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