Wars in the Balkans: Personal recollections

An examination of South Africa's different foreign policy role conceptions under the administrations of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, highlighting the respective governments’ strategies in carving a niche for the country in global relations.     

The Eastern City Gun Project: Exploring Contextual and Operational Variables

To maintain public safety and improve system response, a strong need exists for understanding the contexts of and police response to weapon-related incidents as well as socio-economic variables of individuals involved. This paper was focused on exploring these contexts and routine police activities by creating and analyzing a weapon-related database at the local level. The findings, although limited due to the explorative nature of the study and the quality of case files, shed some interesting light on the effects of environmental and operational variables on gun incidents and expose certain issues that need to be resolved before further and more accurate understanding of gun crimes at the local level can be achieved.     

Achievement Gaps in Education

Achievement gaps on international tests in math and science, between American students and their industrialized counterparts have worsened over the last 40 years, that is since the tests were originally administered. On a short-term basis, the achievement gap reflects America’s decline in human capital—and issues related to innovation, creativity and GDP. On a long-term basis, the achievement gaps reflect a decline of the U.S. (and the West) and the rise of the East. School financing and government programs seem to have marginal or secondary effects on school achievement. Excuses for the decline in U.S. test scores are numerous. What seems to count is that a large fraction of the variation in student achievement is accounted for in out-of-school variables, such as the student’s community, home or peer group characteristics. The bottom line: Schools seem to have little effect on reducing social and economic inequality and differences in educational output.     

THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY:

The Australian Child Support Agency is recognized as a world leader in the delivery of child support services. But the rapid growth in debt between 1998 and 2003 signaled a need to develop strategies to counter the growth in owed child support. A Debt Study was undertaken in late 2002 to establish the collectibility of debt by category of cases with debt, search for the most cost-effective methods of debt collection, and determine if other client and debt segmentation methods were warranted. The success of the Debt Study led to the implementation of the Intensive Debt Collection strategy in 2003–04.     

In the Nick of Time: Conflict Management, Mediation Timing, and the Duration of Interstate Disputes

This paper develops a theoretical argument linking time and the timing of conflict management efforts to dispute duration. We test competing hypotheses on conflict data drawn from disputes in the post-1945 period. Our analysis demonstrates that the effects of mediation vary substantially over the course of a dispute. Specifically, we note that mediation has a curvilinear relationship with time and the ending of disputes. Mediation efforts that occur soon after disputes begin have the best chance of reducing expected future dispute duration. Following this initial period, subsequent mediation efforts lead to longer rather than shorter disputes. After a long period, mediation again leads to shorter rather than longer disputes. We also find that there should be consistency in the mediators used to manage a conflict rather than shifting personnel to interject new ideas.