Southern Neighbors Research Articles

With the Elephants against the Persians: The Elephantry of Ancient Aethiopia

The present article is dedicated to a quite curious phenomenon in Ancient military history, the elephant corps of African Kingdom of Meroe. Being the Southern neighbors of the Ptolemaic Egypt, the Meroites provided their own elephantry probably following the Lagid example, because the Ptolemies had begun capturing African elephants for their army in the beginning of the 3rd century BCE. Some authors (such as Shinnie 2004, Estigarribia 1982) emphasize the Meroite priority in elephant hunting and warfare (based primarily on Arrian’s testimony (Tact. 2.2) and on some archaeological finds in the temple complex of Musawwarat es Sufra), but their conclusions don’t seem convincing enough. At the same time, we have only one known (but pilifully brief) depiction of the actual Meroitic elephant corps’ combat use, which belongs to Heliodorus of Emesa, the author of “Aethiopica”. This novel (written probably in the 3rd or the 4th Century CE) contains so many authentic details concerning geography and history of ancient Aethiopia that once it was named “The Meroitic History Encyclopedia” (Berzina 1977). Indeed, it’s worth noting that Heliodorus describes the equipment and tactics of elephantry – armour, «battle towers» fastened to animals’ backs, skilled bowmen etc. – as a whole quite authentically, especially for a novel. But these war elephants he depicts can represent rather contemporary Persian (or Sasanian) ones, mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, Julian and other Later Roman authors, than Meroitic ones. In any case, it is impossible to determine which stage of the long history of the Meroitic elephantry is depicted in “Aethiopica”.

Participation of Nikolay Notovich in the English-Russian rivalry in Afghanistan in the mid-1880s.

The confrontation between Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia in the 19th century led to the expansion of these empires’ borders that reached Afghanistan by the 1880s. Thus, Afghanistan was destined to find itself at the epicenter of the two powers’ political and diplomatic games. In the context of fierce foreign policy competition in the region, an important task for the Russian authorities was to study Afghanistan, as well as to en-hance activities of Russian agents on the lands to the South of Amu Darya. This problem became especially acute after the battle between Russian and Afghan troops north-west of Afghanistan border in March 1885: the possi-bility of the military confrontation was considered seriously in St. Peters-burg and London that could take place inter alia in Afghanistan. In order to obtain information about its southern neighbour Russian authorities used agents from the local population as well as former Afghan rulers who fled the country under the oppression of Emir Abdurrahman Khan (1880–1901) in addition to information from its Military and the Foreign Ministry. This issue is touched upon in the works of Russian and foreign orientalists. The participants of the Russian-British confrontation also left their memories. However, a lot of information from archives on these events remains un-published. In particular, the role in the Afghan affairs of traveller Nikolay Notovich who reached Afghan border in the Autumn of 1885. His activities differed a lot from the activities in this area of military and civil servants. After arriving in Mashhad on the recommendation of the military com-manders of the Transcaspian Oblast, Notovich, who was not a civil servant official, tried to play the role of a governmental agent and started corre-spondence with the United Kingdom representatives in Afghanistan, as well as of Afghan and Balochi provincial rulers. Based on archives, this ar-ticle is the first attempt to evaluate this historical episode.

The EU Eastern Partnership Initiative and Georgia

The article views the geographical area between the EU and Russian borders as a battle space of two, drastically different foreign policy and ideological approaches. The authors argue that in the years since the end of the Cold War, a unique surrogate of former clash of liberal and communist worlds emerged, leading to and underpinning current Hybrid Warfare, underway from Ukraine to Georgia. Its roots lay in the Russian interpretation of the Western attitude towards the East as Neo-colonialist. Relying on the income from its vast energy resources, Russia also tries to develop its version of so called “Soft Power”, used by the West in this region. Though in Russian hands, it is coupled with Moscow’s imperial experiences and resentments, and is becoming a mere element in Hybrid or “non-linear” war. Speaking retrospectively, the Eastern Partnership Initiative of the European Union can be seen as a response to Hybrid threats, posed by Russia against its Western and Southern neighbors. But the question is, whether EU foreign policy initiatives towards this area can and will be efficient and sufficient, if continued to be mostly defensive and limited within Soft Power mechanisms and philosophy, while Russia successfully combines those with traditional Hard Power know-how? The authors argue that in the long run, European or Euro-Atlantic Soft Power tool-kits, spreading Human Rightsbased culture farther in the East, will remain unmatched. But in order to prevail over the Russian revisionist policy here and now, the West, and, particularly, the EU need to re-evaluate traditional foreign policy options and come up with a more drastic combination of Soft/Hard Powers by itself. As the Georgian case shows, the European community should more efficiently use Conditionality and Coercive Diplomacy, combined with clearer messages about partners’ membership perspectives.

Foreign Policy of Nepal: Continuity and Changes

After the unification of Nepal, the founder of the nation, King Prithvi Narayan Shah formulated an underlying principle of Nepal's foreign policy based on Geopolitics. He described the geographical situation of Nepal as a ‘yam between two boulders’, referring to the two big neighbours of Nepal – China and India. King Prithvi Narayan Shah was not only a great warrior but a visionary leader, who had appropriately assessed the geopolitical sensitivities of Nepal and adopted non-aligned foreign policy. He also said it was important for the county to keep a balanced relationship with these two huge neighbours. He cautiously moved maintained distance and balance considering the imperatives of the fragile situation. Nepal's foreign policy thereafter has passed through the turbulent periods; extreme loyalty had been maintained to the southern neighbour and pro-northern approach surfaced consequently. With the formation of the elected government after the promulgation of new constitution, major shift is observed in Nepal's foreign policy- the diversification of Nepal's trade and transit to China.

Retraction Note to: Estimation of the source process and forward simulation of long-period ground motion of the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi, Japan, earthquake

The authors have retracted this article [1] because after its publication, they noticed that the source inversion was not done with the intended setting. Although it was mentioned in this article [1] that the rupture starting point of the fault model was set at the hypocenter determined by JMA as shown in Fig. 1, the rupture starting point in the real analysis was accidentally set at an incorrect location, the center point of the subfault southern neighbor of the hypocenter subfault. Thus, the source-inversion result (Figs. 2, 3, S1, and S2) and the forward ground-motion simulation result for the mainshock (Figs. 4 and 5), which used the source-inversion result as a source input, need to be corrected.

The African Incense Trade and Its Impacts in Pharaonic Egypt

Among ancient Egypt’s most prized imports were resins and other aromatics obtained mainly from or through Nubia and Punt, an area that included the African and Arabian shores of the southern Red Sea. Egyptian texts emphasized the association between these places and the imports of aromatics, indicating that the use of incense and other types of aromatics was likely a foreign introduction to ancient Egypt. This paper surveys the Egyptian terminology for specific and general forms of incense and proposed modern identifications. It presents the evidence for Egyptian contact with Punt in the context of the incense trade and shows the importance of African aromatics within several spheres of Egyptian culture from the late Predynastic to Ptolemaic times. Egyptian religious practices embraced incense as a signifier of the divine, and Nubian gods in the Egyptian pantheon were intimately associated with incense. Apart from religion, aromatics played important roles in the political realm, and both the aromatics trade and processing were a state enterprise. We explore the political, economic, and commercial networks that shaped the importation of aromatics in ancient Egypt and the implications for understanding cultural appropriation and intercultural entanglement between Egypt and its southern neighbors.

Isolation and Characterization of Newcastle Disease Virus from Live Bird Markets in Tanzania.

Chickens in live bird markets (LBMs) from six different regions of Tanzania were surveyed for Newcastle disease (ND) virus (NDV) and avian influenza virus in 2012. ELISA-based serology, virus isolation, and characterization, including pathotyping was conducted. Virulent NDV was isolated from almost 10% of the tested samples, with two distinct genotypes being detected. One genotype was similar to recent viruses circulating in Kenya and Uganda, which share a northern border with Tanzania. Several viruses of this genotype were also isolated from Tanzania in 1995, the last time surveillance for NDV was conducted in the country. The second genotype of virus from Tanzania was closely related to viruses from Mozambique, a southern neighbor, and more distantly to viruses from South Africa, Botswana, and several European countries. Partial fusion gene sequence from the isolated viruses showed identical fusion cleavage sites that were compatible with virulent viruses. Selected viruses were tested by the intracerebral pathogenicity index, and all viruses tested had scores of >1.78, indicating highly virulent viruses. Serology showed only a third of the chickens had detectable antibody to NDV, suggesting that vaccination is not being commonly used in the country, despite the availability of vaccines in agricultural-related markets. All samples were taken from clinically healthy birds, and it is believed that the birds were sold or slaughtered before showing ND clinical signs. LBMs remain a biosecurity risk for farmers through the return of live infected birds to the farm or village or the movement of virus on fomites, such as uncleaned wooden cages.

Knowledge as civilizational role play: China watching by its Southern neighbours

Colonial and postcolonial relations have always constituted sites of knowledge production in the Global South. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to the production of knowledge of a Global South self vis-à-vis the West. However, the literature has not seriously attended self-knowledge production in the Global South with regard to non-Western others. The paper compares South and Southeast Asian think tanks to reflect upon a common identity strategy of small nations to become a civilizational bridge between competing major neighbours. Specifically, China experts in these areas host more or less a common wish or even a desire to be a bridge over the difference of China and its potential rival in India, the West, or both. The bridge role is a rare sensibility in the postcolonial critique of the West. Watching China from its Southern Third World neighbourhood incurs such an agenda. Relying on interviews of retired diplomats and think tank experts, the paper also discusses how the abovementioned methodological characteristics affect the enactment of the bridge role.

Conflicting visions? Cuba in the eyes of a Soviet spy and an American diplomat

Abstract This review essay considers the books Raúl Castro: un hombre en revolución by Nikolai S. Leonov and Our woman in Havana: a diplomat's chronicle of America's long struggle with Castro's Cuba by Vicki Huddleston. One would be hard-pressed to find more qualified observers with first-hand experience of Cuba's politics than Nikolai Leonov and Vicki Huddleston. A former chief of KGB's analytical department, Leonov held several medals and decorations, including the Ernesto Che Guevara First Degree Order of the Cuban Council of State. Huddleston, on the other hand, headed the Cuban Affairs of the State Department and in 1999 became the first woman to lead the United States' Interests Section in Havana. Both authors offer in their accounts two visions of Cuba which rather complement each other. The keen revolutionary eye of the Soviet spy leans towards temporality. He saw Cuba in East–West terms, where historically the decade-old American aggressive plans and Soviet's withdrawal pushed the island into a corner. On the other hand, the seasoned American diplomat, well versed in the complex ebb and flow between her state and its southern neighbour, sides with positivity. To her, Cuba is a ‘natural ally’ to the United States. Our woman in Havana admits there is more to the erstwhile Cold War, and with this Ambassador Huddleston's seeks to awaken the ‘better angels’ of US foreign policy towards the island nation.

Gravity, Borders, and Regionalism: A Canada–US Sub-National Analysis

ABSTRACTThis article examines the extent to which trade costs influence the magnitude and direction of both east-west and north-south trade in Canada and the United States. With the aid of an alternative framework which pays attention to key estimation issues in the gravity literature, we garner further evidence in support of a decline, over time, in the home bias syndrome. Our results uphold the Linder hypothesis but refute the Heckscher-Ohlin factor endowment proposition. In light of the recently modernized trilateral trade agreement in North America, we conclude with policy lessons on buffering the Canadian economy from asymmetric trade shocks from its southern neighbor.

Rethinking Tasmania’s Regionality from an Antarctic Perspective: Flipping the Map

Tasmania hangs from the map of Australia like a drop in freefall from the substance of the mainland. Often the whole state is mislaid from Australian maps and logos (Reddit). Tasmania has, at least since federation, been considered peripheral—a region seen as isolated, a ‘problem’ economically, politically, and culturally. However, Tasmania not only cleaves to the ‘north island’ of Australia but is also subject to the gravitational pull of an even greater land mass—Antarctica. In this article, we upturn the political conventions of map-making that place both Antarctica and Tasmania in obscure positions at the base of the globe. We show how a changing global climate re-frames Antarctica and the Southern Ocean as key drivers of worldwide environmental shifts. The liquid and solid water between Tasmania and Antarctica is revealed not as a homogenous barrier, but as a dynamic and relational medium linking the Tasmanian archipelago with Antarctica. When Antarctica becomes the focus, the script is flipped: Tasmania is no longer on the edge, but core to a network of gateways into the southern land. The state’s capital of Hobart can from this perspective be understood as an "Antarctic city", central to the geopolitics, economy, and culture of the frozen continent (Salazar et al.). Viewed from the south, we argue, Tasmania is not a problem, but an opportunity for a form of ecological, cultural, economic, and political sustainability that opens up the southern continent to science, discovery, and imagination.

The European Union’s public diplomacy towards the South Mediterranean: intercultural dialogue and power relations in the Euro–Mediterranean partnership

The aftermath of the Arab uprisings, the rise of Da’esh and the refugee crisis have placed the European Union’s interdependence with its southern neighbours on the spotlight, giving a renewed emphasis to the dialogue of cultures that forms part of the third basket of the Euro–Mediterranean Partnership. From a dialogical model of public diplomacy, this paper analyses the quality of the intercultural dialogue between the EU and the South Mediterranean employing the Anna Lindh Foundation as a case study. The overarching claim of this paper is that power is a social structure that resides in the dialogue itself and thus rejects the view that genuine dialogue needs to be power free. In order to empirically investigate this question, this paper employs Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to study what spaces have been created for intercultural dialogue (strategies), and on what terms they have been defined (narratives).

MAIN FOREIGN POLICY CHALLENGES OF ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN IN THE CAUCASUS (IN IRANIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY)

Following the collapse of the USSR, regional states of the Caucasus faced serious political and economic problems. It needs to be mentioned that some of the fundamental problems existing in the region can be traced back to various historical and social factors that can be analyzed under the issues related with the Third world countries. Recent developments in the region including territorial disputes, economic and military crisis, security and strategic vacancy in the region has caught the attention of major regional and global players like the USA, EU, Russian Federation, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Chechnya and Saudi Arabia. For instance, the USA see the Caucasus and Caspian Sea region as its strategic economic interests, and vital areas. The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) as the southern neighbor of Caucasus countries is considered as one of the major regional players. Historical, political, cultural and geographical links with regional countries beside prime and vital issues is of the most fundamental effective factors in regional policies of Iran. Furthermore based ideologies and principals over IRI’s domestic and foreign policies have paved the ground for further relationships, confrontation, conflicts and coalitions with regional countries.

Antonio OrtuñoOlinka

Books in Review of language, resist “facile contrasts,” and yet “recognize the role opposition plays in constructing meaning.” Kurt Heinzelman University of Texas, Austin Antonio Ortuño Olinka Mexico City. Planeta. 2019. 248 pages. In 2015 the Independent reported that the United States Treasury Department had sanctioned more businesses for money laundering in Guadalajara—our southern neighbor’s second-largest city—than any other place in Mexico. More recently (in July 2018), Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the Mexican presidency in a landslide victory after having waged a campaign in which anticorruption measures served as a centerpiece of his agenda. It is in this context that Antonio Ortuño (b. 1976, Guadalajara) has published Olinka, a short novel dealing with Mexico’s runaway housing market, families torn apart by crime, and the human face of large-scale corruption. Ortuño’s narrative, rife with rapid-fire dialogue and fascinating psychological meanderings, has already garnered favorable reviews in the LA Times (Spanish edition), Mexico’s Aristegui Noticias , and Spain’s El País. Olinka opens when the protagonist, Aurelio Blanco, has to pick up the pieces of his life after spending fifteen years in prison. Naturally, “Blanco” could be read as the most commonplace of last names (White), even though other translations —namely, “target” or even “empty”—seem more telling, especially since Aurelio feels broken and believes himself to be a marked man. Having worked as an accountant, Blanco’s time behind bars comes after being the fall guy for one of Guadalajara ’s patriarchal engineers, Carlos Flores, who has built an unsuccessful and unfinished luxury housing complex. This boondoggle of a project had been ambitiously christened “Olinka,” the name of the proposed utopian community originally dreamt up by Gerardo Murillo, the real-life artist who found fame in twentiethcentury Mexico during the heyday of national consolidation. Furthermore , it is intimated that Flores’s and Blanco’s failed Olinka has been funded by crooked investors from Mexico’s northern states, a shadowy allusion to the specter of drug money, constant in the collective political consciousness of Mexico. All told, the text is haunted by the ghosts of Mexico’s monumental twentieth century even as the nation’s present-day political realities are rendered painfully personal— especially for Blanco, who returns to a wife who doesn’t love him and a daughter who doesn’t know him. Ortuño provides remarkable insight into the strained internal lives of these characters via an omniscient and curious narrator; Ortuño’s prose reveals how much emotional damage can be inflicted by crime and corruption. The novel invites us to ponder the relationship between our built environments , nationalism, and family ties. Against a booming housing market , buoyed by neoliberalism , fudged finances, and disappeared people, how is the sense of family life diminished? Kevin Anzzolin University of Wisconsin –Stout Lasana M. Sekou Hurricane Protocol Philipsburg, St. Martin. House of Nehesi. 2019. 53 pages. The latest poetic effort of the revolutionary poet of St. Martin, Lasana M. Sekou, drags us into the whirlwind of his words right from the start of the collection with a traditional proverb: “The gale doesn’t stop at the frontier.” Be it an imaginary frontier, such as that still dividing St. Martin between the Netherlands and France, or a metaphysical frontier, such as the threshold we cross when we start reading a book, the hurricane does not stop in any case. Written in memory of the devastating hurricanes Irma (Sept. 6) and Maria (Sept. 19) that ravaged St. Martin, and many other Caribbean islands, in 2017, this collection of poems materializes Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s statement that “the hurricane does not roar in pentameters” (History of the Voice, 1984). And in the roar of Hurricane Protocol, Sekou significantly tackles a climate phenomenon that seems glaringly absent from the region’s arts, despite its annual destructive recurrence. The book’s title derives from the Mayan word huracan, which the poet identifies with “a K’iche’ Maya god of wind, storm, fire, and one of the creator deities”—and explains further as “Huracán in Spanish; in Mayan languages Hunraqan (‘one legged’), and often U K’ux Kaj (‘Heart of Sky’).” The...

Stosunki językowe na ziemi głubczyckiej po II wojnie światowej. Nieznane opracowanie Biura Prac Kongresowych

Jednym z argumentów mających uzasadniać czechosłowackie roszczenia do fragmentów terenów przejętych przez Polskę w 1945 r. było zamieszkiwanie tam w zwartych grupach ludności posługującej się językiem czeskim. Na potrzeby polemik z południowym sąsiadem strona polska musiała więc sprawdzić zasadność tej argumentacji. Próbę określenia zasięgu występowania języka czeskiego na obszarze ziemi głubczyckiej i Kotliny Kłodzkiej podjął niepodpisany ekspert, prawdopodobnie wywodzący się z kręgu współpracowników krakowskiej ekspozytury Biura Prac Kongresowych.

Fatigue Within the EU’s Eastern Partnership: The EU Role in the “Neighbourhood Of Crisis”

Abstract Since 2004, when the European neighbourhood policy was established, the European Union has already spent billions of euros to finance the new neighbourhood policies for creating more stable and more cooperative relations with eastern and southern neighbours. However, increased security concerns and challenges, less stable and less prognostic relations seem to have produced the opposite result of what was sought, and so Europe is experiencing a “neighbourhood of crisis”. Did it fail? What strategy has the EU been using within the last 15 years in relations with its neighbouring countries? What specific tools and instruments have been adapted? Did the renewal of European neighbourhood policy introduce any completely new strategic elements? This article examines these questions, focusing on three perspectives suggested by role theory: intentional, interactional and institutional. The study applies qualitative research methodology and claims that the EU has been seeking to transmit not just EU values and standards but also internal institutional practices and modes of EU governance.

Как сохранить географическое пространство Азиатской России?

<span>В статье географическое пространство России рассматривается в свете последних политических и социально-экономических процессов. Автор акцентирует внимание на географических аспектах пространственного развития азиатской части России, ограниченной с севера российской Арктикой, с юга</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceBefore"> </span><span>–</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceAfter"> </span><span>приграничьем с Казахстаном, Монголией и Китаем. Отмечено, что в существующих стратегических документах РФ недостаточно оцениваются риски климатических изменений, смены политического, экономического курса южных соседей Российской Федерации. Рассмотрены ключевые достоинства и недостатки мегапроекта «Единая Евразия</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceBefore"> </span><span>–</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceAfter"> </span><span>Транс-Евразийский пояс развития», проанализированы отдельные аспекты Программы северного экономического коридора, принятой лидерами России, Монголии и Китая. Сформулированы концептуальные предложения по сохранению географического пространства Азиатской России.</span>

Enhancing productive capabilities through intra-regional trade and cross-border investments in Southern Africa

ABSTRACTRegional integration is an important factor for enabling knowledge flows between economies and enhancing the capacity of firms within the integrated block to benefit from local knowledge spillovers. This study analyses data on economic interactions between Botswana and its technologically more advanced southern neighbour, South Africa, to examine the extent to which knowledge flows facilitated by geographical proximity translate into fostering technological learning and productivity of manufacturing firms. Industry- and firm-level data on bilateral capital goods trade and investments over the period 1991–2013 are used to assess the technological learning of the manufacturing sector in Botswana. This study also applies the Hunt, J, & Tybout, J (1999. Does Promoting High-Tech Products Spur Development? FEEM Working Paper REG 42. Milan: Fondazione Eni EnricoMattei) technological sophistication framework to analyse the role played by regional trade and investment flows between the economies of South Africa and Botswana in the skills intensification of manufacturing firms. Skills intensity decomposition reveals that Botswana’s manufacturing technical intensity has been positively influenced by the extent of capital goods trade and investment linkages with South African economy.

Information management in the police force of the Slovak Republic

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN THE POLICE FORCE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLICThe article presents the process of information management within the realms of the functio­ning of the Police Corps in the Slovak Republic. The described solutions concern broadly under­stood social communication, which is the participation of press departments of this largest military force responsible for safety and public order in our southern neighbour. Within the article both orga­nizational and doctrinal solutions were presented in the scope of contacts with media, information flow between individual departments, and organizational units of the Police Corps.

The Ottoman Empire and Russia in Light of Their Geopolitical Demarcation

The article analyzes Russian—Ottoman relations from the territorial point of view. The author traces stages of these relations and shows how the attitudes of Russian power and society to the problem of southward expansion changed through centuries. She concludes that in the nineteenth century Russia ceased to be interested in the military solution of the “Eastern Question” and it was often the pressure of European international affairs that made the country wage war against its southern neighbor.