American civil–military relations today: the continuing relevance of Samuel P. Huntington's The soldier and the state

Fifty‐five years after it was first published, Samuel Huntington's The soldier and the state remains an essential starting point for serious discussions of American civil–military relations. In part this is due to the boldness and ambition of the author. Huntington brought theory to a research area that had suffered from too little theorizing and then went on to formulate concepts that scholars and practitioners of civil–military relations still find useful. These include: the conceptualization of the military as a profession; the articulation of the two central forces shaping the nature of military institutions as the functional and the societal imperatives; and the formulation of subjective and objective control as the two main patterns of civilian control. This review article briefly revisits these concepts and argues that they retain utility in illuminating important issues in American civil–military relations today. It also argues, however, that Huntington's contributions were productive but not perfect. Some of his specific definitions, such as the content of military expertise, are debatable. Some of his central concerns, such as whether the United States could sustain a strong military over an extended period of time, are no longer central today. Finally, in some places the literature has moved beyond what Huntington offered. The best example is the ongoing debate over how the country's political leaders and its most senior military officers should interact. It is precisely on this point that Huntington's objective control is the weakest. While The soldier and the state certainly does not deserve uncritical acceptance, it does continue to merit a fair hearing. Current discussions of American civil–military relations are likely to be more reasonable and productive if Huntington is given a voice.     

Canadian Landform Examples

The flat topography of the Red River Valley reflects the morphology of underlying bedrock covered with late Quaternary glacial and glaciolacustrine sediments. The meandering Red River occupies a shallow stream‐cut valley that became incised into the Red River Valley plain following the final recession of glacial Lake Agassiz. Extreme flows carried by the river overtop the sides of the stream‐cut valley and spread laterally up to several tens of kilometres across the plain. An array of flood protection infrastructure has been constructed in the landscape to mitigate the flood hazard.     

EVALUATING CONTEMPORANEITY AND POST‐MORTEM AGE OF MALACOLOGICAL REMAINS USING SCLEROCHRONOLOGY AND DENDROCHRONOLOGY*

Sclerochronology and dendrochronology are based on series of incremental skeletal and cambial growths that have been correctly aligned in time via cross‐dating (i.e., incremental dating through synchronization of the growth variability on a visual and statistical basis). Here we report a study of the shell increments of two anthropogenic death assemblages of freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) originating from Finnish Lapland. First, we cross‐dated a new sclerochronology from an assemblage of river pearl mussel shells with unknown post‐mortem age. Second, this chronology was cross‐dated with the previously published sclerochronology of the same species and geographical source. Third, the composite of the two sclerochronologies was compared to dendrochronologies from Lapland. Temporal association of the two types of chronologies was markedly high, as confirmed by t‐values of 7.1 and 8.9, which are well above the acceptable limit of 3.5. Our study demonstrates the potential of sclerochronological and dendrochronological materials and techniques in assessing the contemporaneity (i.e., temporal overlap) and post‐mortem age of archaeomalacological deposits. In the palaeontological context, these results also show the wider possibility of dating shells with a large number of annual increments from natural deposits.     

Non-invasive Archaeology of Skeletal Material by CT Scanning and Three-dimensional Reconstruction

The remains of an ancient Sumerian skeleton, approximately 7000 years old, were investigated using the techniques of stereolithography. The very fragile and delicate skeletal material was recovered in a block, thus retaining it in the soil matrix. The excavated block was CT-scanned and the skeletal material was rendered in three dimensions. This formed the basis for a stereolithographic model of the mandible, which was used for physical and dental anthropological studies. Skeletal remains may thus be made available for research without having to remove them from the local matrix, which may be an advantage in an archaeological or palaeoanthropological setting. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

INITIAL NOTES ON THE X-RAY FLUORESCENCE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE RHYODACITE SOURCES OF THE TAOS PLATEAU,NEW MEXICO

A preliminary statement of the energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence characterization of six spatially discrete rhyodacite sources of the Taos Plateau, New Mexico is presented. Geochemical characterization serves to determine the sources of an initial sample of 30 rhyodacite artifacts from three archaeological sites some 20–40 km distant from the sources. The initial results indicate that barium, strontium and zirconium are particularly effective in identifying and discriminating among the various northern Rio Grande-Taos Plateau rhyodacite sources.     

The politics of corporate responsibility and child labour in the Bangladeshi garment industry

In 1995—after more than two‐and‐a‐half years—a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) concerning child labour in the Bangladeshi garment industry was signed by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), UNICEF (Bangladesh) and the International Labour Office (ILO), Bangladesh. The agreement and the process were uniquely important in a number of respects and this article explores a question that remains almost unasked, although paradoxically it has often been answered: why did the agreement come into existence and take that particular form? This article provides a detailed and documented analysis of the process leading up to the MOU offering not only new insight but also challenging some of the widely held views about it. Most importantly, the analysis confirms the significance of the so‐called Harkin bill and the subsequent threat of boycott as the basic drivers of the entire process. It also points to the use of the Harkin bill by the Asian‐ American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI) on the ground and the way this was related to AAFLI's active engagement in labour organizing there, concluding that ‘protectionism in disguise’ was hardly the motive. Furthermore, by highlighting the drawn‐out nature of the process and uncovering the close links between AAFLI, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), the analysis challenges claims that the industry critics were uninformed and misguided, and points out that statements warning against ‘rushing into boycotts’ ought not to be based on what occurred in Bangladesh. The article argues that taking into account the efforts it took to move the BGMEA in this case, the approval of softer tactics and the critique and/or rejection of tougher tactics, was as naive as trade sanctions are blunt. In conclusion, in the light of the reported negative consequences for the children becoming a dominant theme in the process, the analysis acknowledges the importance of awareness of the risk of such consequences. However, the article points out that not only were industry critics aware of this and tried from the outset to make the industry accept some kind of responsibility, but also that the negative consequences have their own results serving to redefine the problem, narrowing the agenda and/or transferring moral culpability from corporations to critics.