"Poeta e scrittore in esilio", come è scritto sulla lapide della sua tomba al Cimitero del Verano, Pierre Pascal ha condensato in poco più di un centinaio di pagine un migliaio di anni di storia russa, da Kiev alla rivoluzione dei soviet. Ricordando sempre che la Storia non è il semplice susseguirsi di guerre e di regni conquistarti o perduti, l'autore riesce brillantemente a descrivere la diffusione della civiltà, la vita economica e lo sviluppo intellettuale del continente euroasiatico. Un utile compendio, per conoscere le origini di un impero che oggi è ritornato a essere il protagonista della storia mondiale.

The 1990s saw a paradigm change in the use of corpus-driven methods in NLP. In the field of multilingual NLP (such as machine translation and terminology mining) this implied the use of parallel corpora. However, parallel resources are relatively scarce: many more texts are produced daily by native speakers of any given language than translated. This situation resulted in a natural drive towards the use of comparable corpora, i.e. non-parallel texts in the same domain or genre. Nevertheless, this research direction has not produced a single authoritative source suitable for researchers and students coming to the field. The proposed volume will provide such a reference source, identifying the state of the art in the field as well as future trends.

Despite the frequent appearances of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri on television screens worldwide, Al Qaeda remains an elusive entity. As the world has grown increasingly familiar with the spectacle of Islamist terrorism, Al Qaeda's essential worldview has remained bewilderingly opaque. To reveal its inner workings, Gilles Kepel and his collaborators, all scholars of Arabic and Islam, have collected and brilliantly annotated key texts of the major figures from whom the movement has drawn its beliefs and direction. The resulting volume offers an unprecedented glimpse into the assumptions of the salafist jihadists who have reshaped political life at the beginning of the third millennium.

Excerpts from the work of Azzabdallah Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—drawn from speeches, internet postings, and published writings—tell the story of Al Qaeda's evolution, from its origins in the Afghan war through the war in Iraq. These texts reveal the rational, discursive mode used to persuade and to justify violent armed struggle in a universe defined by militant Islam. Substantial interpretive introductions to each leader's work and extensive critical commentary provide unparalleled access to the intellectual and doctrinal context of Al Qaeda in which these radical ideas have taken shape.

By viewing Al Qaeda from within, this indispensable volume reveals the terrorist network's insidious role in the global web culture of today and the full dimensions of its frightening threat to world stability and security.

Cartier epitomizes creativity and individuality in jewelry design. The 175 objects featured in this book exemplify Cartier's inimitable talent and represent milestones in twentieth-century design. These archetypes of excellence are important benchmarks in the history of world jewelry, and their relevance continues into the twenty-first century. The jeweled objects in this book are reproduced at actual size, and are accompanied by illustrations and detailed descriptions from Cartier's vast archives in London, New York, and Paris. Six essays cover a broad range of topics from Cartier's colorful history, including the influence of the Ballets Russes on Cartier's forward-looking designs of 1910, the jeweler's extraordinary technical and design prowess, and the important clients and collectors who wore Cartier's most exquisite creations. This book features ingenious pieces that reveal how Cartier—by setting new aesthetic, ornamental, technical, and stylistic trends—is a pioneer in the field of jewelry design. This catalog is an important reference for collectors, and includes previously unpublished photographs.

VAT is the most important tax in most developing and transitional countries. This book draws on a wide range of experience and research to discuss a wide range of conceptual and practical issues related to VAT in a way that is relevant both to students and to tax practitioners and officials around the world. It updates, extends, and amends the only similar book-length treatment, The Modern VAT, an authored work published by the International Monetary Fund in 2001.