Development of the PIP Organizational Models: Examples from the Armenian Transport Sector

The present article analyzes a general approach of the development of public infrastructure provision (hereinafter PIP) organizational models focusing on the structure of the privatization, partnership, business, contractual, and financial models of Armenia. The adopted approach of using the general map of the PIP toolbox gives an opportunity to clearly understand various models of PIP in different countries, compare them on the basis of certain components and to make a ground for the development of the most efficient PIP organizational models in relevant countries. The article introduces a well-defined tool to find the differences within various projects.     

An Ontology of Global Order? Heidegger,Laclau, and Political Difference

The question of ontology in thinking about global order(s) remains largely unexplored in International Relations (IR) theory. By reviewing the Heideggerian ontological difference and Laclauian postfoundational outlook, this article reconstructs how to conceive of global order(s) from an ontological perspective. The logical conjunction of the strictly philosophical and the political in Heideggerian-Laclauian postfoundational thought leads to two central claims:

1. An ontology of order is impossible because order has not per se a factual side or an essence. Rather, order is always only a contingent manifestation of the historically specific investment of its ordering function.

2. There can be no ontologically prior universal order. Yet an always already failing structuration is not necessarily a failure in its negative connotation. Going beyond the confines of ontological fixity, the failing global order(s) come(s) to terms with challenges of politicization, decision, responsibility, and the need for political contestation.

     

System architecture practices to facilitate Department of Defense technology transfer

This paper explores the possibilities of combining DOD technology transfer mechanisms to systems architecture techniques as a means to shorten program acquisition timelines while still providing high technology, robust tools to the women and men serving in the United States military. A literature search demonstrates that few articles have been published on the relationship between systems architecture and technology transfer. However, any DOD laboratory that employs more than 200 scientists and engineers is required by law to have a full time Office of technology transfer, so why has so little research been performed on the synergies between the two DOD disciplines? This paper will describe the ways that the systems architecture tools and practices, and technology transfer transactional mechanisms available to all DOD laboratories, can be utilized to increase knowledge sharing with small business and industry partners to shorten acquisition cycles.

     

The smell of fried onions and other stories: a case study in a narrative understanding of multicultural competence

SUMMARY

The authors of this paper pose the question whether or not television has become the modern family hearth or gathering-place. The results of the investigations reported on, reveal that television viewing is primarily a family activity. It was also found that television viewing is not an exclusive act but that it is typically discontinuous and combined with other activities such as eating and talking. Television does not necessarily inhibit communication between family members: on the contrary, under certain circumstances it may serve as a strong stimulus to family communication. Television may therefore be said to have replaced the hearth or the dining-table as a gathering place for the family.     

Besprechungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

International Organisations and the Evolution of Humanitarianism: Cross-perspectives on the Commonwealth and the European Union

Abstract

As international relations actors in the post-Second World War world, international organisations have played a significant role in the standardisation of global policy concepts during the 20th century, and humanitarian assistance has been no exception. While the study of the role of international organisations in shaping a dominant model of humanitarian aid has recently gathered pace, few historians have focused on different, less successful models and interpretations developed by other international organisations. Recently declassified Commonwealth Secretariat records show that discussions within the Secretariat and among member states regarding the potential objectives and scope of Commonwealth humanitarian assistance programmes took place as early as the 1960s, and continued throughout the following decades. This article provides an overview of the origin and evolution of the Commonwealth’s approach to humanitarian assistance since the 1960s. Its objective is to document this hitherto little known aspect of Commonwealth assistance policies, and, based on an initial literature and archival survey, to contribute to the identification of further research questions and gaps in this aspect of Commonwealth history. Although they are very different in nature and scope, the Commonwealth and the European Union share at least one common feature in so far as humanitarian assistance is concerned, namely their difficulty in reaching a consensual definition of it. By exploring the links and discrepancies between, as well as within, each organisation’s approach to humanitarian assistance, and by examining the initiatives of some of their member states, this paper seeks to highlight the plasticity of the definition of humanitarian assistance.     

Analytical Fingerprint of Wolframite Ore Concentrates

Ongoing violent conflicts in Central Africa are fueled by illegal mining and trading of tantalum, tin, and tungsten ores. The credibility of document‐based traceability systems can be improved by an analytical fingerprint applied as an independent method to confirm or doubt the documented origin of ore minerals. Wolframite (Fe,Mn)WO₄ is the most important ore mineral for tungsten and is subject to artisanal mining in Central Africa. Element concentrations of wolframite grains analyzed by laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry are used to establish the analytical fingerprint. The data from ore concentrate samples are multivariate, not normal or log‐normal distributed. The samples cannot be regarded as representative aliquots of a population. Based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov distance, a measure of similarity between a sample in question and reference samples from a database is determined. A decision criterion is deduced to recognize samples which do not originate from the declared mine site.