Al-Shabaab,Social Identity Group,Human (In)Security,and Counterterrorism

This article examines the link between human security, social identity, and al-Shabaab. The first section explores how social identity group theory can help explain al-Shabaab's recruitment. The second part focuses on the counterterrorism campaign against al-Shabaab, which involves decapitation, aggressive peacekeeping through a proxy in the shape of the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the role of a domestic de-radicalization program. The article concludes that al-Shabaab's allure is in decline and the group is facing internal turmoil, which makes its overtures toward the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant very dangerous, as al-Shabaab could act as an effective conduit between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.     

Terrorism: Review of 1988 and prospects for 1989

This article is the first to explore the Israel Defense Forces's official statistical data on Palestinian terrorism toward Israeli targets during the al-Aqsa intifada 2000–2004. Focusing the analysis on the logic of terrorist target choice, the article identifies two separate results: First, an unambiguous difference in the form of the attacks contingent on whether they are carried out in the state of Israel or in the Occupied Territories. Second, based on the same distinction, the analysis points out how the attacks are targeted toward distinctively different categories of the Israeli populace. Causes of the results are discussed.     

Mestizaje,Córdoba's patria chica: beyond the myth of black disappearance in Argentina

This article examines the ‘disappearance of the black population’ by moving beyond the more traditional explanation of the blanqueamiento (whitening) movement at the end of the nineteenth century. In shifting the temporal framework to the republican period, 1820–1853, a more colorful explanation arises to address how the black population was first lightened which would lead to it being whitened during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ultimately because of mestizaje (racial mixture), blacks and other castas (a person who was not a Spaniard and often of a mixed racial heritage) became pardos. Pardos at first included those of mixed heritage with an elite status among other castas in the colonial period. As Córdoba joined the nation-building process, pardo encompassed all people of color, especially the growing, free black population. In order to explain this process, I traced African descendants who were originally labeled negro and changed to pardo in the 1813, 1822, and 1832 city censuses     

The dancing body in peace education

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the potentials of the dancing body in peace education seen from a transrational perspective. The author explores how the multifaceted and creative body as worked with in the conscious dance and movement practice Open Floor can be tapped into and drawn upon to engage the multiple potentials of humans as contact boundaries at work. She reflects in this regard upon her own experiences as an Open Floor teacher. The article first discusses how the experience of dancing in Open Floor unfolds a creative process that is 1) both intrarelational and interrelational, and 2) always in transformation. Further, the article discusses how the dancing body is engaged as holistic, relational and dynamic through the Open Floor teaching tool 4 × 4, and how this dancing body supports a creative engagement with intra-inter dynamics in peace education.     

Reviews

David McKay, Designing Europe – comparative lessons from the federal experience Hellmut Wollmann and Eckhard Schröter (eds), Comparing public sector reform in Britain and Germany: key traditions and trends in modernisation Christopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert, Public management reform – a comparative analysis Michael Moran, Governing the healthcare state: a comparative study of the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany Robert Hazell (ed.), The state and the nations: the first year of devolution in the United Kingdom Luc Rouban (ed.), Citizens and the new governance: beyond new public management Neal D. Finkelstein (ed.), Transparency in public policy: Great Britain and the United States Graeme A. Hodge, Privatization: an international review of performance John Stewart, The nature of British local government Richard A. Chapman (ed.), Ethics in the public service for the new millennium Clive Gray, The politics of the arts in Britain Kenneth Dyson, The politics of the Euro‐Zone: stability or breakdown? Roger Levy, Implementing European Union public policy     

Shock and Awe vs. Hearts and Minds at the Movies

In the age of globalization we are no longer home alone. Migration brings other worlds into our own just as the global reach of the mass media transmits our world into the hearts and minds of others. The resulting clashes and fusions are shaping the soul of the first global civilization in the making. In this section, one of Hollywood's top producers, Mike Medavoy, and the Oscar‐nominated director of Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu share their thoughts with NPQ.     

Perceptions of the “Arab Spring” Within the Salafi-Jihadi Movement

This article provides a detailed examination of how the Salafi-jihadi movement perceives the “Arab Spring” revolutionary events. Although Western scholars almost unanimously agree that these events will have an enormous impact on Al Qaeda and other groups that share its ideology, the voice of the jihadis has not been examined in detail. This article addresses this critical gap in the literature through an analysis of 101 significant documents produced by jihadi thinkers within a year following the movement's very first statement on the uprising in Tunisia. These include statements released by jihadi spokesmen, interviews with the movement's intellectual leaders, and discussions on jihadi Web forums. The article concludes that Al Qaeda and the jihadi movement largely believe that the uprisings provide them a great deal of new opportunities, and outlines the movement's developing strategy to capitalize on rapidly changing events on the ground.     

Including Older Adults in Development Goals: Is Subjective Wellbeing the Answer? A Case Study of Older South Africans

Measures of subjective wellbeing are gaining importance as indicators of overall societal progress, yet the majority of studies come from higher income countries. This paper explores the relationship between human development indicators and measures of subjective wellbeing among persons aged 50-plus in South Africa. Using the first nationally representative population-based study of older South Africans, WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (WHO SAGE), this paper adds to a small but growing literature on subjective wellbeing in lower-income countries. Results indicate that education, socio-economic status and health are, in fact, correlated with measures of subjective wellbeing, but the relationships and strength of the relationships differ depending on the measure used to assess wellbeing.     

From resistance to military institutionalisation: the case of the peshmerga versus the Islamic State

This study explores differing strategies and tactics employed by the peshmerga forces against the Islamic State (IS). This experience highlights a number of issues which are relevant to contemporary security debates. Firstly, the struggle highlights important aspects of the development of the peshmerga and their strategies as an organised non-state military force (defending as it does the Kurdistan Region in Iraq). Secondly, the peshmerga–IS conflict is an important case study of small wars. The strategy and tactics used here are therefore useful empirical references about the effectiveness of military force in counter-insurgency. Finally, the war against IS united the peshmerga forces, possibly for the first time, and effected a radical change in the Kurdish use of military tactics, including the shift from defensive to offensive strategies. The article examines the methods employed by the peshmerga forces against IS, explains why the cases of Makhmour and Shingal stand out as tipping points, and discusses the evolution of Kurdish defence capacity.     

Introduction: Brain drain in East Asia

Editor’s Note: In the first issue ofStudies in Comparative International Development under my editorship, I indicated that special issues would be published from time to time. The first of these was volume 25 (spring) 1990, number 1, “On Measuring Democracy,” with Alex Inkeles as guest editor. We present a somewhat different grouping of articles in this issue, edited by Parris Chang. “Brain Drain in East Asia” considers this important contemporary developmental issue along the lines indicated in his introduction, Other thematic topics or groupings of articles are also being considered for future issues of SCID.     

Mind Slaughter: The Neutralizations of Jihadi Salafism

This article focuses on the neutralizations of the jihadi Salafi ideology. It is divided into three parts. The first describes the various rhetorical accounts that ordinary people use to neutralize conventional moral controls against inhumane conduct. The second traces how these accounts inform and drive the jihadi Salafi worldview. The third, and concluding, part of the article sketches out the policy implications of the analysis set out here, arguing that any attempt to derail the global Salafi jihad must critically undermine the core neutralizations of the jihadi Salafi ideology, since it is these which enable jihadi combatants to escape conventional moral constraints and perpetrate acts of inhumanity.     

Considerations on the use of transgenic crops for insect control

The adoption of agricultural technologies, whether developed through biotechnology or other methods, depends on social, political, regulatory and biological parameters. This article first presents an example of a low-input, non-biotechnological method of pest control that, while seemingly reasonable to researchers and extension agents, was not adopted by farmers. It then analyses a method for insect management developed through biotechnology that is becoming widely adopted: transgenic plants expressing insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Globally increasing adoption of Bt plants, by small and large farmers in both low- and high- income countries requires explanation in terms of biological properties of cropping systems and insect populations, alternative control techniques and social policy considerations.     

Notes Toward a Theory of Ideology in Historlcal Writing on Modern Afrlca

Since the publication of her first novel Le ventre de l’Atlantique (2003), Fatou Diome, a Senegalese author who immigrated to France in the 1990s, has been regularly invited to French cultural TV programmes, in which she often criticises European foreign policy, as well as social and racial segregation. Despite her public political commitment, in several interviews, Fatou Diome argues that literature should be dissociated from politics. This article analyses Diome’s narrative techniques when depicting current social issues in her second novel Kétala (2006). In Kétala, Diome shows how Senegalese gay people and women face social violence and exclusion. Drawing on queer theory and the concept of performance, this article describes the various strategies through which marginalised identities in Kétala contest heteronormative social representations. This paper argues that Fatou Diome’s novel captures the reality through a singular poetics.     

Avoiding the Economic Crisis: Pragmatic Liberalism and Divisions over Economic Policy in Poland

Although liberalism has been the dominant economic ideology in post-communist Poland, liberal parties have tended to struggle to win political majorities. After winning the 2011 parliamentary elections, Citizens' Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) became the first party in Poland's democratic history to win two consecutive elections. Despite its liberal ideological background, Platforma Obywatelska took a more pragmatic and cautious approach to economic policy, avoiding the introduction of strong austerity economic policies. This paper considers the debate within the liberal camp about Platforma Obywatelska's economic policies, with particular reference to the reform of pensions. It also looks at the plans of the government for more strident liberal economic reforms in its second term, at what impact these will have on the popularity of Platforma Obywatelska and at how this reflects a tension between the party's pragmatic concerns of government and commitment to liberal ideology.     

STRONG STATE OR WEAK STATE IN FOREIGN POLICY? THE CONTRADICTIONS OF CONSERVATIVE LIBERALISM, 1979–1987

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Health and human security: a wrinkle in time or a new paradigm?

Since it was first advanced in the 1994 Human development report of the United Nations Development Programme [United Nations Development Project. (1994). Human development report. New York: UN], the concept of ‘human security’ has evolved as a holistic development-oriented acuity [Nef, J. (1999). Human security and mutual vulnerability: The global political economy of development and underdevelopment (2nd ed.). Ottawa: International Development Research Centre]. The human security concept reinforces the right to health, drawing on both the role of states and the global community's commitment to human rights. Yet, health and human security, long the purview of state power and responsibility, increasingly include alliances of state and non-state actors. This paper proceeds in three parts. The first looks at health and human security linkages, charting the trajectory of the health and human security relationship. The second deals with policy and operational implications. It explores the health–human security link, paying particular attention to the allocation of responsibility and accountability, including through private–public partnerships and rising powers such as China. The third provides a theoretical and technical analysis of the status of health and human security since 1994, taking into account its evolution vis-à-vis human rights’ development and development more broadly, also asking whether it represents but a wrinkle in time or a new sustainable development paradigm.     

Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself Will Be Ruined: A Reflection,a Deflection,and a Qualified Reinterpretation of the Global Jihad

Much analytical commentary implies that a generic West is the principal target of jihadist activism. This study contends that this is a misconception fostered by jihadist groups like Al Qaeda in order to accentuate their stature in the Islamic world and to obscure their true aims, which are first and foremost to secure the dominance of the Salafist interpretation of Islam. The analysis situates Al Qaeda in the tradition of Islamic reform movements and shows that a violent Sufi/Salafist conflict pervades nearly all current examples of strife within the Muslim world. In these conflicts, the role of the “West” is instrumental, not central to the struggle. Consequently, this study offers a qualification to notions of a “global jihad” and suggests this has important considerations for policymakers in determining the nature of the threat posed by Islamist militancy.     

Review Article Loyalist Assassinations and Police Collusion in Northern Ireland: An Extended Critique of Sean McPhilemy's The Committee

Since 1995 Dr. Brendan O'Shea, a former European Union Monitor, has been studying developments in the Balkans with his predictive article, Kosovo—Another Bosnia in the Making, awarded the Seamus Kelly Literary Award in Ireland. Nine years after NATO troops first deployed in Bosnia, and five years after KFOR commenced operations in Kosovo, he once again examines the overall situation in the region and is ill at ease with his findings.     

The origins of bureaucracy: an anthropological perspective

Many decades have passed since the first appearance of Max Weber's seminal study, in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft , of the origins and characteristics of bureaucracy. His analysis was, naturally, dependent on the existing knowledge of his day; but the growth and maturity of archaeology and anthropology as academic disciplines have shed much new light on the historical and social contexts in which bureaucratic organizations emerged. This article, using Sumerian civilization as a case in point, summarizes much of what we now know about the conditions under which bureaucracy first originated and flourished. In so doing, it identifies several major human developmental and social transformations—the hominid revolution, the agrarian revolution, and the urban revolution—which played vital roles in the evolution and expansion of the bureaucratic form of organization.     

Commentary: The Logistics of Actionable Intelligence Leading to 9/11

Uncertainty is a hallmark of conflict behavior, and other forms of violence that accompany civil and international war—such as low-intensity warfare, guerrilla, insurgency, and asymmetric conflict—are no exception. This study applied the theory of political uncertainty and complexity theory to the analysis of conflict events during the first three years of the second Iraq war, 2003–2006, limited to the Diyala province. Findings show that neither the time between attacks T or the severity of attacks S (fatalities) have the “normal” (bell-shaped) or lognormal distribution that is characteristic of equilibrium systems. Instead, both variables showed heavy tails, symptomatic of non-equilibrium dynamics, in some cases approximating a power law with critical or near critical exponent value of 2. The empirical hazard force analysis in both cases showed that the intensity was high for the first epoch in both variables (March 2003 to June 2004) but even higher in the latter period from July 2004 to March 2006. Selected policy implications are discussed, including the possibility that real-time or near real-time analysis of the data analyzed through the uncertainty-complexity computational methods would have revealed the gathering momentum of adversarial attacks perhaps in time to have prevented the insurgency.