NATO enlargement and US grand strategy: a net assessment

NATO did not dissolve following the Soviet Union’s collapse and the end of the Cold War. Instead, the alliance expanded, in stages—from 16 members at its Cold War peak to 30 in 2020. While NATO enlargement alone did not cause the deterioration of US–Russian relations, it did contribute significantly to that outcome. Champions of NATO expansion aver that it maintains peace in Europe and promotes democracy in East-Central Europe. They add that Russia has nothing to fear. But Russia’s leaders have always seen NATO expansion differently. The article also examines NATO’s enlargement as it relates to US post-Cold War grand strategy. It contends the policy reflects the abiding US commitment to maintaining its global primacy, which, in part, is ensured by perpetuating Europe’s dependence on the USA for an elemental need: security. We conclude by considering the future of NATO and Europe

Corruption as a response to regulation

Previous research has found a negative effect of corruption on growth in the United States. However, some theory suggests corruption might have a positive impact in places with dysfunctional political institutions. This paper investigates whether the corruption-growth link is conditional on the extent of government involvement across U.S. states. Even though no state approaches the level of government intervention found in many developing countries, we still find evidence that corruption’s harmful effects on growth are smaller when regulation is greater

Corruption as a response to regulation

Previous research has found a negative effect of corruption on growth in the United States. However, some theory suggests corruption might have a positive impact in places with dysfunctional political institutions. This paper investigates whether the corruption-growth link is conditional on the extent of government involvement across U.S. states. Even though no state approaches the level of government intervention found in many developing countries, we still find evidence that corruption’s harmful effects on growth are smaller when regulation is greater

Does Foreign Investment Really Reduce Repression?

Cross-national empirical studies have found that foreign investment has beneficial effects on human rights. We argue that these studies poorly operationalize foreign investment to test theoretical predictions and suffer from sampling bias. We demonstrate that investment stock, rather than inflow, is the superior operationalization of structural dependence theory. We construct regression models of government repression of physical integrity rights, include much more data than previous studies, and use a new multiple imputation algorithm for time-series cross-section data to resolve sampling bias. We find no evidence that foreign investment affects repression, contradicting conventional wisdom and suggesting that the political gains from repression frequently dwarf any economic costs for governments

Data from: Vascular patterns in iguanas and other squamates: blood vessels and sites of thermal exchange

Squamates use the circulatory system to regulate body and head temperatures during both heating and cooling. The flexibility of this system, which possibly exceeds that of endotherms, offers a number of physiological mechanisms to gain or retain heat (e.g., increase peripheral blood flow and heart rate, cooling the head to prolong basking time for the body) as well as to shed heat (modulate peripheral blood flow, expose sites of thermal exchange). Squamates also have the ability to establish and maintain the same head-to-body temperature differential that birds, crocodilians, and mammals demonstrate, but without a discrete rete or other vascular physiological device. Squamates offer important anatomical and phylogenetic evidence for the inference of the blood vessels of dinosaurs and other extinct archosaurs in that they shed light on the basal diapsid condition. Given this basal positioning, squamates likewise inform and constrain the range of physiological thermoregulatory mechanisms that may have been found in Dinosauria. Unfortunately, the literature on squamate vascular anatomy is limited. Cephalic vascular anatomy of green iguanas (Iguana iguana) was investigated using a differential-contrast, dual-vascular injection (DCDVI) technique and high-resolution X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT). Blood vessels were digitally segmented to create a surface representation of vascular pathways. Known sites of thermal exchange, consisting of the oral, nasal, and orbital regions, were given special attention due to their role in brain and cephalic thermoregulation. Blood vessels to and from sites of thermal exchange were investigated to detect conserved vascular patterns and to assess their ability to deliver cooled blood to the dural venous sinuses. Arteries within sites of thermal exchange were found to deliver blood directly and through collateral pathways. The venous drainage was found to have multiple pathways that could influence neurosensory tissue temperature, as well as pathways that would bypass neurosensory tissues. The orbital region houses a large venous sinus that receives cooled blood from the nasal region. Blood vessels from the nasal region and orbital sinus show anastomotic connections to the dural sinus system, allowing for the direct modulation of brain temperatures. The generality of the vascular patterns discovered in iguanas were assessed by firsthand comparison with other squamates taxa (e.g., via dissection and osteological study) as well as the literature. Similar to extant archosaurs, iguanas and other squamates have highly vascularized sites of thermal exchange that likely support physiological thermoregulation that “fine tunes” temperatures attained through behavioral thermoregulation

NERC MSTRF Sky-Camera Time-Lapse Video for 2007-05-29 03:00 UTC.

A time-lapse video showing the development of Cumulus congestus clouds, leading to a Rain Shower and a Rainbow. This video has been created from images taken by the NERC MST Radar Facility's Sky-Camera, which is located near Aberystwyth in West Wales. The images are freely available, under an Open (UK) Government License, from http://tinyurl.com/nerc-mstrf-sky-camera/ . For an explanation of the atmospheric phenomena that can be seen, download the resource available at http://cedadocs.ceda.ac.uk/1259/