bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Polymorphisms in the Lymphotoxin Alpha Gene and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke in the Japanese Population
Authors: Hagiwara Noriko , Kitazono Takanari , Kamouchi Masahiro , Kuroda Junya , Ago Tetsuro , Hata Jun , Ninomiya Toshiharu , Ooboshi Hiroaki , Kumai Yasuhiro , Yoshimura Sohei , Tamaki Kinya , Fujii Kenichiro , Nagao Tetsuhiko , Okada Yasushi , Toyoda Kazunori , Nakane Hiroshi , Sugimori Hiroshi , Yamashita Yoshichika , Wakugawa Yoshiyuki , Kubo Michiaki , Tanizaki Yumihiro , Kiyohara Yutaka , Ibayashi Setsuro , Iida Mitsuo
Published: March 2008

Background and Purpose: Lymphotoxin α (LTA), one of the tumor necrosis factor family proteins, is an important proinflammatory cytokine and appears to play a putative role in the inflammatory process of atherosclerosis. Recent genetic studies have suggested that variations in the gene encoding LTA, which affect its expression and biological function, may contribute to the development of vascular diseases. We conducted a case-control study to clarify the association of LTA gene polymorphisms with ischemic stroke in a large Japanese population. Methods: Genotyping for LTA A252G and C804A polymorphisms was achieved by a rapid-cycle polymerase chain reaction and melting curve analysis using fluorescent probes in 1,044 incident cases of ischemic stroke recruited from the Fukuoka Stroke Registry and 1,044 age- and sex-matched control subjects recruited from the Hisayama Study. Results: The overall distribution of allele and genotype for each polymorphism was similar between stroke patients and control subjects. The allele frequencies of 252G and 804A were slightly lower in stroke patients than in control subjects; however, conditional logistic regression analysis adjusted for potential risk factors found no association between the risk of ischemic stroke and either polymorphism. In terms of stroke subtype, we also found no association of these polymorphisms with any subtypes of ischemic stroke. Conclusions: Neither the A252G nor C804A polymorphism of the LTA gene was associated with stroke overall and any subtypes of ischemic stroke in the Japanese population.
Functional Outcome 3 Months after Stroke Predicts Long-Term Survival
Authors: Eriksson Marie , Norrving Bo , Terént Andreas , Stegmayr Birgitta
Published: March 2008

Background: When reporting stroke survival and prognostic factors with a possible effect on outcome, the starting point for the observation of a clinical cohort usually is the onset of stroke or the acute admission of a patient. Thus, acute and early mortality inflict prognosis on long-term outcome. In order to give a more robust analysis of long-term survival after the acute period we chose to start our observation with 3-month survivors. Methods: We used data from Riks-Stroke, the Swedish quality register for stroke care, together with survival information from the Swedish population register to explore the influence of disability level 3 months after stroke on long-term survival. The main analysis included 15,959 stroke patients, registered during 2001–2002, who had been independent in primary activities of daily living before stroke, had suffered an ischaemic or a haemorrhagic stroke and reported no previous stroke. Results: Impaired functional outcome after stroke was an independent predictor of poor survival. Patients with modified Rankin scale (mRS) grades 3, 4 and 5 had hazard ratios of 1.7, 2.5 and 3.8, respectively, as compared with patients with lower mRS grades. In addition to high mRS, male sex, high age, diabetes, smoking, hypertension therapy at stroke onset, atrial fibrillation and depressed mood were also recognized as significant predictors of poor survival using a multiple Cox regression model. Conclusion: The influence of disability on survival is stronger than that of several other well-known prognostic factors. This finding indicates that any intervention in the acute phase that may improve functional status at 3 months will also have favourable secondary effects on survival in the long term.
Suppression of the Raf/MEK/ERK Signaling Cascade and Inhibition of Angiogenesis by the Carboxyl Terminus of Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4
Authors: Yang Ying-Hua , Wang Yu , Lam Karen S.L. , Yau Ming-Hon , Cheng Kenneth K.Y. , Zhang Jialiang , Zhu Weidong , Wu Donghai , Xu Aimin
Published: March 2008

Objectives—

Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (Angptl4) is a secreted glycoprotein that has recently been implicated in the regulation of angiogenesis and metastasis. This study aimed to investigate the structural and cellular basis underlying the biological actions of Angptl4.

Methods and Results—

Circulating Angptl4 was proteolytically cleaved into NH2-terminal coiled-coil domain (N-Angptl4) and COOH-terminal fibrinogen-like domain (C-Angptl4). Using amino acid sequencing analysis, we identified a major cleavage site between Lys
168
and Leu
169
and a minor cleavage site between Lys
170
and Met
171
in mouse Angptl4. C-Angptl4, but not N-Angptl4, potently inhibited both bFGF- and VEGF-induced cell proliferation, migration, and tubule formation in endothelial cells, and prevented neovascularization in mice. Treatment of C-Angptl4 with PNGase F (an
N
-glycosidase) ablated its N-linked glycosylation, and also significantly attenuated its antiangiogenic activities. C-Angptl4 blocked bFGF-induced activation of ERK1/2 MAP kinase, but had no obvious effect on Akt and P38 MAP kinase. Furthermore, C-Angptl4 abrogated bFGF-induced phosphorylation of Raf-1 and MEK1/2, whereas neither auto-phosphorylation of FGF receptor-1 nor activation of Ras was affected, suggesting that the blockage occurs at the level of Raf-1 activation.

Conclusions—

The carboxyl terminus of Angptl4 alone is sufficient to suppress angiogenesis, possibly through inhibiting the Raf/MEK/ERK1/2 MAP kinase pathway in endothelial cells.
Cytochrome P450 2C9-Induced Angiogenesis Is Dependent on EphB4
Authors: Webler Anke C. , Popp Rüdiger , Korff Thomas , Michaelis U. Ruth , Urbich Carmen , Busse Rudi , Fleming Ingrid
Published: March 2008

Objective—

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) epoxygenase-derived epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are known to stimulate angiogenesis, but the mechanisms involved are incompletely understood. Because EphB4 is involved in vascular development, the aim of this study was to investigate whether, and to what extent, EphB4 is part of the signaling cascade that results in CYP2C9-mediated angiogenesis.

Methods and Results—

CYP2C9 overexpression as well as stimulation with 11,12-EET (up to 48 hours) time-dependently increased EphB4 expression in endothelial cells. This effect and the activation of the EphB4 promoter were mediated by the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (P13-K)/Akt pathway and sensitive to the P13-K inhibitor LY 294002 as well as to simultaneous transfection with dominant-negative Akt. 11,12-EET treatment also increased EphB4 expression in isolated mouse mesenteric arteries as well as in the vessels that developed in 11,12-EET-impregnated Matrigel plugs. Moreover, the CYP2C9-stimulated formation of capillary-like structures in a modified spheroid assay was markedly attenuated by EphB4 downregulation (antisense oligonucleotides). Using a parallel approach in vivo, the inclusion of siRNA directed against EphB4 in EET-impregnated Matrigel plugs prevented endothelial cell invasion and vascularization.

Conclusions—

Our data indicate that EphB4 is a critical component of the CYP2C9- and 11,12-EET-activated signaling cascade that promotes angiogenesis in vitro as well as in vivo.
Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Impairs the Practice-dependent Proficiency Increase in Working Memory
Authors: Ferrucci R. , Marceglia S. , Vergari M. , Cogiamanian F. , Mrakic-Sposta S. , Mameli F. , Zago S. , Barbieri S. , Priori A.
Published: March 2008

How the cerebellum is involved in the practice and proficiency of non-motor functions is still unclear. We tested whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the cerebellum (cerebellar tDCS) induces after-effects on the practice-dependent increase in the proficiency of a working memory (WM) task (Sternberg test) in 13 healthy subjects. We also assessed the effects of cerebellar tDCS on visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in four subjects and compared the effects of cerebellar tDCS on the Sternberg test with those elicited by tDCS delivered over the prefrontal cortex in five subjects. Our experiments showed that anodal or cathodal tDCS over the cerebellum impaired the practice-dependent improvement in the reaction times in a WM task. Because tDCS delivered over the prefrontal cortex induced an immediate change in the WM task but left the practice-dependent proficiency unchanged, the effects of cerebellar tDCS are structure-specific. Cerebellar tDCS left VEPs unaffected, its effect on the Sternberg task therefore seems unlikely to arise from visual system involvement. In conclusion, tDCS over the cerebellum specifically impairs the practice-dependent proficiency increase in verbal WM.
Speculation on the Neuropsychology of Teleoperation: Implications for Presence Research and Minimally Invasive Surgery
Authors: Healey Andrew N.
Published: March 2008

Teleoperation is now common in high-risk work domains, particularly in surgery with the extensive use of remote, minimally invasive techniques. While this new technology affords a novel means by which to control human action for surgical intervention, interface design often constrains the operator in unorthodox ways, requiring considerable adaptation and raising patient safety concerns. There is a need to objectively measure operator adaptation, evaluate varying teleoperator interface designs and assess the efficacy of the virtual reality trainers that simulate teleoperation. This paper highlights the potential for a neuroergonomic approach to these problems. It first delineates some of the task demands unique to teleoperation in minimally invasive surgery and then speculates on the neural basis of those tasks with reference to select neuropsychological literature. The integration of this literature serves to indicate that teleoperation may engage a unique pattern of brain processing and that neuropsychological measurement may therefore be useful in evaluating the design of the teleoperation interface and teleoperator adaptation.
Pilot Evaluation Study of a Virtual Paracentesis Simulator for Skill Training and Assessment: The Beneficial Effect of Haptic Display
Authors: Tzafestas Costas S. , Birbas Kostas , Koumpouros Yiannis , Christopoulos Dimitris
Published: March 2008

Effective, real-time training of health care professionals in invasive procedures is a challenging task. Furthermore, assessing in practice the acquisition of the dexterity and skills required to safely perform such operations is particularly difficult to perform objectively and reliably. The development of virtual reality (VR) simulators offers great potential toward these objectives, and can help bypass some of the difficulties associated with classical surgical training and assessment procedures. In this context, we have developed a prototype VR simulator platform for training in a class of invasive procedures, such as accessing central vessels. This paper focuses more particularly on a pilot study treating the specific application case of subclavian vein paracentesis. The simulation incorporates 3D models of all the human anatomy structures involved in this procedure, where collision detection and response algorithms are implemented to simulate most of the potential complications in accordance with the situations encountered in real clinical practice. Furthermore, haptic display is integrated using a typical force feedback device providing the user with a sense of touch during the simulated operations. Our main objective in this study was to obtain quantitative evaluation results regarding the effect of haptic display on performance. Two user groups participated in the study: (I) novice users and (II) experienced surgeons. The system automatically provides quantitative assessment scores of users' performance, applying a set of objective measures that also involve the optimality of the needle insertion path and indicators of maneuvering errors. Training and skill assessment performance of the system is evaluated in a twofold manner, regarding respectively: (a) the learning curve of novice users, and (b) the correlation of the system-generated scores with the actual surgical experience of the user. These performance indicators are assessed with respect to the activation of the haptic display and to whether this has any beneficial effect (or not). The experimental findings of this first pilot study provide quantitative evidence about the significance of haptic display, not only as a means to enhance the realism of the surgical simulation, but especially as an irreplaceable component for achieving objective and reliable skill assessment. Further larger-scale and long-term clinical studies are needed to validate the effectiveness of such platforms for actual training and dexterity enhancement, particularly when more complex sensorimotor skills are involved.
First language polysemy affects second language meaning interpretation: evidence for activation of first language concepts during second language reading
Authors: Elston-Güttler Kerrie E. , Williams John N.
Published: March 2008

The present study investigates the influence of first language (L1) lexicalization patterns on the processing of second language (L2) words in sentential contexts by advanced German learners of English. The focus was on cases where a polysemous word in the L1 is realized by independent words in the L2, e.g. German Blase realized by English bubble and blister. An anomaly detection task was used in which participants had to indicate whether a target word formed an acceptable completion to a sentence. The critical condition was where the other sense ( blister) of the translation equivalent Blase was appropriate, but the word ( bubble) did not complete the sentence meaningfully, e.g. 'His shoes were uncomfortable due to a bubble.' This was compared to a control condition in which neither sense of the L1 translation made sense, e.g. 'She was very hungry because of a bubble.' Factors of word type (noun vs. verb) and degree of relatedness of L1 senses (high vs. moderate) were also manipulated. Relative to native speakers of English, advanced German learners made more errors and displayed longer correct response times in the critical condition compared to the control condition. An effect of meaning relatedness was obtained for nouns but not verbs. The results are discussed in terms of the role of lexical-level translation connections in activating L1 concepts from L2 words, even in highly proficient learners and in all-L2 tasks.
Pair-list readings in Korean-Japanese, Chinese-Japanese and English-Japanese interlanguage
Authors: Marsden Heather
Published: March 2008

In English and Chinese, questions with a wh-object and a universally quantified subject (e.g. What did everyone buy?) allow an individual answer (Everyone bought apples.) and a pair-list answer ( Sam bought apples, Jo bought bananas, Sally bought...). By contrast, the pair-list answer is reportedly unavailable in Japanese and Korean. This article documents an experimental investigation of the interpretation of such questions in non-native Japanese by learners whose first languages (Lls) are Korean, Chinese or English. The results show that, regardless of L1, only a minority of advanced second language (L2) Japanese learners demonstrate knowledge of the absence of pair-list readings in Japanese. In English-Japanese and Chinese-Japanese interlanguage, L1 transfer readily accounts for this finding: the L1 grammar, which allows pair-list readings, may obstruct acquisition of the more restrictive Japanese grammar. But in Korean-Japanese interlanguage, L1 transfer predicts rejection of pair-list answers. However, in a Korean version of the experimental task, a native Korean control group robustly accepts pair-list readings, contra expectations. A proposal to account for this finding is put forward, under which the Korean-Japanese interlanguage data become compatible with an L1-transfer-based model of L2 acquisition. Moreover, the native-like rejection of pair-list readings by some advanced learners of all three L1 backgrounds is argued to imply that UG constraints operate at the L2 syntax-semantics interface.
Early Adolescent Pathways of Antisocial Behaviors in Poor, Inner-City Neighborhoods
Authors: Park Nan S. , Lee Beom S. , Bolland John M. , Vazsonyi Alexander T. , Fei Sun
Published: March 2008

The change and stability of antisocial behavior during adolescence has triggered interest in a number of social scientific disciplines. This article longitudinally examines pathways of antisocial behavior among predominantly African American adolescents residing in inner-city, poor neighborhoods. Data were collected from 354 youth (ages 12 through 15) in an ongoing longitudinal study designed to identify the life-course trajectories of behaviors and associated developmental outcomes in inner-city youth. Growth mixture modeling was used to classify antisocial behavior trajectories, which identified three distinct developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior: high starter, incremental, and steady. Understanding developmental trajectories of antisocial behaviors is important in that it informs prevention and intervention efforts, particularly for high-risk youth populations.
`La Resurrección del Maíz': Globalisation, Resistance and the Zapatistas
Authors: Morton Adam David
Published: March 2008

This article develops an analysis of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, active in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico. Taking recent reflections on neoliberal globalisation and resistance as its point of departure, questions are raised about how the EZLN movement is a response to specific historical circumstances in Chiapas; how the EZLN is a response to the restructuring of the capitalist system on a global scale; and how it is probing the social and political found ations of a future order by challenging the legitimacy and authority of the Mexican state. The article proceeds along two main lines of inquiry in order to emphasise the past, present and future dimensions of the EZLN movement. Firstly, the roots of the rebellion are situated within changing relations of production that affected Chiapas in the 1970s, which led to a grow th of radical peasant organisations. The more immediate context of the rebellion is also discussed in relation to the restructuring of capital in Mexico represented by the rise of neoliberalism and increased coercion throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Secondly, the innovative methods of struggle developed by the EZLN are analysed within the categories of counter-hegemonic resistance developed by Antonio Gramsci. Overall, these various aspects of the EZLN are discussed to show how the movement has mounted a critique of social power relations within Mexico as well as the conditions of world order by contesting and resisting neoliberal globalisation.
`Flying Planes Can Be Dangerous'
Authors: Weber Cynthia
Published: March 2008

In the immediate aftermath of the 11 September attack on America, a parallel was repeatedly drawn between this event and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The two events seem to have the same meaning in American discourse on 11 September because the two events seem to follow a similar sequencing: surprise attack leading to loss (again) of American innocence at a time when the rhetoric of isolationism was in play. Looking beyond superficial accounts of sequencing, this paper compares and contrasts the moral grammar that structures the meaning of these two events as they circulate in popular representations (the film Pearl Harbour and the official and mediatic representation of Attack on America) and the codes of gender and sexuality upon which these moral grammars rely. It concludes that the two events/representations of events abide by very different codes of gender and sexuality. Pearl Harbor and Pearl Harbor employ the codes of gender, sexuality and morality traditionally applied to sovereign nation—states, while Attack on America employs the codes of gender, sexuality, and morality traditionally applied to global firms in neoliberal takes on globalisation. The paper concludes by reading the investments America has in equating similar sequencing with similar meaning.
Living in a World Risk Society: A Reply to Mikkel V. Rasmussen
Authors: Griner Shlomo
Published: March 2008

International Relations is in constant need of new th eor etical tools in order to cope with the dynamic nature of its object of study. The increasing globality of threats to human security suggests the necessity of enriching our cognitive approaches w ith transnational frames of reference. This article takes a look at Ulrich Beck's theory of World Risk Society from the perspective of In tern atio n al Relation s. It explains World Risk Society's m ain concepts and analyses its ontological, epistemological, policy and normative implications. The article also reviews what is one of the first systematic attempt at applying Beck's theory to the field of International Relations: Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen's article Reflexive Security in a recent issue of this journal. The importance of this attempt is acknowledged, although concerns are raised about the complications of employing Beck's theory without properly developing its empirical implications for the study of international relations. The last part of the article relates World Risk Society to International Relations in order to expand the possibilities of its application.
The Actuality of Imperialism
Authors: Callinicos Alex
Published: March 2008

Hardt and Negri's Empire is to welcomed for, among other things, introducing a distinctive Marxist voice into the debate about globalisation, but it is seriously weakened by its claim that interstate conflict is being supplanted by the impersonal, decentred network of Empire. Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey in `Retrieving the Imperial' rightly criticise the apologetic tendencies in Hardt and Negri's analysis, though they argue that International Relations as a discipline fails sufficiently to attend the imperial, conceived as a transnational dimension of domination and competition. The point is well-taken, but they are mistaken in claiming that an American-dominated `international state' is in process of constitution. The world of imperialism, as it was portrayed by Lenin and Bukharin during the First World War—an anarchic struggle of unequal rivals—still exists, with the United States as first among unequals.
On the Immanence/Imminence of Empire
Authors: Walker R.B.J.
Published: March 2008

Barkawi and Laffey engage with Hardt and Negri's Empire as a reminder of what an institutionalised Anglo-American tradition of international relations theory misses or misconstrues when it focuses on the logic of the modern states system. Like Barkawi and Laffey, I am unpersuaded by the claim that `a global order, a new logic and structure of rule—in short, a new form of sovereignty' has emerged. However, Barkawi and Laffey avoid engaging with the primary theoretical moves enabling this claim. These moves connect a claim about immanence in the philosophical struggles of early-European modernity with a claim about the imminence of a new form of political order arising from a process of internalisation of the interstate system. It is because this relationship is not placed under suspicion that Hardt and Negri over-interpret many important observations within an updated but conventional, and unsatisfactory, account of a universalising history.
Re-orienting International Relations: On Pragmatism, Pluralism and Practical Reasoning
Authors: Owen David
Published: March 2008

This essay presents the case for a re-orientation of International Relations (IR) in terms of the pragmatist ethos sketched in the work of John Dewey. It argues that contemporary IR theory is characterised by the threat of theoreticism and that this danger is heightened by the confusion between pictures and theories. The essay goes on to indicate how a pragmatist orientation to issues of government in terms of a processual ethic could provide a framework within which the pluralism characteristic of contemporary IR is reconceived in terms of a mutual agonism (rather than antagonism) in the service of practical reasoning and judgement. Viewing IR as a form of practical philosophy oriented to the government of the common affairs of humanity, this orientation stresses the distinct roles that accounts directed to world-disclosure and those directed to action-coordination play in IR and argues that the former are crucial to reflection on problem constitution, while the latter are vital to reflection on problems.
Pragmatic Solidarism and the Dilemmas of Humanitarian Intervention
Authors: Bellamy Alex J.
Published: March 2008

The theory and practice of humanitarian intervention in the 1990s has produced a series of seemingly intractable dilemmas. Why do states act in some cases and not others? How are we to evaluate the legitimacy of particular acts? This article introduces a new perspective on these questions informed by a combination of pragmatism and solidarism. It argues that although the search for criteria that may be used to judge the legitimacy and efficacy of humanitarian intervention may be a futile one, it is possible to think about a politics of legitimate humanitarian intervention. Such a politics may be based on three key insights drawn from pragmatism: the dialogic construction of moral knowledge, the fallibility of knowledge, and the priority of democracy over philosophy. The article discusses how such a pragmatic solidarism may be used to interrogate the quest for legitimising criteria and to build a new politics of humanitarian intervention.
Deweyan Pragmatism and Post-Positivist Social Science in IR
Authors: Cochran Molly
Published: March 2008

The appeal of positivism within International Relations (IR) hinges on the belief that it represents the application of science to the study of world politics. This article presents Deweyan pragmatism as an alternative, and better, way of employing scientific method in IR. John Dewey's unique formulations of key scientific concepts like `objectivity', `explanation' and `experimentation' led him to an understanding of social enquiry that retains many of the virtues of scientific method while anticipating and incorporating the epistemological concerns that currently animate post-positivist work in and beyond IR.
Pragmatism's Boundaries
Authors: Festenstein Matthew
Published: March 2008

The core, and arguably constitutive, problem confronted by an international political theory is that of the status of borders. This paper argues that pragmatism possesses useful resources for thinking about this issue, if understood in the right way. I begin by positing pragmatism as defined by four core commitments: holism, fallibilism, anti-scepticism, and the primacy of practice. The paper then examines four ways of endowing these basic commitments with more determinate political content: anti-revisionism, social holism, Richard Rorty's `ethnocentric' conception of political philosophy, and Deweyan democratic inquiry. The article rounds off by outlining a well hedged defence of this last perspective, as both normatively attractive and capable of addressing some of the problems posed by boundaries.
On the Historical Imagination of International Relations: The Case for a `Deweyan Reconstruction'
Authors: Isacoff Jonathan B.
Published: March 2008

Despite the recent profusion of historical scholarship in International Relations (IR), there has been little questioning of the positivist assumptions upon which much of that work is premised. This is important because if the assumptions upon which historical knowledge within IR scholarship is constructed were found to be flawed, then explanations that appear to successfully account for historical cases might not be as accurate as we would like to believe. In response to this problem, this article explores John Dewey's pragmatist approach towards history, arguing that Dewey's pragmatism views historical knowledge as socially constructed, but not necessarily to the exclusion of alternative perspectives. The article concludes that Deweyan pragmatism not only provides a more useful way to go about historical research, but also recovers for IR the ability to engage in work that is explicitly for something, and in particular, for the improvement of the public good.
The Keynesian Bases of a Constructivist Theory of the International Political Economy
Authors: Widmaier Wesley
Published: March 2008

In recent years, the development of a constructivist theory of international economic cooperation has been impeded by the persistent influence of classical assumptions that cast monetary structures as essentially material and treat state and societal interests in economic cooperation as exogenous to interaction. In this paper, I counter that a truly constructivist approach to the study of the international political economy must be based on more socialised Keynesian assumptions, which recognise that socially constructed `conventions' give meaning to economic incentives and thereby shape state and societal interests. I further offer an explicitly Keynesian-constructivist theory of monetary interests in cooperation, arguing that such an approach would subsume approaches that obscure the potential emergence of state or societal interests in cooperation.
The Missing Tradition of the ES: Including Nietzschean Relativism and World Imagination in Extranational Studies
Authors: Manners Ian
Published: March 2008

Starting from Barry Buzan and Richard Little's recent assertion in Millennium that'international relations has failed as an intellectual project', I argue that if the study of international political theory is to learn anything from this failure, it is the need for a conversation that encourages heterologue. If such a conversation is to be of any value at all then it needs to escapethe binary dualisms or'debates'that are too often said to characterise the discipline of International Relations (IR). Instead, I argue that a reformulated English School (ES) could serve as a medium for such a conversation, providing that the missing tradition of Nietzschean Relativism is included in the heterologue. The inclusion of postmodern insights encourages us to acknowledge that states (and therefore also the idea of `international') are important fictions which rest on a world imagination. Finally, I argue that if we seek to overcome the failure of IR and engage in a conversation about international political theory that includes the missing tradition, then we will also have to acknowledge that a reformulated ES should better be understood as `Extranational Studies'.
Wagging the Dog or Serving the Cause? Assessing ICTs and Intelligibility in Transnational War Coverage Broadcasting
Authors: Stochetti Matteo
Published: March 2008

The enhanced synchronicity and ubiquity of war coverage broadcasting, brought about by the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the last twenty years, has not increased the potential for critical war coverage. The role of technology appears permissive but not determinant, and a more accurate assessment of broadcasting's social impact should include the conceptual intelligibility of war narratives. The analysis of intelligibility investigates the way in which war is established and experienced as a social phenomenon by looking at the meanings that frame the understanding of news stories as narrative text. International media monitoring and re-evaluation of local broadcasting are some immediate practical steps to be taken in order to oppose the detrimental effects of war coverage in transnational broadcasting. In addition, local broadcasting should be re-evaluated as a tool for critical content analysis of transnational broadcasting and a priceless resource for training in critical multicultural broadcasting.
Technology and International Systems
Authors: Herrera Geoffrey L.
Published: March 2008

This essay develops a theoretical framework for understanding the connection between technological transformations and change in the international system and puts the information revolution in its proper context — as another in a line of technology-system transformations. The analysis proceeds in two steps: first I conceptualise technology as politics. Technology is inherently political in at least two ways: the construction of technologies is subject to political contestation and technology can be understood as a certain kind of practical knowledge, embedded in material artefacts and in the institutions built to manage them. The second step draws on Buzan and Little's idea of interaction capacity to conceptualise technology as a component of the international political system. This two-step approach draws our attention to the national and transnational institutions that develop new technologies and to the international systemic dimension of certain socio-technical systems. In the end, this approach provides a framework for understanding technological change, including the information revolution, in an international political context. In particular, it draws attention to political debate over the shape and content of a global information infrastructure.
Building an IR Theory with `Japanese Characteristics': Nishida Kitaro and `Emptiness'
Authors: Ong Graham Gerard
Published: March 2008

This essay problematizes the identity of Japan as an international actor and the importance of the metaphysical notion of a historical consciousness. Outlining the development of Japanese intellectual tradition, it argues the thinking of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) could provide an important guideline for Japan to regain a sense of place and purpose in the world after its defeat in WWII. The essay focuses on how Nishida, the father of modern Japanese philosophy and pioneer of the Kyoto School, systematised a Chinese dialecticism into a `logic of emptiness'. Framing Japan as another potential source for a pluralised theorising of IR, the essay pursues two interrelated objectives. First, it hopes to give some non-Western philosophical contribution towards IR theory through Japanese inspired constructivist theorizing. Second, it suggests Nishida's philosophy has the force to renew Japanese political action in the domestic and international realm.
Hegemony and the Unfashionable Problematic of `Primitive Accumulation'
Authors: Shilliam Robbie
Published: March 2008

This article proposes that the neo-Gramscian tradition in IR forbids a direct enquiry into the international dimension of processes of social transformation. Rather, neo-Gramscians deploy the concept of hegemony to the level of world order by implicitly universalising the specific structural qualities of capitalist social relations. This article asserts that the transformation towards capitalist sociality, a process that has been termed “primitive accumulation”, has possessed an international dimension. Specifically, when the imperatives foisted by the capital relation were imported into differentially developed socio-political orders to that of the English `heartland', such different correlations of social forces gave rise to different forms of social transformation. Hegemony was the concept appropriated by Marxists outside of the `heartland' through which to problematise the constitutive nature of this international dimension. The development of this problematic of primitive accumulation is investigated through the articulations of hegemony offered by Gramsci, Trotsky, and the neo-Gramscians. This article concludes that the neo-Gramscians cannot account for the historical record of, and complexities involved in, the importation of capitalist sociality across the international milieu.
Writing War, Against Good Conscience
Authors: Zehfuss Maja
Published: March 2008

Deployments abroad of the Federal Republic of Germany's armed forces are often contextualised in relation to the Second World War, but more concrete representations of war pose a difficult political problem. However, they are important in relation to the possibility of discussing war as an ethico-political issue. This article reads two novels, Gert Ledig's Die Stalinorgel and Martin Walser's Ein springender Brunnen, in order to engage in the particular and break up supposedly clear categories that inform thinking about war. It seeks to examine not the novels' political `message', but more importantly the issues that may be raised by reading them in a way inspired by Jacques Derrida's work. The readings proposed here seek to resist the closure that would allow an easy conscience and instead explore ways in which the problem of war may be addressed as an ethico-political question.
The Good, the Bad, and the Righteous: Understanding the Bush Vision of a New NATO Partnership
Authors: Rhodes Edward
Published: March 2008

This article analyzes the Bush administration's vision of NATO and its future development. Examining the statements of president Bush and other high-ranking US officials, the article explores the ways in which the administration's understanding of NATO is embedded in its vision of world politics as an epochal struggle between good and evil. While evil has assumed a variety of faces in the past, in today's world it is manifested as tyranny and terrorism. The restoration of humanity's birthright of freedom requires the faith and moral courage to eradicate, rather than accommodate or compromise with, this evil. For the Bush administration, this conception of an ongoing war between the righteous and the poor of spirit logically implies the need for widened membership in NATO, a new partnership with Russia, an expansion of the theater of struggle from Europe to the world, and a transformation of the alliance's military capabilities.
Terrorising the Political: 9/11 Within the Context of The Globalisation of Violence
Authors: Behnke Andreas
Published: March 2008

The starting point for this paper is a general sense of intellectual dissatisfaction with Liberal interpretations that place the event of 9/11 outside the realm of politics. Taking issue with this de-politisation of “Terrorism” and the invocation of a metaphysics of Good and Evil in explaining its occurrence, this article offers an alternative perspective that places this event within the context of a general globalisation of Violence. Drawing on Schmitt's Theorie des Partisanen, I argue for the immanent rather than metaphysical nature of `terrorism' in contemporary global politics as an expression of resistance to the universalist regime of truth that underlies globalisation.
`It Sounds Like a Riddle': Security Studies, the War on Terror and Risk
Authors: Vedby Rasmussen Mikkel
Published: March 2008

A research programme on `reflexive security' is emerging, as a number of students of international security are applying sociological insights of `risk society' to understand new discourses and practices of security. This research note maps the current achievements and future challenges of this emerging research programme on risk arguing that it offers a way to overcome the debate about whether to apply a `broad' or `narrow' concept of security; a debate which is stifling the discipline's ability to appreciate the `war on terrorism' as an example of a new security practice. Discussing the nature of strategy in a risk environment, the paper outlines the consequences for applying the concept of reflexive rationality to strategy. Doing so, I address some of the concerns on how to study `reflexive security' previously raised by Shlomo Griner in Millennium.
Discourse as Capability: Non-State Actors' Capital in Global Governance
Authors: Holzscheiter Anna
Published: March 2008

This article examines the power of non-state actors in transnational discourse. It sets out to construct an analytical framework for the study of power understood as effective social and linguistic practices based on immaterial capabilities. It will be argued that in the quest for adequate conceptualisations of the various non-material power resources NGOs dispose of, conventional behaviourist (realist) power theories are of limited use. They insufficiently take into account the role of language — as both a means for communication and as collectively shared meaning-structures — in the establishment and persistence of intersubjective power relations. Accordingly, discursive facets of power will be discussed, in particular their potential to shed light on the capabilities and strategies of NGOs to meaningfully participate in transnational communicative exchange. Turning to the empirical claim of the article — namely that the capital of NGOs resides in the discourses they represent and their abilities to promote these discourses within state-centred and state-created frameworks for communicative interaction — it will be outlined how the various roles NGOs assume fit into a concept of international politics conceived of as a discursive economy. The article concludes with a brief discussion of various cases in which NGOs have been increasingly successful as discursive entrepreneurs in global policy-making.
Power, Politics and Global Civil Society
Authors: Lipschutz Ronnie D.
Published: March 2008

Although there remains considerable dispute about Global Civil Society (GCS) — whom or what it includes, whether it is international or truly global, and how it is constituted — there is no doubt that the agents, actors, organisations, and institutions of transnational social and economic exchange and action exist. But what is GCS? Is it a space or locus of sovereign agents, or merely a structural effect? Does it wield compulsory power or it is a mere epiphenomenon, a reflection of the state system? Is GCS an institutional phenomenon, the result of the exercise of power by other actors, or is it a productive phenomenon, constituted by the social roles and relations growing out of contemporary states and markets? In this article, I adopt a neo-Hegelian approach, and propose a dialectical relationship between developing modes of global political rule and the markets that it shapes and governs. I problematise GCS as a central and vital element in an expanding global neo-liberal regime of governmentality, which is constituted out of the social relations within that regime and which, to a large degree, serves to legitimise that regime.
Commanding Heights? The Strength and Fragility of Business Power in Global Politics
Authors: Fuchs Doris
Published: March 2008

International Relations (IR) urgently needs theoretical development that takes into the account the power of non-state actors, in particular business. The present paper aims to prepare the ground for such theoretical development by analysing the political power of business along three dimensions: its instrumental, structural, and discursive power. The paper discusses the extent to which business's political power has grown in each of the dimensions. While the analysis indicates that the political power of business in general and corporate actors in particular has increased in certain areas, it also highlights limits and challenges to this power. Specifically, the paper argues that the `commanding heights' to which business allegedly has climbed are built on shaky ground. This, in turn, implies the need for any IR theory that takes non-state actors into account to develop and include a new concept of vulnerability of political power.
Power and Play through Poisies: Reconstructing Self and Other in the 9/11 Commission Report
Authors: Agathangelou Anna M. , Ling L.H.M.
Published: March 2008

Analyses of 9/11 tend to narrowly punctuate understandings of Self vs Other. These mystify the power of politics in international relations, fixing us in locked cycles of dominance, retaliation, and indeed, anihilation. We explore an alternative method (poetry) derived from a dialectical epistemology (poisies) framed by a prismatic ontology (Worldism) to address the relations between Self and Other, and their implications for an emancipatory, transformative world politics. We focus on the 9/11 Commission Report as a starting point.
Constructing the Self and Changing Others: Reconsidering `Normative Power Europe'
Authors: Diez Thomas
Published: March 2008

The European Union (EU) is widely seen as a novel kind of actor in international politics. This has been captured succinctly by Ian Manner's term `normative power Europe'. This article reviews the literature on the concept of normative power and relates it to the earlier literature on civilian power. It argues that these concepts of power should be seen as part of the same discourse; a discourse which is not confined to the EU, but includes the cases of other great powers, such as the United States (US). The example of the US leads to a problematisation of `normative power Europe' that does not focus on the discrepancy between rhetoric and concrete policies, or on the inconsistencies of EU policies, but on the political effects of the construction of the EU as a normative power; i.e., on the power of the `normative power Europe' discourse. With illustrations drawn from the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Turkey-EU relations and the sanctions against Austria, I argue that this discourse establishes a particular identity for the EU through turning third parties into `others' and representing the EU as a positive force in world politics. The article concludes with a call for more reflexivity in the representation of the EU as a normative power.
Discourses of Power: Traversing the Realist-Postmodern Divide
Authors: Sterling-Folker Jennifer , Shinko Rosemary E.
Published: March 2008

This article is about the analytical divide that separates realism and postmodernism in International Relations. Written by a realist (Sterling-Folker), and a postmodernist (Shinko), it seeks to traverse the divide between them through a discussion of how the perspective of each represents and makes sense of power. It does so within the context of an empirical case study: the China-Taiwan relationship. Comparing and contrasting how each perspective conceptualises power in its empirical practice and application forces both to grapple with the possibility of a simultaneity of stasis and change, and thus forces both to confront the relationship of constitutive structure and history in their own representations of the world. If our goal is to understand power and the discursive frames we choose to describe it, then the philosophical avenues obscured by the standard realist-postmodern divide are worth traversing.
Capacity and Concessions: Bargaining Power in Multilateral Negotiations
Authors: Schneider Gerald
Published: March 2008

Realism and liberalism disagree over the source of bargaining power in international relations. Realists believe that the success of a negotiator is a linear function of the capabilities that its home state possesses. Liberals stress the crucial importance of either the relative salience a country attaches to a contested issue or the importance negotiating governments have to attribute to powerful domestic actors. In this essay, I clarify some of the channels through which these different facets of power influence multilateral negotiations. To examine the competing theoretical claims in international negotiations, I rely on the canonical contribution to the formal theory of bargaining, the Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS), as the unifying analytical framework. I distinguish several causal mechanisms through which varying forms of resources affect the negotiation outcomes. The formal analysis points out severe limitations of the thesis that different forms of bargaining power are fungible. Whether different facets of power can be substituted at all depends on how specific a channel is through which power is exerted. The empirical application uses the saliency approach as the baseline model and compares it with a realist capability and a liberalist domestic politics model. The analysis of the Uruguay round negotiations in the tourism sector shows that the realist bargaining model outperforms the domestic politics model. The saliency version of the NBS on which the competing models are based also fares relatively well in forecasting the concessions that 29 member states made in this policy realm.