Security and the Rule of Law: A Case Study of EUFOR Althea and EULEX Kosovo

The accession criteria to join the European Union stresses certain conditions that need to be met join the union. One of these criteria is stability in the rule of law. The concept of rule of law in the Western Balkans is difficult to attain due to the history of instability in the region, specifically in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Union has established two External Action Service missions, a civil-military mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina called EUFOR Althea and a rule of law mission in Kosovo called EULEX Kosovo. Bosnia and Herzegovina is still recovering from the Bosnian War and EUFOR Althea is important in restoring stability through the deployment of military forces and training police officers. EULEX Kosovo focuses on the promotion of the rule of law by providing monitoring, mentoring, and advising to police and judiciary. This paper will compare the two programs with the central question being: how does security affect the peace building process and the rule of law in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The EUFOR Althea mission has received positive analyses while critics have perceived EULEX Kosovo negatively. This paper will compare the two missions and attempt to measure their effectiveness and success. In summary, EUFOR Althea has been perceived more successful because the structure is better established, there is a larger focus on the “bottom-up” approach, and there has been a stronger focus on security. On the other hand, the bureaucratic process has bogged down EULEX Kosovo and the lack of security in the region has also hindered the effectiveness

Defence Policy and the Unification of the Canadian Armed Forces: An Analysis

This thesis paper is an analysis of the relationship between defence policy and the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces. While much of the literature and commentary in recent years has centered upon the ‘management’ aspects of unification, this thesis argues that unification was devised in order to re-assert civilian control and direction over the services. Unification then, affects not only the administration of the services, but also, the ‘structuring of influence’ between the civilian authority and the defence establishment, which in turn contributes to the method through which defence priorities are determined. The thesis also examines the congruence between ‘structuring of influence’ as it pertains to defence policy and the transition in the policy-making process, which was to become evident as the avenues of political input expanded, differentiated and centralized. To this end, the thesis shall discuss the transition in the policy-making process during the tenure of Prime Ministers Diefenbaker, Pearson and Trudeau in relation to the corresponding re-definition of defence priorities

Hot Boy Summer? Analyzing Managerial Reactions to Season-long Fluctuating Player Performance In Major League Baseball

This paper suggests numerical weights that a Major League Baseball (MLB) manager may use when comparing player performance across multiple past performance periods to predict future performance. By the end of the MLB regular season, current season performance becomes more predictive than prior season performance for pitchers but not hitters. After estimating weights for different past time periods of performance, this paper compares the weights with how managers value performance in high-stakes situations across these same time periods. I find that MLB managers overreact to recent performance by both hitters and pitchers in postseason settings

Diastereoselective Synthesis of 2,4,6-Trisubstituted Piperidines via aza-Prins Cyclization

The nitrogen heterocycles are shared amongst 59% of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved small molecule pharmaceuticals with the six-membered piperidine representing the most common moiety. Given the versatility and potential to yield derivatives with broad biological activities, the discovery of new chemical methods to generate these heterocycles in a more time and cost-efficient manner is desired. While there are existing racemic methods to access this class of molecule, the objective of this research is to pioneer a new novel six-step method to generate 2,4,6-trisubstituted piperidines with stereoselective control. The first step is a condensation between a nonenolizable aldehyde and (R)-2-methylpropane-2-sulfinamide to create the Ellman N-sulfinyl imine. Carbons C3-C5 of the nascent ring can be installed at the si face of the imine via stereoselective allylation that is coordinated by transition metals such as magnesium, indium, or zinc to generate a homoallylic amine. The sulfinyl group is then removed via acidic conditions to afford the primary amine that is subsequently acylated with succinic anhydride to access an N-succinimide via a thermal condensation. A reduction of the cyclic imide via DIBAL-H accesses the N-acyl aminal. The ring closure is initiated by acidic activation of the enamine to the N-sulfinyl iminium ion. This positions the substrate into a kinetically favorable six-membered chair conformation that places the nucleophilic alkene to intercept the iminium carbon stereoselectively affording the tri-substituted piperidine. We are investigating this strategy as a tunable method to prepare a variety of stereochemically diverse piperidines

DNA sequence of the mouse H-2Dd transplantation antigen gene

The inbred BALB/c mouse has three transplantation antigens, H2-Kd, H2-Ld, and H2-Dd. We present the complete nucleotide sequence of the H2-Dd gene as well as 777 residues of previously unpublished H-2Dd protein sequence. These data complete the sequences of all the BALB/c transplantation antigen genes and permit detailed comparison with each other and with their counterparts from the inbred C57BL/10 mouse. Transplantation antigens may differ from one another by as much as 5%-15% of their amino acid sequence for the external domains. These extensive differences may arise by gene conversion. The H-2D region of the BALB/c mouse encodes the H2-Dd and the H2-Ld genes. Serologic data suggest that at least two additional transplantation antigen molecules, H2-Rd and H2-Md, are encoded in the H-2D region of the major compatibility complex. Paradoxically, gene cloning studies have only identified the H2-Dd and the H2-Ld genes in the H-2D region. A complete DNA sequence of the H2-Dd gene shows that a variety of alternative splice sites exist throughout the gene, which may lead to additional gene products and may explain the multiplicity of H-2D-encoded polypeptides