General

The Arab Awakening. By George Antonius. 8¾” × 5?”. Pp. 472. Five maps. Hamish Hamilton. 1938. 15s.

Freedom of conscience in the new near east. Some Aspects of Religious Liberty of Nationals in the Near East. A Collection of Documents. By Helen Clarkson Davis. Pp. xviii + 182 and two maps. New York and London: Harper and Brothers. 1938.

Palestine of the Crusades. A Map of the Country on scale 1: 350,000, with Historical Introduction and Gazetteer. Jerusalem : Survey of Palestine. Price 5s.     

Book reviews

Datenhandbuch zur Geschichte des Deutschen Bundestages 1949 bis 1999. Edited by Peter Schindler. 3 Volumes. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1999. DM 98.

Finanzverfassung und Föderalismus in Deutschland und Europa. Edited by Thiess Buttner. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 2000. DM 48 pb.

Krise und Reform des Föderalismus. Edited by Reinhard C. Meier‐Walser and Gerhard Hirscher. Munich: Olzog, 1999. DM 24.80.

Hinter den Kulissen von Regierungsbündnissen. Koalitionspolilik in Bund, Ländern und Gemeinden. Edited by Roland Sturm and Sabine Kropp. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1999. DM 74.

Austria — Out of the Shadow of the Past. By Anton Pelinka. Oxford: Westview Press, 1998.

Austria. World Bibliographical Series. Revised edition. Volume 66. By Michael Mitchell. Oxford: Clio Press, 1999.

The Official Concept of the Nation in the Former GDR. By Joanna McKay. Hants/Vermont: Ashgate, 1998.

NATO and the Future of European Security. By Sean Kay. Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.

Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother‐Tongue Fascism and the Science of Language. By Christopher M. Hutton. Routledge Studies in the History of Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

The Language of the Third Reich. LTI ‐ Lingua Tertii Imperii. A Philologist's Notebook. By Victor Klemperer. Translated by Martin Brady. London and New Brunswick: The Athlone Press, 2000.

German Studies. Old and New Challenges. Undergraduate Programmes in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Edited by Peter Rolf Lutzeier. Berne: Peter Lang, 1998 (German Linguistic and Cultural Studies, vol. 1).

EU Enlargement and its Macroeconomic Effects in Eastern Europe. Currencies, Prices, Investment and Competitiveness. By Hubert Gabrisch and Rüdiger Pohl. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Welfare States in Transition. East and West. By Irwin Collier, Herwig Roggemann, Oliver Scholz and Horst Tomann. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Economic Transition in Hungary and East Germany. Gradualism and Shock Therapy in Catch‐up Development. By Johannes Stephan. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Doing Business with Germany. Edited by Jonathan Reuvid and Roderick Millar (consultant eds.). In association with German‐British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Eversheds. Business Lawyers in Europe. London: Kogan Page, 2nd edn. 1999. Reprinted 2000.

The German Skills Machine: Sustaining Comparative Advantage in a Global Economy. Edited by Pepper D. Culpepper and David Finegold. Berghahn Books, 1999.

Reconstructing Education. By Rosalind M.O. Pritchard. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1999.

In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945–1948. By Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Translated by Kelly Barry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

The Longman Companion to Germany Since 1945. By Adrian Webb. London: Longman, 1998.

Ausgewcihlte Aspekte des Transformationsprozesses im Cesundheitswesen der neuen Bundeslander. Edited by Viola Schubert‐Lehnhardt, Christel Gibas and Birgit Möbest. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 1998.

Lebensbedingungen, Lebensgestaltung und Lebensinn von älteren Frauen in Deutschland und Europa. Edited by Viola Schubert‐Lehnhardt. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 2000.     

The illegal narcotics trade in southern Africa: A programme for action

The current policy arena with regard to drugs in South Africa is in a state of transition. Yet the burden of harm associated with drug use and the increased usage that has accompanied our changing situation necessitate, it is argued, a comprehensive drug control strategy. The paper provides an overview of previous attempts to address the problem in South Africa and presents the case for a ‘master plan’. It outlines a wide‐ranging set of factors that need to be considered, including the necessity to go beyond ‘control’ strategies to more pro‐actively dealing with demand, a move which should be underpinned by quality research.     

Communications: Exchange on the Philippines

Abstract

In the December 1973 issue you printed an article by Ms. Luzviminda Francisco in which she attempted to sketch in the “nature of America's policy of aggression, the depth of popular mass resistance to the American forces and the duration of the struggle….” (p. 3) in order to move against “Filipino false consciousness” (p. 2) of the American connection in the history of the Philippines. It is a brief survey and rather well done, although one may quibble about the relationship of excesses (what a tame word compared to the record she presents!) of war and the nature of imperialism as well as implying that there was a “nation,” a “Philippine society,” or a “national struggle” (p. 3) before the late 19th century, at the earliest.     

Notes from the field

Abstract

In an attempt to publish some reviews sooner after material comes out, the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars has added this section of short reviews of individual books, movies, TV series, and so on. If you are interested in writing a short review, please contact Peter Zarrow (for more information, see the introduction to the list of books to review on p. 84 of this issue).

As someone who proudly served in the antiwar movement, I tend to believe we can't have too many books about the righteous struggle waged in the United States to end the Indochina wars. So on one level I welcome Tom Wells's expansion of his Berkeley Ph.D. thesis into the volume under review here. The War Within has many strengths. It mercilessly exposes the ignorant, reflexive anticommunism of such war managers as CIA director Richard Helms, White House advisor (and ideological architect of the wars in Indochina) Walt Rostow, the Nixon entourage, and others. Furthermore, Wells does what no other writer has done: narrate the interfamilial generational conflict between government officials and their children brought on by the Indochina conflicts. Offspring of Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, Spiro Agnew, H.R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman joined (or as in the case of Kim Agnew, wanted to join) the movement. Daniel Ellsberg has told us how pressures from those he loved helped transform a once gung-ho Marine and prowar government policy maker into an antiwar militant, and Wells cites Ellsberg's experiences, adding horrifying details on the savage assaults mounted on him by the Nixon administration.     

On political connectedness and the arrest of Ivan Boesky

The bombshell arrest of Ivan Boesky on November 14, 1986 signaled the intention of then-US attorney for the southern district of New York, Rudy Giuliani, to increase enforcement of laws against insider trading. Looking at concurrent stock price changes, we find that New York companies were affected especially. More interestingly, New York firms with active political arms fared better than those without them; and New York firms connected to Mr. Giuliani’s Republican Party fared better still. We find no such effects for non-New York firms. These findings suggest that political connectedness was valuable in the era of more rigorous legal enforcement associated with Mr. Giuliani’s attack on insider trading.     

SIDESTEPPING A QUAGMIRE: RUSSIA,SYRIA, AND THE LESSONS OF THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR

Russia's military intervention in Syria (2015-present) has ensured the Assad regime's survival to date. Why though has Russia succeeded in achieving its objective? This article provides an analysis of Russia's involvement in the Syrian civil war in comparison to the Soviet Union's military debacle in Afghanistan (1979-89). Accordingly, by avoiding the USSR's mistakes in Afghanistan, this article posits that Russia has not become entangled in a protracted conflict in Syria. In Syria, Russia has militarily intervened to buttress the Assad regime, not to reorganize the host government's leadership and assume control over the war effort. Meanwhile, Syrian opposition forces lack concerted international support and Russia has allies that are assisting the embattled Syrian government. Lastly, Russia intends to ‘freeze’ the Syrian civil war in place by (i) pressuring opposition forces to submit and other countries to re-embrace Damascus in a diplomatic forum, (ii) endorsing Syria's claim to sovereignty, and (iii) relying upon a small military presence to deter others from destabilizing Assad's rule.