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Under what conditions can opposition politicians with ethnic constituencies form electoral coalitions? In Africa's patronage-based political systems, incumbents form coalitions by using state resources to secure the endorsement of politicians from other ethnic groups. Opposition politicians, however, must rely on private resources to do the same. This article presents a political economy theory to explain how the relative autonomy of business from state-controlled capital influences the formation of multiethnic opposition coalitions. It shows that the opposition is unlikely to coalesce across ethnic cleavages where incumbents use their influence over banking and credit to command the political allegiance of business-the largest potential funder of opposition in poor countries. Liberalizing financial reforms, in freeing business to diversify political contributions without fear of reprisal, enable opposition politicians to access the resources needed to mimic the incumbent's pecuniary coalition-building strategy. A binomial logistic regression analysis of executive elections held across Africa between 1990 and 2005 corroborates the theoretical claim: greater financial autonomy for business-as proxied by the number of commercial banks and the provision of credit to the private sector-significantly increases the likelihood of multiethnic opposition coalitions being formed. (World Politics / SWP)

A roadmap for integrating mindfulness into every aspect of social change: how to lead transformation with compassion for the needs and perspectives of all people. Gretchen Steidle knows first-hand the personal transformation that mindfulness practice can bring. But she doesn't believe that transformation stops at personal wellbeing. In Leading from Within , Steidle describes the ways that personal investment in self-awareness shapes leaders who are able to inspire change in others, build stronger relationships, and design innovative and more sustainable solutions. Steidle argues that both personal and societal transformation are essential for a just society, and with this book she offers a roadmap for integrating mindfulness into every aspect of social change. Conventional methods attempt to compel people to change through incentives or punitive measures. Conscious social change calls for leading with a deeper human understanding of change and compassion for the needs and perspectives of all stakeholders. Steidle offers mindfulness practices for individuals and groups, presents the neuroscientific evidence for its benefits, and argues for its relevance to social change. She describes five capacities of conscious social change, devoting a chapter to each. She writes about her own experiences, including her work helping women to found their own grassroots social ventures in post-conflict Africa. She describes the success of a group of rural, uneducated women in Rwanda, for example, who now provide 9,000 villagers with clean water, ending the sexual exploitation of disabled women unable to collect water on their own. Steidle also draws from the work of change agents in the United States to showcase applications of conscious social change to timely issues like immigration, racism, policing, and urban violence. Through personal stories and practical guidance, Steidle delivers both the inspiration and tools of this innovative approach to social transformation. About Global Grassroots: In post-conflict Africa, Global Grassroots equips emerging women leaders, including war survivors, subsistence farmers, and the undereducated, with the tools and resources to create conscious social change. Our core program is our Academy for Conscious Change, a social entrepreneurship and mindfulness-based leadership program that helps vulnerable women design their own non-profit solutions to address priority social issues. In our first decade of operations we have trained over 650 change agents who have designed 150 civil society organizations benefiting over 150,000 people.

La isla Lesbos ( Grecia) constituye un lugar fronterizo importante de paso de flujos internacionales de migración procedentes del Asia y África y dirigidos hacia el Norte - Occidente de Europa. Este trabajo explora las percepciones de la gente de su capital, Mitilene. La investigación se centra i) en 200 encuestas y entrevistas semidirigidas, realizadas durante los meses de julio y agosto de 2015 en cuatro barrios de la ciudad, con diferenciaciones históricas y socio-espaciales y ii) en un trabajo de observación participativa entre 2015-2018. Para el procesamiento de los resultados se han generado y analizado redes semánticas de palabras que aparecen juntas en el discurso de las personas entrevistadas. Los resultados demuestran que las políticas de migración, el vínculo con el lugar de residencia y su proceso de formación social e histórica (eco-paisajes vividos), el estatus social en el trabajo, la edad y el género, influyen de una manera compleja en las percepciones de los y las habitantes de Mitilene sobre el tema de la migración. Actualmente y después del acuerdo entre EU y Turquía y los sucesivos cambios en las políticas migratorias, se nota un cambio a la opinión de los habitantes que ya se podría caracterizar como socialmente construida. ; Lesvos Island (Greece) is an important border crossing point for international migration flows originated from the Asia and Africa and directed towards the North - West of Europe. This study explores the perceptions of the people of Lesvos' capital, Mytilene. The research focuses on 200 surveys and semi-directed interviews, conducted during the months of July and August 2015 in four different city neighbourhoods in terms of historical and socio-spatial aspects. To process the results, we generated and analysed semantic networks of words that appear together in the discourse of theinterviewed. Results show that the politics of migration, the links with the place of residence and its social and historic formation process, social status at work, gender and age ranks, influence the perceptions of the inhabitants of Mytilene on the issue of migration in a complex way. Currently and after the agreement between the EU and Turkey and the successive changes in migration policies, a change is noticed in the opinion of the inhabitants that could be now characterised as socially constructed ; Preprint

La isla Lesbos ( Grecia) constituye un lugar fronterizo importante de paso de flujos internacionales de migración procedentes del Asia y África y dirigidos hacia el Norte - Occidente de Europa. Este trabajo explora las percepciones de la gente de su capital, Mitilene. La investigación se centra i) en 200 encuestas y entrevistas semidirigidas, realizadas durante los meses de julio y agosto de 2015 en cuatro barrios de la ciudad, con diferenciaciones históricas y socio-espaciales y ii) en un trabajo de observación participativa entre 2015-2018. Para el procesamiento de los resultados se han generado y analizado redes semánticas de palabras que aparecen juntas en el discurso de las personas entrevistadas. Los resultados demuestran que las políticas de migración, el vínculo con el lugar de residencia y su proceso de formación social e histórica (eco-paisajes vividos), el estatus social en el trabajo, la edad y el género, influyen de una manera compleja en las percepciones de los y las habitantes de Mitilene sobre el tema de la migración. Actualmente y después del acuerdo entre EU y Turquía y los sucesivos cambios en las políticas migratorias, se nota un cambio a la opinión de los habitantes que ya se podría caracterizar como socialmente construida. ; Lesvos Island (Greece) is an important border crossing point for international migration flows originated from the Asia and Africa and directed towards the North - West of Europe. This study explores the perceptions of the people of Lesvos' capital, Mytilene. The research focuses on 200 surveys and semi-directed interviews, conducted during the months of July and August 2015 in four different city neighbourhoods in terms of historical and socio-spatial aspects. To process the results, we generated and analysed semantic networks of words that appear together in the discourse of theinterviewed. Results show that the politics of migration, the links with the place of residence and its social and historic formation process, social status at work, gender and age ranks, influence the perceptions of the inhabitants of Mytilene on the issue of migration in a complex way. Currently and after the agreement between the EU and Turkey and the successive changes in migration policies, a change is noticed in the opinion of the inhabitants that could be now characterised as socially constructed ; Preprint

From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 68 years ago, to the Millennium Declaration 15 years ago, and to the Sustainable Development Goals today, global attention remains focused on promoting human rights and eliminating discrimination and inequitable outcomesfor women, men, girls and boys. However, despite widespread recognition of women's rights and the benefits that accrue to all of society from equitable treatment and access to resources and opportunities for women and men, inequalities persist. At the regional and national levels, there is growing recognition that as African women attain higher measures of economic and social well-being, benefits accrue to all of society; despite this growing understanding, removing inequalities for women has not kept pace. Significant gaps between men's and women's opportunities remain a major challenge and a severe impediment to structural economic and social transformation that is still the goal of all African countries.The evolving development landscape – with its emerging opportunities, vulnerabilities and shocks – makes it imperative for Africa to accelerate the advancement of sustainable and equitable human development. This can be achieved by building economic, social and environmental resilience for women and men, enhancing their productivity, and accelerating the pace of structural economic transformation in the region. This report explores where and how progress in gender equality has been made and how best to accelerate the pace of gender advancement in Africa. Its focus on gender equality comes at a time of tremendous change across the continent, including recent dynamics of social and economic transformation that have resulted in significant strides in Africa's human development.This report pinpoints the intersection between political and economic processes, and presents a clear agenda for action. The agenda provides an approach to help African countries more forcefully confront the challenge and accelerate progress on gender equality and women's empowerment. The agenda on gender equality can support progress toward Africa's Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While SDG 5 focuses specifically on gender equality, addressing gender issues more vigorously and comprehensively will expediteefforts by governments and other stakeholders to achieve many, if not all, of the other SDGsdue to the role and position that women play across all of society and all sectors.

The role of regional and sub-regional organizations cannot be overstated in conflict resolution, especially in their sphere of influence. The African Union and The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have played prominent roles in places like Burundi, Darfur, Chad, Somalia, and Liberia. The success achieved in these interventions would not likely have been forthcoming if the US, European Union and its member nations, along with the United Nations had not given their support to these regional and sub-regional organizations. In other words, the cooperative, collaborative, and supportive understanding between these extra-African bodies and the regional and sub-regional organizations has recorded more success than a unilateral intervention. To elaborate, the support given to ECOWAS in Liberia led to a successful resolution of that country's war, and the AU-UN hybrid operations in Darfur is yielding some kind of modest success. Analysts have posited that at present, in the resolution of protracted conflict, there is no substitute for coherent, coordinated intervention by global power and regional and sub-regional organizations. In contrast, unilateral intervention, which, in addition to being wasteful and expensive, can be internationally controversial on the grounds of both legality and legitimacy, especially where the UN has not given its nod. This article submits that cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional African organizations should have been applied to the resolution of Mali's conflict. Even though African regional institutions lack the required expertise, logistics, diplomatic, and financial muscle to singularly mount a successful intervention without support from extra-Africa, a swift response from and the immediate engagement of the Western world in the form of willing partnership with regional African organizations would dramatically improve the outcome of peacekeeping operations in Africa. It is the contention of this paper that France's late intervention (after the troops of African led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) were overrun) significantly weakened a proactive response to the conflict. The same resources used by France could have been more effectively and efficiently utilized if made available to the African Union. - Considering the fact that the African Union lacked the resources to effectively intervene in Mali, making such resources available to the Union would have bolstered its capacity to intervene in Mali. In this case, cooperation not for that mission alone but future missions could have been achieved.

Remorselessly, and apparently inevitably, as 1976 ticks away, the death toll in the tangled Irish Troubles creeps higher, faster this year than any time since 1972—the vintage year for blood and turmoil. Except for the threatened, no one any longer seems greatly to care. Murder must be peculiarly grisly or quite spectacular to warrant more than cursory coverage in any but Irish journals. The dramatic detonation of a mine under the British ambassador's Jaguar outside Dublin in July engendered, briefly, media interest. Ambassadors are not assassinated every day, but in Ulster ordinary people are—or nearly every day. There have been too many nowarning bombs in pubs to remember, too many sprawled bodies discovered by pedestrians to concern any but the devastated relatives. The Provisional IRA's self-imposed truce has eroded and again there are bombs in Belfast, land mines in South Armagh, snipers in Derry. The British army and especially the Ulster police have become prime targets. Yet the Republicans feud among themselves. The Loyalist paramilitaries still pursue a strategy of random assassination and thus have unleashed a vicious, seemingly irreversible, cycle of tit-for-tat murders. Politicians, warders, judges are targets of assassins of various faiths. And the violence has been exported. There are bombs in Manchester and Birmingham, assassins in Kensington and gunmen firing into restaurants in London's West End, explosions in the underground, firebombs in the shops. The Loyalist paramilitaries have carried their war into the Irish Republic with explosions in crowded streets. The elegant Gresham and Shelbourne hotels have been bombed in Dublin and lesser resort establishments hit elsewhere. The greatest single slaughter, twenty-six people killed, came in a Dublin street, not in Belfast or Derry. No one sees an end. Even the hope that mutual exhaustion might bring an end to violence has flickered out.

Great Britain And Ireland S. H. Rigby, A medieval mercantile community: the Grocers' Company and the politics and trade of London, 1000‐1485Peter Clark, The history of an English borough: Stratford‐upon‐Avon, 1196‐1996Donald Woodward, The new draperies in the Low Countries and England, 1300‐1800J. R. Wordie, Alternative agriculture: a history from the Black Death to the present dayRobert Tittler, English counties and public building, 1650‐1830Michael Turner, Parliamentary enclosure in England: an introduction to its causes, incidence and impact, 1750‐1850 Jeremy Gregory, Aspects of the Georgian church: visitation studies of the diocese of York, 1761‐1776Richard Whatmore, Progress, poverty and population: re‐reading Condorcet, Godwin and Malthus R. G. Wilson, The diary of Robert Sharp of South Cave: life in a Yorkshire village, 1812‐1837Peter Cain, Free trade and Liberal England, 1846‐1946John Sheail, A history of water in modern England and WalesKenneth D. Brown, Religion, business and wealth in modern BritainPenny Starns, Labour, social policy and the welfare stateJohn F. Wilson, Finance in the age of the corporate economyPeter Howlett, Governance, industry and labour markets in Britain and France: the modernising state in the mid‐twentieth century General Sitta Von Reden, Warriors into traders: the power of the market in early GreeceChristopher Dyer, The growth of the medieval city: from late antiquity to the early fourteenth century; idem, The later medieval city, 1300‐1500Colin Heywood, Burgundy to Champagne: the wine trade in early modern FranceHugh Clout, The brandy trade under the ancien regime: regional specialisation in the CharenteDavid Ormrod, The first modern economy: success, failure, and perseverance of the Dutch economy, 1500‐1815Ted Wilson, Merchants, bankers, middlemen: the Amsterdam money market during the first half of the 19th centuryMichael Wintle, The economic history of the Netherlands, 1914‐1995: a small open economy in the 'long' twentieth century Henry Roseveare, From the North Sea to the Baltic: essays in commercial, monetary and agrarian history, 1500‐1800 J. K. J. Thomson, State corporatism and proto‐industry: the Württemberg Black Forest, 1580‐1797Alan Dyer, Urban decline in early modern Germany: Schwäbisch Hall and its region, 1650‐1750Michael Palairet, Rebuilding the financial system in central and eastern Europe, 1918‐1994 Catherine R. Schenk, Monetary standards and exchange ratesA. Slaven , European enterprise: strategies of adaptation and renewal in the twentieth century John J. Mccusker, Tobacco in the Atlantic trade: the Chesapeake, London and Glasgow, 1675‐1775John Killick, Trading beyond the mountains: the British fur trade on the Pacific, 1793‐1843Timothy J. Lockley, From Calabar to Carter's Grove: the history of a Virginia slave communityS. J. Kleinberg, Civic wars: democracy and public life in the American city during the nineteenth centuryArni Sverrisson, Endless novelty: specialty production and American industrialization, 1865‐1925Gary Herrigel, Steel phoenix: the fall and rise of the US steel industryPeter Coates, Wetlands of the American Midwest: a historical geography of changing attitudesRobert G. Greenhill, Studies in the history of Latin American economic thoughtChristopher J. Napier, The development of accounting in an inter‐national context: a festschrift in honour of R. H. Parker

The Russia-Georgia war of August 2008 had repercussions well beyond the South Caucasus. The war was the culmination of Western tensions with Russia over its influence in the post-Soviet space, while the fallout exposed divisions within the transatlantic community over how aggressively to confront Moscow after its invasion of undisputed Georgian territory and its permanent stationing of troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The conflict also called into question Georgia's relationship with the United States, as well as U.S. credibility as a regional security partner in light of Washington's apparent inability either to restrain Tbilisi from launching an attack against Tskhinvali in August 2008 or to help its ally once the war began. Since the war, both the United States and Europe have provided significant financial support to help rebuild Georgia and have denounced the continued presence of Russian forces in the breakaway territories. The transatlantic community, however, has failed to develop a forward-looking strategy toward those territories. The West's adamant refusal to accept Russia's recognition of the declared independence of these two territories in August 2008 is legally correct, but just pledging enduring support for Georgia's territorial integrity is impractical and somewhat meaningless now that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are even further out of Georgian sovereignty than they were before the war. These territories almost certainly are lost to Georgia for the short and medium terms—possibly for a period of decades—and Russian influence has substantially increased in both regions. Russia has formally recognized their independence, and perhaps ironically, the territories have gone from enjoying de facto independence as unrecognized states and parties to frozen conflicts, before August 2008, to becoming almost de facto parts of the Russian Federation in their new status as "independent states." Further, Russia has sought international support (particularly from Latin American countries) for the policy, offering economic incentives to secure recognition from third parties such as Nicaragua and Venezuela. Russia's "sovereign diplomatic" offensive, therefore, has further eroded the very international regime of sovereignty which Moscow professed to uphold when it criticized Kosovo's 2008 unilateral declaration of independence as a "dangerous precedent." The war's troubling consequences for the region's territorial disputes do not seem to have resulted in any updated Western policy initiatives or active measures to rollback Russia's accelerating absorption of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Nearly 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eurasia's unrecognized states remain isolated and dependent on regional patrons, removed from international governance structures, rules, and norms. Instead of a region pursuing greater global integration, the unrecognized states continue to act as islands of isolation while regional powers seek to monopolize their interactions. With these pressing factors in mind, we propose a basic outline of a new approach called "engagement without recognition" for Western policy toward at least Abkhazia, a policy that could serve as a model for crafting more robust engagement with Eurasia's other unrecognized states. According to this strategy, Abkhazia would be given the opportunity to engage with the West on a number of political, economic, social, and cultural issues for the purpose of lessening Russia's influence. While undertaking this strategy, the West must make it clear that Abkhazia's status as an independent state will never be accepted by either the United States or the EU. By separating the international legal dimensions of sovereignty (the question of non-recognition) from its governance aspects, the West can attempt to gain some needed strategic leverage over Abkhazia, which it currently lacks.

Diktatur und Krieg haben den künstlerischen Aktivismus in Mitteleuropa, wie er mit dem Dadaismus begann, vernichtet. Durch den Strom des Exils verschob er sich auf den amerikanischen Kontinent. Dieser Band beleuchtet den Avantgardismus im frühen 20. Jahrhundert anhand der Fotografie, des Tanzes, surrealistischer Gruppierungen etc., um sich dann dessen Weiterentwicklungen bis in die jüngste Vergangenheit zuzuwenden. Die Beiträger_innen, darunter Theoretiker und Künstlerinnen aus New York, lassen die kulturellen Differenzen zwischen Europa und den USA verstehbar werden und zeigen, dass Avantgarde und politischer Aktivismus aufs Engste zusammengehören.

Unser Afrikabild bedarf der Revision: Weil es von geringer Kenntnis und kolonialen und paternalistischen Stereotypen geprägt ist – und weil unsere Beziehungen zu unserem Nachbarkontinent wirtschaftlich und geostrategisch für Europa von großer Bedeutung sind. (APuZ)