15,282 research outputs found
Counter-(T)error
Traditionally immigrants have been made responsible for a rise in a country’s crime rate, a state’s employment market or a nation’s cultural identity. However, since the events of 9/11 immigrants have evolved into a new kind of security concern. As a result of the terrorist attacks in 2001 by nineteen foreigners, the issue of immigration has become a central aspect in counter-terrorism as nations around the world scrambled to implement policies in reaction to the unprecedented situation. However, one has to question the validity and effectiveness of using immigration measures in the fight against terrorism. Is there an error in current counter-terror policies? The paper will critically discuss whether immigration policies are a useful means of addressing the global threat of terrorism
Combat and Warfare in the Early Paleolithic and Medically Unexplained Musculo-Facial Pain in the 21st Century War Veterns and Active-Duty Military Personnel
In a series of recent articles, we
suggest that family dentists, military
dentists and psychiatrists with expertise
in posttraumatic stress disorder (especially in the Veterans Health Administration) are likely to see an increased
number of patients with symptomatic
jaw-clenching and early stages of tooth-
grinding (Bracha et al., 2005). Returning
warfighters and other returnees from
military deployment may be especially
at risk for high rates of clenching-
induced masticatory muscle disorders
at early stages of incisor grinding. The
literature we have recently reviewed
strongly supports the conclusion that
clenching and grinding may primarily
be a manifestation of experiencing
extreme fear or severe chronic distress
(respectively). We have recently
reviewed the clinical and paleoanthropological literature and have noted that
ancestral warfare and ancestral combat,
in the early Paleolithic Environment of
Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA) may
be a neglected factor explaining the
conservation of the archaic trait of
bite-muscle strengthening. We have
hypothesized that among ancestral
warriors, jaw clenching may have
rapidly strengthened the two primary
muscles involved in biting, the masseter
muscles and the much larger temporalis muscles. The strengthening of
these muscles may have served the
purpose of enabling a stronger, deeper,
and therefore more lethal, defensive
bite for early Paleolithic humans. The
neuroevolutionary perspective presented here may be novel to many dentists. However, it may be useful in
patient education and in preventing
progression from jaw-clenching to
chronic facial pain
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Persistence pays: how viruses promote host group survival.
Recently, we have realized that viruses numerically dominate all life. Although viruses are known to affect host survival in populations, this has not been previously evaluated in the context of host group selection. Group selection per se is not a currently accepted idea and its apparent occurrence is explained by statistical gene frequency models of kin selection. Viruses were not considered in such models. Prevalent views associate viruses and disease. Yet many viruses establish species-specific persistent, inapparent infections that are stable on an evolutionary time scale. Such persistent infections can have large effects on relative reproductive fitness of competing host populations. In this essay, I present arguments on how persistent infections can promote population survival. Mouse hepatitis virus is used as well studied examplar to re-evaluate the theoretical basis of the mouse haystack model of M Smith. This virus-centric re-examination concludes that viruses can indeed affect and promote relative group selection
Pitfalls of consensus-orientated dialogue: the German Islam Conference (Deutsche Islam Konferenz)
This article discusses one deliberative approach to dialogue as conceptualized by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas and brings this into a conversation with the current dialogue practice of the Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK) in Germany. This ongoing dialogue forum was initiated by the Ministry of the Interior in the autumn of 2006 in order to enact a structured conversation with Muslims and as a means of recognising them as ‘German Muslims’. My main argument is twofold. Focusing on Habermas’s ideal of dialogue as a consensus oriented rational discourse of equal citizens in non-hegemonic structures, I will argue, on the one hand, that much of the promise of the DIK to enact a dialogue with Muslims at eyelevel and to recognise them as equal citizens on the basis of the liberal-democratic order has not been fulfilled. With its top-down approach to Muslims as mere re-actors the DIK has so far turned out to be much more a governmental technique which aims at reshaping Muslims according to liberal/secular norms. On the other hand, I claim that although the DIK obviously runs counter to Habermas’s principles in many ways, it also shares and simultaneously lays bare the difficulties entailed in his consensus orientation, and, more importantly, in the secular bias of his approach.Schirin Amir-Moazai is Assistant Professor for Islam in Europe in the Department of Islamic Studies at Free University Berlin. Website: http://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/islamwiss/mitarbeiterinnen/professorinnen/Amir-Moazami/index.html
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