The EU’s Sanctions against Syria: Conflict Management by Other Means. Security Policy Brief No. 38

Since May 2011, the EU has launched one of its most far reaching and sophisticated sanctions operations in support of the protests against the current regime in Syria. The present brief examines the measures wielded by the EU, its expected impact and its implications for the EU’s relations with its global partners. While seriously undermined by the lack of support of Russia, the sanctions are having a noticeable economic impact. Yet, the choice of measures is ill-suited to stop the bloodshed. The sanctions have also served to (re)define partnerships with other powers, both in the Middle-East and globally

Simplicial volume with Fp\mathbb{F}_p-coefficients

For primes $p$, we investigate an $\mathbb{F}_p$-version of simplicial volume and compare these invariants with their siblings over other coefficient rings. We will also consider the associated gradient invariants, obtained by stabilisation along finite coverings. Throughout, we will discuss the relation between such simplicial volumes and Betti numbers.Comment: 21 pages; v2: small changes; to appear in Period. Math. Hun

A Case for Undocumented Students in Higher Education: The Pursuit of Social Justice in Oregon Senate Bill 742

Should undocumented students be able to pay resident tuition rates at public universities? In the spring of 2011, the Oregon Senate introduced Senate Bill 742. The bill would allow undocumented students to pay resident tuition rates at the state\u27s seven public universities. This article presents philosophical arguments in support of the bill by using the ideologies outlined in egalitarian and communitarian ideas. Moreover, the liberal ideas of political philosophers Robert Nozick and Friedrich Hayek present counterarguments to my thesis. Senate Bill 742 could help to rectify the injustice inherent in the college admissions system

Building Bridges across Cultures: Engaging in the Practice of Citizen Diplomacy

The mission of the World Affairs Council of Oregon is to “broaden public awareness and understanding of international affairs and to engage Oregonians with the world.” The Council offers over forty public programs with experts and world leaders, hosts over 500 emerging leaders from around the globe, and provides assistance to K-12 schools in the important work of teaching students to become citizens of the world. The Council’s public education programs stem from its mission statement. In this essay, Clara Martinez reflects on her internship with the World Affairs Council of Oregon, through which she gained exposure to various programs. Martinez\u27s specific focus during her internship was a program that hosts over 500 international visitors annually

In Romania’s elections, the Social-Liberal Union is likely to be the clear winner. But, President Băsescu may yet block Victor Ponta from returning as Prime Minister

Romanians go to the polls on Sunday for the country’s parliamentary elections. While the incumbent Prime Minister, Victor Ponta’s Social Liberal Union is widely tipped to win the election, Clara Volintiru writes that the president Traian Băsescu may yet be able to block Ponta from returning to office

Enc0d1ng poetry

So-called “poetry in code” mounts a doubled claim to electronic-ness and literariness, and can be dubbed “literary” precisely due to its coded nature. It would seem, then, that code requires at least as much critical consideration as the linguistic and rhetorical devices normally employed in print literature. Insofar as a legitimate codework employs code at the scripting level as a language-generator and –animator, and at the surface level as either executable or non-executable programming, to what extent can E. E. Cummings’s I Will Be (1925) be considered a poem in code? What can be inferred from a comparison between this would-be proto-codework and a canonical digital poem such as Brian Kim Stefans’s The Dreamlife of Letters (2000)? What is it that makes Cummings’ poem a potentially more remarkable codework than Stefans’s? Is it the precociousness of his coded address, or is it the fact that he anticipates the links which N. Katherine Hayles makes between code and liminal somatic states in her essay 'Traumas of Code' (2006)?peer-reviewe

Measure homology and singular homology are isometrically isomorphic

Measure homology is a variation of singular homology designed by Thurston in his discussion of simplicial volume. Zastrow and Hansen showed independently that singular homology (with real coefficients) and measure homology coincide algebraically on the category of CW-complexes. It is the aim of this paper to prove that this isomorphism is isometric with respect to the l^1-seminorm on singular homology and the seminorm on measure homology induced by the total variation. This, in particular, implies that one can calculate the simplicial volume via measure homology -- as already claimed by Thurston. For example, measure homology can be used to prove the proportionality principle of simplicial volume.Comment: 20 pages, typos corrected, see also http://www.math.uni-muenster.de/u/clara.loeh/preprints.html, accepted by Mathematische Zeitschrift -- the original publication is available at www.springerlink.com (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00209-005-0905-7

The Evolution of Judicial Power: How the Supreme Court Effectively Legalized Rape on Indian Reservations

According to the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, nearly one in five women in the United States have experienced sexual violence. While the statistics are staggering, the rate of sexual assault on Indian reservations is more than twice the national average. According to the Department of Justice, one in three American Indian and Alaska Native women have been raped or have experienced an attempted rape during their lifetime. Moreover, the primary assailants are males who are not members of tribal communities. Why has rape, perpetrated by non-Indian males, become effectively legalized on reservations? What explains tribal courts’ limited legal capacity to prosecute rape? I emphasize the pivotal Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe decision that changed the landscape of judicial power on reservations. The result has produced unintended consequences, which greatly diminished the legal capacity to prosecute sexual assault cases in tribal courts. Consequently, three phases of evolution in U.S. history indicate that rape was effectively legalized. These three phases of evolution are dependent on colonialism. The criminal behavior of non-Indian males can be explained through the historical evolution of judicial power, which has in effect legalized rape in tribal communities. An examination of the hidden institutional elements considers the evolutionary trajectory of interactions between the U.S. government and tribal reservations. This broader frame analysis provides new insights toward the impact of Oliphant on the lives of American Indian and Alaska Native women