Winning the Battle of Ideas: Propaganda,Ideology, and Terror

Propaganda is at the heart of the struggle between Al Qaeda's strain of militant Islamism and the governments of the United States and United Kingdom. In an ideological struggle, propaganda is critical in shaping outcomes. Both Al Qaeda and the U.S. and U.K. governments recognize this, and have devised propaganda strategies to construct and disseminate messages for key audiences. This article considers the key elements in the Al Qaeda propaganda narrative, and the means through which it is disseminated. On the other side, it assesses the U.S. and U.K. governments’ response, focusing particularly on the British effort to define and propagate a narrative centered on British values.     

The end of green gold? Comparative development options and strategies in the Eastern Caribbean banana-producing islands

Bananas were the basis of the political economy of Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent during the 40 or so years from their establishment as a crop in the 1950s to the beginning of their decline in the 1990s. Because of successive shifts in European Union policy and successful challenges within the World Trade Organization to the protectionist regime that banana production in these islands enjoyed throughout this period, these three small Eastern Caribbean countries are being pushed inexorably into the “post-banana” era. Their efforts to find a new niche within the global political economy are being led in each case by new, modernizing, labor party governments that won elections and came into office during a brief four-year period between 1997 and 2001. Each government faces the same broad development challenge, but employs different resources, leadership skills, and political style. At the same time, each can be said to be pursuing what is best described as a kind of “managerial populist” development. The range of development options faced by these islands is narrow in the extreme, but they have shown that they can still exercise some limited room to move forward into the post-banana era. Anthony Payne is professor of politics, at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. He was the managing editor of the journalNew Political Economy from 1996 to 2005. He is the author of several books and articles on the Caribbean and on development and globalization. The most recent includeCharting Caribbean Development (University Press of Florida, 2001), co-authored with Paul Sutton;The Global Politics of Unequal Development (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); and, as editor,Key Debates in New Political Economy (Routledge, 2006). The author would like to thank the Nuffield Foundation for supporting fieldwork in Dominica, St. Lucia, and St., Vincent in July 2004.     

Support forMiranda among police chiefs: A qualitative examination

The U.S. Supreme Court recently grappled with the question of whether it should overturn the landmark case of Miranda v. Arizona. Abolitionists argued the warnings handcuffed the police and allowed many criminals to go free. Proponents maintained Miranda protected offenders and engendered a certain level of professionalism among police officers. Before the Court decided to uphold Miranda, 95 police chiefs from the Commonwealth of Virginia were surveyed about their perceptions concerning Miranda. While one could categorize many chiefs as conformists who wished to keep the warnings, a significant proportion were innovators who advocated various changes. Reasons for these beliefs and their implications are discussed.     

Compulsory licensing and interim measures in Merck: a case for Italy or for antitrust law?

Legal context: This paper examines an important decision of the Italian CompetitionAuthority in a case concerning the compulsory licence of IPrights. The oddity of the case lies in the fact that the dominantposition of the defendant seemed to be due, rather than to thefact that the latter held certain IP rights, to a peculiar defacto situation. Key points: As a result, the competition authority did not apply the testthat is traditionally used in cases of abuses involving IP rights,but the plain ‘essential facilities’ doctrine. Practical significance: The case shows that the borderline between these two types ofabuses is a difficult one to draw, and more generally that thecomplex relationship between competition law and IP is in needof clarification. The paper also deals with the issue, raisedby the same case, of whether, in the absence of national provisionto this effect, national competition authorities have any powerto issue interim measures.     

University-SME collaboration and innovation performance: the role of informal relationships and absorptive capacity

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This work analyzes the impact of university–industry collaborations (UICs) on the innovation performance of a sample of small and medium enterprises...     

Clinical change in psychopathic traits after the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program: preliminary findings of a controlled trial with male detained youth

Journal of Experimental Criminology - To assess the preliminary efficacy of the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP in reducing psychopathic traits among male detained youth. In this controlled trial, a treatment...     

Electronic supervision for sex offenders: Implications for work load, supervision goals, versatility, and policymaking

Electronic monitoring strategies are being used increasingly for sex offenders across the United States. Despite this increased use, few researchers have considered the broader implications for probation and parole officers when these tools are used. In this study, attention was given to how the use of electronic monitoring for sex offenders is related to supervision goals, work load, the use of other supervision strategies, and state level policies. Findings showed significant differences in several areas. The conclusion focuses on community corrections policy implications.     

Measuring Electronic Monitoring Tools: The Influence of Vendor Type and Vendor Data

The rise in the use of electronic monitoring tools for management of individuals in both pretrial and post-release correctional stages of the criminal justice system necessitates increased collaboration of criminal justice personnel with private sector companies that provide monitoring services. Given this shift, it is necessary to explore whether agency employees perceive that different vendors are providing levels or quality of services. This study indicates that parole officers perceive very few real differences in the monitoring services, equipment used, and ease of installation and deactivation of such equipment across two different vendors. The primary difference identified was in the costs of such services.