Political Handbook of the World: 1993 : Governments and Intergovernmental Organizations As of July 1， 1993

ISBN: 9780933199095

定价: 180.00

内容简介

The effective demise of communism in 1990 and the proper names. Despite a number of international con-
fragmentationofthe Soviet Unionin 1991 triggered a series ferences on the subject??? the problem is becoming more???
of changes in global politics of unparalleled proportions??? rather than less acute??? in part because of an increasing
With the abrupt end of the Cold War??? the potential for tendency toward linguistic \"nationalization\". Thus cities
armed conflict shifted??? for the most part??? from the in- once known as Leopoldville??? Lourenco-Marques??? and Sal-
terstate to theintrastate level??? with long simmering aspira- isbury are now styled Kinshasa??? Maputo??? and Harare??? re-
tions for ethnic self-determination erupting in dozens??? if spectively??? while the former Republic of Upper Volta is
not hundreds??? of new locations. Fleetingly??? it appeared that now Burkina Faso and Burma is Myanmar; in addition???
the United Nations might be able to contain the ethnic throughout the Third World (particularly in Africa)Chris-
brushfires; instead??? it slipped almost imperceptibly from tian given names are commonly- and understandably-
the role of peacekeeper into the far more challenging task being abandoned as lingering relics of colonialism. Another
of peacemaker??? with results that to date have been mixed??? problem turns on the use of foreshortened first names??? many
at best. In the vanguard of the UN-backed global effort??? politicians (particularly in Australasia and the Caribbean)
the United States has seemed bewildered as its humani- choosing to be known??? for example??? as \"Bob\"??? rather than
tarian gestures are increasingly reviled as acts of unwelcome \"Robert\"??? or \"Tom\"??? rather than \"Thomas\"??? while the Greek
intrusion??? version of \"John\" may be rendered (in ascending order of
Accompanying theapparent retreat from authoritarian- familiarity) as \"loannis ??? \"Yiannis\"??? \"Yannis\"??? or \"Yanni\".
ism has been a global proliferation of political parties. With And??? of course??? US President Truman insisted that his legal
communism following fascism into the dustbin of history??? name was \"Harry S Truman\" rather than \"Harry S. Tru-
autocrats of varying stripes have become phiralists or have man\"??? since the \"S\" stood as an abbreviation of nothing.
had pluralism thrust upon them. In some cases??? however??? In rendering proper names based on the Roman alpha-
the demoeratic explosion has glven former dictators room bet??? we have included relevant diacritics??? where known.
to maneuver; in others??? previously antidemocratic leaders The indexing of Spanish names has been keyed to the pa-
have been returned to power by democratic means. The ternal component; in the case of Portuguese names??? how-
highpoints of hope bracketed by the collapse of the Berlin ever??? the increasingly prevalent practice (to which we large-
Wall in 1989 and the signing of the Israeli-PLO peace ac- ly adhere) is to key to the terminal component??? even i f
cord in 1993 have also witnessed a near-Malthusian popula- maternal. In some cases??? the \"family\" name in the western
tion explosion tragically curtailed by widespread famine sense may be rarely??? if ever??? used??? while the given name may
and untreatable diseases such as AIDS and drug-resistant be foreshortened.
TB??? theuncertainprospectsofdebt-riddenless-advantaged In the transliteration of names derived from non-
economies??? and a potentially irreversible degradation Of Western languages??? we have attempted to strike a reason-
the earth s environment??? able balance between the customary usage of the country
In attempting to assess??? in highly compressed form??? the under treatment and that of the international press. We
past and present politics of the global community??? wecon- have made a particular effort to achieve some degree of
tinue a publishing tradition extending from 1928??? when the standardization in the transliteration of Arabic names??? al-
Council on Foreign Relations issuedA Political Handbook though complete uniformity appears to be approachable
of the World??? edited by Malcolm W. DavisandWalterH. only in the rendering of Gulf Arabic. In accordance with
Mallory. Mr. Mallory became the sole editor in 1929 and currently prevailing practice??? mainland Chinese names are
continued in that capacity until 1968. The present struc- given in pinyin??? although Wade-Giles and other variants
ture of the work is based largely on the format introduced are utilized elsewhere. On occasion??? consistency must yield
by Richard P. Stebbins and Alba Amoia in the 1970 edi- to an individual s preference (if known)??? as??? in the case of
tion. Since 1975 the Handbook has been assembled at the Greek??? choosing between Constantine??? Constantinos??? or
State University of New York at Binghamton??? which??? as Konstantinos. In some cases (e.g. Burmese and Vietnam-
of 1985??? also assumed the role of publisher??? ese) no distinction is made between \"first\" and \"last\" names;
The editors have attempted to make the textual infor- in others (e.g.??? Indonesian) the name may contain only one
mation current as of July 1??? 1993??? with major developments element??? while in some the preferred form of address may
through September 15 also being noted (see page iv for be by the given??? rather than the family component.
additional details on calendar coverage). In 1989??? for the fifth year in a row??? no newly indepen-
Amajorproblem facing thecompilersofaglobalcom- dent territory entered the community of nations??? and it
pendium turns on the rendering of both geographic and appeared that the post-World War II march toward in