Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Massachusetts Boston

2005

Political science

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Genocide: What Do We Want It To Be?, Alan A. Ryan Jr. Dec 2005

Genocide: What Do We Want It To Be?, Alan A. Ryan Jr.

New England Journal of Public Policy

The definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention has been universally accepted, in the statutes of the ad hoc international tribunals and the International Criminal Court, but it conceals a host of ambiguities. Sociologists, political scientists, and others have not devised any legally adequate substitute. This article proposes a non-linear definition of genocide, that is, a definition that takes into account the presence or absence of several factors, rather than one that attempts to generalize the crime of genocide. It disregards the motives or objectives of the perpetrator, sheds the secondary phenomena that often accompany genocide (such as dehumanization of …


Cruel Science: Cia Torture And U.S. Foreign Policy, Alfred W. Mccoy Dec 2005

Cruel Science: Cia Torture And U.S. Foreign Policy, Alfred W. Mccoy

New England Journal of Public Policy

The roots of the recent Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal lie in CIA torture techniques that have metastasized inside the U.S. intelligence community for the past fifty years. A contradictory U.S. foreign policy marked by both public opposition to torture and secret propagation of its practice has influenced American response to UN treaties, shaped federal anti-torture statutes, and produced a succession of domestic political scandals. After a crash research effort in the 1950s, the CIA developed a revolutionary new paradigm of psychological torture and then, for the next thirty years, disseminated it to allies worldwide. After September 11, the U.S. media …


From Dictatorship And War To Democracy: Alternative Future For The Drc, Claude Kambuya Kabemba Dec 2005

From Dictatorship And War To Democracy: Alternative Future For The Drc, Claude Kambuya Kabemba

New England Journal of Public Policy

With a transitional government in place, peace is now a possibility in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Policy options are being considered to sustain the peace and start the work of building a Congolese state that would not repeat the failings of the past. There is hope that the transitional period will produce democratic elections and subsequently a legitimate government, which would start to shake the view of the DRC as the "heart of darkness." There are two main obstacles to state-building in the DRC: lack of consensus on governance and illegal exploitation of resources. The two are …


The Role Of The United Nations In A Unipolar World, Brian Urquart, Michael Glennon Dec 2005

The Role Of The United Nations In A Unipolar World, Brian Urquart, Michael Glennon

New England Journal of Public Policy

Presents comments on issues concerning the role of the United Nations in a unipolar world system. Discussion on the issue concerning the failure of the Security Council to reach unanimity on the occupation of Iraq and the regime change; Views on preventive war; Information on several problems encountered by the UN wherein their actions are considered irrelevant. From the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University, February 2004.


Formulas For Partition, Fragmented Maps, Yet No Solution, Mahdi Abdul Hadi Dec 2005

Formulas For Partition, Fragmented Maps, Yet No Solution, Mahdi Abdul Hadi

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author traces the history of the partition formula in Israel and Palestine, beginning with the 1937 British "Peel Commission" through the decades to the June War of 1967 and, almost a decade later, President Jimmy Carter's mention of a "Palestinian homeland." The Reagan Plan followed, and the 1980s witnessed a flood of political formulas that attempted to manage the conflict. In the 1990s, in the light of the post-Cold War era, a "culture of recognition and reconciliation" was introduced and with it, hopeful times. But the more recent efforts to bring the partition formula back, introduced against a background …