Understanding the Mechanisms of International Influence in an Era of Great Power Competition

17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogab011Amid growing speculation that the United States and China are destined for a more conflictual relationship, and that Russia is actively seeking to expand its global power, security scholars and professionals are increasingly interested in understanding the influence of great and rising powers throughout the world. However, in focusing primarily on power resources and international activities, existing scholarship on this subject has not adequately addressed how a state obtains and sustains international influence. To overcome this knowledge deficit, this article presents a framework for analyzing international influence that includes not only power resources and influence activities, but also a comprehensive set of power mechanisms that states mobilize to induce change in another state’s behavior. The article applies the framework to US security sector activities in Africa. The analysis, based primarily on interviews with US defense attachés and security cooperation officers, shows how different types of activities mobilize different sets of power mechanisms. It reveals that activities that mobilize expertise, attraction, and recognition mechanisms have the greatest potential for developing and maintaining influence. The article concludes that, to obtain and sustain international influence, states must be more attentive to the mechanisms of power, rather than merely deploying their power resources.US Africa Comman

Three approaches to restoration and their implications for social inclusion

Building on the Bonn Challenge, the UN Decade advances global restoration on an unprecedented scale. Research increasingly points to the need for greater social inclusion in restoration projects, yet the approaches that favor such inclusion remain opaque in practice. In this paper, we identify three restoration approaches that figure in the international agenda and analyze these through the lens of social inclusion. We argue that: (1) restoration aimed at bringing ecosystems back to a previous state, or “return” restoration, favors natural science at the landscape scale over social inclusion at the community scale; (2) restoration seeking to recreate functional ecosystems in locations away from where the degradation has occurred, or “reorganization” restoration, fails to adequately address historical inequities and perpetuates legacies of exploitation; and (3) “resilience” oriented restoration is promising but remains theoretical, and risks instrumentalizing marginalized communities and their lands as experimental sites for restoration. Though both “return” and “reorganize” restoration face substantial criticism, these approaches continue to play a central role in the major paradigms and practices that enliven the global restoration agenda. To improve prospects for social inclusion in the global restoration movement, we advance that the movement must evolve beyond productivity-based inclusion schemes and address the role that international initiatives play in perpetuating systems of exploitation. Finally, we argue that “resilience” restoration offers the most promising pathway towards meaningful social inclusion when it can empower community members to participate in restoration as agents of change and co-experimenters

Leveraging Naval Diplomacy to Reinforce Economic Programs and Compete with China

NPS NRP Executive SummaryAs competition between the U.S. and China intensifies, the U.S. Navy must plan and implement its overseas operations and diplomatic activities to advance U.S. influence. The main purpose of this study is to assess how the USN can leverage its operations and activities to reinforce U.S. economic programs and enhance U.S. influence. Building on an innovative influence framework developed by two of the investigators, it will systematically assess how USN activities and operations such as joint exercises, port calls, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and training programs, generate influence in three important U.S. partner nations with significant Chinese investment and/or security presence: Chile, Senegal, and the United Arab Emirates. The project will also identify specific ways that USN activities can reinforce USG economic programs and build effective partnerships, specifying the most productive activity groupings, effective sequencing arrangements, and potential obstacles to interagency coordination. The project will produce a final report, as well as briefings to the sponsor and other interested audiences in the Navy. The report will consist of three country case studies and a comparative analysis of their findings. The precise organization and format of the deliverables will be designed to suit the needs of the topic sponsor. Interim reports will be provided to keep the sponsor apprised of our progress and to solicit feedback during the course of study.N3/N5 - Plans & StrategyThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Roads to Recovery

THE ALL-PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP AND THE WORKING GROUP The Working Group that produced this Report is a sub-group of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood. The purpose of the APPG is to promote evidence-based discussion and produce reports on all aspect of childhood health and wellbeing including obesity, to inform policy decisions and public debate relating to childhood; and to enable communications between interested parties and relevant parliamentarians. Group details are recorded on the Parliamentary website at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/190911/fit-and-healthychildhood.htm The Working Group is chaired by Helen Clark, a member of the APPG secretariat. Working Group members are volunteers from the APPG membership with an interest in this subject area. Those that have contributed to the work of the Working Group are listed on the previous page. The Report is divided into themed subject chapters with recommendations that we hope will influence active Government policy

Developmental pathways to autism: a review of prospective studies of infants at risk

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and the presence of restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Symptoms of ASD likely emerge from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the child's environment, modified by compensatory skills and protective factors. Prospective studies of infants at high familial risk for ASD (who have an older sibling with a diagnosis) are beginning to characterize these developmental pathways to the emergence of clinical symptoms. Here, we review the range of behavioral and neurocognitive markers for later ASD that have been identified in high-risk infants in the first years of life. We discuss theoretical implications of emerging patterns, and identify key directions for future work, including potential resolutions to several methodological challenges for the field. Mapping how ASD unfolds from birth is critical to our understanding of the developmental mechanisms underlying this disorder. A more nuanced understanding of developmental pathways to ASD will help us not only to identify children who need early intervention, but also to improve the range of interventions available to them

Ten people‐centered rules for socially sustainable ecosystem restoration

As the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration begins, there remains insufficient emphasis on the human and social dimensions of restoration. The potential that restoration holds for achieving both ecological and social goals can only be met through a shift toward people-centered restoration strategies. Toward this end, this paper synthesizes critical insights from a special issue on “Restoration for whom, by whom” to propose actionable ways to center humans and social dimensions in ecosystem restoration, with the aim of generating fair and sustainable initiatives. These rules respond to a relative silence on socio-political issues in di Sacco et al.'s “Ten golden rules for reforestation to optimize carbon sequestration, biodiversity recovery and livelihood benefits” on socio-political issues and offer complementary guidance to their piece. Arranged roughly in order from pre-intervention, design/initiation, implementation, through the monitoring, evaluation and learning phases, the 10 people-centered rules are: (1) Recognize diversity and interrelations among stakeholders and rightsholders'; (2) Actively engage communities as agents of change; (3) Address socio-historical contexts; (4) Unpack and strengthen resource tenure for marginalized groups; (5) Advance equity across its multiple dimensions and scales; (6) Generate multiple benefits; (7) Promote an equitable distribution of costs, risks, and benefits; (8) Draw on different types of evidence and knowledge; (9) Question dominant discourses; and (10) Practice inclusive and holistic monitoring, evaluation, and learning. We contend that restoration initiatives are only tenable when the issues raised in these rules are respectfully addressed

Top-Down Reorganization of Activity in the Visual Pathway after Learning a Shape Identification Task

Learning in shape identification led to global changes in activation across the entire visual pathway, as revealed with whole-brain fMRI. Following extensive training in a shape identification task, brain activity associated with trained shapes relative to the untrained shapes showed: (1) an increased level of activity in retinotopic cortex (RC), (2) a decrease in activation of the lateral occipital cortex (LO), and (3) a decrease in the dorsal attentional network. In addition, RC activations became more correlated (and LO activation, less correlated) with performance. When comparing target-present and target-absent trials within the trained condition, we observed a similar decrease in the dorsal attentional network but not in the visual cortices. These findings indicate a large-scale reorganization of activity in the visual pathway as a result of learning, with the RC becoming more involved (and the LO, less involved) and that these changes are triggered in a top-down manner depending on the perceptual task performed

2INSERM-CEA Unit 562 Cognitive Neuroimaging

Single-unit studies in behaving monkeys and fMRI i

The Nitrogen Isotopic Composition of Tissue and Shell-Bound Organic Matter of Planktic Foraminifera in Southern Ocean Surface Waters

We present the first nitrogen isotope (δ15N) measurements of planktic foraminifera, paleoceanographically important zooplankton, from the nutrient-rich waters of the modern Southern Ocean. Foraminifera were collected from net tows in the Subantarctic and Polar Frontal Zones (SAZ and PFZ, respectively) south of Africa during winter 2015 and late summer 2016. In late summer, consistent with preferential uptake of 14N-nitrate and the progressive, northward depletion of nitrate by phytoplankton across the Southern Ocean, foraminifer tissue and shell-bound δ15N rise equatorward along with nitrate δ15N. However, foraminifer δ15N is ~3‰ lower than expected for heterotrophs relying on photosynthetic biomass generated directly from nitrate. This discrepancy appears to originate with the particulate organic N (PON) in late-summer surface waters, the δ15N of which is lowered by ammonium recycling. In winter, when overall productivity and foraminifer production are reduced, foraminifer δ15N is higher (by 4.6 ± 0.8‰ for tissue and by 4.0 ± 1.5‰ for shell-bound N compared to late summer) and exhibits no clear north-south trend. These characteristics can also be explained by the feeding-driven connection of foraminifera to PON, which is elevated in δ15N by net degradation in winter. Therefore, foraminifer δ15N is more closely tied to PON δ15N than to nitrate δ15N in the Southern Ocean mixed layer. Combining our isotope data with previously reported sediment trap fluxes from the western Pacific SAZ/PFZ suggests that, under modern conditions, the late-summer ammonium recycling signal outweighs that of wintertime decomposition on the annually integrated δ15N of sinking foraminifera