ISAF, NATO and the Quest for Stability in Afghanistan

政治学 / Political Science and International RelationsNATO’s ISAF is entering a critical phase. The arrival of the Obama Administration and the crafting of the AFPAK strategy affords the NATO mission in Afghanistan four vital new departures: a balanced regional strategy that considers Afghanistan and Pakistan; a more coherent overall strategy, an audit of effect in Afghanistan; and an all-important new approach to political reconciliation. Hitherto ISAF has been Afghanistan-lite. The new effort will help to ease that in the short-term but will only bear fruit if the three strategic phases envisaged in planning (security by end 2011, Afghan capacity building by end 2014 and Afghan civil primacy by end 2017) are bound together by a strategic campaign plan worthy of the name, that includes Asian partners first and foremost and an enhanced role for the UN.GRIPS-GCOE State-Building Workshop: Afghanistan (March 4, 2009

Defensa europea “light”: Por qué la defensa europea tiene más de política que de defensa

La defensa europea debe entenderse también como una pieza más en la lucha de los principales socios de la UE por lograr una posición de liderazgo en la jerarquía de poder de la Unión. Uno de los principales motivos de la división que se ha producido en Europa en torno a la guerra de Iraq ha sido la necesidad de los principales países europeos de maximizar su influencia dentro de la nueva Europa. El debate ha puesto de manifiesto el surgimiento de España como una fuerza coherente con capacidad para impedir que un tri-rectorio de los tres “grandes” fije la dirección estratégica de la UE. Además, la ampliación de la UE debería asegurar que el acercamiento a EEUU siga siendo un requisito para una seguridad y defensa eficaz

European Defence-Lite: Why European Defence is Less about Defence and More About Politics

European defence should be understood, also, as a pawn in the game between the major EU partners to secure a leading place in the Union’s power hierarchy. One of the primary reasons for the split between Europeans over the war in Iraq was the major European players’ need to maximise their influence in the new Europe. The debate brought to the fore the fact that Spain has emerged as a coherent force that could prevent a tri-rectoire of the big three from determining the EU’s strategic direction. Furthermore, EU enlargement should ensure that closeness to the US remains a pre-requisite of effective security and defence

The decisionalization of individualization

Throughout forensic science and adjacent branches, academic researchers and practitioners continue to diverge in their perception and understanding of the notion of 'individualization', that is the claim to reduce a pool of potential donors of a forensic trace to a single source. In particular, recent shifts to refer to the practice of individualization as a decision have been revealed as being a mere change of label [1], leaving fundamental changes in thought and understanding still pending. What is more, professional associations and practitioners shy away from embracing the notion of decision in terms of the formal theory of decision in which individualization may be framed, mainly because of difficulties to deal with the measurement of desirability or undesirability of the consequences of decisions (e.g., using utility functions). Building on existing research in the area, this paper presents and discusses fundamental concepts of utilities and losses with particular reference to their application to forensic individualization. The paper emphasizes that a proper appreciation of decision tools not only reduces the number of individual assignments that the application of decision theory requires, but also shows how such assignments can be meaningfully related to constituting features of the real-world decision problem to which the theory is applied. It is argued that the decisonalization of individualization requires such fundamental insight to initiate changes in the fields' underlying understandings, not merely in their label. (C) 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd

Integrating knowledge on green infrastructure, health and well-being in ageing populations: principles for research and practice

Ageing and urbanisation pose significant challenges for public health and urban planning. Ageing populations are at particular risk from hazards arising from urbanisation processes, some of which are in turn exacerbated by climate change. One approach for mitigating the negative effects of urbanisation on ageing populations is the leveraging of the beneficial effects of urban green infrastructure as a public health intervention in the planning process. We assessed the potential of available theoretical frameworks to provide the context for such leverage. This involved active engagement with academics and practitioners specialising in ageing, green infrastructure and health and well-being through a knowledge-brokering approach. We concluded that an integrated and comprehensive framework on the socio-cultural-ecological determinants of health is lacking. To address this, we present a set of principles for overcoming challenges to knowledge integration when working at the intersection of green infrastructure, ageing, health and well-being. Our findings—and the co-production process used to generate them—have wider significance for trans-disciplinary research into the benefits of the natural environment to human health and well-being as well as other complex and interconnected topics associated with global grand challenges