Public Diplomacy,Smith-Mundt and the American Public

The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, also known as the Smith-Mundt Act, is a mostly unknown and widely misunderstood piece of legislation. Revised multiple times, the law bans domestic dissemination of Voice of America and other U.S. international broadcast content in the United States. Presenting government-supported international broadcasting as an example of public diplomacy, this article discusses the long-term misrepresentation of Smith-Mundt's original intent and highlights the consequences of the continuing ban. The article considers prospects for ending the ban and emphasizes potential opportunities presented by its elimination, concluding that ending the ban might eliminate incongruity between American foreign policy goals of democracy promotion and the reality of banned domestic content. Repeal of the ban may also result in unexpected remedies for challenges facing the American media industry and the American public's desire for international news.

The United States government may be the largest broadcaster that few Americans know about. Although its networks reach 100 countries in 59 languages, they are banned from distribution in the United States by a 1948 law devised to prevent the government from turning its propaganda machine on its own citizens. ^{1 1}Mark Landler, A New Voice of America for the Age of Twitter, N.Y. Times, June 7, 2011 at 9. The broadcasters comprising the U.S. international broadcasting operation are the Voice of America (VOA), Alhurra, Radio Sawa, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Radio and TV Marti. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is “a bipartisan agency … that acts as a ‘firewall’ between the U.S. government and international broadcasting entities it funds.” Kim Andrew Elliott, America Calling: A 21st-Century Model, Foreign Service J., Oct. 2010, at 31. When Smith-Mundt was passed in 1948, USIB authority fell under the Department of State. Later, Congress created the United States Information Agency (USIA) to facilitate American public diplomacy operations. After the end of the cold war, Congress dismantled USIA and returned responsibility for American public diplomacy efforts to the Department of State. For an excellent history of the rise and fall of the USIA, see Nicholas J. Cull, The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy 1945–1989 (2008).      

The age estimation of blood stains up to 30 days old using visible wavelength hyperspectral image analysis and linear discriminant analysis

A novel application of visible wavelength hyperspectral image analysis has been applied to determine the age of blood stains up to 30 days old. Reflectance spectra from selected locations within the hyperspectral image, obtained from a portable instrument, were subjected to spectral pre-processing. This was followed by the application of a linear discriminant classification model, making estimations possible with an average error of ± 0.27 days for the first 7 days and an overall average error of ± 1.17 days up to 30 days. This is also the first reported study of the determination of the age of fresh blood stains (less than one day old) with an error of ± 0.09 h. The studies have been made under controlled conditions and represent, at this stage, proof of concept results but also are the most accurate age estimation results for measurements between 0 and 30 days reported to date. The results are consistent with well-established kinetic processes suggesting that the pre-processing stages described are revealing spectroscopic changes which are reliably following the time dependent oxidation of HbO₂. The potential for parameterisation of environmental factors to make the method generally applicable at crime scenes is discussed, along with the developments required to further improve classification and to make the instrument genuinely portable.     

A social and political profile of Canadian legislators, 1996

This research note provides an overview and an update on the social and political backgrounds of all elected Canadian legislators at the federal and provincial/territorial levels of government in 1996. For provincial/territorial legislators data are presented by electoral jurisdiction, and for all legislators by level of government and political party. Relatively few differences in social characteristics were found between the two levels although there were some variations by province, territory and party. Business, education and law are the three most prevalent occupations, although the latter has declined among legislators over time. There is little movement of members from the provincial to the federal level. The most common political experience of both groups lies in municipal governance. Over time women have increased their share of seats at both levels. Even in a polity such as Canada with high rates of legislative turnover at both federal and provincial/territorial levels and with new parties emerging, most changes in social and political experience backgrounds proceed incrementally.     

A case study of a male sex offender with zoosexual interests and behaviours

Abstract

This paper reviews assessment, treatment and supervision issues in relation to a high-risk, borderline functioning, male sex offender with zoosexual interests and behaviours. Mr Z was convicted of multiple sexual offences including rape, indecent assault and indecent exposure as well as actual and threatened bodily harm. He was convicted for two counts of attempted buggery of horses and he received a Probation Order to engage in group and individual work, as deemed appropriate. Significant treatment challenges emerged due to his cognitive/intellectual difficulties, coping problems (including anger management issues) and dissimulation. Further, continuing evidence of high-risk behaviours associated with his index offence as well as previously identified patterns of offending were reported. Ongoing concerns prompted a referral for a polygraph examination to gain additional information about Mr Z's offence history and to achieve a better understanding of his treatment needs. These findings are discussed and specific attention is focused on Mr Z's zoosexual behaviours.     

Right target; wrong tactics: the trump administration upends East Asian order

President Donald Trump initiated a tariff war claiming that the ultimate target was mercantile Chinese economic practices. Numerous countries share such concerns about China. Yet the Trump administration’s approach is wrong for at least three big reasons. First, tariffs avoid addressing the most fundamental complaints about China while they undermine the longstanding and beneficial global liberal trade order. Second, the U.S. approach has been unilateral rather than multilateral, weakening America’s bargaining position while alienating close allies. Third, the Trump administration escalates what is an economic challenge into an existential threat, ignoring numerous benefits from Chinese policies as well as ignoring multiple areas where China has been a powerful global partner. Middle powers in Asia have acted collectively and individually to bolster the global trading system and avoid the worst consequences of the Trump actions while seeking to avoid making permanent binary choices between the United States and China. Beyond the immediate problems, the Trump tariff wars are creating, they also generate damaging second order effects that are undermining domestic and regional policies conducive to enhanced American strengths and an economically less mercantilist China.     

Inconsistent effects of a feature on home prices—lang's two‐market explanation

Abstract

In his 2005 article “Valuing the Suburbs: Why Some ‘Improvements’ Lower Home Prices,” Robert E. Lang proposes an explanation of why improvements to a home may either add to or detract from its value. He suggests a dual housing market: “one for conventional low‐density suburbs, and one for cities and denser suburbs” (8). The former values features implying a natural or less intense use, and the latter values features adding “intensity or utility to a property” (8).

This article reinterprets Lang's explanation as an example of interaction (something having a different effect under one condition than it does under another) arising via summation followed by a nonlinear function of the result. An alternative explanation in terms of the fit between characteristics of a home and its location is also noted.