Deconstructing the Shariatic Justification of Suicide Bombings

Deconstructing the shariatic justification of suicide bombings reveals a standard reasoning based on four arguments. Two of them relativize the shariatic prohibition against suicide whereas the other two analogize suicide bombings with the medieval combat tactic of plunging alone into the enemy. Prerequisites of a “martyrdom operation” are the suicide bomber's intention to seek martyrdom and his ability to damage the enemy. The reasoning declares the killing of oneself for the sake of Islam permissible and thereby distinguishes “martyrdom operations” from suicide. Deconstructing this and other Islamist doctrines of violence can be of operational use to intelligence and criminal investigations.     

Globalization,governance and democracy in post‐communist Romania

Post‐communist transition in Romania has witnessed an accelerated globalization in the country. Global (understood here as supraterritorial) relations have altered many communication networks, forms of organization, production processes, markets, monetary and financial flows, ecological conditions, and patterns of social consciousness. Although the extent of globalization in Romania should not be exaggerated, the recent rapid spread of supraterritoriality has pulled the country out of the preceding era of territorialist politics. The Romanian state can no longer realize its claims to sovereignty and has become oriented to transborder as well as territorial constituencies. At the same time, globalization has stimulated greater involvement of transworld and regional agencies in governance. The rise of supraterritoriality has also encouraged some devolution and some privatization of regulatory authority in Romania. Singly and together, these developments pose substantial challenges for democracy. True, certain transborder initiatives have modestly promoted post‐communist democratization in Romania. On the whole, however, Romanians have obtained insufficient participation, consultation, representation, transparency and accountability in respect of the multi‐layered and fragmented governance that is emerging in the context of globalization.     

Nāgārjuna’s Arguments on Motion Revisited

This paper discusses a somewhat neglected reading of the second chapter of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, arguing that the main focus of a crucial part is a particular theory of properties and their relation to individuals they instantiate, rather than the refutation of specific assumptions about the nature of space and time. Some of Nāgārjuna’s key arguments about motion should be understood as argument templates in which notions other than mover, motion, and so forth could be substituted. The remainder of the discussion of motion does not serve quasi-Zenonian purposes either but uses motion as a principal example of change and considers the soteriological problems of the subject moving (gati) through transmigratory existence (saṃsāra). I attempt to show how this interpretation coheres with Nāgārjuna’s overall philosophical project.     

Brownfield redevelopment and affordable housing: A case study of New Jersey

Abstract

A total of 779 New Jersey residents were surveyed to determine the number of people who during the next five years would be willing to move to housing built on brownfield sites that have been remediated to the extent that they pose no plausible brownfield‐related health risk to residents.

Fourteen percent of the respondents said they would be willing to move to and live in housing built on cleaned‐up brownfields. These respondents were disproportionately relatively poor and young and resided in apartments and cities, especially cities where the city government was actively promoting brownfields. These respondents also did not like their current neighborhoods, did not feel threatened by the idea of living on a cleaned‐up brownfield site, and trusted experts to advise them on the health risks involved.