EU Counterterrorism and the European Neighbourhood Policy: An Appraisal of the Southern Dimension

Terrorists trained on European soil, but originating from the Middle East, attacked the world's only superpower on September 11, 2001. Countering this terrorist threat has become an increasingly significant part of European Foreign Policy. At the same time, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has become an increasingly important dimension of European Foreign Policy. This article examines the extent to which counterterrorism has occupied a prominent place in the ENP, with a particular focus on the Southern Mediterranean ENP partners. The findings of this article suggest that, despite the commonly held view in the literature that security issues, in particular terrorism, have dominated the ENP agenda, counterterrorism cooperation between the European Union (EU) and its Southern Mediterranean ENP partners has not advanced as much as might have been expected.     

A comprehensive GlobalFiler™ autosomal STR reference dataset for Southern Africa

In this study a total of n = 832 autosomal DNA profiles from Southern Africa are analysed using the GlobalFiler™ STR panel. The dataset includes South Africa (SA) profiles (n = 541) produced by Ristow et al. 2016 and includes newly generated data for SA Sepedi (n = 96) and Lesotho populations (n = 195). For the newly generated (n = 291) genotypes, we report a large degree of rare and novel variation. This included (n = 7) off-ladder allele variants and (n = 7) TPOX tri-alleles. We report forensic summary statistics and genetic diversity parameters. Expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity ranged between (0.7– 0.9) with SE33 as the most polymorphic and TH01 the least. For SA and Lesotho genotypes the combined match probability was (1.13 ×10^-24 and 6.035 ×10^-24) and the combined paternity index (1.4 ×10⁹ and 2.44 ×10⁸) respectively. The power of exclusion (0.9999) was similar for each dataset and no significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) were observed after Bonferroni correction. Population comparisons were performed by MDS and neighbour-joining and population structure inferred by STRUCTURE and DAPC unsupervised clustering.     

惩治和预防腐败体系的现代化建设——以苏南区域国家治理体系和治理能力现代化为视角

完善和发展中国特色社会主义制度,推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,是中国共产党十八届三中全会决定确立的全面深化改革的总目标。国家治理体系和治理能力现代化中都包含了惩治和预防腐败体系。苏南地区推进区域惩治和预防腐败体系现代化建设,是贯彻十八大、十八届二中、三中全会精神的必然要求,是落实国家关于苏南现代化示范区建设规划的现实要求,必须在经济社会快速发展的同时,积极探索党风廉政建设、反腐败工作方式转型和功能升级的实现路径。要强化惩防职能、实化惩防功能、提高惩防效能,促进人心清纯、干部清正、政府清廉、政治清明、社会清朗。