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THE ANNUAL REGISTER, 2010. -- THE ANNUAL REGISTER ADVISORY BOARD -- THE ANNUAL REGISTER WORLD EVENTS 2010. -- CONTENTS -- CONTRIBUTORS -- ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- MAJOR WORLD EVENTS FROM THE ANNUAL REGISTER ARCHIVE -- EXTRACTS FROM PAST VOLUMES -- PREFACE -- I. OVERVIEW OF THE YEAR -- 2010: THE YEAR IN REVIEW -- II. WESTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE -- UNITED KINGDOM -- SCOTLAND -- WALES -- NORTHERN IRELAND -- REPUBLIC OF IRELAND -- GERMANY -- FRANCE -- ITALY

This study is directed towards providing basic background material for the understanding of South Sumatran social organisation. To this end, four legal codes from the first half of the nineteenth century are presented and analysed. The method used in the analysis is a modification of that used by Levi-Strauss for the analysis of myth.

One of the achievements of the reflectivist turn in international relations theory in the late 20th century was the attention given to the role of discourse and other ideational factors in international politics. In recent years, however, approaches critical of the discursive emphasis in international studies have emerged, seeking to restore the significance of non-discursive aspects of international relations such as geography, technology, and the non-human. This article offers a perspective on the development of international relations theory from the standpoint of the debate between materialism and idealism. Within this framework, it provides a brief overview of the historical evolution of international relations theory and subsequently delves into a detailed analysis of three strands of the new wave of materialist theorizing in the field - critical realism, new materialism, and neoclassical geopolitics. The article suggests considering the new materialist wave as, on the whole, a positive development, but also points out the necessity of taking into account the risk of "exiling" the human element from international relations research as such concepts proliferate. The possibility of collaboration between reflecivists and post-reflecivists, as well as between idealists and materialists in general, is underlined for the comprehensive study of contemporary international realities.

The article justifies why the collapse of the Soviet Union should be analyzed as the intersection of a number of diverse processes and phenomena. According to the author, the existing discord within the discussion about the reasons for the collapse of the USSR can be largely explained by the fact that researchers are not trying to determine the essence of the phenomenon they are studying and to reveal the totality of its features. The lack of the reflection on what exactly the end of the existence of the USSR was and when it happened, leads to isolating individual components of the process. As a result, some authors associate the collapse of the USSR with the dire economic straits, others consider the rise of nationalism to be the main culprit, others emphasize the role of specific actors, etc. In order to determine what exactly the collapse of the USSR meant and when it happened, the author identifies the fundamental characteristics of the entity itself, dividing it into the USSR-system and the USSR-state, and traces how these characteristics changed. His research shows that the collapse of the USSR can be divided into at least two different, albeit related processes: the collapse of the system and the collapse of the state. The collapse of the system meant a change in a self-describing narrative, the most important elements of which were the discourse of the indisputable achievements of the 1917 October Revolution, the CPSU's monopoly of power and its monolithic nature, confrontation with the capitalist countries and the socialist (state-owned) economy. It is the breakdown of these "load-bearing structures" that predetermined the future collapse of the state, making it possible for destructive factors to materialize in the form of a fiscal crisis, intra-elite conflict and mass mobilization.