Hygienic beauty: discussing Ottoman-Muslim female beauty,health and hygiene in the Hamidian Era

This article examines discussions on Ottoman-Muslim female beauty, health and hygiene in the Hamidian Era (1876–1909). Analysing the Hamidian popular press, advice literature and textbooks for girls, the article argues that these discussions were more than just female ‘physical culture’ debates, involving larger issues of late-Ottoman regeneration. Wars, epidemics, massive migration movements and fluctuations in population pushed the late-Ottoman state to create healthy generations as a productive force to secure the Empire's future in general and the Ottoman Muslim population's welfare in particular. Maintaining good health expanded from a religious obligation into now also becoming a patriotic duty incumbent upon Ottoman subjects knowing and applying modern hygienic principles. Focus on Ottoman-Muslim women's procreativity shifted female beauty into a public discussion, now defined as a reflection of health. The new hygienic beauty discourse distinguished between preserving vs. harming one's health in the face of Western fashions and cosmetics: healthy beauty mirrored a ‘good complexion’.     

The work of the African Union Liaison Office in building peace on the ground: A case study of Madagascar

ABSTRACT

Field offices are an increasingly important reality in the architecture of African peacemaking. Yet despite their importance in practice, in academic debates on peacebuilding and mediation, little attention has so far been paid to their work. This paper analyses the role of the African Union Liaison Office in the international efforts to re-establish constitutional order after the 2009 political crisis in Madagascar. The paper scrutinises the mandate, set-up and institutional capacities of the liaison office and reconstructs how and to what extent it has contributed to peacemaking and conflict prevention in Madagascar. It thereby particularly highlights the often ad hoc way the liaison office reacted to unprecedented and rapidly changing events on the ground and stresses the important role played by individual staff members in translating the liaison office’s mandate into practice.     

Privatization in Asia and Latin America

This article analyzes the political and economic predictors of privatization in 17 developing countries in Asia and Latin America, using an OLS regression model with panel-corrected standard errors and data from 1988 to 1999. The regression results show that two factors, which, have hitherto been either neglected or underemphasized in the privatization literature, play a crucial role in the pace and scope of, privatization. The first is a government’s revenue needs (defined in terms of interest payments on public debt as a percentage of a government’s total budget expenditures). An unsustainable interest burden leads to a significant reduction in the social and public spending of a government. This, in turn, impels incumbents to raise revenues through the sale of, state assets. The second factor that explains privatization patterns is the extant degree of, political opportunity (defined in terms of the governing politicians’ legislative strength and their security to remain in office). In addition, the results show that privatization is associated, with declining inflation and economic growth rates.     

The political economy of intergovernmental grants: Evidence from a maturing democracy

We evaluate the impact of political forces in the allocation of intergovernmental grants in Portugal, as it matured from a young to an established democracy. Using a large and unexplored dataset we show that political variables condition the granting system, and that their importance changed over time. While tactical manipulation in the distribution of grants among municipalities seems to exist only in the early years of democracy, opportunistic effects are stronger in the latter years. We argue that the latter effect is due to a change in the political environment and to the electorate’s lack of information on intergovernmental grants.     

Negotiating power and authority in the desert: the Arab Bedouin and the limits of the Ottoman state in Hijaz, 1840–1908

This article explores the techniques and strategies used by Ottoman authorities to control the Bedouin with a specific focus on the province of Hijaz between 1840 and 1908. Using primary sources from the Ottoman and British archives, it argues that the Ottoman Empire developed a ‘politics of negotiation’ towards the tribes in its attempt to secure cities and major pilgrimage and trade routes against tribal attack. The principal agents of the empire who made this negotiated governance possible were the amir of Mecca and the governor of Hijaz. As a result of this policy, imperial authorities had to give significant concessions to the tribes, and they thus incorporated them into the province's imperial order. When the Ottoman economy went through a crisis, as in the 1900s, negotiated governance and order faced great problems.     

Bidimensional Data Allow for Better Age Estimation on Immature Specimens than Unidimensional Data: A Preliminary Study on the Ilium

Most biometric age estimation methods used in anthropological and forensic science for juveniles are based on unidimensional measurements (length or width). Here, a new method using bidimensional data was tested. A 3D morphometric analysis was performed on 108 CT scans of ilium bone of juveniles (from 20 gestational weeks to 12 years old). The sample was divided into training and validation groups. Best predictors were determined by comparing the efficiency of each variable (length, width, area, and module: a product of length and width). We established linear and polynomial regressions for each parameter for both sides. Applying the equations to the validation sample showed no significant difference between real and predicted ages. For age estimation, the area and module parameters yielded better results than unidimensional measurements. The results from this preliminary study were highly conclusive, and it would be interesting to extend the work, covering larger samples, and other bones.     

Adaptation of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory among a Portuguese sample of incarcerated juvenile offenders

The aim of the present study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and two of its short forms (NPI-16 and NPI-13) among a Portuguese sample of male incarcerated juvenile offenders (N?=?221). Of these, only the NPI-13 short version demonstrated a good fit in terms of its factor structure. The NPI-13 also showed promising psychometric properties in terms of its internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity. Statistically significant associations were found with age of crime onset, crime seriousness, conduct disorder symptoms, alcohol abuse, and cannabis use. These findings justify the use of the NPI-13, especially its Entitlement/Exploitativeness dimension, among incarcerated male youths.     

The Responsibility to Protect: Libya and the Problem of Transnational Solidarity

The first part of this article examines some of the legal, ethical, and political dimensions of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine by engaging with cosmopolitan proposals for its application to Libya before the international military action to enforce it was initiated in March 2011. It presents reflections of a historical kind on state sovereignty, international community, and the political theology of humanitarian intervention while assessing the nature of the moral imperative underpinning cosmopolitan assertions of responsibility to save lives in Libya. Considering the official recognition of the Transitional National Council by the enforcers of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine as the sole legitimate authority on Libyan territory, the second part of the article situates this act of recognition within a history of colonial practices that include the legal mechanism of “the protectorate.” It also discusses the prominence of imperial affects in the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. The third part of the article evaluates disagreements among certain anti-imperialist commentators over the desirability of a military intervention in Libya in order to reflect on the politics of transnational solidarity from an angle that may present itself as an alternative to the Responsibility to Protect framework. While calling for a renewed critique of violence, the article concludes with an examination of telling difficulties that afflict attempts to differentiate acts of “foreign intervention” from acts of “transnational solidarity.”