Geopolitics as palimpsest: Contextual inscriptions of the global war on terror

This article aims to develop the agenda of a grounded, contextual critical geopolitics, with particular emphasis on the interaction between local and hegemonic geopolitics. This is achieved by examining the local reception of the geopolitics of the ‘global war on terror’ (GWOT) in the context of the establishment of US bases on Romanian territory following the 2004 US Global Posture Review. A close reading of this context reveals a complex and ambiguous relationship, simultaneously assertive and subversive, between the GWOT's sui generis, territorially non-specific geopolitics of transit, and Romania's exceptionalist geopolitics of place, significance, and convergence. Not only did the GWOT geopolitics fail to erase local geopolitics, but it also became muddied, contaminated, and inadvertently destroyed by the ‘old’ local geopolitical knowledge. This suggests an understanding of geopolitics as a palimpsest, the product of serial, imperfect, synchronic and diachronic erasures and writings-over that produce geopolitical knowledge of, and in different contexts. In broader conceptual terms, this study highlights the heteroglossia of geopolitical knowledge, the resilience of local geopolitics, and the importance of contextual sensitivity in the pursuit of the normative mission of critical geopolitics

A Synergy of Failures: Environmental Protection and Chinese Capital in Southeast Europe

Chinese economic presence in Europe is primarily discussed as a security threat with its impact on sustainability remaining a rather marginal issue. This article investigates the repercussions of Chinese capital’s surge in Europe for environmental protection and analyses the reasons behind its poor performance. We examine five key Chinese projects in Southeast Europe, a sub-region that includes countries with different forms of association with European institutions and with varying levels of development and state capacity. We find that the negative environmental impact of these projects cannot be attributed to the commonly held perception of the Chinese as inherently “bad” investors and of host states as “weak” and dependent. Rather, we identify a synergy of failures between investors, host states and regional institutions that results in poor regulation and compliance. This finding calls for the inclusion of sustainability in foreign investment screening mechanisms and the abandonment of contradictory developmental priorities in the region

Artemis Ephesia in Apulum biography of a Roman bronze statuette

The first known representation of Artemis from Ephesus in Dacia was recovered in the spring of 2006, the small bronze statuette being part of one of the biggest private, archaeological collections looted from various Roman sites. In this article, the authors present the iconographic features of the statuette, the religious significance of the object and through the modern story of the artefact will reflect on the biography of ancient objects once used in religious contexts

Predictive factors for complications in rigid and semirigid retrograde ureteroscopy

Clinica de Urologie şi Transplant Renal, Spital Clinic “Dr. CI Parhon” Iaşi, Al V-lea Congres de Urologie, Dializă şi Transplant Renal din Republica Moldova cu participare internaţională (1-13 iunie 2011)Background. Currently, ureteroscopy is a worldwide procedure with varied number of diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities, including treatment of stones, upper urinary tract tumors, strictures, placement of difficult ureteral stents, and diagnosis of filling defects or haematuria of unknown origin. However, the technique has complications including bleeding, fever and sepsis, ureteral perforation, false passage, urinoma, strictures and, rarely, ureteral avulsion. PURPOSE. Our purpose was to evaluate the ureteroscopies with long hospitalization and to analyse the preoperative predictive factors for the complications. METHODS. We retrospectively reviewed all 342 files of the patients who underwent retrograde ureteroscopy for different reasons between january 2005 and december 2009. Data were abstracted on period of hospitalization, indications for the procedure (urolithiasis – site, number and size, reno-ureteral haematuria, filling defects), bioumoral status, outcome and complications of the method. RESULTS. The mean hospitalization time was 6,53 ± 2,09 days, with a preoperative period of 3,37 ± 1,74 days and a postoperatory time of 2,16 ± 1,08 days. Only 40 patients (11,7%) have exceled this postoperatory period due to a complicated outcome, meanwhile the preoperative time was tidely corelated with the diagnostic imaging methods. The success rate of all therapeutic procedures was 84,74% and the overall and major complication rates was 23,09% and 4,97%. The analysis of preoperative factors showed that preoperative bacteriuria is statistically correlated with postoperatory complications, such as fever and sepsis (p<0.001), and persistent haematuria is linked to stone size and ureteral stent size placed at the end of the procedure (8Ch) without having statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS. Our experience suggests that carefully performed retrograde ureteroscopy is a superb tool for the urologist, either for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. However, when performing an ureteroscopy, one should always bear in mind the possibility of serious complications, including ureteral avulsion or perforation

A subaltern critical geopolitics of the war on terror: postcolonial security in Tanzania

Currently, hegemonic geographical imaginations are dominated by the affective geopolitics of the War on Terror, and related security practice is universalised into what has been called ‘‘globalized fear’’ (Pain, 2009). Critical approaches to geopolitics have been attentive to the Westerncentric nature of this imaginary, however, studies of non-Western perceptions of current geopolitics and the nature of fear will help to further displace dominant geopolitical imaginations. Africa, for example, is a continent that is often captured in Western geopolitics – as a site of failed states, the coming anarchy, passive recipient of aid, and so on – but geopolitical representations originating in Africa rarely make much of an impact on political theory. This paper aims to add to critical work on the so-called War on Terror from a perspective emerging from the margins of the dominant geopolitical imagination. It considers the geopolitical imagination of the War on Terror from a non-Western source, newspapers in Tanzania

Rethinking energy, climate and security: a critical analysis of energy security in the US

Understanding the complicated relationship between energy, climate and security is vital both to the study of international relations and to ensure the continued survival of a world increasingly threatened by environmental change. Climate change is largely caused by burning fossil fuels for energy, but while discussions on the climate consider the role of energy, energy security debates largely overlook climate concerns. This article traces the separation between energy and climate through an analysis of US energy security discourse and policy. It shows that energy security is continually constructed as national security, which enables very particular policy choices and prioritises it above climate concerns. Thus, in many cases, policies undertaken in the name of energy security contribute directly to climate insecurity. The article argues that the failure to consider securing the climate as inherently linked to energy security is not just problematic, but, given global warming, potentially harmful. Consequently, any approach to dealing with climate change has to begin by rethinking energy security and security more broadly, as national (energy) security politics no longer provides security in any meaningful sense

Probing the Links between Political Economy and Non-Traditional Security: Themes, Approaches, and Instruments

This is a pre-print of an article published in International Politics. The definitive publisher-authenticated version of: Hameiri, Shahar, and Lee Jones. "Probing the links between political economy and non-traditional security: Themes, approaches and instruments." International Politics (2015), is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ip.2015.1In recent decades, the security agenda for states and international organisations has expanded dramatically to include a range of ‘non-traditional’, transnational security issues. It is often suggested that globalisation has been a key driver for the emergence or intensification of these problems, but, surprisingly, little sustained scholarly effort has been made to examine the link between responses to the new security agenda and the changing political economy. This curious neglect largely reflects the mutual blind-spots of the sub-disciplines of International Security Studies and International Political Economy, coupled with the dominance of approaches that tend to neglect economic factors. This special issue, which this article introduces, aims to overcome this significant gap. In particular, it focuses on three key themes: the broad relationship between security and the political economy; what is being secured in the name of security, and how this has changed; and how things are being secured – what modes of governance have emerged to manage security problems. In all of these areas, the contributions point to the crucial role of the state in translating shifting state-economy relations to new security definitions and practices

ARCHAEOBOTANICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON SAMPLES RECOVERED FROM DACIAN SETTLEMENTS LOCATED IN TRANSYLVANIAN AREA

This paper presents the results of the archaeobotanical investigation carried out on charred macroremains from several archaeological sites located in Transylvania area which provided valuable insights into the plant economy of Dacian settlements. According with our results, field crop production was based on cereals, legumes and fruits. The evidence shows that vegetal diet had a significant role in the nutrition of Dacian communities, which in turn were much influenced by the availability and abundance of plant resources but also of the climate conditions. We rely our hypothesis on archaeobotanical data recovered from seven Dacian settlement: Piatra Craivii, Căpȃlna, Cetea (Alba County) Augustin-Tipia Ormenișului (Brașov County) Șimleul Silvaniei - Cetate and Observator (Sălaj County) and most important on results gathered in several campaigns from Sarmizegetusa Regia (Hunedoara County). The evolution of human communities has been heavily influenced by the potential sources for life sustenance accessible in the area where they live.</p

Archaeobotanical results from the late bronze age hillfort Teleac (Alba County, Romania)

Th e article discusses the plant species found during the 2016 archaeological campaign inside the fortification of Teleac. Analysis of the macro remains recovered from archaeological deposits in Teleac helped to reconstruct the plant species cultivated by the Late Bronze Age inhabitants. The predominant cereal species in the samples was Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn/domestic millet) with 51 seeds, followed by Triticum monococcum (einkorn) with 27 seeds and Triticum spelta (spelt wheat) with 14 seeds. Also revealed were Triticum dicoccum (emmer) with 9 seeds and Secale sp. (rye) with 7 seeds. An overview of the entire Bronze Age, our focus shows that during this period the communities were engaged predominantly in agriculture, preserving their habits from the area of their origin. The results of specific analyses show that peasant farming was the mainstay of Bronze Age life

NEW DATA ABOUT THE ”WHITE PAINTED POTTERY” CULTURAL HORIZON IN TRANSYLVANIA

The knowledge of the earliest Neolithic cultural horizon in Transylvania (Starčevo-Criș I-II phases or Precriș culture) took shape in the last 50 years, gradually, with the discovery of traces of habitation in various researched sites. Thus, to the already classical sites from Baciu-Gura Baciului and Ocna Sibiului –Triguri, researched in the 70-80s, are added those from Șeușa-La Cărarea Morii, Miercurea Sibiului-Petriș and Limba -Bordane, researched at the end of the 90s, and more recently, those from Cristian I, Miercurea Sibiului II-Valea Gârbovei. A common element of these first settlements is represented by the so called ”white-painted pottery”, present in a reduced proportions in the large mass of "red-ware" ceramics. The present study brings to the attention of specialists new materials - discovered in the recent rescue researches (2016-2017) - carried out within the archaeological site of Limba-Oarda de Jos (Site no. 6), which led to the identification of several inhabited complexes belonging to this cultural horizon. The typological analysis of the motifs painted in white, but also in black (!), come to outline more clearly the particularities of the community that lived on the banks of the Mureș, approx. 7500 years ago