Diaspora Power: network contributions to peacebuilding and the transformation of war economies

yesHow economies of countries at war (war economies) transform in `peace¿ is a critical new area of research in political economy and war and peace studies. The dynamics that affect the way war economies perpetuate or mutate after a peace agreement is signed is the context for this examination of non-state actor roles ¿ normally attention is on state and international organisations ¿ in the problems of peacebuilding. Here the focus is on diaspora networks, what might be described as national or transnational civil society groupings whose role is autonomous but carried considerable potential to assist reconstruction of the war-torn homeland

Justice and Genocide in Bosnia: An Unbridgeable Gap Between Academe and Law?

The 1992-95 war in Bosnia was the worst war on the European continent since WWII. The massive and systematic human rights violations were the worst in Europe since the Holocaust. This article proposes, based on a provisional review of non-legal, mainly social science and humanities literature on the Yugoslav crisis, and on a focused analysis of genocide jurisprudence, that there is a gulf between, on the one hand, academic interpretations of these human rights violations as constituting genocide – with some notable exceptions - and on the other, judicial decisions regarding cases brought at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (and partly the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - ICTR). A key issue in the determination of genocide has been where and when such crimes were committed. There is provisional agreement between academe and the law on the case of the massacres at Srebrenica amounting to genocide, but the earlier period of the war, in the spring/summer of 1992 in eastern and northern Bosnia, often seen by analysts as the key period of systematic and massive violence constituting genocide, has been largely avoided or dismissed by the international judicial effort. By examining the key case of Jelisic, this article highlights in detail some issues of interpretation or misinterpretation in the evolving jurisprudence on genocide

Christian Heroism and Holy War in Anglo-Saxon England.

This dissertation examines the character and development of a Christian heroic ideal in Anglo-Saxon England between the seventh and eleventh centuries and its manifestation through notions of holy war. It provides a valuable case study of the ongoing synthesis which occurred when the Germanic peoples converted to Christianity. The mutual transformation wrought in the traditional Germanic warrior ethos and Christian faith and values permeates the literary sources for Anglo-Saxon history, from the early hagiographies and Bede\u27s Ecclesiastical History, through later histories and chronicles, to the unique corpus of Old English poetry. As early as the first generation of Anglo-Saxon Christianization, the Germanic warrior ethos combined both with an ascetic tradition within Christianity which stressed spiritual warfare and with the martial necessities confronting a Christian society in the violent world of the early Middle Ages. The Viking onslaughts of the ninth and tenth centuries, portrayed in religious terms by Anglo-Saxon contemporaries as a conflict between Christians and pagans, served to crystallize Anglo-Saxon ideas of Christian heroism as expressed in holy war. Whereas previously these ideas had centered around kings, innovations in Christian kingship during the same period had the effect of broadening the ranks of holy warriors to include non-royal figures. The Anglo-Saxon evidence shows that a distinctly martial cast to Christianity usually associated with the age of crusading in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries was from the beginning, in the seventh century, fundamental to the Anglo-Saxon conception of their new faith

Introduction to Media Studies

Syllabus designed for Introduction to Media Course, which serves as a prerequisite to Ad/PR, Journalism and Film programs

The Value of Private Risk Versus the Value of Public Risk: An Experimental Analysis of the Johannesson et al. Conjecture

In 1996 Johannesson et al. published a paper in this journal entitled “The Value of Private Safety versus the Value of Public Safety.” Based on preliminary evidence from a hypothetical contingent valuation study, these authors argue that consumers behave as “pure altruists” and reject the notion of paternalistic preferences for safety in a coercive tax setting. These pure altruists consider the cost of a program that might be imposed on other voters when they decide whether to vote for or against public safety programs. The authors conclude that further empirical research in this area is warranted. This paper presents a set of laboratory economics experiments to test Johannesson et al.’s conjecture under controlled conditions in which participants face an actual risk of financial loss. The laboratory results extend those of Johannesson et al., providing strong evidence of pure altruism but limited support for paternalistic altruism for risk.Altruism, risk, voting, public goods, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, D81, D64, H41, C91, C92, D72,

Voluntary Funding for Generic Advertising Using a Provision Point Mechanism: An Experimental Analysis of Option Assurance

The mandatory nature of generic advertising funding remains a contentious issue. Theoretically and in laboratory environments, a provision point mechanism with a money-back guarantee offers an attractive voluntary alternative to the standard voluntary contribution mechanisms, yet in practice, few examples of multiple-round provision point mechanisms exist. A practical concern with applying these mechanisms is that even a slight shortfall in contributions relative to the designated funding threshold in one period would engender an irreversible shutdown of administrative capacity with negative consequences for subsequent periods. This paper uses experimental economics to test new two-threshold provision point mechanisms in the context of check-off programs for funding commodity marketing programs that would separately fund the minimum administrative capacity and the more costly full marketing program. In these mechanisms, even if a funding shortfall occurs for the full marketing program, the low threshold can maintain the administrative capacity and retain the option for future funding of advertising. We demonstrate that providing such "option assurance" does not lead to a decrease in overall contributions and, in some settings, can increase producer surplus.Marketing,

PURE ALTRUISM AND THE VALUATION OF RISK: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE JOHANNESSON ET AL. CONJECTURE

Johannesson et al.(1996) conjecture that in a coercive, uniform tax setting like dichotomous choice contingent valuation, willingness to pay for public programs would be affected by altruistic consideration of the costs imposed on others. Using a voting-BDM elicitation mechanism, we demonstrate such valuation petterns in an experimental economics setting.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,