Cash is King: Financial Sponsorship and Changing Priorities in the Syrian Civil War

ABSTRACT

The role of resources in war has been much debated. What happens when foreign patrons provide lavish amounts of cash to rebels, without mechanisms of accountability? This article analyzes three major sources of funding and their micro-level effects on insurgent-groups in the Syrian civil war. Recipients of funding demonstrated opportunism in actions, alliances, and ideologies, directly related to the funding source. Funders thus set the agenda of the war, promoting Islamist ideologies and regional over local issues. Private donors rivaled state sponsors, in what may be a harbinger of future globalization trends.     

“Global Jihad”: The Canadian Experience

This study aims to address the relative lack of research examining the Canadian experience of terrorism relating to the “Global Salafi Jihad.” The fundamental research question was “What have people living in, or from, Canada been doing to support or advance violent jihad either at home or abroad?” Data were collected on individuals active from the 1980s through to the end of 2011 in an effort to be as exhaustive as possible. They were analysed according to three broad categories: background variables; operational variables; and investigations and outcomes. The sample was further divided into two and results compared according to whether individuals began offending before or after September 11, 2001, in order to assess change over time. The article begins with a brief history of terrorism in Canada, followed by the methodology, analysis of variables, and summary and conclusions. Cases included and excluded from the analysis are listed in Appendices A and B respectively.     

The Berlin Republic,Iraq, and the Use of Force

This article holds that German security policy and attitudes towards the use of force remain framed by the distinct strategic culture that emerged during West Germany’s rearmament and international rehabilitation in the 1950’s. This strategic culture, characterised by strong anti-military sentiment and a commitment to multilateral diplomacy and international law, determined Germany’s position over Iraq and its ongoing opposition to the US-led invasion of the country. However, the strength and highly vociferous nature of Germany’s opposition to US policy also indicated that German strategic culture is itself evolving, as both elites and society reconsider aspects of German national history and the role of collective memory. Much of this new discourse relates to the notion of the ‘Berlin Republic’, which in foreign and security policy terms is synonymous with the emergence of greater self confidence, the introduction of more ‘national’ vocabulary into foregin policy statements and a less reflexive attitude to transatlantic security.     

Health and social care staff responses to working with people with a learning disability who display sexual offending type behaviours

Abstract

This study found that 59% of social care staff were currently supporting a client with a learning disability who had offended or displayed an offending type behaviour. The range of behaviours was similar to that displayed by clients in a secure health facility and included rape, sexual assault and exposure. Only 22.9% of social care staff had received training in this area, while none of the health staff had. Both groups expressed low levels of confidence in supporting this client group. The areas of difficulty were common to both groups and included personal attitudes and attitudes of others to the behaviour, and concerns over risk, responsibility and safety. In respect of attitudes, social care staff were found to be significantly more likely to hold negative attitudes towards the person's behaviour, while health staff were significantly more likely to feel negatively towards the person. Health staff were significantly more likely to identify training as a means of further support, while social care staff identified professional input. Both groups identified the need for theoretical training about working with this client group. Despite this no significant differences were found between those who had and had not received training and confidence, attitudes and the need for further support.     

Forced to pass and other sins against authenticity

This essay examines U.S.-based lesbian and gay activism from the turn of 1980 with a focus on tensions between models of activism based in unapologetic demands for visibility versus concerns about the contradictions presented by the recognition of lesbian and gay identities within a punitive political order. The author crafts this historical narrative alongside and through readings of Gus Van Sant's 2008 film Milk and Lizzie Borden's 1983 film Born in Flames. The essay analyzes how Milk showcases the politics of gay liberalism at its most militant, while Born in Flames highlights a variety of radical feminist activisms. The essay also looks at how the styles of each film bring into focus some of the ways in which liberal and radical lesbian and gay movements of the period limited their engagement with race and racism. The essay then considers how both films thematize the uses of communicative media in the production of social movements. It concludes by asking how these films might provide an opportunity to think about activist history today.     

Representative bureaucracy: linguistic/ethnic aspects in Canadian public policy

Abstract. This paper explores the historical background, logical contours and policy implications of recent attempts by the Government of Canada to achieve the ‘effectively balanced participation’ of francophones in the federal public service. Historically, various crucial events concerning French Canadian participation in the federal bureaucracy are recounted with an eye to understanding both the roots of present policies and the distinctive inherited elements which shape them. Logically, the generic concept ‘representative bureaucracy’ is employed as a prism for shedding light on its Canadian variant, ‘balanced participation’: the logic of representative bureaucracy and the arguments for and against it are explicated, with concern for how these pertain to the Canadian case. Finally, the foregoing historical and logical elements are brought to bear on the question of sociological proportionality in the federal public service, especially as it might involve the use of quotas. It is maintained that sociological heterogeneity in the federal bureaucracy is a positive value, and that recruitment and promotion procedures should strive to attract people with manifold backgrounds, perspectives and talents. The use of legislated quotas, however, is viewed as an inefficacious and potentially destructive means for addressing this task. With respect to the issue of francophone participation specifically, the adoption of legislated quotas would be superficial and anachronistic.