Europe's others and the return of geopolitics

In the context of European Union enlargement and the discussions about a European constitution, the question of Europe's identity has once again entered the limelight of political debates. From a poststructuralist perspective, identities are constructed through practices of othering, articulating a difference. In this article, I follow Ole Wæver to argue that for most of the time after the Second World War the most important other in the construction of a European identity has been Europe's own past. This temporal form of othering offered the possibility to form an identity through less antagonistic and exclusionary practices than was common in the modern international society. However, since the 1990s geographic and cultural otherings are on the increase, marking a return of geopolitics in European identity constructions and undermining the notion of European integration as a fundamental challenge to the world of nation‐states.1 A previous version of this paper was presented at the workshop ‘Other Europes’, organised by the Poststructuralism working group of the British International Studies Association, Keele University, England, 16 May 2003. I would like to thank the workshop participants, Alessandra Buonfino, Bahar Rumelili and the three referees of this journal for their critical and constructive comments. View all notes     

Race and Jurors' Receptivity to Mitigation in Capital Cases: The Effect of Jurors', Defendants', and Victims' Race in Combination

This paper examines the variation in receptivity to mitigation evidence by capital jurors as it varies by the race of the juror, defendant, and victim individually and in combination. Attitudinal and racial characteristics from 865 respondents in the Capital Jury Project were used in the analysis. Using a generalized form of multiple regression, the respondent's receptivity to mitigation evidence was predicted and changes in receptivity were calculated as the race of the main trial participants (juror, defendant, and victim) were varied. Statistical controls were put in place for gender of respondent; respondent's perception of the dangerousness of the defendant, heinousness of the crime, and view of the defense attorney; respondent's formation of a premature sentencing decision; and whether the trial took place in a southern state jurisdiction. Results indicate that Black jurors in cases where a Black is charged with killing a White victim are chiefly responsible for the observed variance in receptivity to mitigation.     

Fatal bupivacaine intoxication following unusual erotic practices

A fatal drug overdose is described which involved unusual erotic practices. A 54-year-old male was discovered supine on the floor surrounded by sexual paraphernalia, syringes, and medications including three empty bottles of bupivacaine. Acute and chronic injection sites of the external genitalia with contusions, scarring, focal necrosis, and calcification were present at autopsy. Toxicology revealed femoral blood, heart blood, and vitreous bupivacaine concentrations of 3.8, 2.8 and 1.3 mg/L, respectively. The urine bupivacaine concentration was 11.4 mg/L. The cause of death was attributed to bupivacaine intoxication and the manner of death was accidental.     

Removing and identifying drug contamination in the analysis of human hair

The procedure used in this laboratory for removing and identifying contamination of hair specimens with drugs is demonstrated by its application to hair contaminated by various experimental models. The models include soaking; coating with drug followed by sweat conditions for 6 h; and soaking in a very high concentration of cocaine followed by storage and multiple shampoo treatments. A multi-part wash procedure along with a wash criterion is applied to all samples containing drug above the cutoff. The failure of the wash criterion is a signal that the sample may be positive due to contamination rather than use, and in the absence of other over-riding evidence, the sample would be considered to be negative for drug use. This Wash Criterion has also been tested with hair from subjects demonstrated to be drug users by one or more drug-positive urines; in these studies, all hair samples from demonstrated users passed the Wash Criterion test.     

Hyaluronidase as a liquefying agent for chemical analysis of vitreous fluid

Vitreous humor is a suitable specimen for postmortem clinical chemistry because the analytes remain relatively stable after death and they closely reflect blood levels immediately prior to death. The viscous nature of vitreous fluid, however, presents analytical problems including imprecision and inaccuracy. Various preanalytical treatments, such as boiling, high speed centrifugation, microfiltration and dilution have been used. These techniques are labor intensive and add to imprecision and inaccuracy. Because glycosaminoglycans contribute significantly to the viscosity of vitreous humor, we used hyaluronidase as a liquefying agent. We compared the results of analyses in 33 vitreous humor specimens after hyaluronidase treatment with the results after either no treatment or specimen dilution. Seventeen of the 33 specimens could not be analyzed without dilution. Even after dilution, several analytes still could not be measured. Hyaluronidase treatment negated the need for sample dilution and had no significant effect on the analyses.     

Prognosemodell auf dem Prüfstand: Die Bundestagswahl 2005

Our forecast model for German elections came within three-tenth of a percent in predicting the vote of the governing parties (SPD and Greens, 42.3% combined) in the 2005 Bundestag election. The predictors of the vote were (1) the popularity of the incumbent chancellor, (2) the long-term electoral support for the incumbent parties, and (3) a discount for the governing coalition’s tenure in office. Given the recent formation of a new party left of the SPD, the popularity of Chancellor Schröder was adjusted (assuming that supporters of this new party favored him as chancellor over the CDU challenger). Our forecast gave the governing parties enough of a vote to rule out victory for the center-right alternative (CDU/CSU and FDP) so long as the new left party did as well as polls suggested.     

Homeland Security Preparedness: The Rebirth of Regionalism

The homeland security mission has placed many new demands onthe U.S. system of federalism. The successful implementationof homeland security policy requires cooperation among all levelsof government—federal, state, and local. Regionalism offersa powerful tool for encouraging greater intergovernmental cooperationand improved homeland security preparedness. We assess the impactof regionalism on intergovernmental cooperation and the implementationof the homeland security mission in Florida, an early proponentof the regional approach. From a regional perspective, we evaluatehow intergovernmental complexity, the quality and quantity ofintergovernmental networks, and security vulnerabilities contributeto perceived improvements in intergovernmental cooperation andhomeland security preparedness. The results of a 2004 mail surveyof city and county officials suggest that regional organizationalstructures are most effective in promoting intergovernmentalcooperation and preparedness where the intergovernmental landscapeis the most complex and where security vulnerabilities are themost intense.