State making and bomb making in the Cold War

Michael J. Hogan, A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State 1945-1954 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 2000), pp.xii + 525. ISBN 0-521-64044-X; pb. 0-521-79537- 0.

Lorna Arnold, Britain and the H-Bomb (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2001), pp.xiv + 273. ISBN 0-333-73685-0; pb. 0-333-94742-8.     

Plantations,outgrowers and commercial farming in Africa: agricultural commercialisation and implications for agrarian change

Whether or not investments in African agriculture can generate quality employment at scale, avoid dispossessing local people of their land, promote diversified and sustainable livelihoods, and catalyse more vibrant local economies depends on what farming model is pursued. In this Forum, we build on recent scholarship by discussing the key findings of our recent studies in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. We examined cases of three models of agricultural commercialisation, characterised by different sets of institutional arrangements that link land, labour and capital. The three models are: plantations or estates with on-farm processing; contract farming and outgrower schemes; and medium-scale commercial farming areas. Building on core debates in the critical agrarian studies literature, we identify commercial farming areas and contract farming as producing the most local economic linkages, and plantations/estates as producing more jobs, although these are of low quality and mostly casual. We point to the gender and generational dynamics emerging in the three models, which reflect the changing demand for family and wage labour. Models of agricultural commercialisation do not always deliver what is expected of them in part because local conditions play a critical role in the unfolding outcomes for land relations, labour regimes, livelihoods and local economies.     

Marketization as political technology: unintended consequences of climate finance in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Climate finance involves the transfer of money from advanced economies into developing countries in order to contribute to carbon mitigation or climate adaptation efforts while simultaneously advancing poverty alleviation and sustainable development objectives. Dominant carbon mitigation efforts resemble what Michel Callon calls ‘civilizing markets’, a deliberate harnessing of formal markets to achieve social goals by engaging with multiple political constituencies in market design. This paper looks at carbon marketization in the Democratic Republic of Congo and finds that, despite inclusive planning, climate finance experts produce unintended consequences by assigning social and environmental goals separate strategies within a national portfolio of climate finance interventions. Resulting from the challenges of finding commensurate criteria for measuring market impacts in both social and environmental domains, this programmatic segregation obscures the interconnections between poverty, forest use and climate change in the Congo. Findings suggest a need to reconcile the design of environmental-focused markets with the difficult-to-measure embedded social benefits of informal natural resource economies.     

Law of Space Resources and Operations on Celestial Bodies: Implications for Legislation in the United States

The U.S. assertion of a right to own resources harvested from space is consistent with the distinction in international law governing analogous res communis areas between resources harvested from a common area and the common area itself. Under the Outer Space Treaty regime, private entities do not have any more right to appropriate celestial bodies than governments do. However, U.S. law does not give private entities such a right. The U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act’s chapter on Space Resource Commercial Exploration and Utilization generally avoids taking a position on exactly how to deal with disputes in the event the activities of entities from the United States and other states interfere with each other. The U.S. law does not assert a right to declare safety zones or otherwise exercise jurisdiction outside space objects, but doing so can, under some circumstances, be consistent with international law. Many of the specifics of what rules will govern the gathering of space resources remain undetermined, yet the act’s basic premise is correct: international law and the treaty obligations of the United States allow for the U.S. government to authorize its citizens to own resources obtained from space.     

Why ISIS's Message Resonates: Leveraging Islam,Sociopolitical Catalysts,and Adaptive Messaging

How does the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leverage Islamic Law to support their strategic objectives? Islam, as most religions, is a defining catalyst of group identity. ISIS has capitalized on this, using it as a vehicle to legitimize its interpretation of Islamic Law. This study builds on Social Movement Theory to develop and test a conceptual framework of ISIS messaging strategies. This framework highlights the progression of the organization's message from mainstream Islamic Law to radical unified reinterpretation. ISIS leaders' speeches are used to test the model. Ultimately, study findings inform countermessaging strategies and identify mobilization mechanisms.     

One Nation's Electoral Support: Economic Insecurity versus Attitudes to Immigration

Goot and Watson's article on One Nation 1 represents a considerable advance on other studies of One Nation, its electoral support and its social foundations. They correctly identify the importance of conservative social attitudes amongst One Nation supporters. However, we take issue with the strong conclusion reached by the authors, which more or less rejects the argument that One Nation has emerged out of the growing economic insecurity of its supporters.2 We do not agree that this conclusion is either the unambiguous finding of their own analysis or a conclusion that can be reached without considering a wider range of factors. Our criticisms fall into four areas:     

Legitimacy through Partnership? EU Policy Diffusion in Britain and Sweden

Partnership has become a central principle of European Union (EU) policies, particularly in relation to the structural funds. This article considers the diffusion of the partnership principle in the EU, focusing on Britain and Sweden. It is concerned with two questions. First, has the partnership principle led to a process of harmonisation across states or to national resistance? Second, to what extent has the partnership principle enhanced the legitimacy of EU decision making? The evidence presented here suggests that though there has not been significant resistance to the partnership principle within Britain and Sweden, the EU’s requirements have been interpreted and implemented differently in the two states. Thus it is more appropriate to speak of ‘adaptation’ to partnership rather than ‘adoption’. This is explained by what we summarise as ‘national democratic traditions’. In terms of democratic legitimacy, the Swedish adaptation to partnership was nominally more democratic in that local politicians were readily involved from the outset, whereas in Britain they were not. However, the importance of this inclusion should not be overstated in relation to substantive democratic legitimacy. The Swedish model was not supported by well‐articulated democratic strategies or principles. Despite the limitations of the Swedish model, recent developments suggest that Britain is following a similar path.     

Raising local authority district revenues through direct taxation in a low-income developing country: evaluating Uganda's GPT

Uganda's graduated personal tax represents a rather unusual attempt at applying a local income tax as a means of financing local authority operations in a predominantly informal, rural economy. Statistical and other analysis and comment reveal it to have serious deficiencies in terms of standard tax criteria and as a result of associated social costs, despite which local authorities have been led to increase rather than to decrease their reliance on it. Some alternative revenue-raising instruments which could serve to reduce this reliance are indicated. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高才生带来的挑战

大学教育面临着高才生带来的挑战。所谓高才生,通常是指那些有超常能力的学生。目前,大学或多或少地为高才生提供了四种特殊教育:一是为高中的学生们提供融入大学教育和大学校园见习的机会;二是提前录取;三是提供特殊的强化教育和特殊教育;四是提供针对个人设计的学习项目。这种把高才生当作特殊学生加以对待的方法是不合适的。高才生聚集的大学同只有少数高才生的大学所面临着的挑战是不一样的。在给聚集到一起的高才生们设计教学项目时,尤其需要我们认识到个人能力和兴趣的区别。作为研究型大学之一,澳大利亚国立大学在高才生培养方面进行了有益探索。