Prevail or perish: Anglo-German naval competition at the beginning of the twentieth century

Abstract

British politicians often argued that Britain maintained its navy only in order to secure its own survival by keeping sea communications open, while Germany in no real need of a powerful navy, threatened this legitimate British policy-goal by pursuing expansionist politics. German leaders, emboldened and a little dazzled by the tremendous industrial and economic success of the newly unified Reich, held that Britain was maintaining its economic dominance in the Empire by military means and thus blocking the progress Germany hoped to make in its aspiration to parity status and economic prosperity, with all that that entailed. This paper will explore the underlying rationale of the arms race between Britain and Germany shining through in those different positions on legitimate (military) policy aims. It will go beyond the visible symbols, as it were, of the Dreadnought and the Two-Power standard. These very concrete matters will also be dealt with here but, more importantly, this essay is meant to give some answer as to whether an archetypal differentiation between survival on the one hand and domination on the other can be made out as the predominant logic that led the two countries to embark on the road to the Great War.     

Forever North–South? The political challenges of reforming the UN development system

Member states of the United Nations (UN) agree that its development system needs substantial reform given its fragmentation and outdated structures, as well as new demands from the 2030 Agenda. Yet, a recent two-year reform process yielded no substantial reform decisions. Why did member states fail to endorse the necessary reforms despite almost unanimous recognition of the need for change? This paper describes member states’ conflicting positions on reforming the UN and analyses their failure to delegate authority to the UN development system. North and South, donors and recipients, are locked in a struggle for power and control, maximising bilateral influence at the expense of the benefits of multilateral cooperation. The paper contributes to the pool of UN studies, adding a decidedly political perspective of the reform process. It is based on diplomatic statements, negotiation drafts and interviews with UN diplomats.     

The Nature of Contracting Hazards in Public–Private Partnerships—Evidence from Ireland

The use of public–private partnerships (PPP) for the procurement of infrastructure and related services can be a complex and challenging process. This article adopts a transaction cost regulation perspective to examine two PPP cases from Ireland that encountered significant obstacles to successful procurement. It finds that both procurements met hazards including uncertainty about the viability of the bids and opportunistic behavior by preferred bidders that held quasi-monopoly positions. The public nature of both cases provided a fertile ground for opportunistic behavior by political opponents and other “interested” parties. The analysis shows how the governance of PPPs is shaped by the attributes of the transactions and the interaction of economic and political hazards that create transaction costs.     

Effects of Public Service Motivation on Turnover and Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Teacher Labor Market

A substantial body of research has addressed the importance of the match between the person and the organization, or jobs for individuals and organizational outcomes across diverse fields. Despite growing attention to the role of the person–environment (P–E) fit, there are few studies incorporating the characteristics of jobs in the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and job satisfaction. Drawing on the growing literature concerning PSM and teacher recruitment and retention, this study investigates whether altruistic work values, such as a strong altruistic desire and a preference for correcting social inequity, affect job satisfaction and teacher turnover.     

A question of trust: military defection during regime crises in Benin and Togo

This article examines the role of trust between military officers and opposition forces in fostering mass defections of military personnel during pro-democracy uprisings. The current literature on military defection emphasizes the role of either opposition characteristics, or government control policies. Combining the two, however, takes better account of defection as an interaction between officers and the opposition. Through an analysis of civil–military relations during mass uprisings in Benin (1989–1990) and Togo (1990–1993), this article finds that loyalist stacking creates a core of military personnel with a strong stake in regime preservation, while counterbalancing leaves open the possibility for a military-opposition alliance. Alliance also depends on civic resistance campaign characteristics (the unity of the movement, its nonviolent character, the presence of opposition leaders with social ties to military personnel) and promises to military personnel that acknowledge the latter groups’ interests. These findings provide a new theoretical framework for understanding military actions during regime crises.     

Explaining United States–China relations: neoclassical realism and the nexus of threat–interest perceptions

How to understand and explain the evolutions as well as predict the future directions of bilateral relations between the United States and China has become an imperative task for both policy makers and academic scholars. Borrowing insights from neoclassical realism, this paper suggests a three-stage, perceptual model of ‘threat–interest’ to explore the dynamics of Sino–US relations from 1949 to 2015. It argues that the nature of US–China relations, either cooperation or competition, is mainly shaped by the perceptions of leaders regarding security threats and economic interests between the two nations. How to manage their perceptions regarding each other and how to find a balance between cooperation and competition are the key issues for leaders in both the United States and China to manage bilateral relations in the future. The next decade or two may be the best or the worst times for US–China relations.     

Course corrections and failed rationales: how comparative advantage and debt are used to legitimise austerity in Africa and Latin America

This article examines the role of ideological mechanisms in support of long-term economic liberalisation. Specifically we examine the ideological roles of comparative advantage and debt reduction as precursors to austerity policy imposition. Austerity policies, as episodic mechanisms designed to deepen neoliberalisation, are examined in the comparative historical context of Africa and Latin America.     

Differentiation of Commercially Available Kratom by Purported Country of Origin using Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry,

Kratom is a plant material exhibiting both analgesic and stimulant effects and is also forensically relevant since it is abused as a “legal high.” It is regulated in several countries but not scheduled in the United States at the federal level. This study used inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) to measure the concentrations of 13 elements in 19 kratom samples obtained from an online distributor selling kratom, from Borneo, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, for the purpose of using the elements to discriminate among purported country of origin, “suborigin,” and strain. Analysis of variance revealed statistical differences in concentrations of elements from each group, while discriminant function analysis (using leave-one-out classification) successfully classified kratom samples by their purported country of origin (100%), “suborigin,” (100%), and strain (86%). Our method illustrates the possibility of utilizing ICP–MS for determination of commercially available kratom samples by purported origin, “subororign,” or by product line.     

Locking up my generation: Cohort differences in prison spells over the life course

Crime rates have dropped substantially in the United States, but incarceration rates have remained high. The standard explanation for the lasting trend in incarceration is that the policy choices from the 1980s and 1990s were part of a secular increase in punitiveness that has kept rates of incarceration high. Our study highlights a heretofore overlooked perspective: that the crime–punishment wave in the 1980s and 1990s created cohort differences in incarceration over the life course that changed the level of incarceration even decades after the wave. With individual-level longitudinal sentencing data from 1972 to 2016 in North Carolina, we show that cohort effects—the lingering impacts of having reached young adulthood at particular times in the history of crime and punishment—are at least as large (and likely much larger) than annual variation in incarceration rates attributable to period-specific events and proclivities. The birth cohorts that reach prime age of crime during the 1980s and 1990s crime–punishment wave have elevated rates of incarceration throughout their observed life course. The key mechanism for their elevated incarceration rates decades after the crime–punishment wave is the accumulation of extended criminal history under a sentencing structure that systematically escalates punishment for those with priors.     

Simultaneous Quantitative Determination of Amphetamines,Opiates, Ketamine,Cocaine and Metabolites in Human Hair: Application to Forensic Cases of Drug Abuse

A method using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to simultaneously quantify amphetamines, opiates, ketamine, cocaine, and metabolites in human hair is described. Hair samples (50 mg) were extracted with methanol utilizing cryogenic grinding. Calibration curves for all the analytes were established in the concentration range 0.05–10 ng/mg. The recoveries were above 72%, except for AMP at the limit of quantification (LOQ), which was 48%. The accuracies were within ±20% at the LOQ (0.05 ng/mg) and between −11% and 13.3% at 0.3 and 9.5 ng/mg, respectively. The intraday and interday precisions were within 19.6% and 19.8%, respectively. A proficiency test was applied to the validated method with z-scores within ±2, demonstrating the accuracy of the method for the determination of drugs of abuse in the hair of individuals suspected of abusing drugs. The hair concentration ranges, means, and medians are summarized for abused drugs in 158 authentic cases.