Rethinking "world wars" through a world-systems lens: a relational and contextual approach

What are the key characteristics of the current instabilities of the capitalist world-system, and how does it compare to previous periods that led to world wars? What factors are driving the similarities and differences between the present systemic chaos and earlier transitions in the world-system? What potential trajectories might the unfolding period of systemic instabilities take, and what balance of forces could emerge as dominant in shaping the world-system? Focusing on the foundational works of Wallerstein, Chase-Dunn, Goldstein, and Arrighi, this article critically re-evaluates the contemporary relevance and explanatory power of world-systems analysis. Its key contribution to world-systems literature lies in moving beyond the predominantly cyclical interpretations of world wars by integrating analytical tools, such as conceptual schemas and statistical evidence, with narrative approaches highlighting historical contingencies. Overall, contemporary systemic instabilities within the capitalist world-system are marked by the intensification of economic competition, geopolitical rivalries, and social discontent, reflecting historical patterns of systemic chaos during prior hegemonic transitions, yet distinguished by the unanticipated disruption of economic expansion since the 2010s, China’s unexpected rise alongside the fading influence Germany and Japan, the U.S.-China decoupling, the pivotal role of frontier technologies, and the fragmented character of heightened popular mobilization

Can we systematically uncover activists’ recipes?

Tom Kirk sets out his plans for systematic comparative research on the recipes of tactics that activists use to create change across different contexts and overviews an innovative methodology that may help uncover them

Accountable liveness

Safety and liveness are the two classical security properties of consensus protocols. Recent works have strengthened safety with accountability: should any safety violation occur, a sizable fraction of adversary nodes can be proven to be protocol violators. This paper studies to what extent analogous accountability guarantees are achievable for liveness. To reveal the full complexity of this question, we introduce an interpolation between the classical synchronous and partially-synchronous models that we call the -partially-synchronous network model in which, intuitively, at most an fraction of the time steps in any sufficiently long interval are asynchronous (and, as with a partially-synchronous network, all time steps are synchronous following the passage of an unknown “global stablization time”). We prove a precise characterization of the parameter regime in which accountable liveness is achievable: if and only if < 1/2 and < /2, where denotes the number of nodes and the number of nodes controlled by an adversary. We further refine the problem statement and our analysis by parameterizing by the number of violating nodes identified following a liveness violation, and provide evidence that the guarantees achieved by our protocol are near-optimal (as a function of and ). Our results provide rigorous foundations for liveness-accountability heuristics such as the “inactivity leaks” employed in Ethereum

Can cash transfers protect mental health? Evidence from an observational cohort of children and adolescents living in adverse contexts in Brazil

BACKGROUND: Youth exposed to poverty and adversities like violence are at higher risk of mental health problems (MHP), but whether antipoverty interventions can reduce this risk remains unclear. We examined the association between participation in the Brazilian Cash Transfer Program (BFP) and mental health of children/adolescents exposed to different levels of adversity. METHODS: Observational study using nearest-neighbor propensity score matching to compare BFP participants and non-participants from the Itaboraí study, a community-based cohort of 1,189 children/adolescents (6-15 years) assessed at two waves (meaninterval: 12.9 months).Measures included the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) externalizing, internalizing, and total problems scales; an adversity score derived from a confirmatory factor analysis on violence victimization at home (WorldSAFE), school (threat/maltreatment/being chased by peers) and community (Survey of Exposure to Community Violence), and stressful life events (UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index); and BFP exposure for at least 12 months (yes/no). Latent change score models tested whether BFP participation predicted changes in CBCL T-scores, moderated by adversity levels. RESULTS: A total of 330 BFP participants were matched with 330 non-participants with similar sociodemographic characteristics. Decreases in total (b=-0.124, SE=0.034, p<0.001), externalizing (b=-0.122, SE=0.036, p=0.001), and internalizing problems (b=-0.141, SE=0.033, p<0.001) between baseline and follow-up were observed among BFP participants exposed to higher levels of adversity compared with non-participants. CONCLUSIONS: BFP participation was associated with reduced MHP only among children/adolescents facing high adversity, suggesting the program may help break the cycle between poverty and mental health problems-but benefits are concentrated among the most vulnerable

Productivity and reconfiguration practices in entrepreneurship: the COVID-19 lockdown as a test of entrepreneurs’ response to disruption

Evidence from African nations where high unemployment rates make entrepreneurship more appealing shows the quality of entrepreneurship education encourages business creation. Prior literature asserts high-quality entrepreneurship education must leverage actionable practices. We argue the entrepreneurial expertise of developed economies shapes the support they provide to emerging economies; thus, examining that expertise can yield global benefits. We begin with the theoretical premise that all businesses require practices for both productivity (i.e., ordinary capabilities) and reconfiguration (i.e., dynamic capabilities). However, most attention—both in developed economies (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau surveys) and in development interventions—is focused solely on productivity practices. To assess whether this focus is optimal, we treat the first COVID-19 lockdowns as a natural skills test for entrepreneurs and interview 21 small-business owners in the competitive, cash-constrained restaurant sectors in London and San Francisco. We learn interviewees master productivity practices but struggle with reconfiguration ones. Moreover, entrepreneurs may be aware of a reconfiguration practice but have difficulty implementing it. Furthermore, through a disruption, productivity practices can crowd out reconfiguration practices even in small businesses. Overall, we argue some businesses had highquality productivity and reconfiguration practices because they had a rudimentary innovation system. We recommend jointly leveraging the productivity literature and the emerging literature on theory-based entrepreneurship, especially as now applied to the African context. Moreover, we recommend adding topics relevant to responding to disruption, such as rudimentary innovation systems, to the curriculum development

Turkish cultural diplomacy toward China’s Turkic communities (1933–1949)

Despite the availability of a modest body of research on Ottoman policies towards the Uyghurs and Türkiye’s post-1950 stance, the 1933–1949 interim period has been mostly overlooked. This study examines Türkiye’s cultural diplomacy towards China and the Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim minority in northwest China, with a special focus on the 1933–1949 period, which corresponds to the crystallisation of Uyghur national identity through the Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET, 1933–1934) and the Second East Turkestan Republic (SETR, 1944–1949). This era saw Türkiye’s increased cultural involvement, driven by revolutionary changes under Atatürk and China’s political instability. In this article, we conduct a qualitative content analysis of declassified diplomatic archives, made available under Presidential Decree No. 11 (2018) to explore the evolution of Turkish cultural diplomacy. Before the conclusion of World War II, Turkish diplomacy primarily focused on understanding local cultural contexts, implementing educational reforms, facilitating student exchanges, promoting the Kemalist Revolution, and disseminating the new Turkish alphabet and cultural materials, which were positively received by Chinese authorities. Interestingly, China’s initiatives were crucial in sparking diplomatic relations. In the changing geopolitical environment of the post-war period, Turkish cultural diplomacy gradually shifted from emphasising the new Turkish alphabet and Kemalist ideals to incorporating Arabic and English materials, which was accompanied by a more cautious approach aimed at avoiding tensions with major international powers

Insurgent social reproduction: the home, the barricade and women’s work in the 1936 Palestinian Revolution

While the Palestinian home has been a target of relentless demolition and displacement, it has historically also been a place of care, culture, labour, and resistance. Indeed, the home is always becoming, constantly remade with every demolition and every displacement. The home embodies these contradictions: both a crime scene and a revolutionary space; a site of colonial surveillance and destruction, and a grounding site of labour and reconstruction. To engage with these tensions, I return to the revolution of 1936–9 against the British Mandate, a snapshot in the long and ongoing Palestinian revolution. But instead of only looking for revolutionaries in the barricades and the mountains, I look for them in the kitchens, in the bedrooms and in the living rooms. In that sense, I propose that the production of the home space is itself a conceptual site of theorization for what can be called insurgent social reproduction

Polarisation and public policy: political adverse selection under Obamacare

Politicising policies designed to address market failures can diminish their effectiveness. We document a pattern of ‘political adverse selection’ in the health insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act (colloquially, ‘Obamacare’): Republicans enrolled at lower rates than Democrats and independents, a gap driven by healthier Republicans. This selection raised public subsidy spending by approximately $155 per enrollee annually (3.2% of average cost). We fielded a survey to show that this selection does not exist for other insurance products. Lower enrolment and higher costs are concentrated in more Republican areas, potentially contributing to polarised views of the policy

Jordan’s path to a climate resilient future

Jordan faces escalating climate change challenges that exacerbate drought risks while simultaneously heightening the country’s vulnerability to flash floods and heatwaves. In response, Jordan has taken important steps to address climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR). This policy brief presents key findings from Mercy Corps’ in-depth assessment of Jordan’s CCA and DRR policies, providing five recommendations to enhance climate resilience and disaster preparedness. These findings can inform policy and programmatic decisions by the government of Jordan, United Nations agencies, donors, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Working-in-commons in the middle of precarity: the legacy of the urban commons movement of South Korea in the 1970s

This article explores the endogenous characteristics of commons within the frameworks of precarity and commons through the urban commons movement in 1970s South Korea. During Korea's compressed capitalist transformation, rural migrants became the urban poor, occupying the lowest position in urban labour hierarchies. Through qualitative research methods and historical analysis, we examine the Nangok shantytown in Seoul, demonstrating how commons production is shaped by specific socio-cultural, geographical, and anthropological realities. Despite their marginalised status in a patriarchal society, urban poor housewives emerged as agents of an urban commons movement by developing new urban sensibilities, challenging the capitalist norms of work and home and the conventional community practice. This article reveals how their “working-in-commons” constituted new social relationships, illuminating how people's collective attempts to reorganise livelihoods transcend the work/home or production/reproduction dichotomy. Our analysis enhances the understanding of the commons movement as rooted in everyday urban struggles in rapidly urbanising societies