FIFA’s Hegemony: Examples from World Cup Hosting Countries

The hegemonic power of FIFA over countries hosting its capstone World Cup tournament is worth examining in the context of hegemony theory in International Relations literature. To understand FIFA’s hegemonic role on the global stage, it is best to place it within the context of two major shifts in the international system—power transition and diffusion. This study provides an insight into the dispute between transnational and national law in sports, which FIFA has used to strengthen its hegemony. This has empirical support as seen in four World Cup cases: previous Cups in Brazil (2014) and South Africa (2010) and the forthcoming tournaments in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). These cases reveal FIFA’s hegemonic power both through the overruling of national law in favour of transnational law, and by the questionable bidding processes to host the games in Qatar and the Russian Federation. In addition, this study examines whether Switzerland is capable of regulating or restricting FIFA’s hegemonic power. While removing FIFA’s legal status as a non-profit organisation seems not to be an option, the executed amendment of the Swiss anti-corruption law is a step forward. Furthermore, FIFA needs to continue its recently initiated internal reforms.     

Inclusive Development and the Asymmetric State: Big Projects and Local Communities in the Brazilian Amazon

In 2003, the Workers’ Party took federal office in Brazil on an agenda of social inclusion and popular participation. This paper explores attempts to implement that agenda in big infrastructure projects in the Amazon: the BR-163 road and the Belo Monte dam. We argue that overlapping inequalities (between social groups, within the bureaucracy and between territorial centre and periphery) result in uneven state capacities for implementing projects in the Amazon. This framework helps explain why the government has moved much faster in building infrastructure than in implementing participatory social and environmental programmes that would benefit affected local communities.     

Back to the future,forward to the past: Croatian politics of memory in the European Parliament

This paper discusses the way in which a post-conflict European Union (EU) member immediately after accession both shapes and adapts to EU memory politics as a part of its Europeanization process. I will analyze how the country responds to the top-down pressures of Europeanization in the domestic politics of memory by making proactive attempts at exporting its own politics of memory (discourses, policies, and practices) to the EU level. Drawing evidence from Croatian EU accession, I will consider how Croatian members of the European Parliament “upload” domestic memory politics to the EU level, particularly to the European Parliament. Based on the analysis of elite interviews, discourses, parliamentary duties, agenda-setting, and decision-making of Croatian MEPs from 2013 to 2016, I argue that the parliament serves both as a locus for confirmation of European identity through promotion of countries’ EU memory credentials and as a new forum for affirmation of national identity. The preservation of the “Homeland War” narrative (1991–1995) and of the “sacredness” of Vukovar as a European lieu de mémoire clearly influences the decision-making of Croatian MEPs, motivating inter-group support for policy building and remembrance practices that bridge domestic political differences.     

From Discourses to Policy: Analyzing the Creation of an Accountability Discourse in Colombia

This article analyses the construction of a public discourse about accountability in Colombia. The article maps the different interpretations that actors make of political ideas related to accountability and their change over a period of 13 years (1991–2014). The article has an interpretive framework and uses content and discourse analysis techniques to identify meanings different actors give to the concept of “accountability” and changes in these meanings. It identifies an academic discourse on accountability, as well as external actors’ discourses that influenced the construction of a public and official discourse in Colombia. It concludes by identifying the effect of this process of building consensus about meaning on the resulting public policy.     

Engendering regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining: participation,protection and access to justice

Abstract

This article argues that adopting a gender perspective when regulating artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is both necessary and achievable. The authors analyse women’s often-ignored needs and experiences as workers, decision-makers and affected community members in the ASM sector. To address these concerns, this article sets out standards for regulating ASM to guarantee women’s access to services and information and women’s decision-making and representation; to address the specific risks women face in the sector; and to provide access to effective remedies. The authors use international instruments to identify good practice benchmarks from which legislators and policymakers can draw. The article also notes where global norms fall short of addressing women’s rights in ASM. Some of the limitations of this approach are also acknowledged, notably the challenge of establishing gender-responsive laws that can be feasibly and effectively implemented. Nonetheless, the proposed approach should be favoured to better respond to the highly masculinised nature of the sector and the differentiated impacts of ASM on men and women while recognising women’s roles as beneficiaries and productive agents of the sector.     

Sociodemographic,Clinical, and Therapeutic Aspects of Penitentiary Psychiatric Consultation: Toward Integration Into the General Mental Health Services

The characteristics of mental disorders, as well as deficiencies in their treatment, must be properly defined. This was a prospective, longitudinal, observational study, in which all men referred to a penitentiary psychiatric consultation of three penitentiary centers in Spain were invited to participate. Those who consented to participation (1328) were interviewed at the baseline timepoint and at intervals for up to 3 years. The presence of mental disorders was high: 68.2% had a cluster B personality disorder, 14% had an affective and/or anxiety disorders, 13% had schizophrenia, and over 80% had a dual disorder. Polypharmacy was the norm. Moreover, the health care received in prison did not match that provided in the community in terms of quantity and quality. These results should help to facilitate the design of mental healthcare provision for prisoners, focusing on both the most frequent patient profiles and equality of care.     

Testing Application of Geographical Information Systems,Forensic Geomorphology and Electrical Resistivity Tomography to Investigate Clandestine Grave Sites in Colombia,South America

Colombian forensic investigators required assistance locating clandestine burials of missing persons related to human right atrocities from 14 years ago. Geoscientific search methods were trialled, including a predictive spatial statistical model, using various input and database information, to select the most likely grave locations in difficult mountainous terrain. Groundwork using forensic geomorphology, near-surface geophysics (ERT) and subsequent probing identified suspect burial positions. One site was in mountainous terrain and the other in former school grounds, both difficult to access and in poor weather conditions. In the mountainous area, a negative resistivity anomaly area was identified and intrusively investigated, found to be a buried rock. In school grounds, after MESP and intelligence were used to identify a burial site, surface depressions were identified, and ERT datasets collected over the highest priority depression; intrusive investigations discovered a hand-dug pit containing animal bones. This approach is suggested for Latin American searches.     

Evaluation of the Simultaneous Analysis of Organic and Inorganic Gunshot Residues Within a Large Population Data Set Using Electrochemical Sensors*,†

The increasing demand for rapid methods to identify both inorganic and organic gunshot residues (IGSR and OGSR) makes electrochemical methods, an attractive screening tool to modernize current practice. Our research group has previously demonstrated that electrochemical screening of GSR samples delivers a simple, inexpensive, and sensitive analytical solution that is capable of detecting IGSR and OGSR in less than 10 min per sample. In this study, we expand our previous work by increasing the number of GSR markers and applying machine learning classifiers to the interpretation of a larger population data set. Utilizing bare screen-printed carbon electrodes, the detection and resolution of seven markers (IGSR; lead, antimony, and copper, and OGSR; nitroglycerin, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, diphenylamine, and ethyl centralite) was achieved with limits of detection (LODs) below 1 µg/mL. A large population data set was obtained from 395 authentic shooter samples and 350 background samples. Various statistical methods and machine learning algorithms, including critical thresholds (CT), naïve Bayes (NB), logistic regression (LR), and neural networks (NN), were utilized to calculate the performance and error rates. Neural networks proved to be the best predictor when assessing the dichotomous question of detection of GSR on the hands of shooter versus nonshooter groups. Accuracies for the studied population were 81.8 % (CT), 88.1% (NB), 94.7% (LR), and 95.4% (NN), respectively. The ability to detect both IGSR and OGSR simultaneously provides a selective testing platform for gunshot residues that can provide a powerful field-testing technique and assist with decisions in case management.