On the Problem of Mediatization of Intra-Territorial Conflicts in China: A Historiographic Aspect

This article explores the role of the media in covering the conflict potential of mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The aim of the study is to analyze the media’s influence on the transformation of public opinion on issues of ethnic or territorial identity. Based on Chinese and Western media coverage, the reasons for unbalanced coverage of intra-territorial conflicts as well as the impact of stereotypes on political behaviour are identified. On the basis of the analysis the role of specific media in neutralizing the intra-regional conflict potential is determined, as well as the peculiarities of the technology of public opinion molding on the part of mainland China.

Regional Conflict, Ceramic Senescence, and Pawnee Raw Material Choice in the Late Contact Era

Here, we consider the last decades of ceramic manufacture among the Pawnee in the Central Great Plains, using petrographic analysis to explore raw material availability and use at the Kitkahahki Town site (14RP1). Historical documents reveal tremendous regional pressures and conflicts in the Kitkahahki Town area during its occupation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries—processes that could have altered or restricted the movement of women outside village boundaries. Contact-era Pawnee pottery from Kitkahahki Town exhibits atypical paste textures, atypical inclusions, or both. At least one potter used atypical materials available immediately adjacent to the village, which suggests that ceramic raw material collection was at least occasionally adjusted to reduce risk. Petrographic analysis contributes to our understanding of Indigenous communities in colonial settings, particularly to questions of technological change and landscape use when both were intensely negotiated and rapidly changing.

Pakistan’s emerging regional politico-economic role in the SCO

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is presently a Eurasian politico-economic bloc having two South Asian members, Pakistan and India. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prospective role of Pakistan in the SCO with qualitative study based on interviews. On June 2017, Pakistan was granted permanent membership in the SCO during its 16th Heads of State Summit in Astana. By associating itself as a permanent member, summit allows Pakistan to contribute to regional development alongside other key regional players, Russia and China and India. The study gave four findings that how multilateralism was having a calming effect on a regional conflict, Pakistan embracing independence from isolation through Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline. Through CPEC, Pakistan was offering the SCO member countries an economic hallway. And how the Eurasian politico-economic ambitions to reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea was perceived as hampering the Western economic interests, thereby offering a major impediment to Pakistan’s emerging role in the SCO. Moreover, SCO participation will help enhance Pakistan's worldwide socio-economic objectives. This study examines the socio-politico and economic aspirations of Pakistan and benefit due to ties with SCO member countries.

Refugees’ and Irregular Migrants’ Self-selection into Europe

We provide the first large-scale evidence on self-selection of refugees and irregular migrants who arrived in Europe in 2015 or 2016. Our analysis uses unique datasets from the International Organization for Migration and Gallup World Polls. We find that refugees are positively self-selected with respect to human capital, as are female irregular migrants. Male irregular migrants are negatively self-selected. These patterns hold whether analyzing individually stated main reason to emigrate, country-level conflict intensity, or sub-regional conflict intensity. Several additional analyses show that our results are unlikely to be driven by omitted variable bias or liquidity constraints. We offer a theoretical framework to explain these patterns, by extending the Roy-Borjas model to include risks related to staying in an unsafe country of origin, risks related to migration, and gender specific returns to human capital.