Debating decline, sidelining foreign policy

As the US economy improves, Syria continues its descent into chaos and Iran carries on its enrichment program, foreign policy is acquiring a more prominent role in the 2012 presidential contest than initially expected. So far, the cornerstone of Republican attacks on Obama, hoAs the US economy improves, Syria continues its descent into chaos and Iran carries on its enrichment program, foreign policy is acquiring a more prominent role in the 2012 presidential contest than initially expected. So far, the cornerstone of Republican attacks on Obama, however, is not the merits and demerits of his policies but the president’s alleged lack of confidence in American exceptionalism and hesitations about continued US leadership abroad. Mitt Romney insists that whereas the president is “apologizing to foreigners”, “accepting decline as destiny”, and “believing in a post-American world”, he will ensure that the 21st century will still be an American one. Obama has joined the debate. During his 2012 State of the Union address, the President argued: “anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about”.wever, is not the merits and demerits of his policies but the president’s alleged lack of confidence in American exceptionalism and hesitations about continued US leadership abroad. Mitt Romney insists that whereas the president is “apologizing to foreigners”, “accepting decline as destiny”, and “believing in a post-American world”, he will ensure that the 21st century will still be an American one. Obama has joined the debate. During his 2012 State of the Union address, the President argued: “anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about”

American elections at a time of crisis: The risks of introspection

With the primaries in the Republican Party well underway, the campaign season has finally gained momentum. The President’s recent State of the Union address left no doubt that Obama has shed his presidential “coolness” to re-gain the passion of the campaigner. From now on, America will be increasingly absorbed by the process of choosing its next president. With each election comes a new level of spending, scrutiny of the candidates’ public record and private life, media coverage, and, no less important, drama and entertainment. The main networks such as Fox News and CNN have already set the stage for what they will broadcast once more as a “historical election” – with all the hammering insistence that 24-hour news channels are capable of. Nothing less than “America’s destiny”, commentators and presidential contenders like to repeat, will be decided on November 6, 2012

US Democracy Promotion from Bush to Obama. EUSpring Working Paper No. 1, 15 April 2015

Throughout the twenty-first century the United States (U.S.) has attempted to balance its traditional national security interests, whilst also seeking to promote the long-term transformation of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) towards democracy based on liberal values. With the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks providing a catalyst for policy change, the U.S. has moved away from its twentieth-century policy of pursuing a regional status quo and instinctively balking at political change. Yet, the U.S. has not abandoned its reliance on autocratic regimes that cooperate on more immediate national security interests such as counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and the free-flow energy sources into the global market. Rather, U.S. democracy promotion in the MENA has become incremental by design and is characterized by its gradualist and often-collaborative nature. U.S. foreign policy in the MENA is, therefore, depicted by a cautious evolutionary stance rather than supporting revolutionary shifts in power

U.S. Democracy Promotion from Bush to Obama. EUSpring Working Paper No. 1, April 2015

Throughout the twenty-first century the United States (U.S.) has attempted to balance its traditional national security interests, whilst also seeking to promote the long-term transformation of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) towards democracy based on liberal values. With the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks providing a catalyst for policy change, the U.S. has moved away from its twentieth-century policy of pursuing a regional status quo and instinctively balking at political change. Yet, the U.S. has not abandoned its reliance on autocratic regimes that cooperate on more immediate national security interests such as counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and the free-flow energy sources into the global market. Rather, U.S. democracy promotion in the MENA has become incremental by design and is characterized by its gradualist and often collaborative nature. U.S. foreign policy in the MENA is, therefore, depicted by a cautious evolutionary stance rather than supporting revolutionary shifts in power

New forms of democratic citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa: an alternative approach for the EU and the United States. Euspring Working Paper No. 3 July 2016

The Arab Spring and its truncated aftermath raise many important questions about political reform. Citizenship and rights, in particular, form an important area of concern in light of the obstacles to wholesale democratization and to the reform of formal institutional structures in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). As most regimes have pushed back strongly against societal pressure for political opening, many reformers hope that active citizenship can compensate for the lack of progress in other areas. One of the few enduring legacies of the flowering of democratic activism in 2011 is citizens’ search for more active involvement in decisions that affect their day-to-day lives — even as the prospect of democratization has receded in most states. This has engendered much debate over how citizens across the region understand rights — and whether they seek a concept of citizenship that is distinct to the region

The Work Agentic Capabilities (WAC) questionnaire: validation of a new measure

Agentic capabilities refer to the basic capabilities of mind that, according to social cognitive theory, allow people to proactively influence their functioning and external context. This study presents a new scale, namely the Work Agentic Capabilities (WAC) questionnaire, that consists of 28 items and measures forethought capability, self-regulation capability, self-reflection capability and vicarious capability in the organizational context. Accordingly, an exploratory (N = 290) and a confirmatory factor analysis (N = 300) demonstrated a four-factor structure. Agentic capabilities were positively correlated with psychological capital and its dimensions (i.e., self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resiliency), positive job attitudes (work engagement and job satisfaction), proactive organizational behaviours (job crafting and organizational citizenship behaviours), perceived job performance, and promotion prospects. Finally, we discuss meaningful differences in the mean values of agentic capabilities associated with sociodemographic and organizational variables. Results suggest that the WAC questionnaire can be reliably used to measure agentic capabilities.Las capacidades agénticas aluden a aquellas capacidades de la mente que según la teoría social cognitiva permiten a las personas influir de un modo proactivo en su funcionamiento y en el contexto externo. El presente estudio presenta una nueva escala, el cuestionario de Capacidades Agénticas en el Trabajo (WAC, por sus siglas en inglés), compuesto de 28 ítems que mide la capacidad de previsión, autorregulación, autorreflexión y vicaria en el contexto organizativo. Un estudio con análisis factorial exploratorio (N = 290) y confirmatorio (N = 300) descubrió una estructura de cuatro factores. Las capacidades agénticas correlacionaban positivamente con el capital psicológico y sus dimensiones (es decir, autoeficacia, esperanza, optimismo y resiliencia), las actitudes laborales positivas (engagement y satisfacción en el trabajo), la percepción del desempeño laboral y las perspectivas de promoción. Por último abordamos las diferencias significativas de los valores medios de las capacidades agénticas asociadas a las variables sociodemográficas y organizativas. Los resultados indican que el cuestionario WAC puede utilizarse de modo fiable para medir las capacidades agénticas

ECMO for COVID-19 patients in Europe and Israel

Since March 15th, 2020, 177 centres from Europe and Israel have joined the study, routinely reporting on the ECMO support they provide to COVID-19 patients. The mean annual number of cases treated with ECMO in the participating centres before the pandemic (2019) was 55. The number of COVID-19 patients has increased rapidly each week reaching 1531 treated patients as of September 14th. The greatest number of cases has been reported from France (n = 385), UK (n = 193), Germany (n = 176), Spain (n = 166), and Italy (n = 136) .The mean age of treated patients was 52.6 years (range 16–80), 79% were male. The ECMO configuration used was VV in 91% of cases, VA in 5% and other in 4%. The mean PaO2 before ECMO implantation was 65 mmHg. The mean duration of ECMO support thus far has been 18 days and the mean ICU length of stay of these patients was 33 days. As of the 14th September, overall 841 patients have been weaned from ECMO support, 601 died during ECMO support, 71 died after withdrawal of ECMO, 79 are still receiving ECMO support and for 10 patients status n.a. . Our preliminary data suggest that patients placed on ECMO with severe refractory respiratory or cardiac failure secondary to COVID-19 have a reasonable (55%) chance of survival. Further extensive data analysis is expected to provide invaluable information on the demographics, severity of illness, indications and different ECMO management strategies in these patients

Turkey's global strategy: Turkey and the United States

The recent evolution of US-Turkish relations highlights broader challenges of the transition from American unipolarity to a still inceptive ‘multipolar world’. The relationship cannot be understood unless its evolution during the 20th century is contrasted with the recent reality of the fluid interaction between a self-described ‘emerging power’ (Erdogan, 2011) with regional aspirations and a global superpower with extended interests in Turkey’s many neighbourhoods (including the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East) but a declining international influence

American intellectuals and the idea of an 'Atlantic Community' c.1890-1949

This thesis is not available on this repository until the author agrees to make it public. If you are the author of this thesis and would like to make your work openly available, please contact us: [email protected] Library can supply a digital copy for private research purposes; interested parties should submit the request form here: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/digital-content-unit/ordering-imagesPlease note that print copies of theses may be available for consultation in the Cambridge University Library's Manuscript reading room. Admission details are at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archivesThe dissertation explores and illuminates the largely neglected Atlanticist tradition in America that preceded the advent of the Cold War and the creation of NATO. It does so by showing that the concept of an 'Atlantic community' was developed by several intellectuals and scholars starting in the 1890s and was then re-articulated at various moments of crisis during the first half of the 20th century, each time relying on a ampler set of related assumptions. Central to early Atlanticist views was a reflection on the logic of international relations and the sources of world order. The Atlantic community conveyed the vision of an international order built on the core of the 'Atlantic democracies' but capable of expanding globally as additional countries came to accept the political and economic principles of the 'liberal Western tradition'. In so arguing, the dissertation challenges the widespread belief that the vision of an Atlantic West, even in its pre-Cold War dimension, mainly revolved around the anticipation of a struggle between America and Russia and the expectation of American hegemony over Europe. It argues instead that, from its earliest days, the Atlantic community was a much broader worldview, whose aims included the preservation of American democracy in an increasingly interdependent world, the maintenance of peace during the anticipated hegemonic transition between America and Great Britain, and the notion that America's involvement in world affairs must lead to a re-foundation of international relations by transcending the balance of power and establishing some form of world government. In this context, the dissertation examines the evolution of the American Atlanticist tradition from both chronological and thematic points of view. It concentrates on a few turning points when the concept of an Atlantic community enjoyed particular popularity and acquired new relevance and meanings. These included America's 'imperialist moment' in the 1890s, its intervention into World War I, the abandonment of neutrality in 1941, and the formation of the Atlantic Alliance in 1948-1949. Thematically, the Atlanticist tradition is divided into three main strands: realist-navalist, Christian, and federalist Atlanticism - each examined in depth through the writings of its main proponents, including Alfred Thayer Mahan, Walter Lippmann, Francis P. Miller, Reinhold Niebuhr and Clarence Streit. Although each strand had its specific focus and audience, all three of them shared the same underlying assumption: in order to tackle the issue of world order in a way consistent with the preservation of American democracy and the advancement of American power, it was essential to foster cooperation and integration among the nations bordering the Atlantic