Black Knights Research Articles

International Competitive Involvement During Democratic Transitions and State Repression

The end of the Cold War brought increasing attention to the role of the international environment in undermining or strengthening authoritarian rule. While high levels of linkages to the West and international pressures facilitated transitions and liberalization in many cases, certain scholars have examined the role of Western powers in "democracy prevention" in various regions. More recently and with the increasing role of Russia, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in propping up dictators and undermining transitions, studies on the international dimension have further shifted from "democracy promotion" to "autocracy promotion" and "authoritarian diffusion." International "Black Knights" have used various forms of economic, military, and political assistance to bolster their authoritarian allies. Such international linkages have been found to significantly enhance autocrats' repressive capacity and undermine political transitions.

Does Russia Have “Black Knights”?

Trade with friendly countries has helped mitigate the effects of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the collective West. However, many problems remain. Replacing Western imports in the consumer sector will be easier than replacing industrial equipment or high-tech goods. Friendly countries are still unlikely to be ready to act as “black knights” in the form which was acceptable in the 20th century. So, Russia must rely on itself and its own resources.

Human rights sanctions and the role of black knights: Evidence from the EU’s post-Soviet neighbours

ABSTRACT Respect for human rights is one of the main conditions for European Union (EU) cooperation with third countries. When human rights are gravely violated, the EU can apply a variety of restrictive measures ranging from issuing sanctions threats to imposing economic sanctions. However, can such measures impact the subsequent human rights situation in the target country, and under what conditions? Using time-series cross-sectional data accounting for eleven post-Soviet states over a period of twenty-six years (1991–2016), this article demonstrates that the impact of sanctions on the target’s human rights situation depends on two factors – the type of sanction applied and the extent of the target’s linkage with alternative regional powers. In the absence of regional alternative support, sanctions in the form of arms embargoes and aid suspension demonstrate a positive effect on the human rights situation.

Optimal solution of the Guarini puzzle extension using tripartite graphs

In this paper there will be presented a software implemented in the C# programming language using. Net Frameworks platform which allows an optimal solution of a puzzle obtained through Guarini puzzle extension. The generalization of Guarini puzzle consists in considering 2·n knights placed on the chessboard of 4·n dimension. Half of these knights are white and are positioned on the first line of the chessboard, and the other half are black and are positioned on the last line of the chessboard. The aim of this puzzle is to move the knights through a minimum number of moves so on the first line we have all the black knights, and on the last line we have all the white knights. This puzzle belongs to a category of problems which can be efficiently resolved by use of tripartite graph. Numbering the chessboard squares these will represent the vertices of the graph, and the possible moves of the knights will represent the edges of the graph. Modelling this problem associated with this puzzle, it can be noticed that the corresponding vertices of the squares from the first and last line form the first vertices subset from the tripartite graph, the ones corresponding to the second line of squares form the second vertices subset from the tripartite graph, and the ones corresponding to the third line of squares form the third vertices subset from the tripartite graph.

Democratic sanctions meet black knight support: revisiting the Belarusian case

ABSTRACTDemocracy promotion through economic sanctions has become commonplace. Previous studies argue that an important challenge to the effectiveness of democratic sanctions is the contravening support of black knights. However, these studies underestimate conflicting interests between the target and its black knight. In this paper, I propose a bargaining model for understanding how targets obtain support from black knights. The target’s main source of bargaining power is its threat to defect from the black knight and obtain support from an international rival. However, the credibility of this threat decreases with democratic sanctions because they hinder cooperation with a likely source of support, namely the sender. Therefore, targets take steps towards democracy to improve their bargaining position relative to the black knight. To probe my argument, I conduct a deep single case study of EU sanctions against Belarus between 2004 and 2016 with Russia as a black knight. Sanctions should have no effect in this paradigmatic case of black knight support. Yet, there is substantial evidence that democratic sanctions have increased the cost of electoral fraud and state repression in Belarus. This indicates that the conflicting interests of targets and their black knights provide windows of opportunity for democracy promotion.

The independent’s edge in an illegal drug distribution setting: Levitt and Venkatesh revisited

Popular imagery and scholarly research have differed significantly in their perceptions and understanding of the structure and scope of organized crime and gang settings. While the common image is that of the corporate-like or formal criminal organization, past research has been more likely to argue and demonstrate in favour of market and network flexibility. In this study, we pursue this latter line of inquiry by demonstrating the market and network features that shape illegal drug distribution settings. In doing so, we rely on the Quebec Hells Angels accounting books for a one-year period, which brings us within the same empirical domain as Levitt and Venkatesh’s (2000) study of the Black Knights in 1990s Chicago. Our study sways from the main premise that oriented the Black Knight’s case study—namely that performance within the illegal drug distribution structure was directly tied to that organization’s rigid hierarchical structure. While the Hells Angels can be analyzed as a corporation, this does not mean that Hells Angels members are, by definition, at an advantage because of their organizational status in the illegal drug distribution setting in which some members are active. What our findings indicate is that a participant’s ability to adapt to market dynamics and take on a core network position within an illegal drug market (cocaine, in this study) matter most. Overall, we demonstrate that: 1) Quebec’s cocaine market was structured primarily around traditional market forces; 2) the transaction network around the Hells Angels was not centralized around a single person or small group of people; 3) Hells Angels members were not the most active participants; and 4) being a Hells Angels member did not increase one’s volume of transactions within the network—quite differently, core network positioning did.

Analysis of a Monte Carlo Tree Search in Knight-Amazons

Abstract We study whether or not a Monte Carlo tree search program can find a winning strategy in a combinatorial game. For this purpose we propose a new combinatorial game Knight-Amazons which is a variant of the game of Amazons. Two players start the game Knight-Amazons by placing several black and white knights on the specified cells on a board. The first player selects and moves one of the white knights, and then, he or she chooses any empty cell in the range of the knight moved and thwarts it. No piece cannot be placed on the thwarted thereafter. Similarly, the second player selects and moves one of the black knights, and chooses any empty cell in the range of the knight moved and thwarts it. Two players play alternately and then the player who can no longer move any knight and thwart a cell becomes a loser of the game. And we prove that the second player at Knight-Amazons of n × n board, where n is even, can always win if he or she follows Tweedledum-Tweedledee strategy. Since there are multiple winning ways for a second player in Knight-Amazons of n × n board, where n is even, Knight-Amazons is a desired platform to study behavior of MCTS. We are interested in whether or not a MCTS program can find any winning way. We analyze the game tree of Knight-Amazons and compute win-loss ratio in several game states in a 4 × 4 board. Comparing the obtained win-loss ratios, we examine behavior of Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) in Knight-Amazons. Then we execute an upper confidence bounds applied to trees (UCT) program as MCTS and find which moves the UCT program chooses most often. The result indicates that the UCT program does not necessarily converge to a Tweedledum-Tweedledee strategy nor moves having high win-loss ratio even when the number of playouts increases. It follows that a basic MCTS program cannot find a winning way such as Tweedledum-Tweedledee strategy.

Black knights and elections in authoritarian regimes: Why and how Russia supports authoritarian incumbents in post‐Soviet states

AbstractIn the last decade, studies have documented how autocrats use elections as a way of legitimising and stabilising their regimes. Simultaneously, a literature on negative external actors (also known as ‘black knights’) has developed, emphasising how various international actors use anti‐democracy promotion strategies to undergird authoritarian regimes. In this article, these two literatures are fused in an attempt to shed light on the external dimension of authoritarian elections and what is termed ‘black knight election bolstering’. First, five mechanisms are elucidated, through which external assistance increases the chances of ‘winning’ elections in authoritarian settings (signaling invincibility, deterring elite defection, undermining opposition activities, dealing with popular protests, and countervailing pressure from foreign democracy promoters). Second, it is argued that external actors are most likely to offer election bolstering when they face a particularly acquiescent partner or when electoral defeat is perceived to lead to radical and undesired regime change. The relevance of both factors is augmented when uncertainty of the electoral outcome is high. Finally, four cases of Russian intervention during elections in three authoritarian neighbour countries (Ukraine in 2004, Belarus in 2006, and Moldova in 2005 and 2009) are analysed. The case studies corroborate the theoretical arguments: not only does Russia engage in all five types of black knight election bolstering, but it does so only when one or more of the three explanatory factors are present.

Democratic states and authoritarian firewalls: America as a black knight in the uprising in Bahrain

Although history is replete with democracies supporting autocracies, democratic black knights have not been approached in a systematic manner. This article examines American rhetoric and policy towards the 2011 uprising and subsequent crackdown in Bahrain in order to further our understanding of how and why democratic states act to reinforce authoritarian firewalls. It finds that the USA was instrumental in providing diplomatic and political cover to the Bahraini government and ensuring that the regime paid no substantive costs for its counter-democracy actions. This case suggests that democratic states may be more effective at providing normative support for non-democratic regimes than their authoritarian counterparts and that democracies may have more in common with autocracies when choosing to act as a black knight than initially thought. Avenues for future research are identified.

Unmasking the Black Knights: Sanctions Busters and Their Effects on the Success of Economic Sanctions1

Despite clear expectations that sanctions busters undermine the effectiveness of economic sanctions, most empirical studies of the phenomenon fail to find that they significantly affect sanctions outcomes. One explanation for these puzzling results is that past studies have almost all relied on Hufbauer, Schott, and Elliott's (1990) dichotomous, time-invariant “black knight” variable to operationalize the occurrence of sanctions-busting. This piece develops a more nuanced account of how the timing, quantity, and nature of sanctions-busting trade affects sanctions' outcomes and codes a new set of sanctions-busting variables that capture these distinctions. Two competing accounts of sanctions-busting are tested in the analysis, one that asserts that only politically motivated sanctions busters (i.e., black knights) negatively affect sanctions' success and one that asserts that commercially and politically motivated sanctions busters jointly undermine their success. These rival accounts are tested using a competing risks analysis of 96 episodes of US-imposed sanctions from 1950 to 2006. The results indicate that while black knights alone do not make sanctions more likely to fail, in conjunction with commercially-motivated sanctions busters they do exercise a potent, negative effect on sanctions' success. These findings have important implications for how third party responses affect sanctions outcomes.

White Knights and Black Knights – Does the Search for Competitive Bids always Benefit the Shareholders of “Target” Companies? –

Abstract According to the EC Directive on Takeover Bids, defensive measures should be authorised by the general meeting of the target company. The incumbent board can, nonetheless, search for a competing bid, a so-called “white knight”. The rationale underpinning this exception is that competing bids always benefit target's shareholders. In this paper I will tackle this rationale, arguing that even competing bids could generate a pressure to tender on target's shareholders and, therefore, in this case should not be considered as a benefit for them.

Saracens and Black Knights

This is an inquiry into the possible cultural constructions of the 'Saracen' and the epistemological and historiographic equation of the Saracen as Moor, African, and even 'black' within the body of Arthuriana.

White Knights and Black Knights: Does the Search for Competitive Bids Always Benefit the Shareholders of 'Target' Companies?

According to the EC Directive on Takeover Bids, defensive measures should be authorised by the general meeting of the target company. The incumbent board can, nonetheless, search for a competing bid, a so-called white knight. The rationale underpinning this exception is that competing bids always benefit target's shareholders. In this paper I will tackle this rationale, arguing that even competing bids could generate a pressure to tender on target's shareholders and, therefore, in this case should not be considered as a benefit for them.

Tu-W21:2 HIV infection and exercise: The black and white knights of high density lipoprotein metabolism

Tu-W21:2 HIV infection and exercise: The black and white knights of high density lipoprotein metabolism

Black knights: the story of the Tuskegee airmen

What became known as the Tuskegee Experience began in 1931 with a letter from the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the War Department asking that blacks be allowed to join the military. The efforts of early African American aviators, the struggle of organizations and individuals against the militarys segregation policies, and the hard work of thousands of young men and women, military and civilian, black and white, all combined to make the Tuskegee Airmen an important but often overlooked part of Americas military history. Through fascinating interviews with veterans and historical photographs, Black Knights is the story of the men and women who served in the training program at Tuskegee Army Air Field from 1941 to 1946. The pilots stories are here, but so are the experiences of the mechanics, band members, armorers, staff officers, nurses, and more that proved that they had courage and perseverance, not only in war, but in peacetime as well.

When the game was Black and White: the illustrated history of the Negro Leagues

Before Jackie Robinson ever hit his first crisp line drive into the closely cropped grass of Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, the game of baseball was black and white. until 1947, major league baseball was as segregated as movie theatres, in the North and bus depots in the South, a national pastime and a national scandal. But the game's segregation did not stop black atheletes from playing baseball - and playing it with as much dazzle and aplomb as the greatest white stars. As this fascinating and richly illustrated book reveals, baseball as played by the giants of the Negro Leagues was a tremendously exciting game. Featuring an extensive collection of rare vintage photos, including pages from Satchel Paigne's personal scrapbook as well as a sampling of even rarer Negro League memorabilia, When the Game Was Black and White seeks to uncover the lost legacy of American sports history and American cultural history. These were the black knights of baseball, talented players and Hall-of-Famers like Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Pop Lloyd, Monte Irvin, and Judy Johnson.

XL. Malory's Beaumains

In his book entitled Malory Professor Vinaver propounds a plausible hypothesis that certain features of the romance of Gareth in the seventh book of the Morte d'Arthur were inventions of the author.The hero—Beaumains—is Malory's own hero, and his name, impossible in any French romance, strangely resembles that of Malory's patron [Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick]. His successive battles with the Black, Green, and Red Knights, and particularly his behaviour at the tournament at the castle of Lady Lioness, at once call to mind the romantic adventure of Richard Beauchamp. At that tournament the King of Ireland wondered who Beaumains might be, “that one tyme semed grene, and another tyme at his ageyne comyng he semed blewe. And thus at every cours that he rode to and fro he chaunged his colour so that ther myght neyther kynge nor knyghte have redy congnyssaunce of hym.” The parallel is so close as to lead me to believe that some parts of the book of Beaumains were written in remembrance of Beauchamp's gallant deeds.