President Roosevelt,Admiral Stark,and the Unsent Warning to Pearl Harbor: A Research Note

Admiral Harold R. Stark (1880–1972) was appointed Chief of Naval Operations in August 1939 and served in that role until removed in March 1942. It was on his watch that the Japanese raided Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Nowadays the prevailing view of Stark seems to be largely shaped by the official verdict of the Secretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, namely that “Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN (Retired), shall not hold any position in the United States Navy which requires the exercise of superior judgment”. Our very different view is that Stark was a patriot who willingly sacrificed his reputation to preserve that of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to enable him, as the one person capable of leading the Allies to victory in war against Nazi Germany, to assume his proper mantle.     

A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal,Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice: Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack

A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice. By Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), pp. xvi + 521. US$35.00. Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. By Steve Twomey (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), pp. xvi + 368. US$30.00.     

Promoting a more efficient corporate governance in Nigeria through the law

Corporate governance reforms have been viewed as one of the formal means of improving the economic and social welfare of emerging economies. There have been efforts by the Nigerian government, through its agencies, to promulgate codes of best practices for companies in the country. These reforms appear to be ineffective and the codes do not compliment and are not complimented by corporate law. The aim of this paper is to identify the problems that hinder effective corporate governance reforms in Nigeria within corporate law. Using the doctrinal approach, the paper analyses features of the Nigerian corporate governance framework and identifies the problems bedeviling this regime. It argues that the problems stem from (amongst others), state ownership and control, board independence, poor minority shareholder protection, ineffective judicial system and Incomplete disclosure. The paper, by linking the apparent weakness of the extant framework to the attempt to reform outside corporate law, suggests a hybrid of legislation including hard laws, soft laws and other policy proposals to promote an effective corporate governance regime in Nigeria.     

Is development uniquely modern? Ancient Athens on the doorstep

Public Choice - By offering out-of-sample observations, pre-modern case studies can provide unique insights into the process of economic development. We focus on the case of ancient Athens in the...     

Life at a Teaching University

Many new political science faculty at teaching universities are recent PhD recipients, and are coming to these institutions from research-oriented universities. There are considerable differences between the training for graduate students received at research universities and the expectations for faculty at teaching universities. This essay reflects on the author’s first year at a teaching university and offers six themes that may assist other new faculty in the transition from life as a graduate student at a research institution to life as an assistant professor at a teaching university.