of Oxford: Iranian Interactions with the English Universities in the Early Nineteenth Century

Against the background of the Russo-Persian wars of the early 1800s, the Iranian government sponsored a series of Iranian students to travel to the homeland of its erstwhile British allies in search of the new scientific and technological learning. Along with members of the Iranian embassies to London in the same period, the students were the first Iranians to acquire extensive and direct knowledge of British society as it entered the industrial era and the earliest to gain access (albeit short-lived) to the English universities. Yet in spite of the practical agenda of the students and their sponsors, on reaching Britain the students found it necessary to engage extensively with the evangelical and more generally religious agendas of their British co-operators. In reconstructing in detail the intellectual circles in which the Iranian students moved in England between 1815 and 1818, the article uncovers the series of religious negotiations that were a necessary part of Iran's early path to modernization.

In Oxford there are twenty big madrasas and five small madrasas they call “halls.”

Mirza Saleh Shirazi, 1818

     

Natural preservation mechanisms at play in a Bronze Age wooden shovel found in the copper mines of Alderley Edge

A wooden shovel, dating from the Early Bronze Age, has survived in a remarkable state of preservation in the copper mines of Alderley Edge, Cheshire UK. Other historic timbers recovered from the mines, whilst still intact, have fared less well. An X-ray investigation into the distribution of minerals through the shovel using portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) along with the use of synchrotron-based X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of the copper and arsenic chemical speciations has provided clues to the methods by which metals from the mining environment have entered the wood of the shovel and ensured its survival. The distribution and nature of the minerals so determined suggest that the copper and arsenic, along with a significant lead content, entered the shovel during its original use in working mineral-rich deposits, rather than through the burial environment. The insights gained are expected to be applicable to other wooden artefacts recovered from ancient copper mines in other places.     

Access relative to need for community conservation funding in Australia

ABSTRACT

In a climate of scarce resources for heritage preservation, there is a need to develop principles and methodology for assessing and responding to inequity within the conservation sector. This paper focuses on spatial, or geographic, barriers as one factor determining the accessibility of conservation services. While the case study focuses on the conservation and management of collections of cultural material in Australia, the methodology is globally relevant for advancing the equitable distribution of heritage and conservation resources according to need. Using a statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of 1323 local heritage conservation projects that have been funded by the National Library of Australia’s Community Heritage Grants Program from 1994 to 2017, this study provides a measure of the spatial equality of conservation in Australia. Spatial distribution analysis indicates that the majority of projects funded are located in major cities, with fewer projects funded in regional, remote and very remote areas. An ‘access relative to need’ approach is proposed to counter the current centralisation of the conservation industry. Of particular relevance for international readers is the potential for this methodology to frame studies of the impacts on heritage resulting from climate change and extreme weather events.