Managing Military Transformations: Agency,Culture, and the U.S. Carrier Revolution

The marketplace of ideas within a mature democracy such as the United States is supposed to fairly reliably vet foreign policies through open, wide-ranging debate. It is widely recognized that the U.S. marketplace of ideas failed during the 2002-03 debate over going to war in Iraq. Examinations of this market failure have emphasized executive powers and public fear after 9/11 as the main reasons threat inflation succeeded; I show neither explains this case. The majority opposition was silenced throughout early 2002 and ultimately defeated in a struggle over the Iraq War Resolution by pressures to be patriotic. I contend that this silencing patriotism should not be considered ordinary patriotism for a democracy as it is anti-democratic. I discuss how two critical norms of behavior which silence debate of national security policies and cause deference to the executive branch on war powers became established as part of the militarized political culture that took root in the United States during the Cold War. Thus these norms, enforced by what I term to be militarized patriotism left over from the Cold War, silenced debate over Iraq and led to the failure of the marketplace of ideas.     

Interests over norms in western policy towards the Caucasus: How Abkhazia is no one's Kosovo

The potentially numerous cases of ‘genocide’ around the world can now invoke the precedent of NATO's use of military force for humanitarian purposes against Serbia in spring 1999. Such a claim was suggested by Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze over Georgia's disputed former autonomous republic of Abkhazia. The conflict over this former ‘Soviet Riviera’ again demonstrates the constraints behind gaining accurate information on the causes and consequences of a conflict. Particularly, it illustrates the difficulty of determining what constitutes ‘genocide’ and against whom, as both the Abkhaz and the displaced Georgians make such claims. On that basis, each party can expect ‐ and equally fear ‐ a NATO‐style military intervention. In the event, even if both sides view themselves as victims of ‘genocide’ and entitled to such intervention, Western perceptions of strategic interests in the Caucasus prevent this scenario. The determination of injustices, quite apart from their redress, goes unanswered.     

Executing priority national development in indonesia: Program innovation of the junior minister

In the process of Indonesia's administrative reform and conduct of its planned development efforts, several innovative measures evolved in its executive structure. One of these was the use of temporary organizational entities to expedite the achievement of development goals where sectors/programs of the national development plan encompass two or more executive agencies and/or levels of governments. In organizational design, the executive problem is the reconciliation between responsibility and authority with the purpose of achieving maximum technical efficiency in the execution of priority development programs. As an organizational device to deal with this problem, the offices of six junior ministers were established. By employing the technique of executive authority in rank, these ministers, heading temporary agencies organized in terms of program responsibility as specified in the development plan and as approved by the cabinet, have become the organizational means by which to integrate all of the disparate project activities vested in the executive line agencies in productive organizational cores. Should this organizational innovation prove successful, it will be one of the more important organizational contributions in recent years to the execution of centrally planned development programs in a developing society.     

Contextualising City-regional Issues,Strategies and their Use: the Flemish Story

This paper presents a contextualised analysis of what might be called the city-regional debate. The debate is unfolded in terms of four types of city-regional issues, eight common strategies to tackle the latter and the use thereof in Flanders. It is concluded that the way in which city-regional issues are dealt with in Flanders can be explained by its regime, consisting of an administrative, political and cultural dimension, in terms of a centralistic policy style combined with a weak institutional position of local governments, by a ‘localisation’ of regional politics and policies, both dominated by an anti-urban bias.     

The layfield report: Constitutional implications

Control and Power in Central‐Local Government Relations, R. A. W. Rhodes, Gower, 1981, pp. 194, £11.50.

Power, Property and Corporatism: The Political Sociology of Planning, James Simmie, Macmillan, 1981, pp. 348, £15.00 hardback, £6.95 paperback.

Policy and Politics in Britain: The Limits of Consensus, Douglas E. Ashford, Basil Blackwell, 1981, pp. 330, £12.00 hardback, £4.95 paperback.

Local Government in Britain, Tony Byrne, Penguin Books, 1981, pp. 347, £2.95.

International Handbook on Local Government Reorganization, Edited by Donald C. Rowat, Aldwych Press, 1980, pp.626, £27.50.     

Professional credentialing of american municipal managers: Searchings for national and cross-national experiences

Over the last several decades, American managers have not performed well. Municipal managers are no exception. Although considerable attention has been given to the need of strengthening upper levels of municipal management, the results have been disappointing. Too often these positions are filled by rank amateurs. The nation can no longer afford the cost of amateur managers.

Professional credentialing is proposed as a basic way to correct the situation. The discussion searches national and cross-national experiences in credentialing. It singles out Irish, Australian and American public school experiences as to possible developmental programs in this vital area.     

Multiple Indicators of financial instability in local governments

This paper suggests methods to ascertain the fiscal health of local governments. The methods can be applied to total, short-term, or long-term indebtedness and are conducive to market or regulatory management approaches. Essentially, we argue against the use of single indicators of financial health applied in an absolute manner and for the comparative use of multiple indicators through time. Tracking multiple indicators through time affords administrators, regulators, investors and citizens a better picture of the financial situation of a locale in comparison to other similar locales at any point in time as well as a clearer indication of potentially troublesome trends. The paper concludes with an illustration of the multiple indicators method applied to the total and GOB indebtedness of a sample of 161 Florida cities and towns. The illustration includes a suggested threshold level and finds less than 10 percent of Florida cities and towns above this limit.

The paper concludes with an illustration of the multiple indicators method applied to the total and GOB indebtedness of a sample of 161 Florida cities and towns. The illustration includes a suggested threshold level and finds less than 10 percent of Florida cities and towns above this limit.     

Talking to "Terrorists": Towards an Independent Analytical Framework for the Study of Violent Substate Activism

"Terrorism Studies" as a specific discipline is a comparatively recent addition to the social sciences and is still grappling with questions relating to a proper or appropriate methodology. This article argues that research within the field is often based neither on primary sources nor set within an independent analytical framework. Rather, it is characterized by an "aligned" position dependent on a research hermeneutic of crisis management, which perpetuates the "received view." Talking to "terrorists" and the use of social identity theory, applied in a context of cultural difference, are here proposed as a methodology enabling independent analysis.     

In the Name of the Father? Christian Militantism in Tripura,Northern Uganda,and Ambon

Although armed groups and political violence referring to Islam have attracted increasing attention since the start of the global war against terror, one particular religion can hardly be described as the main source of inspiration of what is commonly referred to as “terrorist acts of violence.” Faith-based violence occurs in different parts of the world and its perpetrators adhere to all major world faiths including Christianity. As such, this article treats three cases of non-state armed actors that explain their actions as being motivated by Christian beliefs and aimed at the creation of a new local society that is guided by religion: the National Liberation Front of Tripura, the Lord's Resistance Army, and the Ambonese Christian militias. It analyzes the way by which they instrumentalized religion against respective backgrounds of conflict rooted in social change, the erosion of traditional identities, imbalances of power, and widening communautarian faultlines.     

Notes and topics

The European Union's difficulty in functioning is to a large degree a result of its decision-making mechanisms, which expose any measure to a veto by a scant minority or even a single state. A flexible model of Europe, one of differentiated integration, attempts to overcome this deadlock. The flexible model is based on the simple and reasonable idea that a member state which dissents is not obliged to associate itself with a certain initiative, but cannot stop the others from carrying it out. Under certain “virtuous” conditions, flexibility would not involve the risk of breaking up the Union. On the contrary, it would offer dynamic instrument for reconciling the requirements of unity and diversity and promoting the process of European integration.