The decision to legalize gambling: a model of why states do what they do

This article compares the three major forms of legalized gambling currently being utilized by states as revenue measures. Unlike most of the previous gambling research, it focuses upon the choice of forms, rather than only the decision to adopt gambling measures. It compares forms of gambling using a variation on a previously published schema of evaluative criteria for revenue types and presents a series of models of why states choose to legalize certain types of gambling. The results suggest that iotteries and parimutuels are similar choices for revenue raising, since both are likely to be adopted in states which are liberal, which exhibit somewhat weak interest groups, and which have relatively low Protestant fundamentalist church membership. Casinos, however, appear to conform to a different decision model and are less likely to be operated in states with large numbers of older citizens and in states which do not already have other forms of gambling.     

The Other Side of the COIN: Private Security Companies and Counterinsurgency Operations

The Iraq War was a watershed regarding the scope of battlefield support by Private Security Companies (PSC). Skeptics soon raised concerns about these new actors being an impediment to the success of the very same operations they are meant to support. According to the critics, PSCs are grist to the mill for insurgents as they employ aggressive tactics and thereby alienate the population, cause credibility problems because they enjoy impunity, and increase coordination problems since they are not subordinated under the military chain of command. This article argues that this is not a necessary result of their employment, but rather the consequence of a lack of preparedness to operate alongside PSCs. However, the military is accustomed to adapting to new unexpected circumstances. Hence, when problems occurred, the armed forces underwent a trial and error learning process that improved PSC employment. The empirical picture supports this view. Initially, the counterinsurgency effort did indeed suffer from the actions, lack of oversight, and lack of coordination of PSCs. However, over the course of the Iraq War, most of the shortfalls were either improved significantly or even resolved.     

Claims to legitimacy count: Why sanctions fail to instigate democratisation in authoritarian regimes

International sanctions are one of the most commonly used tools to instigate democratisation in the post‐Cold War era. However, despite long‐term sanction pressure by the European Union, the United States and/or the United Nations, non‐democratic rule has proven to be extremely persistent. Which domestic and international factors account for the regimes' ability to resist external pressure? Based on a new global dataset on sanctions from 1990 to 2011, the results of a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) provide new insights for the research on sanctions and on authoritarian regimes. Most significantly, sanctions strengthen authoritarian rule if the regime manages to incorporate their existence into its legitimation strategy. Such an unintended ‘rally‐round‐the‐flag’ effect occurs where sanctions are imposed on regimes that possess strong claims to legitimacy and have only limited economic and societal linkages to the sender of sanctions.     

Zur Funktion normierter Prinzipien im Umweltrecht

Zusammenfassung  Die Dogmatik normierter Prinzipien im einfachen Gesetzesrecht ist unterbelichtet. Das ver?nderte Verh?ltnis von Staat und Gesellschaft führt zu einer neuen Sicht auf die traditionellen Rechtsfiguren. Gerade normierten Prinzipien wachsen insbesondere unter dem Governance-Blickwinkel neue, weitere Funktionen zu. Das l?sst sich am Beispiel der Produktverantwortung zeigen. In der Konsequenz lassen sich solche Prinzipien als “hybride Normen” einordnen.     

Forensic imaging of projectiles using cone-beam computed tomography

In patients with gunshot injuries, it is easy to detect a projectile within the body due to the high-density of the object, but artefacts make it difficult to obtain information about the deformation and the exact location of the projectile in surrounding tissues. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a new radiological imaging modality that allows radio-opaque objects to be localised and assessed in three dimensions. The full potential of the use of CBCT in forensic medicine has not yet been explored.In this study, three different modern projectiles were fired into the heads of pig cadavers (n = 6) under standardised conditions. Tissue destruction and the location of the projectiles were analysed separately using CBCT and multi-slice computed tomography (MDCT).The projectiles had the same kinetic energy but showed considerable differences in deformation behaviour. Within the study groups, tissue destruction was reproducible. CBCT is less severely affected by metallic artefacts than MDCT. Therefore CBCT is superior in visualising bone destruction in the immediate vicinity of the projectile and projectile deformation, whereas MDCT allows soft tissue to be evaluated in more detail.CBCT is an improved diagnostic tool for the evaluation of gunshot injuries. In particular, it is superior to MDCT in detecting structural hard-tissue damage in the immediate vicinity of high-density metal projectiles and in identifying the precise location of a projectile in the body.     

The problem of DNA contamination in forensic case work—How to get rid of unwanted DNA?

The PCR technique has become a powerful and very sensitive tool in a broad field of research, that is, molecular biology, medical diagnostics, population genetics, ancient DNA analysis and forensic casework.However, the high sensitivity down to single molecules can easily cause false-positive PCR results due to different types of contamination. In this study, artificial DNA contaminations (saliva and pure DNA) were treated with UV irradiation and other decontamination procedures. A satisfactory DNA removal could not be achieved, emphasizing the necessity of contamination avoidance.     

Das Internet und die Transformation der Musikindustrie

Since the late 1990s, the music industry has been undergoing a period of significant and crisis-ridden changes, which was initiated and forced by a new set of technologies: digitalization, data compression and the internet. This paper analyzes the repercussions of this new technological constellation on the socioeconomic structures and institutions of this sector. The reconstruction of this technology-based sectoral transformation shows that the constitutive impulses for restructuring came from the fringes of the sector and from external actors. The established companies in the music business were hesitant in accepting the new technological challenges. They initially reacted with blockades and containment strategies and only defined a strategical repositioning upon massive and indisputable pressure to change. The paper argues that the low ability to anticipate and adapt to these technological, organizational and institutional challenges is due to the interplay of several factors. Among these are (1.) general difficulties to anticipate the socioeconomic impact of fundamentally new technological opportunities, (2.) complex and time-consuming processes of establishing a new techno-institutional match, (3.) the technological conservatism and (4.) the oligopolistic structure of the sector as well as (5.) the hierarchically structured core companies. Together these factors obstructed a controlled sectoral transformation led by the established core players.     

Towards a new quality of cooperation? The EU,China, and Central Asian Security in a Multipolar Age

Asia Europe Journal - Against the background of ever stronger linkages between the EU and China as well as their emphatically voiced objective to jointly shape the increasingly multi-polar world,...     

Problems of a Concept of European Citizenship

Abstract: The article explores the possible content of the newly established institution of ‘Citizenship of the Union” as stipulated in Articles 8–8d of the EU Treaty. Within the broad scope of varying historical meanings which the concept of citizenship has undergone in the last two thousand years its main relevance must be found in its affiliation with the modern constitutional nation-state and its basic political feature, namely its anti-primordialism and its representative character. Although the European Community does not satisfy the conditions of democratic representation which are essential for the constitutional nation-state, the idea of citizenship can acquire a new meaning within the framework of the EU in that it is disconnected both from nationality and from national identity and opens the space for actions of which the significance is no longer defined by the territorial boundaries of the nation-state.