The Great Power Balance, the United Nations and What the Framers Intended: In Partial Response to Hans Kochler

This article is partly a reply to Professor Hans Köchler,who argues that the total absence of a balance of power hasbecome the fundamental predicament of the United Nations Organizationin the 21st century. He locates that problem in the veto powerof the permanent five members, saying that it creates an irreconcilablenormative contradiction with the doctrine of sovereign equality.On the contrary, this article takes a historical view and arguesthat the Framers of the United Nations (UN) Charter clearlysaw the greater opportunity which greater power brings to oilthe wheels of the machinery which they built. Choosing betweena Security Council that could act unchecked and therefore decisivelyand one which evinces a separation of powers in its design,the Framers opted for the latter. The veto separates power.Finally, Professor Köchler argues that the UN has beenmarginalized in recent events. This article argues that hisunderlying assumption, that the shift in the global power balanceof 1945 to the current unipolar imbalance of power automaticallycontroverts the power balance envisioned in the Charter, isnot wholly borne out. The Charter was not simply meant to reflectthe actual patterns of global power outside the organizationbut was intended to foster an enduring understanding of theneed to maintain a specific power balance. By putting the vetoin several hands, the Framers have required the permanent fivemembers to continuously negotiate and seek agreement among themselves.It is this which, in large part, explains observable attemptsby even would-be transgressors today to bring their action withinthe framework of Charter legality.     

Messages from a rarely visited island: Duress and lack of consent in marriage

If we fear repetition in the signs that come to us from the world, it is because in that repetition we discover that the world's powers are always there, dozing perhaps, and surely somewhat removed, but still present and ready to swallow us as if we were a word in their language. If we feel strangely uneasy when we note that a word, automatically repeated, seems to lose all connection with its meaning, it is because at the very moment we sense the weakness, the precarious nature of the act on which all culture is based.I would like to thank the following for reading and commenting upon my work at various stages: Kate Green, Jeremy Roche and Qudsia Mirza.     

The study of metabolite-to-parent drug ratios of methamphetamine and methylenedioxymethamphetamine in hair

The metabolite-to-parent drug ratios were determined in the hair of 2444 methamphetamine (MA) abusers who had produced MA-positive hair results from 2001 to May 2005 and in the hair of 53 ecstasy abusers who had produced positive methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) hair results from 2002 to May 2005. For the hair analyses, hair strands were washed, cut into small pieces and extracted for 20 h in 1 mL methanol containing 1% HCl. Drugs in the extract were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using selective ion monitoring after derivatization with trifluoroacetic anhydride. The six range groups were divided as follows on the basis of MA concentrations in hair (n = 2389): 0.5-5 ng/mg (n = 950), 5-10 ng/mg (n = 582), 10-20 ng/mg (n = 503), 20-30 ng/mg (n = 160), 30-40 ng/mg (n = 80), more than 40 ng/mg (n = 114) to assess the correlations between MA concentrations and metabolite-to-parent drug ratios. In groups of higher MA concentrations, lower ratios of AP/MA were found, and there was a statistically significant difference among six range groups. Comparisons of age groups (tens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties) and male and female subjects for the ratios of AP/MA showed a statistically significant difference. The detection of metabolites and the parent drug with reasonable ratios was found to be a useful indicator for distinguishing internal drug incorporation from external contamination. In our study, MA users can produce 0.4-116% (mean = 9%) of amphetamine (AP) concentrations in hair, and ecstasy users 1-110% (mean = 12%) of methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) in appropriately washed hair samples.     

Regionalism: A Singaporean Perspective

Multilateralism versus regionalism: the question is whether to adhere to the arrangements of an all encompassing international organization or to enter bilateral and regional agreements which could potentially upset the multilateral trade apple cart. The heated debate that rages over the merits of either system is dividing the various schools of thought on trade policy. Despite the WTO's increased importance and prominence in the last 50 years, the world has seen a great increase in regional trade agreements (RTAs) which seem to be contradictory to the spirit of trade liberalization. In this article, Lim Chin Beng, former ambassador to Japan and Singaporean chief negotiator for the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement (JSEPA)currently under negotiation, discusses these issues and provides an account of Singapore's efforts to harness RTAs to further the multilateral trade agenda. He concludes that regionalism and multilateralism are not mutually exclusive.     

韩国学全球化的战略方法论——基于韩流经验的研究

本文旨在探讨韩国学研究在社会学领域构建普遍问题框架的方法和战略.为此,首先分析韩流的经验教训为构建韩国学的问题框架带来的启示;然后,着眼于韩国学的未来发展,从社会学的角度探讨普遍的知识体系应该关注的方法论策略.全球化带来了文化的广泛传播,强化了地方和世界之间的相互联系和沟通,所谓的全球本土化和本土全球化现象日益普遍.韩流作为一种创造性的杂糅文化,在跨文化交流中起到了重要作用.分析并借鉴韩流的经验及吸取其教训,有助于韩国学在国际学术界建立具有独创性的知识体系.为了在社会学领域实现韩国学的全球化,应该摒弃照搬西欧或美国学界框架的做法,开发出符合韩国社会历史现实的概念、理论和方法,根据韩国国情确立问题框架,对事实和价值做出判断,从韩国的角度分析和解释全球问题,实现韩国学的全球化,将韩国的特殊性与区域和世界的普遍性相结合,促进韩国学的发展.     

The impact of neighborhood crime levels on police use of force: An examination at micro and meso levels

Purpose

Neighborhood contextual factors have gained a considerable amount of attention, relating neighborhood crime levels to police force. Prior research mainly examined the relationship either at the police district level or at the city level. The current study intends to investigate the relationship at lower levels of geographic aggregation.

Methods

Using Geographic Information System techniques, the current study utilized four radial buffer zones around each use of force incident location to measure the impact of neighborhood violent criminal activities at the micro level on the level of police force used. In addition, hierarchical linear modeling using neighborhood crime rates within police command areas allowed for a comparison study to measure the impact of neighborhood criminal activities at the meso level on police force.

Results

The current study found that neighborhood crime levels have a significant and positive effect of increasing the level of police force used at the micro level.

Conclusions

The current study supports the work of Black and Smith, concluding that more training and supervision are required for officers working in high crime areas.     

Big Five Personality Traits and Physical Aggression between Siblings in South Korea: an Actor-Partner Interdependence Analysis

The present study examined actor and partner effects of the Big Five personality traits, assessed by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, on physical aggression within sibling dyadic interactions. Data were collected from 86 target adolescents receiving counseling services, their mothers, and closest-age siblings in South Korea. Mothers rated their children’s personalities. Target adolescents and siblings reported their own personality, as well as their sibling’s and their own perpetration of physical aggression against one another. Substantial self-other (i.e., mother and sibling) agreement was found for personality traits. Both actor and partner effects were found for the negative associations between extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness and physical aggression among siblings. The current findings increase our understanding of personality traits implicated in physical aggression in general, and specifically aggression among siblings.     

Actual,desired and full levels of capital utilisation in Malaysian manufacturing

This paper shows that capital utilisation in West Malaysian manufacturing, though higher than that in other less developed countries, still leaves capital plant idle for a considerable proportion of the total available time. These findings, based on a modified McGraw‐Hill measure and on the Winston time‐measure of capital utilisation, therefore calls into question the wisdom of an industrial investment incentive programme which aims primarily at maximising the volume of capital expenditure, and which pays no attention at all to the level of utilisation of the existing stock of capital.     

Capturing the effects of capital subsidies

Most developing countries provide fiscal incentives to encourage domestic and foreign investment. This study shows that these schemes subsidise significantly the use of capital and produce greater capital intensity in Malaysian manufacturing. These results were obtained by conducting the analysis at the establishment level, which avoids the artificial aggregation of establishments with different production structures into an industry‐group and having to choose an appropriate weighting system in the aggregation process.