Scramble For Resources Research Articles

Body size shift in sympatric insects in response to distinct selective forces in fragmented urban environments

AbstractPhenotypic plasticity, which encompasses the diversification of both irreversible and reversible traits, has long been considered an adaptive response by animals to varying environmental conditions. However, the process by which irreversible and reversible traits are coordinated to form an adaptive response to the changing environment has yet to be clarified. Here, we investigated the variation in body size of two urban insect species in the context of habitat fragmentation. These species were the Chinese cricket Gryllus chinensis and the stove grasshopper Diestrammena japonica, which are sympatric in urban housing estates. Results indicated that both species changed in body size in patches of urban environment. However, their body size shifts showed opposite tendencies and were influenced by distinct selective forces: Chinese crickets increased their body size with the patch history and predation risk, whereas stove grasshoppers decreased their body size with the degree of fragmentation of the patches. Territorial and competitive Chinese crickets rarely experience resource scarcity during urban environment fragmentation. Thus, a larger body size was preferred in response to intraspecific competition among Chinese crickets. By contrast, stove grasshoppers are group‐living and scramble for resources as competitors, requiring a large territory to secure adequate food for supporting a group of individuals. Consequently, stove grasshoppers frequently experienced resource scarcity in the patchy habitat, favoring small body size to reduce individual requirements throughout the life cycle. Our findings indicate that the body size shift of sympatric insects may be subjected to distinct selective forces in fragmented habitats, depending primarily on their reversible traits.

From a pit to a palace: Deconstructing the economics and politics of labour migration in the City of Tshwane through the lenses of Genesis 41:41–57

Migration to the City of Tshwane has, amongst others, been propelled by economic and political dynamics. This has always manifested in the scramble for resources as internal and cross-border migrants struggle to access the mainstream economy of the host city and country. Competition between locals and foreign nationals, social exclusion and xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals has always been part of the narrative around political and economic migration. This article seeks to provide a deconstruction of the economics and politics of migration – particularly how cross-border labour migrants can benefit the host city and country. Using the literature review and contextual Bible study of Genesis 41:41–57 from the lenses of both trained and ordinary readers, this article concluded that cross-border migrants, given the necessary space and proper reception, can contribute immensely towards the growth of the mainstream economy of the host city and nation as demonstrated by Joseph’s contribution in Egypt. Contribution: This article’s contribution is within a paradigm in which the intersection of philosophy, social sciences, humanities and biblical studies generates a scientific discourse which involves a systematic, historical, exegetical and practical reflection.

Energy Geopolitics and Pipeline Diplomacy in Central Asia: India’s Interests and Policy Options

The global energy scenario is undergoing a tectonic shift in recent times. While energy security has been emerging as one of the cornerstones of the foreign policy of major countries, a new geological survey has the promise of new discoveries and reserves untapped. One such epic new frontier of the world geological survey has been the post-Soviet Central Asia consisting of five “Stans” of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, along with the Caspian Sea region. Sitting on huge untapped hydrocarbon potentials, the Central Asian geographical entity in recent years has offered enormous opportunity and appeal for countries adjacent to the region and far beyond. That is perhaps the reason that even after the disintegration of the USSR, the geopolitical importance of Central Asia has never waned down, instead it emerged as a grand chessboard for regional and extra-regional players for the immense opportunities it offered for the energy-crunch countries as potentially new and non-OPEC source of oil and natural gas. In the quest for energy security and diversity of supply sources by energy consumers, the heartland has witnessed a new great game in the scramble for resources. This accentuated struggle for oil and energy in the region has further led to aggressive foreign policy formulations and strategic calculation by countries such as the United States, China, the European Union, Japan, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, and India, to which many now call “the New Great Game” for not just controlling but administering energy resources of the region. The bottom line of the New Great Game, unlike the previous version, is essentially played out around petropolitics and pipeline diplomacy. To support the scramble for energy in Central Asia and the aggressive petropolitics and pipeline diplomacy by major powers, the study adopts the peak oil theory of Club of Rome thesis to understand the global tectonic shift of energy frontiers. Further, this article attempts to examine the position of India in Central Asia and its policy initiatives in the epic quest for oil and energy in the traditional bastion of Russia and the new grand chessboard of China and the United States.

Petropolitics and Pipeline Diplomacy in Central Asia: Can India Afford to Wait in the Wings?

The fight for hegemony in Central Asia has existed for ages. Strategically placed between two nuclear powers—Russia and China—and geopolitically located at the heart of Eurasia, Central Asia has always remained in global limelight. Even after the disintegration of the USSR, the geopolitical importance of Central Asia never waned down, instead emerged as a grand chessboard for regional and extra-regional player for the immense opportunities it has offered in the form of widely untapped natural resources and geostrategic leverages. Importantly, it has emerged as the latest geological landscape for the energy crunch countries as potentially new and non-OPEC source of oil and natural gas. In the quest for energy security and diversity of supply sources by the energy consumers, the heartland region has witnessed a new great game in the scramble for resources. This accentuated struggle for oil and energy in the region has further led to aggressive foreign policy formulations and strategic calculation by countries like the United States, China, European Union, Japan, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and India, to which many now call as the New Great Game for not just controlling but administering the energy resources of the region. The bottom line of the New Great Game unlike the previous version is essentially played out around petropolitics and pipeline diplomacy. It is in this context this research article makes a modest attempt to examine the energy factor in the geopolitics of Central Asia and tries to figure out the position of India in the epic quest for oil in the traditional bastion of Russia and the new grand chessboard of China and the United States.

External Interventions and Consequences in the Horn of Africa

This paper examines external interventions, subsequent configurations of alliances and consequences in the Horn of Africa (HOA). The HOA, major part of its political history is shaped and reshaped by external interventions and constant shifts of alliances and political configurations. Colonialism, Cold War, war on terror, piracy and scramble for resources have all shaped the politics of the region. Superpower rivalry during Cold War left its interminable print in the region. The GCC crisis and the Yemen war induced greater involvement of those states in the region. Its crucial strategic location makes the region highly coveted by external actors making it an easy prey for external power struggle. This renders the region the most conflicted in the African continent. Recently, the region has witnessed convergence of military forces of major global powers. This in turn sparks reactions of radicalism, fundamentalism and extremism. The paper argues the conflated interventions and constant shifts of alliances generate convolute pathologies that plague the HOA

The Gold War: the dissolution of the Scandinavian Currency Union during the First World War

ABSTRACT This article explains how the outbreak of the First World War resulted in the de facto dissolution of the Scandinavian Currency Union. Up until the First World War, the union among the central banks of Denmark, Norway and Sweden is considered to be a success. However, the outbreak of war brought cooperation to its knees. The article rejects two conventional perspectives on the break-up of the union. Firstly, that Denmark's and Norway's greater monetary expansion was pivotal to the break-up, whilst Sweden pursued a more prudent monetary policy. In contrast, the article argues that the disintegration of the union is better understood by the implementation of a unilateral Swedish gold blockade policy, influenced by Swedish economic theorists. Secondly, that Sweden in April 1917 finally solved her problem of continued gold inflows by threatening to withdraw from the union. Quite conversely, it is argued that Swedish the Riksbank had to give up her hard line, because Norwegian Norges Bank throughout 1917 forced through gold shipments to pay for Norway's trade deficit, which resulted in a virtual Gold War between the two countries. The scramble for resources saw cordiality being replaced by distrust, whilst national needs overrode any hope of cooperation.

Ransoming, Compensatory Violence, and Humanitarianism in the Sahel

Nonstate transnational actors have long played a central role in Sahelian economic structures and geopolitical arrangements because of their capacity to constitute sources of authority and sustenance outside and across state structures. Recently, subversive battalions (qatiba) have resorted to kidnapping, raiding, and ransoming as a means to social justice with a redistributive dimension. Parallels can be drawn with authority structures associated with nineteenth-century privateers and buccaneers, and more recently with pirates operating in the Indian Ocean. The parallel economy of ransoming emerges in a context of critical disruptions of traditional economic and mobility frameworks in the Sahel, the aggressive scramble for resources, and the displacement of the global war on terror in the Sahel. This article examines the legitimation processes used by subversive groups, both ideological and religious; the ethics of ransoming as a form of prosperity endeavor without morality; and an oscillation between cooperation and subversion in the parallel economy of smuggling understood as two aspects of the same strategy of engagement between formal authorities and insubordinate groups in a context of scarcity. It argues that nonconventional forms of ransoming and criminal predation in the Sahel have similarities with practices of states and multinational corporations insofar as these divest ordinary citizens of their ability to become subjects outside the colluding forces of capital, state power, and external interventions.

India’s ‘Connect Central Asia Policy’: Emerging Economic and Security Dimensions

Central Asia is strategically positioned as an access between Europe and Asia and offers extensive potential for trade, investment and growth. The region is richly endowed with commodities such as crude oil, natural gas, cotton, gold, copper, aluminum and iron. The increasing importance of the region's oil and gas resources has generated new rivalries among external powers. A scramble for resources has begun in the Central Asia between Russia and other external players like US, China resulting in a Great Game rivalry. India wants to gain a foothold in the region for its huge energy reserves and also to secure a stable extended neighbourhood in Afghanistan. Today in the post-cold war years, India is increasingly looking toward Central Asia as both a reliable source of oil and natural gas and a focus of its strategic interests in Asia. Trade and economic ties with the landlocked Central Asia are point of interest for India. In this age of globalization, economic ties hold the key to any bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation. Both India and Central Asia share common perceptions about the need to have friendship and mutually advantageous economic relations especially in the backdrop of globalization. Through its 'connect Central Asia Policy', New Delhi aims to actively take part in Central Asia's regional cooperation and security arrangements. This paper attempts to highlight the need for India's holistic approach towards Central Asia with in a neo-liberal framework in the context of globalization. commodities such as crude oil, natural gas, cotton, gold, copper, aluminum and iron. The increasing importance of the region's oil and gas resources has generated new interests and rivalries among external powers. Central Asia is also a strong market for millions of consumers. India can benefit immensely out of promoting stronger ties with the countries of the region. Direct Indian-Central Asian link were limited during the Soviet period. In the backdrop of Indo-Soviet special friendship, New Delhi was virtually present in the everyday lives of Central Asia through television, movies, music and cultural exchanges. (Laruelle(10)) In the immediate post-Soviet years India's presence in the region became symbolic. Things however started changing since later part of 1990s when the major powers namely the US and China made inroads into the region in various ways that led to the rise of 'New Great Game' with Russia, China and the US vying over security and energy interests in a politically unstable region. India, though not a party to this great game rivalry, took keen interest in Central Asia primarily in view of its huge ever growing energy requirements. In brief, apart from economic factors, Central Asia is important to India because of its strategic location, geographical proximity and of its energy resources. Therefore, restoring traditional linkages with Central Asia has been one of the primary strategic priorities before India today. It is in this backdrop, this paper will highlight the need for India's holistic approach towards Central Asia with in a neo-realist framework. This write up also attempts to explore the concerns and interests that motivates India's recent efforts to step up its engagements in Central Asia. The paper tries to find out answers of the following key questions: (a) How should India, a late comer, strategize its arrival on the Central Asian scenario? (b) What should be India's approach towards key external players - Russia, China and the US - in the region? (c) How far it is true that Central Asia could promote India's energy security to a considerable extent?

Interference competition in entomopathogenic nematodes: male Steinernema kill members of their own and other species

There is evidence of competition within and between helminth species, but the mechanisms involved are not well described. In interference competition, organisms prevent each other from using the contested resource through direct negative interactions, either chemical or physical. Steinernema spp. are entomopathogenic nematodes; they enter a living insect host which they kill and consume with the aid of symbiotic bacteria. Several studies have demonstrated intra- and interspecific competition in Steinernema, mediated by a scramble for resources and by incompatibility of the bacterial symbiont. Here we describe a mechanism by which male Steinernema may compete directly for resources, both food (host) and females, by physically injuring or killing members of another species as well as males of their own species. A series of experiments was conducted in hanging drops of insect haemolymph. Males of each of four species (Steinernemalongicaudum, Steinernemacarpocapsae, Steinernemakraussei and Steinernemafeltiae), representing three of the five phylogenetic clades of the genus, killed each other. Within 48h, up to 86% of pairs included at least one dead male, compared with negligible mortality in single male controls. There was evidence of intraspecific difference: one strain of S. feltiae (4CFMO) killed while another (UK76) did not. Males also killed both females and males of other Steinernema spp. There was evidence of a hierarchy of killing, with highest mortality due to S. longicaudum followed by S. carpocapsae, S. kraussei and S. feltiae. Wax moth larvae were co-infected with members of two Steinernema spp. to confirm that killing also takes place in the natural environment of an insect cadaver. When insects were co-infected with one infective juvenile of each species, S. longicaudum males killed both S. feltiae UK76 and Steinernema hermaphroditum. Wax moths co-infected with larger, equal numbers of S. longicaudum and S. feltiae UK76 produced mainly S. longicaudum progeny, as expected based on hanging drop experiments.

Chinese Corporations and the Scramble for Resources, a Study in the Oil Business

Geopolitics appears to be increasingly back in fashion, and geoeconomics is gaining the limelight in the form of state competition for natural resources. While the security implications are diverse, and the doctrine is divided about the consequences in term of likelihood of conflicts, it has resulted in increased international tensions on strategic materials. China is at the very centre of this scramble, and there is quite an amount of attention devoted to China’s economic growth as well as its possible imperialistic aspirations in today’s world. This article explores resource-seeking Chinese corporations, especially the ones involved in the oil business, and the consequences in term of security issues at a geopolitical level. While the duality conflict / cooperation is taken into account, this research focuses on oil corporations from China and India, which aggressively try to secure markets and resources. They generally compete against MNCs both from the OECD countries and from other emerging players. In order to illustrate the challenges this phenomenon involves, the analysis will use a specific case-study, PetroChina (and its parent CNOOC), showing the way they are involved in acquisition of resources abroad and how this has put them on a collision route with ONGC and ONGC Videsh Ltd, Indian companies involved in the same activity. Finally, it will look at the rivalry between India and China in economic and geopolitical terms as well within the context of broader global economic issues.

The Logic of Change: Pushing the Boundaries of Insurgent Behavior Theory1

Do resources matter? In the context of insurgent survival, the simple answer is “Yes”. Insurgents need resources to operate. When resources are threatened, survival is threatened. The argument that resources drive insurgent behavior dominates conflict studies literature. Since the 1980s, there has been a great deal of attention directed at the impact of natural resources on insurgents and the wider conduct and organization of conflict within countries. Some scholars link the scramble for resources and the development of organized crime networks to insurgents’ abuse of the local population.These scholars perceive the choices of insurgents in the context of individual incentives and the availability of easily looted resources. In this picture, insurgents fight largely for personal enrichment through loot they seize in war. Indeed, according to one US security analyst, insurgencies are shifting to commercial operations with the larger goal being the search for wealth.

Globalisation and resource development in Africa: assessing the facilitator–protector roles of international law and international institutions

A significant feature of globalisation in Africa is the scramble for resources, especially petroleum and solid minerals, through foreign direct investment by multinational companies. This paper explores the role of international law, which protects the investor from regulatory and political risks but offers no such protection to host communities suffering from the social and environmental impacts. The paper argues that there is no valid reason for the difference in treatment, but rather there are compelling grounds for equal protection of communities from the impacts of the operations of multinational corporations, especially as the very investment protection laws place constraints on the sovereign regulatory powers of the state.

The scramble for resources: African case studies

China's renewed interest in Africa's resources is a mixed blessing. China is offering infrastructure packages that are especially attractive for post‐conflict countries but it is also helping countries with poor governance to avoid western pressure for economic and democratic reform.

The struggle for resources in Africa

This issue examines aspects of the allocation of resources in Africa. Few problems could be more central to the future of a continent where political and economic crisis persists. A generation after the formal end of colonialism and the inception of the 'decade of development' in the 1960s, Africa continues to struggle for control of its resources and their development. In many ways, the struggle does not go well. For over a century, the idea of a scramble for resources in Africa evoked images, first, of the colonial plunder of the continent and, latterly, of corporate exploitation and expropriation. More recently, however, to speak of a scramble for resources brings to mind pictures of desperate, hungry people searching for food and security from war, of states seeking to attract investment in a world indifferent to their needs. New strategies have become necessary and a new commitment to economic and political development urgent.

The Scramble for Resources

The Scramble for Resources