A Plural Theory on Responsibility in International Relations

This chapter offers an outline for a plural theory of responsibility. Responsibility is what someone does and who someone is. One is responsible. You are responsible. One acts responsibly. Responsibility is ontological and phenomenological, and the actual content of what it means to be or to act responsibility varies considerably based on context. Responsibility is a form of activity, and as such our understanding of what being responsible means changes according to the different conditions we find ourselves needing to act. I offer five accounts. The first is about causality and liability and treats responsibility as a combination of agency and accountability. The second is how we are responsible because of our membership in various but specific communities. The third is what I term the political responsibility of identity. The fourth is ontological and frames responsibility as an ethical consequence of our being as opposed to our not-being. The fifth is political responsibility as political ethics

The Continuing Failure of International Relations and the Challenges of Disciplinary Boundaries

This article is concerned with addressing the following hypothesis, originally presented in Millennium in 2001: International Relations theory does not influence other academic fields to the extent that it suggests that it should. This claim is re-examined in light of the growth of IR over the past decade. Using a variety of evidence, including a close examination of the Social Sciences Citation Index, I conclude that IR (still) does not have much influence outside of the IR academic community. I also argue that while it is not reasonable to expect scholars who write on global politics but belong in other academic fields or disciplines to turn to IR, the way that IR defines itself suggests that they should. Consequently, it follows that IR needs to be doing more in order to make our work of greater relevance to, at minimum, those fields of scholarship that IR borrows from. I suggest that the reason why IR has continued to have little influence in other fields is because of the way IR sets itself up as a subject concerned with an anarchical order made up of sovereign states

Disruptive technology and regulatory conundrums: The emerging governance of virtual currencies

Regulatory agencies care about their reputation, which helps sustain their authority. As innovation can introduce uncertainty in governance, delaying action or overlooking danger can negatively affect agencies' standing. Aware of these reputation risks, agencies rely on a set of methods to govern the unknown. These methods, we argue, are: (1) categorization, if the innovation is considered identical to known regulatory categories; (2) analogy, if the innovation is considered similar to known categories, and; (3) new categorization, when new classifications are deemed necessary to address the innovation. Each method shapes governance by triggering the application of existing regulations (categorization and analogy), calls for either technical and regulatory fixes (analogy), or calls for broader regulatory undertakings (new categorization). Agencies' choice of methods, we argue, is shaped by concerns over performative reputation (i.e., showing the ability to fulfill core tasks), which in turn is affected by agencies' ability to demonstrate technical rigor (i.e., technical reputation)

Recent progress in photo-injectors

In photoinjector electron guns, electrons are emitted from a photocathode by a short laser pulse and then accelerated by intense RF fields in a resonant cavity. Photoinjectors are very versatile tools. Normally we think of them in terms of the production of high electron density in 6-D phase space, for reasons such as injection to laser accelerators, generation of x-rays by Compton scattering and short wavelength FELs. Another example for the use of photo-injectors is the production of a high charge in a short time, for wake- field acceleration, two-beam accelerators and high-power, long-wavelength FELs. There are other potential uses, such as the generation of polarized electrons, compact accelerators for industrial applications and more. Photoinjectors are in operation in many electron accelerator facilities and a large number of new guns are under construction. The purpose of this work is to present some trend setting recent results that have been obtained in some of these laboratories. In particular the subjects of high density in 6-D phase space, new diagnostic tools, photocathode advances and high-charge production will be discussed

Final Report for May 1 2004 to April 30 2005 and renewal request for the experiment # 1042511 Electro-optical detection for the temporal characterization of sub-picosecond beam bunch

To develop a novel, single-shot, non-destructive method of determining the time structure of the relativistic electron bunch length in the sub-picosecond resolution. Using an electro-optical flash (EO-flash) detection technique, we will demonstrate that the electron bunch length can be converted from time to spatial information. An additional task added for the continuation is advanced topics of particle acceleration in vacuum with high-power lasers

On the future of BNL User Facilities

The purpose of this document is to portray the emerging technology of high-power high-brightness electron beams. This new technology will impact several fields of science and it is essential that BNL stay abreast of the development. BNL has a relative advantage and vital interest in pursuing this technology that will impact its two major facilities, the NSLS and RHIC. We have a sensible development path towards this critical future technology, in which BNL will gradually acquire a strong basis of Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) technology while executing useful projects. The technology of high-power AND high-brightness (HPHB) electron beams is based of the convergence of two extant, but relatively recent technologies: Photoinjectors and superconducting energy-recovering linacs. The HPHB technology presents special opportunities for the development of future BNL user facilities for High-Energy and Nuclear Science (HE-NP) and Basic Energy Science (BES). In HE-NP this technology makes it possible to build high-energy electron cooling for RHIC in the short range and a unique linac-based electron-ion collider (eRHIC). In BES, we can build short pulse, coherent FIR sources and high flux femtosecond hard x-ray sources based on Compton scattering in the short range and, in the longer range, femtosecond, ultra-high brightness synchrotron light sources and, ultimately, an X-ray Free-Electron Laser (FEL)