Far beyond the Gulf: the implications of warfare for Asian labour migration

The implications of the Gulf War are assessed for the countries in Asia that send labor migrants to the Middle East. "This paper seeks to examine the effects of...the loss of remittances (and related issues, including return migration), primarily in terms of the long-term implications of the War for the future of contract labour migration in the Asian region...."     

Water wars in the Middle East: a looming threat

This paper explains how hydropolitical dynamics and spatial variables almost triggered a water war between Israel and Lebanon because the latter was building a pump on the Wazzani Spring, a tributary of the Jordan River. The convergence of a regional drought, history of violent confrontations between the two riparians, distrust, varying development needs and territorial disputes almost culminated in a war between these east Mediterranean neighbours. While most international water disputes in the Middle East will be resolved peacefully, some are likely to trigger violent confrontations threatening political stability in the Middle East in the next few decades.     

Book Reviews

Committee on Protection and Management of Pacific Northwest Anadromous Salmonids Upstream: Salmon and Society in the Pacific Northwest Cook, Ian G; Doel, Marcus A. and Li, Rex (eds.) Fragmented Asia: Regional Integration and National Disintegration in Pacific Asia Crush, Jonathan Power of Development de Blij, H. J., and Muller, Peter O. Physical Geography of the Global Environment Hayward, David J. International Trade and Regional Economies: The Impacts of European Integration on the United States Kennedy, Michael The Global Positioning System and GIS: An Introduction Lowe, Philip; Marsden, Terry and Whatmore, Sarah (eds) Regulating Agriculture Marsden, Terry; Lowe, Philip and Whatmore, Sarah (eds) Labour and Locality: Uneven Development and the Rural Labour Process Marsden, Terry; Lowe, Philip and Whatmore, Sarah (eds) Rural Restructuring: Global Processes and Their Responses Whatmore, Sarah; Marsden, Terry and Lowe, Philip (eds) Gender and Rurality Whatmore, Sarah; Marsden, Terry and Lowe, Philip (eds) Rural Enterprise: Shifting Perspectives on Small-Scale Production Martopo, Sugeng and Mitchell, Bruce (eds) Bali: Balancing Environment, Economy and Culture Ould-Mey, Mohameden Global Restructuring and Peripheral States: The Carrot and the Stick in Mauritania Redclift, Michael and Benton, Ted (eds) Social Theory and the Global Environment Thomas–Slayter, Barbara and Rocheleau, Dianne Gender, Environment, and Development in Kenya: A Grassroots Perspective Wallach, Bret Losing Asia: Modernization and the Culture of Development Wennberg, John E. Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care Wilson, David and Huff, James O. (eds) Marginalized Places and Populations: A Structurationist Agenda     

Contesting ‘Local’ Commemoration of the Second World War: the case of the Changi Chapel and Museum in Singapore

This paper concerns the performance of national war memory at the Changi Chapel and Museum, a site honouring the many prisoners interned in Japanese-Occupied Singapore—especially at Changi—during the Second World War. In the light of the global nature of ‘the Changi story’, and the predominantly transnational nature of its present in situ memorialisation, we first examine how the Singapore state has sought to ‘localise’ the site to make it equally appealing to Singaporeans, as a place where a sense of their ‘shared history’ may be invoked. We then explore the Singaporeans' views about the site and its reconfiguration as a national icon, arguing how the state's task of ‘localising’ the site has been a vexed process due to myriad factors such as ethnic and religious plurality, and the already foreign-centric bias of prevailing knowledge about Changi. Following that, we show how this performance of national memory is also inflected by Australia's national remembrance of the same event. More broadly, we highlight the contested process of ‘localising’ such war memoryscapes as national iconography, suggesting how it may be more fruitful to conceive them as ‘international memoryscapes’, or places to which all individuals can relate regardless of race or national affiliations.     

War,by Conservation

In this paper I argue that there has been a critical shift towards war by conservation in which conservation, security and counter insurgency (COIN) are becoming more closely integrated. In this new phase concerns about global security constitute important underlying drivers, while biodiversity conservation is of secondary importance. This is a significant break from earlier phases of fortress conservation and war for biodiversity. In order to develop a better understanding of these shifts, this paper analyzes the existing conceptual approaches, notably environmental security which seeks to understand how resources cause or shape conflict, and political ecology approaches that focus on the struggles over access to and control over resources. However, this paper indicates the limitations of these existing debates for understanding recent shifts, which require a fresh approach. I chart the rise of the narrative I call poachers-as-terrorists, which relies on the invocation of the idea that ivory is the white gold of Jihad, a phrase which is closely associated with an Elephant Action League (EAL) report in 2012 which claimed Al Shabaab used ivory to fund its operations. This narrative is being extended and deepened by a powerful alliance of states, conservation NGOs, Private Military Companies and international organizations, such that it is shaping policies, especially in areas of US geo-strategic interest in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result conservation is becoming a core element of a global security project, with significant implications for conceptual debates and for conservation practice on the ground.     

Mawson and Mirnyy Stations: the spatiality of the Australian Antarctic Territory, 1954–61

This article focuses on the spatiality of the Australian Antarctic Territory in the important 1954–61 period. Attending particularly to three key components of polar spatiality—geopolitics, international territorial law, and the built environment—the article analyses the development of the Territory as a unique Australian space. The 1954–61 period is particularly significant: during this period, the International Geophysical Year brought an unprecedented number of people to Antarctica; the continent's first permanent colonies were constructed; and, despite Cold War tensions, the 1961 Antarctic Treaty established the spatial configurations and rules which continue to govern the continent today. The article focuses particularly on two key stations in the Territory constructed during this period: Australia's Mawson Station and the Soviet Mirnyy Station. Mawson is a legal colony, designed to cement Australia's claim to 42 per cent of the Antarctic continent; Mirnyy, in contrast, is an anti-colony, designed to reject Australia's claim. How the individual spatialities of these two stations articulate to the broader politics of Antarctic territoriality—and particularly Australia's claim to the Australian Antarctic Territory—is the focus of this article.     

Ireland,the Great War and the Geography of Remembrance

Nuala C. Johnson. >Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ix and 192 pp., maps, photos, biblio., and index. $60.00 hardback (ISBN 0-521-82616-0)     

Mapping for history: the influence of the 7th Field Survey Company’s 1917 operation maps on the historiography of the 3rd Battle of Gaza

ABSTRACT

During Palestine Campaign of World War I, the British Army’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force produced a series of operation maps to track and control the progress of their offensive into Palestine. These maps demonstrated innovation in both their form and function, and they have been referenced and reproduced by both map scholars and military historians ever since. Leaning on J.B. Harley and Matthew Edney’s ideas about critical map history, this essay provides a critical examination of these operation maps to illuminate the sociocultural context of their creation and examines the maps’ influence over the broader historiography of the Palestine Campaign. In doing so it highlights the interdisciplinary value of critical map histories.     

衡山抗战军事文化旅游资源开发探索

南岳衡山是我国南方唯一的一处五岳名山,历史上也是我国南方最大的文化、宗教活动中心之一,素享"五岳独秀"、"文明奥区"、"宗教圣地"、"抗战名山"等盛名.在抗日战争中,衡山曾一度成为国民政府的军事指挥中心,留下了大量的抗战军事文化史话、遗存和胜迹等文化旅游资源.衡山抗战军事文化资源极具个性特色,拥有较高的开发利用价值.文中从衡山抗战军事文化资源形成的历史地理背景入手,全面阐述了衡山抗战军事文化资源,探讨如何把衡山"抗战名山"资源转变为现实旅游资源或现实的经济优势,提升南岳衡山生态文化旅游的品位,实现南岳衡山