Australia and China： A Joint Report on the Bilateral Relationship

The authors of this article believe that all sectors should play an active role in supporting serious,mature discussions about how to improve bilateral relations and expand areas of cooperation based on mutual acknowledgement of differences and disagreements.Regular face-to-face contact at all levels is also necessary.     

Night Vision Electro-Optics technology transfer: A decade of activity

The US Army’s Night Vision and Electro-Optics Laboratory, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, has for the past decade encouraged the transfer of its unique technology into the non-military community. Our scientists and engineers have developed a wide spectrum of devices that provide the military forces with such benefits as being able to “see” at night without being detected, the ability to accurately determine ranges and to designate targets. Although our objective has been to develop devices to enhance the combat effectiveness of the US Army, many of these night vision and electro-optical devices have a great potential for serving useful functions in the non-military community. Therefore, the technology behind these devices which are not classified may, as the need dictates, be transitioned into the private sector through technology transfer. It is the intent of this paper to provide an introduction to the nature of this technology and to illustrate by high-lighting selected spinoffs, the many uses of night vision and electro-optics which have been adapted by the non-military community.     

Scottish parliamentary record scholarship in the devolution era

In 1707 Scotland’s parliament ceased to exist. Yet it has since been the subject of two monumental acts of record scholarship; the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland (1814-1875) in the nineteenth century and the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland (2007) in the twenty-first. Using the first of these as a touchstone, this article examines the ways in which the records of the pre-1707 parliament are presented, positioned and interpreted in the second. Unlike the nineteenth-century edition, which was produced in an era when adherence to the 1707 Act of Union with England went all but unquestioned, the twenty-first-century version was created during a period of constitutional devolution amidst a national debate over the question of independence from the United Kingdom. Approaching this new edition of parliamentary records as a cultural product, shaped and informed by the context in which it was created, therefore enables us to learn much about how the relationship between history and national identity in Scotland has changed since its predecessor was published. From there, the article questions the assumption that present-day understandings of Scottish identity are primarily civic and forward-looking, and argues that they are in fact partly based on claims which, whether secessionist or devolutionist, are fundamentally historical.