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Die vier Buchrezensionenum die Islamische Republik Iran spiegeln die ganze Bandbreite des Dilemmas im Umgang mit dem politisch gewichtigsten und auch umstrittensten Land im Nahen Osten wider. Sie zeigen die tiefe Spaltung, die in der Publizistik gegenüber diesem Land existiert; sei es in der Presse oder Fachliteratur.
Discussing the case of Egypt, the author claims that since the preconditions in the Middle East are very different from those in Europe, there also has to be a different approach towards its modernization process. She suggests a „restructuring“ of the state not only in the economic sector but also in the political, cultural, or social areas. The advantage of such an approach lies in the fact that elements and values of the traditional culture can be maintained and even expanded. Furthermore, as this approach does not presuppose any specific model, it can be applied to all kinds of societies. However, restrucuring cannot replace modernization.
Der dritte Band der Potsdamer Textbücher befasst sich mit gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen im konfliktreichen Nahen Osten. Die Zusammenstellung der Texte erfolgte sowohl mit Blick auf die anhaltende Kulturkreisdiskussion als auch hinsichtlich der Bemühungen um Stabilität in dieser Region. Hinzu kommen Analysen zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung und den politischen Regimes in Israel, Palästina, Ägypten, im Jemen und Iran. Auszüge aus Verfassungen arabischer Staaten, statistische Angaben und eine Bibliographie vervollständigen das Textbuch.
Small livestock is an important resource for rural human populations in dry climates. How strongly will climate change affect the capacity of the rangeland? We used hierarchical modelling to scale quantitatively the growth of shrubs and annual plants, the main food of sheep and goats, to the landscape extent in the eastern Mediterranean region. Without grazing, productivity increased in a sigmoid way with mean annual precipitation. Grazing reduced productivity more strongly the drier the landscape. At a point just under the stocking capacity of the vegetation, productivity declined precipitously with more intense grazing due to a lack of seed production of annuals. We repeated simulations with precipitation patterns projected by two contrasting IPCC scenarios. Compared to results based on historic patterns, productivity and stocking capacity did not differ in most cases. Thus, grazing intensity remains the stronger impact on landscape productivity in this dry region even in the future.
Aufgrund seines umstrittenen Atomprogramms ist der Iran ein Dauerbrenner in den Medien. Doch nicht nur deshalb sollte das Land Beachtung finden. Ahmad Naderi gewährt uns einen Blick auf die Geopolitik des Iran, der besonders für die in vielen arabischen Staaten unterdrückten Schiiten Orientierungspunkt sein will. Doch strebt das Land die Hegemonie in der Region an? Johannes Reissner (1949-2009) analysiert das Selbstverständnis des Iran und seine Verhaltensmuster. Sollte der Westen seine Politik überdenken?
Following work is embedded in the multidisciplinary study DESERT (DEad SEa Rift Transect) that has been carried out in the Middle East since the beginning of the year 2000. It focuses on the structure of the southern Dead Sea Transform (DST), the transform plate boundary between Africa (Sinai) and the Arabian microplate. The left-lateral displacement along this major active strike-slip fault amounts to more than 100 km since Miocene times. The DESERT near-vertical seismic reflection (NVR) experiment crossed the DST in the Arava Valley between Red Sea and Dead Sea, where its main fault is called Arava Fault. The 100 km long profile extends in a NW—SE direction from Sede Boqer/Israel to Ma'an/Jordan and coincides with the central part of a wide-angle seismic refraction/reflection line. Near-vertical seismic reflection studies are powerful tools to study the crustal architecture down to the crust/mantle boundary. Although they cannot directly image steeply dipping fault zones, they can give indirect evidence for transform motion by offset reflectors or an abrupt change in reflectivity pattern. Since no seismic reflection profile had crossed the DST before DESERT, important aspects of this transform plate boundary and related crustal structures were not known. Thus this study aimed to resolve the DST's manifestation in both the upper and the lower crust. It was to show, whether the DST penetrates into the mantle and whether it is associated with an offset of the crust/mantle boundary, which is observed at other large strike-slip zones. In this work a short description of the seismic reflection method and the various processing steps is followed by a geological interpretation of the seismic data, taking into account relevant information from other studies. Geological investigations in the area of the NVR profile showed, that the Arava Fault can partly be recognized in the field by small scarps in the Neogene sediments, small pressure ridges or rhomb-shaped grabens. A typical fault zone architecture with a fault gauge, fault-related damage zone, and undeformed host rock, that has been reported from other large fault zones, could not be found. Therefore, as a complementary part to the NVR experiment, which was designed to resolve deeper crustal structures, ASTER (Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite images were used to analyze surface deformation and determine neotectonic activity.