Teaching Negotiation Theory and Skills Over the Internet

Negotiating on-line is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in the workplace. The medium of the Internet also offers promising, opportunities for negotiation educators to reach out to participants that might otherwise be unable to attend a seminar. The authors used the Internet to teach negotiation theory and skills during a seven-week seminar that was conducted completely over the World Wide Web. This experiment revealed several advantages and difficulties likely to arise in the conduct of distance learning for topics in negotiation. The authors reflect on how they would organize the seminar differently, should they do it again, and offer suggestions for others organizing courses using the Internet.     

(Noch) keine SUP-Pflicht für Windenergieerlasse – besteht dennoch Handlungsbedarf?

Natur und Recht - Der Europäische Gerichtshof (EuGH) hat in einer weiteren Entscheidung zur strategischen Umweltprüfung bestimmter Pläne und Programme erneut sein weites...     

Organizational and Spatial Determinants of Fiscal Stress: An analysis of Norwegian Municipalities

Two types of factors are thought to lead to fiscal stress of municipalities in Norway: municipal organization and spatial characteristics. Organizational and political factors include the rationality of the agency of government, the ability of the resource coordinator to achieve a balance, and the coordination of governmental policies. Spatial factors include industrial presence and north-south regional differences. Only the two spatial variables are significantly correlated with the budget difficulties. Case studies, though, show organizational factors and the interplay between organizational and spatial factors can be important determinants for fiscal stress.     

The importance of a urine sample in persons intoxicated with flunitrazepam--legal issues in a forensic psychiatric case study of a serial murderer

The sedative-hypnotic benzodiazepine flunitrazepam (FZ) is abused worldwide. The purpose of our study was to investigate violence and anterograde amnesia following intoxication with FZ, and how this was legally evaluated in forensic psychiatric investigations with the objective of drawing some conclusions about the importance of urine sample in a case of a suspected intoxication with FZ. The case was a 23-year-old male university student who, intoxicated with FZ (and possibly with other substances such as diazepam, amphetamines or cannabis), first stabbed an acquaintance and, 2 years later, two friends to death. The police investigation files, including video-typed interviews, the forensic psychiatric files, and also results from the forensic autopsy of the victims, were compared with the information obtained from the case. Only partial recovery from anterograde amnesia was shown during a period of several months. Some important new information is contained in this case report: a forensic analysis of blood sample instead of a urine sample, might lead to confusion during police investigation and forensic psychiatric assessment (FPA) of an FZ abuser, and in consequence wrong legal decisions. FZ, alone or combined with other substances, induces severe violence and is followed by anterograde amnesia. All cases of bizarre, unexpected aggression followed by anterograde amnesia should be assessed for abuse of FZ. A urine sample is needed in case of suspected FZ intoxication. The police need to be more aware of these issues, and they must recognise that they play a crucial role in an assessment procedure. Declaring FZ an illegal drug is strongly recommended.     

Interest-Based Negotiations in a Transformed Labor–Management Setting

The authors introduce a group of essays that evolved from a March 2003 symposium on the path-breaking new partnership and use of interest-based negotiation (IBN) at Kaiser Permanente (KP), one of the largest integrated health care programs in the United States. They briefly trace the history of the IBN approach (both success stories and failures); the growth of this phenomenon; and its use in collective bargaining settings. The KP case, the focus of the symposium (which was jointly sponsored by MIT's Institute for Work and Employment Relations and Harvard's Program on Negotiation), is by far the largest instance of the use of IBN in U.S. labor relations history.     

Would a United Nations Environment Organization Help to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals?

As a follow-up to the 2005 United Nations World Summit, Jan Eliasson, President of the sixtieth session of the United Nations General Assembly, plans that the General Assembly will take up the issue of international environmental governance (IEG) in spring 2006. This may provide an opportunity to start negotiations on creating a United Nations Environment Organization (UNEO) in the larger context of reforming the UN. Against this background, this article discusses the need for IEG reform, the advantages and disadvantages of creating a UNEO and its potential in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The article concludes that a UNEO – as a UN specialized agency – may have greater political clout than the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) currently commands, which is only a programme based on a resolution of the General Assembly. Given its increased political weight, a UNEO could be a better tool to address environmental needs in developing countries, and help to achieve poverty and development goals.     

Strategic rebels: a spatial econometric approach to rebel fighting durations in civil wars

ABSTRACT

Recent research on multi-actor civil wars highlights that rebel organizations condition their conflict behavior on that of other rebel organizations, with competition and free-riding constituting the core theoretical mechanisms. We provide a new actor-centric approach to explicitly model strategic interdependence in multi-actor civil wars. We argue that rebel organizations have incentives to remain mobilized until the end of a conflict to maintain their power to negotiate, power to spoil, power to enforce, and power to protect. This induces strategic complements that dominate duration dynamics in multi-actor conflicts. Based on a network game-theoretic model, we derive a spatial econometric framework that allows for a direct test of strategic interdependence. We find that the estimated duration interdependence is positive but partially offset in secessionist conflicts where the public goods nature of the incompatibility also induces strategic substitution effects.     

Economic globalization and voter turnout in established democracies

This paper asks whether international economic integration negatively affects electoral turnout. The theoretical model builds on the premise that economic integration constrains the ability of national governments to shape outcomes. Citizens are conscious of such constraints and take them into account when considering the costs and benefits of casting a vote in national elections. The result is a lower inclination to vote under conditions of high economic integration. Consequently, aggregate turnout is lower the more internationally integrated a national economy is. Analysis of aggregate data for parliamentary elections in 23 OECD democracies over the period 1965–2006 robustly supports this hypothesis. The empirical estimates suggest economic globalization as a central cause of the general decline in turnout within established democracies.