The international, regional and legal aspects of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait 1990-1991

The resolution of the Iraq-Kuwait crisis depended on the leading role played by the US in managing the crisis and eliciting the international and regional support needed to uphold international law and restore the legitimacy and sovereignty of the Kuwaiti state. In that Saudi Arabia and the UN immensely aided the US. The focus of the study will be on this particular contribution of the Security Council and Riyadh to the resolution of the crisis. Saudi Arabia's leading regional role in support of Kuwait and its willingness to participate in the war waged against Iraq from its territory shows the extent of its concern over the strengthening of Iraq as a dominant force in the Gulf area as well as over Iraqi violation of the Charters of the UN and the Arab League. The international response was also motivated by similar concerns, in addition to Iraq threatening the strategic interests of the US. It was this direct threat to the US that motivated Washington to use the Security Council as the most appropriate vehicle to manage the crisis by emphasising adherence to international law and UN Charter. There was no doubt that Iraq violated international law, but the domination of the international coalition and the Security Council by the US tainted the role of the UN and emphasised the fact that Desert Storm was not merely about restoring Kuwaiti sovereignty but also about the destruction of Iraqi power. The severity of the sanctions and their continuation for more than a decade is further evidence that Washington's objectives go beyond the needs of upholding international law and maintaining peace and stability. The Gulf war restored Kuwaiti sovereignty but did very little to restore stability and peace in the region. Divisions among Arab states have been accentuated, the Arab league is totally marginalised and the GCC lacks the ability to create a viable order to safeguard the sovereignty and stability of the Gulf area. Thus the consequences of the war on the region and on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq have been extensive and devastating

Time-shifting in the digital university: temporality and online distance education

This thesis is situated in the context of the emergence of the ‘digital university’ in higher education. It addresses research questions which focus on organizational change, particularly on how a strategic shift to increase the provision of online distance education in a traditional, research-intensive, campus-focused university, affects the existing temporal and spatial practices of the institution. The research undertaken focuses on a UK university, during a period of strategic digital expansion in its postgraduate taught degree programmes, where funding is allocated by the institution to support a number of new courses and programmes, developed and designed to be available to students on a fully online basis. I take a narrative ethnographic research approach, which draws on interviews with university staff and students, alongside higher education policy and think-tank documents, and institutional websites. Particular attention is paid to the temporal aspects of each narrative account, in order to surface temporality over what I consider to be the spatial preoccupations of the literature and practices of online ‘distance’ education. Sustaining a critique of ‘anytime, anywhere’ accounts of online education, with a reminder that education takes place over time and in particular times and spaces, I draw on Sharma’s (2013) work on ‘critical time’, and particularly her notion of temporal ‘recalibration’ (2014), to think about complex temporal relations in the digital university. I go on to explore the idea of the digital university as transtemporal, as an alternative conceptualisation which opens up possibilities for imagining the university beyond its traditional temporal and spatial boundaries. I argue that understanding the dominant times and spaces of the university campus as central, and those accessing the campus in asynchronous or asymmetric ways as peripheral, may not just lead to spatially biased practices of distancing, but to a lack of recognition of emergent inequalities which are digitally reconfigured and potentially invisible. I conclude with some reflections on theoretical and methodological approaches to time and the digital in higher education and propose areas for future research

The regional distribution of wealth in England as indicated in the 1524/5 lay subsidy returns

The Lay Subsidy surveys were compiled in 1524 and 1525 and cover almost every county in England. The name of each taxpayer was recorded together with his level of wealth, and. this material can now be studied in the Public Record Office. This is the first time that each list in the two surveys has been analysed end compared with those of the remainder of the country. The distribution of regional wealth and population may be measured from the spread of taxation. Part I of the work examines the value of the lay subsidy surveys of 1524 and 1525 as source material for the historical geographer. Part II presents a summary of the national spread of wealth and population. This is followed by a brief account of the experience of each county included by the Act of Subsidy. The returns are analysed with the help of 108 pages of maps. Part III consists of a Gazetteer which summarises the contents of each extant membrane belonging to the lay subsidy and found in the Public Record Office today

Conserving socio-ecological landscapes: An analysis of traditional and responsive management practices for floodplain meadows in England

Contemporary practice in the conservation of socio-ecological landscapes draws on both a model of responsive management, and also on ideas about historic management. This study considered what evidence might exist for the exercise of these approaches to management in the conservation of floodplain meadows in England, in order to inform understanding and knowledge of conservation management and assessment practice. Evidence for a model of responsive management was limited, with managing stakeholders often alternating between this model and an alternative approach, called here the ‘traditional management approach’, based on ideas, narratives and prescriptions of long-established land management practices. Limited monitoring and assessment appeared to undermine the former model, whilst uncertainty over past long-standing management practices undermined the latter. As a result of the relative power of conservation actors over farmers delivering site management, and their framings of meadows as ‘natural’ spaces, management tended to oscillate between aspects of these two approaches in a sometimes inconsistent manner. Conservation managers should consider the past motivating drivers and management practices that created the landscapes they wish to conserve, and bear in mind that these are necessarily implicated in aspects of the contemporary landscape value that they wish to maintain. They should ensure that assessment activity captures a broad range of indicators of site value and condition, not only biological composition, and also record data on site management operations in order to ensure management effectiveness

The British Government, Ernest Shackleton, and the rescue of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The remarkable rescue of Shackleton's men from Elephant Island, after the sinking of Endurance, and from Ross Island, has been recounted many times by both participants and historians. There has been little critical examination of the part played by governments, nor assessment of some of Shackleton's own actions. In this paper we explore more fully from official British archival sources the extent to which the British Government was prepared to underwrite the rescue efforts; the importance of the plea made by Emily Shackleton directly to the Prime Minister; the role and actions of the Relief Advisory Committee (especially in respect of limiting Shackleton's actions); the significance of the media rights to the debt-laden expedition, and how such preoccupation could have influenced Shackleton's endeavour to rescue his marooned parties