The Future of Women, Peace and Security at NATO

In a ground-breaking move, Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) features prominently in NATO’s Strategic Concept for the first time, a powerful signal that it will form a central part of NATO’s changing priorities going forward. At the same time, there have been significant gendered silences in NATO and its allies’ response to the Russia-Ukraine War, undermining these policy aspirations. This is despite over a decade of significant investment in the WPS architecture across NATO’s political and military structures, including the creation of a high-level Special Representative on Women, Peace, and Security, reporting directly to the Secretary General and supporting a comprehensive WPS policy adopted in conjunction with NATO partners. Focus therefore needs to be given to what NATO can do to operationalize the WPS aspirations of the new Strategic Concept in practice

The Impact of Brexit on Women, Peace and Security in Northern Ireland: Spotlight on Violence Against Women

The impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland (NI) is now well established; however, less attention has been given to the impact on women, despite the applicability of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In this policy commentary, we detail the impact Brexit has had on the issue of violence against women in NI. This is timely, given that the NI Executive Office has developed an Ending Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategic Framework, of which the adoption was identified as a priority on the resumption of the NI Assembly in February 2024. In addition to the repercussions of ‘Brexit politics’ resulting in the suspension of Stormont, which stymied the adoption of the strategy, we examine what has been lost in terms of funding, data collection, benchmarking and legal protections, all of which contribute to addressing VAWG in NI. We conclude with policy points to address the issues arising

Feminist Experiences of ‘Studying up’: Encounters with International Institutions

Feminist Experiences of \u27Studying up\u27: Encounters with International Institutions This article makes the case for feminist IR to build knowledge of international institutions. It emerges from a roundtable titled ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist IR: Researching Gendered Institutions’ which took place at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Baltimore in 2017. Here, we engage in self-reflexivity, drawing upon our conversation to consider what it means for feminist scholars to ‘study up’. We argue that feminist IR conceptions of narratives and the everyday make a valuable contribution to feminist institutionalist understandings of the formal and informal. We also draw attention to the value of postcolonial approaches, and multi-site analysis of international institutions for creating a counter-narrative to hegemonic accounts emerging from both the institutions themselves, and scholars studying them without a critical feminist perspective. In so doing, we draw attention to the salience of considering not just what we study as feminist International Relations scholars but how we study it. Spanish Experiencias feministas de \uabEstudiar a los de arriba\ubb: encuentros con instituciones internacionales Este art\uedculo plantea el argumento de que las relaciones internacionales (RR. II.) feministas pueden fomentar el conocimiento de las instituciones internacionales. Se destila de una mesa redonda denominada Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist IR: Researching Gendered Institutions(Retos y oportunidades para las RR. II. feministas: el estudio de las instituciones marcadas por el g\ue9nero) que tuvo lugar en la convenci\uf3n anual de la Asociaci\uf3n de Estudios Internacionales celebrada en Baltimore en 2017. Aqu\ued, nos sumergimos en la autorreflexi\uf3n, recurriendo a nuestra conversaci\uf3n para dilucidar qu\ue9 significa para los acad\ue9micos feministas \uabestudiar a los de arriba\ubb. Argumentamos que las concepciones feministas de las RR. II. sobre los relatos y lo cotidiano realizan una valiosa contribuci\uf3n a las interpretaciones institucionalistas feministas de lo formal y lo informal. Tambi\ue9n queremos destacar el valor de los enfoques poscoloniales y el an\ue1lisis de m\ufaltiples ubicaciones de las instituciones internacionales para crear un contrarrelato frente a los discursos hegem\uf3nicos que se derivan tanto de las propias instituciones como de los acad\ue9micos que las estudian sin una perspectiva feminista cr\uedtica. Al hacerlo, pretendemos destacar la trascendencia de tener en cuenta no solo lo que estudiamos como acad\ue9micos feministas de Relaciones Internacionales, sino tambi\ue9n c\uf3mo lo estudiamos.Palabras clave: g\ue9nero, instituciones internacionales, relaciones internacionales feministas French Exp\ue9riences f\ue9ministes de \uab studying up \ubb : \uc0 la rencontre des institutions internationalesCet article affirme la n\ue9cessit\ue9 pour l’approche f\ue9ministe des RI de renforcer le savoir en mati\ue8re d’institutions internationales. Il est issu d’une table ronde intitul\ue9e \uab D\ue9fis et opportunit\ue9s pour l’approche f\ue9ministes des RI : Recherche sur les institutions genr\ue9es \ubb ayant eu lieu \ue0 Baltimore en 2017 lors de la convention annuelle de l’International Studies Association. Nous entreprenons ici un travail de r\ue9flexion sur nous-m\ueames \ue0 partir de notre discussion sur la question de savoir ce que \uab study up \ubb signifie pour les chercheurs f\ue9ministes. Nous soutenons que les conceptions f\ue9ministes des r\ue9cits et du quotidien dans les RI contribuent positivement \ue0 une compr\ue9hension f\ue9ministe institutionnaliste du formel et de l’informel. Nous mettons \ue9galement en exergue la valeur des approches postcoloniales et de l’analyse sur plusieurs sites des institutions internationales dans la cr\ue9ation d’un r\ue9cit alternatif aux r\ue9cits h\ue9g\ue9moniques provenant \ue0 la fois des institutions elles-m\ueames et des chercheurs qui les \ue9tudient sans cadre d’analyse critique f\ue9ministe. Nous attirons ainsi l’attention sur l’importance pour nous, en tant que sp\ue9cialistes des relations internationales sous un angle f\ue9ministe, de bien r\ue9fl\ue9chir non seulement \ue0 l’objet de nos recherches, mais \ue9galement \ue0 la mani\ue8re dont nous effectuons ces recherches.Mots-cl\ue9s : genre, institutions internationales, relations internationales f\ue9ministes

Measurement and correction of in vivo sample aberrations employing a nonlinear guide-star in two-photon excited fluorescence microscopy

We demonstrate that sample induced aberrations can be measured in a nonlinear microscope. This uses the fact that two-photon excited fluorescence naturally produces a localized point source inside the sample: the nonlinear guide-star (NL-GS). The wavefront emitted from the NL-GS can then be recorded using a Shack-Hartmann sensor. Compensation of the recorded sample aberrations is performed by the deformable mirror in a single-step. This technique is applied to fixed and in vivo biological samples, showing, in some cases, more than one order of magnitude improvement in the total collected signal intensity

The difference that tenure makes

This paper argues that housing tenures cannot be reduced to either production relations or consumption relations. Instead, they need to be understood as modes of housing distribution, and as having complex and dynamic relations with social classes. Building on a critique of both the productionist and the consumptionist literature, as well as of formalist accounts of the relations between tenure and class, the paper attempts to lay the foundations for a new theory of housing tenure. In order to do this, a new theory of class is articulated, which is then used to throw new light on the nature of class-tenure relations

House or Home? Constituent preferences over legislator effort allocation

In many political systems legislators face a fundamental trade-off between allocating effort to constituency service and to national policy-making activities, respectively. How do voters want their elected representatives to solve this trade-off? This article provides new insights into this question by developing a conjoint analysis approach to estimating voters’ preferences over their legislator's effort allocation. This approach is applied in Britain, where it is found that effort allocation has a significant effect on voter evaluations of legislators, even in a political system where other legislator attributes – in particular, party affiliation – might be expected to predominate. This effect is nonlinear, with voters generally preferring a moderate balance of constituency and national policy work. Preferences over legislator effort allocation are not well-explained by self-interest or more broadly by instrumental considerations. They are, however, associated with voters’ local-cosmopolitan orientation, suggesting that heuristic reasoning based on underlying social dispositions may be more important in determining preferences over representative activities

Worldwide Emergence of Extensively Drug-resistant Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains are becoming resistant to not only the most powerful first-line drugs but also many second-line drugs

Rough and smooth variants of Mycobacterium abscessus are differentially controlled by host immunity during chronic infection of adult zebrafish.

Prevalence of Mycobacterium abscessus infections is increasing in patients with respiratory comorbidities. After initial colonisation, M. abscessus smooth colony (S) variants can undergo an irreversible genetic switch into highly inflammatory, rough colony (R) variants, often associated with a decline in pulmonary function. Here, we use an adult zebrafish model of chronic infection with R and S variants to study M. abscessus pathogenesis in the context of fully functioning host immunity. We show that infection with an R variant causes an inflammatory immune response that drives necrotic granuloma formation through host TNF signalling, mediated by the tnfa, tnfr1 and tnfr2 gene products. T cell-dependent immunity is stronger against the R variant early in infection, and regulatory T cells associate with R variant granulomas and limit bacterial growth. In comparison, an S variant proliferates to high burdens but appears to be controlled by TNF-dependent innate immunity early during infection, resulting in delayed granuloma formation. Thus, our work demonstrates the applicability of adult zebrafish to model persistent M. abscessus infection, and illustrates differences in the immunopathogenesis induced by R and S variants during granulomatous infection

Preventing internalizing problems in 6-8 year old children: A universal school-based program

The Aussie Optimism Program: Feelings and Friends (AOP-FF) is a 10 week, universal mental health promotion program based on social/emotional and cognitive and behavioral strategies. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of a universal Cognitive Behavioral Therapy based program in preventing and reducing internalizing problems in 6-8 year olds (Years 1-3 in Australia). Year 1-3 students from a low SES primary school (N = 206) were randomly assigned in classes to either an intervention or a control group and assessed at baseline and post-test. Results showed a significant (p = 0.009) and small to moderate (partial eta-squared = 0.034) pre-post decrease in parent-reported anxiety symptoms for the intervention group, in conjunction with a non-significant (p = 0.708) and negligible (partial eta-squared = 0.001) pre-post increase for the control group. A larger randomized controlled trial assessing longer term effects is needed. In addition the program needs to be simplified for year 1-2 students with a separate more developmentally appropriate program for year 3 students

The adoption of linguistic rules in native and non-native speakers:Evidence from a Wug task

Several recent theories have suggested that an increase in the number of non-native speakers in a language can lead to changes in morphological rules. We examine this experimentally by contrasting the performance of native and non-native English speakers in a simple Wug-task, showing that non-native speakers are significantly more likely to provide non-ed (i.e., irregular) past-tense forms for novel verbs than native speakers. Both groups are sensitive to sound similarities between new words and existing words (i.e., are more likely to provide irregular forms for novel words which sound similar to existing irregulars). Among both natives and non-natives, irregularizations are non-random; that is, rather than presenting as truly irregular inflectional strategies, they follow identifiable sub-rules present in the highly frequent set of irregular English verbs. Our results shed new light on how native and non-native learners can affect language structure