Strategy, Tactics and Tilts: A Networked Approach to UK Influence in the Indo-Pacific

The 2021 Integrated Review was informed by two assumptions: that leaving the EU would allow a more agile foreign policy based on ad hoc groups; and that a global shift in power towards the Indo-Pacific meant that the UK needed to engage more with the region. Jamie Gaskarth argues that the missing element to this strategy is a networked approach. Using the insights of network theory and social network analysis, policymakers should be aiming to analyse the social dynamics of the region in a more systematic way. This would allow them to better identify opportunities for greater connectedness and the benefits these may bring, as well as the limits to UK engagement, and non-linear effects that network spillovers can produc

Introduction: Interpreting British European Policy

Britain has had particular problems reconciling itself to the idea of being a ‘European’ actor and a wholehearted member of the EEC/EU since 1973. Now, potentially, the ‘awkward partner’, is edging towards the exit door of the EU because a membership referendum is an increasingly likely prospect in the coming years. The aim of this special issue is to consider how we can account for the present state of affairs by adopting an interpretivist perspective on British European policy over the past four decades. The article begins with a comprehensive review of the extant literature on Britain and Europe, and an elaboration of the ‘traditions and dilemmas’ framework within which the contributors have studied the empirical material in their articles. It then explains the major themes that connect the articles and suggests how future research might build on the agenda proposed in this special issue

One-stop diagnostic breast clinics: how often are breast cancers missed?

The aim of this study was to estimate the number of patients discharged from a symptomatic breast clinic who subsequently develop breast cancer and to determine how many of these cancers had been ‘missed' at initial assessment. Over a 3-year period, 7004 patients were discharged with a nonmalignant diagnosis. Twenty-nine patients were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer over the next 36 months. This equates to a symptomatic ‘interval' cancer rate of 4.1 per 1000 women in the 36 months after initial assessment (0.9 per 1000 women within 12 months, 2.6 per 1000 women within 24 months). The lowest sensitivity of initial assessment was seen in patients of 40–49 years of age, and these patients present the greatest imaging and diagnostic challenge. Following multidisciplinary review, a consensus was reached on whether a cancer had been missed or not. No delay occurred in 10 patients (35%) and probably no delay in 7 patients (24%). Possible delay occurred in three patients (10%) and definite delay in diagnosis (i.e., a ‘missed' cancer) occurred in only nine patients (31%). The overall diagnostic accuracy of ‘triple' assessment is 99.6% and the ‘missed' cancer rate is 1.7 per 1000 women discharged

How do professions globalize? Lessons from the Global South in US medical education

This article explores the professional construction of the space of Global Health. I argue that the growth of Global Health as a field of practice does not merely indicate an intensification of North-South intervention. It is also a professional project of reimporting lessons from the South to countries in the North. I focus on the emerging didactic regime for Global Health in US medical education and the deterritorialized "global" lessons that students are taught in poor countries. By rescaling these lessons to precarious settings at home, the space of Global Health is reterritorialized as a Global Medical South stretching into the United States, reinforcing the perception that health is not a right but a privilege. The analysis is based on a content analysis of university websites and didactic handbooks and a sample of sixty-four articles evaluating the education effects of study abroad experiences. It reveals an emerging canon of Global Health virtues and the construction of domestic scales for Global Health practices, which are based on ethnic and socioeconomic categories. This analysis of professional projects as spatial projects sheds new light on the geography of Global Health and of professional globalization more generally