Regional Supremacy Research Articles

Strategic interaction between Russia and US in Syria: a game theoretic analysis from 2014-2022

The strategic interests of Russia and the US clash in the Syrian conflict. Moscow’s policy in Syria aims for the Assad government to remain in power, whereas the US policy seeks to bring a regime change in Syria by toppling the Assad government. The competition and cooperation between Russia and the US in the Middle Eastern region are quite complex and reflect a tussle for regional dominance. A game theoretic analysis is conducted for the interaction between two great powers to examine the strategies opted by both players in the case of the Syrian civil war. This paper analyses the role of Russian and American regional policy objectives in Syria from 2014 to 2022. This study considers the cause-and-effect relationship in the regional supremacy of Russia and the US and studies them as independent variables. The conflict in policy goals of both powers in the Syrian conflict is taken as the dependent variable. The methodology applied in this paper is game theory because it explains cause-and-effect phenomena in a systematic and detailed manner. The game between Russia and the US is to achieve maximum foreign policy objectives in Syria, which is concluded as a zero-sum game from 2014-2022.

Conflicting Interests of Trading Companies and Causes of the South African War, 1899-1902

The author examines the economic aspects of the South African colonial exploration by the Europeans in the representation of accumulated contradictions between business organizations, which ultimately became a cause of the 1899-1902 conflict. Based on the study of Dutch East India Company’s activities in this region, as well as the specifics of the settlement establishment by the British and Boers, attention is paid to the root causes of the disharmonious economic situation of the rivalling parties, taking place before the discovery of gold deposits in the Witwatersrand (1886). The changing regional supremacy of the Cape colony and the other British possessions, as well as Boer States (the Republic of South Africa – Transvaal and the Orange Free State) has been periodized. The factors of the 1899 armed conflict have been structured to reveal the conflicting interests of trading companies which had sought to monopolize the business for extraction of valuable mineral raw materials. The author concludes that the main reason for the South African War was the desire of British trading companies to gain access to rich gold deposits in the Boer-populated Transvaal and form a single English-based state in South Africa. In order to achieve such goal, the British tried their best at delaying peace initiatives of the Boers, putting forward various contradictory demands to them, using the armies of private companies to conduct raids and sabotaging the formation of a federal state in the region. We have discovered the preposterous look of the British pretext for the outbreak of war, based on the protection of the Boer states English-speaking population interests, which had been supposed to initiate an uprising. The South African War became not only a place, where new methods of warfare were applied, and a “black hole” for the UK budgetary expenditures, but also a profitable market for new types of weapons and military equipment, which allowed their manufacturers to make considerable profits.

American Engagement with Nepal: Concerns of China and India


 How did the United States of America’s active engagement with Nepal become a strategic concern for our neighbors? The USA’s Nepal policy is changing because the new world order appears to be multipolar consonantly; it is believed to be bipolar between the United States and China strategically. The US strategic entry into Nepal and the intense rivalry over the MCC and BRI projects are a reflection of these two countries' growing competition in world politics. It put Nepal at the center of strategic calculations. At the other end, China and India believe that achieving regional and global hegemony requires first establishing their own regional supremacy. That is why they are considering strategic space in South Asia and Nepal. Furthermore, India and U.S. also have strategic alliances in the Indo-Pacific strategic and QUAD. Both of them perceive China as a threat in the Indo-Pacific region. In this tri-lateral rivalry during the global power transition, Nepal may become a geopolitical flash point, serving the strategic interests of those powers. In this scenario, the significance of Nepal's nonalignment foreign policy will be examined through a comparison of Ukraine's and Nepal's geopolitical locations. Nepal shares borders with two Asian behemoths, much like Ukraine does with NATO countries and Russia. The Ukrainian crisis stems from both domestic and foreign policy failures. Politicians are frequently divided into pro-Russian and pro-Western sides, and they fail to recognize their powerful neighbor's sensitivity. In this study, the qualitative method has been used, and secondary data was collected from reliable books, journal articles, and some authentic websites. Explorative research techniques have been used for this research.

India’s Vaccine Diplomacy and Changing Geopolitics in the Global South

Vaccine diplomacy has developed new dynamics of geopolitics between the world’s superpowers as a result of global COVID-19 pandemic vaccination. This study contributes to the existing body of literature on geopolitics in the global South while focusing on changing aspects of geopolitics resulting in India's vaccine diplomacy. It primarily determines the geopolitical agendas behind vaccine diplomatic practices of India, which is used as tool of soft power to influence the internal affairs of the countries in the global South. As a result, this study reveals the emerging dynamics of geopolitics which resulted in India’s vaccine diplomacy in the means of COVID-19 cooperation, including South Asia, driven by the power competition between the world’s superpowers such as the USA, the USSR and China. The study’s data and information are based on a mixed method which is secondary qualitative and quantitative facts that were gleaned via archival research. These findings discovered that India’s ‘Neighborhood First’ vaccine policy has extended to South Asian countries while ranging its vaccine cooperation towards the developed and developing nations in the global South and beyond, under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ program. Behind these vaccine campaigns, India is engaged in a geopolitical struggle over the global South against the USA, the USSR and China in place of its geopolitical agenda with the hopes of authenticating the solitary authority as the regional power beyond Asia. India's ultimate goal of regional supremacy has now given rise to a geopolitical conflict as world superpowers have launched their vaccine diplomatic campaigns against India in the global South. These tensions that underlie India's vaccine diplomacy are currently driving significant changes in regional geopolitics in the global South.

Designing Cluster Development-based Entrepreneurial School Model in Tourism Sector for Vocational High School

This study aimed at obtaining the design of an entrepreneurial school model for vocational high school based on an effective cluster development in tourism sector to strengthen the competitiveness of vocational high school graduates. This study applied research and development procedures and design based research (DBR) models which were integrated with constructivistic design principles. The procedures involve evaluation and determination of regional supremacy as a leading commodity / industry; development of design and product model for entrepreneurial school cluster-based model; and a reflection and experimental process to get the final product model. The collection of data on developing process was taken through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGD) in schools, governments, industrial world groups, and other stakeholders. In addition, the questionnaire was also used to get the feasibility of the design by involving experts in the areas of tourism, economy, education, and development. The overall data were then analyzed qualitatively. The components of the entrepreneurial school model produced involve audience, content, procedures, and evaluations. The design produced learning outcomes, an integrated entrepreneurial curriculum, standardized documents and standard operational procedures, entrepreneurship school management modules. The expert analytical test shows that the overall design and product model are very good.

Islamo-nationalism, domestic politics, and Bangladesh’s policy of balancing against India since the 1990s

This article examines the connection between politics of Islamo-nationalism in Bangladesh and Bangladesh’s policy of balancing against India. In response to India’s regional supremacy in South Asia, especially India’s dominance over Bangladesh, policy makers in Bangladesh have constantly faced two options: either ‘bandwagoning’ with India, or ‘balancing’ against the regional hegemon. Interestingly, since the 1990s until 2013, Bangladesh’s response has always swung from one side to another – from bandwagoning to balancing – in connection with the rotation of Bangladesh regime between two major political parties: the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Awami League (AL). Bangladesh – with the BNP’s hold on power – preferred a policy of balancing against India’s dominance. During the regime of the AL, such policy dramatically shifted towards bandwagoning with India. The BNP’s preference for a balancing policy constitutes a puzzle. Weak states – which are not capable of changing unequal outcomes in the face of a preponderant power – generally pursue a policy of bandwagoning. Thus, the puzzle is as to why Bangladesh – despite being a weak actor vis-a-vis India’s overwhelming regional supremacy – pursued a policy of balancing against India during the BNP’s hold on power. This article asserts that the BNP’s politics of Islamo-nationalism is a key variable that can answer the above puzzle. The ‘self–other’ notion of Islamo-nationalism defines the national ‘selfness’ of Bangladesh in terms of the Islamic identity for its overwhelming Muslim masses, and constructs India, henceforth in this article, ‘Hindu India’, as the ‘enemy–other’ to ‘Muslim Bangladesh’.

Sino-globalisation

China’s return to hard-power strategies in Asia represents more than a geopolitical sea change. It is not just Xi Jinping rejecting Deng Xiaoping’s soft-power foreign policy, but the whole ethos of Dengism as the West has sorely misunderstood it. A generation of Western observers has taken this putative Dengism as the abiding essence of the China model. Its ‘win/win’ blueprint for China’s rise became a central pillar of ‘Washington Consensus’ globalism, which is now giving way to the Sino-globalism of Xi’s ‘China Dream’. There is still talk of the ‘peaceful rise’, but Xi conditions his vision of Asian ‘harmony’ on the acceptance of China’s regional supremacy. To comprehend the full implications of this hard-power shift is to recognise that the era of irenic globalism has ended and a new age of power politics has dawned.

Arabia Infelix: The War Devouring Yemen

What began as a popular uprising against a corrupt dictatorship has been overtaken by a struggle for regional supremacy, with the Middle East's poorest country as sacrificial victim.

Regional Supremacy in West Asia: A Case Study of Iran and Saudi Arabia

Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXIX, No.4 Summer 2016 Regional Supremacy in West Asia: A Case Study of Iran and Saudi Arabia Md. Abdul Gaffar* Introduction The disintegration of the Soviet Union brought profound transformation in international politics and led to alter the character of the world order. The events which followed by the end of the Cold War led to the reordering of the global system.1 We know that the type of international structure which emerged after the Cold War is always a debated topic in international relations. While some scholars, such as John Mearshimer, assert that bipolar system is being replaced by a multi-polar one, others like Joseph Nye argue that it is not yet clear what type of system has been developing.2 The changes in the world order significantly changed the power equation in international politics. The strategic environment of the post-Cold War period led to the emergence of states that are creating new configurations of regional alignment powers.3 Some of these states have the intention and resources to conduct foreign policy in their regions without the approval of the great powers or international organizations. In fact, with cessation of bloc politics, the middle powers and even small powers increasingly 63 *Md. Abdul Gaffar is a Doctoral scholar in School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His thesis examines “Role of Ideology in Iran’s Foreign Policy in the post-Cold War Era.” His areas of interests are contemporary Iranian politics, Islam and politics, Muslim issues in Northeast India. He published several articles and book reviews which appeared in Economic and Political Weekly, World Affairs, India Quarterly, Man and Society, Journal of International, Global Studies and Jadavpur Journal of International Relations. 1 Zaki Laidi (ed.), Power and Purpose After the Cold War, Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994, p.1. 2 Joseph S. Nye, Bound To Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, New York: Basic Books, 1990, p. 238. 3 Graham E. Fuller and John Arquilla (1996), “The Intractable Problem of Regional Powers,” in Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, 1996, vol. 40, No. 4, p. 609. 64 became active to play an important role in international politics. In recent years, several “regional powers” have developed a desire to resist, the dominance of the superpowers and have acquired opportunities for autonomous action. In the post-Cold War period power is increasingly diffused and redistributed.4 In other words, a number of regional centres of power have emerged. While during the Cold War environment the world was concerned largely with the inter-state conflict and competition among great extraregional powers, much of the present day international politics demonstrates internal conflicts including secessionism with regional repercussions.5 There is push and pull for Iran to become a regional player. Saudi Arabia seems to demonstrate a sense of superiority giving a challenge to Iran. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and the Arabic language. They are proud of this heritage. There are also hardliner Sunni Muslim who feel that Saudi Arabia is the leader of the global Muslim community and that Shias are the worst kind of heretics. The rivalry between Sunni and Shias is equally strong in geopolitical divisions as well as sectarian division. Iran on the other hand sees itself as a natural hegemonic power in the region owing to its large population, military capabilities and geopolitical position making it the connecting nation between the Caucasus, Indian Subcontinent and the Gulf. Saudi Arabia, of course has a different view. Its influence in the Arabian Peninsula has grown rapidly due to its oil rich economy. The geopolitical struggle between the two countries has brought out proxy conflicts across the region. Palestine, Iraq and ongoing Syria have become battlegrounds in which national interests are at stake, but also the dimension of the influence and dominance of the two West Asian powers. The post-war reconstruction of Iraq is one of the best examples of Iran and Saudi Arabia rivalry. The Shi’a government in Iraq has given Iran a special importance. Regional Supremacy in West Asia: Domestic Determinants Iran Major domestic determinants of Iran’s regional status in...

Iran's Nuclear Program and the Israeli-Iranian Rivalry in the Post Revolutionary Era

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran led to a set of major shifts in the Middle East and an anti-Israeli stance became a central approach of the revolutionaries. Up to 1979, however, Tel Aviv had a close relationship with Tehran whose enmity with its Arab neighbours was anchored in a historical struggle for regional supremacy. Israel has remained an enemy of Islam and the Muslims for the revolutionary leaders and as Iran's power grew Israel's anxiety increased accordingly. A new division of power in the region and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons led to a direct rivalry between Iran and Israel and consequently many Israelis have come to regard Iran and its nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel that has to be halted. This article explores the roots of enmity between these two countries, scrutinizes the threats of a nuclear armed Iran for Israel and attempts to determine what kind of measures might work to convince Iran to renounce its nuclear program. The article has four sections with the first section covering the history of the relations and the origins of hostility between Iran and Israel. The second section provides a brief overview of how the division of regional power led to direct rivalry between Tehran and Tel Aviv. The third section details Iran's nuclear program and examines its threats to Israel and the last section covers the current sanctions debate over what type of measures might work to compel Iran to renounce its nuclear weapons.

Sino-Indian power preponderance in maritime Asia: a (re-)source of conflict in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea

Since the late 1950s, Sino-Indian relations have been tense and marked by rivalry for regional supremacy. Complex border disputes, which escalated into war between the former ‘bhai-bhai’, staged the first round of their increasingly fierce rivalry. The second round followed suit within the structural framework of the Cold War when India sided with the Soviet Union while China partnered with Pakistan and later the USA. The changing post-Cold War power structure in Asia opened the third round of intensifying Sino-Indian supremacy competition, underlined by conflicting resource interests. Emerging arenas of competition are the seas between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea – areas with significant hydrocarbon resources and vital lanes of international trade. Using Lateral Pressure theory, this article argues that maritime Asia ranks high in Beijing's and New Delhi's strategic calculations and because both emerging powers increasingly interfere in the other's maritime backyard, these seas are becoming potential arenas of military escalations.

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this issueLiterature and Fine ArtsPolyakova, Olga A. Icons: Masterpieces of Russian Art (16th–19th Centuries, from the Collection of the Moscow State Integrated Museum‐Reserve at Kolomenskoye).Steiner, Lina. For Humanity's Sake: The Bildungsroman in Russian Culture.Diment, Galya. A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury: The Life and Times of Samuel Koteliansky.Roubakine, Alexandre. La Cité. Translated into French by Wladimir Berelowitch.Gillespie, Alyssa Dinega, ed. Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations.Frank, Siggy. Nabokov's Theatrical Imagination.Young, George M. The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers.HistoryGruber, Isaiah. Orthodox Russia in Crisis: Church and Nation in the Time of Troubles.Davies, Richard, and Matilda Moreton. Wooden Churches: Travelling in the Russian North.Polunov, A. Iu. K. P. Pobedonostsev v obshchestvenno‐politicheskoi i dukhovnoi zhizni Rossii.Johnson, Emily D. How St. Petersburg Learned to Study Itself: The Russian Idea of Kraevedenie.Evtuhov, Catherine. Portrait of a Russian Province: Economy, Society, and Civilization in Nineteenth‐Century Nizhnii Novgorod.Romaniello, Matthew P. The Elusive Empire and the Creation of Russia, 1552–1671.Tomohiko, Uyama, ed. Asiatic Russia: Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts.Etkind, Alexander. Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience.Baraban, Elena V., Stephan Jaeger, and Adam Muller, eds. Fighting Words and Images: Representing War across the Disciplines.Petrone, Karen. The Great War in Russian Memory.Lutz, Martin. Siemens im Sowjetgeschäft: Eine Institutionengeschichte der deutsch‐sowjetischen Beziehhungen 1917–1933.Dieckmann, Christoph. Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941–1944. 2 vols.Chervinsky, Julie, ed. Lives of the Great Patriotic War: The Untold Stories of Soviet Jewish Soldiers in the Red Army during World War II / Sud'by v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny: Neopublikovannye istorii sovetskikh krasnoarmeitsev‐evreev, uchastnikov Vtoroi Mirovoi voiny.Boriak, Tetiana. Dokumental'na spadshchyna ukraïns'koï emigratsiï v Ievropi: Praz'kyi arkhiv (1945–2010).Andreev, A. I., and D. Savelli, eds. Rerikhi: Mify i fakty.Roman, Meredith L. Opposing Jim Crow: African Americans and the Soviet Indictment of U.S. Racism, 1928–1937.Hudson, Hugh D., Jr. Peasants, Political Police, and the Early Soviet State: Surveillance and Accommodation under the New Economic Policy.Fedor, Julie. Russia and the Cult of State Security: The Chekist Tradition from Lenin to Putin.Johnston, Timothy. Being Soviet: Identity, Rumour, and Everyday Life under Stalin, 1939–1953.Jenks, Andrew L. The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin.Social Sciences, Contemporary Russia, and OtherIanitskii, O. N. Semeinaia khronika 1853–2002 gg. 2nd ed.Satter, David. It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past.Aalto, Pami, ed. Russia's Energy Policies: National, Interregional, and Global Levels.Panibratov, Andrei. Russian Multinationals: From Regional Supremacy to Global Lead.Hankivsky, Olena, and Anastasiya Salnykova, eds. Gender, Politics, and Society in Ukraine.Ališauskienė, Milda, and Ingo W. Schröder, eds. Religious Diversity in Post‐Soviet Society: Ethnographies of Catholic Hegemony and the New Pluralism in Lithuania.Zavisca, Jane R. Housing the New Russia.Roberts, Sean P. Putin's United Russia Party.Stewart, Susan, et al., eds. Presidents, Oligarchs and Bureaucrats: Forms of Rule in the Post‐Soviet Space.Shevel, Oxana. Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe.Cooley, Alexander. Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia.

India's South Asia policy in the twenty-first century: new approach, old strategy

Maintaining regional supremacy and stability and denying extra-regional actors a military foothold in South Asia have long been key objectives of India's regional policy. In pursuance of these objectives, India displayed a willingness to undertake coercive action against its smaller South Asian neighbours. Evidence of this is seen in the military intervention in Sri Lanka (1987–1990) and a virtual economic blockade of Nepal (1989–1990). However, during the past decade, India appeared to draw away from such overt interventionist policies and even accepted outside actors like Norway and the United Nations being involved in the peace process in Sri Lanka (2002–2006) and Nepal (2006–2011), respectively. Notwithstanding India's apparent shift in behaviour, these actions do not represent a fundamental change in the country's traditional policy towards the region.

An Analysis of the Multilateral Cooperation and Competition between Russia and China in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Issues and Prospects*

This article is theoretically based on the theory of neoliberalism anchored on multilateral security cooperation presented by Robert O. Keohane, John Ruggie, and James Caporaso. In this regard, the main purpose of this article is to study the movements of nations trying to secure regional supremacy based on the concept of multinationalism in Central Asia, with a focus on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).Related to this, this study aims to discuss various aspects of Russia–China cooperation and competition, which particularly lead to the construction of a multilateral security and cooperation system centering on the SCO based on the concept of multilateral security operation as a utilitarian foreign policy. The SOC has pursued an open alliance and joint position, as well as solving regional and global problems on the basis of mutual interests. Russia and China have maintained cooperation in fields such as “multilateral security and energy,” but have different understanding of “American influence, restraining NATO's proceeding the East, and expansion of member countries' issues.”The SCO has now expanded cooperation by institutionalizing exchanges in economy, trading, culture, energy, education, and other areas of foreign strategy and the international society's view of China and Russia inevitably affects the stand and recognition of other member countries. Both countries have given priority to national interest on particular issues, but they would actively utilize the SOC to establish diversified relations and establish a new order in the Eurasian Continent. This alliance has centered on the SCO and expanded the role of a new oil road led by Russia as a transportation hub interconnecting the Eurasian continent. The two nations have likewise promoted security, rights and interests of member nations through joint actions to deal with the threats of Islamic extremism, separatism and international terrorist activities.However, it is expected that Russia will have a containment policy toward the bilateral energy and economic cooperation with the SCO member nations with China emerging as a G2 nation. It also seems that the expansion of economic aid toward Central Asia from China, the rise of China as a maximum beneficiary of energy supply through the pipeline construction and the improvement of trade relations and competition with Russia can be a conflict factor with respect to the SCO.

Iran ambitious for regional supremacy: the great powers, geopolitics and energy resources

Iran's geographical location makes the country strategically vital. From the south, the Persian Gulf with its close proximity to the Indian Ocean Region and to the north, Central Asia. This means that Iran forms a geographic ‘corridor’ between Europe, Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. Combined oil and gas reserves of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea total over 60% of the global oil and gas reserves and much of this is transported via the Indian Ocean. Global energy consumption is expected to increase by 49% from 2007 to 2035 as demand increases from China and India. Iran has the fifth largest oil reserves and the second largest gas reserves in the world. In addition to these resources, Iran has a population of 70 million, 65% of whom are under 30 years-old and are comparatively highly educated. These combined elements give the country the potential to be a major player in both the security and development of the region. Since 1979, Iran has taken an ‘Eastward’ orientated political stance, cutting its diplomatic ties with the United States. Historically, Iran has had significant linguistic and cultural links with most of the countries in Central Asia and has maintained close relationships, both economically and politically, with other countries in the region. These relationships have taken a new shape since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, creating closer linkages with the East in order for Iran to establish itself as a regional power. Hence, on a domestic, regional and global level, Iran's approach to the Indian Ocean Region is crucial. Following the end of the Cold War (1947–1992), as the United States became the only great power in the world and India and China emerged as major economic forces, the focus on the importance of the region has deepened. Indeed, the current Islamic Republic leaders’ intention to turn Iran into a regional player by acquiring nuclear energy is a reflection of their ambitious vision for the country, within the region and beyond.

Contrapuntal Geographies of Threat and Security: The United States, India, and Israel

This paper is concerned with discourses of threat and security deployed by the United States and India after September 11. In the context of the United States these discourses have been used to justify war in Afghanistan and in Iraq and have revolved around the subject of the Muslim male as perpetually dangerous. Eager to support the United States in its war against terror, India echoed the construction of the Muslim male as dangerous, which served to fulfill India's own internal and regional supremacy agendas. Bolstered, therefore, by the emerging discourse of Muslim terrorists, in 2002 the Hindu Right was complicit in orchestrating genocide against Muslims in Gujarat where 2000 Muslims were killed and 150000 Muslims were rendered homeless. Examining these and other incidents, I examine the similarity in discourses of threat and security deployed by the United States and India. I argue that the similarity in discourses emerges because of a particular understanding of time and space. I make two interconnected arguments: first, time and the very understanding and construction of history are distorted, collapsed, and twisted such that revenge for past atrocities and the threat of future ones are used to justify preemptive military action. Second, there is a particular geography to this doctrine of threat and security that is being established by demarcating us against them. This new spatial arrangement is being formed contingent on a particular understanding of time and history as a linear singular narrative and on the creation of political alliances between India, the United States, and Israel.

The Role of Ideational and Material Factors in the Qing Dynasty Diplomatic Transformation

The Qing was China’s last centralized dynasty. During its almost three-hundred-year-long reign, it achieved regional supremacy before sliding into a decline that occurred contemporaneously with the West’s rise to global pre-eminence. The expansion of the Western world inevitably led to the disintegration of China’s centuries-old tribute system, and changes in the way the Qing government interacted with its foreign counterparts. The establishment of a foreign ministry in the 1860s and the assignment of the first permanent diplomatic envoys abroad in the 1870s signalled the Qing dynasty’s gradual adoption of a Western, more modernistic, system of diplomacy. Researchers raise several explanations for China’s diplomatic clashes with Western countries and the ultimate changes in its foreign policy behaviour. They include the shift in the balance of power from East to West, fundamental changes in Qing ideals, sense of identity and preferences and the conflicting systems of these two, quite different civilizations. 1 The focus of this essay is on material and ideational explanations. The material explanation maintains that Qing foreign policy behaviour adjusted in order to maximize China’s material interests in view of the shift in power dynamics between East and West. From the ideational standpoint, adjustments to Qing foreign policy behaviour were the result of changes in the preferences, values and behavioural norms of China’s rulers. The aim of this essay explores the basis of change in Qing dynasty foreign policy and determines whether its behavioural adjustments were as a result of ideational or material factors.

JOCELYN WILLS. Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators: Entrepreneurial Culture and the Rise of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1849-1883. St. Paul:Minnesota Historical Society Press. 2005. Pp. xi, 290. $34.95

Focusing on the scores of entrepreneurially minded migrants who poured into St. Paul and Minneapolis in the mid-nineteenth century, Jocelyn Wills surveys the Twin Cities' rapid emergence as centers of distribution, transportation, and industry. Readers interested in the history of Minnesota will find sketches aplenty of pivotal local figures, as well as accounts of how Minneapolis became the nation's most significant producer of wheat-based foodstuffs, how St. Paul grew into a commercial emporium and railroad hub, and how elites in the two cities competed with one another for regional supremacy. Although very much a geographically bound case study, Wills's monograph also underscores key features of regional economic growth in nineteenth-century America and deepens our understanding of the era's evolving business culture. Wills's narrative echoes the story that William Cronon has told for Chicago in Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991). The growth of the Minnesota, Dakotan, and even Manitoban countryside depended crucially on the emergence of St. Paul and Minneapolis as providers of credit, supplies, and, most important, outlets for commercially oriented farmers. Contrary to the mythic interpretation of Frederick Jackson Turner, the cities and urban boosters came first, with Euro-American rural settlement only following once railroads made commercial agriculture feasible. Unsurprisingly, the ties between the new cities and their hinterlands reflected the region's natural resource endowments, with the combination of available waterpower at Minneapolis, millions of acres of fertile prairie, and vast expanses of forest all shaping the creation of a regional focus on wheat, flour, and lumber milling. Wills is particularly adept in tracing the significance of earlier models of regional economic development for these processes. Collectively, Minnesota's early entrepreneurs tended to think regionally and continentally, quickly latching on to the economic potential of the Mississippi River Falls at St. Anthony, or the fertile expanses of the Red River Valley, or a regional railroad network centered on St. Paul. And as they sought to turn such economic visions into reality, they self-consciously drew on the industrial strategies of Lowell and Buffalo, or the commercial approaches of Detroit, St. Louis, and especially Chicago.

Endgame in the Western Sahara: what future for Africa's last colony?

* Acknowledgments * Chronology * 1. Introduction * 2. International context: The Maghreb from 'Cold War' to 'War Against Terror' * US ambitions for the Maghreb * Jealous France and post-colonial Spain * 3. Cain and Abel: The Western Sahara and the Struggle for Regional Supremacy * Changing interests in a changing world * The supporting players * 4. Morocco: Unstable and Counting the Cost of the Green March * Economic costs versus political benefits * 5. The Alchemist's Dream: The Quest for Gold from the Desert Sand * Oil * Phosphates * Fisheries * Iron and other minerals * 6. Sahrawi Society under Occupation * The demographic fog * Economic development: grand plans, grim reality * 7. The 'Years of Lead' * 8. An Identity Forged by Resistance * 9. 1999: Civil Society and Breaking Down the 'Wall of Fear' * 10. Zero sum game: The Western Sahara and the UN Process * The settlement plan: From ceasefire to deadlock * Sidelining the Sahrawis * Baker tries again * 11. Polisario and the SADR: Guerrillas, Refugees and their State-in-Waiting * Political evolution within the movement * The structure of Polisario's state * 12. War: The Unbroken Chain * 13. Endgame

L'origine et l'importation des meules à grains dans un village de la chôra marseillaise aux IIe et Ier s. av. J.-C. (oppidum de La Cloche, Les Pennes-Mirabeau, B.-du-Rh.)

Micro-textural pétrographie analysis of the basalt millstones of La Cloche village, near Marseilles (IInd to Ist century B.C.) is presented. It shows a strong preponderance of lithic material originating from Cap d'Agde (located 150 km from La Cloche). On the other hand, very few material was importated from the nearest Toulon hinterland region (40 km). This seems to confirm the regional supremacy of greek Marseilles trade during this period.