Which Way to U.S. Climate Cooperation? Issue Linkage versus a U.S.‐Based Agreement

Several scholars have suggested that the United States can be compelled to reengage in the Kyoto process by linking cooperation on climate change to cooperation on trade or technology research and development. We argue that such issue linkage would likely fail and suggest that a more promising road to U.S. cooperation is to develop an alternative climate agreement based on federal U.S. climate policy. However, the question then becomes whether the Kyoto countries might be prepared to abandon the Kyoto process in favor of such a U.S.‐based agreement. We argue that if a U.S.‐based agreement were to be built on President Bush's current climate policy, the Kyoto countries (especially the European Union) would likely be reluctant to go along. However, if a U.S.‐based agreement were to be built on the many Kyoto‐like initiatives now emerging at state and local levels, the Kyoto countries might well be more favorably inclined.     

Fentanyl transdermal patches: Extraction and evaluation of a novel disposal method using NarcX®

Currently, there is no known commercially available product for disposing of used fentanyl transdermal patches. To eliminate the potential for harm and abuse, a proper disposal method is needed–one that neutralizes the dangerous amount of residual fentanyl that remains after therapeutic use of the fentanyl patch. The patent-pending liquid solution of activated carbon, known as NarcX^®, was investigated as a potential fentanyl adsorbing agent. In order to determine the amount of fentanyl remaining after a patch is treated with NarcX^®, here, we utilized hexanes to first dissolve the patch adhesive and then followed with liquid-liquid extraction with methanol to recover the fentanyl. Using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS), the extracts obtained with this method yielded between 85% and 117% recovery of fentanyl from new and unused patches. Further optimization of this method allowed for a quantitative evaluation of NarcX^®-treated fentanyl patches. 100 µg/h Apotex brand fentanyl patches were exposed to NarcX^® for 1, 24, 48, and 72 h. NarcX^® was shown to adsorb fentanyl from the patches with varying degrees of success, demonstrating an average of 66.98 ± 0.75% fentanyl adsorption after 72 h. These findings suggest that more work is needed to successfully neutralize the fentanyl patches in their entirety using NarcX^®; however, this work does demonstrate proof of concept.     

Weaponization of the Land and Property Rights system in the Syrian civil war: facilitating restitution?

The Syrian civil war has seen the weaponization of its land and property rights system by the primary combatant groups in the country. The government is the most robust in its use of the tenure system to locate, target, destroy, confiscate, cleanse and gain revenue by way of the institutions and attributes comprising the system. Based on fieldwork with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, this article describes seven ways the Syrian government is currently using the land and property rights system in its military-on-civilian engagements. While the objective of such use is presumably to permanently prevail over opposition civilian constituencies, the article describes how this actually creates evidence usable for effective restitution of lands and properties subsequent to the war.     

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS COMES GREATNESS

The story of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1921 is one of humble beginnings, when China was in shambles, dominated by foreigners, semi-feudalist, impoverished and run by corrupt warlords. Meeting in a traditional shikumen house in Shanghai, 13 men dedicated to the purpose of carrying out a Marxist-Leninist revolution designed to end imperialism within China and bring about both modernity and prosperity to the Chinese people, would change the course of China and the world forever. They believed that China had to change and that the Party was the instrument to achieve that change.     

The anatomy of collaboration in international development practice: comparative insights from Nigeria and Ghana

Collaborative project implementation approaches are common in international development practice. This article uses a mixed-methods research design to examine the dynamics of North–South collaboration in a development setting. It studies election-monitoring campaigns in Nigeria and Ghana that involved cross-sector collaborations between several organisations. A conceptual model of cross-sector collaboration is proposed, which is then validated against two cases. Results show that while existing approaches to conceptualising collaboration provide significant insight into the empirical cases, additional factors such as resource constraints and power hierarchies should be considered when studying development collaboration in a North–South context.     

From humanitarian action to development aid in northern Uganda and the formation of a humanitarian-development nexus

The instituted order of humanitarianism is both changing and challenged. This article addresses the transition between humanitarian action and development aid in northern Uganda, which was driven by the government’s ambition to reassert its humanitarian sovereignty by discursively recasting the situation from one of crisis to one of recovery and development, regardless of the persistent humanitarian needs. In response, humanitarian actors either withdrew or moved into development aid. This bourgeoning humanitarian–development nexus questions the nature and future of humanitarianism and whether there is a hierarchy – or contradiction – between the humanitarian mandate and pragmatic approaches to save lives and protect civilians.     

EXIT AND VOICE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECONSIDERED: A ‘CHOICE REVOLUTION’?

Market‐based public management reform has introduced customer choice among competing providers of public services. Choice entails exit, an option which Albert Hirschman famously reserved for the market, while voice is the key mode of communication in political life. Based on elite and mass surveys, the article studies how exit is perceived by citizens and local political and administrative leaders in Norway and Sweden, and how the two strategic options relate to each other. Citizens are more positive towards customer choice and exit than are leaders, albeit with some variation across different public service sectors. Political and administrative leaders are positive towards customer choice models as a strategy to empower clients but more critical in terms of the potential loss of accountability and control that contracting out services may entail.     

Developmentality: indirect governance in the World Bank–Uganda partnership

The instituted order of development is changing, creating new power mechanisms ordering the relationship between donor and recipient institutions. Donors’ focus on partnership, participation and ownership has radically transformed the orchestration of aid. While the formal order of this new aid architecture aimed to alter inherently asymmetrical donor–recipient relations by installing the recipient side with greater freedom and responsibility, this article – drawing on an analysis of the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Strategy Paper (PRSP) model and its partnership with Uganda – demonstrates how lopsided aid relations are being reproduced in profound ways. Analysed in terms of developmentality, the article shows how the donor aspires to make its policies those of the recipient as a means to govern at a distance, where promises of greater inclusion and freedom facilitate new governance mechanisms enabling the donor to retain control by framing the partnership and thus limiting the conditions under which the recipient exercises the freedom it has been granted.