Embedded in the land: customary social relations and practices of resilience in an East Timorese community

Drawing on a case study of Cacavei, a rural subsistence community in Timor-Leste, this article explores the mutually constitutive relationship between people and land within customary forms of society. Patterns of land use and connection to land are not simply reflective of genealogical modes of social organisation, but are also enabling of them. Particularly, the embedding of ancestors within the land offers a means of accessing kinship relationships beyond the genealogical present. Embeddedness provides a quality of embodiment that makes ancestors active participants in social life. Constituted in the relational nexus of people and land, forms of social organisation in Cacavei have a mutability which goes some way to explaining the community’s resilience in spite of forced displacement and cultural disruption during the period of Indonesian occupation. This mutability might be considered more broadly as a source of resilience for customary communities grappling with modernising processes of change.

American democracy promotion in the changing Middle East: from Bush to Obama

The recent "Arab spring", with its popular uprisings in many Arab countries, has exposed the ambiguity at the heart of American promotion of democracy in the Middle East. The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were packaged as democracy promotion, as heralding the beginning of a new phase in the politics of the Middle East when democracy would replace authoritarian regimes. Many of these authoritarian regimes, however, were sustained by US support. The recent popular uprisings threaten to bring democracy without promotion by the US, and threaten to overthrow regimes previously supported by the US and important for US strategy in the region – hence an initial hesitant response by the US to some of the uprisings. This book explores the contradictions in American democracy promotion in the Middle East. It discusses the principles underlying US democracy promotion, and the debates surrounding US policy formation, and examines the application of US democracy promotion in specific cases. It concludes by assessing the likely future patterns of US engagement with democratic reform in the Middle East.

US foreign policy in the Middle East : the roots of anti-Americanism

Over the last sixty years, Washington has been a major player in the politics of the Middle East. From Iran in the 1950s, to the Gulf War of 1991, to the devastation of contemporary Iraq, US policy has had a profound impact on the domestic affairs of the region. Anti-Americanism is a pervasive feature of modern Middle East public opinion. But far from being intrinsic to ‘Muslim political culture’, scepticism of the US agenda is directly linked to the regional policies pursued by Washington. By exploring critical points of regional crisis, Kylie Baxter and Shahram Akbarzadeh elaborate on the links between US policy and popular distrust of the United States. The book also examines the interconnected nature of events in this geo-strategically vital region. Accessible and easy to follow, it is designed to provide a clear and concise overview of complex historical and political material. Key features include: •maps illustrating key events and areas of discontent •text boxes on topics of interest related to the Arab/Israeli Wars, Iranian politics, foreign interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the wars of the Persian Gulf, September 11 and the rise of Islamist movements •further reading lists and a selection of suggested study questions at the end of each chapter.

America’s challenges in the Greater Middle East: the Obama administration's policies

The Middle East has been the centerpiece of American foreign policy for decades. As President Barack Obama faces continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear debate in Iran, and the ever-present Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the future of this region is once again firmly in the international spotlight. America's Challenges in the Greater Middle East charts US policy towards key Middle Eastern states and evaluates the impact of the current administration's policies. This edited volume brings together scholarly opinion from a diverse range of world-recognized experts and is the definitive text on the Obama administration's engagement with this volatile, yet politically vital, part of the world.

Development of distributed energy systems for Middle East Countries

Although Renewable energy applications in Middle East countries were started in the middle of the seventies, they have only gained momentum in the last ten years. Considering the past gained experience, a proposed national Renewable Energy (RE) plan aims toward bringing RE into the main stream of the national energy supply system with a target contribution of 10% of the electricity demand by the year 2020. The proposed plan calls for a wide spectrum of renewable energy applications. This paper will highlight renewable energy applications in Middle East countries, the gained experience, the RE resources, and the future prospects for the utilization of RE recourses.

Stable isotope-based community metrics as a tool to identify patterns in food web structure in east African estuaries

1.Quantitative tools to describe biological communities are important for conservation and ecological management. The analysis of trophic structure can be used to quantitatively describe communities. Stable isotope analysis is useful to describe trophic organization, but statistical models that allow the identification of general patterns and comparisons between systems/sampling periods have only recently been developed. 2.Here, stable isotope-based Bayesian community-wide metrics are used to investigate patterns in trophic structure in five estuaries that differ in size, sediment yield and catchment vegetation cover (C3/C4): the Zambezi in Mozambique, the Tana in Kenya and the Rianila, the Betsiboka and Pangalanes Canal (sampled at Ambila) in Madagascar. 3.Primary producers, invertebrates and fish of different trophic ecologies were sampled at each estuary before and after the 2010–2011 wet season. Trophic length, estimated based on δ15N, varied between 3·6 (Ambila) and 4·7 levels (Zambezi) and did not vary seasonally for any estuary. Trophic structure differed the most at Ambila, where trophic diversity and trophic redundancy were lower than at the other estuaries. Among the four open estuaries, the Betsiboka and Tana (C4-dominated) had lower trophic diversity than the Zambezi and Rianila (C3-dominated), probably due to the high loads of suspended sediment, which limited the availability of aquatic sources. 4.There was seasonality in trophic structure at Ambila and Betsiboka, as trophic diversity increased and trophic redundancy decreased from the prewet to the postwet season. For Ambila, this probably resulted from the higher variability and availability of sources after the wet season, which allowed diets to diversify. For the Betsiboka, where aquatic productivity is low, this was likely due to a greater input of terrestrial material during the wet season. 5.The comparative analysis of community-wide metrics was useful to detect patterns in trophic structure and identify differences/similarities in trophic organization related to environmental conditions. However, more widespread application of these approaches across different faunal communities in contrasting ecosystems is required to allow identification of robust large-scale patterns in trophic structure. The approach used here may also find application in comparing food web organization before and after impacts or monitoring ecological recovery after rehabilitation.

Gene flow in east antarctic echinoderms and resilience to climate change

The spatial scales of population genetic structure in three species of Antarctic echinoderm, Sterechinus neumayeri, Abatus nimrodi and Abatus ingens was quantified using mitochondrial sequences and a novel set of microsatellite markers. Reduced fertilisation success in S. neumayeri resulting from increasing temperature and decreasing salinity was also identified.

East Rennell World Heritage Site : misunderstandings, inconsistencies and opportunities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in the Pacific Islands

Continuing traditional land tenure and resource use pattern the landscapes and seascapes of the Pacific Islands, and the rights of customary land owners are enshrined in the constitutions of many Pacific Island states. The implications of this for heritage conservation programs implemented by national governments under international Conventions and Agreements are explored through a case study of East Rennell World Heritage site, the first site to be inscribed based on natural criteria under customary ownership and management. Dissatisfaction with World Heritage listing expressed by the community of East Rennell is argued to reflect inconsistencies in the requirements for inscription of the property and a tension between the conservation and ‘beauty pageant’ functions of the World Heritage List.