The Information Research Department,British Covert Propaganda,and the Sino-Indian War of 1962: Combating Communism and Courting Failure?

Britain's post-war interventions in former colonial territories remain a controversial area of contemporary history. In the case of India, recent releases of official records in the United Kingdom and South Asia have revealed details of British government anti-communist propaganda activity in the subcontinent during the Cold War period. This article focuses attention on covert or unattributable propaganda conducted in India by the Foreign Office's Information Research Department (IRD). It specifically examines the 1960s: a time between the outbreak of the Sino-Indian border war in 1962, and the Indian general election of 1967, when IRD operations peaked. The Indian government welcomed British support in an information war waged against Communist China, but cooperation between London and New Delhi quickly waned. Britain's propaganda initiative in India lacked strategic coherence, and cut across the grain of local resistance to anti-Soviet material. The British Government found itself running two separate propaganda campaigns in the subcontinent: one focused on Communist China, and declared to the Indian government; and a second, secret programme, targeting the Soviets. In this context, Whitehall found it difficult to implement an integrated and effective anti-communist propaganda offensive in India.     

Canadiana Abroad: The Department of External Affairs' Book Presentation Programmes, 1949–1963

This article examines one aspect of Canada's early cultural diplomacy. During the late 1940s, the Department of External Affairs frequently received requests for Canadian books from foreign libraries. At the same time, many officials were eager to promote Canadian culture abroad. The Annual Book Presentation Programme was inaugurated with the intention of creating “repositories of Canadiana” which might stimulate interest in Canada among foreign readers. Although the budget for the program was always modest, over the years the department's book gifts did fulfill their aim, creating a basis for the later growth of Canadian studies in universities abroad.     

论清末舆论放大现象的成因

清末舆论放大现象最为集中的体现是报刊发行量的飞速扩张;之二是舆论界自身定位为监督政府,并形成了强大的公共领域;之三是受众由以官吏为主转向以社会公众为主;之四是社会各阶层更加注重报刊舆论。至于舆论放大的成因,一是新闻界推行的白话运动,二是政府的引导与推动,三是政府与民间合力促成的讲报、阅报机构,综合催发清末的舆论放大效应。清朝政府对之未予正视,结果致使局势一发而不可收拾,王朝统治也随之荡然无存。     

1924-1945年国民党海外部与侨务工作考论

针对目前学术界在民国侨务政策、侨务工作方面的研究对象主要是侨委会,对于海外部仅粗略涉及的现状,依据相关档案及其它文献资料,对国民党海外部的沿革、职能、其侨务工作实绩及与侨务委员会之间的关系等方面做了分析和阐述。认为国民政府的侨务委员会与国民党海外党部从党政两个权力系统推展侨务工作,二者分工合作,相辅相成。抗战前,以侨委会为主;抗战爆发后,特别是太平洋战事发生以及日本推行南进政策后,以海外党部为代表的党务系统在侨务工作中发挥了更大的作用。     

Seismic Performance to Emergency Centers,Communication and Hospital Facilities Subjected to Nepal Earthquakes, 2015

Emergency centers, communication systems, and hospitals are essential infrastructures for emergency rescue and subsequent reconstruction activities. An investigation into the Nepal 2015 earthquake sequences found that the visited government offices were functioning normally 40 days after the main shock; that the local media failed to coordinate with the entire society at the beginning, but mobile phone-based communication recovered quickly; and that the hospitals in high-intensity areas were badly damaged as a result of improper design and adverse site configuration. Recommendations are proposed to enhance the aseismic capacity of structural and non-structural components using earthquake early warning and base isolation.     

中研院史语所与北大史学系的学术关系

国立中央研究院历史语言研究所和国立北京大学史学系,是现代中国史学发展史上两个极重要的学术阵地。从20世纪30年代开始,两者建立起紧密的学术关系。以傅斯年为首的史语所研究人员不仅纷纷到北大史学系兼课,而且通过对北大史学系课程进行改造,使两者在学术精神上达到一致。其结果是,一批深受史语所学术精神影响的“尖子生”被培养出来,并被选入史语所工作。北大史学系某种程度上成了史语所的人才库。另一方面,史语所的学术精神,也通过北大史学系对现代中国史学发展发生着持久性的影响。     

The coloniality of disaster: Race,empire, and the temporal logics of emergency in Puerto Rico,USA

This essay uses the case of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico to discuss “the coloniality of disaster”: how catastrophic events like hurricanes, earthquakes, but also other forms political and economic crisis deepen the fault lines of long-existing racial and colonial histories. It argues that disaster capitalism needs to be understood as a form of racio-colonial capitalism and that this in turn requires us to question our understandings of both “resilience” and “recovery.” The article focuses on the “wait of disaster” as a temporal logic of state subjugation and on how Puerto Ricans responded to state abandonment through modes of autogestión, or autonomous organizing. It concludes that while resiliency can be coopted in service of a neoliberal recovery, it can also be the site for gestating new forms of sovereignty and new visions of postcolonial recovery.     

1949-1956年中国科技领导体制探析

新中国成立后,以何种组织形式和方法领导科学工作是当时党和政府面临的一个重要问题。中国科学院作为“主管国家科学事业的政府职能部门”和“全国科学领导中心”,探索建立了专门委员制度、专业工作委员会和学部制度,逐渐确立了在新中国科学事业中的学术领导地位。全国科联是自然科学各专门学会的联合组织,是中国科学院进行学术领导的“群众基础”。中宣部科学(卫生)处和政务院文化教育委员会是党和政府领导中国科学院工作的主要机构,其中中宣部科学(卫生)处在实际工作中发挥了更为重要的作用。     

The role of T.A. Smiddy in Fianna Fáil economic policy-making 1932–45

Professor Timothy Aloysius (T.A.) Smiddy was economic advisor to Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Eamon de Valera between 1932 and 1945. Notwithstanding a distinguished public service career, Smiddy’s role as the first independent economic advisor to an Irish political leader post-1922 has escaped examination in the existing literature. This research identifies that Smiddy had a real and prolonged influence on the banking and monetary policies pursued by de Valera during the 1932–45 period. Ultimately, however, the often progressive nature of his proposals was circumscribed by de Valera’s reluctance to supersede the more traditional views of the Department of Finance and the Currency Commission. This paper also identifies that de Valera took a keener interest in economic matters than has been generally assumed. However, such an interest did not result in a coherent, or consistent, Fianna Fáil banking and currency policy in the 1930s and early 1940s.     

The archaeology of industry; people and places

The development of industrial archaeology over the last 50 years can be traced through articles published in PMA. The early stages of recording the standing remains of industrial activity were augmented by detailed studies of groups of structures which revealed the organization of the manufacturing process. From the late 1980s, developer-funded excavations became important following extensive remediation work on brownfield sites. Greater attention was paid to the social context of past industrial activity including workers’ housing and institutional buildings, and this has continued with studies of oral history. New challenges considered include studies of modern technologies, de-industrialization and the digital revolution.