Shaping the future of UN peace operations: is there a doctrine in the house?

In the face of an unprecedented surge in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping activity over the past three years—with now almost 100,000 military, police and civilian personnel deployed on four continents in 18 operations—there is a need for the UN to develop a comprehensive doctrine that better defines what modern UN peacekeeping has become and that covers the full range of civilian peacebuilding activities that are now a standard feature of Security Council mandates. This paper serves as a primer and proposes an agenda for debate on such a doctrine. It summarises evolutions in thinking and practice over the past 15 years. It also highlights key conceptual challenges and political fault lines to be reconciled in order for a new comprehensive doctrine to enjoy broad support of the UN's 192 Member States, while still providing relevant guidance to thousands of personnel on the front-lines of the effort to help rebuild war-torn states.     

Haplotypes for 13 Y-chromosomal STR loci in South Tunisian population (Sfax region)

Nine Y-STR loci from the "minimal haplotype" (DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393) included in Y-STR Haplotype Reference Databases (YHRD) with 4 additional Y-STRs (DYS436, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439) were analyzed by PCR using duplex and Y-PLEX 12 kit, followed by automatic genotyping in a sample of 105 Tunisian males originating from Sfax region (south Tunisia). Allelic frequencies and gene diversities for each Y-STR locus were determined. The high haplotype diversity (0.9932) and discrimination capacity (0.7714) show the usefulness of these loci for human identification in forensic studies and paternity tests in Tunisia. The most common haplotype was shared by 4.7% (5 individuals) of the sample was only found in samples from the Tunisian population reported in YHRD. One private allele for DYS392 (allele 17) was discovered and duplications were observed for five loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS393, DYS437 and DYS439).     

Feminism and feminist movements in the middle east,a preliminary exploration: Turkey,Egypt, Algeria,People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

Feminism, including in particular such notions as women's right to equality and their right to control their own lives, is, with respect to the Middle East's current civilization at any rate, an idea that did not arise indigenously, but that came to the Middle Eastern societies from ‘outside’. To predict and direct the future of that idea, and therefore the future of women in the Middle East—if this is indeed at all possible—an understanding of the development of feminism in the Middle East is crucial, including its transformations transplanted to a Middle Eastern, predominantly Islamic environment, and its different interpretations in the locally different cultures of the Middle East. It swiftly becomes apparent, in considering the history of feminism in the Middle East, that two forces in particular within Middle Eastern societies modify—hampering or aiding—the progress of feminism. First there are attitudes within the particular society, and the culture's and the sub-culture's formulations, formal and informal, regarding women. Second and perhaps as important, are the society's attitudes and relationship to feminism's civilization of origin, the Western world. Since the late nineteenth century, when feminist ideas first began to gain currency in the Middle East, a Middle Eastern society's formal stand on the position of women has often been perhaps the most sensitive index of the society's attitude to the West—its openness to, or its rejection of Western civilization. Thus Turkey's attitude of openness to Western civilization at the beginning of this century (with which this study begins) was epitomized by the abolition of the veil. More recently, the veiling of women in Iran has constituted perhaps the chief index and deliberately chosen symbol of Iran's rejection of Western civilization. The present article is the first of a series in which I will be exploring aspects of feminism in the Middle East.     

A Distributional Analysis of the Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh

This article empirically investigates the gender wage gap in Bangladesh during the period 2005–2009. Applying unconditional quantile regression models, the article demonstrates that women are paid less than men throughout the wage distribution and the gap is higher at the lower end of the distribution. Discrimination against women is the primary determinant of the wage gap. The article also demonstrates that the observed gender wage gap is likely to be underestimated if we ignore selection in full-time employment. A number of policy implications are discussed.     

The Existential Threat: Varieties of Socialism and the Origins of Electoral Systems in Early Democracies

The origins of electoral systems in early democracies have received a great deal of attention in recent years, as scholars seek to explain why at the time of suffrage expansion some countries adopted proportional representation (PR) while others chose single-member plurality (SMP). This paper offers a systematic explanation of the choice of electoral systems based on the “existential threat” posed by rising workers’ parties after suffrage expansion, that is, the extent to which these parties threatened the institutions of capitalism and liberal democracy. Original historical research offers important correctives to the dominant scholarly narrative, revealing that PR and SMP were both novel systems at the time, devised to replace the “mixed” systems that prevailed in the predemocratic period. Both, moreover, were seen as elite safeguards that, through different mechanisms, would protect right parties from the impact of suffrage expansion. Mid-range analysis of 18 historical cases reveals that the choice ultimately turned on the different strategic advantages and time horizons associated with the two systems as well as the existential threat presented by new workers’ parties.     

Security dilemmas of nuclear-armed Pakistan

Pakistan's security environment has deteriorated through its adoption of a declared nuclear weapons posture in May 1998. Internal fissures have widened along regional and sectarian lines as the Pakistani economy falters, unable to sustain even limited external sanctions following decades of internal mismanagement. Tensions with India have also increased as Pakistan's security managers adopt interventionist policies, based on a misplaced belief in the deterrent value of nuclear weapons. The international community, in particular, the USA's failure to reverse South Asian nuclear proliferation, has emboldened Indian advocates of nuclear deployment. If India deploys nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, Pakistan will follow suit. Operation-ready nuclear weapons will increase the prospects of an India - Pakistan conflict that could assume a nuclear dimension. Pakistan's nuclear weapons capability will not prevent an Indian conventional attack nor will the presence of nuclear weapons deter an Indian accidental, unauthorised or preventive nuclear attack. Changed domestic and external priorities alone can buttress Pakistani security.     

Does Ideology Matter? Incentive,Efficiency and Management in the Public Sector

Contracting out has become increasingly popular as a strategy for public sector management for reducing costs, alleviating the burden on government agencies providing services, as well as taking advantage of the practices that have succeeded in the private sector. Generally, the system of management in capitalist liberal democratic systems of government that emphasize rule of law, transparency, performance measurement, and accountability are expected to be more efficient, while socialist regimes are considered to be inefficient due to the lack of these features. This article compares two dissimilar cases of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of China. An examination of the management of contract in the area of public housing in these cities reveal that the socialist city of Shenzhen has achieved a higher level of efficiency, while capitalist Hong Kong lags behind in establishing an effective system of management of contracts in the public sector. The finding challenges the traditional assumptions related to efficiency under different ideological regimes.