Suchergebnisse

Anthropological research on Vietnam has undergone an unparalleled growth in the past two decades, thanks to the relatively easier access to Vietnam for fieldwork and the fascination of many researchers with Vietnam's profound economic and sociocultural changes in the past half a century. Fieldwork in Vietnam, however, remains heavily circumscribed. Our understanding of the interplay of global forces and of the state and local dynamics in shaping social and ideological structure, practice, and historical events will be further enhanced by more collaboration among anthropologists working on Vietnam, as well as by more systematic comparative research in different Vietnamese regions and localities.

This article reassesses Soviet motives for invading Afghanistan in 1979, based on newly available archival materials, especially from the former USSR. The article argues that these Soviet documents show that the 1979 invasion reflected defensive rather than offensive objectives. Specifically, the USSR sought to restrain extremist elements of the Afghan communist party, who were undermining stability on the southern Soviet frontier. The findings of this article are at odds with long-standing views that the invasion of Afghanistan was part of a larger Soviet strategy aimed at threatening the Persian Gulf and other western interests. (Crit Asian Stud/GIGA)

THE HISTORY OF GOVERNANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS: CONTINUITY AND EXCEPTIONS


W.J.M. Kickert
Reed Elsevier, 2004, 121 pp., €17.85 (pb) ISBN: 9059014359

Moose probably colonized the Northern Yellowstone Winter Range (NYWR) in the latter half of the 19th century. Euro-American settlement of the NYWR occurred at roughly the same time. Legislative protection of moose from hunting in the first half of the 20th century and suppression of wildfires facilitated moose population growth and range expansion. A hunting season in Montana along the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park, authorized in 1945 in response to perceived damage by moose to willow stands, evidently reduced the moose population quickly and maintained it at moderate densities through 1988. In 1988, landscape-altering wildfires swept through the Yellowstone ecosystem and impacted old growth forest important for moose survival during winter. The moose population associated with the NYWR declined by 75% or more and has shown no sign of recovery by 2002. Several techniques for assessing population trend for moose on the NYWR were tested. Given the problems associated with monitoring a species at low densities with a dispersed social organization and occupying habitats where visibility is limited, aerial population censuses were not useful. A horseback trail survey, a road survey, and counts of moose in early winter or late spring in larger willow stands had greater potential as indices to moose population changes.