Beyond the American Century: Walter Lippmann and American Grand Strategy, 1943–1950

As the United States became a world Power, journalist and intellectual Walter Lippmann feared that it would become its own worst enemy. During and after the Second World War, he tried to steer the country towards coherent statecraft, to define the national interest and the limits of power, and give geopolitical expression to the role of the United States as the core of an Atlantic strategic system. But in response to world war, the Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War, he became pessimistic about the country's ability to conduct strategy effectively. In the prophetic tradition, he believed that a fatal symbiosis between America's growing strength and domestic politics led it towards crisis. Though at times ahistorical, Lippmann's concept of strategy deserves attention for its dialogue between power and identity, for its questioning of “ends” as well as means, and for its focus on the danger of self-defeating behaviour.     

Social Construction of National Reality: Tibet and Taiwan

This paper uses the theory of social construction of reality deriving from the writings of Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger to explain the origin of national identity and hence the emergence of a nation. It argues that social construction of national reality originates from everyday life experience taken for granted during the process of socialization. Individuals make sense out of the external world. Experiences taken for granted become actor’s stock of knowledge. A common scheme of knowledge shared by the community serves to differentiate in-group (nationals) and out-group (foreigners). Collective consciousness thus defines national identity and hence a nation. Unless people (both in-group and out-group) interact with and learn from each other, different stocks of knowledge taken for granted will create political tension. This theory will be applied to understand the tensions in Tibet and along the Taiwan Strait. The paper further argues that Taiwan can hardly separate from mainland China in the future, while strong Tibetan consciousness continues to defy against powerful Chineseness, resulting in endless upheavals in the region.     

Understanding China and Its Role in the World

Mr. President, Ambassador, everyone, ladies and gentlemen,it is a great pleasure to be with you here at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. Thank you, Mr. President for such     

The Relationship between Human Needs and Criminogenic Needs

Abstract

Precipitators are personal attributes enhancing a person's likelihood of becoming criminally victimized. The present experiment focuses on walking style synchrony as a nonverbal determinant of differential perceptions. Findings suggest that walking styles associated with a lack of interactional synchrony - a lack of organized movement, a lack of ‘wholeness’, a lack of flowing motion - result in higher ratings of robbery potential and in lower ratings of perceived self-confidence of a target relative to more synchronous walking styles. Analyses also suggest that high criminal involvement is associated with more easily construing situations as ‘opportunistic’. Some implications for assertiveness and self-defense training programs are discussed.     

Issue management as a post‐crisis discipline: identifying and responding to issue impacts beyond the crisis

• While there is a prolific literature on processes for organizational crisis management, and extensive scholarship on response methodologies such as apologia, image restoration and immediate post‐crisis discourse, little has been written about the longer term post‐crisis challenge beyond recovery, business resumption and organizational learning.
• Crises can lead to persistent and damaging issues, but there has been limited substantive research to illuminate the optimal processes to navigate the transition from crisis to issue. Moreover, if organizations remain in conventional post‐crisis mode there is a real risk of failure to put in place proper processes for longer term management of post‐crisis issues.
• After considering linear and non‐linear process models, and the development of a more holistic, integrated approach to issue and crisis management, this article proposes issue management as the most effective practical discipline to identify and respond to longer term post‐crisis impacts.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Macroeconomics of Aid: Overview

Abstract

This Special Issue explores macroeconomic effects of aid from various perspectives through a blend of studies, both conceptual and empirical in nature. The overall aim is to enhance the understanding of the macroeconomic dimensions of aid in the policy and research communities, and to inspire further innovative work in this important area. This opening article provides a scene setting summary of five generations of aid research, with a particular focus on how the JDS has contributed to this literature, and ends with an overview of the papers included in this Issue.     

Righting the Resource Curse: Institutional Politics and State Capabilities in Edo State,Nigeria

Abstract

The poor record of liberal reforms sponsored by the international community in postcolonial settings underscores the real politik of institutional change. What we call a ‘new normal’ in development policy and practice foregrounds the role of agency – leadership, networks of connectors and convenors, entrepreneurs and activists – but it has less to say about the political and economic conditions of possibility in which agents operate. The putative powers of agency seem most challenged in contexts of extreme resource dependency and the resource curse. The particular case of Edo, a state in the oil rich Niger delta region of Nigeria, illustrates the intersection of agency and structural conditions to show how ‘asymmetric capabilities’ can emerge to create, constrain and make possible particular reform options.     

A Novel Solvent-based Method to Separate Duct Tape from Porous Surface for Fingerprint Development

In this study, we have proposed a novel solvent-based method using a specific concentration of 3M™ Novec™ HFE-72DE and 7200 solvents to untangle duct tape from porous article with minimal impact to the quality of latent fingerprint deposited on the sticky-side surface of duct tape. A series of experiments determined that a mixture of 30% HFE-72DE:7200 (v/v) was found to be the most effective to separate various brands of duct tape from different types of porous surface, including office copy paper, newspaper, cardboard, and tissue wipe, which had been stored for up to 30 days before untangling. Further studies also revealed that 30% HFE-72DE:7200 was compatible with three common fingerprint development methods for porous articles, namely ninhydrin, indanedione-zinc, and physical developer. The nonflammability and low toxicity nature of this novel solvent mixture also make it ideal for separating duct tape from porous surface in laboratory or at crime scene.