Transnational religious actors and international politics

This article generally examines the phenomenon of transnational religious actors and seeks to assess the claim that their activities can undermine state sovereignty. It starts from the premise that globalisation facilitates the growth of transnational networks of religious actors. Feeding off each other's ideas and perhaps aiding each other with funds, they are bodies whose main priority is the well-being and advance of their transnational religious community. The article focuses upon two specific transnational religious actors: the Roman Catholic Church and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It concludes by noting that, like Islamic radicals, the Catholic Church has been influential in some national contexts in helping undermine the hegemony of authoritarian governments, but that this should not be seen as a more general threat to state sovereignty.     

The hidden battle: HIV/AIDS in the household and community

The AIDS epidemic will cause significant increases in illness and death in prime‐age adults, which will manifest itself through negative social, economic and developmental impacts. The epidemics economic impacts at the household level are decreased income, increased health‐care costs, decreased productive capacity and changing expenditure patterns. Three coping strategies are observed: altering household composition; withdrawing savings or selling assets; and receiving assistance from other households. Following death, the impacts break out of the family into the community, primarily through orphaning. In the near future, the sheer number of orphans may overwhelm the capacity of existing community resources to cope. The distribution of the impacts of the AIDS epidemic falls unevenly among the genders. In Africa, women have higher infection rates and bear a disproportionate burden of the care of HIV‐positive people. Orphaned girls are more vulnerable to exploitation.     

Late Colonial Development in British West Africa: The Gonja Development Project in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 1948–57

La publication de récits de vie de marginaux par des chercheurs occidentaux offre un point d'entrée intéressant dans le discours sur l'Afrique. Cet article démontre que les deux récits de vie publiés par John Chernoff, Hustling is not Stealing et Exchange is not Robbery,mettant en scène une jeune prostituée du Burkina Faso et l'ouvrage d'Adama Dramé et Arlette Senn-Borloz, Jéliya: être griot et musicien aujourd'hui, autour de la vie marginale d'un griot, tout en ravivant la soif de connaissance occidentale sur l'Afrique, offrent un contraste frappant dans la présentation de leur projet d'écriture et dans la question du pacte auctorial. Je montre que la démarche de Dramé et Senn-Borloz présente en définitive un modèle réussi de ce que l'on a appelé "l'autobiographie en collaboration," à la suite de Philippe Lejeune.     

Testing Times Ahead: Non‐Invasive Prenatal Testing and the Kind of Community We Want to Be

This article reviews the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ report on Non‐Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT); and introduces two general questions provoked by the report – concerning, respectively, the nature and extent of the informational interests that are to be recognised in today's ‘information societies’ and the membership of today's ‘genetic societies’. The article also considers the role and nature of the Nuffield Council. While the Council's report identifies a range of individual and collective interests that are relevant to determining the legitimate uses of NIPT, we argue that it should put these interests into an order of importance; we sketch how this might be done; and we suggest that, failing such a prioritisation of interests, the Council should present its reflections in a way that engages public debate around a number of options rather than making firm recommendations.     

Crisis (hostage) negotiators weigh in: the skills,behaviors, and qualities that characterize an expert crisis negotiator

This research identified what skills, behaviors, and qualities experienced crisis (hostage) negotiators believe enhance or harm their success during negotiation. 188 negotiators from various countries (primarily United States) voluntarily completed an online survey in which they listed the aforementioned characteristics and reported on various aspects of their own background and behaviors. Open-response questions were coded and quantitative methods revealed what qualities were listed most frequently by negotiators. Active listening, displays of empathy, effective communication, and remaining calm and collected appear at the top of their to-do lists. Conversely, being confrontational, arguing, yelling, and interrupting were reported as behaviors to be avoided. Most negotiators attend trainings multiple times a year and read on the topic of crisis negotiation. About half follow a model during negotiations, typically the FBI’s Behavioral Change Stairway Model. Findings are discussed with relevance to future research directions and improvement of negotiator trainings.     

关于我国婚姻家庭法基本原则的思考

<正> 我国现行婚姻法从名称到内容已经不适应新形势下婚姻家庭关系中出现的新情况、新问题,修改势在必行。不少学者和法律工作者见智见仁,围绕结婚条件、离婚标准、夫妻财产、亲属亲权、协议离婚、无效婚姻以及家庭暴力、第三者插足、子女抚养等问题发表了不少见解,提出了很好的主张。但有些观点笔者以为有失偏颇,而研究和探讨这些问题的基础是对婚姻家庭法基本原则的认识和理解,因为基本原则是婚姻家庭关系确立、维持和终止的准则,也是婚姻家庭关系当事人活动的准则。明确了基本原则,用这些原则作指导分析某些具体问题,分清是非,划清界限,决定取舍,就会使我们对问题的认识更深刻,结论也就更符合我国婚姻家庭关系的客观实际。     

Book reviews

Derek Bok, The State of the Nation (Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London, 1996), 483 pp., ISBN 0–674–29210–3

Philip J. Davies and Frederic A. Waldstein (eds), Political Issues in America Today: the 1990s Revisited (Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1996), 275 pp., ISBN 0–7190–4225–9

Marino Regini, Uncertain Boundaries. The Social and Political Construction of European Economies (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995), 164 pp., ISBN 0–521–473771–3

Dietrich Rometsch and Wolfgang Wessels (eds), The European Union and Member States: Towards Institutional Fusion? (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1996), xvii + 382 pp., ISBN 0–7190–4809–5 (hb)

Stephen D. Morris, Political Reform in Mexico. An Overview of Contemporary Mexican Politics (Rienner, Boulder and London, 1995), x + 262pp., ISBN 1–55587–594–7 (pb)

Atilio Boron, State, Capitalism, and Democracy in Latin America (Rienner, Boulder and London, 1995), x + 262 pp., ISBN 1–55587–508–4 (hb)

Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and Death of the First Italian Republic (Vintage, London, 1995), 467 pp., ISBN 9–59–959491–9 (pb)

David Westerlund (ed), Questioning the Secular State: The Worldwide Resurgence of Religion in Politics (Hurst, London, 1996), 428 pp., ISBN 1–85065–241–4