Democracy promotion and ODA: a comparative analysis

Scholars of democracy promotion foreign aid often claim it has substantially increased, yet they shy away from explaining by how much, nor investigate comparative trends in giving. This paper attempts to fill this void by addressing the following: (1) Has democracy promotion aid increased since the end of the Cold War? (2) Has the ‘assumed’ trend of increasing aid persevered through the difficulties encountered in democratizing Iraq? (3) Did aid increase from states that supported the invasion of Iraq compared to states that did not? The author's analysis purports that the answer is yes to the first two, yet it is harder to draw conclusions regarding Iraq. Another finding, contrary to claims in the scholarly literature, in terms of percentage and overall spending, the USA gives more democracy promotion aid than the EU. The author hopes this work stimulates research into the role of democracy promotion in the Arab Spring to consider historical trends in giving.     

Risk Aversion in International Relations Theory

When international relations writers use the idea of risk aversion, they either leave it undefined or cite the economics conception, that the decision-maker has a concave utility function for the goal. However, in the international context the goal is typically not money or any other objectively measurable quantity, and in this case the concept of concavity is meaningless. This article gives two definitions of risk aversion that are non-metric in the sense that they do not require such a quantity. The first, comparative risk aversion , specifies the relative degree of aversion but does not specify a zero point. The second concept, multiattribute risk aversion , does the reverse, separating risk-averters from risk-seekers in an absolute sense without making comparisons within each group. The arguments imply significant revisions of work on historical case studies using prospect theory and Fearon's categorization of rationalist explanations for war. It indicates that countries might be unable to negotiate their way out of a war because certain kinds of disputes, especially those over symbols or religious places, often generate risk-seeking behavior.     

Potential and pitfalls in establishing the provenance of Earth-related samples in forensic investigations

Earth scientists are often asked to establish or constrain the likely provenance of very small quantities of earth-related material as part of a forensic investigation. We tested the independent and collective interpretations of four experts with differing analytical skills in the prediction of sample provenance for three samples from different environmental settings. The methods used were X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, the assessment of pollen assemblages, and structural characterization of organic matter at the molecular level. Independent interpretations were less accurate than those where multiple techniques were combined. Collective interpretation was very effective in the assessment of provenance for two of the three sites where the mineralogy and plant communities were distinctive. At the other site, although the mineralogical analysis correctly identified the Triassic mudstone soil parent material, Carboniferous spores from domestic coal were initially interpreted as deriving directly from bedrock. Such an interpretation could be a common pitfall owing to anthropogenic redistribution of material such as coal.     

Willis v. Wu. In the Supreme Court of South Carolina

South Carolina does not recognize a common law cause of action for life brought by or on behalf of a child born with congenital defect because it is impossible to prove that being terminated by elective abortion, and thus never being born, is better than being born and living a life with disabilities.