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South Korea may have transformed itself from a refugee-producing country into a refugee-receiving country since 1992, but the application procedures on granting refugee status and the appeal process are still arbitrary and problematic for applicants. Many studies on transnational political communities have elaborated on the arduous experiences of asylum seekers in various countries, but few have explored in detail the actual situations which asylum seekers face in host countries in Asia. This article examines the struggles and survival strategies of a group of Burmese as a transnational political community in South Korea whose lives are 'on probation' due largely to the arbitrary categorizations of their statuses as 'migrants' and 'refugees.' This paper provides a better understanding of how they devise various strategies to survive as migrant workers, and defend their political beliefs and human rights as refugees. More significantly, I argue that the acquisition of refugee status can be a process that not only requires a community to function in a transnational public sphere, but is also a perilous journey wherein migrant workers-refugees experience a 'life on probation' and ambiguities as they attempt to have a sustainable life.

Few people have the chance to watch a shy young man grow into a ruthless dictator-and live to talk about it. But, for one North Korean professor, Kim Jong Il is much more than the man holding his country hostage. He's a former student. Adapted from the source document.

Mit seinen heftig diskutierten Arbeiten im Grenzbereich zwischen Philosophie und Psychoanalyse hat Slavoj Zizek internationale Aufmerksamkeit erlangt. Dieses Buch stellt die vielen Facetten seines Denkens vor, das mit Lacan und Marx ebenso viel anfangen kann wie mit dem Kino und Theorien der Paranoia. Die erweiterte und aktualisierte Auflage behandelt alle bis heute erschienen Werke, bietet umfangreiche Verzeichnisse u.a. von Artikeln, Interviews und Videos und erleichtert mit einem Glossar den Einstieg in die eigene Zizek-Lektüre. (Verlagstext)

"Geopolitics in Late Antiquity explores the geopolitical revolution which shook the foundations of the ancient world, the dawning of the millennium of Inner Asian dominance and virtual monopoly of world power (with interludes) that began with the rise of the Huns and then continued under the hegemony of various other steppe peoples. Kim examines first the geopolitical situation created by the rise of Inner Asian powers, and then the reactions of the great empires of Eurasia to this geopolitical challenge. A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of the geo-strategies (some successful, others misguided) adopted by China, Rome and Persia to cope with the growing Inner Asian threat. The conclusions and insights drawn from this analysis are then used to inform modern geopolitics, mainly the contest for hegemonic power between the United States and China. Geopolitics in Late Antiquity is a crucial resource for both academic and learned general readership, who have an interest in the fate of antiquity's superpowers and also for those engaged in current international relations policy-making, who wish to learn from historical precedents"--

"The Huns have often been treated as primitive barbarians with no advanced political organisation. Their place of origin was the so-called 'backward steppe'. It has been argued that whatever political organisation they achieved they owed to the 'civilizing influence' of the Germanic peoples they encountered as they moved west. This book argues that the steppes of Inner Asia were far from 'backward' and that the image of the primitive Huns is vastly misleading. They already possessed a highly sophisticated political culture while still in Inner Asia and, far from being passive recipients of advanced culture from the West, they passed on important elements of Central Eurasian culture to early medieval Europe, which they helped create"--