The Negev: Land,Settlement, the Bedouin and Ottoman and British Policy 1871–1948

Focusing on the sub-district of Beersheba in British Mandatory Palestine, we examine issues of colonial administration, land use, relations between the government and indigenous nomads and extension of government control over marginal regions. Based on archival primary written sources and maps, we assess British Mandatory policy in the Negev, in the contexts of land ownership, settlement and the Bedouin population. The British Mandatory administration inherited a Southern Palestine Negev region that had been affected by a robust Ottoman policy of increasing administrative intervention, policing, land settlement and overall projection of government power. During 30 years of Mandatory rule, the policy was markedly different. The Beersheba sub-district, which incorporated almost half the area of Mandatory Palestine, was a unique administrative unit, populated almost entirely by nomadic Bedouins. Although the Mandatory authorities foresaw land settlement and sedenterisation as a goal in Palestine, they did not apply their administrative apparatus to fulfil this policy in the Negev, neglecting much of it.     

The British Empire in India,the Gulf pearl and the making of the Middle East

Abstract

Genealogies of the term ‘Middle East’ conventionally focus on a juncture around the 1890s, when it gained new geopolitical currency, promoted by various European and American officials with reference to a space centred around the Arabo-Persian Gulf. This article argues instead that the ‘Middle East’ label should be seen as the culmination of a longer process, led less from London than from India. Over the previous century, this consolidation of ‘British’ India as a distinct regional actor was accompanied by the conceptualisation of its borderlands, including that Gulf-centred space. This space become a theatre for economic and political monitoring strategised from India, seeking to transform what was represented as a pirate-infested margin into a pacified buffer zone. Control and exploitation of pearl fisheries, the main economic activity for Gulf populations, was central to these efforts. Imperial strategy around the Gulf pearl was a key tool in founding an informal Indian empire in the Gulf and its hinterlands, in that very space to which the name ‘Middle East’ would subsequently be given.     

Preserving Non-Democracies: Leaders and State Institutions in the Middle East

Authoritarian elites often prolong their tenure in office by engaging in wholesale institutional change. Whether inherited or created from scratch, state institutions in non-democracies are meant to solidify elite cohesion and political control, pacify potential opponents, and create coalitions that support the state. Nevertheless, autocrats keep a watchful eye on these institutions, and if they change internally in directions that may seem threatening to state leaders, the institutions are changed or even disbanded. Change to the institutions of the non-democratic state is caused by a combination of deliberate decisions and institutional crafting by state leaders on the one hand, and by institutional layering and changes initiated from within the institutions rhemselves on the other. As the cases of the National Assembly in Kuwait, the Revolutionary Command Council in Egypt, and the Revolutionary Council in Iran demonstrate, when and if state institutions become inefficient or are seen as a threat by authoritarian leaders, then state leaders once again take control in determining their shape and configuration. Non-democracies are often preserved through purposive institutional change.     

The Sudan: Past, Present and Future

Sir Angus Gillan Served in the Sudan Administration between1909-1939. He is now Director of the Empire Section of the BritishCouncil. This article is an abridgment of a lecture he gave,under the chairmanship of Mr. A.R.I. Mellor, at a combined meetingof the Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society onthe 26th April. Sir Angus first gave reasons for the world'scomparative ignorance of the Sudan, broken only by events leadingup to the three dates: Khartoum 1885, Omdurman 1898, and Abyssinia1940.     

Fighting the Spectres of the Past: Dilemmas of Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans and the Middle East

The object of this article is to introduce a careful reading of Arab/Islamic anti-Semitism in view of the conflicting approaches to its assessment. Three aspects are covered: the origins of this anti-Semitism and its relation to the Arab–Israeli conflict; the impact of Nazism on Arab/Islamic anti-Semitism; and the place of anti-Semitism in the ideology of Islamist movements, highlighting a much neglected feature – the Arab discourse on Arab/Islamic anti-Semitism. It contends that the image of the Jew as an irredeemably destructive, conspiratorial agent, hostile not only to Arabs and Muslims but to humanity at large, is a relatively new phenomenon, gradually striking roots especially among Islamists.     

布什政府的中东政策研究

布什政府的中东战略服务于反恐与民主改造中东这两大互相联系的目标,而其核心的环节是伊拉克,也就是武力改造伊拉克,民主改造整个中东.到2007年这种政策走入了困境.布什政府遂调整政策:重启巴以和平进程,推动以色列改善与穆斯林世界的关系;在推广民主方面放松对阿拉伯国家的压力,在整个大中东地区建立孤立和遏制伊朗的联盟.而这种转变的突出事例是2007年11月安纳波利斯会议.但巴以和平进程由于诸多原因鲜有进展.     

Australian Judicial Biography: Past,Present and Future

This article posits that biographical writing on High Court judges generates insights that may otherwise be overlooked in explorations of national history and politics. Firstly, the article addresses the relative scarcity of such biographies in Australia. It then explores themes common to the existing works and the ways in which they are evoked. The article canvasses some possibilities inherent in judicial biography, expanding briefly on the themes of national and gender identity, before surveying some of the minor controversies of the genre, including the question of who is best qualified to write it. The discussion concludes with the suggestion that the development of this genre would provide nuanced material for legal scholars, historians and political scientists alike.