Relationship status of battered women over time

A longitudinal study of 114 women, all having serious problems in intimate relationships, recruited from the community was undertaken in order to investigate relationship and battering status over time. In the original sample (N=193), 97 women were battered and 96 were not battered, as determined by an adaptation of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Of the 114 who returned approximately 2 and 1/2 years later, only 25% of the 51 originally battered women were still in that category. Discriminant function analysis using a combination of variables from established instruments (depression, self-esteem, physical symptoms, self-care agency) and in depth interview (education, relationship control, relationship duration, childhood abuse) failed to distinguish those battered from those not abused at Time 2. Results do not support a learned helplessness model for most women experiencing abuse, and they suggest that battered women seen in the health care and/or social services systems should be supported in a process of healthy decision making about their relationship status.     

The Importance of Europe in the Global Campaign Against Terrorism

ABSTRACT

Terrorism and how to respond to it looms large in the current transatlantic debate, with the Europeans often being accused of failing to recognise terrorism as the major strategic issue of the early twenty-first century and thus putting their own security as well as that of others at risk. This is both true and false. It is true in the sense that fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, the Europeans still lack a global strategic vision, never mind how the threat from terrorism might impact upon it. But it is false in the sense that it understates what the Europeans can and are doing to reduce and manage terrorism on a global scale. The article is structured into four sections. The first examines terrorist activity in Europe post-9/11. The second deals with how the Europeans responded to 9/11 collectively within the EU. The third section focuses on what are termed the “outreach” activities of the Europeans via the United National Security Council, G-8, OSCE, NATO, and the European Union. And finally the article concludes that it is this outreach by the Europeans that holds the most promise for effectively countering international terrorism, that the Americans are dependent on this activity, and that the Europeans have to modify their strategic vision in order to deliver more effectively.     

Building a liberal-local hybrid peace and state in Bougainville

Abstract

There has been an increasing attempt to theorise the emergence of a liberal-local hybrid approach to state-building, which recognises the coexistence and interaction of liberal and local socio-political institutions. There has not yet been a sustained attempt to understand what occurs when a liberal-local approach is adopted from the outset of a state-building operation. This article seeks to fill this gap by applying the literature to the state-building process in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea.