The Muslim Middle East: Is There a Democratic Option?

American counterterrorism strategy defines as “moderate” or “mainstream” any Muslim who does not support the jihadi extremists, which sets the bar very low and does not consider the question of how widespread such support actually might be. Unfortunately, Al Qaeda is not the lunatic fringe of Sunni Islam—it is the fanatic core of Sunni Islam, and shares much of its ideology with other organized Islamic groups and, for that matter, much of the Muslim faithful. “Moderate” Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, are moderate only in relative terms, are mostly antidemocratic, and are more correctly considered nonviolent enemies of the U.S. This being the case, a democratic opening in the Muslim Middle East is all too likely to bring to power profoundly antidemocratic groups that are virulently and possibly violently hostile to the U.S. A possible alternative strategy is one stressing good government, with gradual democratization as societies decompress.     

The poor in Singapore: Issues and options

This article examines the changing patterns of poverty in Singapore. As Singapore's population ages, the poor increasingly includes the elderly. It appears that ascribed factors, such as gender and race, have significant influence on financial security at old age. As the population ages, the adequacy of existing anti-poverty policy is challenged.     

Relationships Between Identity and Self-Representations During Adolescence

By drawing from literature on identity development as well as on self-discrepancy, the present study aimed to investigate variations in the magnitude of self-belief discrepancies among adolescents with different levels of identity development. The respondents consisted of 336 male and female adolescents, from 5 private secondary schools, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years (M = 15.98, SD = 0.89). Four levels of identity status (Achieved, Moratorium, Foreclosed, and Diffused identity status) were used as the method of identity classification in this study. Four types of self-discrepancies (Actual/Ideal (own), Actual/Ideal (other), Actual/Ought (own), and Actual/Ought (other) self-discrepancy) were also obtained. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that respondents with different identity statuses significantly varied on the magnitude of self-discrepancy experienced. The Foreclosed and Achieved statuses were found to have lower levels of self-belief discrepancy than the Moratorium and Diffused statuses. However, most of the significant differences among the statuses were for the Actual/Ideal (own) and Actual/Ideal (other) self-discrepancies. These results indicate that identity development is related to the magnitude of self-belief discrepancy. However, further research with more developed instruments is needed to explore this relationship more fully.     

The Information Confrontation with Radical Islam

Information has emerged as a critical—potentially the decisive—front in both the global war with violent radical Islam and the overlapping but so far largely unadmitted Cold War with nonviolent radical Islam. In fact, the information front is undoubtedly the closest thing that al Qaeda has to a strategic center of gravity. Unfortunately, America faces an extremely hostile information environment in the Middle East and al Qaeda has proven far more effective at getting its message across than has the United States. A more effective U.S. information strategy would be one that stresses three themes: a democratic critique of radical Islam; an Islamic critique of radical Islam; and a critique of the crisis in Middle Eastern civilization. While these will not necessarily make the U.S. or its policies more popular, they may drive a wedge between radical Islam and potential supporters.     

Professional Cities: Accredited Agencies,Government Structure,and Rational Choice

Accreditation, long used to signal quality among hospitals and universities, has been available to police, fire, and public works departments since the late 1980s. For public service departments, accreditation is a voluntary process that demands significant organizational resources without a guaranteed outcome. Why would city officials devote scarce resources to such an endeavor? Two explanations are examined. First, accreditation may be a rational response to a history of trouble or the potential for future crisis. Second, municipalities may use accreditation to build a reputation for professional administration of public services. The authors use Poisson regression to test these explanations on a new data set of midsize cities .     

Into the sea: capacity-building innovations and the maritime security challenge

Abstract

Maritime security capacity-building is a growing field of international activity. It is an area that requires further study, as a field in its own right, but also as an archetype to develop insights for capacity-building and security sector reform in other arenas. This article is one of the first to analyse this field of activity. Our empirical focus is on the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region. Here, international actors have launched multiple capacity-building projects, initially in response to Somali piracy. We document the significance, extent and variety of capacity-building activities in this region and examine the ways in which capacity-building at sea has incorporated innovative characteristics that develop and expand the capacity-building agenda as traditionally understood. Our conclusion highlights the need to pay more attention to the maritime domain in international security and development studies and considers ways in which the maritime capacity-building experience may offer important lessons for other fields of international policy.     

Improved detection of semen by use of direct acid phosphatase testing

Acid phosphatase (AP) reagent (Fast Black) is used as a presumptive test for the presence of seminal fluid on exhibits submitted in allegations of sexual assault. Research was carried out to determine whether the direct application of AP reagent to exhibits is a viable alternative to the traditional indirect (blot) testing method used routinely in the laboratory. The relative sensitivity of the indirect and direct testing methods was investigated as was the effect of AP reagent on histological staining of spermatozoa, the incidence of false positives from vaginal material and saliva, and the effect of AP reagent on subsequent DNA testing. Also included are the results of specificity studies from validations of the direct AP testing method. The results of this research show that, provided the incidence of false positives is borne in mind, direct AP testing can be especially useful when screening exhibits which are difficult to indirectly (blot) AP test or when it is problematic to relocate an AP positive stain. Direct application of AP reagent can also be beneficial for locating dilute semen stains. Three case examples are given which illustrate the use of direct AP testing in laboratory casework.