The European Union and Post-9/11 Counterterrorism: A Reappraisal

In spite of the hectic activity subsequent to the so-called month of transformation in the wake of 9/11, it is not to be taken for granted that the European Union is the right vehicle in Europe for the combating of terrorism. The lack of the EU's executive powers with respect to regulating the behavior of member states relative to a common threat such as terrorism, raises the fundamental question of whether the Union itself, as opposed to its constituent members, or an alternative multilateral forum, is an appropriate body for effectively confronting terrorism in Europe.     

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.     

Misjudging Islamic Terrorism: The Academic Community's Failure to Predict 9/11

Most academic experts within the International Relations (IR) community and other, more specialized disciplines, failed to predict or warn government policymakers and the public of the possibility that events of 9/11 magnitude could take place on the U.S. homeland. Given that long-term investigation of trends in world affairs is one of the sources that has always informed policy analysis, this represents an interesting question to examine. The analysis contained in this assessment suggests that the ontological, methodological, and conceptual problems within and between the disciplines, combined with a skewed absorption with the prospect of developments in Asia, created a gap in the knowledge about Islamic terrorism and groups like Al Qaeda, which in turn caught most of the academic community unaware on 9/11. This article performs a quantitative study to determine the nature and scope of this apparent analytical failure on the part of academics in IR and other specialized disciplines to predict 9/11 and aims to address why this failure took place.     

Post-9/11 Responses to Mass Casualty Bombings in Europe: Lessons,Trends and Implications for the United States

This report analyzes the actions taken by emergency responders in three case studies of post-9/11 terrorist attacks in Europe (Istanbul [2003], Madrid [2004] and London [2005]). It also assesses the targeting and tactical information gleaned from three European plots that either failed or were foiled by authorities. The focus of this report is on mass casualty, complex attack scenarios involving explosive or incendiary materials. Although such attacks are not limited to one particular strand of terrorism, the case studies assessed in this report are linked to or inspired by the global jihadist movement spearheaded by the al Qaeda network, since this currently constitutes the most significant threat of mass casualty bombings to the United States.     

一次跨越万水千山的远行——中共中央政治局委员、全国人大常委会副委员长王兆国访问古巴、墨西哥纪行

应古巴共产党、墨西哥国家行动党的邀请,中共中央政治局委员、全国人大常委会副委员长王兆国于2007年11月11-17日对古巴、墨西哥进行了友好访问.中联部副部长陈凤翔、全国人大常委会副秘书长曹卫洲陪同出访.此次访问,是十七大后中国首次对拉美国家主动采取的高层外交行动.     

“马尔代夫与中国的友谊经受住了时间的考验”——专访马尔代夫民主党领导人、总统特使侯赛因·扎基

记者：请问您此次率团访华的目的是什么？期待取得什么样的成果？扎基：此次访华,马尔代夫方面高度重视。一方面我们想通过访华了解中国在经济社会发展方面取得的巨大进步,     

The hares,the hounds and the African National Congress: on joining the Third World in post-apartheid South Africa

The utility of framing questions of global inequality in relation to a ‘First World’ and a ‘Third World’, a North and a South, or developed countries and developing (or underdeveloped) countries, has been much debated since the end of the Cold War. This article addresses the issue of the perceived weaknesses and possible continued strengths of the notion of the ‘Third World’ in general terms, and then grounds such a discussion through an analysis of the way that the African National Congress (anc) government in post-apartheid South Africa has approached the question of global inequality. Since its election in 1994, and more particularly since Thabo Mbeki succeeded Nelson Mandela as president, the anc has presented itself as having an especially important leadership role on behalf of the Third World. The profound contradictions inherent in the anc's effort both to retain its Third Worldist credentials and to present itself as a reliable client to the Bretton Woods institutions and foreign investors provides insights into how to design alternative strategies for overcoming world-wide poverty, strategies which might be more effective than those chosen by the anc. Since the anc was elected to government in 1994 it has pursued a brand of deeply compromised quasi-reformism, analysed here, that serves primarily to deflect consideration away from the options presented by other, much more meaningfully radical international and South African labour organisations, environmental groups and social movements. At the present juncture a range of increasingly well-organised grassroots movements in South Africa find that they have no choice but to mobilise in active resistance to the bankrupt policies of the anc. The increasing significance of these efforts points to the possibility that they might eventually be able to push South Africa—either through a transformation of the anc itself or through the creation of some new, potentially hegemonic, political project in that country—back into the ranks of those governments and groups that seek to use innovative and appropriately revolutionary approaches to challenge the geographical, racial and class-based hierarchies of global inequality.     

谋合作 促发展 共繁荣——中共中央政治局常委李长春出访亚欧非五国纪行

这是一次对亚欧大陆和非洲热土的重要访问,这是一次友谊之旅、互信之旅、合作之旅。     

“中国共产党执政实现了惊人的成功”——专访莱索托民主大会总书记莫泰乔阿·梅辛

记者：中国共产党和莱索托民主大会于2002年正式建立外交关系。您对这些年来两党关系的发展有何评价？对进一步发展两党之间的交流与合作有何设想？     

跨越亚非欧的友谊合作之旅——中共中央政治局委员、北京市委书记、北京奥组委主席刘淇访问南非、英国纪行

应南非非洲人国民大会党（非国大）和英国政府的邀请,中共中央政治局委员、北京市委书记、北京奥组委主席刘淇于2008年11月22—29日对南非和英国进行了正式友好访问,并出席了国际奥委会在伦敦举行的北京奥运会总结大会。中联部副部长陈凤翔和中共北京市委常委、北京市常务副市长吉林等陪同访问。     

The status of small mpa programs: A commitment to quality,diversity, and uniqueness

Smaller graduate programs in public administration and public affairs represent a significant portion of NASPAA member programs. As a result, decisions by leaders of the profession concerning these small programs must be guided by a comprehensive assessment of their needs as is done with larger MPA programs. The purpose of this research effort is to identify the needs of the small MPA program constituency. A survey of 84 directors of small MPA programs was conducted to define small programs, review NASPAA guidelines and standards and their application to smaller programs, and to address small program involvement in NASPAA governance. The results show a commitment to quality, from these directors, for all programs regardless of size or reputation, and the findings indicate diversity and uniqueness among small MPA programs.     

为中印人民友好再谱新篇章——全国人大常委会副委员长、和裁会会长韩启德访问印度纪行

应印度跨党派和平友好团体全印和平团结组织的邀请,全国人大常委会副委员长、中国人民争取和平与裁军协会会长韩启德,在中印庆祝建交60剧年之际,带着中国人民的友好情谊,对印度进行友好访问。     

Luring,learning, and lobbying: The limits to capital mobility in the Dominican Republic

While Third World governments are advised and expected to establish their export processing zones (EPZs) near low-cost labor markets and modern transportation centers, the Dominican Republic’s oldest and most successful zones are located in the country’s relatively remote, high-cost interior. In this article I use qualitative and quantitative data: first, to explain the seemingly irrational EPZ location decision; second, to account for the seemingly paradoxical success of the country’s relatively high-cost secondary city EPZs; and third, to explore the puzzle’s implications for debates on industrial location, globalization, and the political economy of development policy. Andrew Schrank is an assistant professor of sociology at Yale University. He is currently completing a book on export diversification in the Dominican Republic. He is also collaborating on projects on the software industry in Mexico and a study of intellectual property rights in cross-national perspective. I would like to thank Stephen Bunker, Lawrence King, Marcus Kurtz, Denis O’Hearn, Kenneth Shadlen, members of the University of Chicago’s “Organizations and State-Building” workshop, participants in the Social Science Research Council’s “Rethinking Social Science Research on the Developing World” conference, and SCID’s reviewers for helpful comments. The research was undertaken with the assistance of the Institute of International Education.     

A Solution to the Crimean Crisis: Egalitarian Shared Sovereignty Applied to Russia,Ukraine and Crimea

Abstract

Sovereignty is intrinsic to conflict in international relations. There are various sovereignty disputes around the world caught between legal and political limbo, the status quo and continuous tension, with various negative consequences for all the parties involved. It is increasingly clear that the available remedies have been less than successful, and that a peaceful and definitive solution is needed. The essay considers how theories of distributive justice, and particularly the hypothetical thought experiments proposed by Rawlsian theory, can be used productively with the concept of sovereignty and explores the possibility of a solution for sovereignty conflicts such as the Crimean case by the application of a Rawlsian methodology.