Social Safety Net in Islam: The Case of Persian Gulf Oil Exporters

The Persian Gulf oil-exporting countries have had a poor record of managing their oil wealth to meet the basic needs of their citizenry and have failed in insuring an equitable distribution of income and opportunities. Government expenditures in the social sector can be characterized as wasteful and subsidies as regressive and for the more-heavily populated countries simply unsustainable. Set within the paradigm of Islamic economics, providing both normative and ethical guidance on the development of a just economic order, the issue of reforms to the social safety net is analyzed and how these oil exporters can better address the needs of the disadvantaged in an Islamic context is suggested.     

Half-heartedly: Menachem Begin and the establishment of the Likud Party

This article seeks to add another dimension to the growing and extensive research on right-wing Zionism, by returning to an era when the Likud was first created. I will examine the major difference between processes that have led to the two key landmarks in the formative years of the Right in Israel: the establishment of Gahal in April 1965 and the founding of the Likud in August–September of 1973. While Gahal's establishment was a product of a prolonged, determined, patient and conscious effort on the part of Menachem Begin, the establishment of the Likud was, to a considerable degree, forced upon him. Those who were interested in expanding Gahal and creating an alignment of centre-right parties were actually the factors outside Herut, while Herut's more veteran leadership disapproved of these attempts. Within the Herut Movement, the voices that called for the creation of a broad political alignment were those that came from Herut's ‘internal opposition’, which revolved around Ezer Weizman. The article analyses the reasons behind Begin's reservations about a continued right-wing merger, examines the negotiation process and sheds light on the oscillation in Menachem Begin's ideology and politics between the fundamental and the pragmatic poles.     

The terminologies associated with development and marginalisation for Orang Asli in Malaysia

Previously, any failure of Orang Asli development activity in Malaysia, was characterised by using a single term in all situations ? “marginalisation”. This generalisation was unfair to everyone involved in the Orang Asli development process, made it difficult to resolve problems, and resulted in tendencies to blame certain people. Based on ethnographic research in Kuala Gandah, Pahang, Malaysia, this article allocates three terms in the Orang Asli development marginalisation discourse: “secluded”, “isolated”, and “marginalised”. “Secluded” refers to development activity that accidentally marginalises. “Isolated” refers to development activity that directly and deliberately marginalises. “Marginalised” refers to the Che Wong that were eliminating or avoiding development. These terms were exposed by weaknesses in the implementation of development, namely the role of a single dominant approach in development activities – the top-down approach – and a tendency to generalise the marginalisation of the Orang Asli. This article recommends that more care be taken to apply a development approach that deals with situations on a case-by-case basis and that utilises the partnership approach to development, involving all parties in all phases.     

Impact of Pain on Cognitive Function in Forensic Neuropsychology Context

Chronic pain is a biopsychosocial condition with a complex neuroscientific and neuropsychological literature. Common types of pain that are seen in the medicolegal context include headaches and musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain, all of which are known to affect neuropsychological test results. Differentiating between the cognitive impact of pain and the effects of traumatic brain injury and other factors, such as emotional distress or fatigue, is often challenging, especially in forensic determinations. Cutting through the polarization of forensic examiners’ opinions on the significance and nature of chronic pain impact on neuropsychological function with research evidence can make neuropsychological assessments more objective and defensible in court. This review focuses on surveying and integrating the available vast empirical evidence from neuroscience and neuropsychology regarding the cognitive impact of chronic pain. Our critical review will emphasize the implications of the new evidence for the forensic assessment determinations regarding causality, diagnosis, impact on function, and prognosis and treatment. To this end, electronic search engines, including PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar (up to January 2018), have been screened and reviewed both for the neuroscience and neuropsychological literature related to chronic pain, and subsequently updated for content and referencing.     

The communicative policy maker revisited: public administration in a twenty-first century cultural-choice framework

In recent years, public administration thinking shifts the focus from the internal public organisation behaviour towards cross-boundary operation that is, operation across governments and sectors. Public bureaucrats become agents in a multiple-interest political environment within which not only technical management issues are discussed, but also dynamic public values are shaped through a dialogical process. In a cultural choice framework, governments operate different service portfolios and the source of allocation problems occurs due to interdependencies between these functions and variation in public preferences. Beyond service production costs, there exist variable characteristics, such as citizen interest, market competition, and managerial structure and operating behaviour in the aggregate responsibilities governments take. Progressive public administrators need to respond to a threefold challenge: The global versus local challenge to define cultural variability; the leadership challenge to interact with citizens; and the cross-boundary challenge to develop a collaborative rather than a competitive future.     

Managing Markets for Public Service: The Role of Mixed Public–Private Delivery of City Services

The privatization experience of U.S. municipalities shows declining use of complete contracts and a dramatic rise in mixed public–private delivery (joint contracting) of city services. The analysis here shows that city managers have recognized the need to move beyond a simple dichotomy between market delivery and public planning to an approach that balances concerns with efficiency, market management, and citizen satisfaction. The New Public Management stresses the importance of competition and efficiency, transaction costs economics emphasizes the challenges of contract management, and New Public Service assigns primary concern to citizen engagement. Nonetheless, city managers see the need to balance all three. The analysis shows the evolution of a middle position where city managers integrate markets with public delivery and give greater attention to citizen satisfaction in the service delivery process.     

Winning Iran's Election Is Just The Beginning Of Rouhani's Political Struggles

Iran's president may have been re‐elected, but he'll need to win the supreme leader's support and get foreign powers to engage with Tehran to be successful.     

The JCPOA: how Iran's grand strategy stifled the US

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) provided a poignant example of how Iran successfully pursued a unique grand strategy that was established following, and had evolved since, the 1979 Revolution. As a result, Tehran was able to stifle attempts by Washington, DC to influence domestic Iranian affairs. In this context, this article argues that Iran's grand strategy juggled a commitment to the regime's revolutionary mantra, formed in 1979, and a pragmatic approach to pursuing national interests. This is accomplished by analyzing the foundation and evolution of Iran's grand strategy, and where the US fits in this dynamic. By focusing on the negotiations leading up to and the eventual signing of the JCPOA, this article sheds light on how Iran's grand strategy was formulated, what constitutes the main drivers and barriers to the strategy, and indeed how this manifested itself in the US–Iran relationship context.     

Minimizing Unintended Deaths Enhanced the Effectiveness of Targeted Killing in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Targeted killing has become a primary counterterrorism measure used by a number of countries in their confrontation with lethal threats. This article focuses on the impact of unintended deaths on the effectiveness of targeted killing. The article evaluates the effectiveness of targeted killings carried out in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict theater that resulted in unintended deaths, compared to the effectiveness of targeted killings where the intended target is the sole person killed. Using multivariate analysis, we demonstrate that targeted killings with unintended deaths were followed by a greater number of suicide bombings and associated casualties compared with targeted killings with no unintended deaths. Based on these findings, nations involved in such conflicts should strive to inflict as few unintended deaths as possible, not only because it is morally right, but also because it is more effective in mitigating terrorism.