French local government reform and urban planning

Early Retirement, Ann E. McGoldrick and Cary L. Cooper, Gower, 1988, £30.00.

The Reform of Local Government Finance in Britain, edited by Stephen J. Bailey and Ronan Paddison, pp. 223, Routledge, 1988, £27.50 (hardback).

Britain's Industrial Renaissance: The Development, Manufacture and Use of Information Technology, edited by Philip Blackburn and Richard Sharpe, Comedia, pp. 180, Routledge, £7.95.

Local Business Taxes in Britain and Germany, edited by Robert J. Bennett and Günter Krebs, pp. 344, Nomos Verlags Gesellschaft, Baden‐Baden, 1988, 87.00 DM.

Marketing in Local Government, Kieron Walsh, Longman, 1989, pp. 128, £8.95 (paperback).

Remaking Planning, The Politics of Urban Change in the Thatcher Years, Tim Brindley, Yvonne Rydin and Gerry Stoker, Unwin Hyman, 1989, pp. 197, £25.00 (hardback), £8.95 (paperback).

Needs Assessment in Post‐16 Education, Tim Packwood and Tim Whitaker, The Falmer Press, 1988, Basingstoke, pp. 233, £18.95 (hardback), £9.95 (paperback).

The State and the City, Ted Robert Gurr and Desmond King, Macmillan, 1987, pp. 242, £30 (hardback), £8.95 (paperback).

Faith in the City and Local Politics, R. Farnell, General Synod Office of the Church of England, 1988, available from Church House Bookshop, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ, £1.00 (by post £1.30).

Managing Fire Services (Second edition), R. J. Coleman and J. A. Granito (eds), International City Management Association, 1988, pp. 528, $38.95.

Area Initiatives Evaluation Handbook, prepared by PIEDA Consultants for the Industry Department for Scotland and Scottish Development Agency, IDS Economics and Statistics Research Paper 16, 1988, pp. 61 plus appendices, £5.00.

Local Labour‐Market Policies in Britain and Germany, Anglo‐German Foundation, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2LP 1988, pp. 134, £4.50 (paperback).

Land and Housing Policies in Europe and the USA: A Comparative Analysis, Graham Hallett (ed.), Routledge, 1988, pp. 215, £27.50 (hardback).

Town and Country Planning in Britain, J. B. Cullingworth, Unwin Hyman, 1988, pp. 408, Tenth edition, £10.95.

Basic Planning Law and Practice 1988, College of Law, 1988, pp. 127, £9.00.

Current Problems in Planning 1988, College of Law, 1988, pp. 94, £6.30.

Effective Planning Appeals, Hilaire McCoubrey, BSP Professional Books, 1988, pp. 147, £17.95 (hardback).

Reviews of United Kingdom Statistical Sources, Vol.XXIV: Local Government, J. M. Gillespie, Chapman &; Hall, 1988, pp. 342, £42.50 (hardback).

Performance Evaluation ‐ An Essential Management Tool, Christine Baker (Ed.), (ICMA), 1987, pp. 20, $21.00     

Australia and the Threat of Terrorism in the Decade after 9/11

In February 2010, the Australian government released its second Counter-Terrorism White Paper, claiming that terrorism continues to pose a serious security challenge to Australia. The article critically re-examines the terrorist threat to Australia and explores the threat posed by the traditional Al-Qaeda leadership, by regional organisations like Jemaah Islamiyah and by so-called ‘home-grown’ terrorists. Arguing that it is imperative to differentiate clearly between the threat to Australia and Australian interests abroad, the article identifies the sources of threat in the Australian context. It concludes that neither Al-Qaeda nor Jemaah Islamiyah nor home-grown terrorism poses any significant objective threat to Australia. At the same time it is acknowledged that the subjective perception of the terrorist necessitates the government to develop an effective counter-terrorism strategy. However, given that the terrorism threat is objectively low, policy measures addressing the threat ought to be carefully designed to meet the requirements of proportionality and (potential) effectiveness.     

The Enduring Power of Isolationism: An Historical Perspective

Are Americans becoming more “isolationist”? Four years ago, for the first time since the Vietnam War, almost half of those polled by the Pew Research Center stated they would rather the United States “mind [its] own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own” and work to “reduce military commitments overseas” in order to decrease the deficit. Such cautious views about American involvement abroad are on the rise, up ten percentage points over the past decade, according to Pew polls released in 2011 and 2012. A majority of Americans think the United States is withdrawing from Afghanistan too slowly and are reticent to take direct action in Syria. This article explains the long historical context of these recent events to argue for the enduring power and significance of isolationist thought.     

New Security Dynamics in the Asia-Pacific: Extending Regionalism from Southeast to Northeast Asia

This article explains the emerging security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific in the context of the project to establish an “Asian Community”. Although the model of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been constrained by a post-colonial attachment to sovereignty, new processes of domestic democratisation, taking in new members and dealing with non-traditional security threats have led to an acceptance of the need to deepen its social and political pillars. The real test for this project, however, will be whether it can be extended to Northeast Asia, where relations between states are still characterised by traditional power-balancing and rising nationalism.     

Terrorism: A matter for moral judgement

If politics and military affairs often raise moral questions, terrorism is a politico‐military matter that veritably flings moral problems in our faces. This essay, initially prepared for military chaplains, explains why terrorism is a form of political depravity and a form of armed activity bearing little resemblance to legitimate guerrilla warfare. Dr Harmon analyzes how terrorists nonetheless use arguments ‐ moral and political ‐ to try to transform public attitudes and even paralyze the body politic into inaction and impotence. Common arguments of the terrorists and their public supporters and apologists are analyzed and rebutted. Conclusions include the proposition that internecine blood‐letting among terrorists themselves, and the self‐defeating character of terrorist logic, make these ostensible architects of new societies more adept with the wrecking ball than with the blueprint.     

A Review of: “Joshua Alexander Geltzer. U.S. Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View.”

Augustus Richard Norton, Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1987. Pp. xxii + 238.

Leonard Weinberg and William Lee Eubank, The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. London and Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987. Pp.155.

Robin Erica Wagner‐Pacifici, The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. London and Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Pp.360.

Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair. London: Carcanet Press, 1987. Pp.175.     

“Survival Mode”: Rebel Resilience and the Lord’s Resistance Army

ABSTRACT

To date, scholarly work on armed groups has seldom considered the notion of rebel resilience, or the factors that enable these groups to survive despite time, military pressure, and the myriad contingent events of civil war. In an effort to develop an explanatory framework for resilience as a distinct outcome of civil war and rebellion, this article examines the conditions under which the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has persisted for nearly three decades. Based on fieldwork and original research, the article explains the LRA’s resilience in light of the group’s organizational structure and resource self-sufficiency, which have been well suited for the borderlands of East and Central Africa. The LRA is a key case of rebel resilience. It is important because it sheds light on the organizational foundations of armed groups, the relationship between resources and rebellion, and the broader study of conflict duration and termination. Understanding the sources of the LRA’s resilience can inform efforts to end such insurgencies.     

The American friends service committee and Nixon's China policy

This study investigates the influence of the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker lobbying group) on the policy of detente pursued by the Nixon Administration in dealing with the People's Republic of China. Nixon's Quaker family background is viewed as a link between A.F.S.C. lobbying efforts after 1965 and President Nixon's decision to change U.S. policy toward mainland China. The Quakers were not directly responsible for the Nixon‐Kissinger initiative, but through its lobbying activities in Washington, at Harvard University, and elsewhere, they did help to create a climate of opinion which made acceptable a shift in U.S. China policy.     

The Contrived Defense and Deterrent Threat Doctrines: A Reply to Professors Finkelstein & Katz

What is the relationship between the permissibility/impermissibility of the part and the permissibility/impermissibility of the whole? Does the moral or legal status of a constituent part of an actor’s course of conduct govern the status of the actor’s whole course of conduct or, conversely, does the moral and legal status of the actor’s whole course of conduct govern the status of the constituent parts? This broader issue is examined in the more specific contexts of the contrived defense and deterrent threat doctrines. The latter doctrine concerns whether a prima facie impermissible act of carrying out a threatened action may be rendered permissible if embedded within an overall permissible course of action including the issuance of a deterrent threat that fails to induce compliance. The contrived defense doctrine addresses the permissibility of an actor who contrives or culpably causes the conditions of her own defense. This essay considers the claim—advanced by Claire Finkelstein and Leo Katz—that the contrived defense and deterrent threat doctrines are sufficiently related such that the preferable approach to each doctrine informs and supports the preferable approach to the other. In each, the permissible/impermissible status of the whole governs the status of the part. Regarding contrived defenses, the impermissibility of the actor’s whole course of conduct renders the otherwise permissible constituent part relating to the defense also impermissible. And regarding deterrent threats, the permissibility of the actor’s whole course of conduct renders the otherwise impermissible constituent parts also permissible. This essay challenges the claimed linkage between the contrived defense and deterrent threat doctrines by proposing hypothetical situations in which the claimed parallel doctrines collapse into each other. As a result, the application of the preferred approaches to each doctrine generates a contradiction.