Thailand’s Deep State,Royal Power and the Constitutional Court (1997–2015)

ABSTRACT

This article challenges the network monarchy approach and advocates for the use of the concept of Deep State. The Deep State also has the monarchy as its keystone, but is far more institutionalised than the network monarchy accounts for. The institutionalised character of the anti-democratic alliance is best demonstrated by the recent use of courts to hamper the rise of electoral politics in a process called judicialisation of politics. This article uses exclusive material from the minutes of the 1997 and 2007 constitution-drafting assemblies to substantiate the claim that the Deep State used royalists’ attempts to make the Constitutional Court a surrogate king for purposes of its own self-interested hegemonic preservation.     

The constitutional framework of the new Germany

Unification has again raised the question of continuity and discontinuity in German history. At the end of the Second World War, the jurist Kelsen put forward the theory that as a result of its defeat and. disarmament Germany had ceased to exist as a state. This view was generally rejected in theory, although in practice the position was not so clear‐cut. Subsequently, the use of the Basic Law to effect swift unification, together with the problems resulting from unification, has led to Kelsen's theory gaining in utility and justification.     

Highly recommended secondary classroom materials on China

Abstract

The units and books on this list are among those we most highly recommend for classroom use. These materials focus on China's socio-political history.     

The Sinicized self: prejudice,epistemology and Uyghur perceptions of their bodies

ABSTRACT

The ‘Sinicization’ of the Uyghur world – that is, the pervasive progression of Chinese influence into it – is a familiar topic of both Uyghur complaint and academic writing on Xinjiang. In this article, I discuss the striking appearance of this same motif in reference to the Sinicization of the physical Uyghur body, and use this example to argue that the communally enforced moral separation of the Uyghur from the Chinese, and the particular understanding of history that underpins this, have epistemological consequences for how the Uyghur people see themselves and the world.     

Drones over Pakistan: Secrecy,Ethics, and Counterinsurgency

Abstract

The US government appears to be using drones to launch air strikes inside Pakistan. This article details uncertainties regarding the ethical soundness of these strikes and highlights the consequent need for greater official transparency. Available evidence is assessed in the light of traditional ethical requirements that the use of force is beneficial to a legitimate military objective, that it discriminates between combatants and noncombatants, and that it generates harm that is proportional to the expected military benefit. The murky picture that emerges is an inadequate foundation for determining whether US drone strikes in Pakistan constitute a just or an unjust use of force. Arguably, however, the very persistence of doubt on this point undermines international norms on the use of force and the reputation of the United States as a champion thereof. The US government should therefore either refrain from drone strikes or explain publicly how they are beneficial, discriminate, and proportionate.     

Soviet boarding schools as a forge of national professionals and intellectuals in Soviet Tajikistan in the 1950s and 1960s

ABSTRACT

The study focuses on the institution of boarding schools (Russian: internat) in Soviet Tajikistan in the 1950s and 1960s and its role in the education and training of the new national generations of skilled professionals in the fields of industry, science, culture, art and healthcare, which in turn contributed to the development of their country. Along with the de-Stalinization of education and subsequent polytechnization, as well as flexibility in the use of Soviet institutions, the internats were transformed from a purely Soviet project into a more inclusive Soviet-Tajik project at the national level for the training of new young national-Sovietized professionals. These professionals combined the qualities of Sovietized and local (national), with their distinctive norms, traditions and values, into a totally new form. The boarding school system turned into a factory for bringing up national-Sovietized specialists and cadres.     

Il n’y a pas de question idiote? Les questions des députés européens à la Commission européenne et au Conseil depuis 1979

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes questions from the European parliament (EP) to the Commission and Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU). The exponential increase in the number of questions since the first direct election of the EP in 1979 is testimony to the changing pattern of inter-institutional relations in the EU and to the growing involvement of the EP in a variety of policy areas. At the individual level, the members of the EP strategically use questions either for the purposes of specialization or in order to connect with their voters. Analyzing parliamentary questions is therefore relevant for a better understanding of representation in a supranational setting.     

“I Fought. I Screamed. I Bit”: The Assertion of Rights Within Historic Abuse Inquiry Transcripts

ABSTRACT

This article examines how treating historic abuse inquiry testimonies as retrospective assertions of rights can help to shed light on how this abuse was able to occur and how memories are recalled in an inquiry environment. It presents its approach as a possible framework for other historians seeking to analyse testimonies with sensitivity. It uses, as an example, a case study from the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concerning two interrelated “homes” for girls, showing the ways in which abuse survivors can use their testimonies to assert rights denied them in the past and further the goals of public inquiries.     

China's Strategy in the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Dispute: Issue Linkage and Coercive Diplomacy

Abstract

For almost four decades, China has disputed Japan's sovereignty of several small rocky islands in the East China Sea. Despite a June 2008 joint gas development agreement, China continues to claim sovereignty and the dispute is nowhere close to being resolved. This study proposes that China benefits from the endurance of the dispute because it can use territorial dispute threats to compel Japan to change its behavior or policy on other disputed issues. The results show that China gained concessions on other issues by using the territorial dispute as bargaining leverage in most of the 26 threats made between 1978 and 2008.     

Educational infrastructure created in conditions of social exclusion: ‘Kyrgyz clubs’ for migrant children in Moscow

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates how social exclusion affects the strategies that migrants and their children experience vis-à-vis the preschool education system of the host society. We use the example of two private institutions established in Moscow by Kyrgyz migrants to explore their role in helping integrate migrant children into the host society. I examine the role the Kyrgyz community plays in the life of labour migrants in Moscow, and why private migrant infrastructure is created today by people from this particular country, though eventually migrants from other countries use it as well. I find that in recent years migrants have been creating private infrastructure in Russia as an alternative to the public one. It replaces state institutions for migrants that are not accessible to them. Migrants also view it as one of the channels for entering the Russian society and state institutions. These centres do not so much help migrants’ children escape social isolation as compensate for the lack of adjustment programmes in Russian schools.     

The New Turkish Republic. Turkey as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World

Arab History and the Nation‐State: A Study in Modern Arab Historiography 1820–1980 by Youssef M. Choueiri. London and New York: Routledge, 1989. Pp.xix + 238, appendices, glossary, index. £35.00.

Baytun fi Baghdad, a novel by Ishaq Bar‐Moshe, with an introduction by Shmuel Moreh. Jerusalem: Association for Jewish Academics from Iraq (Dr David Sala's Library for Jewish Authors from Iraq) 1983. Pp.424.

Ayyam al‐'Iraq, a novel by Ishaq Bar‐Moshe, with an introduction by Mahmud ‘Abbasi. Shefaamru: Dar al‐Mashriq, 1988. Pp.392.

al‐Khuruj min al‐'Iraq: dhikrayat 1945–1950, by Ishaq Bar‐Moshe. Jerusalem: Council of Sephardi Community, 1975. Pp.600.

Deltio Kentrou Mikrasiatikon Spoudon, Vol.6, 1986–87, edited by Paschalis M. Kitromilides. Athens: Centre of Asia Minor Studies, 1988,470 pp.     

Standing orders in the New Zealand House of Representatives

SUMMARY

As a matter of functional necessity, any legislative body must have a system of internal governance. In parliamentary democracies, that system nearly always takes the form of ‘standing orders’: a body of rules that govern the conduct of proceedings in (and the exercise of powers possessed by) the central legislative body. This paper examines the desirability of placing constitutional importance on such an ephemeral device as standing orders. Using recent examples from the New Zealand House of Representatives, the paper shows how a legislative majority's use of standing orders has the potential to undermine democratic and deliberative legislative processes in all parliamentary democracies.     

Review essay: Agrarian transformation,agrarian struggles,and Marxist analyses of the peasantry

Abstract

After some years of living in an Indian village, on family land that by the standards of most Marxist scholars puts us in the category of “capitalist farmers” or “kulaks,” I find myself taking scholarly discussion of “agrarian transformation” and “agrarian class structure” quite personally. There is something that jars against the reality of a daily life that includes hauling water for household use in the morning, enduring frequent blackouts or “load sheddings,” trying to decide whether to purchase first a TV or a refrigerator or a washing machine and not really being able to afford any of them, to be told that in moving from a salaried position in a U.S. university to an Indian village one has made a class jump upwards, from a section of the “expanded working class” or at worst “petty bourgeoisie” to membership among the capitalists and even (according to some scholars) participation in India's “ruling bloc.”     

Between Scylla and Charybdis: Social Media in Sri Lanka’s Constitutional Referendum

ABSTRACT

Social media use around those aged 18–34 will significantly impact the prospects for the public validation of a new constitution in Sri Lanka, especially the planning and conduct of a referendum. This paper examines key developments in the consumption of and perceptions around social media, and how a networked society within a context of democratic deficit and plunging faith in electoral processes can pose a greater risk for public faith in constitutional reform.     

Elections In Iraq – 30 January 2005: An Assessment

Divide and Lose. By Michael Ionides. Published by Geoffrey Bles. 1960. Pp. 271. Sources and index. 21s.

Nasser's New Egypt. By Keith Wheelock. Foreign Policy Research Institute No. 8. Praegar, New York. Pp. 326. $6.

Personal Column. By Sir Charles Belgrave. Hutchinson and Co., Ltd. Pp. 248. Map, illustrated, indexed. 30s.

Israel Resurgent. By Professor Norman Bentwich. Published by Ernest Benn, Ltd. 1960. Pp. 238. Map, index and bibliography. 27s.

Women and the New East. By Ruth Frances Woodsmall. The Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C. 1960. Pp. 436. Map, index, illustrations. $5.50.

Daughters of Allah. By Henny Harald Hansen. Translated from the Danish by Reginald Spink. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1960. 81½ × 6½ in. Pp. 190. Illustrations and sketch map. 21s.

Crossroads. Land and Life in South‐west Asia. By George B. Cressey. Lip‐pingcott Co., Chicago, New York, Philadelphia. 1960. 7 × 10 in. Pp. 593. Illustrations, maps, tables and charts. Index. $12.

The Chronicle of Petros di Sarkis Gilanentz. Concerning the Afghan invasion of Persia in 1722, the siege of Isfahan and the repercussions in Northern Persia, Russia and Turkey, translated from the original Armenian and annotated by C. O. Minasian, with an introduction and additional notes by L. Lockhart. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Armenian Library, Lisbon. 1959. Pp. xxiii, 77. No price indicated.

The Sabres of Paradise. By Lesley Blanch. John Murray, London, 1960. Pp. 480. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. 30s.

The Politics of the Developing Areas. Editors : Gabriel A. Almand and James S. Coleman. Published by Princeton University Press and Oxford University Press. Pp. 576. Indexed. 80s.

The Memoirs of Lord Ismay. Heinemann. 1960. Pp. 464. Index, maps, diagrams. 4. net.

Karachi Through a Hundred Years. By Herbert Feldman. Published by the Oxford University Press. Pp. 238. Illustrated and indexed. 27s. 6d.

A Punjabi Village in Pakistan. By Zekiye Eglar. Columbia University Press and Oxford University Press, 1960. Pp. 240. Index, glossary, bibliography, illustrations. 48s.

The Mind of Mr. Nehru. By R. K. Karanjia. George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. 1960. Pp. 112. 10s. 6d. net.

Islands of the Marigold Sun. By Suresh Vaidya. Robert Hale, Ltd., London. Pp. 192. Map and illus. 18s. net.

Pilgrimage for Plants. By Frank Kingdon‐Ward. Published by Harrap. Pp. 180. Bibliography, index and illus. 18s.

Englishmen in Tibet from Bogle to Gould. By Sir Olaf Caroe. The Tibet Society of the United Kingdom. Pp. 12. Illus. 2s. 6d.

Tibet in Revolt. By George N. Patterson. Faber and Faber. Pp. 197. 18 Illustrations; map. 21s. net.

Britain and Chinese Central Asia. By Alastair Lamb. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1960. Pp. 387. Sketch‐maps, index, bibliography. 42s.

The Way and the Mountain. By Marco Pallis. Peter Owen, Ltd., London. Pp. 216. Illus. and appendices. 30s.

Russia and China. By J. V. Davidson‐Houston. Robert Hale, Ltd., London, 1960. Pp. 200. Maps, index. Illus. 21s.

Les Mouvements Nationaux chez les Musulmans de Russie: le “Sultangaliev‐isme” au Tatarstan. By Alexandre Bennigsen and Chantai Quelquejay. Mouton and Co. Paris, 1960.

Neither War Nor Peace. By Hugh Seton‐Watson. Methuen and Co., London. 1960. Pp.504. 35s.

Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1941. By George F. Kennan. Van Nostrand, New York. 1960. Pp. 191. $1.25.

Özbekcha‐Ruscha Lughat/Uzbeksko‐Russkiy Slovar’. (Uzbek‐Russian Dictionary.) Compiled by the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek S.S.R. Chief Editor, Professor A. K. Borovkov. State Dictionary Publishing House, Moscow. 1959. Pp. 839. 27 Rubles.

An Introduction to the Turkmen Language. By G. K. Dulling. Published by Central Asian Research Centre. Pp. 48. Price 15s.

The Economic Development of Communist China, 1949–1958. By T. J. Hughes and D. E. T. Luard. Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, O.U.P. 1959. Pp. 223. Maps and index. 22s. 6d.

Han Fei‐Tzu. Works from the Chinese. By W. K. Liao. Probsthain's Oriental Series, Vols. XXV and XXVI. U.N.E.S.C.O. Collection of Representative Works —Chinese Series. Pp. 309 and 338. 30s. and 42s. respectively.

Ballads and Stories from Tun‐Huang. By Arthur Waley. Published by George Allen and Unwin. Pp. 266. Index. 25s.     

Transdisciplinarity: The dawn of an emerging approach to acquiring knowledge

Abstract

A number of factors indicate that traditional methods of acquiring knowledge and solving problems are inadequate. This article proposes the use of transdisciplinary training as an additional method in acquiring knowledge. The article further discusses the advantages and barriers to providing transdisciplinary training and suggests ways of incorporating such training.     

The Biographical Dictionary of the Spanish Parliamentarians: sources and methodological approach

SUMMARY

This article presents the project of the Biographical Dictionary of the Spanish Parliamentarians. It begins with a reflection on the different models of biographical dictionary in European historiography, and especially the biographical dictionaries of parliamentarians, followed by the specific context of the project. It then explains the methodology that is being employed to develop the project by the Research Network created to carry it out, the sources in use for the individual biographies, the creation of databases, the detailed work plan of the project and its expected results.     

Social media and citizen mobilisation in the biometric voter registration (BVR) process in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

Considerable research has, in recent years, focused on the utility of social media platforms in political campaigns in both developed and developing countries, but there has not been significant analysis of social media use in voter registration campaigns. In seeking to address this lacuna in the literature, this article examines the use and efficacy of social media networking sites (SNS), namely Facebook and Twitter, in mobilising, informing and educating citizens to participate in a new system of biometric voter registration implemented in Zimbabwe. The article draws on a qualitative research methodology. The article contends that social media use amplified political knowledge of the Zimbabwean electorate ahead of the 2018 national election as exemplified in the upsurge of voter registrants under the biometric voter registration system.     

A Kurdish Lampoonist: Shaikh Riza Talabani

Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, or The Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path, according to the late Lama Kazi Sawa‐Samdup's English rendering. Arranged and edited with Introductions and Annotations to serve as a Commentary by W. Y. Evans‐Wentz. With Foreword by Dr. R. R. Marett. London: Oxford University Press (Humphrey Milford). 1935. Pp. xxiv + 389. 16s.

India's New Constitution. A Survey of the Government of India Act, 1935. By J. P. Eddy, ex‐Judge of the High Court, Madras, and F. H. Lawton, B.A. (Cantab.). Macmillan. 6s.

Popular Hinduism, the Religion of the Masses. By L. S. S. O'Malley, C.I.E., I.C.S. (retired). Pp. viii+246. Cambridge University Press. 7s.6d.net.

Financial Problems of Indian States under Federation. By Sahibzada A. Wajid Khan. With a Preface by Hugh Dalton. 8?"×5¾”. Pp. xvi+256. Jarrolds. 8s. 6d.

The Brahui Problem. By Sir Dcnys Bray, K.C.S.I. Etymological Vocabulary. (Part II. of the Brahui Language.) Delhi: Manager of Publications. 13s. 6d.

Tungkhungia Buranji. A History of Assam, 1681–1826. Edited by S. K. Bhuyan, Honorary Assistant Director of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Assam. 5?"x 8?”. Pp. xxxii + 262. Oxford University Press. 15s.

Wissenschaftliche ergebnisse der Niederländeschen Expeditionen in der KaraKoram und die angrenzender Gebiets in der jahren 1922, 1925, und 1929–1930. Band I. By Dr. Ph. C. Visser und Jenny Visser‐Hooft. (Leipzig, In kommission bei F. A. Brockhaus.)

Secrets of Tibet. By H. E. Giuseppi Tucci and Captain E. Ghersi. Translated from the Italian by M. A. Johnston. 8¾” x 5¾”*. Pp. xiv + 210. Map; illustrations. Blackie. 15s.

Hui‐Hui. By Wilhelm Filchner, Dr.phil.h.c. Pp. 423, with map. Published by Peter Oestergaard, Berlin‐Schoneberg. 1928.

Om Mani Padme Hum. By Wilhelm Filchner. Pp. ix+352, with map and numerous photographs by Jack Mathewson. Published by F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig. 1929.

Soviet Trade from the Pacific to the Levant. With an Economic Study of the Soviet Far Eastern Region. By Violet Conolly. Oxford University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. 1935.

Ziya Gökalp. Étude biographique publiée à l'occasion de l'anniversaire de la mort de Ziya Gökalp. Paris: Editions Berger‐Levrault.

Modern Persia and Her Educational System. By Issa Khan Sadiq, Ph.D. Pp. 125. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers’ College, Columbia University. 1931.

The Journal of Robert Stodart. With an Introduction and Notes by Sir E. Denison Ross. 6½” x 5¼”. Pp. 128. Map. Luzac. 1935. 5s.

Palestine of the Arabs. By Mrs. Steuart Erskine. 8?” x 6¾”*. Pp. 256. Illustrations. Harrap. 10s. 6d.

The Doctrine of the Sûfîs. (Kitâb al‐ta'arruf li madhhab ahl al‐tasawwuf.) Translated from the Arabic of Abû Bakr Al‐Kalabâdhî by Arthur John Arberry, M.A., Assistant Keeper of Oriental Books and MSS. in the India Office, formerly Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. 8?"x5¾”. Pp. xviii+174. Cambridge University Press. 10s. 6d.

An Early Mystic of Baghdad. A study of the life and teaching of Härith b. Asad al‐Muhäsibi. By Margaret Smith, M.A., Ph.D. Pp. 311. London: The Sheldon Press. 1935. 15s.

Palestine Caravan. By Moshe Smilansky. Crown 8vo. Pp. 276. Mcthucn. 1935. 7s. 6d.

Galilee Galloper. By Douglas V. Duff. 8?"” x 5?"”. Pp. 298. Frontispiece. John Murray. 1935. 10s. 6d.

Rapport sur le Pèlerinage au Hedjaz de L'Hégire, 1353 (A.D. 1935). (Conseil Sanitaire Maritime et Quarantenaire d'Egypte.)

The First Grossing of South‐Western Arabia. By Hans Helfritz. Geographical Review, published by the American Geographical Society of New York, July, 1935.

General Rigby, Zanzibar and the Slave Trade. By Mrs. Charles E. B. Russell. 8¾” x 5½”. Pp. 404. Allen and Unwin. 16s.

Transcaucasia: An Example of Bolshevik Conquest Policy. This article in the German periodical Ost Europa deserves notice. It is by Professor Gotthard Jäschke, whose contribution to Die Welt des Islams, headed “The Road to Russo‐Turkish Friendship,” was reviewed in this Journal last quarter.

Glory and Downfall: Reminiscences of a Russian General Staff Officer. By General P. A. Polovtsoff. Pp. 359. With index and fifteen illustrations and a map of the Caucasus on the end‐paper. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. 1935. 15s.

Soviet Geography. The New Economic and Industrial Distributions of the U.S.S.R. By N. Mikhaylov. With a Foreword by the Right Hon. Sir Halford Mackinder. London: Methuen and Co. 10s. 6d. net.

Dawn Over Samarkand. The Rebirth of Central Asia. By Joshua Kunitz. Pp. 348. New York: Covici Friede, Publishers. $3. No date.

Changing Asia. By Egon Erwin Kisch. English version by Rita Reil. Pp. 267. Map; illustrations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $3.

Clashing Tides of Colour. By Lothrop Stoddard. 8¼|” x 5¾”. Pp. 414. Scribner's. 1935. 10s. 6d.

North to the Orient. By Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Large Crown 8vo. Pp. 248. Chatto and Windus. 1935. 10s. 6d.

The Problem of the Far East. By Sobei Mogi and H. Vere Redman. 7½” x 5¼”. Pp. 352. Victor Gollancz, Ltd. 1935. 5s.

Japan and the Pacific. By Nathaniel Peffer. 9” x 5¾”. Pp. 256. Hamish Hamilton. 10s. 6d.

People in China : Thirty‐two Photographic Studies from Life. By Ellen Thorbecke. With an Introduction by Dr. W. J. R. Thorbecke, formerly Netherlands Minister to China. George G. Harrap and Co., Ltd., London, Bombay, Sydney. Price 15s. net.

The Romance of the Western Chamber (Hsi Hsiang Chi): A Chinese Play written in the Thirteenth Century. Translated by S. I. Hsiung. With a Preface by Gordon Bottomley. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd. Price 8s. 6d. net.

China Changes. By G. J. Yorke. Pp. 334. Jonathan Cape, Ltd. 1935. 10s. 6d.

Chinese Art. Edited by Leigh Ashton. Kcgan Paul. Paper 2s. 6d., cloth 3s. 6d.

Beauty in Exile : Chao Chun. By Shu Chiung (Madame Wu Lien‐teh).

The Real Abyssinia. By Colonel C. F. Rey, C.M.G. 8¾ × 5¾”. Pp. 291. Illustrations and map. Seeley Service. 10s. 6d.

England, Italy, Abyssinia. By Major‐General H. Rowan‐Robinson. 8?” x 5¾”. Pp. viii + 148. Illustrations. Maps. Clowes. 5s.

Women Called Wild. By Rosita Forbes. Grayson and Grayson. 12s. 6d.

Sixty Years in the East. By Sir William Willcocks, K.C.M.G. 8¾” × 5¾”. Pp. iii+338. Blackwood. 15s.     

From ethnic exclusion to terrorism? The case of radical Basque nationalism

ABSTRACT

This article reflects upon the beginnings and development of radical Basque nationalism in light of its ethnic exclusion criteria. We argue that the existence of a tradition of “strong” alterity does not necessarily lead to the appearance of tendencies favoring the use of violence to confront the other. Without rejecting the importance of a discourse of hate proceeding from the past, such tendencies are due more to a combination of the historical context and individual and group decisions. It is important to bear this in mind to underscore the responsibilities of those who were not satisfied with constructing the image of a despicable enemy, but instead decided to employ violence to solve the problem that the latter might cause.