Journals
2026 EN
Shore Cris
This article shows how management consultancy firms, particularly the Big Four, leveraged their position to become key brokers in English higher education, expanding their influence across multiple areas of governance and management. Aided by legislative changes designed to promote competition and enable for-profit providers to capture the rents provided by public higher education, these firms promote forms of marketization and privatization that are radically re-purposing the mission of the public university. Unbundling and financialization of university assets is central to that project. The article reveals how consultancy firms used the Covid 19 crisis not only to increase their influence but, through a series of ‘crisis narrative’ reports, to advocate strategies for fundamentally altering the entire public university system, locking in permanent changes and structures of managerialism that are anathema to the principles of public higher education. The article is a warning to policy-makers to beware the free-market fantasies and self-serving scenarios that these consultancy firms advocate.
Journals
2026 EN
Cavicchi Caterina · Romiti Anna · Vagi Emidia
+1 more
This article highlights the risk mitigation strategies that chief executive officers (CEOs) can utilize to alter the strategic position of their public healthcare organizations by capitalizing on opportunities presented by unprecedent crisis. On one side, the greater the need for the innovation strategy to reassess the mission, the more the CEOs must address the risk with the help of stakeholders. Conversely, those CEOs who chose not to reveal the innovation to safeguard its implementation are part of a regional healthcare system with a centralized governance structure. In such cases, the potential for sanctions did not hinder the CEOs’ proactive stance, as the advantages for the regional healthcare service from implementing the innovation were clear.
Journals
2026 EN
Tropeano Tommaso · Bellazzecca Enrico · Bengo Irene
The article speaks directly to policy-makers, local public administrations and municipalities responsible for implementing public–private partnerships (PPPs), non-profit organizations engaged in social missions, impact investors, and traditional private sector partners. It offers policy-makers and practitioners insights into how different social impact measurement (SIM) characteristics can be employed in PPPs. By examining the relational challenges that public and private actors face in collaborative efforts and the potential solutions offered by SIM practices, this research enriches the discourse on inter-sectoral collaboration theory and practice. The findings underscore the significance of aligning public and private actors to not only achieve economic efficiency but also generate substantial social impact. As PPPs continue to be instrumental in addressing grand challenges and mission-oriented policies, understanding how to incorporate SIM is imperative for sustainable and value-driven collaborations between public and private sector. By addressing these issues, the authors contribute to the ongoing dialogue on enhancing the efficacy of PPPs for mission-oriented policies.
Journals
2026 EN
Garcia Antonio · Flaspöler Anne
The United Nations’ (UN) contribution to Namibia’s independence with the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) is widely celebrated as a successful example of peacekeeping. Beyond already existing analyses of this mission, this article aims to provide an understanding of peacekeeping as a lived and narrated experience. In so doing, we consulted (auto)biographies, memoirs, interviews and oral histories of prominent figures and participants in UNTAG and Namibia’s independence. We find that the dominant narrative of remembrance among UN diplomats follows the script of UNTAG as a success story with support of the Contact Group; while SWAPO’s collective memory emphasises the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, and demands acknowledgement of UNTAG’s failures, in particular in the context of the incursion of SWAPO fighters. Contestation around this specific incident in part also exists among the UN diplomats involved seeking to shoot down, blame and provide justifications for their decision-making. Exploring the memory-making of UNTAG also revealed less prominent voices that provide a more nuanced picture of its heritage. Although this article sketches a complex account of UNTAG, it underlines the importance of seeking political solutions to violent conflicts and the many contributing factors that cannot be influenced – as the moment must be ‘ripe’ for peace.
Journals
2026 EN
Scherman Jean-Pierre
The South Africa’s Border War (1966–1989) is often described as the ‘Last Hot War of the Cold War’. However, no study has examined in detail the initial stages of this conflict, more especially the gradual militarization of operations along the border between northern South West Africa (SWA) (modern Namibia) and the Portuguese colony of Angola. Initially control of the border remained the responsibility of the South African Police (SAP) who patrolled the vast region in civilian soft-skinned vehicles. With the purchase by the South African Air Force of Alouette III helicopters from France in the 1960s, SAP leadership saw an opportunity to greatly increase their ability to control this large area of responsibility. After high level negotiations the South African Defence Force agreed to loan the SAP both helicopters, pilots and ground crews for utilisation in northern SWA. It was in this manner that the first members of the SADF found themselves working in what was ultimately to become the SADF operational area. This article, using primary documents from the South African Department of Defence Documentation Centre (Military Archives) seeks to track how the SADF through mission creep’ between 1965 to 1967 became inexplicably involved in northern SWA.
Journals
2026 EN
Kavugho Mission Sophie · Javelle Alex · Le Petit Lucie
+3 more
PES/PVP membranes are widely used at industrial scale for skim milk ultrafiltration aiming at protein content standardization. Membranes are systematically fouled by proteins which are removed twice a day using formulated detergents among which enzymatic detergents often appear to be an eco-friendly solution. In this study, proteases called subtilisins, are selected and incorporated into a detergent formulation whose only variable was the source of subtilisin. Since liquid enzymes are commercially available in stabilized form, this allows to focus on the role of stabilizing agents on cleaning performance, even at very low concentrations. The selected UF membrane (HFK-131, Koch) has been fouled by skim milk at 50°C. Then, the cleaning efficiency of the prototype detergents was evaluated at 50°C from the residual protein quantified on membrane by ATR-FTIR. With equivalent enzymatic activity, detergents based on each one of the three selected enzyme sources, removed at least 95% of the proteins present at start evidencing the high cleaning efficiency. Simultaneously, the water flux recovery post-cleaning ranged from 1.9 to 3.8 requiring detailed and complex analysis to interpret this value greater than 1. Aiming at such understanding, a de-formulation approach was undertaken, combined with complementary ATR-FTIR characterization of membranes at every step. The discussion provides an explanation of the WFR behaviour likely associated with the variation in membrane hydrophilicity resulting to detergent ingredient adsorption. Besides the role of one given surfactant of the formulation, the impact of enzyme stabilizers was also demonstrated with possible synergetic effects with other ingredients.
Journals
2026 EN
Tadmor Shimony Tali
This article examines the phenomenon of married female teachers who shared their family life and profession with male teachers and worked in Hebrew schools in Ottoman Palestine. These women created a model that did not adopt the gender definitions of national maternalism and rejected the choice between raising a family and independent self-fulfillment through a professional career. The four women who stand in the heart of this study were born in Tsarist Russia and immigrated to Ottoman Palestine to teach in the new education system. Their model was the product of the entanglement between the transnational and the local. It was born of the adoption, internalization, and integration of the model of the new woman molded in German universities and the model of the revolutionary woman, which was created in the radical networks of Tsarist Russia. A new society of young people without the supervision of the elders in the family encouraged the breakdown of some gender norms. However, the essential local agency was the unique characteristic of Hebrew education. The reality of nation-building gave educators an image of leadership and the fulfillment of a national mission that impacted the women it employed.
Journals
2026 EN
Jung Jihye
Why do some local religious organisations, particularly Christian foreign mission groups, dispatch missionaries beyond their geographical boundaries despite personal risks and negative political outcomes? Using quantitative data from the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) ( Tonghap ) and archival records related to global religious networks, this study investigates what drove Korean churches to enthusiastically send missionaries overseas from 1970 to 2010. The results highlight that these religious groups’ goals and motivations are driven by their involvement in international religious networks. I use a world polity theory and assess the influence of an international religious network, the Lausanne Movement, and its discourse on local religious actors’ motivations. The shared idea of the need to preach the gospel was a strong motivation for foreign missions via continuous interactions among domestic actors, national entities, and international networks. No strong evidence links religious groups’ organisational interests, sending overproduced seminary graduates overseas because they could not find domestic jobs, with the growth of foreign missions.
Journals
2026 EN
Foradori Paolo · Rosa Paolo
The protection of cultural heritage has become a crucial element of international peace and security, with “cultural peacekeeping” emerging as an important task in peace operations. The European Union, active in crisis management since 2003 with the deployment of over 40 missions and operations abroad, has been involved in this effort in recent years. By applying the theory of “EU actorness”, this article evaluates the extent to which the EU has established itself as a player in the protection of cultural heritage in conflicts and crises within the framework of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Six criteria of actorness are analysed through EU strategic documents, operational activities and interviews with EU officials, alongside a focused examination of the European Union Advisory Mission in Iraq (EUAM Iraq). The findings indicate that the EU’s actorness in cultural heritage protection is nascent and still developing. While progress has been made in a short time, the process remains incomplete and largely confined to a niche sector. However, the EU holds significant potential to become a leading actor, provided that expectations are matched with enhanced capabilities and sustained political commitment from both the EU and its Member States.
Journals
2026 EN
Romanyshyn Iulian · Bergmann Julian
In October 2022, the EU established a military assistance mission in support to Ukrainian armed forces (EUMAM Ukraine). The decision to launch the mission runs contrary to what one would intuitively expect from the EU, considering member states’ traditional divisions on Russia, alternative training initiatives, Ukraine’s lacklustre position and the mission’s unconventional design. Despite the growing literature on the EU’s response to Russian aggression, this puzzle has so far been overlooked. While a reformulation of EU member states’ security preferences driven by the heightened threat of an aggressive Russia is certainly necessary to explain the creation of EUMAM Ukraine, we argue that the launch and design of the mission can only be fully understood through a neofunctionalist approach, taking into account the effect of functional pressure and the activism of EU actors. The article shows how the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and the European External Action Service seized an initiative from member states and set the foundation for the mission of unprecedented scope and complexity. This finding illustrates the importance of Brussels-based actors in driving EU security and defence policy forward in times of existential security crisis in Europe.