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US-based cultural studies often prioritises issues of race, class, and gender within popular representations of the 'other' at the expense of undertheorising, especially within its own settler colonial history, issues of indigeneity, colonialism, and imperialism. This essay takes as a case study the US 2008 Democratic presidential primary cycle in which Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ran for their party's nomination by claiming that their success would fulfil either the promises of the civil rights movement or second-wave feminism. Through the course of the primary season, each of these movements was framed within the larger US national myth of Manifest Destiny with its nostalgic struggles against an 'unforgiving wilderness'. Indigenous critical theory, as it engages US cultural studies and theories of resistance, recentres issues of colonialism within the historical and material cultural productions of the nation and challenges the political discourse of liberatory inclusion and freedom to acknowledge the colonisation of indigenous peoples upon which 'inclusion' and 'freedom' are built.

SummaryThis essay examines the use of famine-plot rhetoric in the course of disputes over free trade in the French Atlantic during the late eighteenth century. Seeking to discredit officially sanctioned trade monopolies, French plantation owners frequently suggested that the control exercised by metropolitan merchants over transatlantic commerce was responsible for food shortages among the enslaved population of the colonies. In reality, the planters themselves bore primary responsibility for malnutrition in the French Caribbean, thanks to their reliance on the slave trade and support for the expansion of plantation agriculture. While proponents of the colonial famine plot accepted that plantation slavery had made it impossible for the resources available in the colonies to sustain the growing enslaved population, they remained committed to the plantation system. In advocating expanded free trade as the best means to ensure the continued growth of the colonies, French planters anticipated a response to the environmental problems caused by colonial expansion that became increasingly prevalent among proponents of European imperialism during the nineteenth century.

In recent years, and particularly after Russia's spectacular flag planting on the ocean floor at the North Pole on 2 August 2007, there has been much talk about "polar imperialism" and the danger of a "great game" in the Arctic. This article sheds light on the topic of interstate relations and the long-term conflict potential in the northernmost part of the globe. While recognizing the continued relevance of military power in the Arctic and the presence of a number of unresolved legal disputes, the article argues that Russia and its northern neighbors have a common interest in maintaining regional stability and avoiding a remilitarization of the region. The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and regional co-operation arrangements such as the Arctic and Barents Councils are important tools towards this aim. On the other hand, there are many uncertainties regarding Russia's priorities and strategies for the region.Keywords: Arctic, security, climate change, interstate relations, disputes.Citation: Arctic Review on Law and Politics, vol. 1, 2/2010 p. 279-298. ISSN 1891-6252

SummaryIn his article in the current edition of International Review of Social History, the Scottish historian, Billy Kenefick, argues against my thesis that the labour force of the United Kingdom and the settler colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be understood as having constituted a linked "imperial working class" in which an ideology of racialized white labour protectionism predominated. Kenefick believes that in South Africa British socialists challenged white labourism, and that Scottish immigrants played a very prominent role in this anti-racist project. My reply traces the relationship between Scottish national identity, imperialism, and the labour movement. It then examines the evidence on the racial politics of Scottish trade unionists in South Africa and argues that, with a very few individual exceptions, they did buy into the ideas of white labourism. Finally, the article considers Scottish labour attitudes to race in the home country, and demonstrates that there was strong sympathy for the racial labour politics of the settler colonies.

The Union for the Mediterranean Higher Education and Research Project is likely to kindle debates as to what initiatives ought to be taken in order to develop a common Higher Education and Research Area. Many research initiatives have been taking place around the Mediterranean, including the development of a number of research journals focusing on the area and the setting up of research networks and societies focusing on different areas of research including comparative education. The idea of a common Higher Education and Research Area is indeed quite interesting. The larger Mediterranean requires some kind of entity that can help sustain projects in the area, though I do have a few concerns regarding what this might entail. The last thing one desires for this area is a new form of cultural imperialism through a higher education discourse from Europe that places emphasis on internationalization, competitiveness and privatization, in short the ingredients for a neoliberal framework for higher education and lifelong learning in general. ; peer-reviewed

In recent years, and particularly after Russia's spectacular flag planting on the ocean floor at the North Pole on 2 August 2007, there has been much talk about "polar imperialism" and the danger of a "great game" in the Arctic. This article sheds light on the topic of interstate relations and the long-term conflict potential in the northernmost part of the globe. While recognizing the continued relevance of military power in the Arctic and the presence of a number of unresolved legal disputes, the article argues that Russia and its northern neighbors have a common interest in maintaining regional stability and avoiding a remilitarization of the region. The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and regional co-operation arrangements such as the Arctic and Barents Councils are important tools towards this aim. On the other hand, there are many uncertainties regarding Russia's priorities and strategies for the region.Keywords: Arctic, security, climate change, interstate relations, disputes.Citation: Arctic Review on Law and Politics, vol. 1, 2/2010 p. 279-298. ISSN 1891-6252

Argues that, in spite of vows to heal domestic wounds & salvage America's reputation abroad, no meaningful change has occurred since the election of President Barack Obama. An analysis of US policy towards Israel, Iraq, & Iran indicates that Obama has pursued the same course as a steward of the American Empire that was taken by George W. Bush. Russia's occupation of Afghanistan is compared with the current "Just War" in that country & Pakistan, which has created the integrated war zone called "Afpak." Obama's escalation of the War on Terror is pointed out, along with the continuation of torture & domestic wiretapping; & the establishment of new military bases in Colombia. However, even though there has been no substantive difference in American imperialism, there has been a significant upgrade "propagandistically" due to Obama's mastery of uplifting orations about America's glowing mission in the world. Obama is called a "hand-me-down version of Woodrow Wilson" whose style is marked for its "sonorous banality & armor-plated hypocrisy.". Adapted from the source document.

The Labour government has acknowledged the 'enormous bonds of commonality' (T. Blair, speech to Commonwealth Heads of Government, 24 October 1997. http://www.thecommonwealth.org), but the former empire or the modern Commonwealth has remained largely absent in the re-articulation of Britishness. Although there has been little attempt to reform the institutions and symbols of Empire, transnational ties with its former empire remain predominantly defined by ambiguity and selective myopia. This article will explore the relationship between former empire, British state and its composite nations by examining continued transnational constitutional and governmental ties and its implications on post-imperial frameworks of citizenship. The article will also consider the absence of empire or Commonwealth on the current debates concerning the 'Politics of Britishness' and how devolution has redefined post-imperialism across the UK. Finally, the article will assess in what ways the enduring legacy of empire may continue to influence the seemingly perpetual search for a homogenous sense of 'Britishness'. Adapted from the source document.

To study and better understand people's working lives and organizational involvement in the context of their whole lives and in the context of the societal culture in which they have grown up and now live, it is helpful to bring together three key concepts of narrative, identity work and the social construction of reality. Such a move can be connected to the abandonment of widely used but limiting concepts, such as that of`managerial identity'. The essentially sociological nature of this move also provides an antidote to the equally limiting tendency towards the `narrative imperialism' which is associated with the idea of the `narrative self'. The value of the suggested theoretical framing and its linking of narrative, identity work and social construction is demonstrated by the close analysis of a large private autobiography of a former manager. This individual's identity work simultaneously uses discursively available narratives and creates new narratives (many small stories being embedded in one large life story), all within the framework of history, social structure and culture.

China, India & Asia are currently gaining economic & political power in the world, causing many analysts to speculate how this will affect international relations, the global distribution of power, & human security. Concepts in international relations have generally been dominated by Western countries' "Westphalian" principles. This article suggests that the rise of Asia will bring a new set of alternative "Eastphalian" ideas to the table, which would reinvigorate the sovereignty of states & non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries, as the 1648 treaty of Wesphalia outlined. This "Eastphalian" trend is in direct opposition to the hegemonic liberal transnational governance that emphasizes borderless application of principles such as capitalism, democracy, & human rights. Unless managed appropriately, this emphasis on sovereignty & non-intervention could make management of global problems such as climate change & environmental degradation more difficult than they already are. Additionally, Westphalian principles in their initial iteration led to large scale conflict & economic imperialism, so the "Eastphalian" block will have to modify those principles in order to maintain security in an increasingly multipolar world. Adapted from the source document.

With the victory of the Bolsheviks in October 1917 strategic choices had to be made. Many of the pre-revolutionary Muslim reformers, the Jadids, endeavoured to work within the Soviet system. This was made possible by the moderate policies pursued by the Bolsheviks. They also called on Muslims to engage in a 'holy war' against Western imperialism. The 1920s were the heyday of co-operation between the two sides. In Indonesia the revolts of 1926 were both communist and Islamic in inspiration. But the alliance between communism and Islam did not last. After the death of Stalin the way was open for a renewal of the alliance between communists and Muslim movements which secured some temporary successes, in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia followed everywhere by the anti-communist coups of the 1960s. The war in Afghanistan in the 1980s forced communist parties into isolation and stimulated the rise of political Islam. The collapse of the Soviet Union set communist parties adrift, with the freedom to decide their own policies. Adapted from the source document.

SUMMARY:
This article considers the question of how the perception of notions of "empire" and "nation" ("imperialism" and "nationalism"), as well as the relationship between the two among members of the Russian Modernist community, informed salient aesthetic programs and practices of Russian Modernism. The first case study serves as a backdrop for the rest of the discussion. It features a narrative of Russian national revival that was proposed by art historian Adrian Prakhov and that expressed a standpoint identifiable with the official program of nationalist indoctrination. Four other case studies feature two prominent members of the World of Art group, Alexander Benois and Ivan Bilibin, and two leaders and theoreticians of Russian Symbolism, Valery Bryusov and Vyacheslav Ivanov (with the addition of Sergei Gorodetsky to the latter). The author argues that the various forms of the empire–nation relationship as imagined by artists mediated their aesthetic choices, and that one can speak of "universalist," "imperialist-nationalist," and "indigenous" aesthetic trends in Russian Modernism as a product of this differentiation.

A common assumption in current scholarship on imperialism is that representations of colonised landscapes were gendered female and that European expansion was a male‐gendered enterprise. In the Dutch East Indies (colonial Indonesia), a Dutch possession in south‐east Asia, this association was by no means consistent in artistic and literary representations of nature and landscape. The gendering of Indies landscapes as feminine and their association with erotic conquest in colonial representations was most strongly evident in paintings. However, in photographs and literature, race figured more prominently in the designation of colonised landscapes as tropical and other. This was particularly true from the late nineteenth century onwards, when an ideological shift towards increased racial segregation occurred among colonial intellectuals and officials. In literature particularly, Indies landscapes and nature appeared as gender‐neutral, but were clearly raced native. In such instances, colonial representations were more likely to convey a fear of seduction and engulfment by Indies nature than titillation at the prospect of erotic opportunity or colonial conquest.

The Underground Railroad is commonly understood as a defining moment in the ideology of the Canadian state regarding the legacy of racism and anti-racism. This paper attempts to recast the narrative of the Underground Railroad through the lens of an anti-imperialist, anti-racist political economy, departing from the view of Canada's anti-racist rescue of fugitive slaves from racist America. The Underground Railroad was in fact the product primarily of the struggle for self-emancipation of American black slaves. The central place of these actors as agents of their own freedom struggle needs to be recognized and restored, taken as a theoretical and historical starting point in explaining the pre-history of Confederation. The British North American colonies served as a safe space for fugitive slaves as a result of realpolitik; racism and a culture of hegemonic whiteness were endemic to the early origins of the Canadian state. This analysis is placed in the context of current and historical discussions of anti-racism and anti-imperialism.