‘Conflict Over Property’: Lodging in Times of Displacement,Poland 1944–1946, the Case of Zielona Góra

This article examines housing conflicts during times of displacement in World War II and its aftermath. It looks specifically at the property experiences of eastern Poles in the western Polish town of Zielona Góra after forced displacement from the Soviet Union. It explores the intricate relationship between property and population displacement. By examining a micro-historical process at a time when property relations were in flux, we can investigate how displaced people negotiated spaces for themselves within a complicated set of realities. The article also adds to work done on state–society relationships in immediate post-World War II Poland.     

From Take-off to Sustained Growth and Maturity – Reflections on a Half-Century of Rapid JDS Development

This paper reflects on salient aspects of the development of JDS over its first 50 years. The journal’s origins and its aspirations to become the major inter-disciplinary journal in development studies are described. The rapid growth in the number of papers submitted to the journal and in the volume of its published articles are documented, and reasons for the journal's success are suggested.     

As a Fish Swims in the Sea: Relationships Between Factors Contributing to Support for Terrorist or Insurgent Groups

This article reviews and synthesizes social science knowledge on the connections between popular support and terrorist/insurgent sustainment. After distinguishing between “sympathetic of” and “supporting,” the author identifies support requirements of terrorists and insurgents, the range of sources of support, and motives for support. A scheme of relationships between factors contributing to strength of support is essayed. As a caveat to population-centered approaches to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, the article concludes that support is not “one size fits all,” and that certain factors, when present, are more amenable to policy influence than others. These conclusions suggest that it is imperative that practitioners of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency be mindful of the specifics of their case when seeking to undermine support.     

British and American military operations in the Battle of Helmand, 2006–2011

In summer 2006, elements of the British Army were deployed to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The US Army followed with a surge in 2009 and 2010. The British and American military forces attempted to construct a counterinsurgency (COIN) approach to win the war in Helmand from 2006 until 2011, but the operational approach implemented was most often that of conventional warfighting. The inability to successfully implement COIN owed not to a lack of will, but rather to short tours, mission command, a lack of available resources, the particular situation on the ground in Helmand and the propensity of the Taliban to launch major conventional operations during much of the period in question.