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An examination of the impact of the Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act argues that, although it has succeeded in reducing the number of people receiving welfare checks, it remains unknown whether those no longer receiving benefits are better or worse off than before. The welfare work/self-sufficiency ideology is explored to argue that the rhetoric presents distorted understandings of actual social conditions & encourages unjust relations of economic & social power. The notion that "work" is equated with having a job is examined, along with ideals of meaningful work vs the reality of jobs related to "work first" policies, maintaining that very few people see their work as a useful, challenging activity that offers pride & recognition. It is suggested that welfare advocates reevaluate the meaning of work; the belief that citizenship requires accepting whatever job is offered; & the notions that only paid employment is real work, self-sufficiency excludes accepting communal assistance, & labor market participation is the only way to make an important social contribution. J. Lindroth

Recent school shooting incidents have served to highlight the social problem of lethal violence by young people in the US. While many factors need to be considered, it is argued here that broader social & economic forces (eg, poverty, inequality, & social exclusion) shape most of the problem of youth violence. These structural factors tend to foster violence indirectly through their impact on the close-in institutions of the family, school, & community. The organizing concepts of social support & informal social controls are drawn on to examine theory & research on the connections between economic inequality & social exclusion, the close-in institutions of family & community, & violent youth crime. It is argued that structural forces reduce the ability of families & communities to provide the social support & informal social control needed to prevent youth violence. Policy implications are briefly discussed. 35 References. Adapted from the source document.

As the two major players in the Asia-Pacific region, China and the United States are increasingly in disagreement over security concepts and practices. In an era when Washington is trying to build a Pax Americana, Beijing feels strongly that its security interests in Asia are being challenged. The prospect of security relations between China and the United States will shape the political-security dynamics of the Asia-Pacific in the twenty-first century. While both sides will continue to pursue their security interests in Asia as they see appropriate, each has to adapt itself to the changing political, economic, and security landscape in the region and learn how to live with the other. This approach requires both countries to adjust their respective security policies as the region's geopolitical dynamics evolve. (ISEAS/DÜI)

Argues that the Apr 1978 uprising in Kabul, Afghanistan, was not provoked by Moscow but was a local coup that created chaos & eventually sabotaged the Soviet Empire. It is noted that the Soviets were surprised by the coup & at a loss for what to do next. The number of Soviet military officers in Kabul tripled the following summer, & those more familiar with the new regime replaced former advisers. The Soviets objected to the Afghan government's implementation of radical new programs that threatened traditional rural social structures & caused an upsurge of violence. Although the US was reporting that Afghanistan was being converted into a Soviet satellite, the Soviets were only pulled into sending troops after rejecting 14 different pleas from the Kabul regime. Misrepresentations in the rhetoric from Washington are examined, along with the Reagan administration's rejection of Mikail Gorbachev's request for assistance in escaping the trap in Afghanistan, & subsequent US aid to the Afghan rebels. The current situation in Afghanistan is discussed. J. Lindroth

The authors investigate whether & under what conditions American voters act strategically by linking split-ticket voting behavior to a preference for divided government. Specifically, they ask whether voters who state a clear preference for divided government are more likely than other voters to cast split-ticket votes. They utilize data from the 1992 American National Election Study to specify a full model of split-ticket voting. They borrow many of the independent variables from previous scholarly models and build on earlier research by modeling explicitly the impact of respondents' stated preferences for divided government as a means of testing for purposive or intentional effects. They consider the possibility that the relationship between preference for divided government & split-ticket voting varies as a function of the voters' level of political knowledge & that intentional split-ticket voting requires voters to have sufficient knowledge to link preferences with aggregate electoral outcomes. 3 Tables, 2 Appendixes, 36 References. A. Funderburg

Four problems plague game-theoretic models in international relations (IR): (1) misspecifying the rules, (2) confusing goals & rational choice, (3) arbitrarily reducing the multiplicity of equilibria, & (4) forsaking backward induction. An alternative approach, theory of moves (TOM), is discussed & applied to Prisoners' Dilemma & then, more prescriptively, to the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80. TOM incorporates into the framework of game theory an initial state in a payoff matrix, the moves & countermoves required to reach a "nonmyopic equilibrium" & threat, moving, & order power that reflect asymmetries in the capabilities of the players. It also allows for incomplete information, which in the Iran hostage crisis led to misperceptions & flawed play. Two general lessons come out of the US foreign-policy failure in the Iran hostage crisis: (1) know the game you are playing, & (2) make threats only if they are likely to be credible. In specific games, TOM provides detailed prescriptions for optimal play, depending on where play starts & the powers of the players that could aid foreign-policy makers, especially in crises. 35 References. Adapted from the source document.