This study argues that there are historical reasons to focus on Jerusalem first and to use an international Holy Basin methodology to bring Israel and the Palestinian National Authority together toward a workable compromise. This analysis identifies the strategic compromises required to create two distinct capital zones that grants sovereignty and legitimacy over respective capitals for the state of Israel and a future state of Palestine. In terms of religion and national identity, Jerusalem is a central factor for both Israelis and Palestinians, to the people of three world religions, and to the international community. The critical factors to achieve compromise are sovereignty over their respective capitals combined with international recognition and possible international control over remaining contested holy places. Resolving the city’s role as a national capital for two states can lead to resolving other critical Arab-Israeli issues. The international community has perpetuated the conflict by withholding Jerusalem sovereignty from Israel and the Arab population. When Britain ended their Palestine mandate in 1948, the UN failed to deliberately enforce their vision of a separate Jerusalem entity, or corpus separatum. The UN continued to withhold sovereignty while the city was divided for nineteen years between Jordan and Israel and when the city was reunited in 1967. The lack of an international mandate for sixty-four years while fighting for utopian concepts has perpetuated the conflict by delaying the self-determination of the Palestinian population and withholding sovereignty over Israel’s declared capital. Peace negotiations must recognize and incorporate the interests of both sides, but until each side is ready to strictly divide the Old City, an international Holy Basin zone has the potential to create a new reality while moving incrementally from confrontation to cooperation.

First published in 2017, Rome: The Shaping of Three Capitals explores the impact of political history on the built environment of the Eternal City. The book divides Rome’s history into three main periods: the rulership of the early kings from the 8th to the 6th centuries BC; the period of Etruscan culture and architecture up to the end of the Roman Empire in 5th century AD; and, the 6th century to 1870, when Rome stood as the ecclesiastical capital of the Catholic Church and the temporal state of the Papal States. The final section of the book examines the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy, and the development of the fascist state; a time when Rome became the capital of Italy and endeavoured to establish a new empire. Exploring political instability and change, Balchin demonstrates the strong connection between politics and the physical shaping of the city through an examination of the successive styles of architecture, from Classical to Modernist.

State capitals are an indelible part of the American psyche, spatial representations of state power and national identity. Learning them by heart is a rite of passage in grade school, a pedagogical exercise that emphasizes the importance of committing place-names to memory. But geographers have yet to analyze state capitals in any depth. In American Capitals, Christian Montès takes us on a well-researched journey across America—from Augusta to Sacramento, Albany to Baton Rouge—shedding light along the way on the historical circumstances that led to their appointment, their success or failure, and their evolution over time. While all state capitals have a number of characteristics in common—as symbols of the state, as embodiments of political power and decision making, as public spaces with private interests—Montès does not interpret them through a single lens, in large part because of the differences in their spatial and historical evolutionary patterns. Some have remained small, while others have evolved into bustling metropolises, and Montès explores the dynamics of change and growth. All but eleven state capitals were established in the nineteenth century, thirty-five before 1861, but, rather astonishingly, only eight of the fifty states have maintained their original capitals. Despite their revered status as the most monumental and historical cities in America, capitals come from surprisingly humble beginnings, often plagued by instability, conflict, hostility, and corruption. Montès reminds us of the period in which they came about, “an era of pioneer and idealized territorial vision,” coupled with a still-evolving American citizenry and democracy.