South Africa and Japan: Between domestic reform and global reach

Beset by shifting public opinion and a rising chorus of calls for early withdrawal, the US president has outlined a plan for successfully completing his administration's project in Iraq. But victory means something very different for the US than it does for Iraqis themselves, and defining the agenda on Washington's terms risks prospects for lasting stability.     

Jan Smuts house news

Hungary, a Central European success story, is taking a closer look at its African ties following its accession to the European Union and has a range of useful experience and skills to offer African countries. The article asks whether it might provide a model for other new EU members’ engagement with the continent.     

Inter-species variation in bone mineral behavior upon heating

The characterization of inter-species variation in bone mineral (b-HAP) is of relevance to forensic science and archaeology, but has not previously been widely explored. Results of an investigation into unheated bone mineral and behavior of bone upon heating for 12 animal species (including human) demonstrate that b-HAP characteristics, quantitatively measured using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, exhibit significant inter-species variation. Human bone was found to be significantly different to all other species in terms of b-HAP lattice parameter values from unheated and heated bone and in terms of recrystallization behavior of b-HAP upon heating bone to 600°C. The amounts of b-HAP thermal decomposition products were also significantly different for human bone heated to 1400°C compared to those obtained for most other species. Therefore, there is potential for the development of an XRD-based method of species identification, particularly one that distinguishes human from non-human bone.     

Subjectivity and bias in forensic DNA mixture interpretation

The objectivity of forensic science decision making has received increased attention and scrutiny. However, there are only a few published studies experimentally addressing the potential for contextual bias. Because of the esteem of DNA evidence, it is important to study and assess the impact of subjectivity and bias on DNA mixture interpretation. The study reported here presents empirical data suggesting that DNA mixture interpretation is subjective. When 17 North American expert DNA examiners were asked for their interpretation of data from an adjudicated criminal case in that jurisdiction, they produced inconsistent interpretations. Furthermore, the majority of 'context free' experts disagreed with the laboratory's pre-trial conclusions, suggesting that the extraneous context of the criminal case may have influenced the interpretation of the DNA evidence, thereby showing a biasing effect of contextual information in DNA mixture interpretation.     

Machiavelli’s Science of Statecraft: The Diplomacy and Politics of Disorder

This paper calls into question the extent to which ethical dualism, broadly conceived as raison d’ état, does justice to Machiavelli’s understanding and practice of the diplomatic arts. Arguments are advanced herein that Machiavelli did not so much abandon morality as he sought, through the examples of Rome and antiquity, to find a different remedy for the disorder and violence rampant in the Italy of his day. Machiavelli’s reports in the diplomatic service of Florence illustrate qualities and skills of the diplomat often at odds with the caricature of the immoral statesman.     

A Tory High Modernism? Grand Plans and Visions of Order in Neoconservative Ontario

Trends toward mass incarceration in the United States and elsewhere raise compelling questions about the social purposes of prisons, and their role in the consolidation (and/or privatization) of the neoconservative state. This article examines two moments of penal reform that were historically distinct, but remarkably similar in their shape and intent. Mike Harris’s Progressive Conservatives won control of Ontario’s provincial government in 1995, and undertook a wide-ranging program of institutional and social restructuring that was intended to transform Canada’s industrial heartland. Penal reform was central to this agenda, but Conservative efforts here were remarkably similar to those 160 years before, when Canada built its first penitentiary. This article compares these two moments of flux using a theoretical framework developed by James Scott. He argues that the grand plans of ‘high modernist’ reformers, while seeking to make society more ‘legible’ and ‘rational’, tend to employ simplifications—especially visually pleasing ones—which obscure and suppress insights that might be gained from the ‘practical knowledge’ of those closer to the ground. They do this at their peril, for grand plans tend to fail for lack of such knowledge. The article argues that Ontario’s experience fits neatly into these categories, except that the aim of reformers here has been to restore an old social order, rather than to build a new one.