Loyal Advisor? Colonel Edward House's Confidential Trips to Europe, 1913–1917

Between 1913 and 1917, Colonel Edward House, President Woodrow Wilson's closest friend and advisor, undertook several missions to Europe. Serving to shape House's attitude to American neutrality, House's advice deriving from these trips was extremely influential upon Wilson's foreign policy. This analysis examines the influences on House's advice, arguing that his pro-Allied stance evolved during this time and influenced Wilson's ultimate decision to have the United States enter the war on the Allied side. The primary influence on House's attitude was his relationship with British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey. Several factors drew the two men together. They meshed with House's pre-existing views on global geopolitics expressed in his novel, Philip Dru. Previous scholarship that has investigated House's trips to Europe tends to gloss over the intricacies of the House-Grey relationship. Whilst the two men shared a close friendship, examination of their correspondence and the observation of others suggests that Grey's diplomatic goal was to establish close Anglo–American relations, and that a close connexion with House furthered that aim. This connexion re-enforced House's pro-Allied attitude that, in turn, contributed to America's entrance into the war.     

Symphony Concert Demand: Does Programming Matter?

We examine factors that determine attendance for major U.S. symphony orchestras over seven seasons. We find that performing more of the standard repertoire increases attendance but the choice of a composition that has a particular solo instrument does not affect attendance. Other management options that increase attendance include spending on advertising and broadcasting concerts. Own-price elasticity of demand and income elasticity are inelastic.     

SEAFET and ASA

The opening paper gives an account ?C partly drawn from the archives of an outside state, New Zealand ?C of the ancestors of ASEAN: ASA and SEAFET. ASEAN developed a life of its own. Yet SEAFET and ASA give some hints of its aims and some indications of its methods: the need to restrict the intervention of major outside powers; and the need to avoid the dominance by one substantial regional power, but to allow it due influence. The paper suggests that a strong motive behind the early attempts at a regional association was an attempt to deal with the disparate size and power of one state, Indonesia. If ?C but only if ?C its urge to regional primacy could be moderated and accommodated would it be possible to diminish recourse to or opportunity for the intervention of outside powers.     

Accumulating meaning,purpose and opportunities to change ‘drip by drip’: the impact of being a listener in prison

Established in 1991, the Listener scheme, regulated by the Samaritans, is currently the best-established peer support scheme in place to help reduce suicide in prisons. Each prison Listener team is comprised of a group of inmate volunteers who provide face-to-face emotional support to their peers. Although the scheme has been in operation for over 20 years, empirical research on the scheme is limited. A deeper understanding of how being a Listener affects prisoners' attitudes, beliefs, emotions and experiences of imprisonment is needed. The present study is a qualitative analysis on the experience of being a Listener and the impact it has on individuals and their prison experience. Interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The analysis revealed two main superordinate themes: ‘Listening and Personal Transformation’ and ‘Countering Negative Prison Emotions’. These themes are unpacked and the analysis focuses on their implications for desistance and offender reform. Results suggest that prisoners who adopt Listener roles experience profound internal changes, shifts in self-identity and gain meaning and purpose from prison. Implications for how such schemes may be utilised in the future and suggestions for further research are offered.     

Who's in charge? Lessons in discerning the source of authority for a rural local government's decision to retain od help

In the face of increasing demand in this era of “fend for yourself federalism,” greater numbers of university-based organization development consultants will likely be working closely with city and county governments in the coming years. Questions of authority to engage the consultant and to implement any new policies which result from the OD intervention process are not always easy to answer. This paper describes an illustrative case study in which failure to answer these questions resulted in the premature termination of an ongoing intervention. Lessons learned from this “failure” and steps which might be taken to avoid similar outcomes in comparable circumstances are discussed.     

Social Capital and the Number of Governments within a County: A Potential Problem with Social Capital

Social capital has been demonstrated to be a benefit to a community in a variety of ways. However, researchers have begun to point out that social capital does have a downside. Communities that use bonding social capital to mobilise residents to action have the potential to exclude outsiders from their communities. The number of governments in a county could be used as an indicator of bonding social capital within a region. Residents use their local government to create and pass laws that have the potential to exclude others. The current analysis used the number of governments as a proxy for bonding social capital. Findings demonstrate that as the level of bonding social capital (the number of governments) increased the social capital in the county increased. Residents use their bonding social capital to respond to others, which then increases the level of social capital to be able to mobilise in the future.