bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Safety of Outpatient Surgery for Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Authors: Baugh Reginald , Burke Bonnie , Fink Brian , Garcia Richard , Kominsky Alan , Yaremchuk Kathleen
Published: March 2013

Objective

Determine the safety experience of adult obstructive sleep apnea patients undergoing airway surgery.

Study Design

A retrospective cohort study.

Setting

The experience of members of a large Medicaid managed care organization between January 10, 2009, and June 30, 2011.

Subjects and Methods

Four hundred fifty‐two adult Medicaid obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients (404 ambulatory, 48 inpatient) receiving head and neck airway surgery form the basis of this report. Four safety indicators were reported from administrative data for 30 days: emergency room visit, inpatient admission, observation day, and 3 or more primary care physician visits. The occurrence of myocardial infarction, deep venous thrombosis, stroke, pulmonary embolism, tracheostomy, or transfusion was noted.

Results

Ninety‐four percent of the nasal, 86% of the palatal, and 79% of the nasal/palatal surgeries (89% overall) were ambulatory. The observed catastrophic complication rate among ambulatory patients was zero (95% confidence interval, 0.0%‐1.1%). Emergency room visits for pain‐related diagnoses were the most common adverse outcome (51%). Administrative data sets can be used to provide insight into practice safety questions.

Conclusion

Contrary to guidelines, most OSA patients underwent ambulatory head and neck airway surgery. The observed catastrophic complication rate was zero. Administrative data sets can be used to provide insight into practice safety questions. Further study is warranted of ambulatory surgery management of adult sleep apnea patients.
Chrematistic Deviations
Authors: Bay Thomas
Published: March 2013

What was actually produced when the first derivatives wriggled their way out of the conventional financial trajectories? When one understood that a transaction did not have to be a transaction of something, but that the transaction itself, which was nothing, could be transacted? And what does this tell us about the functioning of the economy? These questions will be addressed by making a detour through some passages in Aristotle’s economic writings, hoping thereby to demonstrate that financial derivation, far from being simply a hyperbolic tool of speculation, is an economic geno-practice, the productive play, the mobility itself, of economy, its inventive, deviatory clinamen or line of flight on which new ‘economies’ are engendered.
The Rhetoric of Financial Literacy
Authors: Ohlsson Claes
Published: March 2013

This article concerns the use of rhetoric strategies in call for improved financial literacy and financial education. The article combines a presentation of how rhetoric is used in financial literacy improvement initiatives and a discussion on the benefits of including a rhetoric framework in future studies of financial literacy and of finance economy in everyday life. The examples are sampled from the OECD website IGFE and from country-specific initiatives and programmes for improving levels of financial literacy in the general public. The central issue of the article is how the notions of objectivity and rationality together are prevailing as a general theme in the current discourse of the field. The discussion includes how information on financial matters is presented in programme initiatives from mainly an objective and rational perspective and in this sense even may be seen as being ‘anti-rhetoric’. The notion of information accessibility does in this sense become a question of individual activity where the possibility to take ‘financial charge’ of the situation is linked to being able to process ‘objective’ information about financial markets and instruments. The rhetoric patterns of perceived rationality in the studied initiatives can further be seen as linked to personal morality and the incentive to be financially literate in order to control one’s personal economy.
Financial Economics and Non-representative Art
Authors: Schinckus Christophe
Published: March 2013

In this article, I consider financial economics as an artistic science in which interpretation plays a key role. After having reminded the importance of the Efficient Market Hypothesis [EMH] in the development of institutional frameworks, we present EMH as a work of art—we illustrate this point by considering EMH as an ironic and a non-representative art in which the theoretical picture tends to replace the reality (thanks to technology). This process leads to the creation of a ‘hyper-reality’ that is paradoxically unable to predict or to explain the financial reality. In line with a postmodernist perspective of science, I claim here that financial economics and technology are used not to describe or to better understand the financial reality but rather to invent it.
The moral basis of a forward society: Relations and forms of localism in Italy
Authors: Osti Giorgio
Published: March 2013

The article deals with different manifestations of localism in Italy. The beginning of research on localism, with the exclusion of older backward community studies, can be dated to the 1980s. It has three main areas of meaning: as the space directly controlled by the senses; as the source of a special economic development; as the desirable level of governance. However, all these perspectives neglect the importance of relations and their spatial form. This is compensated with the assembly of a framework of local places based on the length and symmetry of relations; an operation which yields four types of locale: island, ghetto, periphery and network. The article uses this framework to analyse manifestations of localism in Italy. These are industrial districts, midstream regional federalism, and the rise of the Northern League party. Political mobilisation is considered to be the final and most inclusive dimension of localism. Such mobilisation signals a forward local society no longer based on amoral familism.
A qualitative study exploring patients’ and carers’ experiences of Early Supported Discharge services after stroke
Authors: Cobley Christine S , Fisher Rebecca J , Chouliara Niki , Kerr Micky , Walker Marion F
Published: March 2013

Objective:

To investigate patients’ and carers’ experiences of Early Supported Discharge services and inform future Early Supported Discharge service development and provision.

Design and subjects:

Semi-structured interviews were completed with 27 stroke patients and 15 carers in the Nottinghamshire region who met evidence-based Early Supported Discharge service eligibility criteria. Participants were either receiving Early Supported Discharge or conventional services.

Setting:

Community stroke services in Nottinghamshire, UK.

Results:

A thematic analysis process was applied to identify similarities and differences across datasets. Themes specific to participants receiving Early Supported Discharge services were: the home-based form of rehabilitation; speed of response; intensity and duration of therapy; respite time for the carer; rehabilitation exercises and provision of technical equipment; disjointed transition between Early Supported Discharge and ongoing rehabilitation services. Participants receiving Early Supported Discharge or conventional community services experienced difficulties related to: limited support in dealing with carer strain; lack of education and training of carers; inadequate provision and delivery of stroke-related information; disjointed transition between Early Supported Discharge and ongoing rehabilitation services.

Conclusions:

Accelerated hospital discharge and home-based rehabilitation was perceived positively by service users. The study findings highlight the need for Early Supported Discharge teams to address information and support needs of patients and carers and to monitor their impact on carers in addition to patients, using robust outcome measures.
The Canadian planetary emulation terrain 3D mapping dataset
Authors: Tong Chi Hay , Gingras David , Larose Kevin , Barfoot Timothy D , Dupuis Érick
Published: March 2013

This paper describes a collection of 272 three-dimensional laser scans gathered at two unique planetary analogue rover test facilities in Canada, which offer emulated planetary terrain at manageable scales for algorithmic development. This dataset is subdivided into four individual subsets, each gathered using panning laser rangefinders on different mobile rover platforms. This data should be of interest to field robotics researchers developing rover navigation algorithms suitable for use in three-dimensional, unstructured, natural terrain. All of the data are presented in human-readable text files, and are accompanied by Matlab parsing scripts to facilitate use thereof. This paper provides an overview of the available data.
Diagnostic Exercise
Authors: Gelberg H. B.
Published: March 2013

A 5-year-old, spayed female, domestic short-haired cat had a 10-day history of sudden behavioral changes followed by seizures. Blood parameters were in the reference ranges, and radiographs failed to detect a mass lesion in the brain. Euthanasia was followed by rabies testing, which was negative. Gross lesions were absent. Histologic changes were present only in the brain and consisted of foci of hippocampal pyramidal cell loss, mild gliosis, pallor of the associated neuropil, and neovascularization.
Eclecticism as an Ideological Alternative: An African Perspective
Authors: Mazrui Ali A.
Published: March 2013

At least since the beginning of this century Africa has been an intellectual melting pot. The penetration of external intellectual influences, started earlier, gathered momentum more recently, and assumed most diverse forms in the last seventy to eighty years. Both Islam and Christianity as systems of ideas came to Africa from their earliest days. Ethiopia has been Christian longer than many parts of Europe, including England. And North Africa was substantially Islamized in the first century of Muhammad's religion, which later spread to other parts of the continent. Each had ideas and values which have direct political implications. After examining the role of culture in imperialism, the entry of liberal and capitalist values in Africa, the rise of modern nationalism, the fascination of Marxism among black intellectuals, and the obstinate resilience of many traditional African values, the essay comes to the conclusion that creative eclecticism (implying a genius for selectivity, for synthesizing disparate elements, and for ultimate independent growth in the intellectual field) is the only ideological alternative compatible with African autonomy in modern conditions.
Economic Justice: Appraisal of Quito Declaration
Authors: Richards Howard , Lopehandia Juan Meza
Published: March 2013

Controversy still surrounds the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 12 December, 1974 with the overwhelming affirmative votes of the developing countries, supported by the countries with planned economies, the industrialized capitalist countries either opposing or abstaining. The idea of economic rights and duties was first mooted by the President of Mexico, Luis Echeverria Alvarez, at the UNCTAD meeting m Santiago, Chile, on 19 April, 1972. Subsequently, the series of international meetings that were held to prepare a draft brought out the fundamental divergencies between the viewpoints of the industrialized capitalist northwest and the rest of the world. This paper analyzes one of those meetings, the one held at Quito, Ecuador, in March 1973 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America. It then goes on to examine some historical considerations that shed light on the viewpoint of the Latin American spokespersons in global councils.
Overseas Expansion of Japanese Business Enterprises: Danger and Corrective
Authors: Nishikawa Jun
Published: March 2013

Japanese overseas enterprises, like multinational corporations of the West, dominated as they are by private investment interests, pose a variety of dangers no less to Japan herself than to the countries in which they operate. Deeply concerned at this situation, the Gendai Sogo Kenkyu Shudan (Study Group for New Socio-economic Institution), a think tank composed of trade unionists, journalists, researchers and university teachers, published in January 1974 a ‘Proposal Concerning the Overseas Expansion of Japanese Business Enterprises’, designed to so regulate their functioning as to make them instruments of promoting the welfare of peoples and safeguarding peace. This paper summarises the proposal and throws light on the thinking underlying it.
Meaningful Social Theory: The Cross-Civilizational Perspective
Authors: Abdel-Malek Anouar
Published: March 2013

Although there is an outcrop of theories in social and human sciences, none of them is adequate to explain the reality of the fast-changing and vastly complex world of today, primarily because, in spite of the pretentious labels they bear and the seemingly conflicting ideologies they espouse, they are all moored to one particular civilizational perspective (that of the West). The author argues that the only meaningful theory can be one that is cross-civilizationally comparative, because such a theory alone can mediate the conflictual restructuring of world power, now unmistakably under way.
The Future of International System
Authors: Nathan James A.
Published: March 2013

There are at least three ways we can describe international political behavior: (1) We can view international relations as taking place in an arena marked by military competition for the scarce commodity named security; (2) we can see international political behavior as a complex set of human interaction, where the ‘high politics’ of military policy is being eroded by the increasing stalemate of power and the emergence of global interdependencies; and (3) we can see international politics as an arena of moral obligation. Each of these views implies a different prognosis of the future. A future world based on power seems, however, little likely, given the diminishing utility of the state to serve traditional security ends and the erosion of the use of force. An increasingly interdependent world is possible, but there is no governmental structure presently developing which seems likely to manage these dependencies. And there is little likelihood the third view will receive sufficient institutional sustenance.
Self-Reliance as Alternative Strategy for Development
Authors: Parthasarathi Ashok
Published: March 2013

In September 1973, the Pugwash Movement realigned its sights on international collaboration in scientific and technological research as the surest means of promoting development in the Third World, when at its Twenty-third General Conference at Aulanko, Finland, it came to the conclusion that experience having proved its earlier premises to be false, explorations needed to be made in self-reliance as an alternative strategy. Accordingly, it held a Symposium in June 1975 at Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, which was attended by 20 participants from the three developing continents and from North America and Europe. There were also some observers from UN agencies. At its conclusion, the Symposium directed the author, who had acted as the rapporteur of the Symposium, to prepare a report along the ‘outlines’ unanimously approved by the participants. The following essay is the result of his labours. It examines the genesis of the concept of self-reliance, explains the concept itself, outlines the transitional steps, spells out the implications for international organizations as well as developing countries, and gives the guidelines of action by the Pugwash Movement itself.
The Fourth World War
Authors: Stanbery James
Published: March 2013

The author sees the skirmishes at the UN in which US has been engaged For quite some time now as a prelude to a real war on the world body. This he characterizes as the fourth world war in which the first salvos were fired by the US representative John Scali on 6 December, 1974. The conflict has an economic dimension: The US is dead set against a new economic order, which the poor countries are clamoring for, because it would necessitate the scaling down of its reckless overconsumption; it is dead set, too, against allocating 1% of its GNP (which is one-third of what it spent on the Vietnam war) to the development of Third World countries. The conflict has also an ethnic dimension, both direct and indirect. Direct racial prejudice was in evidence during the discussions on South Africa and Isreal; indirect prejudice stems from the belief that the US is God's gift to the world, which leads the US to equate its own good with the good of the world. This war could be halted if US citizens created, through their movements, the kind of climate in which US courts could act on the ground that the US Constitution makes the UN Charter ‘the supreme law of the land’.
The Oil Crisis and the Emerging World Order
Authors: Baumgartner Tom , Burns Tom R. , Deville Philippe
Published: March 2013

The paper outlines a conceptual framework for understanding and analyzing the structuring of an institutional order. Particular attention is given to developments which make institution restructuring likely – for instance power shifts which favor actors with a different vision or model of an appropriate institutional order. The framework is applied in a brief historical study of the development of post-World War II international economic institutions and current developments associated with the ‘oil crisis’. This conceptual framework and historical investigation provides a basis on which to formulate propositions indicating potential sources of conflict and cooperation and certain ambiguities and dynamics of current institution restructuring in the international system. The paper concludes by outlining several action guidelines for structuring new global cultural forces and institutional forms related to bringing about a New International Economic Order.
International Energy Crisis and the Socialist Countries
Authors: Guha Amalendu
Published: March 2013

If the oil crisis (precipitated by the sharp rise in prices consequent upon the decision of the oil-producing countries of the Middle East to use oil as a political weapon) did not produce in the socialist countries, both of Europe and of Asia, the traumatic shock waves that it produced in the West, it was partly because of their socio-economic structure and partly because of their judicious use and sharing between themselves of their overall energy resources, reinforced with appropriate conservation measures. The paper therefore goes beyond such emergency measure as might have been necessary to take stock of their energy resources, discuss their oil policy (with special reference to the East-West and North-South dimensions), analyse their pricing policy, and throw light on their efforts, both short-term and long-term, to augment their resources.
The Anarchical Stream in World Order Thinking
Authors: Swazo Norman K.
Published: March 2013

This essay attempts to discuss the relationships between political culture, functionalist political theory, and anarchical principles within the context of world order and global reform. It focuses upon the cultural element in world political action, emphasizing the significance of moral preferences and fundamental value orientations. It argues for serious consideration of the anarchical stream in world order thinking as discussion about global reform focuses on the formulation of alternative strategies.
Regionalism versus Globalism
Authors: Bahm Archie J.
Published: March 2013

This paper is a response to the plea for regional regrouping of states in the context of global dominance-dependency structure (Kothari, 1974). It begins by pointing out the misconceptions, stated or implicit, about the First and Third Worlds and the uncertainties regarding the Second World, from which such a proposal stems. The paper then goes on to argue for a minimal world government (made particularly urgent by the crises arising primarily from a cultural lag caused by the confrontation between changed conditions and unchanged habit of thought and mode of behavior. The world government is conceived in terms of replacing both legislatures and popular ballots by a system giving primacy to policy-making (based on rigorously scientific criteria) by voter-legislators, self-elected by virtue of their proven competence in understanding all aspects of the issues requiring policy decisions. Such a government can be built up through further theoretical developments, experimental demonstrations, and the establishment of an initiating agency, using strategies designed to appeal at once to the self-interest of developed as well as developing nations. The paper makes a number of suggestions in this regard.
Disarmament and Development: Structural Linkages
Authors: Bandyopadhyaya Jayantanuja
Published: March 2013

The paper takes note of a contemporary phenomenon that is at once a spectacular economic paradox and a shocking moral predicament, brought into sharp focus, on the one hand, by the astronomical defense budgets of the major industrialized military powers and, on the other, by the abysmal poverty of the large majority of mankind, particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is no longer generally disputed that even with a little disarmament (that would in no way jeopardize national security) on the part of the big military powers vast economic resources could be released, and that the transfer of even a small portion of these resources to the developing nations could make a major positive contribution to the letter's economic growth. The United Nations has been seriously concerned with this question since 1959, largely as a result of a persistent demand from Third World countries. And yet, if no progress in this direction is being made, it is because the domestic structural obstacles, both systemic and subsystemic, built into the socio-politico-economic systems of these industrialized countries, whether of the West or of the East, have proved too strong. To dismantle them, a concerted and sustained attack will have to be launched on those forces (comprising the political-military-industrial complex) within the domestic subsystems of the United States and the Soviet Union which fuel the arms race in their own interests. The strong external inputs and stimuli that will be inevitably needed to help the domestic factors and forces working in this behalf can be provided only by the United Nations, two-thirds of whose membership is made up of the developing countries now striving for the restructuring of the entire international order such as to make it more just and equitable and, hence, more peaceful.
Curbing International Transfers of Arms and Military Technology
Authors: Väyrynen Raimo
Published: March 2013

The magnitude of the value and quantity of transfers of arms and military technology, the internationalization and commercialization of armaments industry (through vastly increased direct investments, through co-production, licensing and sub-contracting arrangements), the supply of training and technical services as adjuncts of arms supply, the blurring of the dividing line between military and civilian technology - all have made control measures infinitely more complicated and difficult. What compounds the difficulty is the fact that, since an overwhelmingly preponderant portion of arms transfers is made up of government-to-government transactions, control measures must emanate from supplying and/or receiving governments. But even if by some miracle these measures were forthcoming and proved effective, they will have touched only a small part of the problem of disarmament, because the share of international transfers of arms and military technology amounts to only 5–6% of the total world military expenditure. The other, far larger and more intractable, part relates to the staggering stockpiles of both conventional and nuclear weapon systems, almost wholly concentrated in the hands of the two superpowers. Both transfers and stockpiles of armaments are inextricably enmeshed in the existing international structure, epitomized in a dominance-dependency relationship. The paper examines the measures that the supplier nations and recipient nations can take unilaterally, bilaterally and multilaterally to curb arms transfers, and comes to the conclusion that unilateral initiatives, especially on the part of receiving nations, are more feasible. Not to take such initiatives on the ground that they cannot succeed unless taken in concert is only an excuse for doing nothing.
Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace: An African Perspective
Authors: Mugomba Agrippah T.
Published: March 2013

This paper analyzes the reasons why South Africa looms so large in the African perspective on the subject of Indian Ocean as a zone of peace. Because South Africa plays a pivotal role in both defending and promoting Western political, economic and military interests (brought into sharp focus by the closing of the Suez Canal and again by the oil squeeze), it successfully secures the support - sometimes open but always tacit - of the Western powers, which it then uses, not only to buttress its brutal racist minority regime internally, but also to expand its domination externally in the southern part of the continent. South Africa has acquired an additional leverage with the West in its international power game by virtue of the fact that it is a major uranium producer. Furthermore, the West, primarily America, would find South Africa very useful in its interventions in Southern Africa both to prevent a radical change in the status quo and to have unhindered access to the vast natural resources of the region. With South Africa's clandestine nuclearization, with the connivance if not collusion of some Western countries, its capacity for thwarting African aspirations has increased enormously.
Deterrence: With Weapons or Without?
Authors: Deshingkar G.D.
Published: March 2013

The current theories of deterrence, patterned on animal behaviour, are based on holding out the threat of physical punishment to the adversary in order to prevent him from taking any action detrimental to oneself. In today's world, the ultimate deterrence being the nuclear weapon, the superpowers have accumulated enormous stockpiles of thermonuclear weapons which, if used, will extinguish human life. Having built up the stockpiles, the nuclear-weapon powers are obliged to create and sustain mythologies which justify their possession of such weapons. At the same time, the internal logic of such mythologies has created an ever-spiralling arms race. Disarmament, redefined as arms limitation, has meant rearmament in the interests of ‘deterrence stability’. Since the the nuclear-weapon powers have shown themselves to be unwilling to disarm, the non-weapon powers have two courses open before them. One is to make the game of deterrence extremely dangerous by developing their own weapons of man-destruction. This, however, besides being a desparate measure, is entering into the game rather than ending it. The other more ‘human’ course is to resort to such ‘non-weapon deterrents’ as massive education programmes to expose the fragility of the current doctrines, mobilization of public opinion for disarmament, and survival planning for the human race.
Alternative Life-Styles: A Third World Perspective
Authors: Roy Ramashray
Published: March 2013

There is a fundamental difference between the search for an alternative ways of life on the part of certain sections in the rich, industrialized West and on the part of the elites of the poor, underdeveloped Third World. In the West, this search stems from a sensitivity to the pernicious consequences of a material civilization - such as the fragmentation of institutional structure and consequently its incapability to provide a ‘rational’ basis for individual identity formation and control of individual emotions, all leading to alienation. In the Third World countries, the search springs from the belief that the only way of tackling mass poverty and raising the standards of living is rapid industrialization on the Western model. It is not sufficiently realized that even if they are willing to pay the price, the quest for Western affluence would be futile, not only because of resource limitation, but also because of social limits to growth. This is well illustrated by the case of India where, in spite of 25 years of centralized planning, no significant dent has been made on mass poverty, mass illiteracy or communicable diseases. The rational choice - and one likely to be more fruitful - is to seek an alternative model of development and life-style, based, as Gandhi insisted, on minimization of wants and engaging in bread labour, and on self-sufficiency of small communities, with complete decentralization of political and economic power and participation in decision-making process.
Learning to Learn: North's Response to the New International Economic Order
Authors: Boulding Elise
Published: March 2013

From the vantage point of mid-1970s, the author looks back a hundred years, to see the global social change that occurred during this period in perspective, and then forward a hundred years, to be able to foresee where the global order may be heading. By choosing this particular vantage point, she emphasizes the transitional nature of the 1970s, when the seed is being sown but the sprout is yet to show up. And by choosing a 200-year time-frame, she recognizes that a period of less than 100 years is apt to distort the view of the past with one's prejudices as it is apt to colour the view of the future with one's wishes. Arising from the experience of colonialism and decolonization syndrome, both North and South have entered a phase of prolonged crisis that may as well help as hinder both in meeting it with the right response. There are, however, signs that a process of what is at once learning and teaching is under way - in other words, a dialogue as between equals - which, when brought to fructification, may indeed usher in a new global order. The author takes a hundred-year leap forward for a look-see of the world as it might be in the year 2075.
A World Order Perspective on Authoritarian Tendencies
Authors: Falk Richard
Published: March 2013

The paper starts from the premise that because nation-states are the most important actors in the international arena, and also because world order both feeds on and feeds national political situations, a close look into the internal life (including the structures of power and governance) of the states is indispensable for an understanding of the existing world order as for evolving a strategy for changing it into one more just and peaceful. It is concerned about the growing global trend toward authoritarian regimes - mostly in the countries of the South but also in those of the North. It classifies authoritarian governance into various types, traces the roots and causes of each, uncovers the links of each with external powers, and spells out their impact on world order. It then identifies the actors whose help can be recruited in the endeavour to restructure the existing world order, and suggests concrete steps that can be taken in that behalf.
The China-Vietnam-Indochina Conflict: Search for Solutions
Authors: Thee Marek
Published: March 2013

The main aim of this paper is to search for solutions to the China-Vietnam-Indochina conflict. It is not meant to apportion blame or to look for scapegoats. Nor is it meant to prescribe solutions. Rather, the emphasis is on an open and reflective discussion of the elements and the dynamics of the conflict, its historical background and possible alternatives in the light of the peace research theory. The concern is with the fate of the peoples of the region and the possible escalatory international implications. The search is therefore for political as against military solutions, and for a creative transcendence of the conflict of interests as against conflict reproducing violent options. The resolution of the conflict is seen within the framework of a policy of nonalignment and neutrality of the Indochinese nations, and the strategy proposed would rely on a dynamic continuum from initial dissociative low interaction to high associative cooperation between China and Vietnam.
War, Militarism and the Soviet State
Authors: Holloway David
Published: March 2013

This paper surveys the obstacles to disarmament in the Soviet Union, and analyses both internal and external factors of Soviet militarism, the role of Russian political/military tradition, and the centrality of the defense sector to Soviet society. Although the sources of militarism are strong, the author argues that they are not absolute, and that there is scope for demilitarization initiatives. Most of the demilitarizing tendencies will come from internal influences and the working out of internal contradictions, such as that between declining economic growth and an increased military burden. Nevertheless, the West should not foreclose through their own policies the possibility of Soviet moves toward disarmament.
Economic and Political Consequences of Arms Transfers to the Third World
Authors: Väyrynen Raimo
Published: March 2013

Arms transfers are a tool of foreign policy and as such help shape the structure of the international system. Their tendency to consolidate the bi-polar power alliance structure has the effect of suppressing social and economic change in Third World countries, increasing their dependence on the developed world and of raising the potential for violent conflict resolution of regional disputes. The author also examines the emerging arms industries in the more developed Third World countries, and concludes that domestic arms production tends to distort the economic, technological and social development of the country, because it almost invariably relies on foreign technology and expertise.
Toward a World of Natural Communities
Authors: Bay Christian
Published: March 2013

The paper draws a contrast between contract and community in the organization of social life in the modern world. Liberal-corporate society, based on contract, has made human beings expendable, even to the point where academic liberals will defend the sacrifice of future generations (Beckerman), or ‘undeserving’ poor nations (Hardin), or many millions of lives in a nuclear war (Kahn), all for the convenience of the present First-World generation and for the preservation of the liberal-corporate world economic system. The paper discusses the new economic and political power of large multinational corporations, and the burden it imposes on Third World peoples, even to the point of genocide, as in the Amazon valley. Extended analysis is given to the issue of world hunger, in the context of artificial shortages of food. Also treated is the nuclear-power industry's recklessness with present and future human lives and health. The concluding sections discuss an alternative, communitarian vision of a world free from corporate oppression, as well as some basic strategies for getting away from our contract-based society toward a world order based on ‘natural’ communities.
A Post-Colonial View of the East and the West
Authors: Nandy Ashis
Published: March 2013

Western colonialism brought with it, not merely economic exploitation and political oppression, but also the unrelenting thrust of a ‘civilizing’ mission based on a world-view which believed in the absolute superiority of the human over the non-human, of the masculine over the feminine, of the historical over the ahistorical, and of the modern over the traditional. This world-view was calculated to disrupt the cultural identities and subvert the cultural priorities of the subject societies.

This paper sees the ensuing battle, not as an adventitious one between the East and the West, but as an immanent one between the Appolonian and Dionysian within each civilization and culture. It illustrates, with the case study of Rudyard Kipling and his ambivalent attitude to India, how, while this encounter of two cultures produced in the subject societies small sections of men comically imitative of the Western lifestyle, it also produced among the rulers a small section of men who found themselves painfully suspended between two worlds. As for the peoples in general in the subject societies, they were not troubled by such a dilemma. They learned to cope with transient defeat by making a shield out of their suffering to protect their authentic selves and the core values of their cultures, and thus showed that co-optation could be successfully resisted.
The Global Setting and Transition to Democracy: Preliminary Conjectures
Authors: Falk Richard
Published: March 2013

The main concern of this paper is to lay the foundation for achieving a better understanding of the relevance of the global setting to the prospects for, and obstacles to, democratic governance at the state level. Exploring the global dimensions of democratizing potential at the state level, however, is at once an elusive and complex task. For one thing, it is difficult to establish convincing causal linkages. At the same time, the interaction between the global setting and national political developments involves a plethora of elements difficult to assess in terms of their relative importance. This paper, then, develops some general hypotheses about the impact of the global setting on democratizing potential and considers some broad guidelines for policymakers dedicated to the promotion of democratic potential.
Grass-Roots Stirrings and the Future of Politics
Authors: Sheth D.L.
Published: March 2013

This paper explores the possibility of the prevailing widespread frustration and disillusionment with modern politics, as much for its failure to make good the promise it had held out as for the incapacity of its structures and institutions to find even token solutions to the problems and crises which beset the present-day world, being canalized towards a new politics of the future. Frustration and disillusionment are all too plain to be either ignored or denied; they are writ large in the world-wide discontent, unrest, turbulence and turmoil. They find expression in a variety of popular movements focused on particular issues, for the most part spontaneous and lacking formal organizations but all having broken out of the conventional framework of modern politics. The bankruptcy of modern politics is equally plain; it is writ large in the crisis of global economy, world-wide stagflation, low growth rate even in ‘advanced’ capitalist countries which swear by growth rate, rising unemployment everywhere, fast growing disparity between the North and the South and between the rich and the poor in both North and South, and the resource crunch which has propelled militarization and arms race to the point where the survival of the human race is at stake. That the straining at the leash should be the hardest at the periphery of periphery is not surprising; for it is there that the combined structural weight of inequity, injustice, exploitation, oppression and social terror bears most heavily; but popular movements have sprouted also in societies of the centre. The case study of one particular Third World country presented here is only illustrative. The paper examines a number of grass roots movements, classifies them by the issues they agitate and by the forms agitations take and speculates about how far, with their growing awareness of the vertical links between the structure at the micro level and macro level, and under what conditions, they may be said to be moving towards laying the foundations of new politics.
Security and Disarmament in Africa
Authors: Luckham Robin
Published: March 2013

The article begins by noting that the evolution of the earlier term ‘defence’, through a brief life as ‘collective security’ (coinciding with the life of the League of Nations), into ‘security’ is not merely a semantic variation; it signifies a qualitative change in the connotation of the term. It traces how, born in the aftermath of World War II and most commonly used in the cold war, security has come to mean, in this age of American imperialism, not just the defence of the United States against aggression, but also a wide variety of other things: security of US allies and camp followers; security of the ‘West’; security of the ‘free world’ (so called in obvious avoidance of the use of ‘capitalist international order’); security of the control of this order over resources, no matter where located (through whatever means, including the use of naked force); security for pliant regimes, security of the ruling elites against their own peoples and, in countries outside the orbit of US hegemony, destabilization, even over-throw (through covert operations or armed intervention), of governments—in short, security of the existing political and economic global system under US safe-keeping. The only thing ‘security’ excludes from its ambit is the security of the people against war, against hunger and disease, against institutional oppression, and against structural exploitation. The article goes on to spell out the implications and consequences of the application of this concept of ‘security’ in Africa and discusses ways of operationalizing the other concept of security in which the safety and well-being of the people takes the first place, which points to the need for eventual disarmament, however unrealistic it may seem today for a variety of reasons, the most important of them being the colonial bequest of conflicts and causes of conflict, and the vested interest of the international capitalist system in perpetuating African dependency and underdevelopment.
Dependency in Africa: Stages of African Political Economy
Authors: Okolo Amechi
Published: March 2013

This paper traces the history of the relationship between Africa and the West since their first contact brought about by the outward thrust of the West, under the impetus of rising capitalism, in search of cheap labour and cheap raw material for its industries and expanding markets for its industrial products, both of which could be better ensured through domination and exploitation. The paper identifies five successive stages that African political economy has passed through under the impact of this relationship, each phase qualitatively different from the other but all having the common characteristic of domination-dependence syndrome, and each phase having been dictated by the dynamics of capitalism in different eras and by the dominant forces in the changing international system. Its finding is that the way to the latest stage, the dependency phase, was paved by the progressive proletarianization of the African peoples and the maintenance of an international peonage system. It ends by indicating the direction in which Africa can make a beginning to break out of dependency and achieve liberation.
The Antinuclear Peace Movement: Toward an Evaluation of Effectiveness
Authors: Hall B. Welling
Published: March 2013

To evaluate the effectiveness of the peace movement as a whole, this paper seeks to identify the criteria that the various constituents of the movement active on the local, regional and global levels apply to measure effectiveness. It does so by analyzing the character of a few selected components of the movement, giving reasons for each selection. The character is discerned through an examination of its ideology, if any; its organizational structure (i.e. whether it is stable-centralized-hierarchical or episodic-decentralized-nonhierarchical); its goal (i.e. whether it is system-reformation or system-transformation); its method (i.e. whether it is oriented to acquiring legitimacy, or empowerment, to raising consciousness, to building alliances, or to mobilization); and its conception of peace (i.e. whether it is negative peace-as-absence-of-war or positive peace-as-justice). The author then draws all the threads together to reflect on the movement. She sees certain weaknesses which must be removed before its agitation for peace can begin to appear credible.
Aide Memoire to Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev's ‘Reality and Safeguards for a Secure World’
Authors: Petrovsky Vladimir
Published: March 2013

On September 16, 1987, an article entitled ‘Reality and Safeguards for a Secure World’ authored by Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev was published in the Soviet Press. On the occasion of the 42nd Session of the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Petrovsky presented an aide memoire to the article of the General Secretary. What is noteworthy about the Petrovsky speech at the UN is its comprehensive approach to international peace and security, that is the notion of security as encompassing military, economic, and cultural dimensions of human life—long advocated by peace researchers—is now being formally proposed at the highest levels of political leadership. We publish it here as part of the continuing dialogue on these questions.—Editors.
Corporate governance and risk-taking in New Zealand
Authors: Koerniadi Hardjo , Krishnamurti Chandrasekhar , Tourani-Rad Alireza
Published: March 2013

We analyse the impact of firm-level corporate governance practices on the riskiness of a firm’s stock returns in a setting that can be considered as less conducive to managerial risk-taking. Our empirical evidence, based on a comprehensive sample of New Zealand firms, shows that firms with large boards are associated with lower levels of risk-taking, ceteris paribus. Furthermore, our results indicate that multiple large shareholders facilitate higher levels of risk-taking by the firm. Finally, our results also show that concentrated shareholdings of inside directors have a negative relation to risk-taking. Our findings are robust to controls for the three potential sources of endogeneity. Since prior work documents results consistent with the view that institutional and market environments largely determine governance outcomes, our work has implications for managers, investors and policy makers, particularly in less developed capital markets with weaker corporate takeover regimes and less performance-oriented managerial compensation.
Approaches to Learning and Hispanic Children’s Math Scores
Authors: Bumgarner Erin , Martin Anne , Brooks-Gunn Jeanne
Published: March 2013

Accumulating evidence suggests that children’s approaches to learning (ATL) at kindergarten entry predict their academic achievement years later. However, the gains associated with ATL may be diminished for Hispanic immigrant children, many of whom are English language learners (ELLs). We tested whether ATL predicted math scores in a sample of first- and second-generation Hispanic immigrants drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort. We further tested whether English proficiency moderated this association. Separate models by study wave (kindergarten, first grade, and third grade) were run to examine whether associations among English proficiency, ATL, and math changed over time. Results indicated that ATL, measured at the previous wave, predicted math scores in first and third grade, but not kindergarten. Moreover, in third grade, ATL predicted math only for children who were proficient in English. The implications for Hispanic immigrant children are discussed.