1. Waves of Conflict and Changes in the Power Configuration in the East Asian World-System, 1800BCE-1830CE • Chris Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside; Hiroko Inoue, University of California, Riverside.

2. Contingency in Revolution: France, 1789 • Ivan Ermakoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

3. The Medieval Europe and the "Rise of the Rest": Why Did Some Peripheral European Polities Survive the Extra-Systemic Shock and Some Did Not? • Pavel Osinsky, Appalachian State University.

4. Military Networks and State Building in the Middle East • Gilad Wenig, University of California, Los Angeles.