A New Scramble for African Oil? Historical, Political, and Business Perspectives

It has been suggested that Africa is experiencing a ‘NewScramble’ thanks primarily to its oil and gas wealth,with the United States and the People’s Republic of Chinaactively competing for access to Africa’s resources. Thisarticle aims to scrutinize the claim that Africa is facing aNew Scramble, analysing the nature of the economic and politicalchanges at work, the importance of Africa’s oil, and thepolitical and economic forces behind the new oil rush. The articlestarts with an overview of the phenomenon labelled by some asthe ‘New Scramble’. The main body of the articleevaluates the existence of a New Scramble from three subjectperspectives: history, international relations, and businessstudies. Finally, by analysing the likely impact on the economiesof oil-producing states, it considers whether we should dismayor rejoice over the ‘New Scramble for Africa’. Itconcludes that the existence of a New Scramble or a US–Chineserace for Africa should be treated with some caution and thatthe use of terms such as ‘scramble’ and ‘race’is perhaps misleading, while the economic impact of oil investmentsis likely to be bleak.     

A New May Fourth Movement?

Abstract

April 10, 1970, is likely to be remembered as an historical date by overseas Chinese. On that day some 2,500 Chinese students and faculty descended on Washington from all over the United States and Canada. They came not just for another annual spring tour of the cherry trees, but to demonstrate against the policies of three governments–Japan, Taiwan and the United States. For Japan seized the Tiao-Yu Tai Islands from China last November, the United States supported Japan's claim, and the Chiang regime failed to take any effective action to get the islands back.     

A British ‘Foreign Legion’? The British Police in Mandate Palestine

The men of the British section of the Palestine police have romantically imagined their time as officers in Mandate Palestine, a land infused with historical and biblical significance. Many compared their service to that of the famed military force, the French Foreign Legion. This study sets the nostalgia of memory against the reality of service in Palestine, one that involved considerable brutality against local people. This essay details the empirical evidence of violence, including torture and a ‘dirty war’, mining archival sources, contextualizing primary source material within wider notions of British ideas of collective punishment within the empire. The Palestine police failed in its job of policing, necessitating the deployment of the army to Palestine, and with this collapse in police control the force became more violent. Ironically, the reality of life in the Palestine police was similar to that in the French Foreign Legion: a shock force there to maintain imperial control. The article argues that policing methods from the Mandate period continued after the Palestine force was disbanded in 1948, both within Israel and in other parts of the British Empire where demobilized Palestine police officers went to serve. It pushes the current paradigm on policing, extending the literature that details reforms and institutional change in the Palestine police to include the impact on local people.     

'International Political Theory – A British Social Science?'

Books reviewed in this article:
Dunne, T., Inventing International Society
Schmidt, B. C., The Political Discourse of Anarchy: A Disciplinary History of International Relations
Boucher, D., Political Theories of International Relations
Gourevitch, P., We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families: Stories from Rwanda
Weiss, T. G., Military–Civilian Interactions: Intervening in Humanitarian Crises
Moore, J. (ed.), Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention
Geras, N., The Contract of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy after the Holocaust
Linklater, A., The Transformation of Political Community
Archibugi, D., Held, D. and Köhler, M. (eds), Re-imagining Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy     

‘Belmopan. A New Capital for a New Nation’ State,Nation and Ethnicity at the Time of Independence

In Belize, a project for building a new capital emerged in the early 1960s, just after the ravages of Hurricane Hattie, which had destroyed much of the colonial capital, Belize City. According to the common narrative, Belmopan was the answer to a natural threat. But this article will show that it was also a political strategy, intended to give the country a new, modern face, the symbol of a young nation on the road to independence (1981). One of the issues of this post-colonial state is the definition of a national ‘us’ and the place of ethnic groups inherited from the British colonial administration's policy of ‘divide and rule’. The article shows that the politicisation of ethnicity entails neither its integration in the state nor its institutionalisation by the parties, but rather the emergence of ‘citizenship from below’.     

Russia and the Kurds: A Soft-Power Tool for the Kremlin?

Russia has been the Kurds’ patron for more than two centuries, motivated primarily by the cynical desire to use them against adversaries in broader great-power games while casting itself as a champion of the Kurdish cause. Russia's longstanding and multifaceted relationship with the Kurds demonstrates that when it comes to geopolitics, the United States has more than brute force to contend with. The Russian state also utilizes soft power as an authoritarian state defines it: a tool of pragmatic leverage. While the Kurds are not a monolith, they are anxious about the trajectory of US politics and feel they cannot rely on anyone. The Russian state has opportunities to undermine American interests in places such as Syria and Iraq through its connections with Kurdish groups. This article reviews tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet policies toward the Kurds, including Kurdish communities in Russia. It concludes with a discussion about implications for the United States, given that Moscow will not let go of its Kurdish card, including in the context of the Ukraine invasion.     

Renewing the Commonwealth—A Reform Agenda for a New Secretary-General

A new Secretary-General is to be elected at the Malta Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2015. He—or she—must be a change agent, thought-leader, motivator and manager. This article gives a brief overview of this important position in global affairs and underlines the need for realistic but effective leadership. It sets an agenda for the new Secretary-General, especially in addressing the issues of violent extremism, terrorism and migration.     

Migration and the Global Crisis: New Prospects for Return? The Case of Ecuadorians in Europe

This article explores the impact of the current recession on Ecuadorian labour migration to Europe. Several factors affect the evolution of this migration system: receiving countries' policies, the labour market demand (and its deterioration) and the scope for the self‐maintenance of migrants' social networks. We especially focus on a relatively less studied issue: emigrant policies, symbolised, in Ecuador, by a pervasive emphasis on migrant return, somewhat echoed even in Spain, as a destination country. Still, a massive return scenario is implausible in the light of migrants' family stabilisation abroad, and of the uncertain prospects for development in their motherland. Even during a worldwide recession, the ‘hidden agendas' in migration policies, along with the distinct time‐scale and the self‐feeding potential of a long‐distance migration system, should be critically appreciated.     

Native Title from Mabo to Akiba: A Vehicle for Change and Empowerment?

Native Title from Mabo to Akiba: A Vehicle for Change and Empowerment? Edited by Sean Brennan, Megan Davis, Brendan Edgeworth and Leon Terrill (Sydney: The Federation Press, 2015), pp. v + 273. Seven maps. AU$75.00 (pb).     

A Travesty of British Justice? Appealing against Internment during the Second World War

In late 1940, the Australian government established Aliens Tribunals and Advisory Committees to ensure that local internees could, if they desired, protest against their internment. Most historians argue that this system of appeals was fundamentally flawed. This general explanation has much to commend it. Even so, the widely‐condemned appeals system requires some contextualisation. This article examines the appeal against internment of one man, Henry Brose, but it also seeks to place the appeals system in the broader context of the Australian government's attempt to balance personal liberty and national security over the course of the Second World War. The purpose of such an approach is not to offer a revision so much as a re‐contextualisation of an appeals system that historians have correctly described as flawed. This article demonstrates that the initial appeals system was certainly undermined by a government motivated by concerns for national security rather than personal liberty. But it also argues that the ongoing attempts of the Australian government to improve and overhaul the appeals system, in the midst of prosecuting an extraordinarily complex global war, suggests a more nuanced story than the one — of hapless victims and travesties of British justice — that has traditionally been told.     

“A New Hope for Asia”? Australia,the United States and the Promotion of Economic Development in Southeast Asia

The Colombo Plan and Point Four program were programs that provided technical and economic assistance to the newly independent countries of Southeast Asia. They represented Commonwealth and American attempts to promote economic development in the region. This paper will investigate how these policies, which were framed by US policy‐makers and academics, were adopted in Australia. In so doing, it will demonstrate the ways that development was perceived as an important consideration in the foreign policies of both Australia and the United States. It will also examine the place of these programs in the Cold War and postcolonial world of the 1950s. As this paper will show, the interaction of these factors would affect Australian foreign policy for decades to come, revealing much about the complex nature of the Australian‐American relationship.