First Things First: R2P Starts with Direct Negotiations

Abstract

Public debates on R2P one-sidedly focus on its forcible aspects. They should, however, also focus on R2P’s non-coercive aspects, which include the legal obligations to cooperate and to pursue peaceful conflict resolution, notably the obligation to undertake meaningful attempts at negotiation before coercive means are taken into consideration. After the Arab Spring erupted in Libya and Syria, other countries did not exhaust reasonable efforts to deal and negotiate with the incumbent powers, and to assist and encourage them to meet their obligations under R2P, even though negotiations are part and parcel of the R2P framework and constitute the very first step to be taken whenever a state seems to ignore its obligations under that framework.     

International socialization at the state and individual levels: mixed evidence from intellectual property

This article synthesizes the results of two quantitative analyses, one at a macro and the second at a micro level, to shed light on the process of international socialization. The first analysis examines the seeming adoption of intellectual property norms at the state level while the second looks at the internalization of similar norms at the individual decision maker level. Both pay special attention to foreign education and capacity-building courses as carriers of US norms to developing countries. By triangulating the results of these analyses, we develop a more nuanced view of international socialization processes than analyses centred at only one level. We provide clear evidence that institutionalization of foreign norms often takes place prior to individual persuasion rather than as a result of it. We show that different socialization types (acculturation and persuasion) and the transmission of different idea types (causal and normative beliefs) may simultaneously operate in opposing directions. These conclusions reveal a bias in previous studies that focussed at only one level of analysis and support calls for greater eclecticism in the levels of analysis.     

The Philippines Discovers its Maritime Domain: The Aquino Administration’s Shift in Strategic Focus from Internal to Maritime Security

With China’s naval expansion in the South China Sea, the Philippine government has eased up its counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism campaign and has vigorously pursued instead the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) particularly in developing the deterrence capability of the Philippine Navy (PN). However, slow-paced and hampered by scant resources, the naval build-up will hardly deter China’s encroachment on the Philippine maritime territory. Faced with this predicament, the Philippines has resorted to forging new security partnerships with the United States and Japan, two major naval powers in East Asia. The paper concludes that maritime security will remain the Philippines’ priority concern way into the third decade of the 21st century.     

The International Monetary Fund,Party System Institutionalization,and Protest in Latin America

Extant studies have documented a positive correlation between country participation in International Monetary Fund–sponsored programs and collective protests in Latin America. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a great deal of variation in the number of protests in recipient countries across the region. This article provides a theoretical argument that explains how the fund interacts with the level of party system institutionalization to affect the level of protest. The main prediction is that the level of protest decreases in recipient countries when the level of party system institutionalization is high. Empirical results from a sample of 16 Latin American democracies observed from 1982 to 2007 provide strong statistical and substantive support for the main hypothesis.     

Reliability of Craniofacial Superimposition Using Three‐Dimension Skull Model

Craniofacial superimposition is a technique potentially useful for the identification of unidentified human remains if a photo of the missing person is available. We have tested the reliability of the 2D‐3D computer‐aided nonautomatic superimposition techniques. Three‐dimension laser scans of five skulls and ten photographs were overlaid with an imaging software. The resulting superimpositions were evaluated using three methods: craniofacial landmarks, morphological features, and a combination of the two. A 3D model of each skull without its mandible was tested for superimposition; we also evaluated whether separating skulls by sex would increase correct identifications. Results show that the landmark method employing the entire skull is the more reliable one (5/5 correct identifications, 40% false positives [FP]), regardless of sex. However, the persistence of a high percentage of FP in all the methods evaluated indicates that these methods are unreliable for positive identification although the landmark‐only method could be useful for exclusion.     

Developing a new scoring method to evaluate human decomposition in a humid,continental (Dfb) climate in Quebec

The published literature shows a lack of methods to evaluate the patterns and extent of decomposition of human remains and to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI) in humid, continental (Dfb) climates such as Quebec. The aim of this study was to address this gap in the current knowledge base by providing the first observations from human corpses studied under controlled conditions in Quebec. A 12-month study was conducted at the site for Research in Experimental and Social Thanatology; the first human taphonomy facility in Canada. Six human donors with known time of death were deposited across spring (n = 1), summer (n = 3), and autumn (n = 2) 2021. The lack of suitability of the total body score method to evaluate the extent of decomposition at the facility prompted the development of a new scoring system based on the macromorphoscopic changes observed. The scoring system was applied to the donors to evaluate decomposition throughout seasons. All donors followed comparable decomposition trajectories, regardless of the season of deposition. Eighty-five percent of taphonomic patterns appeared in the first 25 experimental days or 5000 Kelvin accumulated degree days (350 ADD). Extensive desiccation of tissues was observed at a median of 21 experimental days across donors, resulting in a plateau within decomposition with no extensive skeletonization. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first published report of experimentally observed desiccation in such a form in a Dfb climate. This study provides new data on the types of decomposition patterns to expect in forensic investigations in southern Quebec and comparable climates.     

The impact of lipid degradation on fingerprint quality on fired firearm cartridges

The recovery of identifiable fingerprints from fired cartridge cases is challenging. Therefore, the characterization of chemical modifications and their effects on fingerprint integrity post-firing is essential. In this study, the primary fingerprint lipids, including myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, palmitoleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, squalene, and cholesterol in fired and unfired cartridges, were extracted with acetonitrile, followed by derivatization using N,O-Bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide with 1% trimethylchlorosilane (BSTFA/1%TMCS). Squalane was used as the internal standard, and all quantifications were performed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry using a triple-quadrupole mass filter. All lipids identified in the unfired cartridges were also detected in the fired cartridges, and statistical analysis using Student's t-test and F tests was performed with a 95% confidence level. The concentration of lipids in the unfired cartridges was found to be similar to that detected in the fired cartridges, except for squalene, the recovery of which was 28% lower in the fired cartridges.     

Population data for Southern Spain and Canary Islands of HLADQA1, PM and D1S80 loci

Allele frequencies for seven polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA genetic markers in two Spanish populations (Southern Spain and Canary Islands), were determined and compared. The loci analysed were HLADQA1, LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8,Gc, and D1S80.     

Mortality in maximum security psychiatric hospital patients

Numerous studies have mentioned to the high percentage of violent deaths in prison psychiatric hospitals, with suicide being the principal cause. The aim of this study was to analyze the circumstances related with the deaths recorded in a high security institution. Postmortem reports on all the deaths at the Alicante Psychiatric Prison between 1984 and 1997 were studied (36 cases of unnatural death and 28 of natural death). Of the violent deaths recorded 34 (94.4%) were suicides. Demographic, clinical and interpersonal variables factors were registered. In the cases of suicides, the method used, the place of death, season, month and time of suicide were analyzed. In our study, 64.7% of suicides were schizophrenic and 32.4% had inflicted self-harm previously. We found a statistically significant association between the cause of death (natural, suicide or homicide) and age, 47.1% of suicides being between the ages of 18 and 30 and 29.4% between the ages of 30 and 45. Natural causes predominated in older subjects. The prison population studied showed grave negative traits, mental illness and criminal behavior having forced them to the very edge of society. Our results were compared with the death and suicide rates of the general Spanish population.