China Gazes West: Xinjiang's Growing Rendezvous with Central Asia

A senior American specialist on the geography of China surveys that country's enduring interest and involvement with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, increasingly on the basis of Xinjiang's role as a bridgehead for economic linkages. Among the key features of this growing involvement reviewed in the paper are the establishment in 2001 of a regional security alliance (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) to combat Islamist extremism as well as separatist activities; growing commercial linkages (especially with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) in tandem with improved transport links and increasing crossborder movements of merchants, traders, and tourists; and China's growing need for oil and increasing reliance on Kazakhstan as a key source for petroleum. China's growing engagement with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries is examined within the context of both opportunities as well as challenges, the latter reflecting the increasing complexity of Han Chinese and Uyghur/Turkic relations owing to increased Uyghur ties to affiliated populations in the Central Asian states.     

Eurasian Natural Gas: Significance and Recent Developments

A noted American specialist on the economies of Russia and major republics of the former Soviet Union explores and discusses the natural gas resources of Central Eurasia and the political and economic issues raised by their general inaccessibility. Central to these issues are the international pipelines required to bring this increasingly important energy source to meet growing world demand, and their intimate connection to the security of all the nations involved. The author explains why they are complicated by the growing, yet still largely potential, competition from a world LNG market driven by new technologies, and hence natural gas sources, outside of Central Eurasia. Each of the major actors in this arena—from the producer states and their national energy companies to the high-income consuming states with an increasing demand for natural gas—are pursuing frequently conflicting strategies to ensure their energy supplies and income security. Addressing the major developments thoroughly, the paper focuses in particular on the strategies of Russia/Gazprom, the Central Asian producers, and the transit states, as well as on the pipelines, both actual and potential, that intertwine them.     

THE SHELBY FOREST SITE IN SOUTHWEST TENNESSEE AND EARLY MISSISSIPPIAN RED-FILMED POTTERY IN THE CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

Abstract

The Shelby Forest site in southwest Tennessee is an Early Mississippian component characterized by Varney Red Filmed ceramics. Comparison to other sites in the Reelfoot Lake area of west Tennessee and the Upper St. Francis Basin of Missouri and Arkansas allows refinement of the direction, timing, and characteristics of influences from these areas northeastward to American Bottom and southward into the Yazoo Basin of Mississippi. Subsequent influences from the Cahokia area into the southern Yazoo Basin and northeast Louisiana are also discussed.     

Threading a needle: Kazakhstan between civic and ethno‐nationalist state‐building

This paper examines the state‐building project in Kazakhstan since independence in 1991. It argues that both civic and ethno‐nationalistic tendencies in state‐building can be identified but that it is not any particular trajectory of nationalism in Kazakhstan that is of significance so much as the tensions between two very different trajectories. We argue that, at least to date, the government has succeeded in managing these tensions quite effectively both at the policy level and in its relations with different ethnic groups and neighbouring states. Whether Kazakhstan can continue to manage these tensions in the post‐Nazarbayev era is one of the most significant questions facing the country.     

Statistical Characterization of Structural Demand under Earthquake Loading. Part 1: Robust Estimation of the Central Value of the Data

This article is the first of two companion articles addressing the statistical characterization of seismic demand. Performance-based earthquake engineering methodologies often require the characterization of central value estimates of structural demand. Since outliers can occur in the data, central value estimates should be determined by robust estimation methods. The performance of 50 robust central value estimators is evaluated, for different sample sizes, using the chord rotation, curvature, shear force, and inter-story drift demands obtained after analyzing five reinforced concrete structures under real earthquake records scaled to several intensities. Based on the results, seven estimators are proposed for different sample sizes.     

Cross‐border cooperation: A major element in regional policy in East Central Europe

Borders in East Central Europe have become much more permeable over the past ten years as formalities have been simplified and many new crossing points have opened. At the same time cooperation in border regions has increased, thanks mainly to resourcing through EU ‘Inrerreg’ programmes, to include a range of business, cultural and conservation interests. In many cases these arrangements have been formalised through Euroregions which have become an indicator of good international relations. The paper reviews these trends with reference to examples and pays particular attention to environmental projects and the joint planning initiatives being undertaken in a number of the Euroregions. At a time when regional policy has been generally weak, cross‐border cooperation has contributed significantly to cohesion and it is also a good indicator of stability in the region. However, the impact has been greater in the north than in the Balkans and the first round of EU eastern enlargement will have implications for cooperation across the new external borders.     

The Land Resources of the Ukraine; their Evaluation and Inventory Methods

Three EU-based human geographers argue for the need to contextualize the meaning of the current economic crisis in Europe, pointing to precedents in European history. More specifically, they view Europe (as both a set of practices and ideas) as a product of successive crises that have yielded an unexpectedly resilient structure for the European Union, which retains sufficient flexibility to permit different EU members to adapt their economies to the crisis on their own terms without descending into the disintegrative pull of protectionism. The authors also show how the uneven effects of the economic crisis threaten a renewed east-west divide, and highlight the ongoing relevance of the European Union as a transnational fiscal regime with important implications for EUrope's future. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F130, F150, G010, N130, N140. 1 figure, 1 table, 58 references.     

Central petén blue pigment: A maya blue source outside of Yucatán,México

Much of the research on Maya Blue has focused on locating palygorskite sources in northern Yucatán, México. To that end, Arnold et al. (2007) reported seven discriminate source mineral locations for palygorskite used in the manufacture of Maya Blue. Recently, a blue pigment was excavated from the archaeological site of Ixlú, El Petén, Guatemala and LA-ICP-MS and INAA analyses were conducted to determine if the pigment had the traditional Maya Blue structure and if it was from one of the seven mineral sources in México. Geochemical analyses demonstrate that the Ixlú pigment has the traditional Maya Blue structure, but it was manufactured from clays in central Petén, Guatemala. These new data suggest that the knowledge of Maya Blue manufacture was transferred and not the actual pigment and they reveal another source for Maya Blue manufacture outside of the Yucatán peninsula.     

简析古代日本对曹魏西晋王朝的朝贡

两汉时期开始,古代日本通过朝贡,纳入到中原王朝的册封体制之内。曹魏西晋时期,封贡关系进一步密切,古代日本频繁向中原王朝朝贡,中原王朝也首次派使者出使古代日本,这是以往两国发展史上没有的先例,开创了两国关系新的篇章。     

孔子、苏格拉底思想比较研究

孔子和苏格拉底分别被誉为东西方的伦理学之父,作为轴心时代的文化英雄,他们的思想言行对后世产生了巨大的影响。本文就孔子对中国历史、伦理本位及注入式教学等的影响,苏格拉底对西方理性、平等、自由及启发式教学的影响等进行了比较研究,以期探讨当下人类面对的文化困境和生存危机。