Characteristics of the International Joint Ventures in Bulgaria (1989-2003)

Purpose - In response to the need of new knowledge about the international joint venture (IJV), the purpose of this study presents an analysis of the basic characteristics of the IJVs in Bulgaria and the variation of their characteristics depending on the nationality of the foreign partners, coming from three regions: Triad countries (USA, Western Europe and Japan); non-Triad countries; and a mixed region, encompassing combinations of partners from the above two regions. Design/methodology/approach - The advantage of the study is the use of official data from the database, established in cooperation between the author and the National Statistical Institute, on the entire non- homogeneous population of 722 IJVs in the 1989-2003 period. Findings - The generalized results of the study confirm the existence of common trends and trends diverging from those registered in previous studies both on the conventional IJV, set up by foreign and local partners, and on the non-conventional IJV, formed by foreign partners alone. Research limitations/implications - Notwithstanding the generalized results obtained, owing to the coverage of the entire population of IJVs, future studies regarding their characteristics in Bulgaria should have not only structural, but also motivational and outcome variables superimposed. Practical implications - The research can serve for international comparative studies and for the elaboration of national and European Union policies regarding the creation of official databases on the IJVs. Originality/value - With the presentation of new knowledge both on the conventional and on the non-conventional IJVs, the present study extends and supplements the theme regarding the characteristics of the IJVs.Joint Ventures; Strategic Alliances; International Investments; Databases; Economic Changes; Bulgaria

Justice as a security strategy? International justice and the liberal peace in the Balkans

The establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the midst of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was seen by many as a radical innovation in security thinking and practice. This article examines the security implications of international justice in the Balkans by situating the analysis within the broader context of international interventions in the region. The article starts by elaborating a distinctive conception of ‘security’ that emerges from the pursuit of international justice, addressing questions such as security for whom, security from what and security by what means. It then examines the jurisprudence of the ICTY to determine whether judicial practice has tended to promote this distinctive approach to security. The final section explores the interactions of international justice and liberal peace interventions in the Balkans, focusing in particular on peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The article argues that the revival of international justice, half a century after the Nuremberg Trials can be understood as signalling a shift in security paradigms from statism to human rights, while also giving rise to deep tensions between them. These tensions are most clearly expressed in the interactions of international justice with other security instruments of the liberal peace, which are often employed by the international community in situations where international crimes occur

Anion interactions of [2]pseudorotaxanes and [2]rotaxanes.

This thesis describes studies on the interactions of anions with [2]pseudorotaxanes and [2]rotaxanes comprised of 24-membered crown ether wheels and bis(pyridinium)ethane axles which incorporate an amide anion receptor. Eight nicotinamide-based threads containing a bis(pyridinium)ethane recognition motif were synthesized. Their ability to form [2]pseudorotaxane complexes with 24-membered crown ethers was determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The effect of anion binding on the stability of the [2]pseudorotaxanes was investigated using 1H NMR titrations. Nine [2]rotaxanes were synthesized from the combination of three threads and three crown ethers---dibenzo-, dinaphtho-, and naphtho-24-crown-8. The selectivity of the amide receptor towards small inorganic anions---halides and dihydrogenphosphate---were determined by titrations with a rotaxane from the dibenzo class. The anion binding ability of each rotaxane was then tested by titrations with chloride, bromide, and iodide. The steric impact of anion binding on the rotaxane structure was estimated from X-ray crystallography and 1H NMR titration spectra by comparing the chemical shifts. Comparisons between rotaxanes within a certain crown class---dibenzo-, dinaphtho-, or naphtho-, are presented in Chapter 3, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 respectively. Comparisons among rotaxanes of a certain thread and various crown ethers are presented in Chapter 6. A [2]rotaxane with 24-crown-8 ether was synthesized from one of the threads, and its titration shift data used as a baseline. The studies did not provide conclusive evidence of wheel transformation from an S shape to a C shape in the symmetrical rotaxanes. Quantitative chemical shift comparisons indicated an alteration in the isomer ratio in naphtho[2]rotaxanes, induced by anion binding. Synthetic attempts towards transforming the [2]rotaxanes into molecular shuttles are described in Chapter 7. Synthetic strategies for future work are outlined.* *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation).Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .M54. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: B, page: 3805. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

Political functions of impunity in the war on terror: evidence from Afghanistan

The prevalence and persistence of impunity for human rights violations in the war on terror have attracted significant interest from scholars and practitioners. Insufficient attention, however, has been paid to the ways in which impunity might be shaping key objectives and practices of the war on terror and enabling or constraining their pursuit in war zones. Drawing on insights from security cultures theory and analysis of empirical evidence from Afghanistan, this article demonstrates how impunity serves as a mechanism for reproduction and diffusion of the security culture of the war on terror and for cooption and subversion of central components of another security culture: the liberal peace. The argument is elaborated by investigating the functions of impunity in generating the kind of politics that justify an endless war and facilitate the pursuit of its shifting goals and methods. The article suggests that the role of impunity in shaping global security pathways might be more significant than previously understood and highlights the potential of security cultures theory to help explain human rights outcomes in counterterrorism and peace operations

Documentation of human rights violations and transitional justice in Syria: gaps and ways to address them

This paper evaluates the ongoing effort to document human rights violations in Syria from a transitional justice perspective. It highlights current gaps in the documentation efforts of international actors and Syrian civil society and suggests how to address them in order to build a solid foundation for future transitional justice processes across the retributive/restorative justice spectru

An Experimental Design for Anytime-Valid Causal Inference on Multi-Armed Bandits

Typically, multi-armed bandit (MAB) experiments are analyzed at the end of the study and thus require the analyst to specify a fixed sample size in advance. However, in many online learning applications, it is advantageous to continuously produce inference on the average treatment effect (ATE) between arms as new data arrive and determine a data-driven stopping time for the experiment. Existing work on continuous inference for adaptive experiments assumes that the treatment assignment probabilities are bounded away from zero and one, thus excluding nearly all standard bandit algorithms. In this work, we develop the Mixture Adaptive Design (MAD), a new experimental design for multi-armed bandits that enables continuous inference on the ATE with guarantees on statistical validity and power for nearly any bandit algorithm. On a high level, the MAD "mixes" a bandit algorithm of the user's choice with a Bernoulli design through a tuning parameter $\delta_t$, where $\delta_t$ is a deterministic sequence that controls the priority placed on the Bernoulli design as the sample size grows. We show that for $\delta_t = o\left(1/t^{1/4}\right)$, the MAD produces a confidence sequence that is asymptotically valid and guaranteed to shrink around the true ATE. We empirically show that the MAD improves the coverage and power of ATE inference in MAB experiments without significant losses in finite-sample reward