The other War on Terror revealed: global governmentality and the Financial Action Task Force's campaign against terrorist financing

Abstract. Despite initial fanfare surrounding its launch in the White House Rose Garden, the War on Terrorist Finances (WOTF) has thus far languished as a sideshow, in the shadows of military campaigns against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. This neglect is unfortunate, for the WOTF reflects the other multilateral cooperative dimension of the US-led ‘war on terror’, quite contrary to conventional sweeping accusations of American unilateralism. Yet the existing academic literature has been confined mostly to niche specialist journals dedicated to technical, legalistic and financial regulatory aspects of the WOTF. Using the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as a case study, this article seeks to steer discussions on the WOTF onto a broader theoretical IR perspective. Building upon emerging academic works that extend Foucauldian ideas of governmentality to the global level, we examine the interwoven overlapping national, regional and global regulatory practices emerging against terrorist financing, and the implications for notions of government, regulation and sovereignty

After the 'War on Terror': regulatory states, risk bureaucracies and the risk-based governance of terror

In March 2009, the Obama administration sent a message to senior Pentagon staff instructing them to refrain from using either of the terms ‘Long War’ or ‘Global War on Terror’ and to replace these terms with ‘Overseas Contingency Operations’. Similarly, the 2009 UK Strategy for Countering International Terrorism eschews military terminology, preferring instead National Risk Assessments whose overall aim is ‘to reduce the risk to the UK’. This paper seeks to explore what it terms an emerging risk-based approach being deployed by states. Such an approach has already played a significant role in the ‘War on Terror’ to date, particularly in relation to Anti-Terrorist Financing and Aviation security guidelines. The change in tone and, potentially, substance from the Obama White House may however create the opportunity for risk-based approaches to move further onto the centre stage in the war on terror, just as it has in the wider Risk Society. This paper argues that the end of the ‘War on Terror’ at the rhetorical level suggests a need to shift our academic attention towards developing appropriate analytical frameworks for examining such risk-based strategies for countering terrorism. Our framework proposed here deploys the twin concepts of ‘risk bureaucracies’ and risk regulatory regimes (RRRs) in examining terrorist financing and aviation security regulations

Risk, human rights and the bureacratisation of counter-terrorism

Since the events of September 11th 2001 much as been written on how the construction of the terrorist threat post-9/11 contributed to the legitimising and use of extraordinary practices outside of the traditional boundaries of legal and, indeed, security practice. Much of this literature has focussed on the violation of the human rights of individuals caught up in the web of practices ranging from extraordinary rendition to targeted assassination to military intervention. Simultaneously a growing literature has drawn attention to the low key risk-based institutions and practices that have grown up around the ‘War on Terror’ such as the efforts against terrorist financing, the growing web of dataveillance and the emergence of risk management bureaucracies designed to calculate and manage risks to a tolerable level. This paper seeks to examine these latter discussions towards the concerns raised in relation to the less visible practices of counter-terrorism. What are the implications of the construction of risk-bureaucracies that operate on the logic of prevention and risk-management for our understandings of human rights? What accountability mechanisms are in place and how do they operate in practice? Given the complex and largely hidden nature of such regimes, the question of how we can reconcile them with the ideals of democratic and liberal societies is a pressing one, particularly as such structures once established may prove to be more long-lasting and have greater repercussions than the more controversial but visible practices mentioned above

Performance evaluation of actively managed mutual funds

Motivated by the growing attraction of the mutual fund industry worldwide, this research seeks to explore the economic benefits contributed by the South African equity unit trust managers over the period from 6 January 2002 to 2 September 2012. The performance statistics of selected equity unit trusts are examined for the overall examination period and two sub-periods: 6 January 2002 to 6 May 2007 and 7 May 2007 to 2 September 2012. The first sub-period captures the bullish performance of the unit trusts before the 2008 global financial crisis. The second sub-period captures the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis before the European Central Bank (ECB) subsequently implemented the outright monetary transactions (OMT) to curb the yields in Eurozone. The risk-adjusted performance measures employed by this study include the Sharpe ratio, M-squared, Treynor measure and Jensen's alpha. Regardless of the different applications of risk-return parameters employed to evaluate fund performance, the results reveal that, on average, most of the equity unit trust managers in South Africa do not outperform the market proxy on a consistent basis. The majority of the unit trust managers show good performance before the crisis, with subsequent inferiority in performance in turbulent times

Maximizing Youth Leadership in Out-of-School Time Programs: Six Best Practices from Youth Driven Spaces

This paper aims to provide strategies for youth-serving organizations to maximize opportunities for youth to develop leadership skills within the out-of-school time program context. The sample includes 5 youth-serving agencies who participated in the Youth Driven Spaces initiative led by a Midwest program. Data for this project included observations of youth–adult meetings, field notes from youths’ reflections on key model activities, and interviews with adult staff to identify common challenges and supportive solutions. We identified 6 emergent themes for supporting youth leadership: (a) engage youth in meetings, (b) create opportunities for youth to learn how to be leaders, (c) recognize resistance to youth voice, (d) encourage youth and adults to share constructive feedback, (e) navigate youth–adult boundaries, and (f) practice intentional strategies to retain youth and to onboard new youth and staff. Results provide concrete strategies for practitioners and researchers to empower youth with the skills and resources they need to be effective leader

Autonomous underwater vehicle Manoeuvrability studies

This research project is aimed to understanding the manoeuvrability of AUV and develop mathematical model to describe behaviour of vehicle interaction with the operating environment. A hovering type of AUV was defined base on the operation need of the AUV where it is likely to be applied in underwater research and exploring activities. Due to the increase demand of AUV, major efforts have been made in developing AUV in overcoming the challenging scientific and engineering problems caused by the unstructured ocean environment. The theoretical modeling of the AUV had being developed via Newtonian mechanics approach and the 6-DOF dynamic equations of motion are derived throughout the process. The governing equations mainly constitute terms of rigid body inertia matrix, hydrodynamic damping matrix, restoring forces and moments, environmental and propulsion forces and moments. Subsequently, a feasible 3-D solid modeling of the AUV had been designed through iterative method with CAD and CAE verification. Fluid interactions and manoeuvrability design analysis was achieved through implementation of CFD tool, COSMOSFloWorks. The theoretical modeling developed had been simplified under several relevant assumptions and the second order non-linear differential . equation solved using the programming software MA TI.AB to investigate the translational motion of the vehicle in the surging direction. The result from the model is the AUV motion relation, drag force and lift coefficient that could be utilized in the further AUV prototype development. The solid 3D design of the AUV had been achieved through spiral design process of iterative method. The method involves design statement, preliminary design, conceptual design and detailed design. Fundamental hydrodynamic knowledge had been applied to facilitate the design of the AUV. The optimum thruster location had been identified and the optimum design achieved. The scope of physical solid modeling had been effectively implemented via CAD software. SolidWorks licence by Universiti Malaysia Sabah had been utilized as the CAD platform in developing the AUV 3D model Stalling phenomena had also been identified as 15° through simulation software, COSMOSFloWorks. The stall pitching angle defines where the unstable manoeuvring of the vehicle will occur. COSMOSFloWorks also had been utilized to examine the effect of current velocities towards the AUV lift and drag coefficients. The simulation was conducted at various Reynolds number and various pitching angles. The investigation has found that the lift coefficient and drag coefficient increases as the pitching angle increases, but the considered range of Reynolds number had no significant effect on these hydrodynamic coefficients. These results were important for the design of better guidance and control systems for the AUV to achieve effective manoeuvring in current flow environment

2245G/A polymorphism of the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) gene is associated with diabetic retinopathy in the Malaysian population

Background/aims The receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic microvascular complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between 2245G/A gene polymorphism of the RAGE gene and retinopathy in Malaysian type 2 diabetic patients. Methods 342 unrelated type 2 diabetic patients (171 with retinopathy (DR), 171 without retinopathy (DNR)) and 235 unrelated healthy subjects from all over Malaysia were recruited for this study. Genomic DNA was isolated from 3�ml samples of whole blood using a modified conventional DNA extraction method. The genotype and allele frequencies of 2245G/A were studied using the polymerase chain reaction�restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Results A statistically significant difference in 2245A minor allele frequency was found between control (5.5) and DR groups (15.2) (p0.05). Conclusions This is the first study that shows an association between the 2245A allele of the RAGE gene and development of diabetic retinopathy in the Malaysian population

2-Triazole-substituted adenosines: a new class of selective A₃ adenosine receptor agonists, partial agonists, and antagonists

''Click chemistry" was explored to synthesize two series of 2-(1,2,3-triazolyl) adenosine derivatives (1-14). Binding affinity at the human A(1), A(2A), and A(3)ARs (adenosine receptors) and relative efficacy at the A(3)AR were determined. Some triazol-1-yl analogues showed A(3)AR affinity in the low nanomolar range, a high ratio of A(3)/A(2A) selectivity, and a moderate-to-high A(3)/A(1) ratio. The 1,2,3-triazol-4-yl regiomers typically showed decreased A(3)AR affinity. Sterically demanding groups at the adenine C2 position tended to reduce relative A(3)AR efficacy. Thus, several 5'-OH derivatives appeared to be selective A(3)AR antagonists, i.e., 10, with 260-fold binding selectivity in comparison to the A(1)AR and displaying a characteristic docking mode in an A(3)AR model. The corresponding 5'-ethyluronamide analogues generally showed increased A(3)AR affinity and behaved as full antagonists, i.e., 17, with 910-fold A(3)/A(1) selectivity. Thus, N-6-substituted 2-( 1,2,3-triazolyl)-adenosine analogues constitute a novel class of highly potent and selective nucleoside-based A(3)AR antagonists, partial agonists, and agonists