Symposium-The Challenge In The Gulf: Building a Bridge From Containment to Stability

The following is an edited text of the proceedings of a Capitol Hill conference convened by the Middle East Policy Council on March 5, 1997, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Michael Collins Dunn, senior analyst at the International Estimate, was the moderator/discussant.     

Clinical studies in the intensive care unit: ethical and legal aspects

This article draws on international experience to explore the ethical and legal aspects of performing clinical studies on patients in intensive care units. It discusses aspects of consent relevant to clinical studies in this medical environment, it considers the involvement of ethical committees, and the role and appropriate level of intensive cover.     

Medical experimentation concerning chemical and biological weapons for mass destruction

This article is the text of a speech originally presented at the Second World Conference on Medical Ethics at Gijon, Spain, on 2 October 2002 under the title "Medical Experimentation Concerning Chemical and Biological Weapons for Mass Destruction: Clinical Design for New Smallpox Vaccines: Ethical and Legal Aspects." Experimentation on vaccines such as smallpox is subject to the usual ethical rules such as the need for informed consent. However, the participants will not often be at risk of catching the disease but expose themselves by taking part in the experimentation. Professor Deutsch explores the implications of this, including the position of vulnerable groups such as children, those with mental handicaps, and those acting under orders such as the miliary, the policy and fire officers.     

On the Economics of terrorism

Steven Livingston, The Terrorism Spectacle (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), 219 pp., $49.95.

Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky, The Real World Order: Zones of Peace/ Zones of Turmoil (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1993), 212 pp.

Richard Shultz, Roy Godson, and Ted Greenwood, eds., Security Studies for the 1990s (Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1993), 423 pp., $50.00.

Elisa Boulding (Editor), Building Peace in the Middle East: Challenges for States and Civil Society (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994), 347 pp., $45.00.     

Training parenting plan evaluators: Looking towards the future

Standards of practice for parenting plan evaluations continue to evolve, informed by advances in research and the development of innovative, evidence-based approaches to assessment and intervention. Parenting plan evaluators are asked to inform the court, parents, and other professionals on how to address the complex needs of increasingly diverse families amid reorganization, high conflict, and crisis. How can we attract and properly train new mental health professionals to do important work in an increasingly strained adversarial system? How can evaluators keep up with these advances over the course of their careers? How can they deepen and refine their skills to work with a diverse array of individuals, family constellations and an enormous range of family circumstances? And how can evaluators care for their own well-being and their colleagues? In this article, the authors describe a multi-dimensional approach to training both new and experienced custody evaluators that includes imparting baseline knowledge on how to conduct quality parenting plan evaluations as a starting point. We discuss a variety of modalities and approaches that can enable evaluators to deepen and expand their skills over the years, contribute to the diverse community of family law professionals, and manage the exceptional demands of working in this field.