Multilateral security in the Mediterranean post-Cold War: NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue and the EuroMed Partnership. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 7 No. 10 May 2007

[From the introduction]. In this paper I will compare and contrast how the multilateral efforts in terms of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue (“Dialogue”) program, involving i.a. U.S. interests in the Mediterranean, and the European Union’s (“EU”) EuroMed Partnership as the EU’s European Neighborhood Policy’s main approach to its Mediterranean neighbors (3) have affected Mediterranean security post-Cold War. This study takes place at the system level of analysis, exploring both bilateral and regional issues and interactions, including those of institutional and non-governmental actors (NGOs) (Neak 2003, 12). This paper takes a constructivist approach and, although acknowledging aspects of realism inherent in it such as rational actors (4), by contrasting the hard power and soft power approaches in the institutional analysis (in order to understand the history, culture and institutional dynamics post-Cold War) of the EMP and the Dialogue. Klotz and Lynch (2007, 3) write: The end of the Cold War shattered stable antagonisms and alliances… This destabilization widened the political and intellectual spaces - and increased the need – for scholars to ask questions about the cultural bases of conflict, alternative conceptions of national identity, [and] the ethics of intervention… Individuals and groups are not only shaped by their world but can also change it. People can … set into motion new normative, cultural, economic, social, or political practices that alter conventional wisdoms and standard operating procedures

Vortex of a Regional Security Complex: The EuroMed Partnership and its Security Relevance. EUMA Papers, Vol. 5, No. 11 May 2008

[From the introduction]. Studying the Mediterranean as a geo-political region, Pace (2003, 161) states that “the study of regions must in some way include the study of meaning and identity”. Other authors, such as Shamsaddin Megalommatis (2007) are of the opinion that, pertaining to the Arabic and Islamic neighbors of the EU, only Turkey and Iran matter at all. In this paper I seek to assess security-related dynamics in the EuroMed Partnership (EMP). To re-think the Mediterranean region (Euro-Med) in a relational, political context, Pace (2003, 161) suggests focusing on agency and structure in the analysis of the “processual” (emphasis mine) aspects of region making. This paper focuses on the Euro-Mediterranean region and the role of the European Union (EU) and its southern Mediterranean neighbors in “constructing” this space, and hereby giving it meaning, as well as potentially leading to reciprocal “re-construction” of their self-identity in the context of a potential Euro-Mediterranean Regional Security Complex (EMRSC). This would contrast with the Middle Eastern Regional Security Complex (MERSC) which Buzan and Waever (2003) had suggested, but rather this paper suggests a slight theoretical shift to Buzan and Waever’s Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT)

Regional Security through Synergistic Integration: A Euro-Mediterranean Regional Security Complex? Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5, No. 13 June 2008

In this paper I argue that the recent Iraq war shows that there are, at least with respect to the Greater Middle East, no “quick fixes” for regional security, but that the painstaking process of political, economic and social development and harmonization (e.g. the “EuroMediterranean Partnership-paradigm”) between the northern and southern members of the EMP has to be accomplished step by step to not only be inclusive of the great heterogeneity of peoples and systems in the Euro-Mediterranean region, but to also ensure that all share in the fruits of this development. Hence the commitment by all EMP-members to this collective security region is essential, as in its absence the consequences are felt by all, such as the illegal migration of economically desperate North Africans to Europe, or the militancy of Palestinians. Since the social, political and economic interdependence – and herewith the mutual security interests - among EMP-members is so complex, I propose in this paper to change Buzan and Waever’s conception of the Middle Eastern Regional Security complex (MERSC) to the epistemologically more appropriate concept of a “Euro-Mediterranean Regional Security Complex” (EMRSC), operating within the Euro-Med Partnership

COLLECTIVE MODULARITY: A MODULAR DESIGN FOR DISASTERS

With factory-built, prefabricated components, modular architecture is at the forefront of modern design. Architecture is becoming more cost-effective, movable, and uniform. Modular homes have traditionally sacrificed character in order to be more cost-effective, energy-efficient, or trendy. Developers, advertisers, and engineers use budgets and market data to design them, not an architects’ dream or vision. Architects who have been schooled to design with concept, passion, and poetry choose to design conventional homes because it has proven challenging in the past to adopt a modular construction plan while keeping design authorship. Architects see modular building as a violation of this fact, as it forces residences into three or four core products with little cultural flexibility. Modular architecture, however, may now bring significantly more variations with minimal cost and production efficiency thanks to modern equipment, appropriate planning, and business model integration. This thesis shows an insight of modular home building as well as techniques for architects to take advantage of its efficiency while maintaining unique design outputs and profit. It then creates a vision and manufacturing question about whether modular building is the ideal option for a design in the Bahamas, which will be studied through site analysis and initial design concept. I want to employ a system of construction methods that is assembled to be sturdy yet expandable at the same time. I want to address a natural disaster prone location where my structures can help rebuild whats been lost or destroyed

Distribution and Dynamics in a Simple Tax Regime Transition

We examine transitions between excise tax and license fee regimes in the laboratory. The regimes have matched equilibrium Marshallian surplus, but license fees generate more tax revenue. The license fees are large “avoidable costs,” known to hamper competitive equilibrium convergence. With moderately experienced subjects, the prolonged transition to the license fee equilibrium has these features: (1) Prices below equilibrium levels, resulting in firm losses; (2) Marshallian surplus above equilibrium levels; and (3) transitional windfalls for the tax authority. With highly experienced subjects, license fees lead to the instability and lower seller profits and efficiency observed in past avoidable cost markets.Tax Regime Transitions, Avoidable Costs, Double Auctions, Experimental Methods.

Petrogenesis and tectonic implications of mafic rocks in the Precambrian core of the Black Hills, South Dakota

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on November 6, 2007)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Geological sciences.The Precambrian core of the Black Hills of South Dakota records evidence of syncollisional events that occurred in the area during the Proterozoic collision of the Wyoming and Superior provinces. While these syncollisional events are well understood, the geologic setting and tectonic events that occurred prior to the collision are still enigmatic. In this investigation major and trace element ICP-OES and INAA data of four suites of amphibolites were used to define at least two distinct tectonic settings of mafic magmatism within the Black Hills prior to the collision. The 2.48 Ga Blue Draw Metagabbro (BDM) located near Nemo was previously thought to be a rift-related sequence; however, the geochemistry of the BDM shows a distinct calc-alkaline affinity, suggestive of a continental arc setting. The amphibolites in the three other areas of the Black Hills have a tholeiitic affinity. The amphibolites at Minnesota Ridge have a distinctive within-plate geochemical signature; however, they are depleted in Ba and Y and enriched in LREEs, which may indicate a lithospheric, garnet-bearing mantle source associated with the initiation of a spreading center. The remainder of the amphibolites in the Black Hills, located in the Mt. Rushmore and Pactola Dam quadrangles, and near Bear Mountain have MORB to island arc tholeiitic compositions. These characteristics, together with the sedimentary environment in which they occur, suggest a back-arc basin tectonic setting

Crystallization of an exciton superfluid

Indirect excitons -- pairs of electrons and holes spatially separated in semiconductor bilayers or quantum wells -- are known to undergo Bose-Einstein condensation and to form a quantum fluid. Here we show that this superfluid may crystallize upon compression. However, further compression results in quantum melting back to a superfluid. This unusual behavior is explained by the effective interaction potential between indirect excitons which strongly deviates from a dipole potential at small distances due to many-particle and quantum effects. Based on first principle path integral Monte Carlo simulations, we compute the complete phase diagram of this system and predict the relevant parameters necessary to experimentally observe exciton crystallization in semiconductor quantum wells