Two conceptions of international practice : Aristotelian praxis or Wittgensteinian language-games?

Abstract: Scholars from the recent ‘practice turn’ in International Relations have urged us to rethink the international realm in terms of practices. The principal exponents of the turn, Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot, have refurbished Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice to produce their own account of international practices. In a review of the practice turn, Chris Brown has argued that Bourdieu’s notion of practice shares basic affinities with Aristotle’s concept of praxis. While practice turn scholars may not adhere to a rigid canon of thought, they seem to share an Aristotelian conception of praxis. This reading of the turn to practice, though plausible, captures one part of the story. The central thesis of the present article is that instead of one there are two, distinctive conceptions of practice – Aristotelian and Wittgensteinian – and therefore two distinctive ways in which the character of international practices might be understood. More concretely, the aim is to show that the conception of international practices, rooted in Wittgenstein’s view of practices as language-games, can be particularly illuminating to all those who seek to understand international relations

Ética y guerra: más alla de la teoría de la guerra justa

En este artículo se pretende remarcar el vínculo inherente que existe entre la ética y la guerra, a lo largo de la historia y, en particular, en los tres tipos de guerra posteriores a la Segunda Guerra Mundial: las guerras de liberación nacional, las nuevas guerras y la guerra contra el terror global. De este modo, se repasan las tres variantes con el ánimo de mostrar que "hacer la guerra" es una actividad desarrollada dentro de una práctica social y constituye una actividad significativa para los actores que la llevan a cabo. Por ello, la guerra adquiere inevitablemente una dimensión ética. Estos elementos éticos son enunciados, en un primer momento, en las guerras entre colonizadores y sociedades coloniales que aspiran a construir su propio estado; en segundo lugar, en las denominadas "nuevas guerras" en la que la violencia está especialmente instrumentalizada como vehículo para la humillación del adversario; y, finalmente, en el terrorismo global, que no puede entenderse como "absurdo" ni carente de ética

Théorie constitutive : reconnaissance, éthique et politique dans les relations internationales

Dans un article intitulé « La reconnaissance entre les États : sur le substrat moral des relations internationales » Axel Honneth relève que dans le langage usuel, on parle souvent des États comme cherchant le respect et la reconnaissance de la part d’États étrangers. Nous comprenons aisément les États lorsqu’ils font valoir leur droit à une reconnaissance dont on les prive. Honneth souligne que « nous convenons volontiers que le comportement des dirigeants politiques de la Palestine, par exe..

Percutaneous revascularization for ischemic left ventricular dysfunction: Cost-effectiveness analysis of the REVIVED-BCIS2 trial

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is frequently undertaken in patients with ischemic left ventricular systolic dysfunction. The REVIVED (Revascularization for Ischemic Ventricular Dysfunction)-BCIS2 (British Cardiovascular Society-2) trial concluded that PCI did not reduce the incidence of all-cause death or heart failure hospitalization; however, patients assigned to PCI reported better initial health-related quality of life than those assigned to optimal medical therapy (OMT) alone. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of PCI+OMT compared with OMT alone. METHODS: REVIVED-BCIS2 was a prospective, multicenter UK trial, which randomized patients with severe ischemic left ventricular systolic dysfunction to either PCI+OMT or OMT alone. Health care resource use (including planned and unplanned revascularizations, medication, device implantation, and heart failure hospitalizations) and health outcomes data (EuroQol 5-dimension 5-level questionnaire) on each patient were collected at baseline and up to 8 years post-randomization. Resource use was costed using publicly available national unit costs. Within the trial, mean total costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were estimated from the perspective of the UK health system. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated using estimated mean costs and QALYs in both groups. Regression analysis was used to adjust for clinically relevant predictors. RESULTS: Between 2013 and 2020, 700 patients were recruited (mean age: PCI+OMT=70 years, OMT=68 years; male (%): PCI+OMT=87, OMT=88); median follow-up was 3.4 years. Over all follow-ups, patients undergoing PCI yielded similar health benefits at higher costs compared with OMT alone (PCI+OMT: 4.14 QALYs, £22 352; OMT alone: 4.16 QALYs, £15 569; difference: −0.015, £6782). For both groups, most health resource consumption occurred in the first 2 years post-randomization. Probabilistic results showed that the probability of PCI being cost-effective was 0. CONCLUSIONS: A minimal difference in total QALYs was identified between arms, and PCI+OMT was not cost-effective compared with OMT, given its additional cost. A strategy of routine PCI to treat ischemic left ventricular systolic dysfunction does not seem to be a justifiable use of health care resources in the United Kingdom

Arrhythmia and death following percutaneous revascularization in ischemic left ventricular dysfunction: Prespecified analyses from the REVIVED-BCIS2 trial

BACKGROUND: Ventricular arrhythmia is an important cause of mortality in patients with ischemic left ventricular dysfunction. Revascularization with coronary artery bypass graft or percutaneous coronary intervention is often recommended for these patients before implantation of a cardiac defibrillator because it is assumed that this may reduce the incidence of fatal and potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmias, although this premise has not been evaluated in a randomized trial to date. METHODS: Patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction, extensive coronary disease, and viable myocardium were randomly assigned to receive either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) plus optimal medical and device therapy (OMT) or OMT alone. The composite primary outcome was all-cause death or aborted sudden death (defined as an appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy or a resuscitated cardiac arrest) at a minimum of 24 months, analyzed as time to first event on an intention-to-treat basis. Secondary outcomes included cardiovascular death or aborted sudden death, appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy or sustained ventricular arrhythmia, and number of appropriate ICD therapies. RESULTS: Between August 28, 2013, and March 19, 2020, 700 patients were enrolled across 40 centers in the United Kingdom. A total of 347 patients were assigned to the PCI+OMT group and 353 to the OMT alone group. The mean age of participants was 69 years; 88% were male; 56% had hypertension; 41% had diabetes; and 53% had a clinical history of myocardial infarction. The median left ventricular ejection fraction was 28%; 53.1% had an implantable defibrillator inserted before randomization or during follow-up. All-cause death or aborted sudden death occurred in 144 patients (41.6%) in the PCI group and 142 patients (40.2%) in the OMT group (hazard ratio, 1.03 [95% CI, 0.82–1.30]; P =0.80). There was no between-group difference in the occurrence of any of the secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: PCI was not associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality or aborted sudden death. In patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, PCI is not beneficial solely for the purpose of reducing potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmias. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT01920048

Spectroscopic and XRD Characterization of Zeolite Catalyst Active for the Oxidative Methylation of Benzene with Methane

The benzene methylation with methane over zeolite catalysts was previously shown in our laboratory to require the presence of oxygen. Thus, a two-step mechanism involving the intermediate formation of methanol by partial oxidation of methane followed by the methylation of benzene with methanol in the second step, was postulated. This paper now reports the results of the characterisation of the zeolite catalysts used for the oxidative benzene methylation reaction in order to provide some information about their composition, structure, properties and their behaviour before and after the reaction. The catalysts were characterised by XRD, ICP-AES, XRF, FTIR and solid state NMR. XRD results indicate that the crystalline structures of all the ZSM-5 and H-beta catalysts remained unchanged after batch reaction of benzene with methane over the catalysts in agreement with the observation that the catalysts recovered from the reactor could be reused without loss of activity. Elemental analyses and FTIR data show that as the level of metal ion exchange increases, the Brönsted acid concentration decreases but this metal ion exchange does not totally remove Brönsted acidity. FTIR results further show that only a small amount of acid sites is actually necessary for a catalyst to be active since used catalysts containing highly reduced Brönsted acidity are found to be reusable without any loss of their activity. 29Si and 27Al MAS NMR together with FTIR spectra also show that all the active zeolites catalysts contain some extra-framework octahedral aluminium in addition to the normal tetrahedral framework aluminium. The presence of this extra-lattice aluminium does not, however, have any adverse effect on the crystallinity of the catalysts both before and after oxidative benzene methylation reaction. There appears also to be no significant dealumination of the zeolite catalysts during reaction since their catalytic performance was retained after use