Project USA: American competitiveness and what must be done to restore it

The United States today faces a loss of influence as a world power, a reduction in American independence as a policymaker, and a decline in the standard of living on which Americans have come to depend. History teaches that nations weaker and less productive than the United States can rise to become economic powerhouses and rapidly increase their standards of living. History also teaches that nations failing to recognize their fundamental problems will inevitably decline. American politicians must face what is abundantly clear: the United States is losing ground and must act quickly to reverse its course. This White Paper outlines what must be done. Information about the nation's current status must be analyzed and communicated. Incentives to improve the level of competence in government must be provided and maintained. The emphasis of government policy must be changed to reflect broad economic and technological interests as opposed to special interests. Savings must be encouraged and increased. Infrastructure must be improved Tax laws must be modified to help bring these changes about. Economic and technological issues must be elevated to the importance they require. American thinking must reflect the new realities: that the age of leadership through military power is over, that the requirements for success in the world of the 1990s and beyond require a sound and growing economy that is internationally competitive. The US can accomplish these goals only through foundation-shaking, comprehensive, fundamental changealong the lines we propose herein.This paper is the executive summary (with minor editing modifications) of a white paper that is available from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management.     

Historical geography of the population of Michoacan. Eighteenth century

The author incorporates geographic variables into this study of population dynamics in Michoacan, Mexico, during the eighteenth century.     

Reviews

R. W. Davies, ed., From Tsarism to the New Economic Policy. Continuity and Change in the Economy of the USSR. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990, xx + 417 pp., £45.00.

Alastair McAuley, ed., Soviet Federalism, Nationalism and Economic Decentralisation. Leicester and London: Leicester University Press, 1991, ix + 214pp., £38.00.

Loren Graham, ed., Science and the Soviet Social Order. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1990, ix + 443 pp., £27.95.

Ronald I. McKinnon, The Order of Economic Liberalization: Financial Control in the Transition to a Market Economy. Baltimore, MD, and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. xii + 200 pp., £20.00. $32.00.

Mary McAuley, Bread and Justice: State and Society in Petrograd 1917–1922. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, xviii + 461 pp., £45.00.

David Armstrong & Erik Goldstein, eds, The End of the Cold War. London: Frank Cass & Co Ltd, 1990. 216pp., £19.50.

Paul B. Stephan III & Boris M. Klimenko, eds, International Law and International Security: Military and Political Dimensions. A US‐Soviet Dialogue. Armonk, NY, and London: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1991, xxii + 362 pp., $90.00.

Richard F. Staar, Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1991, xl + 352 pp., £14.95 p/b.

Robert O. Freedman, Moscow and the Middle East: Soviet Policy Since the Invasion of Afghanistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, xi + 426 pp., £35.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Galia Golan, Soviet Policies in The Middle East: From World War II to Gorbachev. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, ix + 319 pp., £27.50 h/b, £10.95 p/b.

Brian McNair, Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Media. London and New York: Routledge, 1991, x + 231 pp., £35.00.

Shams Ud Din, ed, Perestroika and the Nationality Question in the USSR. New Delhi: Vikas, 1991, xv + 145 pp., £15.95.

Ronald J. Hill & Jan Zielonka, eds, Restructuring Eastern Europe: Towards a New European Order. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1990, ix + 226 pp., £28.50.

Aleksa Djilas, The Contested Country: Yugoslav Unity and Communist Revolution 1919–1953. London: Harvard University Press, 1991, v + 259 pp., £27.95 h/b.

Bartlomiej Kamiriski, The Collapse of State Socialism: the Case of Poland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991, xiv + 264 pp., $39.50 h/b, $14.95 p/b.

David Ost, Solidarity and the Politics of Anti‐Politics. Opposition and Reform in Poland since 1968. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 1990, xi + 279 pp. $34.95.

Roman Laba, The Roots of Solidarity—A Political Sociology of Working Class Democratisation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1991, xii + 247 pp., $24.95.

Keith Sword, ed, The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939–41. London: Macmillan (in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies), 1991, xxiii + 318 pp., £45.00.

William B. Husband, Revolution in the Factory: The Birth of Soviet Textile Industry, 1917–20. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, viii + 227 pp. £25.00.     

Book reviews

Turkey in the Middle East By Philip Robins. Pinter for the Royal Institute of international Affairs. 1991.130 pp. £22.50. ISBNO 86187 198 7. PBk £8.95. ISBN 0 86187 1995.

Hitler Slept Late and other blunders that cost him the war By James P. Duffy. London: Praeger. 1991.176pp. £17.50.

Alliance within the alliance: Franco‐German Military Cooperation and the European Pillar of Defense By David G. Haglund. Boulder: Westview Press, 1991. 213 pp.

Homeward Bound? Allied Forces in the New Germany Edited by David G. Haglund and Olaf Mager. Boulder: Westview Press, 1992. 299 pp. £24.95

Avoiding War: Problems of crisis management By Alexander L. George (ed.), Westview Press, 1991. 590 pp. £16.95.

The Future of NATO: Facing an Unreliable Enemy in an Uncertain Environment By S.N. Drew et al. Praeger Publishers, New York, 1991. pp. 206.

Parliament and international relations Edited by Charles Carstairs and Richard Ware. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991. 195 pp. £12.99 (paperback)     

The structure of the conclusions in the forensic medical expertise of material evidence]

A new structure of conclusions including special chapter "Conclusion validity", which ensures their high availability for officials of legal investigation agencies is suggested. The examples of conclusion making on the basis of new form in case of blood, secretion and hair tests performed in two variants (known and unknown criminal) are presented.     

Identification of a red "fiber": chironomid larvae

During preliminary examination of the body of a homicide victim, a peculiar red "fiber" was noticed and recovered. Initially believing this to be a carpet fiber, the item was subjected to fiber analysis. It was found to be a short coiled particle not like any known natural or synthetic fabric fiber. Subsequent examinations determined this "fiber" to be the larva of a common freshwater midge (Diptera; Chironomidae). Chironomid larvae have been observed on other bodies recovered from freshwater environments. Entomological studies of this organism have led to the conclusion that the presence of chironomid larvae indicates submersion of the body.