The quest for regional legitimation: Analyzing the Arab League’s legitimizing role in the Arab spring

The topic of international legitimacy has returned to centre stage during the Arab Spring, in which the Arab League has apparently assumed a prominent legitimation role. Although some scholarship has studied how international organizations are decisive in legitimizing actors and their actions during conflicts, relatively scant attention has been focused at constructing a comprehensive analytical framework for this kind of assessment that could be also applied to regional organizations (ROs). This paper proposes that when actors are involved in battles over international legitimation, analysing their access to the socially identified brokers of three legitimation functions (appropriateness, consensus, and empathy) is key to assess their success. Particularly, we argue that relevant identity-based ROs may have a crucial legitimizing role by operating as brokers of regional consensus. For this purpose, two case studies – Bahrain and Libya – illustrate how the Arab League’s brokerage influenced the legitimation of the actors involved and their outcomes. The findings suggest novel implications about the decisive legitimizing impact of regionalism on conflict resolution.     

The Role of Civil Wars and Elections in Inducing Political Assassinations

Political assassinations can dramatically impact political and social dynamics, especially in times of violent political conflicts or electoral competition. The current study explores if and how specific social and political events facilitate the occurrence of political assassinations. After an examination of the logic of political assassinations, a theoretical framework is presented, which explains the role of civil wars and electoral processes as facilitators of different types of political assassinations. The theory is tested via a dataset of political assassinations worldwide between the years 1946–2013. The findings confirm that different sets of structural and contextual factors facilitate assassinations against heads of state, legislators, and leaders of opposition movements/parties. In addition, the findings illustrate the tendency of elections, especially in nonliberal settings and in polarized societies, to facilitate political assassinations rather than to calm the political environment. In contrast, civil wars have a more limited impact on the probability of assassinations, and their intensity and endurance mainly enhance the risk of assassinations of legislators.     

The politics of ownership in policymaking: lessons from healthcare delivery in post-conflict Timor-Leste

Abstract

This article examines the political economy of national ownership, focusing on the reconstruction of the healthcare system in post-conflict Timor-Leste in relation to the shift from aid dependence to oil dependence. Considering three main approaches to development policymaking, it argues that, from 2002, the government generally used patronage-based strategies that benefitted elite political networks, increasing corruption. Based on empirical research, the study demonstrates that, in several areas, the government of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (2002–2007) could exercise some autonomous decision-making despite being heavily aid dependent. Later, under the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction government (2007–2017), empowered by oil resources, elites had greater control over development. However, the creation of a ‘modern’ healthcare system was central to the elites’ political ideology, involving populist rather than patronage-based politics. Analysis of this research indicates that ownership regarding healthcare has become concentrated among powerful groups, while health professionals, who advocate a neoliberal approach, lack a political voice. Thus, the paper problematises the Paris Declaration’s focus on country ownership to ensure better aid delivery as unrealistic because ‘ownership’ becomes subject to contestation.     

Coping with financial crises: explaining variety in regional arrangements

Financial regional arrangements vary across countries and change over time. Until recently, most economists and political scientists took the European model of monetary integration as the yardstick to which all other regional financial arrangements had to measure up in this article. It is argued that the Euro crisis provides an opportunity for scholars to adopt a different perspective that does not interpret the variety of financial arrangements merely as economic deficiencies caused by the incapacity or unwillingness of regions to follow the European model. Instead, the comparative study of monetary and financial regionalism has to account for the different factors that shape variations. These go from different levels of economic development, over regional political and economic preferences to historical processes which shape the institutional context and the constellation of interests and social forces. Such an approach, which integrates economic and political science approaches, de-centres the Euro model and opens up a new understanding of the global diversity of regional monetary and financial cooperation, and their potential to cope with financial crises.     

Al-Qaeda’s Propaganda Decoded: A Psycholinguistic System for Detecting Variations in Terrorism Ideology

We describe a novel hybrid method of content analysis that combines the speed of computerized text analysis with the contextual sensitivity of human raters, and apply it to speeches that were given by major leaders of Al-Qaeda (AQ)—both in its “core” Afghanistan/Pakistan region and its affiliate group in Iraq. The proposed “Ideology Extraction using Linguistic Extremization” (IELEX) categorization method has acceptable levels of inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities. The method uncovered subtle (and potentially non-conscious) differences in the emphases that Usama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri put on the various components of their ideological justification for terrorism. We show how these differences were independently recognized as the crux of the rift in AQ, based on documents that were confiscated in Abbottabad following Usama Bin Laden’s assassination. Additionally, several of the ideological discrepancies that we detected between AQ “core” and its Iraqi affiliate correspond to schisms that presumably led to the splintering of AQ Iraq and the rise of ISIS. We discuss IELEX’s capability to quantify a variety of grievance-based terrorist ideologies, along with its use towards more focused and efficient counter-terrorism and counter-messaging policies.     

Application of lead isotope analysis in shooting incident investigations

A study was conducted to examine the potential of the considerable variability of the lead isotope compositions in bullets (projectiles) and primers in shooting incident investigations. Multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP/MS) was used to analyze lead isotopic compositions in projectiles, cartridge cases, firearms discharge residues (FDR) in barrels of firearms and in the gunshot entries. .22 caliber plain lead and plated ammunition and 9 mm Luger full metal jacket (FMJ) ammunition were employed in shooting experiments using semiautomatic pistols. Cotton cloth served as the target material and two firing distances were tested; 1 cm (near contact) and 2 m distances. It was observed that various mechanical or chemical means of cleaning do not completely remove lead deposits ("lead memory") from barrels of firearms. Nonetheless, it was shown that analysis of lead isotopic composition may provide valuable evidence in investigating specific scenarios of shooting incidents. For instance in a shoot-out where several firearms and ammunition brands are involved, it may be feasible to point out which ammunition and/or firearm caused a particular gunshot entry if the ammunition brands involved (bullets and primers) differ considerably in their lead isotopic composition.     

The Psychology of Terrorism: “Syndrome” Versus “Tool” Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Two psychological perspectives on terrorism are distinguished, approaching it as a “syndrome” and as a “tool,” respectively. According to the “syndrome” view, terrorism represents a psychologically meaningful construct with identifiable characteristics on individual and group levels of analysis. According to the “tool” perspective, terrorism represents a strategic instrument that any party in a conflict with another may use. Research thus far has found little support for the “syndrome” view. Terrorists do not seem to be characterized by a unique set of psychological traits or pathologies. Nor has research uncovered any particular “root causes” of terrorism. The vast heterogeneity of terrorism's users is consistent with the “tool” view, affording an analysis of terrorism in terms of means-ends psychology. The “tool” view implies conditions under which potential perpetrators may find terrorism more or less appealing, hence offering guidance for the “war on terrorism.”     

Rashomon in Jerusalem: Mapping the Israeli Negotiators' Positions on the Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process, 1993–2001

To understand the complexities and dilemmas of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict this paper maps the divergent Israeli positions along the route of the "Oslo" peace process of 1993–2001, including the negotiations at Camp David (July 2000), and Taba (January 2001). This paper is based upon a qualitative content analysis of 20 in-depth interviews conducted in 2002 and 2003 at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a broad range of Israeli negotiators, including senior politicians, foreign ministry officials, senior military officers, former members of the security services, and political aides. This paper tackles the question of how Israelis who were directly involved in the peace process now evaluate it, offering a portrait of how sharply at odds were the various perceptions of what happened and who was responsible for the ultimate failure.     

IRM: Perspectives,issues and implications

This paper addresses the different perspectives of IRM as they relate to the contracting out of services, privacy and supervision, security and data pollution, and E-mail and the disintegration of the work group. It looks at the meaning of decisions about the centralization or decentralization of decision making and how multimedia and re-engineering can influence productivity.