Ten years in the United Nations: Where does Switzerland stand?

Prior to its full membership in the United Nations, Switzerland was an active observer and even an active member of many specialized UN agencies. However, ten years ago, Swiss voters finally approved full UN membership and in 2002, behavioral data started to become available on Switzerland's involvement in the major UN assemblies. Switzerland was admitted to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) as a full member on September 10th, 2002 and was elected to the newly created UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2006. Switzerland wished to be an active partner in both of these assemblies. In this research note we describe, based on novel data collected on the UNGA and the UNHRC, how Switzerland positions itself in the “orchestra of nations.”     

Carving a Diplomatic Niche?: The April 1956 Soviet Visit to Britain

Abstract

Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin's visit to Britain in April 1956 was the first by the new Soviet leadership to a Western bloc country after Josef Stalin's death. It presented British policy-makers with a unique opportunity for insight and discussion. However, British self-deception regarding their scope for independent action as well as excessive focus on events in the Middle East hampered efforts to build a rapport with Khrushchev and Bulganin. This analysis explores the planning and conduct of what turned out to be a fruitless diplomatic initiative. The visit illustrates British and Soviet policy at the time, as well as Britain's already clear position as the junior partner in the Anglo-American “special relationship” on the eve of Suez.     

Analytical Fingerprint of Wolframite Ore Concentrates

Ongoing violent conflicts in Central Africa are fueled by illegal mining and trading of tantalum, tin, and tungsten ores. The credibility of document‐based traceability systems can be improved by an analytical fingerprint applied as an independent method to confirm or doubt the documented origin of ore minerals. Wolframite (Fe,Mn)WO₄ is the most important ore mineral for tungsten and is subject to artisanal mining in Central Africa. Element concentrations of wolframite grains analyzed by laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry are used to establish the analytical fingerprint. The data from ore concentrate samples are multivariate, not normal or log‐normal distributed. The samples cannot be regarded as representative aliquots of a population. Based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov distance, a measure of similarity between a sample in question and reference samples from a database is determined. A decision criterion is deduced to recognize samples which do not originate from the declared mine site.     

Canada's Indians: norms of responsible government under federalism

Abstract: This study examines the application of norms of responsible government in Indian governments. We discuss Indian Act bands and the ten bands under separate self-government legislation. In addition, the study looks closely at ten self-government proposals involving forty-seven communities that were under negotiation as of April 1991. We measure these twenty cases through a matrix of principles of accountability by governmental fields. These include enacting laws, leadership selection, lands and resources management, financial management, and band membership. The study argues that Canada's Indians do not need to take any lessons from non-Indians on the importance of the accountability of leaders. In many aspects Indian norms of accountability, particularly those in a self-government setting, are more direct and potentially richer in practice than those typically enjoyed by most non-Indian Canadian citizens. The study concludes that the practice of responsible government by Indians deserves its rightful place within the mainstream of the study of public administration in Canada. Sommaire: Cette étude se penche sur l'application aux gouvernements indiens des normes définissant un gouvernement responsable. Elle discute des bandes qui relèvant de la Loi sur les Indiens et des dix bandes qui sont sous le coup de mesures législatives distinctes d'auto-gouvernement. De plus, elle examine de près dix propositions gouvernementales mettant enjeu 47 collectivités et qui en étaient au stade des négociations en avril 1991. Nous évaluons ces 20 cas grâce à une matrice de principes d'obligation redditionnelle par secteurs gouvernementaux, tels que l'adoption des lois, la sélection des leaders, la gestion des terres, des ressources et des fonds, et l'appartenance aux bandes. L'étude soutient que les Canadiens non-indiens n'ont pas de leçons à donner aux Indiens du Canada sur l'importance de la responsabilisation des leaders. À bien des égards, les normes d'obligation redditionnelle des Indiens -surtout dans un contexte d'auto-gouvernement - sont plus directes et potentiellement plus riches sur le plan pratique que celles en vigueur parmi la plupart des citoyens canadiens non-indiens. L'étude conclut que les Indiens ont pleinement droit à un auto-gouvernement capable