Training on a Battlefield: Iraq as a Training Ground for Global Jihadis

This article aims to describe and analyze the training that foreign jihadis in Iraq have received, how this may impact on the future of the insurgency in Iraq, and the potential spillover effect from the Iraqi jihad scene. The nature of the training in Iraq has been influenced by the difficult conditions the jihadis were operating under, and much has consisted of on-the-job training inside safe houses. The foreign jihadis were dependent on the support of the local Iraqis in order to conduct training, but the increasing use of suicide attacks has turned their erstwhile allies against them.     

The Dynamics of Svalbard Diplomacy

While Norway claims coastal state jurisdiction and exclusive rights to the natural resources in the maritime zones adjacent to the Svalbard archipelago, other states have presented reservations and/or objections against the Norwegian claim through diplomatic correspondence. With this hitherto largely undisclosed diplomatic correspondence as a point of departure, this study addresses the dynamics of foreign policies toward this contested Arctic area. It explores the origins of foreign policies and policy change, and finds that new policies toward the area over the last decades have emerged in distinct epochs. Recurrently, new policies have followed changes in Norwegian legislation and enforcement practice or followed diplomatic efforts by Norway to muster international support.     

Local Party System Nationalisation: Does Municipal Size Matter?

Local party systems are not necessarily copies of their country's national party system. Some national parties do not field candidates in all municipalities, while in other municipalities there are non-partisan lists/local parties. In this article it is hypothesised that the larger the municipality (in number of inhabitants), the more the local party system will resemble the national party system (and vice versa). The hypothesis is tested using data from the 2001 local elections in Denmark. For this purpose, an index of local party system nationalisation is developed. The index is formulated in general terms so as to make it applicable in other settings and in comparisons between countries and over time.     

Portfolio Allocation or Policy Horizons? Determinants of Coalition Formation in Danish Local Government

It is widely assumed that policy considerations are important when parties form government coalitions. But if this is so, and if coalitions are negotiated in multi-dimensional policy spaces with no majority parties, then a rapid turn-over of coalitions should be observed, cf. the chaos theorem. However, we rarely witness this. Here we analyse two of the most prominent theories that address this puzzle: Laver and Shepsle's portfolio allocation model; and Warwick's policy horizon hypothesis. We do not analyse the ‘usual suspects’ (i.e. national government formations in Europe), but present a new empirical testing ground: Danish local governments. We rely on Laver and Shepsle's Winset programme to identify ‘strong parties’ in the portfolio allocation model but develop a new measure of Warwick's policy horizons that better deals with problems of multi-dimensionality. In a conditional logit analysis of survey data from 3000 local councillors, we find support for the policy horizons model, but not for the portfolio allocation model.     

Introduction: the measures of waves

Abstract

The aftershocks of the spring of 2011 in Japan led the nation into a paralysis of futureshock. But as the aftershocks continued and news of more radiation seeped out of the cracks in the tightly sealed industrial-political power generator, it became clear that the idea that the earthquake has brought a new reality to Japan must itself be resisted. Indeed what is now evident is that little has changed, despite renewed urgency to respond.

Although the waves of disaster in Japan unfolding from 11 March caught everyone off guard, in some significant ways Japan was already prepared. Such preparedness can be read into Japan's long history of dealing with disasters, twenty years of economic stagnation and the growing prevalence of mysticism and eschatology in pop culture in the wake of the Kobe earthquake and Aum Shinrikyō attacks on the Tokyo subway. So, rather than a rupture, an anomalous event, the series of catastrophes of the spring 2011 that appeared as if out of the blue could be narrativized in real time through social media and connected to historical and social contingencies and continuities.

Rather than mourning the passing of some Japan that may never have existed or may already have passed away some time in the early 1990s, 11 March should be the occasion for reflection on the past, action in the present and taking stock for the future. Fighting the tendency to be stunned into complacency, this special issue reflects on the past and future amid the aftershocks radiating from Fukushima and post-earthquake Japan.     

Evaluation of the persistently violent offender treatment program

The treatment of violent offenders has evolved in recent years, shifting from interventions focused on anger management to those incorporating social information processing skills. The present study was a multimethod evaluation of one such program, the Persistently Violent Offender program. A total of 256 Canadian male violent offenders participated in the study; 70 Persistently Violent Offender program completers were compared to two control groups (n(1) = 33, n(2) = 105) who completed an alternate program and to 48 offenders who failed to complete either program. Results demonstrate few differences among groups in terms of changes on measures of treatment targets, involvement in institutional misconducts, and postrelease returns to custody, thus demonstrating that the Persistently Violent Offender program was superior to neither the alternate program nor program noncompletion. These results are discussed in light of the findings from two more promising recent evaluations of similar programs.     

Interactional Aspects of Intimate Partner Violence Result in Different Help-Seeking Behaviors in a Representative Sample of Women

This article reports a study of the possible impact of sociodemographic and interactional aspects of intimate partner violence (IPV) on help-seeking behavior. Do different sociodemographic groups of IPV survivors use different professional supports and treatments? Do different professional support and treatment agencies come predominantly in contact with women who have been subjected to different characteristics of IPV? Do different interactional IPV variables predict whether IPV victims contact the police, a family doctor, or a psychologist or psychiatrist? A representative sample of 157 women recruited from family counseling, the police, and shelters in Norway was interviewed. Three of seven sociodemographic variables showed statistically significant differences among the recruitment groups. No significant differences in characteristics of IPV were found among the recruitment groups. However, there were significant differences between the main categories (physical, psychological, and sexual) of IPV and interactional IPV factors concerning help-seeking. Our findings indicate that the help-seeking of IPV survivors is differentiated and interaction-specific and that they respond adequately to the different interactional consequences of IPV.     

Bromadiolone poisoning: LC-MS method and pharmacokinetic data

Abstract:  Poisoning with superwarfarins, like bromadiolone, is a growing public health problem, and the mortality is high. Pharmacokinetic data on bromadiolone in humans are however scarce, and there are no reports following repeated exposures to bromadiolone. We have developed a method for quantification of bromadiolone in whole blood, using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The analytical method is reported. Limit of detection was 0.005 mg/L and limit of quantification was 0.01 mg/L. The concentrations of bromadiolone in whole blood and plasma in serial samples from a 62-year-old woman were measured. The half-life of bromadiolone in blood was estimated to be about 6 days in the initial phase of elimination and about 10–13 days in the terminal phase. The mean plasma/blood ratio of bromadiolone was 1.7 ± 0.6. Stability testing of bromadiolone in whole blood samples after two cycles of freeze and thaw revealed that bromadiolone concentrations decreased.