Factors affecting Technical Debt Raw data from a systematic literature map

"This document presents the complete list of references that have been short listed during the systematic review process carried out during the months of April-September 2012. The objective of the systematic review was to identify current research trends in technical debt and to explore the relationship between technical debt measures and agile software development. This documents includes 352 references that are categorized according to their relevance to technical debt research." [Abstract

Elusive Peace, Security, and Justice in Post-Conflict Guatemala: An Exploration of Transitional Justice and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG)

Guatemala has, until today, struggled to achieve security and justice following the end of nearly half a century of civil war in 1996. One specific institution, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), has been implemented to rectify many of the Guatemalan state’s difficulties in establishing and maintaining the rule of law. In this thesis, I look to better explain CICIG’s role in Guatemala relative to security and justice in a post-conflict setting: I define CICIG as an institution potentially capable of building societal trust, and I explain how the inclusion of procedural justice within transitional justice can help it do that. I also explain CICIG’s transitional justice-based role, both institutionally and functionally. CICIG is afflicted with issues that have arisen in a post-conflict setting, after all. Finally, I analyze and discuss CICIG’s successes and drawbacks relative to both its organizational mandate and the goals of transitional justice, and I make recommendations on how CICIG and/or other similarly constituted institutions could be made to function more efficiently and effectively

The City’s Second Amendment

Cities are increasingly common sites of contestation over the scope and meaning of the Second Amendment. Some municipalities have announced their opposition to firearm restrictions by declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries. Others have sought to curtail gun violence by passing restrictive local regulations. Still others have responded to police violence by moving to demilitarize, disarm, or even disband their police forces. The burgeoning post-Heller legal literature, though, has largely overlooked the relationship between cities, collective arms bearing, and the Second Amendment. In sum, to what extent do cities themselves have a right to keep and bear arms? This Article tackles that question. The Article contests the proposition that cities are bereft of constitutional rights in general, or against their states in particular. The Article challenges this notion by showing that the constitutional invisibility of municipal corporations is rooted in an outdated notion of the city as an artificial entity. The Article then turns to the Second Amendment, questioning the conventional wisdom that it provides solely a libertarian, individual bulwark against state restriction. The Article shows that in fact the right to keep and bear arms has an important collective dimension that promotes safety, and that the city is historically and institutionally situated to advance this Second Amendment feature. Finally, the Article examines how these two insights operate in practice, first by outlining the substantive contours of the city’s Second Amendment, and then by applying the model to contemporary controversies in firearm regulation such as guns in schools, concealed carry, Second Amendment sanctuaries, and the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act. In addition to advancing the novel claim that cities themselves may assert rights to keep and bear arms, the Article also adds to the growing literature on municipal constitutional rights and the institutional framing of the Second Amendment in a post-Heller world

President George W. Bush’s Policy Towards Iraq: Change or Continuity?

A substantial amount of commentary has been dedicated to George W. Bush’s policy towards Iraq, with many perceiving it as a departure from traditional US foreign policy practice. The objective of this research is to address and challenge this contention. This thesis takes 1979 as the launching point from which to examine this assertion, as it is both the year in which Saddam Hussein gained power as president of Iraq and also the year when the United States began tilting favourably towards, and reviving its relations with, this country. To embark on this study a descriptive and analytical narrative of the evolution of US foreign policy towards Iraq is presented, ending with the George W. Bush terms of office. This study contends that US policy towards Iraq has two major dimensions: the first is US policy towards Arab Iraq and the second its de facto policy towards Iraqi Kurdistan; both are defined by US strategy at the supra-national level. To guide this study, continuity and change were used as guiding concepts for analysing US Iraq policy at the national and sub-national levels. The study argues that US Iraq policy is primarily one of continuity rather than change, as US national interests and security, as regards Iraq, are defined by the same fundamental concerns, regardless of the nature of the American administration in office. The research concludes that, from the inception of the Bush administration, and the attacks on 9/11 that followed, the actual invasion of Iraq and US actions in its aftermath were all guided by the same considerations and goals

Women's Activism in South Africa: Working Across Divides

Women's Activism in South Africa provides the most comprehensive collection of women's experiences within civil society since the 1994 transition. This book captures South African women's stories of collective activism and social change at a crucial point for the future of democracy in the country, if not the continent. Pulling together the voices of activists and scholars, South Africa's path to democracy and the assurance of gender rights emerge as a complex journey of both successes and challenges. The collection elucidates a new form of pragmatic feminism, building upon the elasticity between the state and civil society. What the cases demonstrate is that while the state itself may not be a panacea, it still represents a key source of power and the primary locus of vital resources, including the rights of citizenship, access to basic needs, and the promise of protection from genderbased violence - all central to women's particular needs in South Africa