In 2007, in a speech before the Indian Parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe brought back to light an ancient Asian geographical vision: the so-called “confluence of the two seas”. It referred to the idea of linking the Pacific with the Indian Ocean, as Japanese policymakers conceived the concept at the time. That would later become the “Indo-Pacific …
Nativism is the idea that a certain group of people can be identied as original to, or the rightful heirs to, a geopolitical territory; consequently, “natives” claim the privilege of deciding who belongs and who counts as an “outsider” based on supposed foreign connections. The case could be made that nativism in this sense is universal. Nativist movements stress the …
The COVID-19 pandemic has reorganized existing methods of exchange, turning comparatively marginal technologies into the new normal. Multipoint videoconferencing in particular has become a favored means for web-based forms of remote communication and collaboration without physical copresence. Taking the recent mainstreaming of videoconferencing as its point of departure, this anthology examines…
In the sequence and division of the smart materials shown here some special points had to be taken into account. Classification in accordance with influencing factors and changing properties does not make things absolutely clear, as with some smart materials changes may be triggered by two, three, or more different influences or in other cases stimulation by a single influence can result in sev…