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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REVIEW AND INFRASTRUCTURE GOVERNANCE IN NATIONAL PARKS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF YULONG NGP AND ZION NP
Wang, Jiawei (2025-07-23)
This study compares environmental governance and transportation infrastructure in Yulong Snow Mountain National Park (China) and Zion National Park (USA). It investigated how spatial infrastructure planning and environmental impact assessments influence ecological outcomes in national parks. Using comparative case analysis, field observation, and policy document review, the study revealed institutional differences—particularly the legally binding NEPA framework in the U.S. versus the advisory ecological assessments in China. It identified the paradox of Green Infrastructure in fragile zones, critiqued the asymmetric risk discourse, and offered institutional recommendations to embed ecological data into enforceable spatial governance. The research contributed to sustainable national park management and infrastructure planning under ecological constraints.
New dictionary of scientific biography excerpt: Efraim Racker
Allchin, D. (Charles Scribner’s Sons/Thomson Gale., 2007)
The Art of Coercion: Credible Threats and the Assurance Dilemma
Pauly, Reid B. C. (Cornell University Press, 2025-07-05)
The Art of Coercion presents a fresh explanation for the success—and failure—of coercive demands in international politics. Strong states are surprisingly bad at coercion. History shows they prevail only a third of the time. Reid B. C. Pauly argues that coercion often fails because targets fear punishment even if they comply. In this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario, targets have little reason to obey. Pauly illustrates this logic in nuclear counterproliferation efforts with South Africa, Iraq, Libya, and Iran. He shows that coercers face an "assurance dilemma": When threats are more credible, assurances not to punish are less so. But without credible assurances, targets may defy threats, bracing for seemingly inevitable punishment. For coercion to work, as such, coercers must not only make targets believe that they will be punished if they do not comply, but also that they will not be if they do. Packed with insights for any foreign policy challenge involving coercive strategies, The Art of Coercion crucially corrects assumptions that tougher threats alone achieve results.
Freedom of Conscience in (Post)Soviet Space: Legacies of Michael Bourdeaux and the Keston Archive
(Cornell University Press, 2025-07-05)
Freedom of Conscience in (Post)Soviet Space, a collection of original essays edited by Julie K. deGraffenried, Michael Long, and Xenia Dennen, is inspired by the work of Michael Bourdeaux, the holdings of the Keston Archive, and continuing questions of freedom of conscience. Ranging from England to Siberia and moving chronologically from 1917 to the twenty-first century, this book reveals the unique organization and methodology behind the Keston's collection of materials and the ways those in the West thought about religion and communism during the Cold War, including the connection between religious liberty and human rights. The essays demonstrate the depth and breadth of current research on religion in communist and postcommunist contexts, a much-needed corrective to contemporary political uses of religious freedom. Bourdeaux's activism and preservation of materials influenced many fields of study, as reflected by contributing authors' varied disciplines—history, theology, sociology, languages, and literature. A preface by the theologian and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams comments on Michael Bourdeaux's life and significance.
The Caspian World: Women's Labor and the War in Kachinland
(Cornell University Press, 2025-07-05)
The Caspian World is a wide-ranging exploration of the strategic, political, and commercial significance of the Caspian Sea, a site where empires—Russian, Persian, Ottoman, and British—competed, warred, and collaborated. As with the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, or the Black Sea, the geography of the Caspian Sea creates a sphere of unique political dynamics and possibilities, and the essays in this volume describe the role of the Caspian as a force of connection, as well as a source of threats, to the states on its shores. Rather than narrating history through binary, state-to-state relationships, however, The Caspian World uncovers the sea as a space of multi-sided exchanges and numerous centers, tracing how the Caspian has shaped the commercial, intellectual, diplomatic, and imperial projects throughout the region.