Liberal intervention in the foreign policy thinking of Tony Blair and David Cameron

David Cameron was a critic of Tony Blair’s doctrine of the international community, which was used to justify war in Kosovo and more controversially in Iraq, suggesting caution in projecting military force abroad while in opposition. However, and in spite of making severe cuts to the defence budget, the Cameron-led Coalition government signed Britain up to a military intervention in Libya within a year of coming into office. What does this say about the place liberal interventionism occupies in contemporary British foreign policy? To answer this question, this article studies the nature of what we describe as the ‘bounded liberal’ tradition that has informed British foreign policy thinking since 1945, suggesting that it puts a distinctly UK national twist on conventional conservative thought about international affairs. Its components are: scepticism of grand schemes to remake the world; instinctive Atlanticism; security through collective endeavour; and anti-appeasement. We then compare and contrast the conditions for intervention set out by Tony Blair and David Cameron. We explain the similarities but crucially also the vital differences between the two leaders’ thinking on intervention, with particular reference to Cameron’s perception that Downing Street needed to loosen its control over foreign policy-making after Iraq. Our argument is that policy substance, policy style and party political dilemmas prompted Blair and Cameron to reconnect British foreign policy with its ethical roots, ingraining a bounded liberal posture to British foreign policy after the moral bankruptcy of the John Major years. This return to a patient, pragmatic and ethically informed foreign policy meant that military operations in Kosovo and Libya were undertaken in quite different circumstances, yet came to be justified by similar arguments from the two leaders

Changes to the Fossil Record of Insects through Fifteen Years of Discovery

The first and last occurrences of hexapod families in the fossil record are compiled from publications up to end-2009. The major features of these data are compared with those of previous datasets (1993 and 1994). About a third of families (>400) are new to the fossil record since 1994, over half of the earlier, existing families have experienced changes in their known stratigraphic range and only about ten percent have unchanged ranges. Despite these significant additions to knowledge, the broad pattern of described richness through time remains similar, with described richness increasing steadily through geological history and a shift in dominant taxa, from Palaeoptera and Polyneoptera to Paraneoptera and Holometabola, after the Palaeozoic. However, after detrending, described richness is not well correlated with the earlier datasets, indicating significant changes in shorter-term patterns. There is reduced Palaeozoic richness, peaking at a different time, and a less pronounced Permian decline. A pronounced Triassic peak and decline is shown, and the plateau from the mid Early Cretaceous to the end of the period remains, albeit at substantially higher richness compared to earlier datasets. Origination and extinction rates are broadly similar to before, with a broad decline in both through time but episodic peaks, including end-Permian turnover. Origination more consistently exceeds extinction compared to previous datasets and exceptions are mainly in the Palaeozoic. These changes suggest that some inferences about causal mechanisms in insect macroevolution are likely to differ as well

Antenatal betamethasone therapy augments isoproterenol and prostaglandin E2-mediated relaxation of preterm ovine pulmonary veins

Antenatal glucocorticoid therapy improves pulmonary function in preterm newborns. We have determined the effect of antenatal glucocorticoid therapy on isoproterenol and prostaglandin (PG) E2-mediated relaxation in preterm ovine pulmonary veins after birth. Ovine fetuses (121 and 126 d of gestation; term = 150 d) received an ultrasound guided intramuscular injection of betamethasone, 0.5 mg/kg, or saline. Lambs were delivered 15 or 48 h later, ventilated for 3 h, and killed. Isolated fourth generation pulmonary veins were suspended in organ chambers filled with modified Krebs-Ringer solution (95% O2, 5% CO2) at 37 degrees C, and their isometric tension was recorded. During contractions to U46619, isoproterenol and PGE2 induced greater relaxations of pulmonary veins of betamethasone-treated lambs than those of control. Forskolin, an activator of adenylate cyclase, caused greater relaxation in veins of betamethasone-treated lambs than in those of controls. A greater relaxation of veins treated with betamethasone than that of control veins also occurred in the presence of isobutylmethylxanthine, an inhibitor of phosphodiesterases. All vessels relaxed similarly to 8-bromo-cAMP, a cell membrane-permeable analog of cAMP. When stimulated with isoproterenol, PGE2, and forskolin, adenylate cyclase activity of crude membrane preparations of pulmonary veins treated with betamethasone was greater than that of controls. These results demonstrate that antenatal betamethasone therapy potentiates isoproterenol and PGE2-mediated relaxation of pulmonary veins of preterm lambs; an enhanced adenylate cyclase activity explain in part the effect of antenatal glucocorticoid therapy on pulmonary veins of preterm lambs

Growth patterns and life-history strategies in Placodontia (Diapsida: Sauropterygia)

Placodontia is a clade of durophagous, near shore marine reptiles from Triassic sediments of modern-day Europe, Middle East and China. Although much is known about their primary anatomy and palaeoecology, relatively little has been published regarding their life history, i.e. ageing, maturation and growth. Here, growth records derived from long bone histological data of placodont individuals are described and modelled to assess placodont growth and life-history strategies. Growth modelling methods are used to confirm traits documented in the growth record (age at onset of sexual maturity, age when asymptotic length was achieved, age at death, maximum longevity) and also to estimate undocumented traits. Based on these growth models, generalized estimates of these traits are established for each taxon. Overall differences in bone tissue types and resulting growth curves indicate different growth patterns and life-history strategies between different taxa of Placodontia. Psephoderma and Paraplacodus grew with lamellar-zonal bone tissue type and show growth patterns as seen in modern reptiles. Placodontia indet. aff. Cyamodus and some Placodontia indet. show a unique combination of fibrolamellar bone tissue regularly stratified by growth marks, a pattern absent in modern sauropsids. The bone tissue type of Placodontia indet. aff. Cyamodus and Placodontia indet. indicates a significantly increased basal metabolic rate when compared with modern reptiles. Double lines of arrested growth, non-annual rest lines in annuli, and subcycles that stratify zones suggest high dependence of placodont growth on endogenous and exogenous factors. Histological and modelled differences within taxa point to high individual developmental plasticity but sexual dimorphism in growth patterns and the presence of different taxa in the sample cannot be ruled out