IGU CPG Newsletter 10
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International Geographical Union Commission on Political Geography www.cas.sc.edu/geog/cpg NEWSLETTER 10 (Fall/Winter 2008) Edited by Anton Gosar ___________________________________________________________________________ IGU Commission on Political Geography, 2008-2012 Chair : Anton Gosar, Department of Geography, University of Primorska, Titov trg 5, 6000 Koper/Capodistria, Slovenia. E-mail : [email protected] Secretary : David Newman, Department of Politics & Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel. E-mail : [email protected] Webmaster : Carl Dahlman, Department of Geography, Miami University, Oxford, OH. 29208, USA. E-mail : [email protected] Steering Committee : ° Sanjay Chaturvedi, Centre for the Study of Geopolitics, Panjab University, 1600-014 Chandigarh, India. Email: [email protected] ° Elena Dell’Agnese, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimbaldi 8, 20126 Milan, Italy. E-mail : [email protected] ° Alexandru Ilies, Department of Geography, University of Oradea, Str. Armata Romana 5, 410078 Oradea, Romania. E-mail : [email protected] ° Maano Ramutsindela, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, 7701 Rondebosch, South Africa. E-mail : [email protected] ° Paul Reuber, Institute of Geography, University of Münster, Robert Koch Strasse 26, 48149 Münster, Germany. E-mail : [email protected] ° Lynn Staeheli, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK E-mail: [email protected] ° Marek Sobczynski, Department of Political Geography, University of Lodz, Collegium Geographicum, ul. Kopcinskiego 31, 90142 Lodz, Poland. E-mail : [email protected] ° Takashi Yamazaki, Department of Geography, Osaka City University, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi-ku, 5588585 Osaka, Japan. E-mail : [email protected] I – Chairman’s Column Dear Commission Members, Friends and Colleagues: At first, let me wish you a joyful holiday season! Monotheistic world religions are celebrating dates important to their faiths. During holidays we will remain thinking, at least from time to time, on the changing geography of our planet. Changes are often induced by humans, just some of them are positive. One of the occasions to celebrate human/geographer’s action was the 31st IGU International Geographical Congress in Tunis, Tunisia (12 – 15 August, 2008)! The Commission on Political Geography (IGU CPG) was well represented. On Thursday, August 14, we have organised three sessions: The Concept of Security and Sovereignty, EU’s Perspectives on Political Geography and a session on Issues in Political Geography: Africa and Asia. Papers presented are listed in our Past Events section. During the 31st IGU International Geographical Congress in Tunis new officers of the IGU were elected and new directions in research were set. Professor Emeritus Ronald Abler (University of Pennsylvania, USA) was elected to become president. Ron Abler's pioneering research has focused on communication and its impact on the human habitat, exploring ways different societies have used intercommunications technologies at different times and places, and especially with respect to urbanization. His more recent explorations assess ways in which telecommunications and cyberspace technologies have shaped and will shape both space and place around us. In addition to numerous research articles and book chapters in the field, Abler is the co-author with John S. Adams and Peter R. Gould of the groundbreaking text Spatial Organization: The Geographer's View of the World (Prentice Hall, 1971). As Director of the Geography and Regional Science Program at the National Science Foundation (1984-1988), Abler made geography visible as he established the National Center for 1 Geographic Information and Analysis, the first NSF technology center. As Executive Director of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Abler oversaw a substantial increase in the scale of the organization's activities. His 1986 Presidential Address to the AAG entitled "What Shall We Say? To Whom Shall We Speak?" set a clear tone for what and how he communicated with others. Abler's involvement with the International Geographical Union began formally with the IGU's Columbian Quincentenary meeting in Washington (1992), which he organized and for which he co-edited with Melvin G. Marcus and Judy M. Olson an overview of American geography entitled Geography's Inner Worlds: Pervasive Themes in Contemporary American Geography (Rutgers, 1992). Ron Abler has also been Geography's indefatigable ambassador across the academy and around the globe through his many national and international contributions to professional organizations linking disciplines. In summary we can point out that Ronald F. Abler holds numerous prestigious titles including: Professor Emeritus of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University (1967-1995), President (1985-1986) and Executive Director (1989-2002) of the Association of American Geographers, and Secretary General and Treasurer of the International Geographical Union (2000 - 2008). Our colleague, Professor Vladimir Kolossov has become First Vice-President. Vladimir defended his PhD theses in 1979 at Moscow State University and received habilitation in 1992 at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vladimir is Head of the Center of Geopolitical Studies at the Institute of Geography and Professor at the Moscow Institute of International Relations. He received the scholarship of Brussels Capital Region (1991) and Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1997), was nominated as Professor at the Universities of Toulouse- Le Mirail (2001-2003), visiting professor at the universities of Paris-Sorbonne IV, Paris-I Panthéon- Sorbonne, Bordeaux and Tampere. His research interests lie in the fields of political geography and geopolitics, social geography, world cities and large metropolitan areas. He is the author of more than 300 publications, including the most popular textbook on political geography in Russia. He chaired our commission between 1996-2004 and is on the editorial boards of Political Geography, Geopolitics, BelGéo, Eurasian Geography and Economy and Annales géographiques. Professors Aharon Kellerman and Giuliano Belezza have become vice-presidents as well. Aharon received his B.A. in Geography and Jewish History at the University of Haifa in 1969, and his M.A. in Geography at the Hebrew University, 1972. In 1976, he completed his Doctoral degree at Boston University. Prof. Kellerman has advanced from teaching assistant to full professor at the University of Haifa, Israel. He has held an assortment of visiting and affiliate academic positions: Oxford University; Bar-Ilan University; University of Maryland; Ben-Gurion University; University of Miami; Boston University. He served as Vice President of Administration (University of Haifa, 1995-2004), and as Chair of the IGU Commission on the Geography of the Information Society (2000-2008). He is currently Professor Emeritus of Geography, and President at Zefat Academic College, Israel. Giuliano graduated in Geological Sciences and Geography in Rome. He was Assistant to the Chair of Geography in the University of Rome since 1967 and Lecturer of Geography at the University of Bari and Rome. He obtained the tenure in 1984 and was named full Professor at Viterbo in 1994. He is the Director of the Department of American Studies in Rome and of the Department of Studies of the Historical and Artistic Heritage in Viterbo. Giuliano led courses in Quantitative Geography in Cambridge, was Secretary of the Association of Italian Geographers (1978-1981), member of the IGU Study Group in Resource Management in Dry Lands (1982-1988) and, since 2000, he participates in the IGU Commission on The Cultural Approach in Geography. Since 2003 he is the Director of the Home of Geography in Rome. Both professors supported the work of IGU’s Commission on Political Geography throughout its existence and in particular at the 31st IGU International Geographical Congress in Tunis, Tunisia this year. To the position of the president of the IGU Commission on Political Geography Professor Anton Gosar, the editor of this Newsletter was appointed. His professional career started within the tourist industry (1966) where he was tour-guide and travel agent for almost a decade. He then switched to academia, deciding to research the spatial characteristics of tourism mobility at the Institute of Geography in Ljubljana and then Institute of Economic Geography in Munich. He completed his MA studies in Boulder, Colorado (1982) and received his Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Ljubljana in 1988. Eventually he became a full professor in 1999, and Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, then Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Primorska (UP), in 2002. At present he is Head of the Department of Geography and member of the Senate of the UP in Koper-Capodistria. He has taught and led research at universities and research institutes in Slovenia (Ljubljana, Koper-Capodistria), Germany (Munich, Bayreuth), USA (Boulder, Co., Portland, Or. 2 Springfield, Mo.) and New Zealand (Christchurch). He has had Fulbright fellowships on two occasions, as well as Germany’s DAAD and New Zealand’s Erskine fellowships. His professional work includes studies on political geography, population geography and tourism geography.