Major Reference Point Research Articles

Canada and the Human Security Network (1998–2010): RIP?

This article examines the role of the Human Security Network (HSN) within the context of Canadian foreign policy. Launched as a bilateral Canadian–Norwegian initiative in 1998, the HSN now encompasses twelve like-minded middle and smaller powers from across the globe. While Canada's human security agenda and Ottawa's activism in other multilateral forums have been extensively treated in the Canadian foreign affairs literature, scant scholarly attention has been dedicated to the HSN generally or as an instrument of Canadian foreign policy specifically. The authors assert, based on interviews with Canadian and other HSN diplomats, that although human security remains an important policy concern for Ottawa, the HSN itself no longer serves as a major diplomatic reference point and that Canada may even withdraw from the very forum that it co-founded. This dramatic development has less to do with the 2006 government changeover and more with macro trends within the HSN itself.

Re-Thinking the Anthropological and Ethical Foundation of Economics and Business: Human Richness and Capabilities Enhancement

This article aims at showing the need for a sound ethical and anthropological foundation of economics and business, and argues the importance of a correct understanding of human values and human nature for the sake of economics and of businesses themselves. It is suggested that the ethical-anthropological side of economics and business can be grasped by taking Aristotle’s virtue ethics and Amartya Sen’s capability approach (CA) as major reference points. We hold that an “Aristotelian economics of virtues”, connected with the CA’s notion of human richness, can promote the shift to the concept of personhood, and can lead to a more “humanized” business, by fostering human flourishing, the enhancement of human capabilities, and the pursuit of a more humane development for each and every person.

The Internet and Mobile Technologies in Election Campaigns: The GABRIELA Women's Party During the 2007 Philippine Elections

ABSTRACT New mobile communication technologies are gaining popularity in the study of political communication, as political actors across the world exploit their applications in the hope of affecting voting behavior. Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Friendster have provided interesting and effective uses for political communication, and these trends are now migrating from the West to Asia. The 2007 midterm elections in the Philippines, conducted against a backdrop of violence and extrajudicial killings, generated intense international interest. In a historic development, the General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action (GABRIELA), the largest women's organization in the Philippines, won two legislative seats through its GABRIELA Women's Party (GWP). GABRIELA also secured the most votes in the overseas absentee voting system. The party's win marks a major reference point for women in politics. It symbolizes the growing power of Asian women and provides an illustration of the use of new media technologies for electoral campaigning. This study explores the GWP through a case study method and in-depth interviews (see the Appendix). As the party's limited funds restricted its use of mainstream media advertising during the elections, the GWP turned to Internet and mobile technologies. As a new entrant to the use of these technologies, the GWP was not able to maximize the potential of the Internet in its campaign, yet the party was able to make effective use of mobile phones to reach voters. The Internet and mobile media should not be seen as a replacement for traditional campaign strategies, but rather as integral parts of a holistic political communication network. While the Internet may complement the use of traditional media and grassroots campaigning, as it enables campaigns to reach a growing segment of the online population, the mobile phone deserves greater attention as a tool of personal communication with the electorate.

DEFINITIONS "INNOVATION" AND "INNOVATIVE ACTIVITY" IN SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

In the field of education innovative activity is investigated by pedagogical innovatiks. A concept "innovation" in it is the major gnosiological reference point. The article is devoted to the problem of existence of different opinions as for the determination of the essence of such concepts as « innovations, enovations, «innovative activity»

XIX meeting of the Italian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics

This special issue of the European Biophysics Journal contains papers presented as invited lectures or oral contributions at the XIX meeting of the Italian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics, also known as SIBPA. The conference was held in Rome, 17–20 September 2008 at the “Sacro Cuore” Catholic University. For the second time, the Wrst was in 2006, the articles presented at the conference appear in this journal that is the major point of reference for the European Biophysical Societies’ Association (EBSA) and once again witness of the interesting development of the Italian Biophysics. The main topics of the meeting were organized in seven sessions, with two invited lectures per session, and a special lecture concerning the renewable energies obtained from biological sources performed by J. Barber of the Wolfson Labs (Imperial College, London). During the Biomolecular aggregate session M. Di Carlo (CNR-Palermo) and M. Digman (CA Univ. at Irvine) have interested the participants in the eVect on live cells of aggregation of beta-amyloid peptide and huntingtin, respectively. The session of Processes and mechanisms of the biological membranes has had its main points in the lectures concerning the studies of membrane permeability of ion channels (A. Moroni, Milano Univ.) or to antimicrobial peptides (G. Rispoli, Ferrara Univ.). For the session of Biomaterials and nano-biophysics O. Cavalleri (Genoa Univ.) and L. Cordone (Palermo Univ.) have discussed the possibility of a Wne control of protein folding/unfolding to build molecular nanostructures or the preservation properties of trehalose–water matrixes, respectively. The development of a framework for the registration of 3D imaging data for clinical heart investigations (R. Antolini, Trento Univ.) and the attempt to extend the results obtained on a charged, functionalized and patchy colloidal particles to globular protein solutions (F. Sciortino, Roma La Sapienza Univ.) have been discussed during the Theoretical and computational biophysics topic. In the session Photobiophysics and photoprocesses, T. Kottke (Bielefeld Univ.) has discussed the mechanism of blue light reception in plant and animal cryptochromes and D. Dell’Orco (Modena and Reggio Emilia Univ.) the molecular systems biology approaches to phototransduction in vertebrate rods. The investigation of a new biological scenario in which gene expression and regulation largely depend on a complex posttranscriptional network signals acting on mRNAs (A. Quattrone, Trento Univ.) and the relationship between structure and function in the P450 cytochrome involved in the erythromycin biosynthesis (B. Vallone, Roma La Sapienza Univ.) have been debated during the session regarding the Structure and function of proteins and nucleic acids. The biophysical mechanisms of regulation of CLC chloride channels and transporters (M. Pusch, Genoa CNR) and the application of optical and Xuorescence microscopies for dynamical tracking from cellular to molecular resolution (M. Faretta, Milan Eur. Inst. Oncol.) have been discussed during the Molecular and cellular biophysics session. The last day of the meeting, four young scientists have received the prize for their research: D. Giacomazza (&) Institute of Biophysics, National Research Council, Via U. La Malfa 153, Palermo, Italy e-mail: daniela.giacomazza@pa.ibf.cnr.it

Commentary on the AHRQ Report on Research on Meditation Practices in Health

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) report is a major reference point for establishing where the research on meditation stands and where it should go from here. This commentary argues that double blinding, a major component of the report's evaluation criteria, is not an appropriate control for placebo in meditation research. A viable alternative is to make the treatment and control groups equivalent on nonspecific therapeutic attention factors and expectation. High quality meditation research must also use qualified instructors, have high compliance levels, insure proficient practice, use state-of-the-art measurement methodology, and make sure control subjects are not inadvertently practicing the same or another form of meditation. None of these determinants of research quality was assessed by the AHRQ report. It is noteworthy that whereas randomized controlled trials have their place in demonstrating clinical efficacy, few if any of the major ideas in the basic or behavioral sciences have come from randomized trails. A wide range of study designs have demonstrated that the traditional goal of meditation, a state of inner silence called "transcendental consciousness," has unique physiological characteristics with far ranging implications for health, cognition, and behavior. Such studies need to be included in future reviews of meditation techniques.

Consilience and the Naturalistic Foundations of Evolutionary Economics

Edward O. Wilson has defined consilience as a strong reductionist program in science. This paper proposes an ontological approach to consilience, which allows for an emergentist interpretation. The methodological basis is naturalism, which is defined through some fundamental notions such as the unity of the world and the impossibility of the detached observer. Naturalism includes, for example, evolutionary epistemology. It does not imply a reductionist approach to human mind and society, but to the contrary the convergence of Naturwissenschaften und Geisteswissenschaften. A major reference point is the naturalization of the Godel theorem, presaged by Hayek in his Sensory Order. Its implications match recent insights of the brain sciences, such as modularization and complex interaction between reason and intuition, which are being received by neuroeconomics research. The Godel theorem is also related to fundamental theorems about randomness, such as Chaitin’s theorems. The world is random in the sense of being singular, which, however, we cannot perceive adequately because our knowledge is propositional, hence relies on provability in a general sense. This diagnosis matches with certain economic approaches to entrepreneurship and uncertainty, such as Shackle’s. The relation between regularity and singularity evolves during the expansion of the universe, according to the theories of Chaisson and Brooks/Wiley, and can be measured as increasing information content that emerges from the growing differential between possible entropy and realized entropy. The difference reflects the growing number of constraints on possible states of the world. These processes are triggered by a continuous flow of energy, in particular through dissipative systems, which minimize entropy internally and maximize externally. From this, the ontological principle of bimodality is deduced, i.e. every state of the world is matterenergy and knowledge. Knowledge is interpreted as non-referential, i.e. as the outcome of a universal process of variation, selection and retention, which also applies for the human mind, including referential (propositional) knowledge only as a special case. This allows to interpret technology and institutions as carriers of knowledge.

Johann Gottfried Herder: Kulturtheorie und Humanitätsidee der Ideen, Humanitätsbriefe und Adrasta (review)

Reviewed by: Johann Gottfried Herder: Kulturtheorie und Humanitätsidee der Ideen, Humanitätsbriefe und Adrasta Katherine Arens Anne Löchte. Johann Gottfried Herder: Kulturtheorie und Humanitätsidee der Ideen, Humanitätsbriefeund Adrasta. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2005. 236 pp. € 34.80 (Paperback). ISBN 3-8260-3105-9. Löchte’s book originates in a 2004 dissertation written at the Technische Universität in Berlin under the supervision of Conrad Wiedemann. As the title indicates, it addresses Herder’s theory of culture and his theory of humanity, with the goal of recapturing from behind the many myths the thinker associated with the rise of historicism, a historical anthropology of culture, and nationalism. Although nominally framed as a historical investigation in Herder’s thought, this discussion actually offers a close reading of the three major texts of the title, tracing how Herder approached the particularlism, universalism, or pluralism of cultures. Part one outlines Löchte’s point of departure, the tension in Herder’s work between universalism and particularism in his conceptions of nations, peoples, cultures, and history. As she sets this thesis into a solid account of the secondary literature, she notes that Herder’s early work is often treated by secondary literature (particularly 1774’s Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit) and the Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784–91), yet not the later work. Thus the author seeks to extend the standard approach to Herder by juxtaposing the more famous texts to the Briefe zur Beförderung der Menschheit (1793–97) and Adrasta (1801–1804), which allows her to trace the evolution of his ideas about humanity in an age of colonialism. Löchte emphasizes that she does not intend to take on other scholars polemically (“Diese Arbeit ist bewusst sachlich gehalten”; 11), but rather to question assertions made about Herder’s purported universalism of cultural values, since he clearly describes history as a specificity of many factors. Part two, “Grundlagen von Herders Kulturtheorie und Humanitätsidee” (27), offers in its two chapters outlines of Herder’s definitions of culture, anthropology, and the human and humanity. Each of these is defined with careful attention to the texts (and appropriate references to specific passages). Part three of the book (two-thirds of its length, five chapters) traces Herder’s definitions of cultures and nations, including chapters on his understanding of peoples and nature, cultural contact, religious pluralism, and “Relativismus, Pluralismus, Universalismus?” (203). A brief part four, Ergebnisse, ties the accounts together. In all there is much to appreciate in Löchte’s expositions. She takes on a careful thematic/topical analysis of a relatively understudied body of texts, as she shows quite precisely how Herder evolved his notions of nature and culture, the state and the nation. Her text is clearly written and thoroughly documented with reference to the primary texts. It should become a standard account in the Herder literature, as a careful conceptual analysis of these important texts. This Johann Gottfried Herder does not so much revise as amplify and nuance standard accounts in ways that should not be overlooked. At the same time, however, there is much to be wished for here. Löchte bases her exposition on the major reference points in the Herder literature, but her selections underrepresent the contributions by English-language writers. This is a significant lacuna, given that the International Herder Society was founded in California in 1985 [End Page 291] and that its Yearbook – the publication of record in this area – has most often been edited in the US, with both entities being truly bilingual and international in their scholarly reach. Some of this may be accounted for by Löchte’s clear preference for H. B. Nisbet’s Herder – a Herder set next to philosophy’s concept of Kant and German idealism – rather than for the broader cosmopolitan intellectual who might warrant a profitable approach. Such a choice automatically leads to a modernization of argument and perhaps even to unconscious skews in interpretation, such as discussing religious pluralism without taking on the question of religious hermeneutics and the place of salvation history next to secular concepts, a convention of Herder’s eighteenth century...

Making Federalism More Efficient: A Comparative Assessment

It is assumed in this article that the recent reform wave in federal countries has been influenced and facilitated by efficiency considerations. Reform processes in five federal countries — Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland — belonging to two distinct types of federalism (power separation and power sharing) are analysed. It is asked whether efficiency considerations have led to a convergence process in the federal organization and intergovernmental relations of such distinct types. It turns out, first, that efficiency has indeed been a major point of reference for the design of reforms in all five federal countries and, second, that though one finds similarities in reforming the federal organization and intergovernmental relations, the differences between power separation and power-sharing federal countries continue to play a role.

Stephanie Newell. Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures. West African Literatures: Ways of Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. ix + 259 pp. Maps. Charts. Time Line. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $22.95. Paper.

Stephanie Newell. Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures. West African Literatures: Ways of Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. ix + 259 pp. Maps. Charts. Time Line. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $22.95. Paper. - Volume 50 Issue 3

The Dutch ‘Miracle’ Revisited: The Impact of Employment Growth on Poverty

The past decade has been marked by the coming to prominence of social policy doctrines at the centre of which sits the idea that poverty reduction is best achieved through increased levels of labour market participation. A major reference point in the debate is the Netherlands, where a radical policy shift from passive benefit adequacy towards boosting labour market participation was initiated around the late 1980s and where it has been vigorously pursued since. The Netherlands is routinely praised for achieving a meteoric rise in employment, while maintaining extensive social protection and low levels of poverty and inequality. This article shows that unprecedented employment growth during the 1980s and 1990s went accompanied with comparatively small reductions in absolute poverty and a rise in relative poverty among the working-age population. These developments are linked to the main features of Dutch economic and social policy. The article also draws out some general lessons.

Protocolo anatômico-cirúrgico das relações entre os nervos laríngeos recorrentes e as artérias tireóideas inferiores: estudo em 79 tireoidectomias

INTRODUÇÃO: Os cuidados com as preservações dos nervos laríngeos recorrentes e das glândulas paratireóides, nas tireoidectomias, continuam desafiando os cirurgiões em razão das graves complicações que podem ocorrer quando são manipulados inadequadamente. O trabalho teve como objetivo, no curso das tireoidectomias totais e parciais, estabelecer protocolo anatômico-cirúrgico das relações anatômicas entre os nervos laríngeos recorrentes com as artérias tireóideas inferiores, identificar-preservar esses nervos e as glândulas partireóides. MÉTODO: Os registros fotográficos durante os trans-operatórios foram obtidos de 79 pacientes submetidos às tireoidectomias totais e parciais (lobectomia total direita ou esquerda e istmectomia), respectivamente, com as identificações dos nervos e artérias bi ou unilateralmente, propondo expor as relações anatômicas entre essas estruturas, operados entre janeiro de 2005 e julho de 2006. RESULTADOS: Os registros fotográficos foram adaptados aos desenhos esquemáticos para estabelecer os principais pontos de referências anatômicas dos nervos laríngeos recorrentes em relação às artérias tireóideas inferiores, totalizando 116 nervos laríngeos recorrentes. CONCLUSÃO: A íntima relação dos nervos laríngeos recorrentes e as artérias tireóideas inferiores podem se apresentar de diversas formas, incluindo as anomalias congênitas, como a do laríngeo não recorrente, as duplicações e triplicações pré-laríngeas do nervo, sem dúvida, algumas vezes, dificultando a identificação dessas estruturas. São imperativas as claras identificações dessas estruturas e das glândulas paratireóides para preservá-las, no curso das tireoidectomias totais e parciais, a fim de evitar as complicações pós-operatórias.

3 - The Role of African Universities in the Intellectualisation of African Languages

Neo-colonial language policies deriving from decolonisation have entrenched not merely the dominance but, fatefully, the hegemony of the languages of the Euro- pean colonial powers, especially that of English, which is also driven by contempo- rary globalisation processes. The intellectual and political leadership of the conti- nent has succumbed, with very few exceptions, to the forces that prevail in the linguistic markets and is reaping what Bourdieu (1984) refers to as ‘the profits of distinction’. African poverty and economic inequality are to be eradicated, or even reduced, during the twenty-first century. One of the central but least discussed is- sues that have to be addressed is the language question which is linked to the im- peratives of the democratisation of modern African states, of increasing effi- ciency and labour productivity for economic development, and of promoting individual and social equilibrium, including the enhancement of self-confidence and creativity. A general policy of promoting language equity in multilingual Afri- can societies and of developing (‘modernising’ or elaborating) African languages in the context of overall national development policies will have to be followed sys- tematically over a period of at least two generations. In this paper, the author con- siders the historical and social dynamics of African languages in high status func- tions and proposes a series of steps that will facilitate the realisation for the updated and revised Language Plan of Action for Africa, formulated and adopted by the OAU almost twenty years ago. The essay gives pride of place in this process to the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), which is fast becoming the major point of reference in the domain of language policies for the continent.

Naturalism: Audacious Thoughts on the Consilience of Physics, Biology and Economics

Edward O. Wilson has defined consilience as a strong reductionist program in science. This paper proposes an ontological approach to consilience, which allows for an emergentist interpretation. The methodological basis is naturalism, which is defined through some fundamental notions such as the unity of the world and the impossibility of the detached observer. Naturalism includes, for example, evolutionary epistemology. It does not imply a reductionist approach to human mind and society, but to the contrary the convergence of Naturwissenschaften und Geisteswissenschaften. A major reference point is the naturalization of the Godel theorem, presaged by Hayek in his Sensory Order. Its implications match recent insights of the brain sciences, such as modularization and complex interaction between reason and intuition, which are being received by neuroeconomics research. The Godel theorem is also related to fundamental theorems about randomness, such as Chaitin's number. The world is random in the sense of being singular, which, however, we cannot perceive adequately because our knowledge is propositional, hence relies on provability in a general sense. This diagnosis matches with certain economic approaches to entrepreneurship and uncertainty, such as Shackle's. The relation between regularity and singularity evolves during the expansion of the universe, according to the theories of Chaisson and Brooks/Wiley, and can be measured as increasing information content that emerges from the growing differential between possible entropy and realized entropy. The difference reflects the growing number of constraints on possible states of the world. These processes are triggered by a continuous flow of energy, in particular through dissipative systems, which minimize entropy internally and maximize externally. From this, the ontological principle of bimodality is deduced, i.e. every state of the world is matterenergy and knowledge. Knowledge is interpreted as non-referential, i.e. as a result of a universal principle of variation, selection and retention, which also applies for the human mind, thus including referential (propositional) knowledge as a special case. Finally, the paper sketches the consequences of ontological consilience for economics, which include the recognition that growth is growth of knowledge driven by energy throughput, that institutions as a fundamental expression of order are singular and hence, irreducible phenomena, and that the human actor is the interface of complex evolutionary processes on both the biological and the social level.

Jean Lemaire de Belges et Josse Bade

Personal relations between Jean Lemaire de Belges and Josse Bade are only documented in a single letter of dedication sent by the printer to the historian, published in 1514 in a book that included two pamphlets against the Turks, for which Josse Bade thanks Lemaire. A careful examination of the printer's production in the years 1500–“1515 reveals his marked interest for the same humanists who were the major points of reference for Jean Lemaire's historical culture: Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Niccolo Perotti, Annius de Viterbo, Jacopo F. Foresti, Sabellico, Pietro Crinito, Michele Riccio, Raphael de Volterra, and others.We can thus deduce that Lemaire shared Josse Bade's cultural preferences and that he may even have had an influence on his editorial choices. Josse Bade's letter (which is published in this volume) shows how close the printer and the historiographer were in their approach to historical texts.

The Concept of 'Reality' in the Aesthetic Thinking of Boris Pasternak and Virginia Woolf

The changes that were taking place in art in the 1910s were essentially related to a shift in the perception of 'reality', art's major point of reference. This paper aims to explore some of the stages of Pasternak's and Woolf's development of their concepts of 'reality', which, despite the differences in the routes taken, are strikingly similar. As it is impossible to look closely at each phase of their artistic self-exploration in this paper, my intention was to look at the major influences on the development of their views of 'reality'. For both writers it was crucial to look at the literary tradition of previous ages, and at contemporary tendencies to clarify their stances towards them, which then helped them define their own types of sensibility. Pasternak, in several of his early theoretical writings, examined his relationship with Symbolism and Futurism with the help of different categories that also assisted his own self-definition. Woolf, although less systematically, and in a very different style, looked for tendencies in the literary past that advanced her own interpretation of 'reality', which in return served as a measuring rod, helping her make judgments of pre- decessors and contemporaries as well.

Key competencies: a new way forward or more of the same?

Abstract This article explores and critiques the different ways in which the concept of has been understood and represented in the curriculum. It is argued that if competencies are to go beyond simply reinforcing the curriculum status quo, the role they play in the curriculum needs to be better understood. The article develops one approach to understanding competencies that will, it is argued, enhance their transformative potential. Introduction The idea/language of key competencies has been around for the past 20 years. The concept has travelled, being taken up in many places at different times, in new forms and with new emphases. Like most educational ideas, key competencies can be vehicles for simply reproducing the curriculum status quo, or for transforming the curriculum for social justice purposes. In my view, their various manifestations have been more of the former than the latter, but it does not have to be that way. I will argue that if key competencies are to fulfil their transformative potential, there is a need to understand how they can be understood, represented, and practised in curriculum terms. The article is in three parts. In the first, I will describe how competencies have been, and are, understood and represented in curriculum, using mainly Australian examples. In the second, I will critique these dominant understandings on two major grounds: (a) that competencies lack a sturdy rationale; and (b) that competencies have not been understood adequately in curriculum terms. I will use this critique to develop a reconceptualised version of competencies. In the third part, I will speculate on the benefits that a different approach to understanding key competencies might bring. Section A: What are key competencies and where have they come from? In its first manifestation, the concept of key competencies was (and still is, in some countries) a term used to describe generic skills for the workplace. That is, key competencies were economically motivated--with the workplace being their major reference point. For example, key competencies, developed in Australia in the late 1980s to early 1990s, were defined in the Mayer (1992) report as: ... competencies essential for effective participation in the emerging patterns of work and work organisation. They focus on the capacity to apply knowledge and skills in an integrated way in work situations. Key Competencies are generic in that they apply to work generally rather than being specific to work in specific occupations and industries. This characteristic means that the Key Competencies are not only essential for effective participation in work but are also essential for effective participation in further education and in adult life more generally. (p. 7) The Australian Mayer Key Competencies comprise competencies that are skills or attributes (see Table 1). They are seen as transcending traditional subject boundaries, and as therefore being cross-curricular. Whilst they can be developed within a specific subject area, the skill or attribute is not exclusive to a particular discipline. For example, working in a team is a generic skill. Students can learn to do this in many different contexts. The Key Competencies are also seen as being important for all young people regardless of the education or training pathway they follow (Mayer, 1992, p. 1), and indeed as a bridge between general and vocational education (Mayer, 1992). That is, while they may have been motivated for economic reasons, they are also applicable to other aspects of life. There were similar moves in other countries, such as the Scottish Core Skills, English Key Skills, New Zealand's Essential Skills, key competencies in a number of European countries, and the US Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, Workplace Know-How (Werner, 1995). …

Personhood in its protological and eschatological patterns: an Eastern Orthodox view of the ontology of personality

Eastern Orthodox anthropology is structured exclusively between the borders of two major points of reference: (1) a protological point of departure which sets the scene for an epistemological understanding of human personality as a reflection of God’s own existence; (2) an eschatological point of arrival which demonstrates the goal of human personhood according to God’s own plan. Between these two boundaries human personality finds both its epistemological shape and its ontological structure. Eastern anthropologists regard other elements introduced in the epistemological structure of personhood as improper. For them human personality can find its true shape only by ‘mirroring’ itself in God’s own ‘eyes’. This introduces a new perspective in the Christian epistemology of personhood: besides mere historical analysis of simple facts of past and present experiences, an ontological eschatology offers a future history as it was revealed in Christ and continuously actuated through the Holy Spirit in our life.

Les États-Unis Ont-Ils Besoin D'Alllés?: Les États-Unis et leurs alliés Européens de la guerre froide à L'Irak

LES ETATS-UNIS ONT-ILS BESOIN D'ALLIES? Les Etats-Unis et leurs allies Europeens de la guerre froide a l'Irak Jean-Yves Haine Paris: Payot, 2004. 379pp, euro21.00 paper (ISBN 2-228-89809-0)Judging from the frenetic pace of the Bush administration's transatlantic diplomacy during the early months of 2005, we might be tempted to conclude that Washington has answered in the affirmative the question JeanYves Haine poses in his ambitious study of US foreign policy: America does need allies, especially if they happen to be located in Europe. How Washington should have come to this judgement (if that is indeed what it has done) provides the theoretical and historical storyline of this book.This is a very impressive work, but also an unusual one. The two qualities are related. Haine demonstrates a mastery of the theoretical and historical writing on America and NATO that is little short of breathtaking. All manner of international relations and foreign policy theory are on display here, from the most structuralist assessments of alliance dynamics associated with Kenneth Waltz to micro-level theorists exploring every nook and cranny of the cognitive mechanisms of sentient (or otherwise) decisionmakers. Although the book is primarily about alliance choices in American foreign policy, anyone in need of being brought quickly up to speed on the major currents of international relations theory, past or present, would be well-advised to keep this va de mecum close to hand. This is a tour d'horizon that also manages to be a tour de force.I use the French accolade advisedly, for this gets us to what is so unusual about Maine's work. It is rare to encounter, in French, a work so wellsteeped as is Haine's in the major elements of transatlantic theoretical and cultural discourse-at least in European French circles, for Quebeckers who write in that language are quite at home in the kind of debates one encounters in a transatlantic epistemic community whose major geographic points of reference are Britain, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, and Canada. By contrast, with some very few (but notable) exceptions, works on American foreign policy that get published in France tend to be either descriptive or judgemental, usually both-and so powerful is the urge to decry whatever it is that Washington is found to be up to that the descriptive merits tend to get lost in the passion and rhetoric of denunciation. It was not always thusly when French scholars wrote about American foreign policy and international relations, as anyone familiar with the work of the great Raymond Aron will know. And it is with Aron in mind (indeed, as mentor) that Haine sets out to show why America has made the kind of alliance choices it has since the founding of NATO after the Second World War.Just as with Aron, it is hard to pigeon-hole Haine, as at times he evinces the sort of prudential wisdom that could easily lead to his being regarded a classical realist, yet at other times he can appear to be an out-and-out social constructivist. By and large, he takes guidance, as did Aron, from Max Weber, and for Weberians the epistemological challenge is to try to get inside the heads of decision-makers and understand, from their point of view, the menu of choice that confronted them.So why did Washington decide, after the second World War, to take the unprecedented step of forging a permanent, multilateral, and entangling alliance with Europeans, of all people? And why did Washington work so assiduously, once the Soviet threat (and Union) had vanished, to keep in existence an organization that many, including many so-called realists, expected to wither and die, deprived as it was of its enemy? For Haine, it has a lot to do with America's identity as a liberal democratic country whose security and defence choices would necessarily be coloured by its self-conceptualization. …

Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia

Gale proudly presents the first completely revised and updated version of this acclaimed set in 30 years. Some reviewers call Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia the best reference work on animals ever published. Others call it the legacy left to us by famed zoologist and animal lover, Bernhard Grzimek. The accolades and praise go on for the newest addition to Gale's line of reference titles. The original 13-vol. set, published in Germany in the late 1960s, is internationally renowned for its scientific reporting, coverage and illustrations, and serves as a major point of reference for researchers and students studying the animal kingdom. Thorough articles familiarize readers with animals found everywhere on the globe, detailing their life cycles, predators, food systems, overall ecology and much more. Staying true to the original scientific pedigree, Gale enlisted prominent advisors and contributors from the international scientific community to incorporate recent developments in the animal world. Our new editions of Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia are sure to serve the needs of students at every academic level.