Close Ties Research Articles

Oil Money: Middle East Petrodollars and the Transformation of U.S. Empire, 1967–1988

In the 1970s, high oil prices brought a surge of revenues to a handful of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. U.S. leaders worried about the “petrodollar problem”: Could the global financial system handle the strain? And as oil producers became stronger, would the United States lose its influence in the Middle East and its privileged position in the world economy? David M. Wight argues that the petrodollar boom only reinforced American power. The United States enjoyed close ties with the main oil exporters, especially Iran and Saudi Arabia. Together, they created what Wight, following Paul A. Kramer, calls an American-led “international empire” in the Middle East (p. 4). The wealthy Persian Gulf states spent billions of dollars on American goods, especially weapons, and invested billions more in U.S. financial markets. Other regimes such as Ba'athist Iraq, less friendly to Washington, still did business with the United States. The appeal of U.S. technology and financial markets often proved stronger than disputes over Israel and imperialism. As a result, Wight concludes that “the United States was the biggest winner to come out of the petrodollar economy” (p. 277). The petrodollar boom also served American political goals. It strengthened U.S. partners at the expense of oil-poor Soviet clients, while Saudi financial aid helped recruit other Arab states such as Egypt into the American sphere of influence.

Propagating Afrikaner nationalism: The Voortrekker stamps as icons of an ideology, c.1933–1949

AbstractThis paper posits the importance of visual representations in cultivating a national consciousness among white Afrikaners in South Africa. It provides a case study of stamps issued to commemorate the centenary of the Great Trek in 1938 that sought to raise awareness of and funds for the Voortrekker Monument project. Although stamps are, ordinarily, symbols of banal nationalism, the Voortrekker stamps resonated strongly with the sentiments the Afrikaner volk (people). They reified an iconography of the Voortrekkers and the narrative of the Great Trek already embedded in a canon of texts, images and rituals. The paper provides a semiotic reading of the designs of the stamps and shows how they shaped the cultural imaginary of Afrikaners. Although the Voortrekker stamps were issued with the approval of the postal authorities, they were actually commissioned by the Sentrale Volksmonumentekomitee [Central People's Monuments Committee (SVK)], which had close ties to the National Party (NP) opposition. Although the project was largely state sponsored, the SVK insisted upon its autonomy. Thus the government sanctioned a project over which it exercised no jurisdiction. The United Party paid a price for accommodating sectional Afrikaner interests when it lost control of the state in 1948.

Wild and Indigenous Foods (WIF) and Urban Food Security in Northern Namibia

Rapid urbanisation and food system transformation in Africa have been accompanied by growing food insecurity, reduced dietary diversity, and an epidemic of non-communicable disease. While the contribution of wild and indigenous foods (WIF) to the quality of rural household diets has been the subject of longstanding attention, research on their consumption and role among urban households is more recent. This paper provides a case study of the consumption of WIF in the urban corridor of northern Namibia with close ties to the surrounding rural agricultural areas. The research methodology involved a representative household food security survey of 851 urban households using tablets and ODK Collect. The key methods for data analysis included descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression. The main findings of the analysis included the fact that WIFs are consumed by most households, but with markedly different frequencies. Frequent consumers of WIF are most likely to be female-centred households, in the lowest income quintiles, and with the highest lived poverty. Frequent consumption is not related to food security, but is higher in households with low dietary diversity. Infrequent or occasional consumers tend to be higher-income households with low lived poverty and higher levels of food security. We conclude that frequent consumers use WIF to diversify their diets and that occasional consumers eat WIF more for reasons of cultural preference and taste than necessity. Recommendations for future research include the nature of the supply chains that bring WIF to urban consumers, intra-household consumption of WIF, and in-depth interviews about the reasons for household consumption of WIF and preferences for certain types of wild food.

Imposed Geography and Contested Spaces Among Borderland Communities in the Indo-Myanmar Borderland: The Case of Konyak Nagas and Khiamniungan Nagas

Imposed geography in the form of cartographic mapping and boundary lines is part of the state-making and production of ‘legible’ subjects throughout the world. As a result of such impositions, there have been constant claims and contestations of space, nation and citizenship among the borderland communities. Such claims and contestations have sustained and reinforced connections and mobility of the borderland communities across the border. Such cross-border connections and mobility are found very commonly even among the borderland communities of Northeast India. With huge borderlands, Northeast India has diverse borderland communities that maintain close ethnic ties across artificial and imposed boundaries. Based on fieldwork conducted both in India and Myanmar, the present article centres on the Konyak Nagas and Khiamniungan Nagas living on both sides of the Indo-Myanmar boundary and looks at how these borderland communities constantly negotiate with the imposed border and sustain their relationship across the border. The article delves into the question of how such imposed geography has resulted in the contestation of space, nation and citizenship among the borderland communities which points toward new layers of complicacy defying the very rationale of a hard border.

The impact of traffic control measures on the spread of COVID-19 within urban agglomerations based on a modified epidemic model

With the spatial structure of urban agglomerations, well-developed transportation networks and close economic ties can increase the risk of intercity transmission of infectious diseases. To reveal the epidemic transmission mechanism in urban agglomerations and to explore the effectiveness of traffic control measures, this study proposes an Urban-Agglomeration-based Epidemic and Mobility Model (UAEMM) based on the reality of urban transportation networks and population mobility factors. Since the model considers the urban population inflow, along with the active intracity population, it can be used to estimate the composition of urban cases. The model was applied to the Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration, and the results show that the model can better simulate the transmission process of the urban agglomeration for a certain scale of epidemic. The number of cases within the urban agglomeration is higher than the number of cases imported into the urban agglomeration from external cities. The composition of cases in the core cities of the urban agglomeration changes with the adjustment of prevention and control measures. In contrast, the number of cases imported into the secondary cities is consistently greater than the number of cases transmitted within the cities. A traffic control measures discount factor is introduced to simulate the development of the epidemic in the urban agglomeration under the traffic control measures of the first-level response to major public health emergency, traffic blockades in infected areas, and public transportation shutdowns. If none of those traffic control measures had been taken after the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of cases in the urban agglomeration would theoretically have increased to 3879, which is 11.61 times the actual number of cases that occurred. If only one traffic control measure had been used alone, each of the three measures would have reduced the number of cases in the urban agglomeration to 30.19 %–57.44 % of the theoretical values of infection cases, with the best blocking effect coming from the first-level response to major public health emergency. Traffic control measures have a significant effect in interrupting the spread of COVID-19 in urban agglomerations. The methodology and main findings presented in this paper are of general interest and can also be used in studies in other countries for similar purposes to help understand the spread of COVID-19 in urban agglomerations.

The limits of strategic partnerships: Implications for China’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war

ABSTRACT Will Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bring China and Russia closer together or drive them farther apart, or will it be business as usual? This article addresses this question by conceptualizing the main characteristics of the China–Russia strategic partnership. It argues that a strategic partnership, characterized as it is by informality, equality, and inclusivity, is essentially different from an alliance or alignment. These characteristics allow Beijing to distance itself from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. This makes it unlikely that China will attempt any simultaneous aggression in East Asia or that it will be able to mediate in the conflict. This effectively rules out the rise of a China–Russia axis. As China strives to balance its close ties with Russia and its economic engagement with the West, Beijing is more likely to maintain, rather than strengthen or weaken, its strategic partnership with Moscow.

Does green finance improve carbon emission efficiency? Experimental evidence from China.

As a noteworthy initiative of financial supply-side reform to precisely support the green development system, can green finance (GF) help achieve the dual goals of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality"? Using data from China's provincial panel between 2007 and 2019, this paper measured the green finance index by the entropy method and the carbon emission efficiency (CEE) with carbon emission as the non-desired output by the Super-SBM model. Then, the influence of GF on CEE was empirically investigated by the dynamic panel model and the spatial Durbin model. The findings show that GF can significantly improve CEE and has a positive spillover impact on CEE in provinces with close economic ties; the upgrading of the industrial structure is a key mediator in the transmission of GF to CEE; and regional heterogeneity analysis finds that GF notably improves CEE in eastern, high development levels of economic and GF regions. The research can offer some theoretical and empirical references for green finance to contribute to low-carbon economic growth.

Chronic illness and social network bridging in later life

Chronic disease has profound impacts on the structural features of individuals’ interpersonal connections such as bridging — ties to people who are otherwise poorly connected to each other. Prior research has documented competing arguments regarding the benefits of network bridging, but less is known about how chronic illness influences bridging and its underlying mechanisms. Using data on 1555 older adults from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), I find that older adults diagnosed with chronic illness tend to have lower bridging potential in their networks, particularly between kin and non-kin members. They also report more frequent interactions with close ties but fewer neighbors, friends, and colleagues in their networks, which mediates the association between chronic illness and social network bridging. These findings illuminate both direct and indirect pathways through which chronic illness affects network bridging and highlight the context-specific implications for social networks in later life.

THE ROLE OF GOLKAR PARTY WOMEN UNITS (KPPG) IN THE POLITICAL RECRUITMENT OF WOMEN LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES

This research purpose to describe the role of the Golkar Party Women’s Unity (KPPG) in the women legislative candidate political recruitment, and what are the obstacles faced by KPPG in the political recruitment of female legislative candidates. The research background was a form of female legislative candidate political recruitment. This research uses a quasi qualitative design. The method that researchers use in this study is the simple research design (SRD) method. Test of validity from data using the technique by source triangulation. The techniques for data analysis use three proces, namely reduction of data, presentation of data, and make conclusions (verification). The research result shown that the form of political recruitment conducted by the Golkar Party KPPG is using a semi-open procedure, which means prioritizing its cadres first as the party’s internal strength. In addition, someone who has close ties to the party elite and often comes from that elite family or is called based on political patronage. Meanwhile, the obstacle to the female legislative candidate political recruitment is the internal obstacle they face, namely not all party officials and KPPG members want to nominate themselves to become candidates for DPRD, and external constraints are influenced by socio-cultural aspects, level of education and political experience, and family environment.

The struggle for power in Egypt in May 1971 and its impact on relations with the USSR

The subject of the study is the power struggle that unfolded in Egypt in May 1971 between President M. A. Sadat and a group of prominent statesmen led by Vice President A. Sabri. He had close ties with the leaders of the USSR. When the struggle ended with the removal of Sabri and his group from their posts, which was called the May Correctional Revolution. These events affected relations between Sadat and Soviet leaders, given that Sabri was a favorite of the USSR in Egypt after the death of President Nasser. On the other hand, at that time there were many attempts by the United States to expand ties with Egypt. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that more than 50 years after the end of the power struggle that took place in Egypt in May 1971, accusations, gossip and rumors still resound in the minds of many. This struggle had a great impact on Soviet-Egyptian relations during the era of Egyptian President M. A. Sadat. Therefore, the author of the article seeks to analyze the events and development of this struggle or correct the distortion of facts with the help of memoirs and works of diplomats and politicians published over the past 50 years in Russian and Arabic. This undoubtedly provides an opportunity for a clearer and more comprehensive conclusion about the reality of the relationship between Sadat and the Soviet leaders after the overthrow of the Ali Sabri group, which resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the USSR and Egypt on May 27, 1971.

“Tie a Yellow Ribbon for the Working Man”: Environmental Conflict and Working-Class Politics in Oregon Timber Country, 1970–Present

Abstract This article focusing on Oregon's timber industry contributes to recent efforts to chart the longer history of working-class conservativism, while also arguing that environmental change and conflict played a central role in shaping the political leanings and class identities of white, rural workers in resource extraction industries. It pays particular attention to Oregon's independent contracting and milling operations—small, often family-owned enterprises where the lines separating labor and capital were blurry at best and where bosses and employers alike viewed unions and working-class radicals with deep skepticism. Independent contractors became the dominant form of labor relations in Oregon's timber industry in the 1970s, largely because of changes to the forest wrought by decades of overharvests and the flight of large timber corporations. Workers unmoored by capital flight increasingly turned to independent contractors and thus began to believe that their economic futures depended on maintaining close ties with their employers. This sense grew stronger in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Oregon environmentalists began seeking new restrictions on logging to protect the habitat of the northern spotted owl — restrictions that threatened to further reduce timber-based employment and exacerbate the economic problems of rural, timber-dependent communities. Workers and employers joined together in more visible coalitions, held together by a shared populist outrage at the urban, liberal, and affluent elite who, in their view, were responsible for their economic precarity. This view remains evident in Oregon today, where a new movement that joins bosses and workers, Timber Unity, has coalesced to fight proposed legislation intended to address climate change.

Education in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice

Education in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice

Stuck with Tourism: Space, Power, and Labor in Contemporary Yucatán

Stuck with Tourism: Space, Power, and Labor in Contemporary Yucatán

Marian Devotion and the Jewish Gospel (Toledot Yeshu) in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam

Polemical narratives on the life of Jesus of Nazareth were common among Jews since the Middle Ages. In the Enlightenment context, especially in the Netherlands, these narratives developed into an eminently popular text genre, with close ties to the performative arts. The authors of the Yiddish manuscripts discussed here thus inserted new narrative elements into the traditional story. In their retelling of he familiar story, they creatively included actualizing references to the daily experiences of their audience. Among these original elements, we find a retelling of the assumption of Mary. Whereas this unexpected narrative element seems to reflect a medieval context, when popular stories about the Virgin Mary widely circulated in the Catholic Netherlands, it nevertheless served as an effective tool also in a Protestant context. to negotiate the boundaries between the Jewish and Christian communities, and define the conditions of their peaceful coexistence.

Rise and Fall of the Brotherhood of St Andrew in the Anglican Diocese of Dunedin: Charting the American Influence in New Zealand's Religious History

In recent years, scholars have begun to highlight American influences upon New Zealand's religious history. They have demonstrated that even at the height of the British Empire, many non‐episcopal churches maintained close ties to their coreligionists in the United States. This article contributes to this field of research by analysing American influences within the Anglican Church of New Zealand, usually portrayed as a thoroughly English institution before the Second World War. It takes as a case study the activities of the American Brotherhood of St Andrew in the Diocese of Dunedin from 1906 to 1915. The article demonstrates that Bishop Samuel Tarratt Nevill invited the Brotherhood because he had great admiration for the Episcopal Church, and that many of his flock accepted the Brotherhood for the same reason. Eventually, the Brotherhood was eclipsed by an English rival, the Church of England Men's Society. But this transition took place not because local Anglicans lost interest in America, but because the Edwardian Era witnessed a surge in imperial loyalty and because the local leader of the CEMS, Canon William Curzon‐Siggers, deliberately sought to undermine the influence of the Brotherhood.

Donor motivation in the era of the COVID-19 crisis: Focusing on South Korean health diplomacy and response aid to COVID-19

COVID-19 has brought an unprecedented global economic burden. The widely held view is that, during times of economic crisis, there are reduced flows of foreign aid due to budgetary constraints. Although some countries’ actions seem aligned with this perspective, others, including South Korea, have acted counter-intuitively. South Korea has implemented health-related diplomacy, initiating the Agenda for Building Resilience against COVID-19 through the Development Cooperation (ABC) program. This program provides countries with COVID-19 diagnosis kits, personal protective equipment, such as masks, and health-related capacity for building and development projects. We attempt to understand the behavior of donors in the crisis context and, thus, examine South Korea as a representative case. Using South Korean health-related diplomacy as our case study, we show that South Korea has considered both its interests and recipients’ needs. Furthermore, a quantitative study with newly constructed data from the ABC program reveals that South Korea provides higher amounts of Official Development Assistance (ODA) via its ABC program to recipients with whom it enjoys close economic ties and with whom it has given higher amounts of ODA. The latter finding suggests a path-dependent act in foreign aid allocation.

ACTIVITIES OF THE ALBANIAN DIASPORA IN ROMANIA IN SUPPORT OF THE ALBANIAN NATIONAL CAUSE

Under the circumstances of the Ottoman rule in Albanian territories during 18-19th centuries, an important role in supporting the Albanian national cause was given by the Albanian colonies in Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, the USA, etc. The largest and earliest Albanian colony was established in Bucharest, Romania. It mostly consisted of Albanian emigrants, who had settled in Romania in the second half of the 19-th century. Most of them began to organize themselves in associations, strongly supporting the movement for the Albanian language and culture, as a good opportunity to support Albanian patriots operating in Albania. The first created associations, despite their appearance as demonstrating cultural profile, in essence they were engaged in political activities, in support of the Albanian national cause. Initially, these associations maintained close ties with the Istanbul Association which had an important contribution the spread of the Albanian language and culture and also to the creation of the first associations in Romania. The first association established in Bucharest was named "Drita" would split into two branches, forming two new associations. The process of creating the first Albanian associations in Romania, would not be easy and it was conditioned by objective and subjective factors. They faced difficulties of various natures, ranging from financial difficulties, internal contradictions between their members, the obstacles of the Greek Orthodox clergy as well as the interventions of the Sublime Porte. The consequence of these difficulties would as well be the birth of different groups within these colonies, reorganization and the creation of new associations. Despite the dynamics of their activity, these associations held the same attitude when national interests were violated. We aim to analyze these issues by using and analyzing document of the Central State Archive, as well as the publications of academic institutions of the communist and post-communist periods as a comparative approach between them.

THE INFLUENCES OF BANK-FIRM RELATIONSHIPS IN CREDIT ACCESS OF SMES

Since many SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) lack internal resources, they usually look for external credits that banks are the main providers of. However, most of those businesses’ main concern is to gain credit access since these businesses are not very efficient when minimizing information asymmetries between them and their lenders. Thus, relationship lending that includes close interactions, long-term relationships, and, close ties between SMEs and banks might reduce information asymmetries and might provide easier credit access conditions for SMEs. In this regard, this research aims to investigate the positive association between the length of the relationship, the closeness of communication, the house bank status, and access to bank credit. In line with this selected purpose, the researcher created an online questionnaire and collected data from 479 SMEs operating in Turkey. To examine the specified relationships, the researcher performed Binary Logistic Regression analyses. The results confirm the positive relationships between the variables of relationship lending and access to finance. Therefore, SMEs focusing on socializing and networking activities with banks might receive advantages to gain easier credit access conditions. The reasons for these results might be related to cultural, and executive-firm-specific characteristics, including the structure of society, the sectoral experiences, and the length of doing business, respectively.

'Consultas em dia': consultations at the day care center for the elderly.

Gonçalo, a village with 1316 inhabitants of which 573 are 65 years old or older, presents itself as the 'Cradle of Fine Basketry'. Its population, rich in culture and stories to tell, has the support of a day care center for the elderly, where around 20 elderly people spend their days and find social connection. These patients make individual trips to access medical and nursing consultations. Creation of a monthly consultation at the day care center for the elderly patients there. Reduction in the number of individual trips by the elderly patients, through the displacement of the family team;Optimizing the management of each individual health plan with the support of the day center's technical director, including therapeutic management and carrying out complementary diagnostic tests;Observation of the elderly patients in a safer way, avoiding traveling and maintaining a familiar space;Closer ties between the elderly patients and healthcare team; and Training of day care center professionals. At the heart of the practice of a healthcare team is the health and well-being of each patient. Therefore, meeting their needs, reallocating resources and involving the community will lead to health gains. The 'Consultas em Dia' project reflects this same onjective: the need of each elderly person to have access to GP/family nurse consultations joined with the healthcare team's willingness to provide an adapted response. Together we improved access and care delivery … we improved the health of our community!

Japan-Iran relations in the post-war era: The Middle Eastern dilemma for Japan

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran did not change its policy towards Japan, which was not only perceived separately from the West, but was also a major customer of its raw resources and a potential economic donor. In turn, Japan had to pursue the policy of unstable balancing towards Iran, by coordinating its Middle Eastern policy with its strategic ally, the United States, and simultaneously trying to preserve close ties with Iran, which were important from the point of view of maintaining energy security. The article shows how Japan tried to maneuver between these two countries: it took steps to realize large-scale economic projects in Iran’s energy sector, to limit sanctions, which were minimal on its side, etc., and simultaneously participated in the anti-Iran campaign pursued by Western countries under the pressure of the US, or under the influence of major crises in the region (for example, the Iran-Iraq War). Japan continues to face this “Middle Eastern dilemma” in present times as well. It could partly have been solved by the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program in 2015, were it not for the fact that, two years later, under the US administration of Donald Trump, the US-Iran relations worsened significantly. Nevertheless, in this period, Japan successfully tried its mediatory potential, making use of its good relations with both parties of the conflict: on the one hand, it refused to participate in the US operation in the Strait of Hormuz, on the other, it halted the unfreezing of Iran’s funds in its banks, which had been blocked after the introduction of sanctions by the US administration of Donald Trump. Recently, the activization of China in the region has become a factor of risk for Japan’s Middle Eastern policy, as China tries to use the weaking positions of the US and to occupy the vacuum that was left in its wake, which is illustrated by the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement between Beijing and Tehran in March 2021. This forces Japan to deliberately strengthen its positions and expand its presence in Iran. It appears that Japan’s approaches to solving the “Middle Eastern dilemma” deserve special attention in the future as well.