“A filmmaker and his film”

Abstract

I'm writing this review as a new-found devotee of filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik and as an old friend of Eric de Guia. I say this to lay out my prejudices and at the same time to try to explain my amazement at the transformation of Eric de Guia into Kidlat Tahimik.     

German reunification

The Unification Process in Germany. From Dictatorship to Democracy. By Gert‐Joachim Glaessner. London: Pinter, 1992. Pp.viii + 248, index. £37.50. ISBN 1–85567–015–1.

German Unification. Process and Outcomes. Edited by M. Donald Hancock and Helga A. Walsh. Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1994. Pp.x + 393, biblio, index. £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8133–1965‐X.

Die Gestaltung der Deutschen Einheit. Edited by Eckhard Jesse and Armin Mitter. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag, 1992. Pp.447, chronology, biblio. DM 30. ISBN 3–416–02364–1.

United Germany and the New Europe. Edited by Heinz D. Hurz. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1993. Pp.xviii + 333, index. £49.95. ISBN 1–85278–584–5.

German Reunification. A Reference Guide and Commentary By Jonathan Osmond et al. Harlow: Longman, 1992. Pp.xiii + 311, 3 maps, chronologies, biblio, index. £55. ISBN 0–582–09650–2.

The Diplomacy of German Unification. By Stephen F. Szabo. New York: St Martin's Press, 1992. Pp.xiv + 162, chronology, biblio, index. £22.95. ISBN 0–312–08057–3.

Handworterbuch zur deutschen Einheit. Edited by Werner Weidenfeld and Karl‐Rudolf Korte. Frankfurt, New York: Campus Verlag, 1992. Pp.800, index. DM. 8 (paperback). ISBN 3–593–34583–8.     

British Intelligence in the Middle East, 1898–1906

This article examines British intelligence efforts in Turkish Arabia at the turn of the twentieth century. It argues that intelligence collection was really three separate efforts, carried out by the War Office, the Foreign Office, and the Government of India, and it reflected concerns about British decline, the problems experienced during the Boer War, as well as an effort to penetrate the ‘information order’ of India's sub-empire. Although intelligence efforts suffered from bureaucratic disharmony in Whitehall, and between London and the Government of India, valuable contributions were nevertheless made to Britain's knowledge of Turkish Arabia.     

Characteristics that predict firesetting in male and female mentally disordered offenders

Few studies have adequately explored the characteristics of male and female mentally disordered firesetters and compared these to those of non-firesetting mentally disordered offenders. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research examining the characteristics which can predict repeat firesetting within this population. The current study aimed to examine similarities and differences in the characteristics of (1) male and female mentally disordered firesetters, (2) male and female mentally disordered firesetters compared to non-firesetting offenders, and (3) one-time and repeat firesetters. Furthermore, the ability of these characteristics to predict offence status (i.e. firesetter or non-firesetter) and repeat firesetting was explored. Information was collected from patient hospital records for 77 (43 firesetters, 34 non-firesetters) mentally disordered offenders; including sociodemographic, family and personal background, psychiatric, and offence history factors. The findings suggest that mentally disordered firesetters are similar to their non-firesetting counterparts on key characteristics; however, firesetters are more likely to have an expressed interest in fire/explosives and a diagnosis of a schizophrenic disorder and female firesetters are more likely to have a higher number of firesetting incidents than males. Furthermore, findings suggest that fire interest is the largest predictor of repeat firesetting. Clinical implications in terms of treatment and risk assessment are discussed.     

Measuring the validity and reliability of forensic likelihood-ratio systems

There has been a great deal of concern recently about validity and reliability in forensic science. This paper reviews for a broad target audience metrics of validity and reliability (accuracy and precision) which have been applied in forensic voice comparison and which are potentially applicable in other branches of forensic science. The metric of validity is the log likelihood-ratio cost (C_llr), and the metric of reliability is an empirical estimate of credible intervals. A revised procedure for the calculation of credible intervals is introduced.     

Securing the Only Game in Town: The EU's Political Conditionality and Democratic Consolidation in Post-Soviet Latvia

The state of democracy in post-communist Europe has been subject to some debate in recent years; but it needs to take account of longer-term trends. The focus here is on how far the EU's political conditionality has contributed to democratic consolidation using an in-depth case study of post-Soviet Latvia. The record of the impacts of conditionality up to EU entry is examined and then attention turns to whether post-accession tendencies have demonstrated any significant changes after the end of Brussels' monitoring. Using a comparative framework, this article shows that the outcome after four years of EU membership is mixed with both positive and negative results. It is concluded that there is no automatic locking-in effect of European integration; and that conditionality assists democratic consolidation more in structural than in attitudinal or behavioural terms.