bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Afghanistan: The right mission on the wrong footing
Authors: Everts Daan 
Published: March 2011

AbstractAfghanistan is a tragic case of failed preventive diplomacy. International indifference allowed a civil war to develop and escalate after the liberation from Soviet rule and, as a consequence, the rise of Taleban. In the aftermath of the horrendous 9/11 event Taleban rule was quickly ended, but US policies and UN reticence prevented a truly multilateral, comprehensive post-conflict approach to take shape — combining reconstruction, development and reconciliation while stressing Afghan ownership. The international mission remains in essence a 'noble mission', serving both humanitarian and security objectives, it needs basic adjustments for success: 'de-westernization', 'civilianization', Afghanization and political reconciliation are all important keys to achieving better and lasting results.
Kazakhstan's military reform and OSCE Chairmanship: Regional implications
Authors: Marat Erica 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis article argues that Kazakhstan's strengthening relations with NATO and the EU, as well as its prospective OSCE chairmanship in 2010 has impacted the wider Central Asia region. Neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were able to use Kazakhstan as a shield when Russia pressed them to recognize independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August 2008. Kazakhstan's successful cooperation with NATO contributed to its recognition as a nation with great economic and political potential, though it remains questionable whether positive changes inside Kazakhstan in regards to democratic control of armed forces and other political sectors entailed by the OSCE chairmanship would similarly reverberate on a regional scale. Kazakhstan, for its part, should promote its successes regionally as part of its obligations as the OSCE chair.
Regulating religion in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Some remarks on Religious Association Law and 'official' Islamic institutions in Tajikistan
Authors: Epkenhans Tim 
Published: March 2011

AbstractAlthough Tajikistan is a participating state of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and has acceded to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), religious associations are under increasingly scrutiny limiting the freedom of conscience. Tajikistan's government follows a similar policy as her Central Asian neighbors Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. While a restrictive and contradictory religious association law limits the public space for religious associations, the government successively strengthens 'official' Islamic institutions and therefore directly interferes in internal religious affairs. Considering the diversity of Islamic beliefs in and practices in Central Asia and Tajikistan in particular, this policy could generate further friction among religious communities.
The OSCE Chairmanship: Captain or Figurehead?
Authors: Kemp Walter 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe author asks whether the annual Chairmanship is the captain or the figurehead of the OSCE ship. It looks at the mandate of the Chairman-in-Office and how this works in practice. The author, who used to be an adviser to OSCE Chairmanships, concludes by making a number of recommendations for a successful Chairmanship.
Statelessness: A 21st century challenge for Europe
Authors: van Waas Laura 
Published: March 2011

AbstractOver the past decade, a deepening understanding of the gravity of the problem of statelessness, as well as the growing realisation that the international legal framework relating to statelessness exhibits numerous shortcomings, has made it clear that this issue warrants further engagement by the international community. This article looks more closely at statelessness as a fundamental challenge for Europe in the twenty-first century. The piece discusses why finding an appropriate response to statelessness can be deemed imperative, taking into account both human rights and human security considerations. To provide an impression of current opportunities for addressing statelessness, some of the strengths and limitations of the existing international legal framework relating to statelessness are presented. Finally, the article discusses a number of recent developments, in particular in Europe, which may open new avenues for meeting the challenge of statelessness in the future.
Conferring human rights awards and prizes: Feeding the PR machine or a launching pad for change?
Authors: Loughran Jim 
Published: March 2011

AbstractAlmost every day there is media coverage of an international prize or award. The issues highlighted range from the advancement of science to excellence in artistic endeavour to human rights. This article looks at the proliferation of human rights prizes and asks searching questions about who really benefits from this huge investment of time and money. The article explores the delicate balance between the needs of international organisations to build their media profile and attract funders and the needs of the organisation or individual on the ground for whom the winning of an international award can be a ground breaking opportunity.
Intolerance and discrimination against Muslims (Islamophobia)
Authors: Orhun Ömür 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIn this article, after a brief introduction related to the present environment, Ambassador Orhun discusses human rights, mutual respect and dialogue, leading to an evaluation of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims. He finds that the environment in which Muslims live in Western countries has deteriorated considerably in the post September 11 period. He then provides an overview of his experience as OSCE's Personal Representative on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims. After sharing his views on ways to promote tolerance and combat discrimination against Muslims, Ambassador Orhun concludes with his recommendations. He stresses the need to take account of the intellectual front in the fight against intolerance and discrimination and dwells especially on true integration to enable Muslim migrants to feel at home in a cohesive society. He says that the real threat to tolerance and to multi-cultural societies emanates from the extremes of host and migrant groups and cautions vigilance to achieve peaceful co-existence.
Fostering relations with a host country: A case study of the OSCE and Tadjikistan
Authors: Samuel Kathleen 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe OSCE's mandate for early warning, conflict prevention, conflict management and post-conflict rehabilitation based on its approach to comprehensive security through its network of field offices is implemented on a daily basis. Constructive relations with a host country are an important factor in their success, yet not always easy to achieve. This article provides a case study of one endeavour to strengthen these relations.
The Bolzano Recommendations on National Minorities in Inter-State Relations: Reconciling justice and security
Authors: Sabanadze Natalie 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIn October 2008, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities adopted Bolzano/Bozen Recommendations on National Minorities in Inter-State Relations. The Recommendations demonstrate how, under what conditions and within which limits States can support minorities residing abroad. These are the HCNM's first recommendations that deal expressly with the international dimension of the minority question, which is closely linked to both domestic and international security. This article contributes to the debate on the securitization of the minority question and on the example of the Bolzano Recommendations argues for both moral and practical validity of the HCNM's approach described as 'security through justice'.
Improving OSCE election observation
Authors: Eicher Peter 
Published: March 2011

AbstractAlthough election observation has shown its value in enhancing public confidence and improving election practices, serious questions about the future of observation remain. Observer groups are under attack from some governments, while methods of manipulating elections have become increasingly sophisticated. A particular difficulty for observers is how to react when governments show a lack of political will to conduct fair elections. There are a number of steps that can be taken to meet these and other challenges, but ensuring that election observation remains relevant and effective will require continuing creativity, flexibility and innovations.
Can a summit advance the OSCE's work in the Human Dimension?
Authors: Goldstein Jeff 
Published: March 2011

AbstractKazakhstan's key goal for its chairmanship is to host an OSCE summit in 2010. In order for a summit to advance the Organization's human dimension work, Kazakhstan must first take concrete steps to improve its own human rights record. A summit should reaffirm the participating States' existing human dimension commitments, and their intent to address European security in a comprehensive manner, including compliance with OSCE norms in all three dimensions. It should also demonstrate the Organization's ability to address new human dimension challenges by starting the process of creating OSCE norms regarding the Internet.
From nation-building to desecuritization in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Authors: van Willigen Niels 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis article analyzes the value and impact of the nation building policy of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia). The analysis shows that the nation building effort has failed in the sense that the ethnic nationalist political culture persisted and that a collective Bosnian identity is absent. Bosnian politics continued to be dominated by ethnic nationalist political parties and ethnic group interests. The author argues that this can be explained by the continued securitization of ethnic identity. In other words, each ethnic group regards its vital interests to be existentially threatened by the other ethnic group(s). Therefore, the author concludes that when it comes to inter-ethnic cooperation, achieving good and effective government in Bosnia is not so much about nationbuilding, but about de-securitizing ethnic relations.
Advisability and feasibility of establishing a complaints mechanism for minority rights
Authors: Drzewicki Krzysztof 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIt has been suggested by a number of experts, states and international organizations that an effective protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities requires establishing a complaints mechanism for minority rights. Taking this as a point of departure the paper focused on the questions of the advisability and feasibility of the proposal. For the assessment of the advisability aspects supporting conclusions were identified in the experience of human rights and minority-related complaints systems in the United Nations and European frameworks. This paper further discusses a choice of a model for complaints mechanism and favours the one integrated with the Framework Convention on National Minorities. It is also submitted that the normative quality of the Framework Conventions, substantially increased through the reporting procedure in recent decade, strengthens the model based on the FCNM. Among feasibility questions the paper discusses legal basis for establishing the complaints mechanism and its basic procedural modalities. The most important conclusion inferred from the feasibility-related arguments points to the preference of a collective and not individual complaints system. Now it remains for the states to show if there is a sufficient willingness to enter negotiation on the proposed mechanism and put it into effect.
A Crime against Humanity? Implications and Prospects of the Responsibility to Protect in the Wake of Cyclone Nargis
Authors: Langmore John , McLachlan-Bent Ashley 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIn May 2008 Cyclone Nargis created significant international debate when the ruling military regime in Myanmar refused to allow international relief supplies and specialists into the country. The discussion that followed included invoking the principle of Responsibility to Protect as a way of forcing the regime to accept international assistance. This proposal caused sharp division amongst governments, relief agencies, journalists and citizens. The regime's shocking refusal to accept assistance constituted a crime against humanity and, as such, deserved consideration as an R2P situation. The damage which military action involves was severely underestimated by those proposing it and although the situation following Nargis clearly met the threshold criteria, permitting coercive intervention, the precautionary principles were not satisfied, thus making coercive intervention under R2P impermissible. The involvement of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) following Nargis facilitated entry of disaster assessment teams and some aid into Myanmar. In light of Myanmar's fear of intervention in its affairs, the international community should have used R2P to frame a response and worked with ASEAN from the outset to pressure the regime to respond to the disaster more effectively.
The United States and the Responsibility to Protect: Impediment, Bystander, or Norm Leader?
Authors: Reinold Theresa 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe US has always reserved the right to use military force to save strangers – unilaterally, if necessary. Yet successive US Administrations have perceived this right as an option to intervene, and not as a general duty toward endangered civilians that is exercised in a more or less consistent fashion. The responsibility to protect is thus a double-edged sword for the United States: on the one hand, it legitimises the use of military means as a last resort to protect civilians from the worst human rights abuses. On the other hand, however, it limits US freedom of action by establishing clear guidelines for the use of force and by creating an expectation to act when human rights are being violated on a massive scale and all other non-military means have been exhausted. Unsurprisingly then, US engagement with the responsibility to protect has been rather ambivalent. This article reviews the Bush Administration's position on R2P in theory and practice, taking the Darfur crisis as a showcase of the Bush Administration's wavering commitment to atrocity prevention. The second part of the article discusses whether the Obama Presidency has departed from the Bush Administration's approach and assesses to what extent it will provide new impetus to the development of R2P.
First amber fossils of the extinct family Protopsyllidiidae, and their phylogenetic significance among Hemiptera
Authors: Grimaldi David 
Published: March 2011

AbstractTwo new species of a new genus, Postopsyllidium rebeccae and P. emilyae, are described, which are preserved in amber from northern Myanmar and central New Jersey, USA (100-90 myo), respectively. These are the first specimens of the hemipteran family Protopsyllidiidae found in amber and the latest occurrence of the family, some 50 my later than previous records; all others are compressions in rocks (many of them just wings) from the Late Permian to the Early Cretaceous. Postopsyllidium emilyae is also the first record of the group from the Western Hemisphere. A catalogue of Protopsyllidiidae is provided as well as an hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships among genera, though monophyly of the family is ambiguous. Postopsyllidium appears to be a recently derived genus, and four genera are removed from the family. Complete preservation in amber allows new insight into relationships, specifically that Postopsyllidium, and perhaps most or all Protopsyllidiidae, represent an extinct sister group to the Sternorrhyncha that retain features of some Auchenorrhyncha. Radiations of true Sternorrhyncha began in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, by which time the Protopsyllidiidae were apparently already relicts.
Revision of the genus Briarius [Fischer de Waldheim] (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)
Authors: Río María Guadalupe del , Lanteri Analia 
Published: March 2011

AbstractBriarius [Fischer de Waldheim], senior synonym of Lamprocyphus Marshall, includes some of the most beautiful species of weevils within the Entiminae, Naupactini. It is closely related to Trichaptus Pascoe and according to the present revision has only two species, B. elegans (Roelofs) (new comb.), endemic to northeastern Brazil (Bahía and Espíritu Santo), and B. augustus (Illiger) distributed in northeastern Argentina, Brazil south of the Amazon River, and eastern Paraguay, in tropical and subtropical forests. After the examination of about 700 specimens from several localities we conclude that Briarius augustus is a complex species with population polymorphism (mainly in color vestiture) and geographic variation. Within it we have distinguished four subspecies previously described as species: B. a. augustus (Illiger) (= Cyphus oliveirae Roelofs, new syn.) occurs in Santa Catarina and Paraná on the Serra do Mar (Brazil); B. a. germari (Boheman) ranges from São Paulo to Espirítu Santo (Brazil), along the Atlantic forest; B. a. margaritaceus (Sturm) (= Cyphus consularis Chevrolat, C.. gloriandus Schoenherr, and C. spixi Perty) is distributed from Santa Catarina to Bahía (Brazil); and B. a. varnhageni (Germar) (= Lamprocyphus jacobi Hustache) ranges from Santa Catarina to northeastern Argentina (Misiones) and eastern Paraguay. Subspecies have overlapping ranges on the Serra do Mar (Santa Catarina), where it is possible to see all the variation within B. augustus. This area, same as other coastal hills along the Atlantic forests of Brazil, would have been Pleistocene refuges where species inhabiting rainforests survived and diversified during the dry-warm cycles of this period, however, time since then was probably not enough to achieve reproductive isolation, since individuals of different subspecies of B. augustus were found in copula. The paper includes descriptions and illustrations of the two valid species of the genus, and the subspecies of B. augustus. It also provides dichotomous keys, habitus photographs, illustrations of genitalia, external morphology, and a map of distribution.
Revision of the genus Lisposoma Lawrence, 1928 (Scorpiones: Bothriuridae)
Authors: Prendini Lorenzo 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe endemic Namibian genus Lisposoma Lawrence, 1928, comprising two described species, represents one of two basal African genera in the Gondwanan family Bothriuridae Simon, 1880. All other, more derived genera of Bothriuridae occur in South America, India and Australia. Although the phylogenetic position of Lisposoma has become an increasingly contentious subject, three cladistic analyses based on morphological data have confirmed that it is a basal bothriurid. In view of those findings, the present contribution serves to revise the generic diagnosis of Lisposoma, last revised by Lamoral (1979), who placed the genus in the Scorpionidae Latreille, 1802 and constructed his diagnosis accordingly. A considerable number of new specimens, many representing new records for the two species of Lisposoma, have also accumulated since Lamoral's (1979) revision. These new data justify the provision of revised diagnoses and descriptions for the two species, together with a key to their identification, brief summaries of their ecology and conservation status, and a distribution map plotting all known locality records.
Genetic diversity, species phylogeny and historical biogeography of the Aquarius paludum group (Heteroptera: Gerridae)
Authors: Zettel Herbert , Damgaard Jakob 
Published: March 2011

AbstractWe investigated genetic diversity and phylogeny of all water strider species assigned to the Aquarius paludum species group on basis of 425 bp DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial gene encoding cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI). Parsimony analyses and genetic distances confirmed the taxonomic status of the two recently described species Aquarius lili Polhemus & Polhemus, 1994 from Timor and A. philippinensis Zettel & Ruiz, 2003 from the Philippines as being separate from the widespread Oriental A. adelaidis (Dohrn, 1860). Molecular clock estimates suggest that the disjunct zoogeographical pattern among the three species is due to a Pliocene/Pleistocene long-range dispersal, rather than a Mesozoic vicariance event as previously suggested. However, when we superimposed the disjunct distribution of Southern Hemisphere representatives of the paludum-group onto their phylogenetic relationship, the pattern indicated vicariance events following the break-up of Gondwana.
The Chloropidae (Diptera) of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Authors: Forrest Jessica , Wheeler Terry 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThirteen species of Chloropidae are recorded from the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. Seven new species are described: Diplotoxa loma sp. n. (subfamily Chloropinae); Conioscinella empheria sp. n.; Gaurax gethosyne sp. n.; Hippelates alyscus sp. n.; Liohippelates baptipalpis sp. n.; Olcella anaclasta sp. n.; Olcella lupina sp. n. (subfamily Oscinellinae). Another species in the genus Apallates is apparently undescribed, but there is insufficient information to justify a formal description. Monochaetoscinella anonyma is recorded for the first time from the archipelago. Four species previously recorded from the archipelago were also identified: Cadrema pallida; Conioscinella galapagensis; Elachiptera cultrata; Liohippelates galapagensis. Previously published Galápagos records of Liohippelates pusio apparently refer to L. galapagensis. A key to the Galápagos species of Chloropidae is given. Geographic affinities of the Galápagos chloropid fauna are similar to those of other Diptera from the archipelago, with few pantropical species, some species also found in the northern Neotropical and southern Nearctic regions, and endemic species apparently with Neotropical sister groups.
Phylogenetic analysis of the genus Helicopha Mosely (Trichoptera: Helicophidae), with description of five new species from New Caledonia
Authors: Johanson Kjell Arne 
Published: March 2011

AbstractFive new Helicopha species are described from New Caledonia: H. paniensis sp.n., H. amieuensis sp.n., H. einap sp.n., H. ramea sp.n. and H. dognyensis sp.n. The new species are all endemic to New Caledonia and described herein. Distributional data is included on maps for all eight New Caledonian Helicopha species. A key to the males of New Caledonian Helicophidae is presented. Phylogenetic analyses performed on morphological characters of the males of Helicophidae species show that the New Caledonia Helicopha are monophyletic, but the relationship between the Australian and New Caledonian Helicopha species is at present not fully understood. Analyzing with equally weighted characters leaves the Australian Helicopha as the sistergroup to the New Caledonian Helicopha. When characters are weighted using implied weights and concavity constant of 2, the New Zealand Zelolessica split the New Caledonian and Australian Helicopha, leaving Helicopha paraphyletic. The monotypic New Caledonian genus Briama is closely related to Helicopha in all results.