Historian or Philosopher? Ian Hunter on Kant and Vattel

Summary

Ian Hunter's essay pursues several lines of argument, one explicit and the others not. The first is that of an historian correcting the mistaken view among Kantian commentators that Kant's conception of international justice had displaced Vattel's as the dominant one in nineteenth- and twentieth-century international thought. The second, which is not acknowledged, is that of a philosopher entering a debate over the relative cogency of the two conceptions. To accomplish this unacknowledged philosophical task, Hunter exaggerates the importance of Kant's metaphysics in his treatment of international justice and understates the element of raison d'état in Vattel's casuistical ethics. The subtext in both lines of argument is criticism, political rather than either historical or philosophical, of Kant's effort to articulate principles of international justice, together with implicit advocacy of Vattelian ethics as a corrective to Kantian ideology.     

The role of heritage attractions in sustainable tourism strategies: The experience in Ireland

Ireland, located on the north‐west periphery of Europe, illustrates all the difficulties of a small, marginal, island economy. It is an ancient landscape rich in heritage and cultural features. Tourism is now a vital part of the Irish economy and recent research has demonstrated that ‘Irishness’. whilst difficult to define, is the major appeal to overseas visitors. In 1989 the Irish Government challenged Bord Failte (the Irish Tourist Board) to double revenue from overseas tourists and create 25,000 new jobs. Heritage attractions formed a fundamental feature of Bord Failte's Framework Plan for Tourism. The methodology adopted for the development and interpretation of heritage attractions is evaluated in this paper, together with an assessment of the outcomes of the strategy. This particular initiative is discussed in the context of sustainable tourism strategies.     

The Diffusion of Sovereignty

Summary

The transmission of ideas about sovereignty and its related practices from one time, place, or intellectual context to another is sometimes characterised as a process of ‘diffusion’ or even ‘contagion’. Intellectual historians may use such metaphors but the explanations they provide are historical, not scientific. Sovereignty was transmitted when European states brought their forms of government to other peoples and when those peoples embraced such forms in declaring their independence from imperial rule. It was also transmitted when the idea of sovereignty was itself transformed in the course of these and other historical passages. In Foundations of Modern International Thought, David Armitage explores some of these historical passages, the outcome of which he sees as the world of sovereign states that defines the modern period and the disappearance of which would signal its end. In doing so, he illuminates the larger enterprise of writing the history of international thought or, as he prefers to call it, international intellectual history, inviting reflection on its relationship to other kinds of historical inquiry and the opportunities and dangers it poses.     

Explaining prehistoric variation in the abundance of large prey: A zooarchaeological analysis of deer and rabbit hunting along the Pecho Coast of Central California

Three main hypotheses are commonly employed to explain diachronic variation in the relative abundance of remains of large terrestrial herbivores: (1) large prey populations decline as a function of anthropogenic overexploitation; (2) large prey tends to increase as a result of increasing social payoffs; and (3) proportions of large terrestrial prey are dependent on stochastic fluctuations in climate. This paper tests predictions derived from these three hypotheses through a zooarchaeological analysis of eleven temporal components from three sites on central California’s Pecho Coast. Specifically, we examine the trade-offs between hunting rabbits (Sylvilagus spp.) and deer (Odocoileus hemionus) using models derived from human behavioral ecology. The results show that foragers exploited a robust population of deer throughout most of the Holocene, only doing otherwise during periods associated with climatic trends unfavorable to larger herbivores. The most recent component (Late Prehistoric/Contact era) shows modest evidence of localized resource depression and perhaps greater social benefits from hunting larger prey; we suggest that these final changes resulted from the introduction of bow and arrow technology. Overall, results suggest that along central California’s Pecho Coast, density independent factors described as climatically-mediated prey choice best predict changes in the relative abundance of large terrestrial herbivores through the Holocene.     

Identity Politics: The Elephant in the Room at the Cape York Institute's Inaugural Conference

The Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership is dedicated to research and policy advice relevant to the remote Aboriginal communities of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Its inaugural conference, entitled ‘Strong Foundations: Rebuilding Social Norms in Indigenous Communities’, addressed widespread problems of social dysfunction that manifest in failure to attend school, substance abuse and sexual violence. Keynote addresses explained the dysfunction as an outcome of dependency on welfare, disincentives to work, poor governance and dispossession. They made a number of worthwhile proposals, including governmental intervention, recognition of shared Australian-ness and humanity, abandonment of victimhood and cultural security. However, they made only tangential allusion to Aboriginal identity politics, which I argue play a crucial role in constituting the dysfunction and, if understood, open new avenues to Aboriginal development. This essay constitutes a plea for more rigorous examination of the politics that present such a barrier to Aboriginal development.     

Export of Planning Knowledge Needs Comparative Analysis: The Case of Applying Western Land Consolidation Experience in Central Europe

Phenomena abroad is receiving increasing attention and exporting planning knowledge meets specific difficulties. This article tries to sustain two claims. First, it claims that advising and comparative research are linked, because the more options are known, the more likely it is that a well-suited strategy can be chosen. The second claim is that comparative analysis can be conducted on a number of levels of increasing complexity. These levels are referred to in this article as exhibiting, valuing, explaining and advising. Furthermore, each higher level analysis can only be applied after going through the former level. This article uses the case of land consolidation as an example.     

Scaling Post‐Industrial Forestry: The Complex Implementation of National Forestry Regimes in the Southern Valleys of Wales

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed increased geographical interest in the changing nature of forestry in the UK. Critical attention has been given to a transition from a previously dominant regime of industrial forestry, primarily concerned with the mass production of timber, to a post‐industrial regime, within which timber production sits alongside a broader range of social, economic and environmental objectives. Investigations of this transition, however, have been largely restricted to analyses of national policy discourse, with relatively little attention given to the implementation of post‐industrial forestry in regional and local spaces. In this paper, we argue that the emergence of this new forestry regime has been associated with a great deal of spatial complexity. Drawing on findings from recent research in the southern valleys of Wales, we highlight the complex geographies bound up with the implementation of national regimes of forestry in the UK, and the significant roles played by the local socio‐natural context in facilitating and resisting the implementation of new forestry regimes in particular spaces.     

First contact: colonial European preconceptions of tropical Queensland rainforest and its people

Northerly expansion of European settlement after Queensland became a colony in 1859 carried with it an inherited interpretation of rainforest ‘scrub’ or ‘jungle’ as nuisance vegetation to be removed because it harboured ‘miasmatic’ disease vapours and covered good agricultural soil. Similar rejection of rainforest dwellers as uncivilized ‘myalls’ reflected a wider ‘dispersal’ policy against all indigenous occupants of land claimed under British colonial entitlement. In terms of performance theory, this paper illustrates the influence of common conceptions held during initial European contact with an environment so different and so remote that for decades it was avoided. Eventually, land pacification with gun and axe brought this last Aboriginal refuge with its diminutive people into the framework of an exploitative economy.