The Iraq Crisis and the Future of the Western Alliance: An American view

In the wake of the Iraq war, there has been a tendency by both the Americans and the Europeans to overlook the difficulties facing the transatlantic relationship that resulted from the Iraq crisis. This approach to dealing with some of the basic issues that emerged during this time is not a healthy one, and these issues must be discussed openly and seriously. This chapter addresses four important matters related to the Iraq crisis: the question of deterrence, whether or not weapons inspections should have been further pursued, pre-emption and its relation to international law, and the crisis that existed within the transatlantic alliance. While both sides have attempted to address these issues, they are in reality much more complex than initial assessments have indicated. The predicaments posed by the Iraq war for the transatlantic alliance are unlike those that the alliance faced during the Cold War, and Europeans must think carefully about what kind of alliance they foresee with the United States in the future.NATO; international relations

A Genome Sequence of Oceanimonas doudoroffii ATCC 27123T

Oceanimonas doudoroffii ATCC 27123T is an obligately aerobic Gram-negative rod of the class Gammaproteobacteria. It was first isolated from surface seawater off the coast of Oahu, HI, USA, in 1972. The predicted genome size is 3,832,938 bp (G+C content, 60.03%), which contains 3,524 predicted coding sequences

Draft Genome Sequence of the Marine Bacterium Oceanimonas baumannii ATCC 700832T

The aerobic phenol-degrading Gram-negative rod Oceanimonas baumannii ATCC 700832T was first isolated from estuary mud from the River Wear, United Kingdom, in 1983. Information on the draft genome sequence for O. baumannii ATCC 700832T is included in this announcement. The predicted genome size is 3,809,332 bp, with 55.88% G+C content

H-Diplo/ISSF Forum 25 on the Importance of White HousePresidential Tapes in Scholarship

A forum discussion on the importance of White House presidential tapes in scholarship

Introduction: approaching space in intellectual history

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on Conceptions of Space in Intellectual History. It opens with a brief inquiry into the place of ‘space’, both as a topic and as an analytical lens, in the field of intellectual history. The remainder of the introduction suggests a pathway through the special issue. Under three broad headings – ‘territory,’ ‘oceans and empire’, and ‘geopolitics’ – the volume’s articles are presented, brought into dialogue, and situated within a wider trajectory of recent research on conceptions of ‘space’ in intellectual history.Arts and Humanities Research Council; Cambridge Commonwealth, European & International Trust; Levy-Plumb Fund for the Humanities at Christ's College, Cambridge

Design and Rationale of the Fontan Udenafil Exercise Longitudinal (FUEL) Trial

The Fontan operation creates a circulation characterized by elevated central venous pressure and low cardiac output. Over time, these characteristics result in a predictable and persistent decline in exercise performance that is associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality. A medical therapy that targets the abnormalities of the Fontan circulation might, therefore, be associated with improved outcomes. Udenafil, a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor, has undergone phase I/II testing in adolescents who have had the Fontan operation and has been shown to be safe and well tolerated in the short-term. However, there are no data regarding the long-term efficacy of udenafil in this population. The Fontan Udenafil Exercise Longitudinal (FUEL) Trial is a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled phase III clinical trial being conducted by the Pediatric Heart Network in collaboration with Mezzion Pharma Co., Ltd. This trial is designed to test the hypothesis that treatment with udenafil will lead to an improvement in exercise capacity in adolescents who have undergone the Fontan operation. A safety extension trial, the FUEL Open-Label Extension Trial (FUEL OLE), offers the opportunity for all FUEL subjects to obtain open-label udenafil for an additional 12 months following completion of FUEL, and evaluates the long-term safety and tolerability of this medication. This manuscript describes the rationale and study design for FUEL and FUEL OLE. Together, these trials provide an opportunity to better understand the role of medical management in the care of those who have undergone the Fontan operation

The Iraq Crisis and the Future of the Western Alliance: An American View

http://www.iue.it/RSCAS/WP-Texts/04_27.pd

Assessing Soviet Economic Performance During the Cold War: A Failure of Intelligence? (February 2018)

Many observers felt that social scientists in general, and economists in particular, had failed, as Martin Malia put it, to understand “the deeper dynamics driving Soviet reality.” Their writings, in Malia’s view, had suggested that the Soviet system was perfectly viable. They had assumed that the Soviet Union was “just another” modern society — that it was “as much a going concern as its ‘capitalist’ adversary.” Viewing things through that social scientific lens, he thought, had prevented Western scholars from seeing how serious the USSR’s problems were; this was the main reason so many of them had “been so wrong about so much for so long.”1 Western economists in particular, he said, had been unable to see that the USSR had to deal with some very grave and perhaps even fatal problems; the more pessimistic line taken by some émigré Russian economists had mistakenly been dismissed out of hand. Mainstream economists in the West, he believed, had greatly overestimated Soviet economic performance; and had it not been for that, political scientists, sociologists, and historians would scarcely have painted such a rosy picture of Soviet performance in the areas they studiedLBJ School of Public Affair