Transregional Interactions Research Articles

European Union transregional cooperation with Latin America: perspectives, opportunities, constraints

The article focuses on modern development of the transregional cooperation between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The study is based on official documents, on the European think tanks’ studies, as well as the conceptual vision of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The research provides the main directions of short-term and medium-term transregional interaction between the EU and LAC. The authors consider the energy transition as one of the promising areas of transatlantic cooperation for the near future which can stimulate economic growth and production transformations in the LAC region. The article addresses the issue of building the strategic autonomy of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors describe three scenarios of LAC’s development in terms of transregional cooperation with the EU. It is concluded that the European Union in the context of a changing world order is trying to make Latin America and the Caribbean economically and technologically dependent through the implementation of investment programs as part of the green agenda on the way to an accelerated global energy transition.

Introduction: Middle East -South Asia Relations

The Middle East and South Asia can be defined as interlinked political spaces that experience deepening interactions of their energetic and ambitious regional powers together with the constant strategic competition of major global powers. This vibrancy has been relentlessly fuelled by the geo-economic/political/strategic, and humanitarian needs of these two regions’ actors. Since there are no regional groupings effectively representing the two regions these interactions are mostly minilateral or bilateral and are bolstered by historical, cultural and religious affinities. Yet, due to the relatively higher power status of the Middle East, these transregional interactions operate on an asymmetrical basis.

Andean community – Eurasian Economic Union: are there any prospects?

The article examines the integration experience of the Andean Community (CAN) in the context of its relationship with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), basing on the interdisciplinary approach. During the period of its existence, the Andean Community has repeatedly undergone a state of internal crisis and reforming of the institutional model, but managed to succeed in creating a Free Trade Area and strengthen extra-regional ties. Its initiatives and extensive institutional structure largely testify to the strengthening of socio-economic cooperation between countries in the field of supporting business, the academic community and indigenous peoples. CAN is of interest in the context of the development of trans-regional interaction between it and the EAEU. Both structures show mutual interest in the exchange of practices and experience in the sphere of integration development. According to the author, the key task for CAN and the EAEU should be not only the implementation of the signed documents on cooperation, but also the constant maintenance of a dialogue within the framework of formal institutional mechanisms, the identification of mutually beneficial areas of cooperation.

An investigation into the Pottery Flasks at the Sanandaj Archaeological Museum

Pottery has a significant bearing on the reconstruction of ancient regional and transregional interactions. Flasks represent a pottery type that was more ubiquitous in the historical period. The present study examined 16 pottery flasks stored at the Sanandaj Archaeological Museum in order to address three research questions: Which historical period can this pottery be dated to? What is the geographical range over which they were manufactured given the available excavated comparanda? What types are represented in the sample under study in terms of manufacturing technique, surface treatment, decoration, and form? The results showed that the flasks were primarily produced in two varieties, round shouldered and angular shouldered, with their exterior coated in a slip or a buff, turquoise, and light or dark green glaze. Judging by their appearance (surface finish and decorations), they were produced in the Hellenistic and Parthian period. It was found out that they have parallels among assemblages from west and southwest Iran and Mesopotamia. The study adopted the descriptivehistorical and comparative methods.

Nodes and Hubs: An Exploration of Yiguandao Temples as ‘Portals of Globalization’

This paper takes a fresh look at the global spread of the Chinese–Taiwanese new religious movement Yiguandao (一貫道; the emic transcription is “I-Kuan Tao”) by directing attention to the concrete places where transnational connections and interactions actually transpire, i.e., temples, shrines, and other sites of worship. Emically known as “Buddha halls” (fotang 佛堂), these places range from large-scale temple complexes, to small niches of worship in people’s private residences. Yet, they all share the potential of becoming venues of transregional interactions through processes of migration, the circulation of personnel, and local outreach. I argued that we need to take the distinct character of these localities more seriously, in order to fully understand the global networks of Yiguandao groups. Through their specific embeddedness in both local affairs and transnational projects, these temples are not simply local chapters of the (mostly) Taiwanese headquarters, but instead they are “translocalities” or even “portals of globalization”—two concepts developed in migration and global studies to help understand the significance of place in the recent phase of so-called globalization. By exploring Yiguandao temples across the globe, this paper critically evaluated these approaches, and their usefulness for the study of global religions. Empirically, it drew on both print and online material, as well as ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in Taiwan, Vienna (Austria), California, South Africa, and Japan from 2016 to 2018.

Swahili language and literature as resources for Indian Ocean studies

AbstractIn this contribution, our common point of convergence as an anthropologist and a literary scholar is to see Swahili language, literature and other texts as interwoven with the depth, scope, and complex dynamics of human experience and social life on the East Africa coast, with its long history of Islam. This includes prominently a view as to how this relates or is integral to the larger Indian Ocean world. Swahili language and its genres have been shaped in relation to, and in context of, transregional interaction with other languages and traditions that carry influence, and significance for the coastal residents. Ideas, thoughts, arguments and verse are taken on, adapted, mediated and disseminated flexibly by Swahili speakers through language repertoires and (mostly poetic) genres in changing media. These range from oral performances and handwritten manuscripts to booklets, CD recordings, radio programs and social media platforms.

The quest for red rice beer: transregional interactions and development of competitive feasting in Neolithic China

The quest for red rice beer: transregional interactions and development of competitive feasting in Neolithic China

Specifics of Political and Legal Documents on Cooperation between the EAEU and third Countries (part 2)

This study examines the transregional interaction of the EAEU with third countries within the framework of the concept of “soft power” on the basis of concluded cooperation agreements bearing international legal obligations. Aim. The study aims to identify the features of the bilateral interaction of the EAEU with Vietnam, Singapore, China, Serbia and Iran within the framework of the concept of “soft power” based on a comparative analysis of political and legal documents on cooperation.Tasks. The author defines the conceptual foundations of the economic dimension of “soft power”; considers political and legal documents on cooperation concluded between the EAEU and Vietnam, Singapore, China, Serbia, Iran, and identifies the components of “soft power” on the basis of the concluded documents.Methods. The study uses methods of content analysis and comparative analysis of political and legal documents on cooperation based on criteria such as legal form, institutional mechanism, areas of cooperation to identify the features of bilateral cooperation between the EAEU and Vietnam, Singapore, China, Serbia, Iran and the components of “soft power”.Results. The study shows that the “soft power” components of political and legal documents on cooperation are more presented in the relationship between the EAEU and Vietnam and Singapore. It is the provisions of these agreements that most often mention scientific and technical cooperation and the implementation of joint research projects, scientific and educational exchange, and education issues. Nevertheless, there are risks in the field of integration interaction between the EAEU and the aforementioned countries, due to both the geographical factor and their specifics in building integration relations with third countries.Conclusions. Transregional interaction between the EAEU and the above-mentioned countries is aimed at the exchange of information, liberalization and transparency in trade, support for the mechanisms of the World Trade Organization (WTO). An analysis of political and legal documents on cooperation between the EAEU using the example of Vietnam and Singapore demonstrates the opportunities for the EAEU not only to integrate into the global economy and strengthen competitiveness, but also to increase the attractiveness of the EAEU states in terms of promoting the “soft power” strategy.

The Indian Ocean as a Memory Space

Abstract This conversation with the author Neera Kapur-Dromson took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9th March 2018 during filming of the documentary film ‘Afrasian Memories in East Africa’ in which Neera Kapur-Dromson features. Neera Kapur-Dromson lives in France and Kenya. She is the author of the book ‘From Jhelum to Tana’. Here, Neera-Kapur Dromson reflects upon transregional interactions across the Indian Ocean as a memory space through life histories of various generations of her ancestors, various actors within the cosmopolitanisms of the Indian Ocean and her own experiences. She discusses how specific Indian Ocean societies experienced, were shaped by and negotiated multiple transformations related but not limited to nation-state politics, transoceanic trade, citizenship politics, colonial railway projects, identity politics, religion and transculturality as migrations, colonialism, and resultant interactions occurred across time and space. Her discussion visualises and demystifies the emergence of entangled Afrasian transregional spaces within the complexity of cosmopolitan societies across the Indian Ocean. The film was part of an international research project at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, titled Africa’s Asian Options (AFRASO). It was launched during an AFRASO symposium titled “Afrasian Entanglements: Current Dynamics and Future Perspectives in India-Africa Relations” at the University of Mumbai in June 2018.

EAEU Expands International Cooperation: Latin American Trend

Integration associations are trying to expand their composition or sphere of interaction / influence. In modern international relations, the importance of transregionalism is increasing due to strengthening interdependence of countries at the global level and the formation for a new architecture of the world economy. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is trying to integrate itself into the world economy as an independent regional economic center and increase its competitiveness. Therefore, the Eurasian Economic Union seeks to develop transregional interaction with various regions, including Latin American and the Caribbean countries that caused the increasing role of Latin America in the context of the formation for a polycentric world system. The aim of the study is to identify transregional interaction specifics between the Eurasian Economic Union and Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Cuba, and Argentina. On the basis of a comparative analysis of political and legal documents on cooperation, according to legal forms, institutional mechanisms and areas of cooperation the authors have concluded that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), in contrast to the European Union, implements classical transregionalism model with Latin American countries. Wherein, the Memo- randum of understanding is the mechanism that does not create rights and obligations, within the framework of international law. The signing of such documents on cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union and Latin American countries is the initial stage for strengthening mutual trade and economic cooperation, exchange of experience and information on regional economic integration, research and development so can be considered as element of soft power.

The New Deal and the Old Frontier: American Identity, Environmental Design, and the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933–42

As a flagship program of the New Deal, the CCC was one of several federal agencies which turned to the natural and built environment to promote socio-cultural homogenization between the First and Second World War. This article investigates the CCC's role as an agent of national transformation and considers the links between the New Deal's treatment of the American landscape and its promotion of a new, more pluralistic national identity. While historians of the interwar United States are quick to note the social and environmental significance of the CCC, the cultural role of this program remains largely overlooked. Specifically, relevant scholarship has neglected to address the architectural output of this program and the way it related to the New Deal's broader socio-cultural initiatives. With camps in each of the forty-eight states and overseas territories, the CCC reconfigured much of the American landscape and deployed a regionally diverse blend of vernacular architecture, all while fostering a mythologized sense of cultural heritage from coast to coast. In order to better understand both the role and rationale behind this process, this article considers several examples of CCC-produced architecture and landscape design across the greater United States. It argues that these designs were key vehicles of the unifying message that drove the New Deal and its many so-called ‘alphabet agencies’ from the depths of economic depression to a state of preparedness as the country approached the precipice of global war. This article also considers the Corps' role in the New Deal's construction of popular historical consciousness and draws attention to the frequent transregional interactions between enrollees and local populations.

Facing Europe: Regional Aspects of Paradiplomatics in Chernivtsi Oblast (Current Challenges and Possible Solutions)

The article analyzes the phenomenon of paradiplomacy as a factor of fragmentation in a globalized world, which reflects the complex processes of reducing the role of the state as an actor and a foreign policy instrument in the post-Westphalian era. Different and real processes of regionalization and transregional interaction are investigated, using paradigm diplomacy in the Chernivtsi region. The author explores the factor of increasing the role of regional elites in order to increase their own legitimacy in the context of transregional interaction in the Upper Region Euroregion. Complexities and contradictions of transregional cooperation are considered. It’s concluded that the narrowing of this Euroregion should be avoided for ineffective communication between the managers and representatives of the bureaucracy of the three countries. The article noted that the granting of dual citizenship to representatives of the Romanian and Moldovan communities of Chernivtsi region is a certain critical milestone holding back highquality economic and social cooperation within the Upper Prut Euroregion. The author’s proposal is to launch a joint international educational and cultural project of Ukraine and Romania «History of Bukovina of the Twentieth сentury: without stereotypes and layers». The implementation of such project will help to overcome the old stereotypes in contemporary Ukrainian-Romanian relations, being a reliable tool for a more effective cultural paradigm over the next decade. We are facing the construction of European tradition in Ukraine, as well as in Romania and Moldova, which should be worthy of puzzle. Only then will the citizens of our three countries residing in the Upper Prut Euroregion become truly status citizens of United Europe, feeling the positive effects of the development of regional paradiplomacy.

Świeciechów Flint and the Trans-regional Interactions of the Funnel Beaker Populations

This paper deals with the distribution of Świeciechow flint and trans-regional interactions of the Funnel Beaker populations in the territory of modern Poland. Analysis of the numerical distribution of artefacts made it possible to draw a conclusion regarding the close connection in the ‘flow’ of Świeciechow and Volhynian flint. Two ‘routes’ of transportation of this raw material to Kujawy were identified. The first ‘route’ is associated with the Vistula river, while the second ‘route’, to a less extent confirmed by empirical evidence, indicates the raw material flow from the south

Transregional Interactions between Egypt and the Southern Levant in the 6th Millennium calBC

In the mid-6th millennium calBC, ceramics appeared for the first time in the Fayum and Delta of Lower Egypt. A southern Levantine origin for these ceramic types was proposed over fifty years ago by Jacob Kaplan (KAPLAN 1959) and several different cultural entities have since been considered as the possible origin, including the Yarmukian culture (EIWANGER 1984), the Qatifian culture (SMITH 1989), the Lodian (SHIRAI 2010), the Nizzanim and the Wadi Rabah culture (TASSIE 2014). This paper examines these five possible source cultures and reviews the archaeological data based on an absolute radiocarbon chronology. Preliminary results suggest that the Wadi Rabah culture played the most crucial role in the formation of the Neolithic of Lower Egypt, and that there were extensive cultural interactions between the Levant and Egypt. The interactions emerging in this period were embedded in an internationalism that connected most of the Near East. It can be envisaged that favourable climatic conditions in this period might also have enabled and facilitated interactions between the southern Levant and Egypt. The transregional interactions of the 6th millennium calBC can also be seen as a prelude to the better understood contacts of the Early Bronze Age, which also coincided with a climatic amelioration.

Regional heterogeneity and the trans-regional interaction of housing prices and inflation: Evidence from China’s 35 major cities

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to analyse the regionally heterogeneous responses of housing prices and inflation to the monetary aggregates shock and the trans-regional interaction of housing prices and inflation, which has seldom been discussed in previous literature. Using a GVAR (Globe Vector Autoregression) model, evidence based on China’s 35 major cities for this framework is provided. The results show that (1) the housing price shocks have weak positive influence on CPIs (consumer price index); (2) the housing price shocks, especially the shocks in first-tier cities and eastern cities, have strong positive influence on domestic housing price dynamics and housing prices of other cities; (3) monetary aggregates shock has strong influence on the housing prices of first-tier cities and eastern cities, while weak influence on that of central and western cities. CPIs are barely influenced by monetary aggregates shocks. The empirical results are in accordance with the theoretical explanation. Based on empirical results, this paper proposes policy recommendations for stabilising housing prices.

Interregional contacts in the 6th millennium BC: tracing foreign influences in the hole-mouth jar from Ein El-Jarba, Israel

This paper discusses a unique vessel of the Early Chalcolithic Wadi Rabah tradition of the 6th millennium BC, uncovered at Ein el-Jarba, Israel. Technical skill and iconographic language set this hole-mouth jar apart from other decorated vessels of the period. While the shape of the vessel fits well with the typology of the Wadi Rabah assemblage, its iconographic motifs can be traced back to ceramic traditions of northern Levant, and, we argue, even Caucasia and south-eastern Europe. The Ein el-Jarba hole-mouth jar adds a further layer to the still poorly understood trans-regional interaction between the Early Chalcolithic societies of the southern Levant and other cultural entities, indicating that its creator was familiar with the aesthetic traditions of distant communities.

Lifestyle and identity in contemporary Iranian Kurdistan (a grounded study of Marivan City)

Iranian Kurdistan has experienced profound sociocultural changes over the last decade. Some of the changes follow the governing pattern of changes in Iranian society while the main body of the changes is consequence of unique situation and condition of Iranian Kurdistan. Therefore, the present article is to study lifestyle changes, formation of modern identities, and their consequences in Marivan with regard to identifying influential local conditions and processes through qualitative perspective and ethnographic methodology. The data were gathered through participant observation and unstructured interviews. Based on theoretical saturation criterion 53 cases were interviewed. The collected data were categorized, analyzed, and documented into several major and fundamental themes through grounded theory method. “Structural challenges”, “expansion of trans-regional interactions”, “rapid and uneven development of border trade”, “communication media”, “visual resources”, and “contradictions of development” were categorized as “conditions”. “Transformation of identification resources”, “multiplicity of consumption motivation”, “flamboyance of upstart class”, “body recycling”, “modern leisure pursuits”, and “emancipatory politics” were identified as “interaction” and finally “value changes and reversal”, “identity conflicts”, and “mind–body disorders” were realized as consequences. The results indicate increasing prevalence of changes in different aspects of lifestyle and identity of the participants which in lots of cases are in comprehensive and fundamental contradiction to traditional and common cultural of Marivan.

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. Given the geography, chronology and seed morphology of these data, we argue that mobile pastoralists were key agents in the spread of crop repertoires and the transformation of agricultural economies across Asia from the third to the second millennium BC.

Средиземноморская политика ЕС в свете интеграционных процессов

The evolution of the EU strategy towards South-Mediterranean countries is investigated in the article. The author addresses main stages of the new transregional interaction model formation (in a multilateral and bilateral format): Barcelona Process, Euromed Partnership, Union for the Mediterranean, European Neighborhood Policy. The assessment of weak points is given, and the prospects of further integration are defined, in particular of the free-trade zone, single route and energy network creation.

PAINTED ROCK-CUT TOMBS IN CYPRUS FROM THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIODS TO BYZANTIUM: MATERIAL PROPERTIES, DEGRADATION PROCESSES AND SUSTAINABLE PRESERVATION STRATEGIES

The art of wall painting in Cyprus during the transitional period from Greco-Roman to Byzantine times introduced a wide spectrum of painting materials that reflect the social structure and organization of the period, provincial and transregional interactions and technological savoir faire. These materials include natural minerals – locally available or imported – organic fibers, gums, oils, artificially produced, high-fired vitreous composites and other chemically synthesized products. This paper investigates and presents the in situ alteration mechanisms that certain wall paintings have undergone due to physical and chemical processes caused by the adverse microclimate in enclosed rock-cut structures. It also proposes sustainable preservation strategies based on a holistic methodology, integrating novel scientific techniques for non-invasive in situ examination with state-of-the art non-destructive analysis of microsamples at the molecular scale.