'This is the Time to Get in Front': Changing Roles and Opportunities for Women in Liberia

Most research on women in war focuses on female losses. Thisarticle demonstrates that wars may also bring gains. The scopeof political and economic roles that Liberian women performtoday appears to be larger than before the war. Both individuallyand collectively, certain women have gainfully used openingsthe war provided them. The article discusses the historicityof Liberian gender roles, examining the social subgroups ofpoliticians, businesswomen, women's organizations, employees,and school girls. Changes have also been fostered by the internationalpeace-building and development business. Although the realizationof female ambitions seems to be constrained by various institutionaland economic factors, Liberia may harbour a unique potentialfor sustainable shifts in gender roles.     

Domestic Courts’ Reading of International Norms: A Semiotic Analysis

This article focuses on a number of cases in international law in which US domestic courts have produced judgments that conflict with those given by the International Court of Justice. The nature of these courts’ judgments has been extremely closely tied to the interpretation given by the US national Executive to a certain international norm. This situation raises a number of questions, which can be broadly categorized into two spheres: the legal (regarding the overall legality of the courts’ decisions) and the semiotic (regarding the manner in which a ‘meaning’ for the norm has been claimed by the courts). In this article we aim to provide answers to a number of these questions, both from the standpoint of international law and from that of a reader-response model of semiosis. We also analyse the level of interdependency that exists between the two spheres.     

Can latent fingerprint disclose the sex of the donor? A preliminary test study using GC–MS analysis of latent fingerprints

While fingerprints are a highly used means of identification, not every fingerprint left behind on a potential crime scene can be used for identification purposes. In some cases, the fingerprint may be smudged, partially preserved or overlapping with other prints hence distorting the ridge pattern and may therefore be not appropriate for identification. Further, fingermark residue yields a very low abundance of genetic material for DNA analysis. In such cases, the fingermark may be used to retrieve basic donor information such as sex. The focus of this paper was to assess the possibility of differentiating between the sexes of the donor of latent fingermarks. Analytical method was GC–MS analysis of the chemical compounds of latent fingermarks using 22 male and 22 female donors. Results showed 44 identified compounds. Two alcohols, octadecanol C₁₈ and eicosanol C₂₀, were found to show a difference that was statistically significant between male and female donors. There is also some evidence for the possibility of distinguishing sex of the fingermark donor based on the distribution of branched chain fatty acids, as free compounds or esterified in wax esters.     

The Commonwealth Caribbean and Europe: The End of the Affair?

Abstract

The institutional relationship between the Commonwealth Caribbean and the European Union (EU) dates back to the mid-1970s, when the Lomé Convention was signed. The agreement was seen as a high water mark in First–Third World relations. However, since then the bond has come under concerted pressure. The consequence is that today the particularism that underpinned relations for so long has almost vanished and the EU is beginning to treat the Caribbean like any other relatively marginal region of the world. The article evaluates the reasons for this change, in particular: the scrapping of the trade protocols; the erosion of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) preference due to free trade agreements signed by the EU; the refocusing of EU development policy towards the least developed countries; and the split in the ACP group with the creation of an ill-designed regional Economic Partnership Agreement. The article places these changes into starker relief by assessing briefly the deepening links between the United Kingdom Overseas Territories and the EU. However, as the article highlights, this link will neither reboot nor sustain the more important Commonwealth Caribbean–EU relationship.     

The Demise of Tax Credits

Introduced in the late 1990s, tax credits grew under successive Labour governments to become a cornerstone of UK social policy. Distinguished from traditional welfare policies by their target group and their mode of administration, and with goals that appeared capable of commanding support across the ideological spectrum, tax credits until recently seemed to hold the key to tackling poverty in a politically popular manner. But since 2010 the tax credit system has been systematically dismantled, initially qualitatively and latterly also quantitatively. This paper discusses the multiple factors that help to explain the rapid fall from grace in the UK of this liberal approach to supporting the incomes of poor working households.     

Books Received and Short Notices

This paper looks at how HSBC banking group represent themselves in their externally oriented discourse as a brand combining the global and the local. Drawing on a variety of samples such as history brochures, advertisements and websites, the study combines quantitative and qualitative methods in its analysis of how visual and linguistic elements function to construct the HSBC brand. It is argued that branding in this case relies on a stereotyped version of the local that is used to endow the brand with a “human touch” and create brand affinity with a globalised audience. In cognitive terms, the company is seen to blend the two schemas of the global and the local and to metaphorically emulate perceived consumer identities to the same end.     

Reviews

Joseph Fewsmith Dilemmas of Reform in China. Political Conflict and Economic Debate Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1994. 289 pp. £44.00. ISBN 1–56324–327‐X.

Tani E. Barlow Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993. 307 pp. £15.95. ISBN 0–8223–1389–8.

William A. Joseph (ed.) China Briefing, 1994 Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1994. 234pp. £10.50. ISBN 0–8133–2057–7.

Y.Y. Kueh and Robert F. Ash (eds) Economic Trends in Chinese Agriculture. The Impact of the Post‐Mao Reforms Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. xii + 405 pp. £45.00. ISBN 019–828753–4.

X.L. Ding (Ding Xueliang) The Decline of Communism in China: Legitimacy Crisis, 1977–1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 230 pp. £30.00. ISBN 0–521–45138–8.

Minxin Pei From Reform to Revolution. The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1994. 253pp. £29.95. ISBN 0–674–32563‐X.

Julia F. Andrews Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China 1949–1979 Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1994. xv + 568 pp. $75.00. ISBN 0–520–07981–7.

E. Wayne Nafziger, Learning From the Japanese: Japan's Pre‐war Development and the Third World, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1995. xv + 221pp. ISBN 1–56324–485–3, paperback 1–56324–486–1.

Richard J. Samuels ’Rich Nation Strong Army'; National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994. 455 pp. £38.50. ISBN 0–8014–2705–3.

Alan Burnett The Western Pacific: Challenge of Sustainable Growth London: Earthscan, 1993. 276 pp. £15.95. ISBN 1–85383–1581

Tom Wells The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. 706 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0–5200–8367–9.

Ross Garnaut, Peter Drysdale and John Kunkel (eds) Asia Pacific Regionalism: Readings in International Relations Sydney: Harper Educational, 1994. 433 pp. ISBN 0–06–312140–9.

Atu Emberson‐Bain Labour and Gold in Fiji Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 270 pp. £40.00. ISBN 0–521–36372–1.