Combatting Child Sexual Maltreatment: Advances and Obstacles in International Progress*

Child sexual maltreatment now violates international law. This is an incredible development. International law no longer limits itself to sex crimes that have explicit international dimensions, such as child abduction, child trafficking, and sex tourism. International law now aims to halt practices that are more clearly domestic. These practices include Western conceptions of “child sexual abuse” such as incest and child rape. More controversially, prohibited practices also include those that large segments of certain societies may view as normal and even necessary to proper socialization, such as child marriages and gender-related rituals. This article explores these developments and highlights obstacles that may be encountered in attempts to protect children from sexual maltreatment.     

THE END OF FOREIGN AID TO AFRICA? CONCERNS ABOUT DONOR POLICIES

For more than three decades, a key feature of Africa, and Africanrelations with the outside world, has been the aid relationship.In recent years, donors have given high priority to using aidresources to help solve Africa's poverty problems. In this article,contemporary policies and their likely impact on African povertyare put under the microscope. Six challenges to conventionaldonor views are presented. Firstly, the amounts of aid providedto Africa are not based on Africa's poverty needs and the gapbetween aid needs and aid provided is widening. Secondly, donorcommitments to poverty reduction in Africa are not new; theyare severely weakened by divisions among donors and large gapsremain between the rhetoric of support for poverty alleviationand the reality of sectoral aid allocations. Thirdly, thereare serious doubts about whether the devel opment model withinwhich aid funds are located will be able in practice to ‘deliver’the growth and employment generation required. Fourthly, thoughdonors have given increasing prominence to aid which reachesthe poor directly, there are doubts about the scale and effectivenessof such aid. Fifthly, the growing emphasis which donors areplacing on the results and effectiveness of aid risks shiftingaid towards the less poor. Sixthly, aid donors have tended inrecent years to place less emphasis on politics, the power ofself-interested elites and asset distribution in helping tosolve Africa's poverty problems—though these were dominantthemes when donors last focused so vigorously on aid for povertyreduction, in the mid-1970s. The article ends with some briefproposals for addressing these problems.     

EUROPEAN COMMISSION OVERLOAD AND THE PATHOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT REFORM: GARBAGE CANS,RATIONALITY AND RISK AVERSION

Prior to the EU resignation crisis (the fall of the Santer Commission in 1999), it had long been argued that the European Commission was suffering from managerial ‘overload’. The incoming Prodi Commission embarked on a programme of administrative and managerial reform under the leadership of Commission Vice President, Neil Kinnock. Central to this programme were the objectives of improving managerial capacities and bolstering legitimacy in order that the Commission would be better able to discharge its expanded responsibilities. Using the model of governmental overload developed in the 1970s and 1980s, this article quantifies the impact of the reforms and argues that the overload problem has been aggravated rather than diminished. In this context, the rationale of the reform project is explored with reference to theories of public policy decision making.     

REVIEW ARTICLE: MILITARY SPACE POLICY: DEBATING THE FUTURE

Colonel Bruce M. DeBlois, USAF (ed), Beyond the Paths of Heaven: The Emergence of Space Power Thought (Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1999). Benjamin S. Lambeth, Mastering the Ultimate High Ground: Next Steps in the Military Uses of Space (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003). Major M.V. Smith, USAF, Ten Propositions Regarding Spacepower (Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2002). Brigadier General Simon P. Worden, USAF and Major John E. Shaw, USAF, Whither Space Power? Forging a Strategy for the New Century (Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2002).