The Geography of Empire

Abstract

Wealth and poverty, overdevelopment and underdevelopment, are sides of the same coin; in a capitalist system the one cannot exist without the other. This is as true at the global level as at the national level, and the U.S. Empire consists of both external and internal colonies (e.g. the ghettoes or the Indian and Chicano communities of the Southwest).     

The Persisting Ambiguity of Empire

Two American political scientists and a Ukrainian sociologist analyze the results of Ukraine's 1998 parliamentary elections. The purpose is to test propositions about the cognitive organization of voters' attitudes about issues and evaluations of the political parties that seek to mobilize their vote. The article then examines differences on these scores between the East and West of the country. A test is provided of the spatial model of voting that has been found to be a successful predictor of belief organization in other countries and milieux.     

Restructuring the Empire: The Nixon Doctrine after Vietnam

Abstract

Ever since Richard Nixon announced that the United States would adopt a “low profile” defense posture in Asia, American foreign affairs analysts have sought to construct an accurate model of the new policy. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, who analyzed the Nixon Doctrine in a 1969 report to the Congress, concluded that henceforth “The United States will avoid the creation of situations in which there is such dependence on us that, inevitably, we become enmeshed in what are essentially Asian problems and conflicts.” Lest this conclusion alarm any of our more insecure clients in the area, Vice President Agnew toured Asia in early 1970 to announce that the President had never intended such a sweeping reversal of policy: “Let me make it very clear,” he told newsmen in Canberra, “that despite a great deal of speculation and rumor, we are not withdrawing from Asia and the Pacific…. As a Pacific power, we will remain in the Pacific.” Nixon himself seems to have encouraged this dichotomy: thus the invasion of Cambodia in 1970 and the massive air attacks on Hanoi in 1972 suggested that he was committed to the interventionist stance represented by Agnew; while the cease-fire in Vietnam and the initiation of diplomatic contacts with China suggest that he leans toward the more restrained position of Mansfield.     

"新帝国论"--21世纪美国全球称霸的理论范式

超强的综合实力和较好的历史机遇,是"新帝国论"产生的时代背景;"单极稳定论"、"先发制人论"、"主权有限论"、"民主和平论"是"新帝国论"的理论支点;军事、经济、文化是"新帝国大厦"的三块基石.作为美国的新全球战略构想,"新帝国论"标志着美国国家战略理念发生了重大变化,美国由此进入了一个前所未有的扩张期.它将对世界战略态势产生重大而深远的影响.     

Sir Charles Lucas and The Empire at War

Abstract

This article gives an overview of the British Empire’s participation in the First World War. The roles of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa are well documented but there was also a significant contribution from and impact on the smaller and more peripheral territories. These are well covered in Sir Charles Lucas’s multi-volume series The Empire at War. Although very much of its time, written for and by an imperial elite and now neglected, it remains an invaluable record.     

The role of the ortoq in the Mongol Empire in forming business partnerships

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the emergence and development of business partnerships established by the Mongols and their merchant partners, ortoqs, in the Middle Ages. Ortoqs are known to have conducted trade and money-lending with the capital invested by their partners. This study shows that the contractual arrangements of Mongol–ortoq partnerships closely resembled medieval partnership contracts, such as mudharaba, inan, societas and commenda. Sophisticated concepts of liability in relation to investments and loans were developed in Mongol–ortoq partnerships, promoting trade and investment to facilitate the commercial integration of the Mongol Empire.     

The great game: Russia's role in the Persian Empire and Tibet

Formerly Professor of History and Central Asian Studies at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, Parshotam Mehra has written largely on India's northern frontiers and relations with Tibet and China. His publications include The North‐West Frontier Drama 1945–47 (1998), An ‘Agreed’ Frontier, Ladakh and India's Northern Borders (1992) and The McMahon Line and After (1974). Two of his books, From Conflict to Conciliation: Tibetan Polity Re‐visited and The Younghusband Expedition, an Interpretation (2^nd edition), are due to appear later this year.     

How Empire Shaped Us

How Empire Shaped Us. Edited by Antoinette Burton and Dane Kennedy (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. xi+216. £65.00 (cloth).