Introduction: market adaptations,interventions and daily experience

This special issue illuminates diverse realities of post-Soviet development in Central Asia through a multidisciplinary prism. The contributing articles are grounded in a range of social science disciplines including architecture, anthropology and geography, as well as drawing from mainstream social sciences. The analyses demonstrate how a synthesis of specialist knowledge from area studies and individual disciplinary methodologies can provide well-grounded critical positions on development.     

An Unfinished Grassroots Populism: The Gezi Park Protests in Turkey and Their Aftermath

Focusing on the Gezi protests, this study addresses two questions: How did a particular struggle against the demolition of a park spontaneously turn into nationwide mass protests? And why was this mobilisation unable to transform itself into a popular counter-hegemonic movement? Drawing on the Laclauian concept of populism, I demonstrate that Gezi mobilised various groups by turning into a symbol of the repressive responses of the hegemonic power to various social demands. This popular mobilisation could not go beyond a conjunctural experience due to its inability to unify heterogeneous protesters and to respond effectively to the counter-strategies of the hegemonic power.     

Fat Transfer and Fatal Macroembolization

Fat embolism is usually associated with long bone fractures or other trauma. The diagnosis is usually clinical, and in most cases, emboli are not fatal and not usually seen on gross examination. At the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, we autopsied the victim of fatal macroscopic fat embolization to the lungs. The patient died during buttock enhancement surgery when fat from liposuction was injected into her buttocks. Fat embolism from liposuction and fat injection is reportedly rare, and macroscopic embolization is rarer still. Varicose veins can occur in the area of the sciatic notch and are known to cause painful sciatica symptoms. We suggest them as a potential conduit for macroscopic fat to reach the lungs. Simple pre‐operative questioning for sciatica symptoms and possible radiologic study to rule out sciatic varices seem prudent before undertaking buttock‐enhancing surgery. Careful fat injection with pre‐aspiration is always advised.     

The Insurance Act 2015: Rebalancing the Interests of Insurer and Assured

The Insurance Act 2015 is the first piece of legislation since the eighteenth century to seek to lay down new principles governing the formation and operation of insurance contracts. Exactly 250 years after Lord Mansfield articulated the routinely‐cited principle of utmost good faith in insurance law in Carter v Boehm (1766) 2 Burr 1905, that principle has been recast, with important implications for both the pre‐ and post‐contractual duties of the parties. The Insurance Act has also imposed important restrictions on the enforcement of policy terms by insurers, and clarifies the law affecting fraudulent claims. The Marine Insurance Act 1906, a codifying measure, looks increasingly outmoded.     

The use of neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom by those accused of criminal offenses in England and Wales

This examination of the extent of the use of neuroscientific evidence in England and Wales identifies 204 reported cases in which such evidence has been used by those accused of criminal offenses during the eight-year period from 2005–12. Based on the number of reported cases found, the use of such evidence appears well established with those accused of criminal offenses utilizing such evidence in approximately 1 per cent of cases in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). Neuroscientific evidence is used to quash convictions, to lead to convictions for lesser offenses and to lead to reduced sentences. In addition, cases are identified where neuroscientific evidence is used to avoid extradition, to challenge bail conditions and to resist prosecution appeals against unduly lenient sentences. The range of uses identified is wide: including challenging prosecution evidence as to the cause of death or injury, challenging the credibility of witnesses and arguing that those convicted were unfit to plead, lacked mens rea or were entitled to mental condition defenses. The acceptance of such evidence reflects the willingness of the courts in England and Wales to hear novel scientific argument, where it is valid and directly relevant to the issue(s) to be decided. Indeed, in some of the cases the courts expressed an expectation that structural brain scan evidence should have been presented to support the argument being made.     

Disarmament,demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants in Afghanistan: Lessons learned from a cross-cultural perspective

Experience shows that there is a close interrelationship between the successful disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants and the sustainability of peace-building processes. While drawing on lessons learned from recent DDR experiences elsewhere, this paper takes into account the contextual differences of Afghanistan. It explores the context of a future Afghan DDR process under three main subheadings: the need for reviewing the sequencing of the DDR process, the dilemma of whether former combatants should be given preferential treatment, and planning and co-ordination challenges for linking DDR with the overall peace-building process.     

Democratic BRICS as role models in a shifting global order: inherent dilemmas and the challenges ahead

India, Brazil and South Africa constitute an important subset of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and emerging powers at large in a shifting global order. The article examines the capacity of these democratic BRICS to serve as a role model to the rest of the developing world, at a time when liberal democracy seems to be experiencing serious challenges and dislocations in the Global North. The article considers the important achievements of democratic BRICS, in terms of their individual performances as well as through active cooperation strategies through organisations such as the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum. Attention is drawn to the inherent structural dilemmas confronted by democratic BRICS to serve as genuine role models, given their domestic weaknesses as well as inherent constraints on their collective action strategies. Our central argument is that these countries, individually and collectively, are likely to have a crucial bearing on the future of liberal democracy on a global scale.     

Ideological Reorientation and Counterterrorism: Confronting Militant Islam in Egypt

During the 1990s, Egypt fought a bitter campaign against militant Islamist groups in which over a thousand people died. Since the end of the insurgency in 1997, Egypt's two fiercest Islamic terrorist groups, first the Islamic Group (Al-Gama‘a Al-Islamiyya) and then Islamic Jihad, not only ceased their violent activities but also produced and published texts revising their religious beliefs on the use of violence. Based on the counterterrorism experience of Egypt, this paper defines and describes a counterterrorism strategy of ideological reorientation. We define ideological reorientation as a counterterrorism approach that seeks to change core ideological or religious beliefs of the terrorist group, thus bringing the beliefs of group members in line with societal norms. While we cannot causally attribute the groups' decisions to lay down arms to ideological reorientation versus other regime actions (like repression), the Egyptian experience is highly suggestive. First, it indicates that the ideology of religiously-based groups is not exogenous and fixed, as is often assumed, but rather endogenous and flexible. Second, the Egyptian experience suggests that ideological reorientation may be more effective at stemming militancy in the long run compared to rival approaches.     

Religion as a Factor in Ethnic Conflict: Kashmir and Indian Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT

Ethnic conflicts with a strong religious component do not have merely domestic or foreign causes and consequences. As a result, internationalization of ethnic conflict has become an important subject of inquiry both in terms of pure research and policy-oriented studies. This article presents a case study of Indian-Pakistani relations over Kashmir, used to evaluate the role of religion and the explanatory power of the approach presented here. The aim of the study is to apply a foreign policy approach that simultaneously incorporates domestic and external factors in an analysis of how and in what ways religious elements of the Kashmir question affect India's foreign policy. The approach, an application of “systemism,” contributes to current developments in the realist school of international relations through its emphasis on the need to look at both international and state levels in combination. Earlier applications of realism, as both neotraditional and structural realism clearly demonstrate, tend to remain restricted to one level or the other. In this approach, a religious dynamic can have a domestic source yet be effectively examined in terms of international ramifications.