The end of the cold war and the causes of Soviet collapse

"In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to power in the USSR. In selecting a young reformer to the position of general secretary, the politburo had recognised the pressing need to revitalise the Soviet Union. To this end, the leadership imposed a series of reforms aimed at reinvigorating the Soviet economy and society, of which the shifts in foreign policy were the most radical and wide-ranging. Yet, the culmination of the reform process was not Soviet reinvigoration, but the rapid collapse of the USSR. The End of the Cold War and the Causes of Soviet Collapse examines the role played by this foreign policy reform process in the breakdown of Soviet power. Nick Bisley uses a historical sociological theory of the state to analyse the influence of foreign policy alongside the other domestic factors which shaped the development, functioning and failure of the Soviet state.
He concludes that the international confrontation was an important structural element of Soviet state rule and that the end of the confrontation contributed to the destabilisation of the state in the late 1980s. Moreover, he shows that international factors are fundamental to the functioning of modern states and that international and domestic orders shape one another in vital ways."--BOOK JACKET.

Accuracy of body size estimation: Role of biopsychosocial variables

This study evaluated factors related to the perceptual disturbances of body image. Using a digital body image computer program, 191 participants (107 women, 82 men) adjusted an image of their body to the perceived actual size at five body regions; chest, waist, hips, thighs and calves. A neutral object (a vase) was also adjusted to partial out the level of perceptual distortion present with a neutral object. Men and women overestimated the size of the neutral object and their body image. Among women, overestimation was primarily predicted by high levels of depression, and media and peer influences to be thinner and increase muscles. Among men, overestimation was predicted by high BMI, media influences to lose weight and increase muscles, and peer influences to increase muscles. These findings suggest that perceptual accuracy of body image is primarily predicted by biopsychosocial influences.

Writing across boundaries

This thesis examines a range of recent Australian fiction written in a magical realist mode. It uses the work of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin to foreground the cross-cultural dialogues represented in these narratives, and it reads these dialogues in the context of contemporary negotiations of cultural difference in Australia.

Gorbachev and the end of the Cold War : interpretations and implications for international relations theory

By arguing that international relations scholarship fails to explain adequately the end of the Cold War because it gives insufficient consideration to the role performed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the thesis makes a case for the systematic examination of the part played by individual political actors in international affairs.

Loss of periodicity in breeding success of waders links to changes in lemming cycles in Arctic ecosystems

Lemming population cycles in the Arctic have an important impact on the Arctic food web, indirectly also affecting breeding success in Arctic-nesting birds through shared predators. Over the last two decades lemming cycles have changed in amplitude and even disappeared in parts of the Arctic. To examine the large scale effect of these recent changes we re-analysed published data from the East Atlantic Flyway (EAF), where a relationship between lemming cycles and wader breeding success was earlier found, and new data on breeding success of waders in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). We found that 1) any long-term periodicities in wader breeding success existed only until the year 2000 in the EAAF and until the 1980s in the EAF; 2) studying these patterns at a smaller spatial scale, where the Siberian-Alaskan breeding grounds were divided into five geographical units largely based on landscape features, breeding success of waders from the EAAF was not correlated to an index of predation pressure, but positively correlated to Arctic summer temperatures in some species. We argue that fading out of lemming cycles in some parts of the Arctic is responsible for faltering periodicity in wader breeding success along both flyways. These changed conditions have not yet resulted in any marked changing trends in breeding success across years, and declining numbers of waders along the EAAF are therefore more likely a result of changing conditions at stop-over and wintering sites.