Macro‐economic coordination and elusive ownership in the European Union

The notion of ownership is well known in relation to global governance. In the realm of EU macro‐economic coordination, it has become a buzzword since the revamping process of the European Semester in 2015. This article investigates how ownership by four types of domestic actors (governments, administrations, parliaments and social partners) manifests itself in the European Semester. We conceptualize three types of ownership, namely institutional, political, and cognitive. Using network analysis, semi‐structured interviews, and a small‐scale survey, we find that ownership is strongest among governments and administrations which are able to shape the outputs of the European Semester (institutional ownership) with little political disagreement (political ownership). While national parliaments display low levels of all types of ownership, employers and unions exhibit relatively strong cognitive ownership. We conclude that the European Semester remains a bureaucratic process contributing to building a multi‐level administrative space rather than an arena for political debates.     

Konfrontasi and Australia's Aid to Indonesia during the 1960s

This article examines Australia's aid program in Indonesia in the 1960s. With the transfer by the Dutch of West New Guinea to Indonesia in May 1963, the Australian government looked to expand aid to its northern neighbour beyond the Colombo Plan in an effort to cement friendly relations. The events associated with konfrontasi threatened this policy objective. Yet despite Indonesia's belligerent stance, Australia was able to continue its aid program (by supporting the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network) and to keep the lines of communication with Jakarta open. When konfrontasi ended in August 1966 after regime change in Indonesia, Australia was able to rapidly expand its aid program. This article argues that konfrontasi changed the ways in which Australia's aid program in Indonesia was construed, which in turn contributed to a re‐consideration of the role of aid in Australia's foreign policy more broadly.     

Caricatures,cartoons, spoofs and satires: political brands as butts

• A theory of caricature is used to analyse and explain the nature of—and reactions to—a controversial political cartoon depicting Jacob Zuma, the highly publicized president of South Africa, and how the cartoon both played on and affected his political image and brand. Jacob Zuma has crafted his image as a person who has overcome insurmountable injustices to lead his nation. The cartoon directly questioned Zuma's claims of discrimination by the justice system. The cartoonist (Zapiro) was able to use the cartoon to further solidify Zuma's image as an embattled yet contentious and divisive leader. The framework that follows depicts the spoofing of a political brand, in a marketing environment in which parody and spoofing of more conventional products and services are increasingly common.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Traceology,criminalistics, and forensic science

There is a serious issue within the forensic science community, which even extends outside of the field. The role of the scientist in the investigation of crime has been increasingly confined to the laboratory, which has been accompanied by the conflation of the terms forensic science and criminalistics. This unfortunate situation has been festering for years. To make matters worse, the era of the proactive, problem-defining, criminalist (generalist) is waning, and possibly over. Present-day “criminalists” are treated as little more than reactive, protocol-constrained, laboratory technicians, with few, if any, consequential crime scene roles. In most cases, these “criminalists” merely respond to routine requests from prosecutors and police. The absence of science at the front end of forensic investigations, i.e., the scene, has resulted in biased, ineffective, inefficient, and/or erroneous outcomes with immediate and long-term societal impacts. To disentangle this imbroglio, we propose the use of another term, traceology, which has seen limited use worldwide except in the field of archaeology. With respect to criminalistics, this term has been previously proposed by Margot (20–21). Traceology is an historical science, dealing with the examination, analysis, and scientific interpretation of event traces (signs or remnants) of earlier activities. In this commentary, we define and redefine familiar, but ambiguous, terms and concepts with the hope of recapturing the essence of criminalistics (32), which we suggest is best termed traceology.     

Does the International Trafficking of Cultural Heritage Really Fuel Military Conflicts?

General media outlets are increasingly arguing that the looting of cultural heritage artifacts contributes to the funding of terrorist groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This article reexamines this claim in light of the political science literature on internal conflicts duration. While we do know that armed conflicts contribute to an increase of looting activities in the territories at war, it is still too early to generalize the ISIS case and conclude that these activities contribute to significantly funding armed non-state actors and to prolonging internal armed conflicts. However, establishing this link may add political weight to archeologists' and art historians' efforts to curb the international trafficking of looted objects.     

Making political citizens? Migrants’ narratives of naturalization in the United Kingdom*

Citizenship tests are arguably intended as moments of hailing, or interpellation, through which norms are internalized and citizen-subjects produced. We analyse the multiple political subjects revealed through migrants’ narratives of the citizenship test process, drawing on 158 interviews with migrants in Leicester and London who are at different stages in the UK citizenship test process. In dialogue with three counter-figures in the critical naturalization literature – the ‘neoliberal citizen’; the ‘anxious citizen’; and the ‘heroic citizen’ – we propose the figure of the ‘citizen-negotiator’, a socially situated actor who attempts to assert control over their life as they navigate the test process and state power. Through the focus on negotiation, we see migrants navigating a process of differentiation founded on pre-existing inequalities rather than a journey toward transformation.     

Validation of an ELISA-based screening assay for the detection of amphetamine, MDMA and MDA in blood and oral fluid

The use of amphetamine and 'ecstasy' (MDMA) has increased exponentially in many European countries since the late nineties, leading to a rapid growth in the number of clinical and forensic analyses. Therefore, a rapid screening procedure for these substances in biological specimens has become an important part of routine toxicological analysis in forensic laboratories. The objective of this study was to evaluate the Cozart amphetamine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the screening of plasma samples and oral fluid samples (collected with the Intercept device). Authentic plasma samples from drivers (n=360) were screened, using an 1:5-fold dilution. True positive, true negative, false positive and false negative results were determined relative to the in-house routine GC-MS analysis. Samples consisted of 144 amphetamine-only positives, 141MDMA/MDA-only positives, and 74 negatives when using the limit of quantitation as the cut-off level for confirmation (10 ng/mL). Using these results, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated and optimal cut-off values for the screening assay were calculated. Analysis showed that the ELISA is able to predict the presence of either amphetamine or *MDMA/MDA (*MDMA as its metabolite MDA) in plasma samples with 98.3% sensitivity and 100% specificity at a cut-off value of 66.5 ng/mL d-amphetamine equivalents. A similar analysis was conducted on 216 oral fluid specimens collected from a controlled double blind study. Subjects received placebo or a high (100 mg) or low (75 mg) dose of MDMA. Oral fluid samples were collected at 1.5 and 5.5h after administration. Combined results of the analysis of the high and low dose oral fluid samples indicated a screening cut-off of 51 ng/mL d-amphetamine equivalents with both a sensitivity and specificity of 98.6% (using a LC-MS/MS confirmation cut-off of 10 ng/mL). In conclusion, these data indicate that the Cozart AMP EIA plates constitute a fast and accurate screening technique for the identification of amphetamine and MDMA/MDA positive plasma samples and oral fluid specimens (collected with Intercept. It should be emphasized that method validation should be performed for each type of biological matrix.     

The loss of that which never was: Evaluating changes to the senior management of the Public Health Agency of Canada

In the fall of 2014, the Government of Canada formally split the role of the Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) into two positions: the CPHO and the President of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Despite concerns raised by the public health community, these changes are consistent with the CPHO's authority. However, the nature of responsible government means that the CPHO cannot simultaneously serve as an independent advocate for policies and programs that might prevent disease and as a senior advisor to the government of the day.