Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

This article explains why the United States has not fought a preventive war against North Korea despite that country’s moves to arm itself with nuclear weapons. I argue that the absence of war is mainly attributable to military strategies that the US military has with regard to North Korea. With only attrition strategies available, the United States neither expects to lose a precious military opportunity nor anticipates grave future vulnerabilities vis-à-vis North Korea. The prospect of a costly attritional campaign deters both Washington and Pyongyang from resorting to military force. Straightforward attrition strategies also allow little chance for miscalculation, thereby making inadvertent escalation to war unlikely. The research finds sufficient evidence for my argument, whereas conventional explanations offered by international relations theory fall short when applied to this case.     

Economics of State-Owned Enterprises

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) account for a substantial proportion of gross domestic product, employment, and assets in many countries. Based on a review of the theory and empirical evidence, we develop a novel five-step framework that can guide policymakers and economic advisors in making decisions about maintaining and/or creating SOEs. The framework suggests that the use of SOEs should be limited to circumstances in which a market failure exists, less invasive forms of intervention such as regulation/taxes/subsidies and private-sector contracting are ineffective or not possible, and the welfare loss of the market failure exceeds the costs, distortions, and inefficiencies of SOEs.     

Human rights violations and genocide in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The massacres that took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 1996 and 2003 have posed an interesting challenge to the global community, specifically to its more powerful members. Ironically, the Tutsi-dominated government of Rwanda enjoys international recognition and benefits based on the genocide, Rwanda suffered in 1994, but continues to deny the same benefit to Hutus as they were accused of leading a counter-genocide campaign then in the DRC. While the people of the DRC, as well as human rights activists, call for justice for all who were affected, the government of Rwanda, strongly backed by a number of powerful international powers, opposed attempts by the international community to pin charges of genocide perpetrated by its army in the DRC on it. Because of the clear negation of the genocide report by the Rwandan government, the nature of human rights, human rights violations, and genocide criteria proposed and defended by key members of the international community in relation to the mass killings in the DRC are examined.     

Designing Programming and Interventions for Women in the Criminal Justice System

Women are the fastest growing segment of the criminal justice population, yet the majority of research on criminal justice populations has been focused on men. Programming and interventions that reduce women’s involvement in the criminal justice system and ameliorate the negative consequences associated with criminal justice involvement are urgently needed. The overall aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive framework for developing evidence-based, gender-specific programming and interventions to reduce criminal justice involvement and its associated consequences among women in the criminal justice system. The first section of the paper offers a conceptually guided review of the three primary factors that facilitate and complicate women’s involvement in the criminal justice system: victimization; mental disorders; and substance use. In the second section of the paper, findings from focus groups conducted with women on probation or parole identify strategies to engage this population in psychosocial interventions. The third and final section of the paper provides comprehensive recommendations for designing programming and interventions for women in the criminal justice system.     

The cognitive interview and its effect on misleading postevent information

Abstract

The present study investigated the effectiveness of the cognitive interview on reducing the impact of the misinformation effect. A 2×2 between-groups design was used, with interview type (cognitive or structured) and narrative type (misleading or neutral) as the independent variables. Adults (n=40) viewed video footage depicting a bank robbery and then received either a misleading or neutral postevent narrative. Participants were interviewed with either a cognitive or a structured interview regarding their memory for the original footage. The cognitive interview produced significantly more correct pieces of information than the structured interview, without an increase in errors or confabulations. An anomalous significant interaction was found regarding the number of incorrect pieces of information, where recipients of the structured interview made more recall errors when receiving neutral postevent information compared to neutral postevent information. A misinformation effect was successfully achieved but the enhancing effects of the cognitive interview were unable to reduce it. Results are discussed within the misinformation effect theoretical framework. The limitations of the present study are also discussed.     

Is cyberstalking different?

Abstract

Very little empirical work exists on cyberstalking. The current study analysed detailed questionnaires completed by 1051 self-defined stalking victims. Almost half (47.5%) reported harassment via the Internet, but only 7.2% of the sample was judged to have been cyberstalked. Ordinal regression analyses of four groups of victims, categorized according to degree of cyber involvement in their victimization, revealed a general picture of similarity between the groups in terms of the stalking process, responses to being stalked, and the effects on victims and third parties. It was concluded that cyberstalking does not fundamentally differ from traditional, proximal stalking, that online harassment does not necessarily hold broad appeal to stalkers, and that those who target ex-intimates remain the most populous stalker type.     

The relationship between intelligence,memory and interrogative suggestibility in young offenders

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between interrogative suggestibility and relevant cognitive factors as proposed by Gudjonsson and Clark (1986). The subjects were fifty-eight adolescent young offenders resident in a national children's centre with secure facilities. All were administered the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Interrogative suggestibility correlated negatively with intelligence and recall memory. Limited evidence of range effects was found for the relationship between intelligence and suggestibility, but not for the relationship between recall memory and suggestibility.     

Public Diplomacy,Smith-Mundt and the American Public

The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, also known as the Smith-Mundt Act, is a mostly unknown and widely misunderstood piece of legislation. Revised multiple times, the law bans domestic dissemination of Voice of America and other U.S. international broadcast content in the United States. Presenting government-supported international broadcasting as an example of public diplomacy, this article discusses the long-term misrepresentation of Smith-Mundt's original intent and highlights the consequences of the continuing ban. The article considers prospects for ending the ban and emphasizes potential opportunities presented by its elimination, concluding that ending the ban might eliminate incongruity between American foreign policy goals of democracy promotion and the reality of banned domestic content. Repeal of the ban may also result in unexpected remedies for challenges facing the American media industry and the American public's desire for international news.

The United States government may be the largest broadcaster that few Americans know about. Although its networks reach 100 countries in 59 languages, they are banned from distribution in the United States by a 1948 law devised to prevent the government from turning its propaganda machine on its own citizens. ^{1 1}Mark Landler, A New Voice of America for the Age of Twitter, N.Y. Times, June 7, 2011 at 9. The broadcasters comprising the U.S. international broadcasting operation are the Voice of America (VOA), Alhurra, Radio Sawa, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Radio and TV Marti. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is “a bipartisan agency … that acts as a ‘firewall’ between the U.S. government and international broadcasting entities it funds.” Kim Andrew Elliott, America Calling: A 21st-Century Model, Foreign Service J., Oct. 2010, at 31. When Smith-Mundt was passed in 1948, USIB authority fell under the Department of State. Later, Congress created the United States Information Agency (USIA) to facilitate American public diplomacy operations. After the end of the cold war, Congress dismantled USIA and returned responsibility for American public diplomacy efforts to the Department of State. For an excellent history of the rise and fall of the USIA, see Nicholas J. Cull, The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy 1945–1989 (2008).