The Stalemate North of Hokkaido
More than 60 years ago, in the last days of World War II, the Soviet Union seized the four islands north of Hokkaido from Japan, islands that Russia had recognized as Japanese for nearly 100 years prior to their occupation in late 1945. Over the course of the past six decades, the dispute over ownership of these four islands has overshadowed relations between Moscow and Tokyo, frustrating repeated efforts to sign once and for all a peace treaty formally ending the state of war between them that began in August 1945. Japan's desire for greater energy security in recent years has held out the possibility of improved relations with Russia, the world's second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, provided that the two nations could reach some kind of modus vivendi over the territorial issue. However, the recent Putin-Koizumi summit held in Tokyo late last year offered little hope that this might occur anytime soon. Observers in both countries are now suggesting that it may take another decade, and the passing of the generation exiled from the disputed islands, before this issue can be resolved dispassionately as a nettlesome historical problem, rather than the matter of personal loss and human dislocation that it has become.
The Greater Middle East in Global Politics
List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments List of Contributors List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Study of the Greater Middle East Mehdi Parvizi Amineh PART ONE: FOREIGN INTERVENTION AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST 2. IR-Theory and Transformations in the Greater Middle East: The Role of the United States Mehdi Parvizi Amineh and Henk Houweling 3. Connecting Central Eurasia to the Middle East in American Foreign Policy Towards Afghanistan and Pakistan: 1979-Present Simon Bromley 4. US-Russian Strategic Relations and the Structuration of Central Asia Robert M. Cutler PART TWO: STATE, SOCIETY, AND ECONOMY IN THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST 5. The Iranian Revolution: The Multiple Contexts of the Iranian Revolution Mehdi Parvizi Amineh and S. N. Eisenstadt 6. The Iranian Foreign Policy since the Iranian Islamic Revolution: 1979-2006 Eva Patricia Rakel 7. The Middle East's Democracy Deficit in Comparative Perspective Mehran Kamrava 8. The Challenges of Modernity: The Case of Political Islam Mehdi Parvizi Amineh 9. The Turkish Political Economy: Globalization and Regionalism Nilgun Onder 10. The Maghreb: Social, Political, and Economic Developments Louisa Dris-Ait-Hamadouche and Yahia Zoubir 11. From Soviet Republics to Independent Countries: Challenges of Transition in Central Asia Mirzohid Rahimov 12. Central Asia since the Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Economic Reforms and Their Impact on State-Society Relations Richard Pomfret 13. New Twists, More Intricate Configurations: The Changing Israel-Palestinian Regional Security Complex Fred Lawson PART THREE: THE POLITICS OF OIL AND MAJOR POWER RIVALRY IN THE POST-COLD WAR GREATER MIDDLE EAST 14. Global Energy Security and Its Geopolitical Impediments: The Case of the Caspian Region Mehdi Parvizi Amineh and Henk Houweling 15. China and the Greater Middle East: Globalization No Longer Equals Westernization Kurt W. Radtke 16. Indian Power Projection in the Greater Middle East: Tools and Objectives Prithvi Ram Mudiam 17. The Changing Face of the Russian Far East: Cooperation and Resource Competition Between Japan, Korea, and China in Northeast Asia Roger Kangas 18. India-Pakistan Engagement with the Greater Middle East: Implications and Options B.M. Jain 19. The EU's Policies of Security of Energy Supply Towards the Middle East and Caspian Region: Major Power Politics? Femke Hogeveen and Wilbur Perlot Bibliography Index
Time lapse photography of clouds from high altitude balloons.
Time lapse pictures of clouds taken by cameras flown at altitudes of 30 km on balloons provide valuable insights into the convection and electrification of cloud systems. Simple camera arrangements for taking such pictures are described.