U.S. and Japan’s trends in attitudes toward the Korean peninsula

This article argues that Japan would not only be concerned about the creation of a united Korea, which could be a serious economic and political rival in her own backyard, but would actively fear the prospect of the extension of Chinese or Russian military influence to the Straits of Tsushima through a Korean regime that leaned towards either of these powers. For the U.S., too, while there might be political advantages in the appearance of a serious economic rival to Japan, these would be greatly outweighed by the possibility of the same extension of Chinese or Russian military influence feared by Japan. This is evident in the strategic, economic, and diplomatic objectives and interests of the powers in the peninsula. This article concludes that the coexistence of the two Koreas will be not only inevitable for the time being, but ultimately desirable for the external powers.     

A Relationship Beyond The Realm of Diplomacy

The recently concluded visit to Pakistan by President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping has surely been instrumental for exponential expansion in the bilateral relations between the two countries and has elevated them to a new level of abiding strategic cooperation that holds the promise of not only serving the geo-political,economic and security interests of both of them but also the South Asian region as well as Central Asia.     

Constructing citizenship? Women, welfare and refugees in France, 1939-1940

Women were central to the provision of welfare services in France during the refugee crises of the late 1930s. By building on the services created during the First World War, women, as either volunteers or professionals, actively cared for refugees and others during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), the phoney war (September 1939-May 1940) and the German invasion of 1940. French women's involvement with refugee aid enabled them to develop a sense of autonomous civil and political activism, especially—although not exclusively—in their work with the French Red Cross. In addition, the history of welfare activities for refugees illuminates how ordinary people dealt with the extraordinary circumstances of war, invasion and the forced movement of populations.     

猪伪狂犬病病毒GZ-Z1株的分离鉴定

为获得1株猪伪狂犬病病毒贵州分离株,将贵阳市某猪场送检的流产胎儿病料经一系列处理后接种Vero细胞,并对分离毒株分别进行了病毒理化特性、电镜形态观察、中和试验、动物接种试验、核酸检测等鉴定。当盲传至第3代时,出现细胞变圆变亮、脱落、呈拉网状特征的细胞病变;分离毒不耐酸和热,对5-碘脱氧尿核苷和有机溶剂氯仿敏感,能被伪狂犬病病毒标准阳性血清中和;透射电镜下可见位于囊泡中呈近圆形、有囊膜、150～180 nm大小的成熟病毒粒子,在胞核中可见衣壳呈晶格状排列的病毒包涵体以及空心、实心2种无囊膜的病毒粒子;将分离毒株接种家兔,能引起家兔奇痒、麻痹死亡;PCR扩增产物经测序证明系PRV gD基因的部分序列。结果表明,成功分离获得了1株猪伪狂犬病病毒贵州株。     

Arbitration Effect

Arbitration is changing the United States justice system. Critics argue that arbitration leads to claim suppression. Proponents argue that, compared with courts, arbitration is cheaper and less formal. These claims have not been empirically tested. In particular, whether and how arbitration impacts individuals’ decision to sue remains an open inquiry. This article for the first time shows, in a series of experiments, the impact of arbitration agreements on individuals' decisions to sue. This article calls it the “arbitration effect.” First, we test whether the arbitration effect exists; that is, if arbitration agreements negatively impact individuals' decision to sue. Second, we experimentally test individuals' decisions to opt out of arbitration agreements. Lastly, we assess whether any type of information can “cure” the arbitration effect. The results establish that individuals are less likely to sue in arbitration as opposed to court, hence the arbitration effect. Such an effect, however, does not exist at the contracting stage, meaning that individuals do not shun arbitration when given the option. Further, none of the fundamental attributes of arbitration, as touted by the U.S. Supreme Court, nor win-rates and class actions mitigate the arbitration effect. Equally, informational nudges do not reduce the effect, and individuals do not ascribe negative attributes to firms forcing mandatory arbitration. For decades, courts and lawmakers grappled with issues related to arbitration. The article provides much-needed data on arbitration. Findings cast serious doubts on the ongoing efforts—market-based, judicial, or regulatory—aiming to change the arbitration course.     

Poor Practices: contestations around ‘Below Poverty Line’ status in India

This article has two objectives. First, it interrogates the normative understanding of the identification of poor people as a technical process confined to the domain of experts. The paper analyses the construction of Below Poverty Line (bpl) status in India, and provides evidence for how this is contested at multiple levels of the policy process, through both formal and informal policy practices. Second, the paper uses a case study of a major anti-poverty policy, the Suvarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, to demonstrate how the cumulative outcome of formal and informal policy practices is the erosion of the redistributive intent of policy. The paper emphasises the importance of foregrounding within policy discourse the politically contested nature of the processes of identifying poor people, and of determining their eligibility for anti-poverty policy resources. The typology of policy practices generated calls for deeper recognition of the significant influence of informal policy practices on the policy process in India.