Funding,capabilities and the use of child soldiers

Recent years have seen increased scholarly attention given to the issue of child soldiering. Primarily dedicated to the decision-making calculus of rebel groups, this body of work has generally emphasised supply-side versus demand-side arguments. We contribute to this growing literature by explicitly investigating a previously untested aspect of the latter. Prior scholarship has made vague references to a potential association between economic endowments and child soldiering, including natural resource wealth, but scant empirical attention has been given. We argue that the specific type of endowment has important consequences for the decision to utilise child soldiers. We argue access to and exploitation of lootable natural resources (e.g. gemstones) to be especially likely to promote the use of child soldiers due to their ease of access, the low skills required to harness them and the heightened likelihood that groups will become more profit-oriented. A systematic cross-national investigation of rebel groups provides robust evidence that lootable resources such as diamonds and gemstones are strongly associated with the use of children, while non-lootable resources such as oil are not.     

The boundaries of acceptability: France’s positioning and rhetorical strategies during the Arab uprisings

Why did French leaders adopt vastly different positions during the Arab uprisings? Building on recent studies that emphasize the importance of rhetoric to understand states’ behaviour, this article argues that France’s inconsistent positioning results from decision-makers trying to remain within political boundaries that are acceptable both to their domestic audiences and to foreign partners. Through a chronological content analysis of France’s top decision-makers’ responses to the crises in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain, the article provides evidence that acceptability-enhancing rhetorical strategies contribute to explaining foreign policy positioning.     

When two become one: sexuality studies and critical studies of men and masculinities

Men think about sex … a lot. Is this a problem or is this a site for reformation? In this paper, we set out to think actively, deeply, about the question of sexuality, to penetrate the limits of men and masculinity studies, and to tease at a range of questions that it seems the field is not attending to for any number of reasons. When men’s studies scholars speak of sex, we often speak of rape culture, violent sex, ideas of entitlement to sex, sex workers and pornography. Many of these approaches would be framed and understood by many as ‘sex negative.’ This paper sets out to think about what a ‘sex positive’ vision of men’s studies might look like – and also to ask if a sex positive vision of the field is even possible, desirable or necessary. In this paper, we braid together sex positive feminist theory, queer theory and men’s studies to complicate the matter of sexuality, both as an actual site of the kinds of things we do, and as a site of psychic and affective possibility.     

Democracy,Governance, and Emigration Intentions in Latin America and the Caribbean

It is now clear that the global shift toward democracy in recent decades has resulted in a highly uneven democratic landscape in which the quality and performance of democracies around the world vary greatly. In an era characterized by increasingly open borders to goods, services, information, and, at times, labor, we argue that poorly performing, uneven democracies have become an important, yet underexplored, component in one’s emigration calculus. We test this argument through analysis of survey data across 22 Latin American countries and find strong and consistent evidence that both the quality of a democratic system and its ability to fulfill basic governance responsibilities influence the degree to which an individual considers emigration as a viable life strategy. These findings in turn have implications for the subsequent impact emigration may have on the democratic development of high migration communities.     

Active and Engaged Citizenship: Multi-group and Longitudinal Factorial Analysis of an Integrated Construct of Civic Engagement

Civic participation does not necessarily equate to civic engagement. However, to date, integrated measures of civic engagement that go beyond civic behaviors have not been developed. In this article, we propose an integrated construct of civic engagement, active and engaged citizenship (AEC), that includes behavioral, cognitive, and socioemotional constructs. Using data from 909 adolescents (62.4% girls) who took part in the Grades 8–10 assessments of the longitudinal 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), we assessed the structure and measurement invariance of AEC. AEC was proposed as a second-order latent construct that encompasses four first-order latent factors: Civic Duty, Civic Skills, Neighborhood Social Connection, and Civic Participation. Measurement invariance was tested over time (from Grade 8 to Grade 10) and between boys and girls. The results supported strong invariance of AEC over time and between sexes. Implications of AEC for future research and practice are discussed.     

Progress,Perceptions and Peace in the Sino-Indian Relationship

The Chinese and Indian government are eager to intensify bilateral ties. This paper evaluates whether this enthusiasm has positively affected perceptions of the two societies in general, political actors and experts. A review of opinion polls, publications and official documents learned that this is not the case. Mutual perceptions are marked with ambivalence and distrust.

Managing Emotional Intelligence in U.S. Cities: A Study of Social Skills among Public Managers

This study assesses perceptions of managerial emotional intelligence in local government, as well as the practices and polices affecting it. Though few cities offer training programs for managers that are called "emotional intelligence," many cities engage in activities that target or address EI skills. This study finds improvement opportunities for managers to become better attuned to the feelings of others and themselves, to better know their own strengths and weaknesses, to better deal with their negative emotions and increase their adaptability, and to improve their communication and relationship skills. Feedback and mentoring processes are directly associated with increased perceptions of EI, while other practices such as training, selection and policy development are only indirectly associated with perceptions of EI. This study contributes to the knowledge base by increasing awareness about managerial EI skills, and providing specific examples of practices to further managerial EI.