Division, Reconstruction, Reconciliation: what happens to identity after civil war?

In March 2011, Dr Bill Kissane organised an international workshop on the topic of reconstructing identity after civil wars. The book which followed, After Civil War: Division, Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Contemporary Europe, 1918-2011, was published in November 2014. Edited by Bill Kissane, the book explores both the theoretical and the practical, using case studies on Bosnia, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, the Irish Free State, Spain, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, and Turkey to compare reconstruction projects. Three of these case studies were written by members of the Government Department’s Conflict Research Group; Jim Hughes, ‘Reconstruction without Reconciliation: is Northern Ireland a Model?’ Bill Kissane, ‘A Nation Once Again: The Reconstruction of National Identity after the Irish Civil War 1922-1938’and Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic- Dzelilovic, ‘Ethnicity Pays: The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Nationalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina.’ Here, Bill Kissane considers the book’s findings further, asking what the relationships between reconstruction, nationalism and reconciliation are in post-conflict societies

Solar Neutrinos and Lepton Mixing

With latest experimental data the solar neutrino problem enters new phase when crucial aspects of the problem can be formulated in an essentially (solar) model independent way. Original neutrino fluxes can be considered as free parameters to be found from the solar neutrino experiments. Resonance flavour conversion gives the best fit of all experimental results. Already existing data allow one to constraint both the neutrino parameters and the original neutrino fluxes. The reconciliation of the solution of the solar neutrino problem with other neutrino mass hints (atmospheric neutrino problem, hot dark matter etc.) may require the existence of new very light singlet fermion. Supersymmetry can provide a framework within which the desired properties of such a light fermion follow naturally. The existence of the fermion can be related to axion physics, mechanism of $\mu$-term generation etc..Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, no figures. Talk given at the XXXth Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak and Unified Theories, Les Arcs, Savoie - France, March 11 - 18, 199

The Incompatibility of Freedom of the Will and Anthropological Physicalism

Many contemporary naturalistic philosophers have taken it for granted that a robust theory of free will, one which would afford us with an agency substantial enough to render us morally responsible for our actions, is itself not conceptually compatible with the philosophical theory of naturalism. I attempt to account for why it is that free will (in its most substantial form) cannot be plausibly located within a naturalistic understanding of the world. I consider the issues surrounding an acceptance of a robust theory of free will within a naturalistic framework. Timothy O’Connor’s reconciliatory effort in maintaining both a scientifically naturalist understanding of the human person and a full-blooded theory of agent-causal libertarian free will is considered. I conclude that Timothy O’Connor’s reconciliatory model cannot be maintained and I reference several conceptual difficulties surrounding the reconciliation of agent-causal libertarian properties with physical properties that haunt the naturalistic libertarian

Elastically restrained Bernoulli-Euler beams applied to rotary machinery modelling

Facing the lateral vibration problem of a machine rotor as a beam on elastic supports in bending, the authors deal with the free vibration of elastically restrained Bernoulli-Euler beams carrying a finite number of concentrated elements along their length. Based on Rayleigh's quotient, an iterative strategy is developed to find the approximated torsional stiffness coefficients, which allows the reconciliation between the theoretical model results and the experimental ones, obtained through impact tests. The mentioned algorithm treats the vibration of continuous beams under a determined set of boundary and continuity conditions, including different torsional stiffness coefficients and the effect of attached concentrated masses and rotational inertias, not only in the energetic terms of the Rayleigh's quotient but also on the mode shapes, considering the shape functions defined in branches. Several loading cases are examined and examples are given to illustrate the validity of the model and accuracy of the obtained natural frequencies

Freedom, the State, and War: Hegel’s Challenge to World Peace

Several conflict theorists have appropriated Hegel’s ‘struggle for recognition’ to highlight the healthy dimensions of conflict and to explore ways of reaching reconciliation through mutual recognition. In so doing, some scholars attend to the interpersonal dimension of reconciliation, while others focus on the interstate dimension of reconciliation. This paper argues that both approaches miss important Hegelian insights into the modern state. Hegel understands that freedom must be situated and bounded in order to take a concrete form. He believes that concrete freedom and domestic reconciliation create an atmosphere that can pressure the state to be more confrontational with other states by attaining a stronger individuality. Thus, the common concern about freedom among Hegelian states remains a ‘thin’ version of communication, vulnerable to such factors as national honor or recognition status. Hegel’s challenge urges peace-inspired scholars to explore ways of achieving concrete freedom and domestic reconciliation while simultaneously relieving interstate conflict