MODELING POTENTIAL TIGER HABITAT IN HUPINGSHAN-HOUHE ANDMANGSHAN-NANLING NATIONAL NATURE RESERVES, CHINA

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The Long Game: Hamas, The IRA, and the Politics of Radicalization in Palestine and Northern Ireland

The value of a comparative study of the two conflicts stems from a remarkable similarity in the structural organization of political violence by its most influential practitioners: the IRA and Hamas. At the core, I have merely tried my best to approach a beguiling question in a fresh, dynamic way. The stultifying discourse of conflict that serves as lingua franca for the Israeli‐Palestinian issue has largely reduced strategic debate to how best the conflict can be managed – not ended. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s focus on “economic peace” and unwillingness to commit to a two‐state solution – the consensus that has governed peacemaking for decades – belies such thinking. The Clinton Administration’s cadre of Mideast negotiators operated amidst the most rapid institutionalization of Palestinian democracy in history ‐ yet remained obsessed with Israeli‐Arab “confidence‐building” measures, doing little to legitimize the gains of Oslo. So long as Palestinians continue to view the creation of Israel as “al‐Nakba” – the catastrophe – whilst successive Israeli governments refuse to grant their aspirations any legitimacy, there can be no progress. Peace requires empathy, a substantial compromise in the context of internecine conflict. The “long war” both conflicts have become mandates an equally expansive, broad‐based and labor‐intensive approach – a demanding process that can only be called The Long Game.

Modeling Potential Tiger Habitat in Hupingshan-Houhe and Mangshan-Nanling National Nature Reserves, China

After declining steadily for several decades, the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is now thought to be extinct in the wild. However, there is some hope of reintroduction, with Hupingshan-Houhe and Mangshan-Nanling National Nature Reserves in southern China seeming to hold the most promise. Our study used slope, elevation, vegetation, and landcover variables to construct a rough habitat suitability index for tigers in these two parks. According to our model, there are areas of suitable habitat within both parks. However, there are some important variables that we were unable to include in our model, such as human population density and prey availability. Considerable in-depth research will be necessary to evaluate the suitability of these locations before reintroduction is considered.