Pivoting toward Asia: Comparing the Canadian and American Policy Shifts

Both Canada and the United States have “pivoted” toward Asia in their foreign policy over the past decade, although emphases in those pivots differed between the two countries. The former focuses on an economic pivot initially, the latter on a security one. What factors explain these shifts? What was the magnitude of policy change by both? Utilizing some important theoretical works by Charles Hermann, we discuss the factors that appear to have brought about this policy change toward Asia, outline the actions and activities that both countries have initiated toward Asia in the past decade to illustrate the type and magnitude of policy change that has occurred, and compare some areas of political, economic, and military similarities between Canada and the United States toward this region. Finally, we assess the likely future of these pivots to Asia in light of the change in political leadership within both nations.     

Seal on Land, Elk at Sea: Notes on and Applications of the Ritual Landscape at the Seaboard

Ritual landscapes at sea are marked in the cognitive world of coastal people by a primary antagonism between sea and land. This contrast is negotiated by liminal 'foreign' agents, selected for their symbolic adherence to either part. The primary source of maritime culture is fishing as a survival of past hunter-gatherer societies. Forms of religious or magical management of this contrast are manifold, from recent superstitious magic to powerful symbols in ancient worship, objects, art, architecture and cult. Also described are ways of using the sea on land as a magic metaphor and a fundamental point of reference. Related dichotomies and ways of negotiating them, such as the liminal agent, exist elsewhere in the cognitive world of pre-industrial societies, so these ideas could have applications in archaeology.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

中国村镇主体空间行为博弈及对策分析

我国进入快速城市化发展时期以来,在城市化和工业化的推动下,各类村镇主体的空间行为能力逐步增强,在其追求自身利益最大化的过程中,往往出现不理性的空间行为,在农村地区引发出诸多的空间问题。本文以各类村镇主体(农村居民、企业、农村基层自治组织、地方政府)的空间行为为研究对象,运用博弈理论深入分析各类不良空间行为产生的根源,有针对性地提出相关公共政策建议,以期改变其博弈规则,从而有效引导和规范各类村镇主体的空间行为,优化村镇空间。     

The “informer” and the political and organisational culture of the Irish republican movement: old and new interpretations

This article will analyse recent interpretations of the “informer” as a subject of political and historical significance for a balanced understanding of the trajectory of the Provisional Republican movement. It will do so in part through a discussion of some recent fiction and memoir-writing devoted to the figure of the informer. Specifically, this will involve an exploration of the recent fictional re-imagination of the real-life case of Denis Donaldson, by the French journalist Sorj Chalandon (Mon traître, 2007 and Retour à Killybegs, 2011) (These novels have been translated into English as My Traitor (2011) and Return to Killybegs (2013)). All subsequent references are to the English versions. In the first section, the article analyses the historical evolution of the phenomenon and recent revelations regarding the apparently widespread existence of informers in the movement during the Troubles. This section engages with the academic debate concerning the effects of these revelations upon the morale and internal political culture of the republican movement; it is argued here that the “Republican family” has been significantly affected by these disclosures in the “post-conflict” era, and that they have become an important element in the contestation between leadership supporters and “dissenters” within contemporary republicanism. The second section utilises old and new literary representations of “the informer”, particularly based around Liam O’Flaherty’s The Informer and Chalandon’s work, to discuss continuities and changes in the image and perception of this phenomenon. It is argued that the interweaving of fiction with real-life and factual historical detail is a particularly appropriate means of interpreting the role and effects of the informer.     

Toward a (co)relational border? Order,care, and chaos at Nordic borders

The events of the European migration ‘crisis’ of 2015–2016 left an indelible mark on the continent, evident within each of the four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Migrant-centered agents (MCAs) played an important role in engaging and managing the border in the form of governmental and non-governmental agents during this time. Discourses of urgency and crisis were used to justify policies and practices to ‘mitigate’ the situation, administered (and engaged with) by MCAs. What ensued was a complex hybridity of Order, Care, and Chaos in each of the four countries, alongside the expansion and reclaiming of power by the nation-state. This paper uses semi-structured interviews to critically analyze such political unfoldings, drawing on notions of exceptionality, responsibility, and neoliberalization. The term ‘(Co)Relationality’ is proposed to the academy to reflect the reciprocal and re-enforcing relations between states and individuals in the subsequent governing and negotiating of the border, exemplified in the Nordic context. Chrono-political and spatial (co)relationality are put forward and developed regarding the theoretical premise that borders must be studied in relationship.     

常用清洗材料对瓷器的影响研究

为了探讨常用化学清洗材料对瓷器的影响,通过清洗前后形貌对比实验和胎、釉溶出物实验,对常用清洗材料的清洗效果和对瓷器的损伤作了对比研究。结果表明,盐酸、草酸、柠檬酸、六偏磷酸钠、EDTA二钠盐对附着紧密的黄色沉积物有很显著的清洗效果;各种清洗材料对瓷器或多或少均有一定的损伤,碱性溶液、络合材料对瓷器的腐蚀都比较强,酸性材料中的硝酸、草酸、盐酸也会产生较强的腐蚀作用;一般情况下清洗能力较好的清洗液,对瓷器的损伤也很强。     

Boats Apart. Building and Equipping an Iron-Age and Early-Medieval Ship in Northern Europe.

Archaeological ship remains usually induce a functional, i.e. technological and social, interest. This text introduces what is not 'another' aspect in fact, but rather something that runs parallel or is contained within both. Maritime societies and individuals develop cosmologies and rituals, not only strategies for sustenance, which to them are supposed to be as necessary for survival. It is an additional challenge to archaeology to explore and interpret these cognitive elements and their role in maritime cultures of the past, illustrated here by the wood, the building place, the equipment, the ship as a unit, illustrating power, ancestors, and pars-pro-toto .
© 2007 The Author     

Multiple agents,blame games and public policy-making: the case of local government reform in New South Wales

Politicians often use ‘independent experts’ to avoid blame for contentious public policy. The use of multiple agents, however, has attracted relatively little attention. We extend the blame-avoidance literature to identify additional opportunities and risks that arise when multiple agents are used to support/oppose particular public policies. We then test our propositions using evidence from recent local government reforms in New South Wales. The picture which emerges is largely one of confusion whereby independent agents provide contradictory opinions, attempt to shift blame to one another, and dispute interpretations of earlier advice. We conclude our analysis with a discussion of the salient factors for successful pursuit of the multiple-agent variant of the blame games.     

Rural gatekeepers and ‘greentrified’ pennine rurality: Opening and closing the access gates?

This paper examines how ‘rural gatekeepers” attempt to mediate processes of rural gentrification in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK. It is shown that promotional and steering strategies are interwoven, and embedded, within practices which seek to enable and constrain distinct population movements into gentrified housing and specific locations. To conceptualize the (re)production of distinct internal micro‐geographies within Hebden Bridge, the paper transposes ideas from the urban managerial thesis into the rural context. This is positioned within local and regional ideological and institutional structures. More specifically, it is contended that estate agents influence the signification of social, cultural and economic capital, and the construction of distinct representations and discourses about Pennine rurality. Researchers are thus urged to investigate the role of intermediaries within the processes of rural gentrification to provide deeper insights into the unequal provision of, and accessibility to, housing for different social groups.     

Managers and Agents: Conservative Party Organisation in the 1850s*

During the 1850s in the wake of the calamitous Peelite split, Britain's Conservative Party struggled to rebuild its numbers in the house of commons. The structure of the party's electoral organisation is well known‐parliamentary leaders, election managers such as Sir William Jolliffe and Philip Rose, plus local constituency based agents. Jolliffe's and Rose's 1859 election notebooks help understand this, but they also reveal serious gaps in the Conservatives' information networks. This article delineates the electoral activities of Sir John Yarde Buller (first Baron Churston) and his ally Samuel Triscott, who supplemented the spasmodic flow of information from small boroughs in at least two counties. Mid‐level or second‐tier managers, to whom no attention has previously been given, assisted the Conservatives in their gradual electoral recovery. Their roles also suggest that the party's organization may have been more complex than previously believed.