From Brussels to Belgrade: Challenges in Conducting Research and Constructing Explanations of the Collapse of Yugoslavia

While acknowledging that it is important to examine events within their appropriate context, this article is interested in the capacity of qualitative research methods to assist us so that we can get a more accurate picture of European Community involvement in the Yugoslav federation and the decisions that terminated its existence. More precisely, the article is concerned with the extent to which archival collections and interviews with state as well as nonstate actors can shape our ideas and consequent explanations of the Yugoslav state crisis. In addition, the last section elaborates on a number of challenges one may encounter while being on such a demanding research journey. As suggested by the concluding remarks, new interpretations, apart from managing to satisfy the researcher’s own ambition to complement the existing scholarship, should also serve to encourage fresh questions and answers

Essential Medicines at the National Level : The Global Asthma Network's Essential Asthma Medicines Survey 2014

Patients with asthma need uninterrupted supplies of affordable, quality-assured essential medicines. However, access in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. The World Health Organization (WHO) Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Global Action Plan 2013-2020 sets an 80% target for essential NCD medicines' availability. Poor access is partly due to medicines not being included on the national Essential Medicines Lists (EML) and/or National Reimbursement Lists (NRL) which guide the provision of free/subsidised medicines. We aimed to determine how many countries have essential asthma medicines on their EML and NRL, which essential asthma medicines, and whether surveys might monitor progress. A cross-sectional survey in 2013-2015 of Global Asthma Network principal investigators generated 111/120 (93%) responses41 high-income countries and territories (HICs); 70 LMICs. Patients in HICs with NRL are best served (91% HICs included ICS (inhaled corticosteroids) and salbutamol). Patients in the 24 (34%) LMICs with no NRL and the 14 (30%) LMICs with an NRL, however no ICS are likely to have very poor access to affordable, quality-assured ICS. Many LMICs do not have essential asthma medicines on their EML or NRL. Technical guidance and advocacy for policy change is required. Improving access to these medicines will improve the health system's capacity to address NCDs.Peer reviewe

Study of e+e−→ppˉe^+e^- \rightarrow p\bar{p} in the vicinity of ψ(3770)\psi(3770)

Using 2917 $\rm{pb}^{-1}$ of data accumulated at 3.773~$\rm{GeV}$, 44.5~$\rm{pb}^{-1}$ of data accumulated at 3.65~$\rm{GeV}$ and data accumulated during a $\psi(3770)$ line-shape scan with the BESIII detector, the reaction $e^+e^-\rightarrow p\bar{p}$ is studied considering a possible interference between resonant and continuum amplitudes. The cross section of $e^+e^-\rightarrow\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p}$, $\sigma(e^+e^-\rightarrow\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p})$, is found to have two solutions, determined to be ($0.059\pm0.032\pm0.012$) pb with the phase angle $\phi = (255.8\pm37.9\pm4.8)^\circ$ ($<$0.11 pb at the 90% confidence level), or $\sigma(e^+e^-\rightarrow\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p}) = (2.57\pm0.12\pm0.12$) pb with $\phi = (266.9\pm6.1\pm0.9)^\circ$ both of which agree with a destructive interference. Using the obtained cross section of $\psi(3770)\rightarrow p\bar{p}$, the cross section of $p\bar{p}\rightarrow \psi(3770)$, which is useful information for the future PANDA experiment, is estimated to be either ($9.8\pm5.7$) nb ($<17.2$ nb at 90% C.L.) or $(425.6\pm42.9)$ nb

Symbolic right-sizing and Balkan Nationalisms: The Macedonia name dispute and the Prespa Agreement

This article examines identity politics on the Macedonian name dispute and draws parallels with identity conflicts in other divided societies to examine how peacemakers and hardliners contest the prospect of negotiated peace settlements. The first part of the article examines competing narratives of the dispute and how the unexpected challenge of ‘symbolic right-sizing’ of national identity on both parts following the dissolution of Yugoslavia provoked major public and political outrage. It compares Greek and North Macedonian understandings of national boundaries, unity and ethnic group entitlement over symbols of national unity and past glory. The second part investigates conflict resolution and the two UN mediated agreements on the Macedonian name dispute: the Interim Agreement negotiated by Richard Holbrook and Matthew Nimitz in September 1995; and the comprehensive Prespa Agreement mediated by the latter in June 2018 concluded in early 2019. In the final part of the article, the wider significance of the case for the region, symbolic ‘right-sizing’, and theories of identity framing and conflict resolution are discusse