‘Fighters without guns’: humanitarianism and military action in the aftermath of the Second World War

Abstract

This paper makes a contribution to the debate about the interplay between military action and humanitarian aid. It takes on the case study of post-World War Two Europe and in particular the activity carried out by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which offers a useful key for highlighting the entanglements between relief and reconstruction projects. It is from this perspective that the interaction between humanitarianism and military undertakings also acquires a special meaning, which recalls both the development of the international aid regime and the post-war history of Western countries. The matter will be addressed from two points of view. First to be analysed is the set of agreements stipulated by UNRRA and military authorities, for the zones under Allied administration after the liberation, but also with respect to specific areas of intervention, like the Displaced Persons Operations. The terms of the official agreements allow the delineation of the tasks actually assigned to the agency by the United Nations and the role of control and protection reserved for military organizations. Based on the formal agreements, it is already possible to reconstruct a vision of relief understood as the result of the inextricably linked action of military and humanitarian actors. Next, the interplay between different interpretations of activities to help civilians affected by the war will be examined. This section will focus on the personnel deployed by UNRRA, on their origins, and on duties they are called on to fulfil. People with extensive experience in the welfare sector were a substantial part of the personnel, but a significant number of UNRRA employees came from military ranks. This essay, therefore, has a twofold objective. It analyses the normative and institutional frame that shaped relief work in Liberated Europe. At the same time, it aims to uncover competition and cooperation between military and humanitarian actors in the field. The aim is to highlight how the co-construction of the aid operations between military and civilian personnel that occurred during the second post-war period followed a series of complex, nonlinear paths that conditioned the development of the humanitarian regime from within.     

New Indices for the Existing City-Centers Streets Network Reliability and Availability Assessment in Earthquake Emergency

During earthquake emergencies in existing city-centers, streets network permits inhabitants to reach safe areas, and rescuers to access damaged zones and help population. However, the network can suffer from blocks due to debris of collapsed or heavily damaged buildings. Understanding urban fabric modifications and classifying elements vulnerability are fundamental steps while dealing with risk-assessment and risk-reduction strategies. This article offers a first quick approach for assessing seismic vulnerability of paths network by considering interferences with building heritage damages. Quick data about existing urban fabric (e.g., buildings typology; streets and buildings geometries) are combined for developing new vulnerability indices for streets network. The earthquake macroseismic intensity is introduced for evaluating probable street blockages and summarizing the overall rating of risks in critical network locations, thus intensity that is not included in other current quick methods for streets-building interference is here taken into account. Risk-reduction strategies based on the proposed indices could minimize the interventions on architectural heritage, maximizing the safety of evacuees. These new indices could be combined with traditional assessment of buildings vulnerability, and evaluations on pedestrians’ and vehicles evacuation flows, for evaluating management strategies.     

Multi-technique characterization of dyes in ancient Kaitag textiles from Caucasus

Kaitag textiles, named after the Kaitag district of Southwest Daghestan, Russia, where it is being manufactured, are a unique embroidered textile art form. They were used by families on special occasions such as the birth, marriage or death of one of their members and were thus passed down from generation to generation as family heirlooms. Today, only a few hundred of these precious antique specimens can still be found, and surviving examples are mostly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this article, an extensive work for the scientific analysis of Kaitag textiles is presented as the logical continuance and updating of the investigations performed by thin layer chromatography almost two decades ago. A multi-technique approach involving the combined use of micro-invasive and nondestructive techniques suitable for in situ analyses was used, aiming to identify the colourants of Kaitag textiles and the inks employed for the underlying drawing. Analyses were performed by high-performance liquid chromatography, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, as well as visible reflectance spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence. In addition, infrared reflectography and ultraviolet fluorescence were employed to visualise underlying drawings and possible restorations. Corrosion phenomena observed in brown- and black-dyed areas were also investigated.     

Economic Governance and the Evolution of Industrial Districts Under Globalization: The Case of Two Mature European Industrial Districts

For many mature European industrial districts, the present decade has been one of trying (and often failing) to meet the difficult challenges posed by the rising tide of globalization. The future of these districts in the new global economy has become a key issue for regional and local development policy, and, in this respect, it has sparked a renewed interest in economic governance. Economic governance is important in that it underpins a region's long-term economic development path. This article is a contribution to the study of the economic governance of industrial districts and the related policy debate. The article does so by specifically exploring the economic governance issue by considering the experiences and challenges currently facing two mature European industrial districts in the global economy.     

Certainty, Severity, and Their Relative Deterrent Effects: Questioning the Implications of the Role of Risk in Criminal Deterrence Policy

In the late 1960s, Gary Becker incorporated into his formal model of deterrence theory an explicit statement that the theory's components—certainty and severity of punishment—are more or less influential than the other depending on an individual's preference for risk. The certainty of punishment is more influential than the severity of punishment in the decision of whether or not to commit crime if an individual is risk acceptant; if a criminal is risk averse, then the severity of punishment is more important than the certainty of punishment. Many aggregate deterrence studies arrive at estimates that reveal varying effects of the certainty and severity components of deterrence theory, with the certainty of punishment carrying the greater, and many times the only, weight. Leaning on Becker's extension of deterrence theory, empiricists assume that criminals have a preference for risk. Assertions that arrests and convictions are greater deterrent tools imply important worldly consequences because they indicate to governmental authorities where resources should be invested to insure the best deterrent payoff. In this article, I question both the need to take risk into consideration in aggregate‐level deterrence studies and the empirical evidence that has been offered in support of attaching greater weight to the certainty of punishment. I show, first, that deterrence theory, from an applied policy standpoint, is encumbered through the explicit consideration of risk preferences. Next, I work through the algebra of the statistical formulations of deterrence models and demonstrate that the greater weight associated with certainty could well be an artifact of the model specification. Finally, I reanalyze data that appear to be consistent with the greater weight for certainty than severity argument and show that the evidence does not support that inference. Potential criminals mentally combine the three deterrence components—regardless of whether they are risk neutral, averse, or acceptant. I conclude by considering what it means to a worldly application of criminal deterrence theory to place equal weight on the certainty and the severity of punishment.     

Stand der Internationalisierung von kleineren Unternehmen aus den Ziel-2-Gebieten Nordrhein- Westfalens

Das Projekt "Europa-Fit" unterstützt kleinere Unternehmen aus den Ziel-2-Gebieten in Nordrhein-Westfalen bei der Erschließung neuer Absatz-, Beschaffungs- und Kooperationsmöglichkeiten innerhalb der Europäischen Union. Durch Beratung, Qualifizierung und Coaching werden ausgewählte Kleinbetriebe auf ihrem Weg in den EU-Binnenmarkt individuell begleitet. Zur Bedarfsermittlung und Auswahl geeigneter Betriebe wurde im Vorfeld von den Partnerorganisationen—dem Rationalisierungs- und Innovationszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (RKW NRW), der Landesgewerbeförderungsstelle des nordrhein-westfälischen Handwerks e.V. (LGH) und dem Zentrum für Innovation und Technik in Nordrhein- Westfalen GmbH (ZENIT)—im November 2001 eine schriftliche Unternehmensbefragung von kleineren Unternehmen bis ca. 70 Mitarbeitern durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Befragung sollen in dem folgenden Artikel zusammenfassend dargestellt werden. Den Abschluß bildet ein kurzer Abriss der ersten Erfahrungen, die im Projekt Europa-Fit gemacht wurden.

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Mapping a Future: Archaeology,Feminism, and Scientific Practice

Drawing on work in science studies, I argue for the importance of fieldwork and research practices when considering the relative significance of feminism within archaeology. Fieldwork, often presented as the unifying hallmark of all of anthropology, has a different resonance in archaeology at the level of material practice and specific techniques. In order to understand the relationship between archaeology and feminism we need to investigate methods, methodology, and interpretations of the material record simultaneously. Examining one practice, that of map making, I suggest venues amenable to feminist insights.     

Competitiveness through integration in the European Union Strategy for the Alpine Region: a ‘balanced development’ approach

In the last 10 years, the European Union has devoted specific attention and resources to the establishment of macro-regional strategies, with the objective of joining together transnational areas to favour the effective and organized management of common challenges. In most macro-regions, however, the identification of strategies to increase competitiveness is a rather difficult task, given the extreme internal diversity in economic activities. Focusing on the youngest macro-regional strategy – EUSALP – this paper highlights the specific combinations of territorial growth assets that allow to overcome the inefficient use of local abundant strategic resources, in line with a ‘balanced development’ approach. The results, obtained on the basis of a database gathered at NUTS3 level, are useful to provide policy suggestions to support the competitiveness of EUSALP through synergies and complementarities, according to a cooperation networks perspective.