Bomb or Boon: Linking Population, People and Power in Fragile Regions Comment on “The Pill Is Mightier Than the Sword”

The relationship between population structure and violent conflict is complex and heavily dependent on the behavior of other variables like governance, economic prospects, and urbanization. While addressing rapid population growth might be a necessary condition for peace, it is by no means sufficient. Concomitant steps must also be taken to foster inclusivity, guarantee broader rights for all, particularly women, rebuild social contracts and ensure that all citizens have equal access to economic opportunity. Measures to control family size could reduce dependency and create greater socio-economic opportunities for women and youth, By so doing, the “youth bulge” phenomenon could be a boon for rapidly growing developing countries

Globalization, democratization, and the Arab uprising : the international factor in MENA's failed democratization

What explains the almost negative impact of international factors on post-Uprising democratization prospects? This article compares the utility of rival “diffusionist” and neo-Gramscian political economy frames to explain this. Three international factors deter democratization. The failure of Western democracy promotion is rooted in the contradiction between the dominance of global finance capital and the norm of democratic equality; in the periphery, neo-liberalism is most compatible with hybrid regimes and, at best, “low intensity democracy.” In MENA, neo-liberalism generated a crony capitalism incompatible with democratization; while this also sparked the uprisings, these have failed to address class inequalities. Moreover at the normative level, MENA hosts the most credible counter-hegemonic ideologies; the brief peaking of democratic ideology in the region during the early uprisings soon declined amidst regional discourse wars. Non-democrats—coercive regime remnants and radical charismatic movements--were empowered by the competitive interference of rival powers in Uprising states. The collapse of many Uprising states amidst a struggle for power over the region left an environment uncongenial to democratization.PostprintPeer reviewe

Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent 2020-2030

The new year 2020 marks the beginning of a promising decade for Africa. Through at least the first half of the decade, economic growth across Africa will continue to outperform that of other regions, with the continent continuing to be home to seven of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies. Collective action among African and global policymakers to improve the livelihoods of all under the blueprint of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union's Agenda 2063 is representative of the shared energy and excitement around Africa's potential. With business environments improving, regional integration centered around the African Continental Free Trade Agreement progressing, and the transformational technologies of Fourth Industrial Revolution spreading, never before has the region been better primed for trade, investment, and mutually beneficial partnerships. The recent, unprecedented interest of an increasingly diversified group of external partners for engagement with Africa highlights this potential. Despite the continent's promise, though, obstacles to success linger, as job creation still has not caught up with the growing youth labor force, gaps in good and inclusive governance remain, and climate change as well as state fragility threaten to reverse the hard-fought-for gains of recent decades.This special edition of Foresight Africa highlights the triumphs of past years as well as strategies from our experts to tackle forthcoming, but surmountable, obstacles to a prosperous continent by 2030

Rapid selection against inbreeding in a wild population of a rare frog

Populations that are small and isolated can be threatened through loss of fitness due to inbreeding. Nevertheless, an increased frequency of recessive homozygotes could increase the efficiency of selection against deleterious mutants, thus reducing inbreeding depression. In wild populations, observations of evolutionary changes determined by selection against inbreeding are few. We used microsatellite DNA markers to compare the genetic features of tadpoles immediately after hatch with those of metamorphosing froglets belonging to the same cohort in a small, isolated population of the threatened frog Rana latastei. Within a generation, the inbreeding coefficient (FIS) decreased: at hatch, FIS was significantly >0, whereas FIS was <0 after metamorphosis. Furthermore, heterozygosity increased and allelic frequencies changed over time, resulting in the loss of genotypes at metamorphosis that were present in hatchlings. One microsatellite locus exhibited atypically large FST values, suggesting it might be linked to a locus under selection. These results support the hypothesis that strong selection against the most inbred genotypes occurred among early life-history stages in our population. Selective forces can promote changes that can affect population dynamics and should be considered in conservation planning

The ripple effect: Institutionalising pro-environmental values to shift societal norms and behaviours

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Contemporary markets and societal norms externalise many ecosystem services important for a sustainable future. A range of external legal, market, social protocol and other mechanisms, referred to as ‘societal levers’, constrain or otherwise influence the behaviour of resource managers, and the expectations and assumptions of the society within which they operate. These ‘societal levers’ have progressively institutionalised evolving societal values, influencing markets and other choices. We use the STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental and political) framework to explore case studies of societal transitions, analysing how emergent concerns become shared and ultimately transformed into ‘levers’, shifting societal norms. Emerging concerns become influential only when they are shared across societal sectors, and when broader implications are realised across multiple dimensions of the STEEP framework. We propose and advocate use of a ‘ripple effect’ of values as a means to direct and accelerate the pace at which environmental concerns shape mainstream societal norms and structures, and become institutionalised in the form of ‘societal levers’

Enabling a Continent to Help Itself: U.S. Military Capacity Building and Africa's Emerging Security Architecture; Strategic Insights, v. 6, issue 1 (January 2007)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.6, issue 1 (January 2007)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Enhancing Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea; Strategic Insights, v. 6, issue 1 (January 2007)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.6, issue 1 (January 2007)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited