Trajectories Toward Peace: Mediator Sequencing Strategies in Intractable Communal Conflicts

The author identifies three distinct mediation sequencing strategies used in intractable communal conflicts: the gradualism model; a boulder-in-the-road approach; and the committee strategy. Using case examples of contemporary mediation efforts, he describes the three approaches and their advantages and disadvantages. A wider-angle approach to the differences in how mediators and conflicting parties achieve peace in these destructive conflicts is useful for both scholarly inquiry and practice.     

Scientific Uncertainty and Science-Based Precaution

The debate between advocates of the "Precautionary Principle" and those of "science-based regulation" hinges in large part on the standard of proof to be applied to the scientific evidence that a given action poses a danger of serious and irreversible environmental harm. We propose an intermediate approach, which we term "science-based precaution," intended to facilitate adaptive management of environmental issues – that is, learning through experience and experimentation.We propose that evidence justifying precautionary action must be sufficient to create a "reasonable belief" of serious and irreversible environmental danger. In other cases, in which the proponents of an action bear the burden of proof that the actions they propose will not cause environmental harm, we propose that they must make a "clear showing"to that effect. Both of these standards of proof are derived from a scale constructed from the standards of proof used in various branches of US law.The "reasonableness" standard of proof for the application of the Precautionary Principle is more cautious than the record of international efforts to protect the stratospheric ozone layer and to deal with climate change. It is analogous to the standard of proof imposed by US administrative law, and is also consistent with the position of the European Union and the holdings of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in the beef hormones case. We further propose a Reasonableness Principle: that scientific research and technological innovations promising major benefits not be unreasonably blocked before their full implications are understood.     

Women,civil society and politics in Pakistan

This article makes the argument that when women have organized themselves into groups with a political purpose, we have witnessed significant advancement in the construction of a civil society in Pakistan. It traces the role women's groups have played as intermediary groups, particularly as they play increasingly important political and social roles in countering the actions and inactions of the state. Importantly, it is in the ongoing effort to develop a National Plan of Action in Pakistan in response to the Beijing Platform for Action that women's groups are contributing in a significant way to a participatory, sensitized and increasingly decentralized national planning process which is encouraging regional and NGO inputs in unprecedented ways.     

Urban crime rates and the changing face of immigration: Evidence across four decades

Research has shown little support for the enduring proposition that increases in immigration are associated with increases in crime. Although classical criminological and neoclassical economic theories would predict immigration to increase crime, most empirical research shows quite the opposite. We investigate the immigration-crime relationship among metropolitan areas over a 40 year period from 1970 to 2010. Our goal is to describe the ongoing and changing association between immigration and a broad range of violent and property crimes. Our results indicate that immigration is consistently linked to decreases in violent (e.g., murder) and property (e.g., burglary) crime throughout the time period.     

‘Rising Power’ Status and the Evolution of International Order: Conceptualising Russia’s Syria Policies

Abstract

Taking Syria’s armed conflict as a case study to illustrate the processes of normative contestation in international relations, this article is interested in re-examining the typology of Russia as a ‘rising power’ to account for ‘rise’ in a non-material dimension. The article integrates the concept of ‘rising power’ with the literature on international norm dynamics to reflect on the rationale for Russia’s engagement in Syria despite adverse material preconditions. It will argue that Russian norm divergence from alleged ‘Western’ norms illustrates Moscow’s ambition to co-define the conditions for legitimate transgressions of state sovereignty.