Bosnia’s Paralyzed Peace

This study offers a powerful blow by blow analysis of the attempts to create peace in BiH since the Dayton Agreement. According to Christopher Bennett, Dayton provided a “balance of terror,” was full of unrealistic deadlines, and aimed at providing internationals with an exit strategy (81) and international involvement constantly suffered from an “enforcement gap” (110) derived from the contradiction between trusteeship and democracy as well as limited resources (114). It has even reinforced existing power structures (the ethnos rather than the demos (116, 182), connected to para-states, and undermined democracy. A “new ethno-national reality now exists” even extending to the education system (244). Bennett expertly lays bare the oddity and inconsistencies of the post-Dayton BiH framework for politics. There is much to agree with, and to learn from the analysis as it proceeds chronologically. Even if one does not agree with the final argument and conclusions presented to the reader, it is a very well written and extremely insightful, detailed volume (though more thorough references would have been useful to the sources it uses)

The international peace architecture: a grand but flawed design for peacemaking

Efforts to solve conflict and establish peace across the world have evolved into what might be called an ‘international peace architecture’. Oliver P. Richmond tracks the six stages through which this system has emerged and asks whether it is still capable of responding to the demands of modern conflicts

A Paz no Século XXI: Estados, Capital e Instituições Multilaterais versus Arbitragem Posicional, Mobilidade Diária, Redes e Multiverticalidade

A “longa paz” dos últimos vinte e cinco anos foi marcada por vários debates sobre a paz democrática-liberal, os direitos humanos e o cosmopolitismo. Esses debates estão relacionados às várias formas de intervenção – do desenvolvimento à construção da paz e à intervenção humanitária. Esse modelo de “sistema/ordem intervencionista” surgiu a partir da pressão de uma gama de diferentes frentes. Além disso, atualmente, novas tecnologias de intervenção estão emergindo nas áreas militar e humanitária. Subjacente a essas discussões está um debate inacabado sobre se o Estado e a arquitetura internacional podem, ou não, finalmente ampliarem-se para um sistema unificado de governo (ou governança) mundial. Esse artigo examina como a paz e o desenvolvimento podem ser repensados, se a versão prévia de um quadro de referência progressista (i.e. a paz liberal) está, atualmente, sendo revisto, e se a intervenção mudou para formas neoliberais

Good perceived sleep quality protects against the raised risk of respiratory infection during sleep restriction in young adults

Study Objectives: Prospectively examine the association between sleep restriction, perceived sleep quality (PSQ) and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). Methods: In 1318 military recruits (68% males) self-reported sleep was assessed at the beginning and end of a 12-week training course. Sleep restriction was defined as an individualized reduction in sleep duration of ≥2 hours/night compared with civilian life. URTIs were retrieved from medical records. Results: On commencing training, approximately half of recruits were sleep restricted (52%; 2.1 ± 1.6 h); despite the sleep debt, 58% of recruits with sleep restriction reported good PSQ. Regression adjusted for covariates showed that recruits commencing training with sleep restriction were more likely to suffer URTI during the course (OR = 2.93, 95% CI 1.29–6.69, p = .011). Moderation analysis showed this finding was driven by poor PSQ (B = −1.12, SE 0.50, p = .023), as no significant association between sleep restriction and URTI was observed in recruits reporting good PSQ, despite a similar magnitude of sleep restriction during training. Associations remained in the population completing training, accounting for loss to follow-up. Recruits reporting poor PSQ when healthy at the start and end of training were more susceptible to URTI (OR = 3.16, 95% CI 1.31–7.61, p = .010, vs good PSQ). Conclusion: Good perceived sleep quality was associated with protection against the raised risk of respiratory infection during sleep restriction. Studies should determine whether improvements in sleep quality arising from behavioral sleep interventions translate to reduced respiratory infection during sleep restriction

Secondary influenza challenge triggers resident memory B cell migration and rapid relocation to boost antibody secretion at infected sites.

Resident memory B (BRM) cells develop and persist in the lungs of influenza-infected mice and humans; however, their contribution to recall responses has not been defined. Here, we used two-photon microscopy to visualize BRM cells within the lungs of influenza -virus immune and reinfected mice. Prior to re-exposure, BRM cells were sparsely scattered throughout the tissue, displaying limited motility. Within 24 h of rechallenge, these cells increased their migratory capacity, localized to infected sites, and subsequently differentiated into plasma cells. Alveolar macrophages mediated this process, in part by inducing expression of chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10 from infiltrating inflammatory cells. This led to the recruitment of chemokine receptor CXCR3-expressing BRM cells to infected regions and increased local antibody concentrations. Our study uncovers spatiotemporal mechanisms that regulate lung BRM cell reactivation and demonstrates their capacity to rapidly deliver antibodies in a highly localized manner to sites of viral replication

Hidden politics of power and governmentality in transitional justice and peacebuilding:The problem of ‘bringing the local back in’

This paper examines ‘the local’ in peacebuilding by examining how ‘local’ transitional justice projects can become spaces of power inequalities. The paper argues that focusing on how ‘the local’ contests or interacts with ‘the international’ in peacebuilding and post-conflict contexts obscures contestations and power relations amongst different local actors, and how inequalities and power asymmetries can be entrenched and reproduced through internationally funded local projects. The paper argues that externally funded projects aimed at emancipating ‘locals’ entrench inequalities and create local elites that become complicit in governing the conduct and participation of other less empowered ‘locals’. The paper thus proposes that specific local actors—often those in charge of externally funded peacebuilding projects—should also be conceptualised as governing agents: able to discipline and regulate other local actors’ voices and their agency, and thus (re)construct ideas about what ‘the local’ is, or is not

Poor People’s Politics in East Timor

YesPoor people attempting to claim a share of resources in post-conflict societies seek allies internationally and nationally in attempts to empower their campaigns. In so doing, they mobilize the languages of liberalism, nationalism and local cultural tradition selectively and opportunistically to both justify stances that transgress the strictures of local culture and to cement alliances with more powerful actors. In the case of poor widows in East Timor, the languages of nationalism, ritual, and justice were intermingled in a campaign aimed at both international actors and the national state in a bid to claim a position of status in the post-conflict order