Kissinger, China, Congress, and the lost chance for peace in Cambodia

Henry Kissinger has been persistent in his claim that Congress's failure to adequately supply South Vietnam was the ultimate cause of its collapse in 1975 - a claim many historians dispute. An incident that has received less attention is the role of the congressionally-imposed bombing halt in Cambodia in terminating a potential negotiated settlement of that country's civil war in the summer of 1973.  This article demonstrates that in this case Kissinger's claims are not without foundation, and that although the conclusions are tentative without the full Chinese record, the evidence suggests that the 'Eagleton amendment' terminating U.S. military operations in Cambodia fatally undermined Chinese efforts to negotiate the removal of Lon Nol as Cambodian head of state and the establishment of a coalition government involving the Khmer Rouge but with Sihanouk at its hea

The difference between educational management and educational leadership and the importance of educational responsibility.

Educational management and educational leadership are central concepts in understanding organising in educational institutions but their meaning, the difference between them and their value in educational organising remain the subject of debate. In this article, we analyse and contrast the two concepts. We conclude that educational management entails carrying the responsibility for the proper functioning of a system in an educational institution in which others participate. Carrying a responsibility of this kind is a state of mind and does not necessitate actions, though it typically and frequently does. In contrast, educational leadership is the act of influencing others in educational settings to achieve goals and necessitates actions of some kind. When those carrying a delegated responsibility act in relation to that responsibility, they influence, and are therefore leading. Although educational leadership is ideally undertaken responsibly, in practice it does not necessarily entail carrying the responsibility for the functioning of the educational system in which the influence is exercised. Through our analysis, the notion of responsibility, which is underplayed in considerations of organising in educational institutions, comes to the fore. Educational responsibility is an important notion and it should play a more prominent role in analyses of organising in educational institutions

New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium for the Humanities - Reflections, Volume 2

Writing in the aftermath of the Second World War, Michel Foucault wrote that ‘history has a more important task than to be a handmaiden to philosophy, to recount the necessary birth of truth and values; it should become a differential knowledge of energies and failings, heights and degenerations, poisons and antidotes’ (1997, 126). Foucault’s words capture two opposing conceptions of historical change that ‘NPPSH 2017: Progress and Degeneration’ aimed to deconstruct and critique: the ‘necessary birth of truth and values’ assumed by the progressive view of historical change, and the contrasting ‘poisons’ and ‘failings’ of seeming degeneration. In the face of apparent narratives of historical progress and degeneration, we must ask: ‘Progress for whom, and according to whom?’ When our symposium took place, these questions appeared more necessary than they have been for many years. This time was marked by the re-emergence of nationalist politics, evident in Brexit and the violence in Catalonia; the resurgence of fascistic political discourse, considered unthinkable after the collapse of the brutal regimes of the twentieth century; the growth of xenophobic politics in the wake of mass east-west migration; and the continued pillaging of the natural environment. In the time that has elapsed since the symposium, we have witnessed the return of republican tensions in Northern Ireland, the rise of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, the solidification of far-right political currents in Poland, and terrorist attacks on churches, mosques and synagogues in the US, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka: such ongoing and disturbing issues force us to engage with the legacy and nature of ‘progressive’ thought. The importance of the humanities in exploring such questions cannot be overstated: the impressive range of papers on show in this publication—covering everything from censorship and medical practice in the Irish Free State to French political cartoons to the political potential of William Burroughs’s cut-up technique, pedagogical practice, and the digital lives of older people—demonstrates the continued importance of the humanities to the investigation of political, social and cultural issues. It is our intention that NPPSH Reflections: Volume 2 will provide a space for early career scholars to continue to reflect on these questions, while contributing to debates that are situated at the leading edge of humanities research

New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium for the Humanities - Reflections, Volume 2

Writing in the aftermath of the Second World War, Michel Foucault wrote that ‘history has a more important task than to be a handmaiden to philosophy, to recount the necessary birth of truth and values; it should become a differential knowledge of energies and failings, heights and degenerations, poisons and antidotes’ (1997, 126). Foucault’s words capture two opposing conceptions of historical change that ‘NPPSH 2017: Progress and Degeneration’ aimed to deconstruct and critique: the ‘necessary birth of truth and values’ assumed by the progressive view of historical change, and the contrasting ‘poisons’ and ‘failings’ of seeming degeneration. In the face of apparent narratives of historical progress and degeneration, we must ask: ‘Progress for whom, and according to whom?’ When our symposium took place, these questions appeared more necessary than they have been for many years. This time was marked by the re-emergence of nationalist politics, evident in Brexit and the violence in Catalonia; the resurgence of fascistic political discourse, considered unthinkable after the collapse of the brutal regimes of the twentieth century; the growth of xenophobic politics in the wake of mass east-west migration; and the continued pillaging of the natural environment. In the time that has elapsed since the symposium, we have witnessed the return of republican tensions in Northern Ireland, the rise of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, the solidification of far-right political currents in Poland, and terrorist attacks on churches, mosques and synagogues in the US, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka: such ongoing and disturbing issues force us to engage with the legacy and nature of ‘progressive’ thought. The importance of the humanities in exploring such questions cannot be overstated: the impressive range of papers on show in this publication—covering everything from censorship and medical practice in the Irish Free State to French political cartoons to the political potential of William Burroughs’s cut-up technique, pedagogical practice, and the digital lives of older people—demonstrates the continued importance of the humanities to the investigation of political, social and cultural issues. It is our intention that NPPSH Reflections: Volume 2 will provide a space for early career scholars to continue to reflect on these questions, while contributing to debates that are situated at the leading edge of humanities research

Closed-Loop Simulation Study of the Ares I Upper Stage Thrust Vector Control Subsystem for Nominal and Failure Scenarios

As a replacement to the current Shuttle, the Ares I rocket and Orion crew module are currently under development by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This new launch vehicle is segmented into major elements, one of which is the Upper Stage (US). The US is further broken down into subsystems, one of which is the Thrust Vector Control (TVC) subsystem which gimbals the US rocket nozzle. Nominal and off-nominal simulations for the US TVC subsystem are needed in order to support the development of software used for control systems and diagnostics. In addition, a clear and complete understanding of the effect of off-nominal conditions on the vehicle flight dynamics is desired. To achieve these goals, a simulation of the US TVC subsystem combined with the Ares I vehicle as developed. This closed-loop dynamic model was created using Matlab s Simulink and a modified version of a vehicle simulation, MAVERIC, which is currently used in the Ares I project and was developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). For this report, the effects on the flight trajectory of the Ares I vehicle are investigated after failures are injected into the US TVC subsystem. The comparisons of the off-nominal conditions observed in the US TVC subsystem with those of the Ares I vehicle flight dynamics are of particular interest