Book reviews

Caspian Gas. Ottar Skagen. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1997, xii, 95 pp, £12.50

Ethnic Conflict in the Post‐Soviet World: Case Studies and Analysis. Leokadia Drobizheva, Rose Gottemoeller, Catherine McArdle Kelleher, Lee Walker (editors). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996, xv, 366 pp, $59.95 hardback, $24.95 paperback

Contested Borders in the Caucasus. Bruno Coppieters (editor). Brussels: VUB University Press, 1996, 204 pp

The Republic of Armenia, From London to Sevres to London, February‐August 1920, Vol. III. Richard G. Hovannisian. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1996, xx + 534, preface, illus, notes, maps, glossary, biblio, index, hardcover, £35

The Republic of Armenia, Between Crescent and Sickle: Partition and Sovietization, Vol. IV. Richard G. Hovannisian Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1996, xii + 496, illus, notes, maps, glossary, biblio, index, hardcover, £35

Historical Dictionary of Afghanistan, Second edition. Ludwig W. Adamec. Lanham, MD, USA and London, UK: The Scarecrow Press, 1997, 499 pp, chronology, bibliography, $58 hardcover

State and Tribe in Nineteenth‐Century Afghanistan. The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826–1863), Christine Noelle, Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 1997, 439 pp

The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study, Sayed Askar Mousavi, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995, 270 pp. ISBN 0–7007–630–5

A History of Ottoman Architecture. Geoffrey Goodwin. London: Thames & Hudson, 1997, 511 pp, illus, plans, biblio, glossary, index, £27.50

Tribal Rugs. Treasures of the Black Tent. Brian W. MacDonald. >Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 302 pp, illus, index, £35

Jewish Carpets. A History and Guide. Anton Felton. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors Club, 1997, 199 pp, illus, biblio, index, £35

Cobalt and Lustre. The First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, Emst Grube, London and Oxford: The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1996, 348 pp, illus, biblio, index, £135

China. The Silk Routes. Peter Neville‐Hadley. London and Connecticut: Cadogan Books, UK, and The Globe Pequot Press, USA, 1997, 544 pp, maps, index, £15.99/$21.95, paperback     

Globalisation,civil society,and the multilateral system

This paper analyses the significance and scope of globalisation, focusing on its implications for the autonomy of national actors, on the one hand, and on the new demands that global governance imposes upon multilateral action, on the other. It is argued that the current form of globalisation is in fact compatible with some degree of autonomous coordinated social action outside the realm of the market. This allows us both to differentiate between the realities and mystification (i.e. ideology) that underlie the concept of globalisation and to reject the standard discourse and economic therapy offered by certain international organisations to developing countries. If globalisation does not rule out the possibility of autonomous nationallevel action, it also establishes the basis for more solid and effective multilateral action. The factors that support the need for such action in the future are analysed; action that responds to demands for greater management of international public assets, and to calls for more effective global governance. The article ends by identifying the essential characteristics of such a multilateral system if it is to meet the needs arising from a new international reality.     

Delegation and digital mandates: Legal requirements and security objectives

Now that more and more legal transactions are being performed online, it is increasingly necessary to enable integration of legal mandates within identity and information management systems. The purpose of this article is to outline the legal framework surrounding delegation and to identify basic requirements for any technical application which seeks to provide recognition to legal mandates and delegation processes. Special consideration is also given to the legal implications in situations where a (presumed) mandate holder acts without or outside his authority. Based on these considerations, this article attempts to outline an approach which can significantly reduce the potential risks for both mandate issuers and relying service providers.     

Using an evolutionary perspective to understand the relationship between physical aggression and academic performance in late adolescents

In this study, we applied an evolutionary perspective to analyze the relationship between aggressiveness, academic performance, and sociality in a population of 528 adolescents of both sexes. In men, we expect physical aggression (PA) and sociality to be negative predictors of academic performance. However, in women, PA would be a negative predictor of academic performance, and sociality a positive one. Our results report a negative association between academic performance and PA in both sexes. As we expected, social effect derived from the use of PA seems to be different for each sex, where men could display a rebellious attitude to increase chances of finding a mate. In contrast, results for women are not conclusive, because no relationship between academic performance and any aggressive mechanism, were predicted by sociality. We conclude that an evolutionary framework, which includes sex-specific hypotheses, is appropriate to obtain a holistic perspective of this phenomenon.     

Assessing the relationship between R&D subsidy,R&D cooperation and absorptive capacity: an investigation on the manufacturing Spanish case

Private companies want to eliminate outgoing spillovers while policymakers seek to maximize them. With subsidized R&D cooperation agreements both agents partially achieve their objectives. For this reason, in Europe, policymakers grant subsidies for R&D activities with the condition of establishing R&D cooperation agreements. This study explores the relationship of complementarity between R&D subsidy, R&D cooperation and absorptive capacity in the context of its contribution to labor productivity of enterprises. The data used comes from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC), managed by the Spanish National Statistics Institute. We selected manufacturing companies in the period 2008–2013. We evaluate the existence of complementarity through the systems approach and the interaction approach. The econometric technique that we used to estimate the coefficients of our empirical model was maximum-likelihood random effects. As a consequence of the low absorptive capacity of Spanish manufacturing firms we find that R&D subsidies and R&D cooperation agreements are not complementary variables, i.e., receiving public subsidies as a result of establishing R&D cooperation agreements has a lower impact on productivity than the sum of the individual impacts of R&D cooperation and R&D subsidies. In consequence, this result calls into question the convenience of using subsidized R&D cooperation agreements as a tool for promoting innovation in EU countries as there are notable differences between the companies in these countries in terms of absorption capacity.     

Impact of aging on fingerprint ridge density: Anthropometry and forensic implications in sex inference

The variation in the epidermal ridge's width between the sexes, during various growth stages, and among different populations has been previously assessed. However, the changes that occur with aging are barely known.The goal of this study was to analyse the degree of variation in epidermal ridge width due to aging. So that, fingerprint ridge density was estimated to establish their relationship with body and hand size changes that typically occur in adulthood.In this study, a sample of 213 adults of both sexes from a Spanish native population of different age ranges—18–30?years old (“junior” group) and 50–66?years old (“senior” group)—was used. Ridge density was assessed in three counting areas of the distal phalanx of each finger (radial, ulnar, and proximal). Height, weight, and a set of anthropometric measurements for both hands were also taken.Our results show that ridge density is higher in females than males throughout adulthood and decreases with aging in the radial and ulnar areas (as the hands widen) but not in the proximal region. Thus, a relationship between hand dimensions and ridge density was found.The data indicate that aging changes may conceal the recognized sex differences in ridge density, and so a better understanding of the topological variations in the epidermal ridge width throughout the life cycle and the factors involved would facilitate the interpretation of the differences between the sexes and different age groups.     

Can decision transparency increase citizen trust in regulatory agencies? Evidence from a representative survey experiment

Decision transparency is often proposed as a way to maintain or even increase citizen trust, yet this assumption is still untested in the context of regulatory agencies. We test the effect of transparency of a typical decision tradeoff in regulatory enforcement: granting forbearance or imposing a sanction. We employed a representative survey experiment (n = 1,546) in which we test the effect of transparency in general (providing information about a decision or not) and the effect of specific types of transparency (process or rationale transparency). We do this for agencies supervising financial markets, education, and health care. We find that overall decision transparency significantly increases citizen trust in only two of the three agencies. Rationale transparency has a more pronounced positive effect only for the Education Inspectorate. We conclude that the overall effect of decision transparency is positive but that the nature of the regulatory domain may weaken or strengthen this effect.