Bioterrorism, Fear, and Public Health Reform: Matching a Policy Solution to the Wrong Window

During the 1990s, terrorist actions using biological weapons and the fear that rogue states possessed such weapons placed bioterrorism on the political agenda, a policy window widened by the September 11 attacks. Advocates for improving the U.S. public health infrastructure attempted to use this window to obtain the resources necessary for modernization. This article examines those efforts and identifies significant problems arising from a mismatch between the goals of public health policy entrepreneurs and the policy window used to address them. By defining bioterrorism as a security rather than a public health issue, policy entrepreneurs squander the opportunity to institute broad-based reforms that would improve not only the ability to manage a terrorist incident, but also meet other public health needs. The bioterrorism program proves a useful case study in how the goals of policy entrepreneurs can be displaced by attaching policy preferences to the wrong policy stream.     

Race,Partisanship, and Political Trust Following <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bush versus Gore</Emphasis> (2000)

In contrast to what we know about the sources of political trust among whites, recent research suggests that political mistrust among blacks indicates discontent with the political system. The current study adds to research investigating racial differences in political trust by examining racial differences in the influence of the 2000 United States presidential election on political trust. Specifically, I test for whether whites and blacks adjusted their trust in government in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush versus Gore (2000) and whether the influence of the Court’s decision on trust was dependent on partisan identification. The findings indicate that blacks perceived the Court’s decision as illegitimate, reinforcing their mistrust in their political system.

中国安全挑战和大战略的演变

自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来,在中国安全观和大战略的发展演化进程中,既有历史连续性的一面,也有发展变化的一面。其中变化性更为明显,主要体现在中国的实力大幅度提高,其面临的国际环境也发生了深刻的变革,而这种双重变化影响了中国历任领导人为保障政权安全对大战略所做出的巨大战略抉择。在长达数十年的冷战时期,中国相对弱小,面对强大对手的严峻军事威胁居于绝对弱势,因此中国共产党人在很大程度上采用了以应对明确外部安全威胁为中心的大战略。与此形成鲜明对比的是,冷战结束后,特别是进入21世纪后,中国日益强大,但面临的国内国际问题日益复杂化,中国领导人在大战略抉择中面临着新的挑战。在这样的环境下,中国成立中央国家安全委员会具有重大意义。21世纪中国面临国内外新的安全挑战,这是冷战时期国际秩序终结的结果,这也是中国1979年以来现代化事业取得成功的结果。     

Serbia and Montenegro: The struggle to redefine Yugoslavia

The Bases of New Relations Between Montenegro and Serbia proposed by the ruling coalition of Milo Djukanovic is a dramatic change from the federal structure laid out in the 1992 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Constitution. The Bases of New Relations is Montenegro's attempt to shut out Milosevic, distance Montenegro from Serbia while avoiding civil strife, and lead the republic toward European integration. Largely viewed as a dead letter, the Bases of New Relations still stands as a concrete example of Podgorica's goals.     

Escaping loneliness in adolescence: The case for androgyny

The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between sex-role orientation and loneliness in adolescence. Two hundred and twenty-five junior and senior high school students completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory Short Form (Bem, 1981) and the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1978). Results indicated that androgynous individuals were significantly less lonely than masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated individuals. An assessment of the independent contributions of masculinity and femininity indicated that both masculinity and femininity significantly predicted loneliness. Additional analysis revealed that the impact of sex-role orientation on loneliness varied by sex and tended to be greater for males than females. The need to further examine the relationship between androgyny, sex-role development, and adjustment in adolescence is discussed.Received his M.S. and Ph.D. in human development and family studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Research interests are social competence, interpersonal skills development, and adjustment.     

Using international law to assess elections

This article provides an overview of existing obligations for democratic elections in public international law (PIL), and links these obligations to criteria for assessing electoral processes. We argue that PIL provides a basis for election observation that is more transparent, more objective, and has greater authority with host countries because it relies on states' acknowledged international legal commitments. In addition, the authors argue that this approach provides a solid foundation for building broad consensus on what constitutes ‘international standards for democratic elections’, an often-used term for which there still is no single commonly accepted definition.