This could have been a really good book, but this interesting and readable treatment of South Korea's economic history is marred by wild polemics. Ultimately, it is a descriptive, not analytical, work, and hence of questionable utility in understanding the present or future.

David A. Lake and Patrick M. Morgan, eds., Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997) pp.403, price not listed.

"During the Persian Gulf War, George Bush sought to evoke a "new world order". The president was right in seeing a new potential for the international management of interstate and intrastate conflicts, but he was wrong in his horizons. Rather than a single world order, we are witnessing today the emergence of a variety of new regional orders." (Emphasis in original) This is the opening sentence of a book appropriately titled Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World.

Equally appropriately, it is based on a futuristic assumption: "In the foreseeable future, violent conflicts will mostly arise out of regional concerns and will be viewed by political actors through a regional rather than a global lens." We are either still on the way towards evolving regional arrangements and actions to cope with conflicts; or the entire project has been an unattainable ideal from the beginning. The book reflects innovative mode and optimistic mood in the discipline of International Relations in the early nineties. That is its contribution and that is its weakness.

In fact, one of the contributors attempts to draw parallels between the Concert of Europe and the Arab-Israel situation in West Asia and concludes on the note of optimism tempered with caution. (David J. Pervin, "Building Order in Arab-Israeli Relations: From Balance to Concert?" pp. 271-296) Susan Shirk, in her paper on "Asia-Pacific Regional Security: Balance of Power or Concert of Powers? (pp.245-270) argues that since successful management of relations between powers in the Asia-Pacific would be difficult to achieve by power-balancing alone, a regional concert of powers could emerge involving the US, Russia, China and Japan. "...there remain two possible obstacles ...a lack of ideological consensus and uncertain acceptance of the status quo," she concedes. No minor irritants, these!

Edmond J. Keller, on the other hand, is less upbeat. He identifies progress toward democracy and self-sustained development as the priority goals in Africa and will be content to see the development of interlocking collective security management systems linking the Organisation of African Unity with subregional organisations having common collective security interests. ("Rethinking African Regional Security" pp.296-317) Yuen Foong Khong is even less sanguine regarding Southeast Asia in the New World. As ASEAN moves toward expanding its membership and reaches out to nest itself in larger multilateral organisations such as the ARF and APEC, "it is conceivable that the spirit of togetherness engendered by ASEAN's cooperative ventures in the previous decades may come under strain." ("ASEAN and the Southeast Asian Security Complex" pp.318-339).

After the end of the Cold War, political analysts and policy makers alike turned their attention to the regional conflicts. Against the background of improving relations between the US and Russia, the conflicts in the margins of the global system, i.e., South Asia, West Asia, Africa, the new states in Central Asia etc., were seen as the fresh and more dangerous threats - to the states, to the regions and to the world. The political analyses broke new grounds at times. At others, old tools were employed to understand and explain new realities.

David A. Lake divides regions into three neat categories: unipolar, bipolar and multipolar and goes on to apply the Neorealist maxims to explain the regional dynamics. For example, he says, the unipolar regional security systems will be relatively autonomous, according to the theory of hegemonic stability; the multipolar ones will also be autonomous but plagued by problems of conflict management; and the bipolar ones will be less cooperative and less autonomous. (pp.60-61). There are several problems with such formulations. One, the Neorealism does not provide a comprehensive framework for understanding international relations. Two, the regional systems are inherently open. The global system, other regional systems, and even "outside" states can have a major impact on a region. (PP. 9-10). Autonomous regions, in the circumstances, can only be less penetrated vis-à-vis the highly penetrated ones. Three, as Hurrel puts it, "...all regions are socially constructed and hence politically contested." A state can be a member of two regions simultaneously; at times, three. Or a state can choose to look east, west, north or south according to its needs at various points in time. Or a region can choose to deny a state its membership in the region.

To sum up, even if one rejects the contention that 'in marked contrast to the Cold War era, we do not see global political considerations leading to the consistent imposition of global issues, institutions or orders on all regional security complexes," (p.347) the book is a welcome input to the burgeoning literature on regions in a comparative perspective.

Gulshan Dietl, Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - 110067.

I found the material of his book more challenging for an undergraduate. There were many times when I had to reread paragraphs to get a clearer understanding of what Shaw was stating. The maps and figures, which accompany his narration are adequately presented. The maps are cartographically simple and tables and graphs are basic in their design. Reading the text's references shows Shaw's attention to meticulous research. Throughout the book he cites a comprehensive list of related sources. Another noteworthy feature of his book is the Further Reading section. In this area the author advises students to consult newspapers, journals and other media because Russia continues to be a region of rapid change. Shaw also lists useful web site addresses. The remainder of the recommended readings is listed by subject area or a specific geography discipline, which is very helpful because it efficiently pinpoints specific information. The twelve page bibliography confirms extensive research and cross-referencing.

'Salo' is a prominent in that select group of 'scandalous' 1970s films (e.g. 'Straw Dogs', 'In the Realm of the Senses') which retains the power to shock, appal, unnerve today (although I personally found 'Salo' more numbing that anything). Pasolini's last film before his brutal murder in 1975, it is a transplanting of the Marquis de Sade's infamous 1785 novel to the dying days of Fascist Italy, in which four prominent figures (a bishop, an aristocrat, a banker and a judge) retire to an abandoned villa with soldiers, courtesans, collaborators and 18 slaves to indulge in a ritualised orgy of sexual excess, faecal banquets, storytelling, torture and murder.

Gary Indiana's monograph starts well, with a number of apparent digressions effectively contextualising 'Salo': the author's first encounter with the film in the ... L.A. of the 1970s; 'Salo''s place at the culmination of Pasolini's career (with a clear-eyed appraisal of that career, and the personal and political biography that was inseperable from it); 'Salo''s status as the last major art-movie, released in the same year as 'Jaws' destroyed auteurism, independence and experiment forever (a development Indiana bracingly rants against).

Indiana is very good on Pasolini's contradictions, his courage and frequent dislikability, his style of 'contamination' (e.g. interspersing 'real' actors in a predominantly unprofessional cast; his recourse to pastiche and allusion) and some of his major themes - the lingering fascism in the soulless corruption of consumerist society and its debasing of the human body; the superiority of pre-industrial rusticity etc.

But when he gets to the film itself, Indiana opts for a lengthy description of its plot with occasional asides. As so often in this series (and the BFI classics), the lack of systematic criticism (from non-film-academic/critics)leads to a frustratingly bitty stu.

If you need to write high scale programming in your SAS and write statistical procedures that does not exist (or that they are too complicated) this is the book that will help you complete the job. BUT the downside of it - you have to master the program (SAS and its procedures) in order to start writing your own one.

The editors have pulled together a treasure trove of writings from a wide and varied field of sources. Their mission -- to illuminate some ofo the creative and innovbaitive ways that international conflict can be reduced or resolved -- should be required reading for years to come. Alas, the marketing has never been there, and thus the book will probably stay little known or unknown. Among thes jewels contained herein are articles and essays that describe "new" ways of meditating disputes that are between nation states, and others that address the inadequacies of our standard approaches (like arms control).

Could it be the translation that makes these poems difficult to follow? I really wanted to like them, but the impression I have is of some brilliant imagery in otherwise meandering poems. Maybe I needed to understand Ukrainian culture to get more of the references, but I think most English-language readers are going to be disappointed.

One strange thing about the book is the use of a double period (..) to form breaks. They occur in both the Ukrainian and English translations but are never explained in the introductory material.

One of my favorite poems is "Song 551" that starts with the wonderful lines:

Before it's too late -- knock your head against the ice.
Before it's too late
Break through, look..
You will see a miraculous world..

"Song 352" contains the delightful image of "the poor hut of the horseradish" in the farthest corner of the snow-bound garden.

The Maiden in the play "Friend Li Po, Brother Tu Fu" sings a beautiful song:

Come in, my love, Oh kiss me..
Your kiss will change the world into heavens..
Come in, my love, don't be afraid of anyone,
Come in, my love, Oh kiss me..

Outside of a few few delicious moments like these, reading this poetry is more a chore than a joy. In the Foreword, George Grabowicz says that "Lysheha's is an elusive kind of poetry -- which may partially explain the reluctance, or inability, of critics to engage it." Elusive is a good word to describe this poetry. I can see why the critics are reluctant.

On the back cover of the book, the publisher quotes James Carroll who says that the poem "Swan" alone makes the book a treasure. He goes on to say that "Lysheha speaks through indirection..." which to me makes the poems difficult and tedious. Here is the beginning of "Swan":

My God, I'm vanishing..
This road won't guide me anymore..
I'm not so drunk..
Moon, don't go..
I appear from behind a pine -- you hide..
I step into shadow -- you appear..
I run -- already you are behind me..
I stop -- you're gone..
Only the dark pines..
I hide behind a trunk -- again, you're alone..
I am -- you are elsewhere..
Absent..
Absent..
I am..
Elsewhere..
I am.. absent..

The poem goes on in similar fashion with double periods and vague imagery for seven pages. After reading this for any length of time I find that I too want to be absent.. from this book..

A must have for Lutyemns fans, but not the meaty treatist we have been waiting for. I expect MORE from Margaret Richardson!

In general, I liked this book because Toby displays a lot of revisionistic insights with regard to the Tokugawa diplomacy. But indeed, Toby overemphasizes similar points in a repetitive manner, which could bore readers before reaching most important argument he makes: Tokugawa Bakufu willfully manipulated the existing diplomatic channels to ensure the national security, as opposed to the conventional belief that it vigorously attempted to shut out the country from any undesirable foreign influence. Even occasionally painful to continue, read it through, and you will find the intellectual ride with Toby quite rewarding!