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Tested is Andre Gunder Frank's dependency theory regarding the world capitalist economy, in which the ties between the metropolis (developed countries) & the satellites (developing countries) are extremely detrimental to the latter, ie, metropolitan countries expropriate the surplus formed in the satellites, thus precluding the development & deforming the economies of Third World countries. Hypotheses comprising the crucial elements of the theory are examined based on World Bank & UN statistics for 109 countries. The theory's focus on external factors & economic ties is criticized, as well as its allegation of a negative relationship between dependence & development. It is argued that a more adequate theroy of imperialism & dependence requires at least some attention to both national & international power & dependency relations: the internal balance of power in developing countries must be analyzed in terms of the interests of competing groups in the economic, political, & social realms, while international relations should be studied in connection with these interests so as to understand their interactional effects. 8 Tables, 2 Figures, 1 Appendix, 31 References. Modified HA

Belgian policies & development aid for Sub-Saharan Africa are reviewed, examining the priority countries to which aid was allocated by the successive Belgian governments in the 1990s & differentiating between bilateral support agreements & contributions to the African aid fund of international institutions & nongovernmental organizations. The principles governing aid distribution to African countries are outlined, explaining the notions of macroconditionality, selectivity, & ownership. Belgian aid to a group of partner countries, concentrated in Central Africa & representing historical ties (colony or a trust territory), is placed in the context of other developed countries' involvement in the region. The shift in African policy & new modalities of aid elaborated by the current Belgian government of prime minister Guy Verhofstadt are critically assessed, discussing the administration, management, & control of aid, organizational dimensions (geographic localization, distribution channel, & sector division), the inefficiencies of excessive compartmentalization, & the threat of defederalization (shifting decision making from the federal to regional governments). 3 Tables, 1 Appendix, 18 References. Z. Dubiel

A little appreciated member of the international community in 2004, Belgium has developed the previous years into a constructive diplomatic element that takes to heart its international responsibility (examples: troops in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Balkans, and an effective diplomatic intervention concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo). Responsibly for this success are called Belgian impartiality, its open ears, imagination and collaboration regarding multilateralism. Furthermore, the EU's enlargement by 10 states is discussed, the rejecting of the European Constitution by France and the Netherlands, and the strengthened position of the BENELUX within the EU. A second topic: relations with the neighboring countries France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. A last item discusses cooperation in multilateral development projects. References. O. van Zijl

Trying to gain access to an isolated rural Aboriginal community in Western Australia
This article describes my enterprise to collect data about health literacy among an isolated rural Aboriginal community in Western Australia. The aim of the research was to find out whether an adapted survey about health literacy for less developed and lower income countries could be used to collect data on this issue among a rural isolated Aboriginal community. I was confronted with three challenges into gaining access to this community. In the first place, I had never been to Australia, secondly I am not from Aboriginal descent and thirdly, the community was isolated geographically. In this article, I describe my ways of gaining access to persons from this isolated community, which included working in the canteen of the community school and preparing weekly a healthy snack for the school children, working in the local allotments which offer subsidized jobs to persons without work, and visiting local organizations. In this way, I was finally able to speak with about 18 persons, half of them being from Aboriginal descent, about issues related to health literacy.

Some states are widely recognized by policy makers and scholars as middle powers. The characteristics that were highlighted for these countries have become the basic guidelines for understanding middle powermanship and developing the corresponding theory. While those analyses offer rich in-depth insights into the foreign policy of specific countries, they have so far lacked a further step of generalization. When establishing such power-based rankings, we assume the possibility to determine states' capacities so as to identify their position in said ranking. As appealing as this theoretical model may be, the reality of international politics increasingly challenge it. Thus, we argue that this theoretical inadequacy is due to the fact that middle power theory as it has been developed so far should be understood as an inductive, not a deductive, approach . Consequently, the contemporary reality calls for yet another stage of development in this theory. The choice of Pakistan as our case study arises from the observation that while Pakistan can hardly fit into the current classification(s) of middle powermanship due to its poor economic and development performances, it is a nuclear state and is –at least– in the top twenty armies of the world. Moreover, we find several cases in which Pakistan has used the diplomatic tools characterizing middle powers, such as mediation or niche diplomacy. Our paper aims at answering two questions: (1) can middle power theory bring some light on Pakistan's positioning in world politics? (2) Alternatively, what does the case of Pakistan tell us about the (ir)relevance of middle power theory? We build upon role theory to develop the case of middle powermanship as a status-role bundle, by analyzing three specific cases of Pakistan's foreign policy: Pakistani nuclear posturing, its Afghan policy and its posturing vis-à-vis the Saudi-Iranian regional competition.