‘I think we cannot refuse the order’: Britain,America, nuclear non-proliferation,and the Indian Jaguar deal, 1974–1978

This article sheds light on the way in which British negotiations with India over the potential purchase of the Jaguar strike aircraft during the 1970s complicated global nuclear non-proliferation diplomacy. It argues that this case demonstrates British unwillingness to subordinate the economic well-being of the state to the requirements of non-proliferation diplomacy, even under pressure from the US government. Despite internal and external criticism (most notably from the administration of President Jimmy Carter) of the sale focusing on non-proliferation, it was the economic contentions of internal supporters arguing against a background of fiscal crisis that eventually won the day. Through analysis of this overlooked incident, this article adds to the complexity of nuclear non-proliferation history in the 1970s, offering an example of the interactions between the domestic priorities and the non-proliferation policy of an outwardly ‘leading’ anti-proliferationist state.     

Using Multilevel Models to Model Heterogeneity: Potential and Pitfalls

Within the last few years, geographers and researchers in other cognate disciplines with geographic concerns have begun to use multilevel models. While there are several useful existing introductory accounts of these models in the geographical literature, this paper seeks to extend them in three main ways to clarify and emphasize further the substantial opportunities they afford. First, it focuses on how multilevel models are centrally concerned with modeling population heterogeneity as a function of predictor variables. Second, it considers and illustrates a number of specific interpretive issues that can arise when conducting multilevel analyses of place effects. Lastly, it traces some more general, conceptual issues surrounding the use of multilevel models in geographical research. The arguments made are illustrated through an analysis of variations in drinking behavior using data from a typically complex, large‐scale survey; particular attention is given to the inclusion of categorical predictors.     

Stating the Difference: State,Discourse and Class Reproduction in Uttar Pradesh,India

Much development literature concerned with state–society relations operates with a simplistic state–people dichotomy. In contrast, this article focuses on the intersection between state and society and argues that this plays an important part in class reproduction in ‘civil society’. This issue is explored with reference to the role of the local state in class reproduction in the Indian countryside. The focus is on the means by which rural social groups negotiate access to the local state and discourses surrounding the state. The balance of colonization, co‐option and opposition that characterizes the relationship between dominant rural classes and local state officials/institutions is examined against the impact of the rise of a populist low class party. It is argued that the intersection between ‘class’ and ‘state’ is closer than even critical studies of state–society relations have posited. Moreover, the state can, within certain limits, be brought to serve interests other than those of the dominant classes.     

Global Governance: Poorly done and Poorly Understood

A set of ethical issues—tensions between democratization and globalization, about some ways in which the global inequalities have increased, and about gross failures of contemporary international cooperation—provide reason to consider our understanding of global governance and the political forces organized to support or transform it. Many scholars agree on the existence of a global polity characterized by the dominance of neo-liberalism, the growing network of both public and private regimes that extend across the world's largest regions, the system of global intergovernmental organizations, and transnational organizations both carrying out some of the traditional service functions of global public agencies and working to create regimes and new systems of international integration. Scholars who emphasize the historically contingent social construction of human institutions and who focus on the transformative potential of transnational social movements have provided the greatest insight into what can be done to confront the ethical issues raised by contemporary global governance. Almost all analysts agree that the current great powers cannot be relied upon to facilitate progressive change, although that is only one reason why global governance is likely to remain inefficient and incapable of shifting resources from the world's rich to the poor, even though it may continue to play a role in promoting liberal democracy and the empowering of women.     

Degrees without Freedom: The Impact of Formal Education on Dalit Young Men in North India

This article considers the capacity of formal education to undermine established processes of caste and class reproduction in an area of north India, with particular reference to the views and strategies of educated Dalit young men. It draws on quantitative and qualitative research conducted by the authors in a village in Bijnor district, western Uttar Pradesh (UP). We discuss how educated Dalit young men perceive education, how they seek to use educational credentials to obtain ‘respectable’ jobs, and how they react when this strategy fails. Increased formal education has given Dalit young men a sense of dignity and confidence at the village level. However, these men are increasingly unable to convert this ‘cultural capital’ into secure employment. This has created a reproductive crisis which is manifest in an emerging culture of masculine Dalit resentment. In response to this culture, Dalit parents are beginning to withdraw from investing money in young mens’ higher secondary and tertiary‐level education. Without a substantial redistribution in material assets within society, development initiatives focused on formal education are likely to be only partially successful in raising the social standing and economic position of subordinate groups.