A number of post-Soviet states are bent on exploiting their natural resources to drive their economies. This has momentous implications both for natural environments and for environmental justice struggles. Kate Watters and Susie Crate describe the efforts of communities and indigenous people to address environmental degradation caused by extractive operations and nuclear tests.

Why does Dostoevsky's fiction continue to move us? What is he saying, in novels like Crime and Punishment, about compassion, utilitarian calculation, good and evil? Liza Knapp and Robin Feuer Miller describe some of the key events in Dostoevsky's life and share their analyses of Crime and Punishment. Marilyn Campbell has co-adapted the novel for the stage.

In Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, Michael Klare argues that a global political realignment of historic proportions is under way, based on ever-more-intense competition for reliable energy supplies. Klare describes emerging Big Power alliances and rivalries in energy-rich sites like the Caspian basin and Africa. (Holiday encore presentation.)

Could China be the next world hegemon? Will it collaborate with other nations to break the US grip on the rules of the global economy? John Gulick considers whether China has the resources and endowments to take over as world leader. Also, Ward Wilson argues in an essay that Japan's decision to surrender in 1945 was not compelled by the bombing of Hiroshima.