Making War on Terror? Global Lessons from Northern Ireland

In place of the simple modelling employed in anti-terrorist legal discourse, this article posits an interactive model of the relationship between the state and violent political actors, exploring law's role in both the repression and mobilisation of challengers. Drawing on social movement theory, it hypothesises a process of 'legally implicated mobilisation' which takes account both of law's presence and its partial absence in 'legal grey zones' during violent conflict, and it suggests how law may impact upon key elements of the mobilisation process. The hypothesis is applied to qualitative data from Northern Ireland on violent challengers. The data point to the importance of 'messaging' about law in the state of exception, supporting claims that law can have a 'damping' effect on violent conflict. The relationship between repression and violence is partly symbiotic, and in the global 'war on terror,' prisoner-abuse may have a mobilising effect on violent challengers.     

WHAT DO YOU TEACH POLICY STUDIES EDUCATORS ABOUT COMPUTERS?

Computers are no longer an idea of the future. They are, rather, a common and even expected tool of the public administrator. The authors assert that students of the discipline must have a practical knowledge of computer applications. While it is not necessary that advanced computer engineering be studied, students should nevertheless be made familiar with the uses of the computer in administration. Beyond learning how to operate a computer, the article states that students, especially adult learners, first have to be made not to fear this instrument of the age of information so that they will be comfortable when learning its applications.     

INTERNAL AUDIT—THE POOR RELATION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE*

In considering the Public Accounts Committee in relation to internal audit, it should be stated that the duties imposed on the Committee by the Public Accounts Committee Act require it to examine the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the Commonwealth Government and each statement and report transmitted to the Parliament by the Auditor-General. Inherent in the Committee's functions therefore is a strong association with the audit function.     

Socio-demographic indicators of intervention program completion with the male court-referred perpetrator of partner abuse

The purpose of this study was to provide socio-demographic indicators of the court-referred perpetrator-as-client who successfully completed a perpetrator intervention program vs. the perpetrator-as-client who was unsuccessful. Significant associations were noted between alcohol use at the time of arrest and perpetrator program completion. Additional associations included perpetrator employment history by program completion status, perpetrator level of violence by program completion status, and report of victim hospitalization by program completion status. Study findings suggest that perpetrator-as-client intervention programs might benefit by implementing comprehensive screening procedures and by developing interagency cooperation in terms of job training and access to opportunities for stable employment.     

Green energy and black economy: mafia investments in the wind power sector in Italy

In recent years, the EU has supported actions to develop the green economy. Among these, incentives to sustain the growth of the wind power (WP) sector were welcomed as strategic for promoting environmental sustainability. This paper argues that the enthusiasm in supporting the green economy, without a preliminary assessment for crime opportunities, could end up fueling the black one. In particular, looking at the Italian case, the intention to facilitate wind farm construction provided remarkable (economic and procedural) incentives but neglected the issue of crime infiltration in the legitimate economy. Consequently, investments in wind farms also became a very lucrative business for organized crime (OC) groups. Through an analysis of the WP sector in Italy, this paper aims to show that, in territories characterized by a significant presence and control of OC groups, regulation could have an adverse effect providing opportunities for OC infiltrations in the legitimate economy. In particular this paper discusses whether investments in the WP sector in Italy are more likely in those regions with higher levels of OC presence and analyzes the role played by OC groups in cases of criminal infiltrations in the WP sector.     

Tweaking the Lion's Tail: Edgar J. Tarr,the Canadian Institute of International Affairs,and the British Empire, 1931–1950

In its first 2 decades the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA), Canada's premier foreign policy think tank, never functioned merely as a neutral and apolitical research organization. Under the leadership of Edgar Tarr, president of the Monarch Life Assurance Company, and in its capacity as the Canadian Council of the transnational Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), in the 1930s and 1940s the CIIA became an instrument that championed Canadian national autonomy and sought to expand Canada's international role, while challenging British imperialism, racism, and Anglo–Saxon dominance. Prominent Canadian diplomats and other officials were complicit in this enterprise, which reached its apogee at the IPR conference held at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, in December 1942. The CIIA's activities during this period revealed the porosity and imprecision of the boundaries in Canada between the state and non-state realms. Throughout World War II, DEA and other Canadian government representatives attended CIIA and IPR conferences as “official non-officials,” effectively cooperating with private individuals in a network of purportedly non-governmental organizations that enabled Canada to exert leverage on the British government, reject British leadership, align itself with the United States, and secure a greater world role. CIIA leaders and Canadian officials also consciously encouraged nationalist forces in India, China, and Southeast Asia that sought to reject colonial rule and Western dominance. CIIA activities thus became part of a web of diplomatic interactions across a transnational network of think tanks within and outside the British Empire that had their own impact upon international affairs.     

Diasporan students social entrepreneurship intention: The moderating role of institutional support

The daunting global challenges saddling polities and governments alike have resultantly created a situation whereby governments and corporate civil society have inadvertently reneged on delivering public good and services to citizens. In ensuring and strengthening a public–private actor synergy, with particular emphasis on leveraging acquired knowledge and skills of diaspora‐based students, social entrepreneurship activities could be harnessed to provide sustainable remedies to social challenges such as unemployment, famine amongst others by utilizing social entrepreneurship as a tool. Using the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework, the study elicited data from 322 respondents to empirically investigate determinants of social entrepreneurship intentions of Ghanaian students, with the moderating role of institutional support. Study results revealed that sense of social responsibility and service learning have significant relationship with social entrepreneurship intention. However, social volunteering experience had no significant relationship. Moreover, whereas attitude to social entrepreneurship intention demonstrated a positive relationship, institutional support as a moderator was also revealed to influence the relationship between attitude and social entrepreneurship intention. From the study findings, we discourse on the implications for social entrepreneurship in Ghana to policy makers and stakeholders.