Pope Benedict XVI Confronts Religious Relativism

Pope Benedict XVI’s inflammatory speech at Regensburg highlights a subtle difference between Benedict and John Paul II. John Paul called Muslims and Jews “sons of Abraham,” and he organized high-profile interfaith events. Benedict is more skeptical of interreligious dialog and more confrontational toward Islam than was his predecessor. This shift in tone toward Islam stems from changed historical circumstances. Islam has replaced communism as Europe’s biggest ideological challenge. But, there are also subtle theological differences between the two Popes. John Paul was trained by Dominicans, and throughout his papacy, he was a champion of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Augustine, with his bleaker view of non-Christian cultures, is the dominant influence on Benedict. Benedict believes that theologies of religious pluralism, which lead to metaphysical and religious relativism, have replaced liberation theologies as the most serious threats to Catholic orthodoxy.

Interpreting perimortem blast trauma from skeletal remains: Complications and considerations

Blast trauma results from highly variable events that can lead to similar effects in the skeleton. Clinical literature, which largely focuses on soft tissue, provides limited efficacy for interpreting fully skeletonized cases. Interpretation of skeletal blast trauma is hampered by the low number of fully skeletonized case studies and experimental replication studies, which mainly use nonhuman proxies. The purpose of this study is to discuss fracture patterns on two individuals from WWII as a means to better understand and identify fracture patterns associated with blast trauma. Existing clinical and anthropological criteria are reviewed and applied to two World War II cases, both presumed to exhibit blast trauma based on historical contexts. These case studies exhibit combinations of complicated and extensive signs of blunt-force and projectile trauma, reflecting the diversity of skeletal trauma resulting from blast-related events. This analysis emphasizes the arguably impossible task of establishing a diagnosis based on the available literature and lack of prior knowledge about specific losses. Ultimately, analysts must consider the totality of skeletal trauma, combining biomechanical theory and relevant clinical and anthropological literature to arrive at useful yet defensible assessments of trauma. However, refined criteria and additional studies are needed to assess complicated trauma from blast-related events in anthropological contexts.     

Mortal threat: Latvian Jews at the dawn of Nazi occupation

In late June 1941, Nazi Germany stormed the borders of the Soviet Union, occupying the three Baltic republics within weeks. By the end of 1941, a significant proportion of the Jewish population had been murdered by German forces and local collaborators. In the days before full Nazi occupation of the territory, Latvia’s Jews confronted the question of whether to flee into the Russian interior or stay in their communities. History shows that this would be a critical choice. Testimonies and memoirs of Jewish survivors illuminate the competing motivations to leave or to remain. This article highlights the key factors that figured into these calculations and the interaction between individual agency and structural opportunities and obstacles in determining where Latvia’s Jews were when Holocaust in their homeland began.     

Unfinished business: the Catholic Church,communism, and democratization

Although history has shown us that the church plays a role in the political liberalization of non-democratic countries, the nature of the church's role and how it participates in politics has yet to be fully revealed. By revisiting the Polish Church's historic role in the collapse of communism, I argue that we have overestimated the church's effect on political liberalization in that case, which has led us to neglect or be prematurely disappointed in its role in the remaining communist countries such as in Cuba. Drawing from the Polish case, I conclude that the church's moral, self-limiting, and transnational character needs to be recognized and incorporated into a general theory of democratization. It is this aspect of the church that has helped it to remain active within remaining communist societies, and provide the moral support that is an integral part of political liberalization processes.     

MiFID II – A radical contribution to the development of data law?

Away from the hubbub about HFT (High Frequency Trading) a quiet storm is blowing in to the EU that will radically change securities trading in bonds, OTC derivatives and other asset classes. The rules, called MiFID II,² top off the alphabet soup of an extensive new rule book that, after the European Parliament's ‘Super Tuesday’ on 15 April 2014, is finally set to become law. Radical changes are afoot!     

Experience Writing on World War II in Post-war Japanese Literature

In early postwar Japanese literature emerged a large number of literary works on the experience of World War II. All these works interpret the writers’ intuitive sense from the perspective of battlefield experience, captive experience, atomic bomb blast experience, post-war experience and the occupied experience. Although they had the same topic, different literature schools and different individual authors wrote in quite different ways, whose views on the war were totally diverse. Among all these writers, some reflected on the duty of war with consciences; the others attempted to obscure the guilty in their works. Thus it is necessary to make concrete analyses on concrete conditions when the literary criticism is being studied, which is not only the expression of respecting historical truth, but also the objective requirement of maintaining the victory of the war against Fascism.     

The Futures of Conflict: Exploring the Use of Comparative Scenarios in Track II Peacebuilding

This paper develops a prototype for a new type of conflict analysis tool designed to be used as part of a Track II peacebuilding process. The tool, termed Conflict Analysis through the Structured Evaluation of Scenarios (CASES), provides information on relevant comparative cases by systematically analyzing cases from the Minorities at Risk (MAR) data set. From these 285 groups in the data set, the CASES report identifies five comparison cases , designed to illuminate potential future trajectories of the subject case , the Kurds. In the CASES report, each of the comparison cases represents a scenario, a possible future of the subject case. The report therefore contains five brief narratives that describe the Kurdish case as if they were the subject cases. The report is designed to be used as part of a Track II peacebuilding process.     

Wirksamkeit einer vor Inkrafttreten des MRG abgeschlossenen Wertsicherungsvereinbarung; Novation

Eine im Abschlusszeitpunkt wirksame Mietzins- und Wertsicherungsvereinbarung bleibt weiter wirksam. Dieser Weitergeltung alter zinsrechtlicher Bestimmungen steht § 16 Abs 9 MRG nicht entgegen. Eine in einem Hauptmietvertrag vor dem 1. 1. 1982 und somit vor Inkrafttreten des MRG geschlossene zul?ssige Wertsicherungsvereinbarung bleibt wirksam und ist nicht auf ein überschreiten der Angemessenheitsgrenze des § 16 Abs 1 MRG hin überprüfbar.     

论二战前后法泰两国的领土争端与谈判

法国在19世纪末到20世纪初攫取了大量泰国领土。第二次世界大战期间,泰国乘法国在欧洲败亡之际,在日本的帮助下收复了部分割让给法属印度支那的失地。法国临时政府在二战结束后要求归还这些领土。双方为此举行谈判。由于法国实力衰落以及美国对法、泰两国的重要影响,美国在法泰谈判中发挥了重要作用。     

战后菲律宾华文教育研究综述

二战结束后，菲律宾华侨社会经历了深刻变化。“菲化运动”对华社产生强烈冲击，华侨社会陷入动荡。在菲律宾政府放宽华侨入籍条件后，华侨社会逐步演变为华人社会，其政治认同也发生了转变。这些因素不但对菲律宾华文教育的发展环境产生影响，也使其性质发生了根本性的变化。菲律宾华文教育的发展与华人社会紧密关联，是深入反映华侨华人社会处境的一面镜子。为此，研究战后菲律宾华文教育可为进一步了解菲华社会提供良好视角，同时也可为当前汉语国际传播提供借鉴。