Nuclear diplomacy as niche diplomacy: South Africa's post-apartheid relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency

Since the termination of its nuclear weapons programme, commenced in 1989 and verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) in 1993, successive South African governments have consistently advocated the country's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation. South Africa has secured a niche role through norm construction and state identity for itself through its nuclear diplomacy with the IAEA. The article explores aspects of South Africa's nuclear diplomacy with the IAEA as an example of niche diplomacy. Therefore, it traces South Africa's diplomatic relations with the IAEA, starting with the IAEA's verification process and the implementation of a Safeguards Agreement (1989–1994) through the conversion of South Africa's research nuclear reactor (1991–2005); South Africa's position on greater representation for developing countries on the IAEA's Board of Governors; its ambition to be elected to the position of IAEA Director General (2008–2009); and its refusal to support the establishment of a nuclear fuel bank in Russia under the IAEA's auspices (2009–2010).     

Indonesia in transition: A guide to resources

Abstract

This essay is my attempt to guide readers through the thicket of print and film resources from and about Indonesia in a way that provides a structure for making sense of the evergrowing body of literature about Indonesia. The choice of literature recommended in this essay is inspired by my own fascination with the theme of transition from a traditional to a modern society. Just what we understand by “tradition” and “modernity” is, of course, debated constantly, as is the way we evaluate these two conditions. What is not in doubt, however, is that a transition is in progress, that it is taking place rapidly, and that it is at times unrelentingly cruel to those who are experiencing the phenomenon. “Concerned” scholarship, I believe, should be determined to achieve a measure of rational control over that transition through its mastery of all relevant literature.     

Beyond the merchant and the clergyman: assessing moral claims about development cooperation

This article proposes to move beyond the categories of altruism and self-interest in the analyses of the motives for development cooperation. This opposition ignores the inherently moral nature of development policy. The article illustrates the shortcomings of such a perspective by tracing the metaphor of the merchant and the clergyman as archetypical figures shaping Dutch development policy. Through these images the suggestion of an opposition between moral and amoral motives in the history of development has gained a strong foothold within the interplay of scholars, policy makers and public opinion. We go on to assess claims about economy, security, solidarity, prestige and guilt, and ecology, which have been brought forward to legitimise Dutch foreign aid. This analysis calls for research on the dynamics of the transnational exchanges of ideas, interests and expectations, especially during episodes when the moral validity of policy has been explicitly contested.     

Observing FDI spillover transmission channels: evidence from firms in Uganda

Abstract

We observe and analyse three intra-industry foreign direct investment (FDI) spillover transmission channels using unique firm-level data collected from on-site interviews and observations regarding domestic and foreign firms operating in Uganda in 2015. Our main results are: (1) the spillover effects mainly depend on the channel(s) by which they occur (the competition channel is most important while spillover benefits through the worker mobility and the imitation channels are less prevalent) and (2) both positive and negative spillover effects occur within the same channel and, moreover, effects differ by channel for the same case. These are novel and challenging findings that have not yet been recognised in theoretical and empirical research on FDI spillovers. Our results suggest that long-term pecuniary spillover effects are predominantly stimulated via the competition channel and show that only limited short-term and long-term technological spillover effects occur through the imitation and the movement of workers channels. These channels are not only less prevalent, but also appear to be constrained by competition-determined spillovers. We are confident that these directions for future research will have a high pay-off because, as shown by this exploratory fieldwork, a more complete picture of the spillover effects is reached when the channels are considered simultaneously.     

Inspections Services and Inter-Rater Reliability: Differentiating Professional Role Identities of Dutch Veterinary Inspectors

Inter-rater reliability is a prominent topic within inspection services. We address inter-rater reliability as a problem beyond the technical concern for improving regulatory instruments. We combine theories on professionalism and identity theory to deal with an issue overlooked in much of the literature on regulation and inter-rater reliability: the potentially diverging ways inspectors perceive their professional role. Studying veterinary inspectors in the Dutch food safety services, our focus is on how we can empirically differentiate between different role identities and how these identities diverge from ideal-typical expectations the organization holds of its inspectors.     

Bad banks: a proposal based on German financial history

In conventional bad bank models, the estimated fundamental value of the illiquid assets is paid to the ailing bank, thereby leaving considerable economic risk with the asset management company. In this paper, a different approach is proposed which combines the bad bank solution with equalization claims, an instrument that has successfully been used in two previous German debt crises. The main idea is to temporarily swap toxic assets for government bonds with an open maturity date. This approach not only leaves total losses with the banks, but also avoids the problem of evaluating the toxic assets in advance. The current German bad bank legislation largely follows this idea, but suffers severely from unnecessary complexity and lack of participation by commercial banks.     

Review of “Creative Subversions: Whiteness,Indigeneity, and the National Imaginary,” by Margot Francis

Narrative is not only entertainment but also a mode of engaging in negotiation with others, and culture is one of the things negotiated thereby. Stories are structured by an internal and external authority in terms of origin, coherence, and effectiveness in the world. Cultural managers will inevitably be involved in situations where narratives diverge, and they will discover that dealing with competing narratives involves a type of diplomatic communication with a range of participants in the arena of culture, from artists to civic authorities to audiences. Historical anecdotes from both classical and modern eras suggest how powerful cultural credit and cultural production can be and how ideas of culture can be deployed in politics. The slow and careful procedures of diplomacy—taken analogously as communication, protection, negotiation, and sovereignty—can prevent even domestic cultural management from provoking hostility or resistance to a perceived attempt to exert control. Ultimately, we are mostly living in a fluid rather than a precisely calibrated world, and cultural managers know that absolute justifications for cultural work are impossible to find.     

Accuracy,confidence and consistency in repeated recall of events

Abstract

In legal practice, both confidence and consistency of the testimony of eyewitnesses are often used as indicators for accuracy, but their usefulness has been questioned. The present study was designed to determine the relationship between accuracy, confidence and consistency in episodic memory. After viewing a video of a complex series of events, one group of participants was given an initial cued recall test after one week, and repeated recall tests after three and five weeks. A second group of participants was tested after three and five weeks, and a third group was tested only once after five weeks. Accuracy and confidence (at least for incorrect answers) decreased with longer initial retention intervals, but there was no decrease in either accuracy or confidence when recall was repeated. Repeated testing also did not lead to confidence inflation. Correlations between accuracy, confidence and consistency varied from medium to large. Inconsistencies were mainly caused by forgetting and reminiscence. These inconsistencies were recalled almost as accurately as consistently recalled information.     

Sailors' families and the urban institutional framework in early modern Holland

This article points to a largely neglected theme in the maritime history: the important role of sailors' families in urban seafaring communities during the Early Modern Period. At the end of the seventeenth century and during the first decades of the eighteenth century, about 20% of the crewmembers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were married. Accordingly, in the towns in Holland where the VOC was present, many women had to run a household by themselves for a long period of time. The sailors' families were often confronted by emotional and financial distress, which to some extent affected the financial expenses of VOC towns as well. Many of these families were however able to cope because they received material support from various urban institutions. The Company created a system that encouraged sailors to send their money home during voyages, while urban poor relief often temporarily complemented the family's budget. Contrary to other married women, wives of sailors could obtain the legal power to engage in financial transactions, or to have access to inheritances. Town councils, civil courts, church councils, charity institutions and the East India Company were all willing to help the seamen's families. Their motives were twofold: while urban communities benefited from financially stable families, and the VOC compensated for their low pay by offering their employees fringe benefits, the attitudes towards seamen's wives also indicate that the urban elites genuinely wanted to provide some assistance to these needy families.