Grand Illusion Research Articles

Perception of Time and Its Representation in Technical Systems

Time is elusive. Is it a grand illusion perpetrated by the brain surrounding event horizons? Time is indeed a paradox. The future is at once right now, and right now is at once the past. Just as the digital world has played a pivotal role in how we perceive the passage of time, there is no doubt that the concept of time has a direct bearing on the design of digital things. This manifests itself in modern software and data systems where instantaneous state changes are commonplace. There are, however, some significant developments that greatly enhance software time management.

Misconceptions Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, an Obstacle in the Light of Pandemic in Rural Community Lahore, Pakistan

Introduction: Instantly after declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic, many conspiracy theories sprouted through word of mouth and social media. Pakistan is vulnerable to such conspiracy narratives and has experienced failures of polio vaccination programs due to such claims. Recently, two well-known political figures raised voice against COVID-19 vaccines in Pakistan, stating that COVID-19 is a grand illusion by non-Muslims and a great agenda against Muslim countries. This theory is much discussed in the local community, supporting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The current crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting all dimensions of life. Vaccines have been developed to fight the pandemic and prevent the corona virus. Misperceptions about vaccines persist despite the evidence of vaccine safety. The study aims to identify the misconceptions of the general public of Malikpur community towards COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and also different conspiracy theories, acceptance, and preference for the COVID-19 vaccine. This study is conducted in Malikpur a rural Community Lahore, Pakistan. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out through an adaptive questionnaire on a representative random sample of 98 resident of above 18 years old from Malikpur community, Lahore Pakistan. The SPSS software was utilized for statistical data analysis. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Conclusion: This study revealed the existence of conspiracy beliefs regarding the COVID-19 vaccine spread by the social media and word of mouth in Malikpur Community Lahore, Pakistan. These beliefs are posing a major threat to the upcoming immunization program for the control of COVID-19 in Pakistan. We urge healthcare authorities in Pakistan to take measures against such claims before they penetrate to the general community. Anti-vaccine actions could undermine efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that ethical and responsible conduct of mass media, a careful advisory from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, measures from healthcare authorities, practical maneuvers to increase public awareness and publication of beliefs and opinions from health professionals will help in neutralizing such misleading claims. Because Pakistan is experiencing an overload of disease, with a rise in confirmed cases, immediate action is important to eradicate any possible barriers to a future COVID-19 vaccination program. Results: Many people of Malikpur Community has misconception regarding COVID-19 vaccine that is need to be eradicated as soon as possible otherwise pandemic will not end. Keywords: Pandemic, Corona Virus, Polio vaccination, Conspiracy theories, Vaccine, Health authorities, Regulatory authorities, Anti-vaccine, Covid-19, pandemic. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/102-05 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

The Digital Mockingbird: Anthropological Transformation and the “New” Nature

Within a world-system characterized by processes and dynamics whose interconnections and interdependencies increase exponentially each day, we are passing through an extremely delicate and complex phase of global mutation. What we are witnessing is a radical overturn of the complex interaction between natural (biological) and cultural evolution. The ongoing paradigm shift and profound anthropological transformation create new dimensions, openings, epistemological implications that require new thinking and new thought, as well as different approaches and methods. We are the constitutive elements of a “new” Nature, from a structural, ontological and substantial point of view, in need of a New Humanism that must re-define certain categories (humanity, identity, dignity, Person, values, rights, etc.) in order to succeed in rethinking “being human” within a renewed and complex relationship with the ecosystems. The grand illusions of the hypertechnological civilization: rationality, control, measurability, predictability, and elimination of error; are reinforced systematically by the carte blanche delegated to technique/technology, reintroducing reductionist and deterministic approaches, analyses and explanations, exclusively based on technical knowledge and skills: that is, those which are guaranteed to best support precisely these very illusions. It is precisely this attitude which prevents us from being prepared, which dooms us to an eternal apprehension of black swans, little aware that our very lives are emergency; that they are infinite sequences of black swans. The present-day obsession with doing, designing, studying, and funding only what is “useful,” the insistent search for control and certainty in order to cling onto an illusory sensation of familiarity and reassurance in the face of the radical unpredictability and variability inherent to life and reality (“tyranny of concreteness”). With the advent of artificial intelligence, it has become of the utmost importance to reflect upon the relationship/interaction between man and machine, and the dangers posed by pursuing the simulation of human thought.

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War

The Mediterranean as a Society of Prisoners

‘No one's going to be interested in a story about prisoners of war!’ This is the withering comment that the director Julien Duvivier supposedly made to Charles Spaak, the scriptwriter of one of the greatest films of all times, La grande illusion (1937), which was ultimately directed by Jean Renoir. Fortunately for his readers, Renaud Morieux is well aware that stories about prisoners of war can be of interest to everyone.

Grand Illusions and Delusions

Grand Illusions and Delusions

Threat of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Pakistan: The Need for Measures to Neutralize Misleading Narratives.

.Immediately after declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic, numerous wild conspiracy theories sprouted through social media. Pakistan is quite vulnerable to such conspiracy narratives and has experienced failures of polio vaccination programs because of such claims. Recently, two well-known political figures raised conspiracy theories against COVID-19 vaccines in Pakistan, stating that COVID-19 is a grand illusion and a conspiracy against Muslim countries. This theory is much discussed in the local community, supporting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We urge healthcare authorities in Pakistan to take necessary measures against such claims before they penetrate to the general community. Anti-vaccine movements could undermine efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that ethical and responsible behavior of mass media, a careful advisory from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, stern measures from healthcare authorities, effective maneuvers to increase public awareness on COVID-19, vigorous analysis of information by data or communications scientists, and publication of counter opinions from health professionals against such theories will go a long way in neutralizing such misleading claims. Because Pakistan is experiencing a large burden of disease, with a sharp rise in confirmed cases, immediate action is of paramount importance to eradicate any potential barriers to a future COVID-19 vaccination program.

CLOs, Private Equity, Pensions, and Systemic Risk

There has been much recent discussion of the increasing risk of Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) and their feeder collateral, leveraged loans (LLs). The models ratings agencies use rely on similarly flawed methods in place since the mid-2000s and the nature of the collateral coupled with dramatic recent increases in risk of the underlying loans and conflicts of interest suggest that CLO ratings should be capped at a level far below AAA. Just as in 2008, the market is engaging in a collective grand illusion without adequate scrutiny of the actual risk and meaning of a AAA rating. The risk goes far beyond CLOs and permeates the larger economy. There is frothiness and irrational exuberance permeating an “Iron Triangle” of private equity firms, CLOs, and pension funds. Systemic risk may be realized through significant job losses, rising pension fund deficits, credit losses for funds, insurance companies, and banks, and significant disruption to critical industries. The risk could be on the scale of the global financial crisis (GFC). The main systemic risks include 1) Employment: Private equity-owned companies employ nearly 9 million people; 2) Pension funds: Face potential losses on existing investments and perhaps more importantly may need to revise lower future return assumptions—these factors put millions of pensions at risk; 3) Investment losses: Banks, insurance companies, and funds are exposed to CLO and/or leveraged loans and face significant potential losses; and 4) Critical industry fallout: Many industries controlled by PE companies face widespread disruption should the funding vehicles of CLOs and leveraged loans freeze up. <b>TOPICS:</b>CLOs, CDOs, and other structured credit; financial crises and financial market history <b>Key Findings</b> • This article argues that Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) do not justify AAA ratings and that there is significant systemic risk emanating from the “Iron Triangle” of CLOs, private equity (PE), and pension funds. • The AAA rating should be challenged across two broad fronts: the rating agency approach and the substantial increase in risk in the underlying leveraged loans in recent years. • Systemic risk: The Iron Triangle between CLOs, PE, and Pensions create significant systemic risk potentially on the scale of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War. By David M. Lubin. Oxford University Press. 2016 and 2018. xii + 366pp. £31.49 (hb) £19.99 (pb).

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War. By David M. Lubin. Oxford University Press. 2016 and 2018. xii + 366pp. £31.49 (hb) £19.99 (pb).

Single-Payer Health Care in the United States: Feasible Solution or Grand Illusion?

The adoption of a single-payer health care system, a recurring dream of progressive American reformers, now enjoys sustained attention in the run-up to the 2020 national elections. Some compelling arguments support the case for single payer, and its political prospects may indeed be on the rise, but myriad obstacles beset it, and a full-throated Democratic endorsement of it carries disquieting risks.

Randall Griffey. Review of "Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War" by David M. Lubin.

Randall Griffey. Review of "Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War" by David M. Lubin.

Rupturing illusionism: the bullet catch

ABSTRACTIn the Golden Age of stage conjuring, magicians performed various illusions ‘which dismembered, disappeared or distorted human bodies’. A famous example is the notorious ‘bullet catch’. The fact that a number of magicians were injured or killed performing it has become part of the publicity and mythology surrounding this illusion. Considering its inherent danger, spectators of the ‘bullet catch’ not only watch the staging of a shooting, respectively suicide, they are further implicitly aware of the persisting potentiality of witnessing a life-threatening or lethal accident during the show, such as the one that famously killed pseudo-Chinese magician Chung Ling Soo in 1918. Therefore, regarding illusions inspired by daredevilry and danger, the line between illusionism and reality is particularly thin. A simple false movement in a card trick will reveal the operations underlying the effect, just as a mishap during a grand illusion will bare (part of) the concealed mechanism working it. In these cases, glitches constitute a disruption of the performance’s illusory character by realism. When a magician fails to catch a bullet, however, a hole in the veil of illusionism constitutes an incursion of the real that creates a drastic and violent emergency situation. With this in mind, what does the bullet catch reveal about the character of stage magic, specifically about illusions implying danger? In what way are these staged? After giving an overview of accidents and shootings in the Golden Age, this article analyzes the bullet catch in view of these questions and topoi.

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War

The Right to Difference: French Universalism and the Jews by Maurice Samuels

Reviews 195 and geography schoolbook, Le tour de la France par deux enfants, G. Bruno (the pseudonym of Augustine Tuillerie) instills a sense of French identity in generations of French pupils by means of a tale of travel and adventure throughout France. In it, two orphaned boys set out from their village in Lorraine, recently annexed by the victorious Prussians, to rejoin France and to keep their French citizenship. Through numerous encounters, the work imparts lessons of patriotism, practicality and morality. Finally, Arthur Rimbaud’s poetic voice in Une saison en enfer is interpreted as the mapping of an individual psyche as it resists the values of an oppressive school system and the colonizing influence of the new capitalist economy. Fittingly, Rimbaud fled Western society for a life in Abyssinia. In conclusion, Lindaman notes that the expressions of psychic geography studied in this work are specific to the first twothirds of the Third Republic and represent authoritarian attitudes no longer accepted by today’s public.Yet some views of the two geographers, Reclus and Vidal, are relevant even in today’s cynical age. The principles of organic ties endure as a feature of identity, not as a static ideal but in the fluidity of constant movement, amid the influx of immigrants and the growing sense of European identity. The implications of this study will resonate with scholars of the nineteenth century and with others interested in theories of identity. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Samuels, Maurice. The Right to Difference: French Universalism and the Jews. Chicago: UP of Chicago, 2016. ISBN 978-0-226-39705-4. Pp. 241. In this textual and cultural analysis of seven key moments in France’s postrevolutionary history, Samuels shows that the concept of French universalism has undergone numerous semantic shifts, which he sees as the direct consequence of France’s characterization of its Jewish population: “Jewish difference has always been essential to the elaboration of French universalism, whether as its dialectal opposite or as proof of universalism’s reach” (5). Although the current definition of French universalism implies that citizens“must be shorn of all particularities”(3) to embody the universal values of equality and liberty, Revolutionary thinkers held, despite common contemporary belief, less restrictive views. Lacretelle, l’Abbé Grégoire, or even Robespierre had called for the economic assimilation of the Jews (by excluding them from certain professions), but never did they require cultural assimilation, nor the relegation of religion to the private sphere. For these Revolutionaries, assimilation would be the result, rather than the condition, of Jewish inclusion, thus defining the nation “by ideology rather than blood or ancestry” (37). Frenchness was universal in that it became attainable by all those who chose it. Universalism’s first major semantic shift occurred under the First Empire. Napoleon, fearing that French Jews might identify primarily with a (then non-existent) Jewish nation, created a Jewish consistory as he had done for Protestants and Catholics, putting religious authority in the hands of the State, and relegating religion to the private sphere. In the mid-nineteenth century however, Jews became a more visible minority in France, especially in the theater. Jewish actress Rachel, for instance, became one of the brightest stars of the Comédie-Française. Her performances of Racine and Corneille’s heroines raised the question as to the compatibility of French culture and Jewishness. While some critics viewed Rachel’s success as a corruption of Frenchness, many more saw her success as proof of universalism’s success, but a universalism that allowed (once again) for particularisms.Yet, in his chapter on Algeria, Samuels notes that despite the pluralistic model of universalism that permitted Rachel’s rise to fame, erasure of difference would become the condition for the naturalization of Algerian Jews and the reason for denying Muslims citizenship (it was believed that Muslims would never assimilate into French culture). This differential treatment of Jews and Muslims reinforced the idea that Frenchness was a (universal) choice. Samuels also reveals that Zola’s apparent philosemitism hid strong assimilationist views, while the supposed stereotyping of Jews in Renoir’s La grande illusion served on the contrary to undermine the differences that did not, in...

Broken Glass, Broken World: Glass in French Culture in the Aftermath of 1870 by Hannah Scott

as he had done for Protestants and Catholics, putting religious authority in the hands of the State, and relegating religion to the private sphere. In the mid-nineteenth century however, Jews became a more visible minority in France, especially in the theater. Jewish actress Rachel, for instance, became one of the brightest stars of the Comédie-Française. Her performances of Racine and Corneille’s heroines raised the question as to the compatibility of French culture and Jewishness. While some critics viewed Rachel’s success as a corruption of Frenchness, many more saw her success as proof of universalism’s success, but a universalism that allowed (once again) for particularisms.Yet, in his chapter on Algeria, Samuels notes that despite the pluralistic model of universalism that permitted Rachel’s rise to fame, erasure of difference would become the condition for the naturalization of Algerian Jews and the reason for denying Muslims citizenship (it was believed that Muslims would never assimilate into French culture). This differential treatment of Jews and Muslims reinforced the idea that Frenchness was a (universal) choice. Samuels also reveals that Zola’s apparent philosemitism hid strong assimilationist views, while the supposed stereotyping of Jews in Renoir’s La grande illusion served on the contrary to undermine the differences that did not, in the end, divide the group of French officers. In his final chapter, Samuels shows how laïcité has taken center stage in the debate over French universalism , suggesting a return to the Napoleonic effacement of the particular in order to attain the universal. This book’s most valuable contribution is its inclusion of moments of both failure and success in France’s universalist history and its focus on both“high” and “popular” culture, reminding the reader that ideologies permeate every aspect of society. Georgia Southern University Virginie Ems-Bléneau Scott, Hannah. Broken Glass, Broken World: Glass in French Culture in the Aftermath of 1870. Cambridge: Legenda, 2016. ISBN 978-1-909662-87-2. Pp. 151. Although at one time only available to the very wealthy, by the nineteenth century glass had become affordable and commonplace throughout France, and particularly Paris. The late nineteenth-century French glass industry mass-produced large-scale windows and mirrors for public buildings, and smaller glass objects for private homes. These objects included glass used for the Haussmannization of Paris and the World Fairs of 1867, 1878, and 1889, glass components for scientific and technological innovations, such as the photographic lens and the microscopic lens, and small, private glass objects, including inexpensive mirrors that made it possible for working-class men to take on the clean-shaven look of the bourgeoisie (24). Scott traces the development of the French glass industry, describing glass in nineteenth-century France as“ubiquitous,”and as crucial to the architectural and scientific innovations of the period. She then examines the increasing material presence of glass alongside its 196 FRENCH REVIEW 91.4 Reviews 197 new symbolic and metaphorical associations for the Année terrible generation. Given the fragile nature of glass, it was of course particularly vulnerable to the fighting and destruction of 1870–71. During the Prussian bombardments, the siege of Paris, and the Paris Commune, Parisians experienced for the first time the widespread shattering of glass. Scott notes that the breakage of glass had a visual, aural, and tactile effect with deep psychological impact, especially to those who experienced the fighting firsthand: “Broken glass became an inevitable symbol for a broken world” (4). Focusing on the intersection between the material and literary worlds, Scott looks at newspaper and diary accounts from this period and undertakes close readings of texts by Zola, Maupassant, and Huysmans to examine the“fundamental and deliberate”role of glass in their writing in the years after 1870. According to Scott, each writer recognized the symbolism of broken glass from 1870 through the 1880s to elicit images of the destruction of society and of personal identity. After two introductory chapters that examine the glass industry and the context and results of the Année terrible (“Why Glass?” and “Glass and Culture in the Aftermath of the Année Terrible”), Scott dedicates one chapter to each writer: “Shopping for Harmony...

A Performance of Forces: A Combat Veteran, a Poet, and a Psychotherapist in “Narratives Interrupted”

ABSTRACTThis essay in “Notes from Field” illustrates the use of poetry therapy through a narrative lens into the inner world of a combat veteran. Through a poem written by a military veteran, a psychotherapist interrupts the poem with alternative possibilities as a means of narrative reconstruction with the client. Poetry, after all, befuddles the reader, not to mention the poet, with poetic devices: multiple-layered metaphor, altered cadences, vague allusions, and grand illusion. The reader is left with the question of what lies ahead of the therapist facing a poem-narrative and a combat veteran client struggling for meaning and hope post war.

FRI-16 MICROSCOPE, HEMOCYTOMETER AND SEXUAL REVOLUTION: THE HISTORY OF SEMEN ANALYSIS

You have accessJournal of UrologyHistory of Urology: History Forum I1 Apr 2016FRI-16 MICROSCOPE, HEMOCYTOMETER AND SEXUAL REVOLUTION: THE HISTORY OF SEMEN ANALYSIS April Szafran, David Schulsinger, and Yefim Sheynkin April SzafranApril Szafran More articles by this author , David SchulsingerDavid Schulsinger More articles by this author , and Yefim SheynkinYefim Sheynkin More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2016.02.101AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Semen analysis (SA) is the integral part of infertility evaluation. Strange and convoluted history of SA, rich in controversies, misunderstandings and false expectations, has made it one of the longest clinical test to develop and introduce to a medical practice. METHODS Review of original papers on SA since the discovery of spermatozoa until present time RESULTS Three pivotal factors were ′instrumental′ in the history of SA. MICROSCOPE. The first microscopic semen evaluation was performed by Antonie Leewenhoek (1677). He observed the ′living animalcules′ and outlined main parameters of the future SA: count, motility, morphology. Only in 1827 the observational SA was introduced to a medico-legal field by Matthew Orfila. The famous microscopist Alfred Donne obtained microphotograph of human sperm in 1845. Unsuccessful gynecological treatment of childless couples sparked interest to the male factor. In 1868, Marion Sims advocated microscopy of postcoital vaginal fluid for sperm identification. The test was condemned as incompatible with decency and self respect. HEMOCYTOMETER was invented by Louis Melassez in 1873. Alois Lode performed first quantitative SA using hemocytometer with counting chamber in 1891. It had a limited use due to significant variations. Macomber and Sanders (1929) attempted to define spermatozoa count as a ′guide to fertility′ and started an endless quest for ′normal′ sperm parameters. Motility, morphology, biometrics were extensively studied by Moench, Hotchkiss, Macleod. The framework of contemporary SA was outlined by 1940th, but neither of sperm parameters was accepted as a reliable index of fertility. Five editions of WHO lab manuals (1980-2010) aimed to provide reference range for semen values did not eliminate the ambiguity in interpreting test results. SEXUAL REVOLUTION. Clinical use of SA was grossly limited by methods of semen collection. The condom specimen was poor due to spermicidal chemicals. Withdrawal of intercourse was inconvenient. Masturbation was not acceptable method for many men due to social, ethical and medical considerations. Silent sexual revolution of 1940th started with Kinsey′s studies slowly eliminated conservative viewpoint on masturbation as a taboo. From 1950th, it became the most common method of semen collection CONCLUSIONS Once a great diagnostic hope, SA remains a grand illusion in the game of cutoff points. Despite significant technological and methodological advances, constant attempts to make SA a reliable diagnostic test remain unsuccessful. Complete makeover of SA will be necessary to reach this historic goal © 2016FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 195Issue 4SApril 2016Page: e531-e532 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2016MetricsAuthor Information April Szafran More articles by this author David Schulsinger More articles by this author Yefim Sheynkin More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War by David M. Lubin

Reviewed by: Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War by David M. Lubin Leann Davis Alspaugh (bio) David M. Lubin, Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War (Oxford University Press, 2016), 384 pp. One of the most compelling onscreen characters in recent memory is Richard Harrow of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014). Jack Huston’s portrayal of a World War I sharpshooter and gun-for-hire working for bootlegging gangs in Atlantic City is unforgettable. Huston’s husky voice [End Page 456] and haunted eyes would be memorable enough, but the mask he wears across the lower half of his face to conceal a horrific war injury adds a disturbing and unnatural element to his character. Every character in that series grappled with some form of corruption and alienation, but Harrow and his grim visage were more than simply a grotesquerie mined for theatrical effect. As David Lubin points out in Grand Illusions, among the many after-effects of the Great War, soldiers who came home grievously disfigured found they were distinguished not for their bravery but for their wounds, an ever-present reminder of trauma and survivor guilt. Richard Harrow (the last name is no accident) could easily have been one of the patrons of Anna Coleman Ladd’s Paris studio for “portrait masks” where injured soldiers were fitted for facial prostheses that enabled them to appear in public with some semblance of normalcy. But a mask, as Lubin reminds us, is never simply a mask. Masks conceal, protect, or alter the appearance. They can be used for ritualistic, illusionistic, cosmetic, or pragmatic purposes. They might comfort the wearer or make him appear ridiculous, they might engender power or signify powerlessness, they might fascinate or terrify. According to the psychoanalysts, we all wear masks at times. But the mask that troubles Lubin the most is the one constructed by a “dominant culture [to teach] America to avert its gaze.” This perfidious mask enabled citizens to escape the horrors of war while cultivating a complacency that pushed the conflict into the realm of something happening somewhere else to someone else. After America entered the war in 1917, the mask became one of patriotism and duty. In this deeply cynical book, Lubin ranges across media and art of all sorts—silent film, propaganda posters, photography, painting, printmaking, and sculpture—to strip away the mask and reveal not so much how art changed but how inadequate it was to the task of representing a war experience. With traditional aesthetic orientations blasted, artists often grappled with modernism whether they wanted to or not. Lubin captures the deep ambivalence, even remorse, of artists such as Edward Steichen who came to feel guilty about his wartime aerial reconnaissance photographs, or Claggett Wilson whose theatrical and bizarre paintings uneasily depicted the “battlefield sublime.” (Lubin reveals his own ambivalence in the section on John Singer Sargent’s Gassed from 1919, finding it difficult to accept that an artist who was such a favorite among high society also possessed enough moral and artistic integrity to depict mustard gas victims with courage and compassion.) Still, the sympathy that Lubin demonstrates in these instances is lacking when it comes to understanding the preparedness movement or nationwide volunteerism for the cause. “Never before,” Lubin writes, “had a democratic government launched such a massive campaign to mold the minds of its citizens by means of the visual arts.” The first few chapters of Grand Illusions focus on aspects of sexuality and gender, including fetishism, homoeroticism, virility, “battle lust,” and the enigmatic works of gay artists such as Marsden Hartley, Gertrude [End Page 457] Stein, and Romaine Brooks, as well as the repressive sexuality and violence in the films of D. W. Griffith (whose values Lubin finds particularly problematic). The author is adept at verbal description of images and, although the book is profusely illustrated, it is still helpful to be directed to salient details or to aspects of color and composition. At times, however, he becomes obsessed with trivialities such as Lord Kitchener’s luxurious mustache or the accoutrements of cavalry officers—even with names. More than once, he draws attention to the surname of James...

The Strange Tale of Sino-Pakistani Friendship

The Strange Tale of Sino-Pakistani Friendship Daniel Markey (bio) Andrew Small’s The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics delivers a comprehensive assessment of one of the world’s most consequential, peculiar, and poorly understood bilateral relationships. [End Page 151] Small weaves together his own interviews and travel observations with extensive use of other histories and narratives that touch on various aspects of China-Pakistan relations but, as he rightly observes, have thus far failed to deliver a full and up-to-date version of the story. Small’s book took a half-dozen years to write, but its timing is nearly ideal. He concludes his history by observing that “the China-Pakistan axis is almost ready to step out of the shadows” (p. 181). It is now quite safe to remove the caveated “almost” from his phrase. China’s new One Belt, One Road initiative—the grand scheme to extend and improve interconnectivity throughout China’s western periphery through massive state-led investments—is finding its most important test case in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, where, according to Pakistan’s probably inflated accounts, China has pledged $46 billion in new investments over the coming years. The China-Pakistan Axis is truly one of a handful of books that must be read by professionals seeking to understand Pakistan’s past or hoping to catch a glimpse into its future. And as China’s own fate becomes more intertwined with South, Central, and West Asia, the book will be an increasingly vital resource for serious China hands as well. As Small correctly notes, the study of relations between China and Pakistan is “something of an intellectual orphan, falling between a variety of regions and disciplines” and is complicated by the reality that it “encompasses some of the most sensitive areas of the two sides’ national security policies” (p. 5). To put it bluntly, most China scholars have not bothered to give much thought to Pakistan, while most South Asianists are ill-equipped to contemplate Beijing’s strategies, motives, or capabilities. Those who are interested must crack into the realm of tight-lipped security services, an especially tough task on the Chinese side. Small ably bounces between strategic perspectives, having spent sufficient time in Beijing, Islamabad, and Washington to build networks of reliable expert sources. He avoids ideology and dogmatism, rendering different perspectives in a dispassionate effort to understand them rather than to mount moralizing critiques. He does, however, pause to debunk myths, such as the claim that 11,000 Chinese troops were deployed to Pakistan’s north (p. 6), and punctures grand illusions like the notion that either Gwadar port or the Karakoram Highway has ever demonstrated any serious prospect of commercial success (p. 101, 106). Small also offers a steady flow of insider tidbits that demonstrate his grasp of the wider political processes at work, such as how Sino-Pakistani defense ties “ensure buy-in [End Page 152] from some of China’s highest ranking party and military families” (p. 108), and wades into controversial and sensitive topics, including China’s troubled policies in Xinjiang (p. 72). The book’s historical account of Sino-Pakistani ties is useful as a stage-setter for present circumstance, mainly because Small reminds the reader of the many twists and reversals in the region’s geopolitics. The very closeness between Beijing and Islamabad has its roots in the 1959 Lhasa uprising that hastened the death of good relations between India and China (p. 21). With the spirit of “Hindi-Chini bhai bhai” (Indians and Chinese are brothers) buried, China and Pakistan teamed up to support a range of insurgencies within India, such as the Nagas and Mizo (p. 77). Later, Small recounts how Pakistan was the handmaiden for some of the most sensitive military and intelligence cooperation between China and the United States during the Cold War (p. 36) as well as the more widely recognized cooperation to fund the Afghan mujahideen (p. 123). Small also delves into China’s many—often dimly perceived—links with the Afghan Taliban before and after September 11. He describes, for instance, how China’s ambassador to Pakistan was the first senior representative of a...

Projecting the future state of marine ecosystems, “la grande illusion”?

Projecting the future state of marine ecosystems, “la grande illusion”?