Simulating terrorism and insurgency: video games in the war of ideas

This article analyses several video games created by Hezbollah and Afkar Media which simulate recent conflicts in Israel and Lebanon. These games are representative of an important new means of waging ideological warfare which is increasingly a part of the media strategies that states, violent non-state actors and media corporations employ in their efforts to persuade audiences. I argue that video games allow their developers to address players as though they were participants in ongoing conflicts, rather than passive observers, and that this style of presentation is extremely useful to efforts to create an attractive image of people who are frequently described as ‘terrorists’. Video games also enable their developers to carefully construct media narratives that appear to be realistic depictions of contemporary conflicts even when those narratives show signs of bias. Through these mechanisms, video games provide violent non-state actors and organizations sympathetic to them with a means of presenting their grievances and displaying their fighting prowess in ways that advance the organizations' strategic goals.     

Experiences applying the climate resilience framework: linking theory with practice

This paper discusses the evolution and application of the Climate Resilience Framework (CRF). The framework focuses on the roles of systems, agents, institutions, and exposure in climate resilience and adaptation, and supports planning and strategic policy development using iterative shared learning techniques. Conceptual foundations of the CRF are explored, along with its application in a range of implementation and research contexts, including: urban planning (Asia), food systems (Nepal, Central America), and post-flood recovery (Pakistan, USA). These illustrate how analysis of system dynamics and agent behaviour in different institutional contexts can be used to identify points of entry for building resilience.     

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PARENTS

Estimates are that there are between 1.2 and 3 million people who are in same-gender partnered household relationships in the United States. Although there is less certainty about the number of parents among these couples and the number of single-parent gay and lesbian families, all research shows that a growing number of gay and lesbian as well as bisexual and transgender individuals are choosing to be parents. A sound body of empirical literature has demonstrated that the sexual orientation of a parent is irrelevant in terms of a person's ability to parent and has no lasting effect on the psychological adjustment of the person's children. Nevertheless, a majority of states in the United States place considerable legal hurdles in the face of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals who would like to be parents, as do many countries around the world, and the social context of contemporary society creates a number of special issues that the forensic evaluator or psychologist may encounter when asked to make a custody, adoption, or other fitness to parent assessment with LGBT parents. This article presents an overview of these issues and moves beyond theory to provide specific recommendations for evaluators working with LGBT parents.     

The Co‐optation of LGBT Movements in Mexico and Nicaragua: Modernizing Clientelism?

Before the 1980s, LGBT groups in Latin America were largely (though not entirely) excluded from the state. This article argues that a combination of factors—democratization, social movement demands, neoliberal globalization and its accompanying discourse of modernity—has led many state actors to seek to incorporate LGBT groups into the state. Considering two cases of self‐proclaimed revolutionary parties, Mexico's PRI and Nicaragua's FSLN, the article examines how and why these parties incorporated LGBT organizations and what impact such incorporation had on the LGBT groups themselves. In both countries, LGBT groups benefited from clientelistic resources at the same time that they found themselves deradicalizing, often forced to accept visibility without rights. But in Nicaragua, a more recent revolutionary experience and ties to a combative, autonomous feminist movement have allowed some LGBT activists to resist the state's efforts to co‐opt their movement.