Enhancing African peace and security capacity: a useful role for the UK and the G8?

This article reviews western donor support for building African peace and security architecture, specifically in relation to G8 efforts to engage in the capacity-building process in line with commitments made in the Joint Africa/G8 Plan to Enhance African Capabilities to Undertake Peace Operations (the Joint Plan)—agreed between G8 and key African leaders at the G8 Summit in Evian in 2003. It describes a project by the New Security Issues Programme at Chatham House, carried out jointly with the Peace and Security Programme at the United Nations Association-UK and the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, to provide strategic input into implementing the Joint Plan. The article outlines the background to western involvement in peace and security capacity-building in Africa, the nature and current status of the African peace and security architecture and some key challenges to the G8/Africa capacitybuilding process—particularly African institutional human resource capacity and coordination among the various players involved. Finally, it maps out potential priorities for future progress in taking the capacity-building process forward.     

From flexibility to accommodation? Disabled people and the reinvention of paid work

Scholarship on 'flexible' work and changing organizational cultures has had little to say about the implications of these developments for disabled people. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this paper examines the ways in which disabled workers struggle over accommodations in contemporary workplaces. Analysis reveals a number of themes concerning training, speed at work, and emotional and aesthetic labour. At their core, these themes concern the ability of workers to exercise control over the labour process. Efforts to obtain accommodation are frustrated by multiple strategies that include people's propensity to self-discipline in the interests of achieving a valued identity through paid work. The paper argues in conclusion that accommodation, as both discourse and practice, offers a conceptual resource for rethinking contemporary employment with implications for both disabled and non-disabled workers.     

Did Cecil Rhodes Really Try to Control the World?

A twentieth-century American historian claimed, in a posthumously published book, that Cecil Rhodes and Lord Milner plotted to take over the world by establishing secret societies, conniving with key British politicians, various lords of the realm and influential publicists. The Rhodes Scholarships are supposedly but one example of the long hand of their cabal. That both Rhodes and Milner favoured imperialism, and believed the world the better for inculcated British values, there can be no question. But were they conspiracists, as alleged? Or are the accusations based too much on suspicion and circumstantial evidence to be taken seriously?     

Home–work relations and the spatialization of care: wives on the margins of the Israeli high-tech industry

This study applies the concept of care to examine how home–work transitions of high-tech men affect others in these two places, namely their wives and managers. The high-tech industry is famous for its particularly demanding culture and masculine disposition, which contest daily involvement with family and domestic affairs. Care is conceptualized as a wide-ranging multifaceted notion that embraces work, morals, and policy, and is represented by the exchange of various tangible and intangible, resources across the home–work divide. In-depth interviews with 22 high-tech managers and 47 wives of high-tech engineers disclose a well-established reciprocity of care resources. The managers reward the wives' nonmaterial support of the engineers/husbands with rhetorical recognition and nonfinancial benefits. The spatialization of care across the home–work divide is discussed, pointing to its hierarchical – not only contextual – relations.     

Back to the future or forward to the past? Strengthening markets and rules for effective global energy governance

Current public policy debates on energy security are characterized by a singular focus on questions regarding access to resources. This lopsided attention to the geopolitical dimension of energy security is based on the myopic and erroneous presumption that global energy politics is necessarily a zero-sum game in which one country's energy security is another's lack thereof. In fact, debates deflect attention from the real issues that policy-makers should consider in their attempts to foster effective global energy governance—the central role increasingly international energy markets play in balancing demand and supply—and, even more importantly, the significance of the 'rules of the game' that structure these markets. This article makes a first attempt to apply a broader analytical lens by pointing out and analyzing the important role rules play in determining outcomes in international oil and gas markets; by examining how current trends are affecting the existing 'rules of the game'; and by highlighting consequences for public policy.     

At home in preschool care? Childcare policy and the negotiated spaces of educational care

Concerns have been raised across a range of discplinary perspectices about the heightened policy expectations which are being placed on the educational outcomes of preschool services leading to suggestions of over formalisation of the preschool space. In light of these concerns, this paper will explore how new socio-economic expectations around educational care are actually shaping the preschool space. By doing so I will argue that concerns over the formalisation of educational care need to be considered with reference to the different contexts and sectors in which educational care is being provided. In offering a more situated analysis, formalisation processes can be seen as highly contingent, as they are articulated within existing social norms around the care of young children.     

Does the Law and the Constitution of the Family Have to Change?

The law and constitution of the family has been targeted for transformation in recent years, leading most notably to the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, mandating same-sex marriage as a matter of constitutional law. In this essay I undertake a thought experiment, asking how advocates of traditional marriage ought to want the law of marriage to change in light of this development. I begin by reviewing the argument for legal change sketched by Aquinas and then applying it to developments concerning marriage in modern America. Next I sketch the natural-law argument on behalf of traditional marriage. Finally, I turn to the case of Michael H. v. Gerald D., in which the Supreme Court upheld a statutory reiteration of the common-law presumption that the husband of the mother is the father of her child, against a challenge from the biological father, suggesting that this case, long admired by conservatives, needs to be reconsidered—and that the dissent in the recent Indian Adoption Case recognizing a constitutional right of biological parents might prove useful to the restoration of marriage law.     

“A beacon-light to the oppressed of every land”: James Connolly and the work of the working-class intellectual

Abstract

This article seeks to defend James Connolly from attacks on both the Left and Right, particularly the charge that his legacy is nationalist delusion and fanaticism. The article argues that Connolly’s politics and his engagement with Irish cultural politics demonstrate his commitment to human equality as both a right, but also a principle of human intelligence. The article addresses Connolly’s status as a working-class intellectual with reference to how he challenges conventional hierarchies between the philosophers of Marxism and the proletarians who are the object of those deliberations. The article argues that from Connolly’s thought and activism an anti-colonial Marxism emerges which might help explain the neo-imperialist world we find ourselves in today and provide a critique lacking in the collapsed teleological versions of orthodox Marxism. The relations between his Marxism and nationalism are explored, as are his play Under Which Flag? his poetry and songs.     

The age of the manager is over? Shale gas fracking and the challenge to the post-political regime for English planning

Planning systems developed through the period of ‘normative’, ‘third way’ neoliberalism were critiqued as being ‘post-political’. Planning systems were developed that bypassed political conflicts through technocratic and consensus-seeking approaches following a so-called ‘end of history’ in which left/right ideological conflicts were deemed settled. Following the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2007/8 though, scholars have begun to question whether this is a suitable critique of planning, and state institutions more generally, as political and economic conditions shift. This paper examines a case of an exemplar post-political planning system: England. The paper identifies three key logics of a ‘post-political regime’ for planning: techno-managerialism, consensus and participation. Through an analysis of texts and interviews of contested planning decisions made over shale gas fracking sites, this paper shows a ‘post-political regime’ for planning facing a crisis of legitimacy as it is challenged by an anti-fracking movement and reactionary interventions from central government. The paper provides an institutional level analysis of the crisis of post-political planning, which has lost legitimacy amidst the slow collapse of normative neoliberalism.     

From the Atlantic to the Bug,from the Arctic to the Tigris? The Transformation of the EU and NATO

Both the European Union and NATO are now committed in principle to substantial enlargement. It remains doubtful, however, how far member governments are making a success of further enlargement, let alone thinking through its strategic implications. Yet the process of dual enlargement will define the future security, political and economic structures of the European region. During the past year west European governments have extended promises of eventual membership to the western Balkan states and to Turkey; while the future positions of Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus states and the southern Mediterranean associates all raise delicate policy issues. Hard choices remain to be made about the adaptation of these organizations to eastern enlargement, and about the management of relations with the near neighbours who will remain outside.     

Useful work for idle hands or a brightening and elevating influence? The introduction of the Brabazon Employment Scheme to Glasgow’s public institutions in the late 19th century

Women’s ability to effect changes in welfare policy during the later workings of the new Poor Law has been presented as a ‘marginal influence’ within past historiography. This perspective is contested in recent empirical work, which argues for a more positive view of female agency. The Brabazon Employment Scheme was a charitable initiative, which occupied the poor unable to take part in the routine work of public institutions. Findings from its operation in Glasgow demonstrate how women drew upon philanthropic experience as well as elected positions in the management of institutions to secure the scheme’s introduction in these settings. While the initiative originated in the English workhouses, local women extended the Brabazon activities to address gaps in welfare provision for asylum patients. In doing so, the article shows how organised charity continued to function as an avenue of support for the poor alongside municipal relief into the early 20th century.     

The forest or the trees? Behavioral and methodological considerations for geochemical characterization of heavily-tempered ceramic pastes using NAA and LA-ICP-MS

In this paper, the utility of LA-ICP-MS for instrumentally separating clay and temper within pottery samples is examined through a well-known case study that has been previously characterized through NAA and petrography. Coarse Orange pottery is composed of kaolinitic clays heavily tempered within volcanic ash from the basalt-rich Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. We attempt to address the following topics with analyses on this pottery: 1) can LA-ICP-MS replicate the same groups previously identified by NAA and petrography; 2) can instrumental isolation of the clay fraction within the pottery replicate known patterns in raw clay source geochemistry in the Tuxtla Mountains; 3) can data for both the clay and volcanic ash fractions of each pottery sherd be combined to simulate the bulk INAA data? The results demonstrate that the clay fraction of the pottery sherds can be isolated. Furthermore, the LA-ICP-MS data for the clay fractions display nearly identical chemistry to available NAA data for raw clay samples collected from geological contexts in the region. Instrumentally isolating the clay fraction in this case eliminates the homogenizing effects of adding a common temper and increases the chemical separation among groups making it easier to identify clay procurement strategies for each specimen. However, focusing only on the clay fraction ignores significant tempering variation. Attempts to simulate the bulk NAA by combining LA-ICP-MS data for clays and temper was reasonably successful in reestablishing the tempering variation lost by exclusive focus on clays, but such an approach could not replace the more precise data generated from NAA and petrography.     

Are the United States and Europe heading for divorce?

If current headlines are to be believed, the United States and Europe are not just drifting apart. The question is, how serious is the rift? There are major differences between them–including differing regional priorities, diverging issue agendas and fundamentally different approaches to meeting the challenges of the post‐Cold War period. These differences suggest that the US‐European relationship will continue to drift. Although continued drift has its costs (notably in the missed opportunities for cooperation on a host of international issues), the US and Europe should recognize that this change in the terms and nature of their relationship is made possible by the very success of their fifty years of partnership, which has produced a Europe that today is more peaceful, democratic, and united than at any time in history.     

Strengthening the Foundations? Alternative Institutions for Finance and Development

The 21st century has ushered in the emergence of alternative institutions for liquidity provision and development finance, many of which are Southern‐led. The special issue that follows this Introduction assesses the extent to which existing theoretical perspectives and tools are sufficient for evaluating the implications of these alternatives for the global financial architecture. Our analysis finds that while an increasingly varied landscape of diverse institutions designed to foster financial stability and development comes with inherent risks, these new forms of finance bring real benefits to an architecture that has long been deemed insufficient. Larger and more capable Southern‐led institutions not only mean additional sources of financing for emerging market and developing countries, but also could increase their voice in an international financial architecture long dominated by the most advanced economies. That said, the variation in the landscape could create inequities and fault lines between new and existing institutions, which will be difficult to overcome through the coordination of a fragmented and diverse system. Finally, despite the increases in capital for liquidity provision and development made available by these new institutions, significantly more financing and coordination will be needed to achieve financial stability and economic development on a global scale.     

Searching for a Just and Lasting Peace? Anglo-American Relations and the Road to United Nations Security Council Resolution 242

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967 continues to rank as a key point of reference for the Arab-Israeli peace process. The resolution laid down a ‘land for peace’ formula for the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, under which Israel would withdraw from territories occupied during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War in exchange for full peace agreements with its Arab neighbours. This article analyses the Anglo-American diplomacy at the United Nations which led to the passing of the resolution. It argues that the policy-making of the Johnson administration was rendered incoherent by internal rivalries and disorganisation. US Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg, was perceived as excessively sympathetic to Israel by the Arab delegations. The British approach, by contrast, was perceived by all parties as more even-handed. The clear position adopted by Foreign Secretary George Brown on Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, together with the skilful diplomacy of the Ambassador to the UN, Lord Caradon, explains the British success in sponsoring Resolution 242. The episode holds broader lessons for the conduct of Anglo-American relations showing that Britain was better placed to achieve diplomatic success when it retained its freedom of manoeuvre in relations with the United States.     

Strategic Interaction and the Iran–Iraq War: Lessons to Learn for Future Engagement?

Using an interdisciplinary approach combining international relations and Middle Eastern studies, this research examines the Iran–Iraq war using the concepts of strategic interaction and reciprocity as theoretical anchors to illuminate more fully than previous investigations how these two states arrived at the point of war in 1980. Through a case study methodology, the findings demonstrate mixed results for the applicability of IR theory to fully explain the Iran–Iraq war. In particular, as a key interactive element of dyadic relationships, it was proposed that the accumulation of past interactions was likely to propagate future behavior with past conflictual interactions increasing the likelihood of future conflictual interactions and vice versa. The observed findings however indicate that time moderates this relationship such that shorter temporal periods are required to support the role of accumulation in influencing future relations.     

Employment and Training Alternatives for Non‐College Women: Do Redistributive Policies Really Redistribute?

Employment and training programs aimed at women and men without 4‐year college degrees address the needs of the majority of the working population. Noncollege women tend to hold lower‐paying jobs with fewer opportunities for advancement, compared with the opportunities noncollege men have. One type of policy seeks to increase the numbers of women in occupations where men hold most of the positions, or “nontraditional occupations for women” (NTOs). Since many NTOs require a college education, do such policies improve noncollege women's economic self‐efficacy? Is there a link between holding a nontraditional occupation and earning significantly higher wages? This study establishes that, indeed, these programs provide access to jobs that are linked to higher earnings. Such policies redistribute earnings opportunities to noncollege women successfully, and therefore improve the economic efficacy of noncollege women.     

What is Nationalism Really? Understanding the Limitations of Rigid Theories in Dealing with the Problems of Nationalism and Ethnonationalism

Abstract. This article examines major approaches to nationalism and ethnonationalism and posits a more flexible definition than that which is prevalent in these theories. It then goes on to look at how a more flexible approach to the study of nationalism can be used as a lens to both define and address the sources of nationalist and ethno-nationalist conflicts. The flexible approach leads to the conclusion that the character of a particular nationalism is highly context-sensitive and that the best way to understand the problems it creates is through an understanding of how the different levels of society interact with one another as well as with the outside world.