Preliminary results from voices of the Mada'in: a tribal history and study of one of Baghdad's six rural districts

From July to October 2008, Human Terrain Team Iraq 6 (HTT IZ6) undertook an oral tribal study and social history project in Mada'in Qada, Iraq. During that four-month period IZ6 formally interviewed over forty tribal leaders. At the same time team members participated in humanitarian assistance operations with internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as regular citizens of the region. In both the formal, elite-level interviews and the participant observations, four major themes became apparent: (1) The tribal law, written or oral, is often generally perceived as codes, covenants, and/or constitutions. (2) The tribal legal system and the tribal courts are an adversarial and remedial/restorative justice mediation system. (3) The Government of Iraq (GOI) is perceived as being under foreign influence. Members of the GOI are commonly referred to as Iranian agents, Iranians, Zoroastrians and/or fire worshippers (Mithraites) by both Sunnis and Shi'a alike. And (4) the dispute between Sunni and Shi'a is predominantly about resources, not religion. The purpose of this article is to describe the task order for the project, describe the oral history project itself, discuss the research challenges that arose in a semi-permissive environment, present the preliminary findings and tie them into the reality of the ongoing Counterinsurgency Operations in Iraq.     

Reverse onus: An effective and efficient risk management strategy for chemical regulation

Abstract: This article discusses the role of the precautionary principle within risk management systems for controlling the risks associated with chemical substances. The diversity of interpretation of the precautionary principle is highlighted in a comparative analysis between two divergent approaches to the principle: Canada's Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) and the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). The author suggests that, if appropriately applied, reverse onus – a stronger approach to the precautionary principle – is a more effective and efficient risk management tool for chemical regulation.     

Negative Capital and the Wealth of Nations

The so-called global economy has generated tremendous international wealth inequality that only increases as globalization deepens. This process is capped by the failure of classical economic theory to incorporate such free market externalities as negative capital . Negative capital can be defined as situations, events, or environmental conditions that degrade or threaten to degrade the standard of living or life expectancy of great numbers of persons, including those living in wealthy nations. These problems cut across issues of sovereignty and security, economic development, and the environment. They can be monetized and have value because the rich will have to pay in order to mitigate them, whether at home or abroad. Payment can take many forms, but it will involve a politics of redistribution. Negative capital is a systemic phenomenon "in nature" without which the classical economic theory is both incomplete and notably ideological. A tamed and therefore enlightened free market, that recognizes and addresses negative capital, may be better equipped to resolve the situations created by its inherent inadequacies.     

The Punctuated Origins of Senate Polarization

This article uses a new dynamic ideal‐point estimation method that incorporates smoothing techniques to construct a more detailed account of Senate polarization. The results reveal that the Senate polarized in two distinct phases. Member replacement accounts for nearly all of the increase from the early 1970s through the mid‐1990s after which ideological adaptation emerges as the dominant force behind polarization. In addition, I find that a few brief periods of intensified partisanship account for most of the increase in polarization since the mid‐1990s, suggesting that these episodes have had significant and lasting effects.