bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
2017
Authors: Morier-Genoud Eric
Published: June 2024

Mozambique has faced an insurgency in its northern province of Cabo Delgado since 2017. There is much confusion and debate about it. Who are the insurgents, what do they want, and where do they come from? Debates have focused particularly on the role of religion and the external dimension of the insurgency. Drawing on fieldwork in 2018 and 2019, this chapter focuses on the first attack of the insurgents in October 2017 and uses it to explore the nature, origin, and early history of armed violence. It uncovers that the insurgents belong to an Islamist sect which began a decade earlier and shifted to armed jihadism in the mid-2010s. It looks at their regional connections and their relation to the Islamic State.
Introduction
Authors: Pargeter Alison
Published: June 2024

This introduction surveys the literature on tribes in Libya and Iraq during the nationalist era and beyond. It argues that tribes have been grossly overlooked or misunderstood, often being relegated to the periphery or wrongly portrayed as unchanging, static entities. Tribes have also tended to be confined within a binary “strong state-weak tribe” paradigm. This introduction asserts that dealing with the tribe as the negation of the state fails to appreciate the nuances and complexities of state-tribe relationships, and the fact that tribes are organic components of these societies that have co-existed with the state over generations. Tribes have proved able to adapt to the prevailing political, social, and security environments and cannot be relegated to the hinterland or dismissed as outmoded units of social organization that are in contradiction to the state. Rather, tribes remain important sub-state actors in both Libya and Iraq.
Tribes, Revolution and Revenge
Authors: Pargeter Alison
Published: June 2024

This chapter starts by examining the final years of Qadhafi’s rule before focusing on the tribes’ relationship to the 2011 uprisings that first erupted in Benghazi. It shows how the Arab Spring left the tribes caught between the regime and growing popular revolt, and how most remained ambivalent towards the uprisings, refusing to take any collective political stance. However, tribes were not inconsequential in the uprisings, providing them with weight and depth, and serving as “social incubators” of the revolt. This chapter also discusses the tribal landscape in the aftermath of Qadhafi’s downfall, showing how tribes, along with other components, were catapulted into the power vacuum that opened up with the fall of the centralized authority. It examines tribal dynamics and the tribal score-settling that took place, as well as how tribes navigated the fractured political and security landscape that emerged out of regime change and that left many feeling themselves to have been outmaneuvered by other sub-state actors and components.
Tribes and Mobilisation
Authors: Pargeter Alison
Published: June 2024

This chapter looks at the role of Iraqi tribes through the prism of their mobilizing power, both in the political and security arenas. Focusing on the period after the 2009 elections, it examines how tribes impacted the political arena, including through their relationships with political parties, showing how sheikhs were able to exert tribal agency and influence through their bargaining power and how political actors were able to use the tribes to their advantage. The chapter also assesses the relationship between Shi’ites tribes and the Marja’iya, including through the latter’s ability to mobilize volunteer forces to fight against ISIS. It goes on to look at the impact of tribal mobilization during the popular protests that gripped the south of Iraq from 2019. The chapter argues that post-2003 Iraq has demonstrated that while tribes may have undergone far-reaching changes, they are still concrete social organizations that are capable of action and that remain important players in the political, security and social landscapes.
Routes to Terrorism
Authors: Nemeth Stephen C.
Published: June 2024

Rational choice theory has long been recognized as an approach of great applicability to the study of terrorism. Using this perspective, people employ terrorism as the result of a conscious or unconscious cost-benefit calculation to accomplish some end. As this chapter shows, radicalization is another area where rational choice explanations hold promise. Here too, the logic is simple; self-interested individuals, after an evaluation of the potential costs and benefits of radicalization, choose to become terrorists because it offers them the greatest utility. This approach also shows us the power and allure of incentives to overcome the natural and rational desire of people to shirk and let others take the risks that come with high-risk action. Terrorists then, are no stranger to the enthusiasm and participatory problems that affect the interest group, the labor union, or the political party. Nor are they above incentivizing their participants, just like their more peaceful and benign counterparts. Finally, this chapter also highlights shortcomings inherent in rational choice theory, but argues that while the fit between the model and the facts is imperfect, the approach remains sound and serves as a useful analytical and theoretical starting point for understanding radicalization.
Creating the Discourse of Religious Radicalization in Kyrgyzstan
Authors: Aitkulova Meerim
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores how growing religiosity in Kyrgyzstan, often framed as religious radicalization, has posed challenges to the state’s avowed secularism, which itself has evolved since the Soviet period, as well as spurred the interest of international stakeholders. The chapter finds that much of the research conducted by international stakeholders relies on generalizations and oversimplifications which obscure the situation when growing religiosity might presuppose people’s personal spiritual search and have peacebuilding potential as well. The chapter finds that the legacy of 9/11 and suspicions of “religious terrorism” are still deeply ingrained in Central Asia’s dominant security discourse, such that “authoritative” research institutions stuck in the convenient but limited research paradigm that equates islamization, with radicalization and terrorism and in doing so, perfectly complements the state’s position and discriminative actions.
‘The Radicalization of Western Man’
Authors: Gardell Mattias
Published: June 2024

This chapter, analyzes the actions and writings of transnational far-right terrorist actors like Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, examining the influence of key ideas like the Great Replacement theory and tracing their genealogy in a much longer history of radical nationalist thought. Having followed the intertextual references in this earlier historic white nationalist literature, the article arrives at the observation that modern-day white extremist manifestos rarely contain anything new, but rather reproduce ideas and perspectives that have been around for a long time: a weaponized white entitlement to land, resources, and privileges; the idea of a fundamental connection between white people and the territory claimed to be exclusively theirs; blood and soil, race, and space; the colonial venture, and the “right” to white racial lebensraum at the expense of other kinds of people; the project of “reclaiming” Europe for white (Christian) folks by forcibly excluding the nonwhite presence; the crusades and the Reconquista; claims of being the rightful manager of the racialized classificatory order; the demographic panic; and the fear of losing power, control, hegemony, and majority advantage; and, of course, the dystopic projections of racial suicide, racial genocide, and racial replacement.
Methodology
Authors: Pearson Elizabeth
Published: June 2024

This chapter is about the practical, moral, and ethical challenges of conducting empirical research, interviewing those engaged with extreme groups. It argues for the necessity of empathetic research, within a feminist framework of care. It sets out an argument for such research with both the far right, and Islamist movements, yet with an active appreciation of the function of race and positionality in field research, particularly at a time when the far right has become “mainstreamed.” The chapter also outlines the challenges of doing this work safely and ethically, particularly as a woman in a scene dominated by men. It is about the difficulties—ethical, moral, emotional and practical—of doing “close-up” research with extremists, and managing research relationships and boundaries.
Elite Networks
Authors: Vuković Vuk
Published: June 2024

Elite Networks presents a novel explanatory factor behind the rise and persistence of income inequality: extractive political power. It shows how the collusion between political and corporate power affects the distribution of incomes. Its most important goal is to offer a different perspective on the long-run origins of inequality by introducing the concept of elite networks and examining their effects on the distribution of power and incomes. Elite networks are informal social networks between politicians in power and top executives of politically connected firms where personal ties and long-term interactions build trust and loyalty between involved actors. Both groups draw benefits from these interactions. Politicians stay in power and may extract bribes and other favors, while firms are rewarded with exclusive government contracts, favorable regulation, and direct subsidies. Top corporate executives that are successful in acquiring these rents as a consequence of their elite network interactions are rewarded by their firms with higher salaries. This consequentially widens the dispersion of earnings between the top 1% of income earners (most of whom are corporate executives) and everyone else. The book recognizes that the long-run forces behind inequality were always rooted in centralized and extractive political power, generated via specific relationships between the society’s elites. Centralization of power enables the network effect that creates elite networks, which encourage rent-seeking opportunities to its members, consequentially increasing inequality. Inequality is not a modern nor a natural phenomenon, but a man-made phenomenon rooted deeply within the, often violent, quest for political power.
Infrastructure Globalities
Authors: Hönke Jana , Cezne Eric , Yang Yifan
Published: June 2024

This chapter sets the scene for Africa’s Global Infrastructures by introducing the transformations occurring in transnational governance derived from Africa’s South–South relations. The chapter first examines the growing role of Global South companies and investments across the continent, specifically through large-scale economic infrastructures financed, built, or operated by Chinese, Indian, and Brazilian firms. It then introduces the book’s three key methodological entry points: (1) “frontier zones” as sites that integrate expanding circuits of capital and transnational relations through multiple socio-material entanglements; (2) “practices” as a lens to closely examine the individuals and their doings involved in implementing and contesting the everyday governance of large-scale investments; and (3) “globalities” to capture the multiplicity of globally circulating technologies and practices, how they intertwine and transform. Lastly, it outlines the empirical and theoretical contributions of the chapters, which cohere around three thematic sections: Beyond Models, Contestations, and Everyday Entanglements.
Beyond the ‘China Model’
Authors: Bunskoek Raoul
Published: June 2024

This chapter critically reconceptualizes the “China Model” of development. Rather than examining the “China Model” discourse regarding African spaces, the chapter critiques this framing and argues that Chinese-styled development is neither “Chinese” nor a “model.” Rather, Chinese development practice is characterized by its relationally constructed nature, making it highly context-dependent and situational. Chinese-styled development changes over time based upon shifting political contexts in both China and the locality in which these development projects are implemented. However, to better understand this context-dependence, a more historical view and increased scrutiny of Chinese and local/African agencies are required—something that most existing studies fail to do. This chapter first places the discourse of the “China Model” into its domestic historical and socio-cultural context. Second, it shows how and why this “model” was exported to African localities, how it is shaped by African agency/ies in the process, and why this requires a relational understanding of Chinese development practices themselves. Finally, the article suggests that such relationally (re)made “models” might constitute the future of “Western” development as well, in the sense that it is much more aligned with decolonial thinking that genuinely listens to and implements local perspectives, thereby increasing its legitimacy.
Contested Practices
Authors: Kilaka Benard Musembi
Published: June 2024

In recent years, Chinese companies have emerged as key players in Kenya’s infrastructure construction boom. They are now involved in several high-profile infrastructure projects in the country. Although many factors drive this increased activity, Chinese companies have particularly capitalized on a unique set of practices to illustrate their competitiveness. Interestingly, some of these practices have sparked controversies with host communities. While there is growing literature on Chinese investments in Kenya, local perceptions and interactions with Chinese activities are often overlooked, despite their significant impact on infrastructure projects. By examining the case of Kenya’s Lamu Port, constructed by a consortium of Chinese companies headed by China Communication Construction Company (CCCC), this chapter scrutinizes controversies surrounding its activities to showcase the agency of local communities in shaping both the construction process and influencing the activities and policies of the company CCCC. In this endeavor, the study draws inspiration from Behrends et al’s (2014) conceptualization of “travelling models” to illustrate how practices move and how host communities engage with them. The chapter thus contributes to our understanding of both the contexts in which Chinese companies operate and the agency of local communities in shaping the governance practices of Chinese companies.
Investment as Community Development?
Authors: Sambo Michael Godet , Bußler Phyllis
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores Brazilian and Chinese agro-infrastructural projects in Mozambique, specifically the now-cancelled tripartite Nippo-Brazilian-Mozambican ProSAVANA rural development program, and the Chinese-funded rice farm WANBAO. It asks how these projects—sitting at the interstices of development cooperation and commercial interests—fared in relation to initial prospects and expectations, particularly in terms of social and economic improvement for local communities. Without losing sight of site-specific and regional contextual nuances, the chapter discusses how supposed beneficiaries encounter their associated “Southern” donors and partners. The chapter demonstrates how local communities act to shape and reshape ground-level interactions and practices, transforming pre-conceived models, and even contributing to the demise of some projects.
The Homeland Lost and Restored
Authors: Mujanovic Jasmin
Published: June 2024

This chapter examines the political transformations that befell Bosnia and Herzegovina and the status of the Bosniak community within it between 1878 and 1945. It argues that Bosniak elites, in particular, pursued a policy of “imperial deference” to both preserve their relatively privileged status during this tumultuous period but also to ward off increasingly aggressive campaigns of nationalist indoctrination and/or conversion by Serb and Croat nationalists. It also suggests that the rapid loss of political and social status by the Bosniak community during the first Yugoslav period presaged the horrors of the Bosnian Genocide during the 1990s.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Whole and Free
Authors: Mujanovic Jasmin
Published: June 2024

This chapter examines the major pillars of Bosniak national politics since the conclusion of the Bosnian War and Bosnian Genocide. It argues that contrary to claims in previous generations of (Western) analyses, there has been no major Islamist turn in Bosniak politics, and that instead the Bosniak electorate is defined by its moderate, nationally-conscious priorities, and above all their concern with the preservation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Rulers
Authors: Ulrichsen Kristian Coates
Published: June 2024

This chapter examines the role of rulers, and ruling families, at the center of power dynamics in the Gulf States, utilizing historical as well as contemporary examples to illustrate how power and authority are accrued and wielded. No two ruling families in the Gulf States are alike and the chapter examines key points of difference that make each family distinct. The nature of political authority in tribal societies has differed from Western constructs, such as those put forward by Max Weber, and the chapter provides region-specific examples to illustrate both the underlying nature of political authority and how it has evolved over time. The chapter ends by examining the tools of control that have enabled ruling families to maintain and consolidate political power in the face of rapid socioeconomic change.
Representation
Authors: Ulrichsen Kristian Coates
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores the patterns of representation that form the basis for participatory engagement in the Gulf States. While none of the Gulf States are democratic, they all have distinct representative institutions which have evolved over time and gradually become embedded institutional structures. Examining how representation operates in practice sheds valuable insight on the struggle for influence among competing factions within society. The chapter analyzes the distinctive ways in which representative institutions and participatory processes have developed in each of the Gulf States. In addition, the chapter highlights key differences as well as underlying similarities in the formation of clearly defined and carefully drawn “rules of the game” for political engagement, and outlines ways in which political outcomes could be limited in practice.
Opposition
Authors: Ulrichsen Kristian Coates
Published: June 2024

Chapter 5 is the first of two chapters (along with Chapter 6) which build upon the analysis of representative institutions in Chapter 4 to examine how patterns of opposition developed as groups and individuals chose not to follow the “rules of the game” as set by political elites. There exists a wide spectrum of oppositional activity, and patterns of contestation have taken distinct forms in different states. This chapter examines some of the commonalities which underlay the growth of oppositions, including the importance of trans-national linkages that link political currents in the Gulf to broader discourse and events across the Middle East. The chapter also includes a case study of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf and ends by detailing the transition from Arabism to Islamism as the central focus of oppositional activity.
Being for Speaking
Authors: Edwards Terra
Published: June 2024

Scholars of language have argued that our thoughts are prospectively oriented toward acts of speaking—a process known as “thinking for speaking.” Drawing on analyses of an emerging sub-system in protactile language, which is specialized to the task of referring to the immediate environment, Chapter 5 argues that speaking also requires us to be in the world in a particular way. For example, in order for one DeafBlind person to ask another DeafBlind person, “Should we sit there or there?” both participants must know the word “there.” They must also be able to be here in much the same way, and be able to identify a shared pathway from here to there. While something like this is required for speakers of any language, this chapter highlights the fact that our ways of being in the world are prospectively oriented toward acts of speaking. The chapter calls this process “being for speaking.”
Conclusions
Authors: Edwards Terra
Published: June 2024

Chapter 7 summarizes key contributions of the book, all of which follow from a primary distinction between being in and representing the world. These contributions include a re-thinking of how the study of meaning, or semiotics, can inform our understandings of social and political action; why attention to the existential foundations of language is important; how we might understand, in new ways, how the languages we speak influence the way we perceive the world; how we can extend notions of “lamination” and therefore participation beyond interaction into the physical structures of the institution, the city, and beyond; and finally how, given all of this, we might find a way forward together in a world prone to collapse.
International Law and the Principle of Non-Intervention
Authors: Roscini Marco
Published: June 2024

The principle of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of states is one of the most venerable principles of international law but the determination of its exact content has remained an enigma that has haunted generations of international lawyers. This book solves this problem and identifies what the principle of non-intervention specifically prohibits, and what it does not. The principle in question is strictly linked to some fundamental notions of international law, such as sovereignty, use of force, and self-determination: its study, therefore, is of great significance as it offers a fascinating opportunity to explore the macrostructures of international law. Through a comprehensive survey of primary documents, as well as through an extensive evaluation of state practice and literature search, the book provides a systematic and coherent analysis of the principle of non-intervention. The first two chapters tell the story of the principle of non-intervention throughout the centuries up to the present day. Chapters III and IV focus on theory and identify what coercion of state means, what forms of coercion (armed, economic, political subversive) can constitute an unlawful intervention, and the role played by consent in this context. Chapters V, VI, and VII explore the interactions of the principle of non-intervention with other fundamental principles of contemporary international law, namely the principle of internal and external self-determination and the respect for international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Finally, Chapter VIII investigates whether and when cyber operations can constitute an unlawful intervention in the domestic affairs of other states.
The Interaction between the Principle of Non-Intervention and that of Internal Self-Determination
Authors: Roscini Marco
Published: June 2024

The principle of internal self-determination entails that a people have the right to choose and modify their state’s political, economic, social, and cultural systems without external interferences and, correspondingly, third states have an obligation to abstain from interference in that choice. While not all situations of internal unrest constitute a process for the redefinition of the political system of a state, this is certainly so with civil war. Here, internal self-determination imposes an obligation of negative equality—it prohibits all interferences, including those in support of the incumbent government. However, while negative equality undoubtedly prevents third states from sending armed forces, it does not yet extend to lesser forms of intervention, which remain permissible in support of the government. The chapter also discusses the situations where the principle of internal self-determination is not infringed even if third states send armed forces in support of an incumbent government beset by civil war.
The Interaction between the Principle of Non-Intervention and that of External Self-Determination
Authors: Roscini Marco
Published: June 2024

While a government’s efforts to suppress an insurgency normally are a domestic matter, in cases of colonial domination and alien occupation the principle of external self-determination demands that the colonial and occupying powers not prevent the subjugated people from choosing their international status. A state breaching this erga omnes obligation can thus no longer hide behind the principle of non-intervention. The principle of external self-determination prohibits any form of assistance to a colonial or occupying power, regardless of whether or not the unrest has become a civil war. Furthermore, while the principle of non-intervention normally prohibits all assistance to insurgents, it does not proscribe non-military support to a people under colonial rule or alien occupation aimed at terminating the unlawful situation. The principle of non-intervention, however, continues to apply to secessionist armed struggles beyond the colonial and alien occupation contexts, as no right of external self-determination exists in such cases.
The Interaction between the Principle of Non-Intervention and Respect for International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law
Authors: Roscini Marco
Published: June 2024

In a significant departure from the pre-Charter era, states can now no longer claim that the protection of human rights is an exclusively domestic matter. The use of coercion to ensure respect for them, therefore, is not prohibited by the principle of non-intervention although it might be proscribed by other primary rules of international law. Coercion can be exercised on a government responsible for international human rights law and/or international humanitarian law violations in two ways: by refusing, suspending, and terminating assistance in its favour, or by supporting opposition groups. Third states, however, are not permitted to send troops or transfer arms to insurgents who are fighting a murderous government, as humanitarian intervention does not constitute an accepted exception to the prohibition of the use of force codified in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
Introduction
Authors: Brophy James M.
Published: June 2024

The late Enlightenment witnessed the explosive growth of books, journals, and newspapers. Its markets of knowledge and entertainment also promoted the principle of criticism, political deliberation, and informed public opinion—the “public sphere.” Opposed to the open marketplace of ideas was the “information order” of the late absolutist state, which demanded that the information economy serve the needs of government. Originally designed to rein in religious strife, censorship agencies now focused on political dissent after the French Revolution. The tension between state authority and print markets frames the study’s narrative and underscores the critical role of publishers in forging central Europe’s modern political culture.
The Spectrum of Dissent
Authors: Brophy James M.
Published: June 2024

This chapter surveys the careers of key publishers who provided a wide array of political print matter in the period between the French Revolution and 1848. It explores the multitiered sector of political dissent, from erudite journals and books to middlebrow lexica and pamphlets to popular broadsides and caricatures. This overview reveals the breadth and depth of political commentary found in early nineteenth-century print culture and provides salient examples of how certain genres and innovative formats promoted the spread of dissenting viewpoints. This spectrum of criticism catered to numerous social groups with differing reading competencies, yet its collective impact created a common ground of political deliberation. This spectrum of dissent and commentary enriched the political literacy of both elite and common readers.
Publishers and Censorship
Authors: Brophy James M.
Published: June 2024

The censorship regimes of Germany and Austria are widely regarded as among the most rigorous in nineteenth-century Europe. The chapter throws light not only on the severity of censorship in central Europe but also on its lapses and inconsistencies. Publishers worked both within the system of regulation to market their wares as well as outside it to print and sell contraband literature—a two-pronged strategy that recorded much success. By examining the censorship offices of Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and the German Confederation, the chapter provides ground-level analysis of how publishers negotiated with state regulation to maximize their interests. Under the surge of new print matter in the 1830s and 1840s, the machinery of censorship buckled, enabling political dissent to circulate both legally and illegally. Yet censorship did not fail entirely. Between 1819 and 1848, unrelenting regulation successfully marginalized democratic print, preventing radicalism from achieving mainstream status in German-language print markets.
Translation and Transfer
Authors: Brophy James M.
Published: June 2024

Through the translation of foreign works, publishers exposed German readers to the Age of Democratic Revolution. This chapter examines translation as one form of cultural transfer that generated a transnational political dialogue. In particular, it uses a data base of twenty-seven thousand French translations to examine the scale and scope of French works that entered into German-language print markets between 1815 and 1848. This wave of translation featured, among other subjects, Enlightenment political philosophy and the oppositional literature of liberals, democrats, and early socialists. In addition to translation, the chapter further considers how German literature and journalism absorbed and reoriented the idioms and themes of Western citizenship ideals. In this regard, publishers served as critical cultural mediators who fortified and refashioned the aspirations of German liberalism and radicalism.
Bookshops and the Literary Underground
Authors: Brophy James M.
Published: June 2024

To gain access to forbidden literature, readers often needed a book merchant willing to conduct an underhanded sale. Bookdealers and their shops were, then, critical intermediaries of banned books, pamphlets, flysheets, and caricatures. With over 1,300 stores gracing 385 towns in central Europe in 1840, this extensive commercial network deployed time-tested tricks and tactics to carry out clandestine trade. Sketching a composite portrait of the owners and workers who ran these bookstores, the chapter also examines the spatial features of bookstores and print shops that enabled the smuggling of domestic and foreign print matter in Germany and Austria. The chapter also presents bookstores as talking shops: sites that invited political deliberation and intellectual exchange. Bookshops formed the nodal points of oppositional political communication.
4QSj (4Q264)
Authors: Collins John J. , Nati James
Published: June 2024

This chapter offers transcriptions, translations, notes, and commentary on 4QSj of the Rule of the Association. While recognizing the considerable textual overlaps across the manuscripts, each manuscript in Chapters 9–22 is presented separately in order to facilitate an analysis of their unique characteristics. Differences from 1QS in particular are highlighted in the analysis of each text, and the implications of these differences—and, in many cases, clusters of differences—are explored. While containing many of the same rules for life in the yaḥad (see 1QS 5–7), these different texts, it is suggested, often present those rules differently. The various presentations here point likewise to a variety of ways in which these rules were understood, even among members of the same Association.
5Q11
Authors: Collins John J. , Nati James
Published: June 2024

This chapter offers a transcription, translation, notes, and commentary on 5Q11 of the Rule of the Association. While recognizing the considerable textual overlaps across the manuscripts, each manuscript in Chapters 9–22 is presented separately in order to facilitate an analysis of their unique characteristics. Differences from 1QS in particular are highlighted in the analysis of each text, and the implications of these differences—and, in many cases, clusters of differences—are explored. While containing many of the same rules for life in the yaḥad (see 1QS 5–7), these different texts, it is suggested, often present those rules differently. The various presentations here point likewise to a variety of ways in which these rules were understood, even among members of the same Association.
Elite Identities
Authors: Ugolini Wendy
Published: June 2024

‘Elite Identities’ illuminates the intricate English Welsh political, aristocratic, and military networks operating in England in the first half of the twentieth century with the dominant political figure of Lloyd George positioned at the fulcrum of these social networks. The chapter explores Lloyd George’s talismanic role in the performance of ‘Welshness’ within the public arena and his influence on subsequent generations of English Welsh politicians such as Selwyn Lloyd. It delineates another distinctive strand of English Welsh identity in this period: well-connected aristocratic or landed families with stately homes in both England and Wales, who, through their ‘transnational land ownership’, were enmeshed in the higher echelons of British political and cultural society. It explores how this privileged grouping provided the wellspring for a cohort of privileged English men who often displayed their sense of dualities when volunteering in the First World War.
Narrating and Encountering Wales
Authors: Ugolini Wendy
Published: June 2024

‘Narrating and Encountering Wales’ addresses the ways in which English Welsh men and women narrate memories of their childhood selves and their familial connections with Wales in the first half of the twentieth century. It analyses narrative motifs of naming, language, social isolation, Gothic themes of death and mortality, and highlights how the second-generation Welsh could experience a sense of ‘difference’ based on their dual identifications. This chapter explores views of Wales from England, including the persistence of national and racial stereotyping and considers how these prejudices were absorbed, navigated, or challenged by the descended Welsh. It makes use of a range of original accounts including the unpublished life writing of cultural figures such as Jill Greenwood, Myfanwy Piper, and Dilys Powell. The chapter also addresses how second-generation men and women encountered Wales as children via family holidays and visits, as well as during the period of wartime evacuation.
Second World War Identities
Authors: Ugolini Wendy
Published: June 2024

‘Second World War Identities’ analyses the subjectivities of those who served in the 99th (London Welsh) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment and the 46th (Liverpool Welsh) Royal Tank Regiment through an examination of original wartime letters. It highlights the tensions within the subjectivities of some English Welsh recruits between wartime constructions of ‘home’ as ‘a mythic place of desire’ (Wales) and ‘home’ as the ‘lived experience of a locality’ (England). It examines narratives of filiation, suggesting that patrilineal ties compelled some English-born men to volunteer for Welsh regiments. This chapter provides a case study of siblings Geraint and Mary Eluned Clement Davies who both died whilst serving in the British Forces. It also analyses the life writing of a number of English men and women with Welsh ties who registered as conscientious objectors, reflecting upon the ways in which individuals made use of their Welsh affinities when formulating their opposition to war.
Fiscal Policy
Authors: Ltaifa Nabil Ben , Callen Tim
Published: June 2024

This chapter explains the substantial progress Saudi Arabia has made with respect to fiscal reforms. The non-oil revenues base has been broadened, domestic energy prices raised, expenditure management strengthened, fiscal transparency improved, and the institutional basis and analysis of fiscal policy strengthened. The authors highlight that key challenges remain, of which oil price volatility is of prime importance. Ensuring fiscal sustainability in the medium to long term means that efforts to raise new sources of revenue, contain government spending, improve its efficiency, and strengthen the overall management of government finances, assets, and liabilities will need to continue. The authors assert that getting the pace of fiscal adjustment right will be critical. Too rapid an adjustment will stall growth and too slow an adjustment will expose the fiscal position to the vicissitudes of oil prices. Moreover, a more effective tax system is required. Revenue reforms should introduce a progressive tax system, the authors argue, with income and property taxes supplemented by excises on high-end consumption goods. Strengthening the medium-term orientation of the budget process and reducing the procyclicality of fiscal policy are essential. Transparency is needed in numerous extra-budgetary institutions and state-owned enterprises which currently remain outside the budget process, such as the Public Investment Fund.
The New Industries
Authors: Diwan Kristin , Fallin Larry
Published: June 2024

This chapter addresses how the Saudi leadership under the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is promoting tourism, the arts, and entertainment. While these new industries are drivers for economic diversification they simultaneously require profound social and cultural changes. This makes them key instruments in the Kingdom’s new global positioning and sociocultural opening in addition to its economic ambitions. Clearly the new leadership is embracing the opportunity to remake law, culture, as well as vast landscapes, and Saudi Arabia’s orientation in the world. This is a younger and more globally oriented Kingdom, and tourism, accompanied by new entertainment and creative ventures, is central to its new national presentation. The promise of these new industries is built from their previous neglect; both non-religious tourism and entertainment were discouraged under Saudi Arabia’s earlier religious-sanctioned order.
Conclusion
Authors: Sfakianakis John
Published: June 2024

Since 2016, Saudi Arabia has undergone a sea change that is arguably irreversible. Sweeping reforms have awakened the economy, politics, and society. It is still uncertain if these reforms will be sufficient to bring the necessary income in a post-hydrocarbon world. Yet Saudi Arabia is trying to direct change to its economy, as this is the key piece of the puzzle it has the power to control. Saudi Arabia is making whopping and eager bets. Similar bets were made in the past; however, this time, they are greater in magnitude and have galvanized the support of the entire state machine to support its pledges financially. The changes are all-encompassing and involve a complex redrawing of the political, economic, religious, and social maps. Saudi Arabia’s grand reform experiment is a lesson in the fine balancing act required of one of the world’s largest economies and most significant energy providers. Although predicting a country’s future economic trajectory is a near impossible task, Saudi Arabia has been taking all the right steps after decades of dormancy to transition to a more secure and remunerative post-oil economy.
The Taba Arbitration (Egypt–Israel, 1986–1988)
Authors: Siniver Asaf
Published: June 2024

This chapter analyses the arbitration between Egypt and Israel over Taba. Following the historic peace treaty between the two rivals in 1979, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula by 1982, except for a small area around the sea resort of Taba. After four years of failed bilateral negotiations and US mediation to settle the dispute, and with the future of the peace treaty on the line, in 1986 the parties agreed to submit their dispute to an arbitration panel. The tribunal ruled overwhelmingly in favour of Egypt’s position, and despite fears that the Israeli government would repudiate the award, it proceeded to implement it in good faith. This case illustrates the power of the domestic cover explanation behind the decision to pursue arbitration, as well as the benefits of a sequential approach to dispute settlement as framed by the ‘past failures’ explanation.
The South China Sea Arbitration (China–the Philippines, 2013–2016)
Authors: Siniver Asaf
Published: June 2024

This chapter examines the failure of arbitration to settle the dispute between the Philippines and China over historical rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea. This case is unique to the other cases in two important ways: first, this dispute was not referred to an ad hoc tribunal but instead was constituted under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) acting as registry. Second, whereas in the other cases both parties to the dispute agreed to arbitration, here China adopted from the outset a position of non-acceptance of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines and non-participation in the proceedings of the tribunal. As such, this case represents the most extreme example of state defiance of arbitration, not only on procedural grounds but as a principled objection, and therefore raises important questions about the limits of arbitration (and international law more broadly) as an effective method to settle interstate territorial disputes.
Alien Structure
Authors: Eklund Matti
Published: June 2024

Philosophers have defended many different views on what reality is like. But despite their differences, the views share the same basic structure. The world is basically a world of objects, having properties and standing in relations. This structure mirrors the structure of basic sentences of the languages we use. But what other kinds of languages can there be? And might the world be such that another kind of language best represents it? That is, can there be alien languages and alien metaphysical structure? This book sharpens these claims, and defends the possibility of alien languages and alien metaphysical structure. The book raises novel questions going to the heart of language and metaphysics, sharpens them, and proposes radical answers. Along the way, it discusses different kinds of work in contemporary philosophy of language, linguistics, and metaphysics, and the relevance of this work to the topic of the alien.
Ontological Categories
Authors: Eklund Matti
Published: June 2024

This chapter focuses on linguistic characterizations of the ontological categories of object, property, and relation. The focus is on three views, the Fregean view, the Russellian view, and the view proposed by Bob Hale. Offering these characterizations provides one way of sharpening the question of alien metaphysical structure: alien ontological categories can be characterized in terms of alien linguistic categories. The chapter defends the legitimacy of these kinds of characterizations of the ontological categories against various objections and compares some other kinds of characterizations. It also compares and contrasts the different linguistic characterizations, as well as some corresponding quasi-linguistic characterizations.
Radical Metaphysics
Authors: Eklund Matti
Published: June 2024

It may be thought that the idea of alien metaphysical structure is not anything new, but that many philosophical theories involve postulating what is here discussed under that label. This chapter discusses a number of theories of the relevant kind. These include ontological nihilism, trope theory, and ontic structural realism. In connection with ontological nihilism, it is discussed whether so-called feature-placing languages should count as alien languages. Special attention is paid to the ways in which certain views in philosophy of science can seem to imply that reality has alien structure. The main conclusion is that as they stand, the theories discussed do not—or in some cases do not obviously—involve postulating anything alien. This is compatible with there being alternative, perhaps better, versions of these theories that do postulate alien structure.
The great lignite hunt
Authors: Muir-Wood Robert
Published: June 2024

Starting towards the end of the Eocene, a great NNE oriented crack began to open and turn into a broad rift valley, around the modern course of the River Rhine where it forms the France-Germany border. This rifting and extension by around 5km continued through the Oligocene. To accommodate this opening in the plate the extension passed to the southwest along a series of rifted basins in south central France into the Mediterranean. To the northwest through the Netherlands, displacement was carried along WNW strike-slip faults and NNW trending extensional faults. This tectonic pattern continued offshore East Anglia and into northern England. While the whole of Britain and Ireland remained a thickly forested landmass, by the end of the Oligocene around 25 million years ago, the combination of two sets of strike-slip faults oriented NE-SW and NNW-SSE created a series of lake basins running from Brittany to the Hebrides, with their locations influenced by the sites of the former volcanoes. The most distinctive feature of the geology of these basins is the presence of thick deposits of lignite reflecting anaerobic conditions. The tectonics of this 800km line of lake basins is linked with what was happening beneath the Norwegian Sea where a rotation in the spreading direction had caused the transform fault located to the west of the Shetlands to become jammed, forcing up two ranges of seafloor mountain ranges absorbing 4km of collision. By the end of the Oligocene this brought seafloor spreading almost to a halt and led to a reconfiguration of spreading ridges and transform faults that could bypass the blocked transform.
Dambusters
Authors: Muir-Wood Robert
Published: June 2024

Charles Lyell, following the original idea of Robert Hooke, believed that only earthquakes accompanied land uplift. However, after hearing persistent stories that there was long-term aseismic uplift proceeding around the coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia, in 1835 he made a visit to Sweden and returned convinced that uplift was in fact proceeding at up to 10mm per year. The explanation for this only emerged towards the end of the 19th century – that a former ice sheet, more than a kilometre thick had weighed down on the mantle and that we were now observing the recovery of a bowl of subsidence. Over the past 2,5 million years of the Pleistocene, there have been a succession of ice ages and ice sheet advances across the North Sea and all down the Hebrides and the Irish Sea. These ice advances have transformed the landscape principally by blocking rivers passing to the north and east, creating vast lakes that have then eroded new outlets to the south and west. By this means, the Thames River formerly began in west Wales, but its headwaters were captured by the River Severn. The largest of all these transformations was in the southern North Sea four hundred and fifty thousand years ago. An ice-dammed lake developed in which water levels rose to more than 30 metres above sea-level before flowing over the hills that ran between Kent and France, creating enormous waterfalls that carved great chasms down to 140m below sea-level and opening what was at first a gorge that soon widened into the Straits of Dover. In northern Scandinavia a series of great earthquakes, leaving prominent fault scarps happened as the ice receded, probably triggering the collapse of the continental shelf margin of mid-Norway generating a tsunami that was at its highest in the Shetlands and west Norway.