LA COMMISSION INTERNATIONALE DE GÉOMORPHOLOGIE PÉRIGLACIAIRE ET LE CANADA

ABSTRACT. The I.G.U. Commission on Periglacial Morphology was set up in 1949 and Us first report was presented to the 11th Congress in Washington in 1952. Between 1952 and 1956, the Commission published a select bibliography on periglacial phenomena and a few national maps were produced. A short study on Canadian periglacial morphology appears in the general report to the 16th Congress in Rio de Janeiro in 1956. From that date Canada has been represented on the Commission, which has met in Spain and Poland. During 1959, a national map of Canadian periglacial phenomena will be prepared for presentation at the 19th Congress in Stockholm in 1960.     

LE POSSIBILISME DE HAROLD INNIS

Cet article vise à préciser la position possibiliste de Harold Innis, a G en explorer les fondements et à en dégager la portée dans son oeuvre. On montre que les orientations de base de son possibilisme sont très convergentes avec celles des vidaliens. Ses points d'appui néo-kantiens sont soulignés à ce sujet. Sa portée est manifeste dans trois thèmes: la problématique de la formation territoriale du Canada, I'importance de la technologie et la part accordée à la liberté humaine .
This article aims at outlining the possibilist position of Harold Innis, at exploring its foundations, and at showing its bearing on his written work. It is shown that the basic orientations of his possibilism converge with those of the Vidalians. In this respect, its neo-Kantian supports are underlined. Its significance in his thought is made apparent in three themes: the problem of, and approach to, the territorial formation of Canada, the importance given to technology, and the leeway given to human free will .     

The Politics of Knowledge: Julian Steward,Leslie White,Melville Herskovits,and L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza

Biographies of four important figures in the history of anthropology—Julian Steward, Leslie White, Melville Herskovits, and L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza—illustrate that current “public anthropology” has deep historic roots and that anthropology, even subfields that involve the basic sciences, like genetics, are shaped by personal and political experience as much as by intellect. All the biographical subjects discussed here had first-hand experience with racism, fascism, and bigotry, whether in their home or public lives, and resisted those forms of hegemony by fashioning anthropological theories to explain and appreciate human diversity.     

… OF SHERDS AND SOIL AND SEALING LAYERS, OF COBBLING AND COINS…

Summary. From 1985 to 1987 an experiment was conducted alongside an excavation to examine the effect of trampling on cobbled layers, and to see if the movement of small objects could change their stratigraphic relationships. An experimental area was excavated and backfilled with soil and a cobbled layer containing plastic markers, flower pot sherds and coins. The area, part of a path, was subjected to daily trampling, and was excavated after seventeen months, using normal excavation methods; all the soil was dry sieved. The results show varying recovery rates and horizontal movements for different types of object, and demonstrate the need for further investigation of the causes and implications of differential movement of buried objects.     

Russian ‘deniable’ intervention in Ukraine: how and why Russia broke the rules

The Russian military interventions in Ukraine, which have led to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and to the entrenchment of separatist enclaves in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, directly challenge the post‐Cold War European state system. Russia has consistently denied any wrongdoing or illegal military involvement and has presented its policies as a reaction to the repression of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers. This article argues that it is important to examine and contest unfounded Russian legal and political claims used by Moscow to justify its interventions. The article proceeds to assess in detail three different explanations of the Russian operations in Ukraine: geopolitical competition and structural power (including the strategic benefits of seizing Crimea); identity and ideational factors; and the search for domestic political consolidation in Russia. These have all played a role, although the role of identity appears the least convincing in explaining the timing and scope of Russian encroachments on Ukrainian territorial integrity and the disruption of Ukrainian statehood.     

Russia resurgent? Moscow's campaign to ‘coerce Georgia to peace’

Russia's military incursion into Georgia in August 2008 and formal recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia raise fundamental questions about Russian regional policy, strategic objectives and attitudes to the use of armed force. The spectacle of maneouvre warfare on the periphery of Europe could form a watershed in post‐Cold War Russian relations with its neighbourhood and the wider international community. The speed and scale with which Russia's initial ‘defensive’ intervention to ‘coerce Georgia to peace’ led to a broad occupation of many Georgian regions focuses attention on the motivations behind Russian military preparations for war and the political gains Moscow expected from such a broad offensive. Russia has failed to advance a convincing legal case for its operations and its ‘peace operations’ discourse has been essentially rhetorical. Some Russian goals may be inferred: the creation of military protectorates in South Ossetia and Abkhazia; inducing Georgian compliance, especially to block its path towards NATO; and creating a climate of uncertainty over energy routes in the South Caucasus. Moscow's warning that it will defend its ‘citizens’ (nationals) at all costs broadens the scope of concerns to Russia's other neighbour states, especially Ukraine. Yet an overreaction to alarmist scenarios of a new era of coercive diplomacy may only encourage Russian insistence that its status, that of an aspirant global power, be respected. This will continue to be fuelled by internal political and psychological considerations in Russia. Careful attention will need to be given to the role Russia attributes to military power in pursuing its revisionist stance in the international system.