The appeal of appearing green: Soviet-American ideological competition and Cold War environmental diplomacy

This paper argues that the Cold War, for all its environmental costs, brought in its train a hidden benefit: the creation of an international ideological competition that made meaningful environmental agreements more likely. After reviewing the history of Soviet environmental initiatives, the paper discusses the rise of international environmental agreements and the abrupt decline after 1991.     

新石器冰人的最后时光

那是春暮夏初的时节,陡峭的丘壑幽谷中,一种名叫铁木的寻常树木正绽放着一簇簇亮丽的黄花。山谷迤逦向北,延伸到今日被称为意大利阿尔卑斯山的莽莽群山中。一个男人行色匆匆地穿过一片他所熟悉的森林,右手的伤口痛得他龇牙咧嘴,时不时地,他还会停下来侧耳倾听,看身后是否有人在尾随。他逃上山坡,停下来歇脚,这时候,铁木的黄色花粉宛如看不见的雨幕,丝丝洒落到这个人的食物和饮水中。五千年后,这些古老花粉的痕迹依然保存在这位被我们叫做“冰人”的新石器时期猎人体内,成为那一年、那一刻的精微记录：他就在那时穿过森林进入附近的深山,在那里遭遇他最终的宿命。[编者按]     

Information Availability and Market Power in Export Competition: The Case of Regional Health Care Markets

In this paper I analyze the spatial-economic determinants of export competition. I develop a competing central place spatial interaction model to analyze the spatial availability of information, market power, distance, demand threshold, and interregional market variables. Model estimates are based on national data from The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, and I examine Medicare health exports from the Seattle hospital market to markets throughout the Pacific Northwest. Information availability and market power for the Seattle export hospitals have a significant effect on export sales of hospital Medicare services. Intra and interregional competition with other major hospital markets are significant determinants of export competition. Distance to the Seattle market has a strong, negative effect on export sales and on patient migration from other markets.     

Asymmetrical international integration and Ukrainian national disunity

This article examines the impact of international integration on ethno-regional relations in multiethnic states. It argues that when ethno-regions in such a state have different geographic patterns of foreign ties, national unity suffers. “Asymmetrical international integration” (AII) hinders national cohesion by reducing the cultural similarity of the ethno-regions, sharpening their disputes over foreign policy, and intensifying their disparate identities. This argument is evaluated using the case of Ukraine. Analysis of a survey distributed to approximately 1000 elites in two key Ukrainian cities in 1994–95, as well as of other data, demonstrates that AII exists, is believed by Ukrainians to weaken national unity, and in fact does weaken national unity.     

History and Globalization: Reflections on Temporality

Globalization emerged as the buzzword of the 1990s, and, at the dawn of a new millennium, it continues to transfix academics, the media and policy-makers alike. However, one of the key gaps in the research into the process(es) of globalization has concerned its historical identity: the story (and analysis) of its origins, its development and mutation over time, and the continuities and differences between past and present. In this article the author sketches a typology of claims made about the historical identity of globlization in the current literature, and points to some unexplored and fruitful avenues of enquiry. Following this, two recent books are reviewed which attempt, in different but complementary ways, to deepen our understanding of globalization in history. The article concludes with a call for further research on this and related topics.     

From 'industrial districts' to 'knowledge clusters': a model of knowledge dissemination and competitive advantage in industrial agglomerations

This paper integrates knowledge-based theories of the firm withgeograph-ical studies of industrial agglomeration to producea model that helps explain the competitive advantages enjoyedby proximate firms located in geographical clusters. We proposea hierarchy of specialized knowledge stocks at both firm andcluster levels and suggest that the comparative advantage conferredby knowledge resources at each level is protected, in part,by asymmetries in knowledge flows from level to level. The paperargues that codified component knowledge is more easily spreadthan firm-specific architectural knowledge. Nevertheless, overtime, agglomerations may develop a cluster-specific form ofarchitectural knowledge that facilitates the rapid disseminationof knowledge throughout the cluster by increasing the learningcapacity of proximate firms and thereby conferring cluster-specificcompetitive advantages.