Intelligence studies: The emergence of the British school

Christopher Andrew and Jeremy Noakes (eds.), Intelligence and International Relations 1900–1945 (Exeter: University of Exeter Publications, 1987), pp.320; £10.00 (paperback).     

Ethnic minority development in Vietnam

This study examines the disparities in living standards between and among the different ethnic groups in Vietnam. Using data from the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys and 1999 Census, we show that ‘majority’ Kinh and Hoa households have substantially higher living standards than ‘minority’ households from Vietnam's 52 other ethnic groups. While the Kinh, Hoa, Khmer and Northern Highland Minorities benefited from economic growth in the 1990s, the position of the Central Highland Minorities stagnated. Decompositions show that even if minority households had the same endowments as Kinh households, this would close no more than a third of the gap in their per capita expenditures. While some ethnic minorities seem to be doing well out of a strategy of assimilating with the Kinh-Hoa majority, others groups are attempting to integrate economically while retaining distinct cultural identities, and a third group is largely being left behind by the growth process.     

Crisis,containment and development: the role of the landmine impact survey

This article sets out to explain the Landmine Impact Survey, implemented by the Survey Action Center (sac), which is led by a consortium of mine action organisations. The primary rationale of the survey lies in the need to root mine action priority decisions in a firm understanding of the impact that landmines have upon communities. Data from four countries in which impact surveys have been completed indicate that only a small share of communities—perhaps as few as 10%—can be categorised as high impact, another 25% as medium impact, and the remaining 65% as low impact. This has implications for the prioritisation of scarce mine action resources, but it also makes broad elimination of the impact of landmines within the dates specified by the Landmines Convention appear more realistic, even though total clearance may appear unrealistic. The article places the impact survey initiative in the context of the evolution of a humanitarian response to landmines, from an emerging realisation of the threat in the 1970s and 1980s to the present-day landmine response capacity working with other reconstruction and development initiatives. The success of the sector ultimately hinges on the availability of solid and systematic data on impact.     

Patterns of intraparty competition in open-list & SNTV systems

Two electoral systems that use “nontransferable preference votes” are commonly used: single nontransferable vote (SNTV) and open-list proportional representation (OLPR). Both systems promote intraparty competition by vote-seeking candidates, but differ on the extent to which the incentives of individual candidates and collective seat-maximizing parties are aligned, or not. We develop “logical models” of expected vote shares of parties' first and last winners, and test (and confirm) these models using “symmetric regression” on an original data set drawn from over 2000 party-district observations in nine countries. The analysis helps bring us closer to an understanding of the relatively neglected “intraparty dimension” of representation, and allows us to offer some modest suggestions for improving systems of nontransferable preference votes.     

The proper study of propaganda

Robert Jackall (ed.), Propaganda (New York University Press; London: Macmillan 1995) (Main Trends of the Modern World). Pp.xi + 449; index. $50 (cloth); $20 (paper). ISBN 0–8147–4196–7 and 4197–5 (US). 0–333–61756–8 and 61757–6 (UK).

Bertrand Taithe and Tim Thornton (eds.), Propaganda; Political Rhetoric and Identity (Phoenix Mill, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, Sutton, 1999). Pp.xi + 368, biblio. essay, footnotes, index. £50 (cloth); £14.99 (paper). ISBN 0–7509–2028–9 and 2029–7.

Gary D. Rawnsley (ed.), Cold War Propaganda in the 1950s (New York, St Martin's Press; London: Macmillan 1999). Pp.xi + 246; endnotes, index. £45. ISBN 0–312–22012‐X (US) and 0–333–67591–7 (UK).

Francis Stonor Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (London: Granta 1999). Pp.xi + 509, select biblio., endnotes, index. £20 (cloth); £9.99 (paper). ISBN 1–8620–7029–6 and 7327–9.

Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War, 1948–1977 (Phoenix Mill, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, Sutton, 1998). Pp.xi + 223, biblio., footnotes, index. £25. ISBN 0–7509–1668–0.

Esko Salminen, The Silenced Media: The Propaganda War between Russia and the West in Northern Europe (New York, St Martin's Press, London, Macmillan, 1999. Pp.xi + 198, biblio., endnotes, index. £45. ISBN 0–333–72451–8.