Regional Values Research Articles

Some dynamical aspects of tropical cyclone concentric eyewalls

AbstractThe intensification of tropical cyclones is often interrupted by an eyewall replacement cycle, a process in which an outer eyewall forms, contracts, and replaces an inner eyewall. The radial distributions of inertial stability and diabatic heating change during such events, impacting the transverse circulation. To examine the effects of such changes, an analytical solution of the transverse circulation equation associated with a balanced vortex model is derived using a parameterization that distinguishes five radial regions subdividing the domain by each region's values of inertial stability and diabatic heating. These regions define the eye, inner eyewall, moat, outer eyewall, and far‐field. In mature concentric eyewall situations, the solutions do not support the hypothesis that the inner eyewall collapses as a direct result of subsidence from the outer eyewall. However, the results suggest subsidence and warming temperatures in the moat are governed by enhanced inertial stability associated with a strengthening outer eyewall. The model solutions also illustrate how the diabatic heating in the inner eyewall, imbedded in a region of high inertial stability, induces larger temperature tendencies than the diabatic heating in the outer eyewall, which borders the far‐field region of low inertial stability. Thus, as the inner eyewall dies, the storm temporarily loses its ability to produce an intense, localized warm region. This ability is restored during the contraction and intensification of the outer eyewall. These results provide a partial dynamical explanation of how an eyewall replacement cycle can act as a temporary brake on tropical cyclone intensification. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society

German Influence in the Western Balkans: Hegemony by Design or by Default?

The politico-economic relationship between Germany and the Balkan states was, from the end of the nineteenth century, one of unequal interdependence. The strategic value of the Balkan states for an export-dependent and resource-dependent industrial state like Germany was manifest in the Berlin–Bagdhad railway project, two world wars and the close relationship with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The region's value to Germany's economic and political elites has been manifest more recently in the wake of Yugoslavia's disintegration and the subsequent transition towards the politico-economic "norms" of the European Union. This paper examines the degree to which it is possible to employ the concept of hegemony in relation to German involvement in the region. While a neo-realist understanding of hegemony is inapplicable, neo-Gramscian conceptions of a hegemonic historic bloc, informed by the interests of Germany's political and economic elites but embedded in the institutions and norms of the EU, are shown to be a valuable tool for explaining the development of the successor states in the western Balkans. The strong presence of German corporations and their affiliates in Balkan trade, in foreign direct investment and transnational infrastructural projects in the region, like the Caspian pipelines, as well as the adoption of German models of political and corporate governance, would seem to confirm the unequal interdependence characteristic of hegemonic relationships.