Testing the China Threat paradigm: China's high-speed railway diplomacy in Southeast Asia

Vying for high-speed railway projects overseas has become a prominent feature of China's diplomacy in recent years, including in Southeast Asia. These efforts have been widely depicted within the premises of the China Threat narrative – as a part of Beijing's agenda to alter the power balance in Southeast Asia at the expense of the economic, political, and security well-being of countries in the region. This paper challenges such interpretations and concludes that these projects do not have either the intention or capacity to facilitate such a hostile and far-reaching agenda toward the region.     

Combined Statistical Analyses of Forensic Evidence in Sexual Assault: A Case Report and Brief Review of the Literature

DNA analysis has been widely used in the forensic field in order to contribute to identifying the perpetrator of a crime. Forensic investigation in sexual assaults usually focuses on locating and identifying biological fluids, followed by DNA analysis. The identification of certain compounds present in condoms can be useful to reconstruct the occurred event, especially in cases of sexual assaults where the DNA analysis did not show the presence of a male profile and where RNA analysis did not show the presence of sperm markers. Herein we describe the case of a woman reporting to be victim of sexual assault, who was not able to provide accurate information concerning the dynamics of the event; she remembered only forced penile–vaginal penetration by a single perpetrator. We performed short tandem repeat (STR) analyses and mRNA typing for forensic genetics testing on vaginal and rectal swabs collected on the victim, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) followed by chromatographic analyses for the detection of condom compounds on the same swabs. The STR analysis showed only the victim’s genetic profile, and RNA analysis showed only the presence of vaginal and skin markers. In this situation, the identification of condom compounds residues on vaginal swabs became important as it complemented other collected evidences allowing the Court to reconstruct the events. A proposal of likelihood ratio (LR) calculation for the assessment of the weight of evidence in this case is described.     

Relationships,significations, and orientations toward a collective acting of the Afro descendants and Africans in Argentina

In this work, we will analyze the collective actions of Afro descendants and Africans in Argentina regarding social movements (SMs). That is, we intend to understand the relationships, significations, and orientations toward collective action. Following Alberto Melucci's approach, we should not consider SMs as an ‘empiric unit’ but an ‘analytical category’, through which it may be possible to understand Afro-Argentine collective social action. The SMs are social constructions, and their work should be analyzed as a result, not as a starting point. We consider an SM as instituting, not as instituted, as a form of collective action oriented toward the construction of a new identity. Individuals construct their objectives, make choices, and take action according to the perception of their environments in relation to the social expectations. Therefore, we understand an SM as a network formed by a wide variety of groups and individuals scattered but interconnected, a network submerged in the daily life and from where the collective identity and the links for action are structured.     

The ghosts of the past: 20 years after the fall of communism in Europe

Twenty years after the fall of communism in Europe, the post-Soviet countries have not achieved a similar stage of democratic development. They have shown to be too diverse and historically too independent to follow one path of consolidation. This volume questions the premises of transitology, homogeneity, and path dependency theories and suggests an insight into the continuities and discontinuities within particular contexts of the given countries (Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and others). The latter quite often collide with each other and with the Western democratic values, thus putting a concept of a harmonious dialogue or a definite democratic solution for Europe into doubt. This volume challenges one-directional analyses of both communism and capitalism and offers an examination of their inner contrasts and contradictions that are a part of transitions to democracy. The irreconcilable differences between the two systems of ideologies determined by universalisms, such as utilitarianism, liberalism, harmony, and productivity, were derived from the post-Enlightenment heritage of the humanist ideals which today cannot be acknowledged without criticism. To grasp the dynamics of the post-Soviet countries that are developing their own democratic models requires looking into their political struggles, social fissures and complexities within their past and present, rather than observing them from the epistemological standpoint. Such a standpoint is criticised in this volume for seeing those countries as locked in one homogenous totalitarian paradigm. The abstractness of the universalist and utopian concept of transition imposed on concrete social relations is criticised, while the theoriticisation of democratic ideals is related to the political legitimisation.     

Introduction:New perspectives on China – Central and Eastern Europe relations

Asia Europe Journal -     

Young adults and civic behavior: the psychosocial variables determining it

The present work has a two-fold aim: (a) to verify the difference in civic behavior enacted by socially engaged young people in a lasting and structured form, sealed by membership in an organization, on the one hand, and in non-engaged young people, on the other hand; (b) to identify a pattern of characteristics (personal, social, and familial) able to explain civic behavior. Participants, 577 young adults from ages 19 to 29, filled out a self-report questionnaire. The results of the t test for independent samples confirm the presence of the difference between means of scores on the civic behavior. Moreover, data confirm a model in which civic behavior is predicted by personal identity, engagement values, family discussion of current events, the quality of previous membership experiences in socially oriented groups (membership), and finally, in a mediator position, by sense of community. The present study has many implications for researchers and practitioners.