Why Europe holds unique normative power in the Israeli-Palestine conflict

The Israel-Palestine conflict has persisted despite decades of talks and attempts at mediation from other regional and global powers. But what role can Europe play in the peace process? Drawing on a recent study, Anders Persson highlights that despite reservations from some scholars about Europe's influence, the EU has significant normative power to shape the process, particularly in situations where both sides of the conflict actively seek international political support for their respective strategies

We meteorologists cannot escape probabilities!

The introduction of the ENS in 1992 was seen as a paradigm shift in operational weather forecasting by introducing probability forecasts. But probability forecasting had been around for almost 100 years, so perhaps the real paradigm shift was rather the introduction around 1980 of the ECMWF high-resolution deterministic 10-day forecast system (HRES) which gave the illusion about exact, confident and detailed weather forecasts. The weather forecasting problem remains, however, a probabilistic matter, whether we “like” it or not. The question is to find ways to handle this problem waiting for the realization of “Laplace Demon” in a very distant future. In the meantime we have to acknowledge uncertainty. It is argue in this article that forecast uncertainty information is a win-win product: it increases the value of the forecast and it gives the forecasters opportunities to display their skill, experience and knowledge, which make people trust the forecasts. Because, as Alan Murphy used to emphasize, even if a forecasts is very accurate with no uncertainties, if it is not trusted, it will serve no purpose

Power and resistance, powerlessness and action in school

Action research brings to the fore questions regarding both the power over knowledge building and, consequently, questions on the quality of knowledge. Action research makes visible two dimensions that in this regard are significant. First, the dimension outside-inside where action research more than traditional research voice an inside perspective. This means that those on whom research is conducted receive a greater amount of influence on the problems guiding the research and sometimes become participants in the research process. Secondly, there is the top-bottom dimension, where action research is often associated with a perspective from below. This perspective can, in the hierachies of working life, mean the employees’ perspective, but also the client perspective. In both these dimensions, power and knowledge are intertwined, as it is understood that those people on whom the research is being done get more influence on the research, thereby one must suppose that the quality of knowledge changes. Action research can then not only be close to practice but also to the client. It is also often associated with change, which implies that at times the researcher takes on a more active and intervening role than in traditional research, which at times may mean that established power arrangements are challenged. How then are we to understand action learning, that possibly is something else than action research, within the framework of a power perspective? This is the theme of the ensuing text

To Manage, Resolve or Transform? The Way Forward for the EU in the Middle East Peace Process

This article argues that 40 years of EU peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have produced few significant results with a possible exception to this being the parameters provided by the EU for a just peace in the conflict. In any case, it is difficult to characterise these past four decades of EU involvement as anything other than a failure. Consequently, the main argument of this article is that a new strategy for the EU’s peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is urgently needed. As both the approaches of conflict management and conflict resolution have been tried and have failed, this article argues that the EU has far better potential in transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than in managing or resolving it. An EU strategy more clearly based on the principles of conflict transformation is therefore the best way forward for the EU in the Middle East peace process

Quick response cell system : a complementary physical protection solution

Physical protection is a necessity in all military operations regardless of purpose. It is thereby always a part of the operation and the demand will give an operational effect. The author's personal experience has led to a realization that a solution for temporatry physical protection is missing. Herein presents a solution for filling this gap. The solution is named Quick Response Cell System (QRCS). The main construction idea for the QRCS is easiest described as an accordion-like assembly of sewed together open cells in plastic fibre cloth. Futthennare the QRCS has been validated with full scale live testing of common threats. QRCS - instead of nothing