Suicide squad: Boko Haram’s use of the female suicide bomber

Boko Haram first began using the tactic of suicide bombings in 2011 and in 2014 started using female suicide bombers. This research focuses on gender differences in the use of suicide bombers. The data were collected using open sources from June 16, 2011 to June 15, 2018. Using this longitudinal data, trends are described over that 7-year period, focusing on the use of females. A majority of the suicide bombings target civilians in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. More than half of the bombers were women and girls, some as young as 7?years old, and there were more than 60 incidents where the bomber was below the age of 15. More female bombers were used to targets civilians, whereas men were used more often to target government, police, and military targets. Female suicide bombers were used in Cameroon, whereas males were used more often in Nigeria. Additionally, females used suicide belts or vests, whereas men carried out the overwhelming majority of vehicle-borne suicide bombings. In many cases, the use of the women as bombers involved coercion. The unprecedented use of female suicide bombers, particularly young girls, should be a focus of policy moving forward.     

To Wonderland Through the Looking-glass: Conceiving a Critical Legal Argument for Contractual Justice in the South African Law of Contract †

The aim of this paper is to identify the possible substructure (looking glass/es) of a critical legal argument for contractual justice (Wonderland) in the South African law of contract. South African contract law still fails, ten years after the constitutional transformation, to reflect the constitutional ideals of freedom, equality and human dignity in an acceptable manner. I argue that this disposition places a question mark over the legitimacy of contract law and marginalizes opportunities for the social change envisaged by the Constitution. The paper explores Duncan Kennedy’s Form and Substance-argument and indicates that the reluctance to accommodate these values may be attributable to the fact that the majority of role-players position themselves on the individualism/rules side of Kennedy’s continuum – a paradigm that perceives the law of contract as a body of positivistic rules to be applied neutrally and regardless of the social or socio-economic distortions its application may generate. In an attempt to move away from this traditional approach, the privileged paradigm is criticised. A typical CLS-approach is followed which employs sociology, psychological jurisprudence and game theory to criticise the law from outside the restrictive realms of law itself. Simultaneously, I attempt to illuminate the argument for a shift (step through the looking glass) to another paradigm. I conclude that our judiciary finds itself in a position similar to that of Plato’s prisoners in the cave and will not reach the point where they apply relevant (constitutional) values directly to contractual disputes. The State is thus responsible for infusing contract law with contractual justice, by implementing legislation to this effect in order to limit the hegemonic consequences of the judiciary’s obsession with freedom of contract and utopian rules, which fail in reality to further the ideal of justice. Paper presented at the Critical Legal Conference, 4 September 2004, London, UK. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge of Appeal, Mr. Justice P.J. Olivier. The paper is based on research conducted for the thesis in partial fulfilment of the degree LLD in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria under the title ‘A critical legal argument for contractual justice in the South African law of contract.’ The degree supervisor is Professor Karin van Marle in the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence. The author wishes to thank the following persons for valuable deliberations and input: Karin van Marle, Graham Bradfield and Anashri Pillay. In addition, the author wishes to acknowledge and thank the University of Cape Town for financially supporting this research. †Paper presented at the Critical Legal Conference, 4 September 2004, London, UK. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge of Appeal, Mr. Justice P.J. Olivier. The paper is based on research conducted for the thesis in partial fulfilment of the degree LLD in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria under the title ‘A critical legal argument for contractual justice in the South African law of contract.’ The degree supervisor is Professor Karin van Marle in the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence. The author wishes to thank the following persons for valuable deliberations and input: Karin van Marle, Graham Bradfield and Anashri Pillay. In addition, the author wishes to acknowledge and thank the University of Cape Town for financially supporting this research. apply relevant (constitutional) values directly to contractual disputes. The State is thus responsible for infusing contract law with contractual justice, by implementing legislation to this effect in order to limit the hegemonic consequences of the judiciary’s obsession with freedom of contract and utopian rules, which fail in reality to further the ideal of justice.     

多学科、兼顾历史与现状、教学相长：南洋研究院华人研究特点与存在问题（2000-2006）

南洋研究院的华侨华人研究体现了多学科、兼顾历史与现状、教学相长的特色。除了经济、历史、政治学(国际关系)等主要学科外,南洋院师生越来越多地借重民族学、宗教学、金融学、人口学、语言学、管理学、图书及版本学等学科理论与方法研究华侨华人。在侧重华侨华人现状研究时,仍继续关注华人史研究。在相关学位课程带动下,硕博生的学位论文研究日益成为南洋院华侨华人研究的重要组成部分。就总体而言,南洋院的华侨华人研究仍呈现创新能力弱、文献单薄、低水平重复等问题,这既是国内文科重量化考核导向的结果,也与研究人员浮躁的学术态度相关。     

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN SAME‐GENDER RELATIONSHIPS

Physical violence occurs in 11–12% of same‐gender couples, which suggests that domestic violence is an abuse of power that can happen in any type of intimate relationship, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Although incidents of violence occur at the same rate in same‐gender couples and cross‐gender couples, the violence appears to be milder in same‐gender couples and it is unclear what percentage of same‐gender violence should be characterized as abuse or intimate terrorism. Same‐gender victims also suffer from the additional stress of severe isolation and the abuser's threats to expose the victim's sexual orientation in a hostile manner.     

暗网环境下恐怖主义信息挖掘与分析

随着互联网和人工智能的快速发展,恐怖主义活动方式变得更为隐秘。网络恐怖主义活动空间从表网的在线社区与视频分享平台转向暗网黑市交易和暗网论坛。针对暗网节点通信和交易信息高度匿名等特点,相应的反恐工作需要采取新的技术手段,以深度切入恐怖分子用于扩大影响的暗网空间。为此,可以设计和优化专门适用于暗网的聚焦爬虫工具,挖掘恐怖主义活动信息;可以搭建涉恐事件数据模型,分析恐怖组织可能的线下攻击手段;可以利用社会网络分析和超链接分析方法,定位暗网内恐怖主义隐蔽社区和危险用户集群。通过准确把握暗网中的匿名恐怖主义活动规律,抓住安全监控与防范的重点、难点,综合施策,以及适时制定和精准实施反恐网络安全策略,能够最大限度遏制暗网恐怖主义的危害,保护国家安全和人民利益。     

谈宗教因素对恐怖主义的影响

宗教因素对恐怖主义的影响由来已久。近年来,宗教问题与恐怖主义经常纠缠在一起,构成对人类和平与安全的严重威胁。文章通过研究宗教史上恐怖主义活动的基本情况,试图消除宗教恐怖主义,发挥宗教社会功能,为人类和平与发展服务。     

中日稻作起源研究回顾

1973年河姆渡遗址发现后,中日两国学者对稻作起源的研究有了突破性进展,对稻作起源年代的认定更为明确,尤其是两国学者对稻作起源区域的高度认同以及研究方法、内容上的互补,大大丰富了稻作文化的内涵。     

论恐怖主义犯罪

恐怖主义犯罪是全人类文明社会的共同敌人。面对恐怖主义的全球危害 ,如何科学而全面地认识恐怖主义犯罪 ,探索其发生发展的规律 ,寻求更加有效地防范与打击恐怖主义犯罪的对策 ,是理论界一个重要的研究课题。本文在界定恐怖主义犯罪的基础上 ,对恐怖主义犯罪的特征进行概括 ,对恐怖主义犯罪原因进行了分析 ,进而提出了反恐怖主义犯罪的对策。     

可持续发展目标下的生态区划和景观规划

生态区划的本质是认识生态系统的分异组合和其功能的空间表现与时间进化,并指导人们的生产实践。景观规划是从人类可操作的景观水平上,体现人与自然的协调要求,关注景观结构、景观过程与景观功能的维系和创建,注意自然过程和景观格局中的物流、能流、信息流的水平运动与垂直传递,从静态格局的研究转向动态研究,注重维持多重价值景观功能的一致性优化。     

德国特种防暴警察

当今世界 ,恐怖活动越来越猖獗 ,恐怖手段越来越高超 ,让热爱和平的人们防不胜防。德国共有三支特种防暴警察部队 ,其中 ,德国边防警第九大队由于其组织精干 ,装备精良 ,训练有素 ,尤其在防范和打击恐怖主义方面战功卓著 ,被各国警学界奉为楷模。