Journals
2009 EN
Bonds Eric
U.S. and Canadian peace activists traveled to Iraq as a social movement tactic, in the buildup to the war and during the war itself, in an attempt to sustain or increase peace activism at home. Based on interviews with fourteen peace activists, this study analyzes how the presence of antiwar activists in Iraq serves two social movement goals. First, their presence in Iraq bestowed activists increased access to media, bolstering their ability to reframe the war within mainstream media accounts. Second, by traveling to Iraq, activists furnished themselves with stories of the hardships and suffering of war to share with audiences at home. By retelling these narratives, activists provide opportunities and obligations for audience members to imaginatively take the role of Iraqi civilians, in the hope that audience members will practice moral reasoning and be consequently moved to act against the war. To provide these role‐taking opportunities, peace activists must also engage in a political struggle over “otherhood” by countering official attempts to dehumanize Iraqis.
Journals
2009 EN
Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan
Prior studies usually "guesstimated" the extent of the Vietnamese population9s involvement in the armed forces during the Vietnamese War. Using a sociodemographic approach, this study analyzes innovative and regionally representative data from the Vietnam Longitudinal Survey to examine the prevalence of military experience among successive cohorts of men in the Red River Delta, and to assess how their military experiences varied across the periods of war, peace, and social change. In addition, it also addresses whether social class bias in military selection existed in northern Vietnam with respect to who was called to serve in the military.
University of California Press
Journals
2009 EN
Agnieszka Zemke-Górecka
According to the WHO’s report, the concept of the health system (called the system of health protection) comprises by its scope all organizations, institutions and resources that are intended for health activities1. The health system in Poland covers a group of institutions whose aim is to organize, fi nance and, most of all, provide health services and promote health. After the World War II the system of health protection in Poland was based on the Beveridge’s model, the so called procurement model, which was called health service. As a result of the reforms carried out in the last decade in Poland we are dealing with a mixed model of fi nancing health services. On the one hand the Bismarck model is binding, which is the so called insurance model based on a premium paid by an insured person or the state budget, and on the other hand, a certain scope of health services (highly specialized) is fi nanced by the state budget. Since 1999 the health care has been supported from several sources of fi nance. The largest revenue thereof come from health insurance premiums which are collected by the National Health Fund. The state budget is the second largest source of public fi nance followed by the budgets of local self-government units whose income comes from taxes and local charges, state budget transfers and outof-budget target funds, and, to a certain minor extent, from social organizations’ resources, e.g. foundations which supply the system of health care with fi nancial means. Incomes of households, working places funds, private health insurance funds and charitable organizations’ funds play an important role among private sources of fi nancing health care2. A problem of fi nancial resources is a key element of all and any considerations connected with the health care reform.
Journals
2009 EN
Jānis Pleps
Summary The Latvian road towards inclusion of the fundamental rights catalogue in the constitution started with proclamation of the state on November 18, 1918. The initial transitional constitutions already included according to their laconic style rather extensive guarantees of the fundamental rights. Mostly that means guarantees for national minorities. In the inter-war period, the catalogue of the fundamental rights was not considered as a significant component of the constitution content. The norms of the catalogue were generally perceived as “declarative slogans”, which had little practical significance. Much greater importance was assigned by the politicians and jurists to the laws adopted by the parliament with regards to the procedure of implementing certain fundamental rights. Latvian Constitutional Assembly has included “The Basic regulations regarding rights and regulations of the citizens” as a second part of the Constitution. The German Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919 was used as a pattern for the draft of this part of the Constitution. The draft of the second part of Constitution prescribed a range of civic and political individual rights and freedoms. Parallel to that, the draft of the second part of the Constitution contained articles, which prescribed the state responsibility to protect the nationally-cultural autonomy of minorities, monuments of art, history, and nature, as well as marriage as the foundation of the family. The second part of the Constitution also dealt with the some social matters. Unfortunately, the second part of the Constitution was not adopted, leaving the regulation of this matter for the upcoming generations, which was completed only ten years ago.
Journals
2009 SP
Hugo Fernando Guerrero Sierra
La Organizacion de las Naciones Unidas surgio como respuesta a un periodo marcado por las dos Guerras Mundiales, principalmente por la Segunda Guerra. El Consejo de Seguridad uno de sus principales organos, cuyo fin primordial es el mantenimiento de la paz y la seguridad internacional, ha mostrado deficiencias en cuanto a su eficacia y credibilidad, ya que no cumple con los lineamientos de los conflictos que se viven actualmente. Por estos motivos se pretende y es de gran importancia generar una reforma que logre mantener el equilibrio geografico global con el fin de defender los principios de igualdad ante el Derecho Internacional. Por tanto, asignar escanos a otros paises, sobre una base regional y de acuerdo a la distribucion geografica equitativa y la capacidad para contribuir a las operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz, debe establecerse como una prioridad. Por esto se ha insistido categoricamente en una reforma, para lograr que la ONU y especificamente el Consejo de Seguridad, su organo mas influyente, este acorde con las necesidades y la problematica del actual escenario internacional. Abstract The United Nations Organization was a response to a period marked by the two World Wars, mainly because of World War II. The Security Council one of its major organs, with the purpose of maintaining international peace and security, has shown shortcomings in terms of its effectiveness and credibility, it does not comply with the guidelines of the conflicts that currently live. For these reasons it is intended and is of great importance to generate a reform that achieves global geographical balance in order to uphold the principles of equality under international law. Therefore, assigning seats to other countries on a regional basis and in accordance with equitable geographical distribution and capacity to contribute to the maintenance of peace, there must be a priority. Therefore it is strongly insisted on a reform to make the UN and specifically the Security Council, its most influential body, is consistent with the needs and problems of the current international scene.
Journals
2009 EN
Henrik Zetterberg · Magnus Båth · Madeleine Zetterberg
+2 more
This year marks the 50th anniversary of a nearly forgotten hypothesis on aging by Leo Szilard, best known for his pioneering work in nuclear physics, his participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II, his opposition to the nuclear arms race in the postwar era, and his pioneering ideas in biology. Given a specific set of assumptions, Szilard hypothesized that the major reason for the phenomenon of aging was aging hits, e.g., by ionizing radiation, to the gene-bearing chromosomes and presented a mathematical target-hit model enabling the calculation of the average and maximum life span of a species, as well as the influence of increased exposure to DNA-damaging factors on life expectancy. While many new findings have cast doubt on the specific features of the model, this was the first serious effort to posit accumulated genetic damage as a cause of senescence. Here, we review Szilard's assumptions in the light of current knowledge on aging and reassess his mathematical model in an attempt to reach a conclusion on the relevance of Szilard's aging hypothesis today.
Journals
2009 EN
Martin P. Botha
Historical Context Although 1994 saw the birth of democracy in South Africa the South African film industry is much older. In fact, our great documentary film tradition dates back to 1896 and the Anglo Boer War(1). Surprisingly only a few books have been published regarding the history of one of the oldest film industries in the world and one of the largest on the African continent. Between 1910 and 2008 1434 features were made in South Africa (Armes 2008). Approximately 944 features were made in the period between 1978 and 1992, as well as nearly 998 documentaries and several hundred short films and videos (Blignaut & Botha 1992).
Journals
2009 EN
Peter Hall · Andrew James
The defense industry in the United Kingdom has experienced significant structural change since the end of the Cold War. Consolidation has occurred and overseas suppliers have entered while some domestic prime contractors have exited. The implications of consolidation for innovation have been studied in the U.S. environment but much less so in the case of Britain. In this article we report briefly on the changes to structure and review the theory and empirical evidence that suggests how such change might be related to innovation. Firms’ own-financed R&D in British defense industry is proposed as a useful indicator of innovation activity and is observed to have fallen sharply. Possible explanations are sought in the recently-revived inverted-U hypothesis linking competition to innovation, and in government demand fluctuations and British defense procurement reforms. The authors caution against government taking policy action to influence industry structure until more and better data are available to analyze the potential consequences. Investigating in-contract incentives to encourage industry innovation are recommended as a possible alternative.
Economists for Peace and Security
Journals
2009 EN
Zulfan Tadjoeddin · Anis Chowdhury
Focused around the greed and/or grievance theses, a large part of the economics of conflict literature concerns itself with civil war. This article provides socioeconomic perspectives on contemporary conflict in Indonesia. Three categories of violent conflict in the country are separatist violence, ethnic/sectarian violence, and routine violence. We argue that two elements of the grievance argument, namely relative deprivation and horizontal inequality, are particularly useful for analyzing the Indonesian case. In contrast, the greed hypothesis does not appear to provide as strong an explanation of violent conflict events in Indonesia.
Economists for Peace and Security
Journals
2009 EN
Ana María Ibáñez
The article describes the magnitude, geographical extent, and causes of forced populationdisplacements in Colombia. Forced migration in Colombia is a war strategy adopted by armed groups to strengthen territorial strongholds, weaken civilian support to the enemy, seize valuable lands, and produce and transport illegal drugs with ease. Forced displacement in Colombia today affects 3.5 million people. Equivalent to 7.8 percent of Colombia’s population, and second worldwide only to Sudan, this shows the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis the country is facing. The phenomenon involves all of Colombia’s territory and nearly 90 percent of the country’s municipalities expel or receive population. In contrast to other countries, forced migration in Colombia is largely internal. Illegal armed groups are the main responsible parties, migration does not result in massive refugee streams but occurs on an individual basis, and the displaced population is dispersed throughout the territory and not focused in refugee camps. These characteristics pose unique challenges for crafting state policy that can effectively mitigate the impact of displacement.
Economists for Peace and Security