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Arms sales by the 100 largest arms-producing companies (the 'SIPRI Top 100') showed a marked rise of 15 per cent during 2004. This continues a rising trend since the late 1990s. The value of the combined arms sales of the SIPRI Top 100 was $268 billion. Companies in the USA and Western Europe accounted for most of this amount: 63.3% was accounted for by 40 US companies; and 29.4% by 36 West European companies. Acquisition activity is continuing in the international arms industry, albeit at a less rapid pace than during the 1990s. Five very large acquisitions were concluded in 2005, each with a deal value close to or greater than $2 billion. Intra-US acquisitions are driven by a rush into new expanding sectors, such as information technology and military services, and are facilitated by large cash surpluses. Transatlantic acquisitions are dominated by British companies seeking to access the lucrative US market. Considering the development of the arms industry in the post-cold war period, three main types of changes are apparent: structural, technological and compositional. The arms industry has become increasingly concentrated, nationally as well as internationally. The share of the top 5 companies in the total arms sales of the SIPRI Top 100 increased from 22% in 1990 to 44% in 2003. There has been a clear and significant qualitative change in the nature of technology because civil technology has become increasingly important for weapon systems. This has led to an increasing importance of IT and electronics companies, often previously civil companies, in the defence sector and an increased number of civil companies in the supply chains of the main contractors. The demands of the USA's 'global war on terrorism' have reinforced this trend. The privatization of defence services and support is drawing new kinds of suppliers into military contracting. This has been made apparent in Iraq, with companies taking on support roles that in the past the armed forces would have undertaken. A big growth area is the provision of security -- guarding people and buildings. While some of these activities can be seen as an expansion of the arms industry, other support activities are not military services but general security services and construction, creating a periphery of private companies around the core arms industry. These developments have resulted in marked changes in the arms industry and further changes can be expected. It is, however, important to recognize that arms contractors continue to have a set of unique characteristics, due to the nature of the arms market, making them different to firms in other industrial segments. The nature of arms procurement and its elaborate rules and regulations mean that they face considerable barriers to exit, while non-specialists continue to face considerable barriers to entry for the same reasons. In spite of internationalization in terms of markets and supply chains, the home market and home government support remain vital to arms-producing companies. Adapted from the source document.

John Rawls's famous "A Theory of Justice" firmly established itself as a classical work in the field of political philosophy. There is a huge mass of critical literature on it dealing with various details & aspects. Yet it seems nobody noticed some fatal internal inconsistency at the very basis of the project. That is, the fact that Rawlsian aim to make a theory of justice more geometrico diverges from his explicit belief in the unconditional value of justice & its conceptual independence of rationality. This belief is an essential part of the "Theory" no less than the attempts to ground it on reason. But to ground justice on reason means exactly to destroy its conceptual autonomy & unconditionality. That is the problem the article concentrates on. It shows that, firstly, Rawls makes not clear enough which ideal -- this of justice or that of rationality -- he takes as self-grounding & of the ultimate importance when compared with each other. On the one hand, the willingness to use the model of the original position stems from purely moral, that is, unreducible to utility maximizing calculations, state of consciousness, without which the persons cannot be persuaded to take part in the mental experiment & to perceive it as just. On the other hand, Rawls declares the need to ground the principles of justice & to prove that unjust behavior is also irrational, which means he questions the very belief in the binding power of Kantian morality together with his own quest for justice (If justice is nothing other than rationality, so why should we worry about it? Let's speak instead about rationality & utility alone). Secondly, we demonstrate that although a famous veil of ignorance needs because the persons under it are homini economici, that is, rational egoists without any moral sentiments, yet this veil is possible & useful only if the homini are supplied with a sense of justice, which means that the initial definition of the persons is destroyed. Moreover, in this case the veil is superfluous because the supposed sense of justice takes on the function of it. Thirdly, a contradiction in terms between two fundamental presuppositions of Rawls's theory -- Cartesian universal reason of solitary thinker on the one hand & contractarian conception of justice on the other -- is exposed: what becomes of the idea that justice is the result of a rational agreement, if each person finds the principles of justice individually & needs no communication? Fourthly, communitarian critique of Rawlsian claim to universality & impartiality is briefly presented & discussed in order to show that to be rational is not the same as to be neutral, fair & impartial. Moreover, no matter what we think about the possibility to be fair, at least the state of being both rational & fair (or just in Rawlsian sense) is unattainable. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into Habermas' theory of deliberative democracy in the context of the present-day debates on the theory of morals & politics. The starting point of Habermas' theory is his idea of discourse ethics. This is cognitivist ethics in the tradition of Kant, Rawis, Tugendhat & Apel that is built around the concept of normative correctness analogous to the descriptive notion of truth. This idea is best expressed by Kant's categorical imperative, according to which the validity of norms depends on their generalizability. Habermas, in line with Kant, is aware of the impossibility to rationally found universalist ethics. Instead of the final (deductive) foundations he offers the reflexion about the assumptions of a meaningful discourse i.e. the argumentation rules that must be respected if language communication is to be meaningful. Habermas' outline of the theory of law in his book Between Facts and Norms (Faktizirat und Geltung) builds on this moral-theoretical position. In modern society the function of law is to facilitate social communication: law is the legitimate framework of social communication on which the actors can rely. Habermas considers the specific link between human rights & popular sovereignty as the source of legitimacy. Human rights & popular sovereignty mutually condition each other & at the same time there is tension between them. The absolutization of individual rights makes democracy impossible since decision-making is obstructed; absolutization of popular sovereignty leads to the tyranny of the majority & the loss of rights. Habermas thinks that law can be legitimized by communicational mediation between the individual rights & popular sovereignty, in line with the principle that the claim to validity can only be laid by those norms that are approved of by all potentially affected individuals as rational discourse participants. Popular sovereignty is consistently procedurally interpreted. On the one hand, it is practised by means of public discourses & on the other through decision-making processes within democratically structured political institutions. The two dimensions of legitimizing law are different yet complementary: public discourses take place in civil society, political decisions are made in democratic institutions of the state. This is also an outline of the specific position of Habermas' political theory of deliberative democracy. It is equally distant from the model of liberal democracy which emphasizes possessive individualism & the protection of citizens' private interests, & from the republican democratic model that emphasizes political participation of active citizens. The theory of deliberative democracy emphasizes the importance of civil society: It is a sort of a practical verification of discourse ethics. Civil society is a sphere of autonomous public communication that is complementary to state administration but cannot substitute it. Communication power is exercised in the "siege mode" i.e. multiple discourses of civil society should contribute to the rationality & legitimacy of the decisions made by the political system, but do not have to replace them nor expose them to populist pressures. 2 Figures, 16 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into Habermas' theory of deliberative democracy in the context of the present-day debates on the theory of morals & politics. The starting point of Habermas' theory is his idea of discourse ethics. This is cognitivist ethics in the tradition of Kant, Rawis, Tugendhat & Apel that is built around the concept of normative correctness analogous to the descriptive notion of truth. This idea is best expressed by Kant's categorical imperative, according to which the validity of norms depends on their generalizability. Habermas, in line with Kant, is aware of the impossibility to rationally found universalist ethics. Instead of the final (deductive) foundations he offers the reflexion about the assumptions of a meaningful discourse i.e. the argumentation rules that must be respected if language communication is to be meaningful. Habermas' outline of the theory of law in his book Between Facts and Norms (Faktizirat und Geltung) builds on this moral-theoretical position. In modern society the function of law is to facilitate social communication: law is the legitimate framework of social communication on which the actors can rely. Habermas considers the specific link between human rights & popular sovereignty as the source of legitimacy. Human rights & popular sovereignty mutually condition each other & at the same time there is tension between them. The absolutization of individual rights makes democracy impossible since decision-making is obstructed; absolutization of popular sovereignty leads to the tyranny of the majority & the loss of rights. Habermas thinks that law can be legitimized by communicational mediation between the individual rights & popular sovereignty, in line with the principle that the claim to validity can only be laid by those norms that are approved of by all potentially affected individuals as rational discourse participants. Popular sovereignty is consistently procedurally interpreted. On the one hand, it is practised by means of public discourses & on the other through decision-making processes within democratically structured political institutions. The two dimensions of legitimizing law are different yet complementary: public discourses take place in civil society, political decisions are made in democratic institutions of the state. This is also an outline of the specific position of Habermas' political theory of deliberative democracy. It is equally distant from the model of liberal democracy which emphasizes possessive individualism & the protection of citizens' private interests, & from the republican democratic model that emphasizes political participation of active citizens. The theory of deliberative democracy emphasizes the importance of civil society: It is a sort of a practical verification of discourse ethics. Civil society is a sphere of autonomous public communication that is complementary to state administration but cannot substitute it. Communication power is exercised in the "siege mode" i.e. multiple discourses of civil society should contribute to the rationality & legitimacy of the decisions made by the political system, but do not have to replace them nor expose them to populist pressures. 2 Figures, 16 References. Adapted from the source document.

A review essay on books by (1) Wolfgang Dressen (Ed), Betrifft: "Aktion 3." Deutsche verwerten judische Nachbarn. Dokumente zur Arisierung (["Action 3." Germans Use Jewish Neighbors. Documents for Human Rights] Berlin: Aufbau, 1998); (2) Alfons Kenkmann & Bernd-A. Rusinek (Eds), Verfolgung und Verwaltung: Die writschaftliche Ausplunderung der Juden und die westfalischen Finanzbehorden ([Pursuit and Administration: The Economic Plundering of the Jews and the Westphalian Finance Authorities] Munster: Oberfinanzdirektion Munster, 1999); (3) Viviane Teitelbaum-Hirsch, Comptes d'une mort annoncee ([Accounts of a Declared Death] Brussels: Edition Labor, 1997); (4) The Reisel/Bruland Report on the Confiscation of Jewish Property in Norway during World War II: Part of Official Norwegian Report 1997:22 (Oslo: ODIN [government publication], June 1997); & (5) V. I. Adamushko, G. D. Knatko, et al (Eds), "Nazi Gold" from Belarus: Documents and Materials (Minsk: National Archive Republic Belarus, 1998). These works present a variety of approaches & experiences that contribute to the growing historiography on the plundering of property owned by Jews during WWII. Dressen's edition represents an annotated compilation of files from German financial archives, initially created as a catalogue to accompany a 1998 exhibition of previously confiscated Jewish household items at Dusseldorf. It is a provocative document in that it identifies both the victims & perpetrators of these thefts by name, listing items taken from abandoned Jewish residences & the names of those who subsequently purchased them at public auctions & at what price. Kenkmann & Rusinek's edition was prepared for a similar German exhibition at the Munster "Villa ten Hompel" & develops some of the same themes; both books provide insights into the destruction of the everyday lives of millions of Jews, as well as document the participation by the general public in these activities. Teitelbaum-Hirsch draws on collaborations with survivors in Belgium to explore the exploitation of Jewish property during German occupation. More in-depth archival evidence is left to the forthcoming report by the Belgian government commission investigating these events. One such government document is reviewed here -- the Reisel/Bruland Report -- representing the official Norwegian inquiry into Jewish property confiscation. It is suggested that the small number of Jews in Norway during the war & the extensive documentation of their financial records allow a remarkably detailed case study of "Aryanization" & Jewish property seizure. Adamushko et al's edition examines the situation in Belarus, offering 46 government documents, many published simultaneously in three languages (German, Russian, & English), highlighting the Nazi appropriation of Jewish gold. A variety of archival sources reveals a number of different perspectives on these events, including those of the perpetrators & partisan bystanders; however, the omission of documentation from several military units mandates further research. It is also suggested that investigations by historical commissions such as the works reviewed here be supplemented with individual research to more fully outline the scope & structure of the Nazi economy relevant to appropriated Jewish property. K. Hyatt Stewart

A review essay on books by: Jean Hampton, Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1986); David Johnston, The Rhetoric of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Cultural Transformation (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1986); Gregory S. Kavka, Hobbesian Moral and Political Theory (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1986); & Tom Sorell, Hobbes (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986 [see listings in IRPS No. 51]). These four books demonstrate that in the work of Thomas Hobbes, one can learn more from a text if it is situated historically. Kavka feels free to modify Hobbes to make his views more plausible, & to ignore chunks of Hobbes's text that do not advance his own argument, at the same time he claims to present as accurate a picture of Leviathan as any in the literature; these two claims are self-contradictory if the further premise is inserted that, to render a text accurately, requires a knowledge of historical context. Kavka's Hobbes has interests that are very much our own, what today is called rational choice theory, & Kavka would suggest that even if Hobbes did not have that name for the theory, he would understand it perfectly well. The Hobbes to whom Sorell pays most of his attention is the theorist of science & method. Sorell explicates the author's point & then criticizes it from a modern day perspective; a more genuinely historical way to handle Hobbes on science would be to examine the received wisdom on the subject before Hobbes, examine his reasons for assaulting as he did, & ask what problems were solved & what created, allowing us to see the possibility of the rational progress of knowledge. Hobbes and the Social Contract is the best of the four books under review, successfully making Hobbes's text & our own agenda illuminate one another; Hampton urges that one not read Hobbes as imagining an occasion of explicit, or for that matter tacit, consent to a social contract; social contract theory is seen as demystifying politics. Johnston's study illuminates what is wrong with Hampton's account of Hobbes; though less sophisticated than Hampton, Johnston suggests that Hobbes is not solely in the business of adducing prudential considerations to influence the behavior of rational agents, but has to engage his readers in a way that disembodied rational arguments cannot; this means that writing political theory is already political action, & that the reader should inquire into the committed stance of the theorist. Unfortunately, in the end, Johnston is seduced by that account more than he should have been. While it is often thought that political theorists are in the business of demystifying the world, Hobbes is explicitly in the business of mystification: although he debunks metaphor from beginning to end in Leviathan, he himself develops an elaborate metaphor to describe the sovereign as the soul of the body politic. F. S. J. Ledgister

The modern concept of species, in contrast to the static traditional classification, defines species on the basis of fertility between individuals of different populations as "groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups" or as "the largest & most inclusive...reproductive community of sexual & cross-fertilizing individuals which share in a common gene pool." The concepts of 'race' designate populations or aggregates of populations within formally recognized species. These concepts are operationalized by taking into account genetics. Population genetics as the study of intraspecific variation by mathematical methods can, on the basis of the frequencies of several genetic loci, classify populations as similar or dissimilar to each other & then look for correlations of the gene frequencies with elements of the environment in which the populations have evolved, possibly establishing causal connections for differences (adaptive differences), but not necessarily so (nonadaptive differences). Studying each of E. Mayr's (ANIMAL SPECIES AND EVOLUTION, Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1963), structural elements of populations of a species in terms of population genetics yields the following results: (1) clinical variation can be seen in man where members of the same race occupy large land masses uninterrupted by geographic barriers such as mountain ranges (the genetic differences between northern & southern Italians eg); (2) geographical isolates, whose differences are the result of either a difference in genetic composition (gene pool) of the founding group & the population from which it derived at the moment of the isolate's formation, or independent mutations (resulting in random differences) in the various subpopulations, or natural selection, do exist for man & not only for geographical but also for religious, economic or other cultural reasons, but the study of subspeciation & race formation in man is highly complicated due to his complex history (migrations, conquests, slavery etc & consequent interbreeding) & due to the fact that there is not just one main body of the species; & (3) hybrid belts too are very different in nature in man, involving again social rather than geographical separation & social determinants of interbreeding. In all comparisons of populations, however, the concept & the operationalization of variations needs to be examined. While protein variations, being almost always simple in their genetic determination, permit the direct relating of differences between 2 individuals to differences in the alleles they carry at a particular genetic locus, characters of external morphology, usually involving several genetic loci, are more difficult to separate from, or to unequivocally relate to, environmental factors, & especially the use of the IQ as a suitable phenotype for genetic studies, the linking of the IQ to the already very complicated phenotype skin color (involving 5 genetic loci or even more) eg, is unobjective &, when used for claims of racial superiority or as basis for a policy of education, sheer folly & highly dangerous. K. Schmitt.

The major deterrent against military attack by the USSR in the Amer conception is that of instant & massive retaliation (deterrence (D) is one of the principal elements in the current internat system contributing to the prevention of war). Whether military D so conceived is actually effective in preventing attack or war is analyzed on the basis of the findings of behavioral sci'ts. D as perceived by both the US & the USSR seeks to influence each other's behavior by threat of retaliatory punishment. Both nations thus ignore the empirical findings of psychol'ts about individuals & groups, namely. that outside threat tends to increase the cohesiveness of a group. Punishments, or threat of them, while they may tend to suppress behavior, serve little to change underlying motives & increase anxiety & hostility in those upon whom it is used; rewards may, however, change the direction of an organism's effort & motives. Behavior change therefore is accomplished much more effectively by a combination of reward & punishment than through the latter alone. In determining the effectiveness of D, it is necessary to know exactly what the aggressor expects to win. This can only be inferred from his history, his explicit ideology & his observable behavior. In launching a nuclear attack the aggressor must expect clearly to achieve gains signif'ly more than he can conservatively expect to lose by such an operation as compared to other alternatives available to him. Costs to the USSR might be increased by making it clear that not one or two entities, such as people or military equipment, could be hurt but rather a variety of entities, relations & even ideas of value to the decision-making elite. The probability that Russia would be successful, as perceived by the decision makers, might be decreased by increasing the invulnerability of one's retaliatory force, perhaps through having it mobile and widely dispersed. Other factors should also be taken into account in determining the effectiveness of D. There is evidence that those who have experienced disaster, for example, may make determined efforts to avoid experiencing it again. On a feeling level the threat of destruction ought, other things being equal, to be greater for the USSR than for the US. Furthermore, people with high aspirations prefer fairly moderate odds & will not take risks in situations where the stakes are big. Thus it is suggested that the tendency of communists to assume that history is on their side would lead them not to gamble and to take only small risks. If D is to be effective in influencing Soviet decision makers, it must not rely solely upon the threat of punishment. A D weapons system should be utilized to decrease the probability of success & to increase the likelihood of loss of one possible avenue of their movement, while at the same time deterring positively through increasing the payoff & the likelihood of success to them for every step in other directions. AA.

A study on how TV became part of social matrix in which individual personality exists, & oriented toward the general action theory of personality. It is further considered that TV may be a social factor responsible for a changing contemporary personality. TV viewing will become an;integral part of the soc milieu within which the personality grows & develops. A representative sample of 73 TV & 75 non-TV families were selected at random from 37 of 42 highly industrialized & commercialized Wichita, Kan, census tracts,- Each TV family had a matched non-TV one in the same block. Looking at personality as a system of action the questionaire was designed to elicit responses that could be categorized into sf areas of the 3 established systems of action. Results showed: in regard to sleeping habits there was no signif statist diff between groups. As to eating routine, no signif diff (at p=.01). Soc activities reflected an overall indication that the non-TV families reported visiting friends more frequently, while TV families reported having friends visit them more frequently (signif at p=.01). As to expressive behavior, there was about an equal split between non-creative & creative hobby activity for TV R's, but time spent on creative activities was more than 2x the amount spent on non-creative hobbies for non-TV R's (signif at p-.02). As for role expectation, mothers determined program in non-TV while child did in TV families. TV appears as a source of conflict & frustration arising from disagreements over program selection but disagreements tend to lead to mutual submission to each other (no signif diff's). Soc worth revealed that TV viewing becomes an. expected form of soc intercourse as well as a symbol of soc worth. As for value orientation, a majority of TV R's placed a + value on TV, while a majority of non-TV families reacted negatively to its worth. (statist'ly signif). In this category results seemed to indicate a feeling of guilt in both ownership & non-ownership of TV receivers. Religious activities were probed to test concern with cognitive symbols & results showed a slight trend for more TV R's to engage in church activities more than once a week than for non-TV ones (not statist'ly signff). Expressive symbols were examined by program choices made by each group & showed TV families to like identification programs (fantasy & reality types signif'ly diff); but there was no signif diff in expression of liking for 'fantasy-passive' type of programs (mystery, cowboy, & children's programs. 27% of TV families chose the `aesthetic' type of program--music, heavy drama,& better variety shows; 64% non-TV families liked these. 25% non-TV families liked educ'al programs (news, formal educ, & general information) while 13% of TV R's made such choices. For religious programs, no signif diff appeared. H. H. Smythe.

In A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION Alper feels flattered that PO research has entered the halls of the US Congress and points to the dangers from not paying 'appropriate heed to... the knowledge, skill & practical arts ... developed over the yrs... to establish, on a logically firm and mathematically sound basis the science of PO measurement.' Failure to heed methodological considerations may lead to: (1) inaccurate & misleading poll results, (2) unfavorable attitudes toward polls on the part of the public, (3) unfavorable attitudes by Congressmen to requests from Executive agencies for support of opinion & attitude surveys, (4) the misuse of polls as a guide to public policy because of unwarranted reliance on responses to questionnaire items. Hawver reports in THE CONGRESSMAN AND HIS PUBLIC OPINION POLL, a survey of members of the US House of Representatives (N=438) on their use of polls during 1953. Findings were: (1) an inverse relationship between poll use and the age of the Congressman. (2) Republicans report 3 times as much use of polls as Democrats. (3) The greater the time served as Congressman the less frequently polls are used. (4) Survey methods are haphazard. (5) PO polls are valuable as instruments of improving a Congressman's public relations rather than as a means of determining PO; as propaganda tools through 'loaded' ?'s; to determine wherein the constituents' opinions differ from the Congressman's, with the differences becoming the subject-matter for speeches, radio, TV, & newspaper releases. Cantwell in THE CONGRESSIONAL POLL- SIX YEARS' EXPERIENCE, reports on Congressman Charles R. Howell's polls in 1949 (6,000 mailed 2,150 returned), 1953 (25,000 mailed & 3,353 returned), & 1954 (30,000 mailed & 4,000 expected). The sampling consists of the universe of individuals who have correspondent with the Congressman. A validation of representativeness for the 1953 poll was done by comparing the % distribution of questionnaire returns from 2 counties and the 1950 census distribution of pop of same counties: showing a perfect match in %. A 2nd validation was made of Rs' expressed political affiliation with actual Presidential vote in 1952. This too showed high similarity of %'s. Question wording & issue selection for questionnaire construction is discussed. DeVany in THE 'TOWN MEETING' POLL in South Dakota, reports on polls taken via p&p questionnaire before and after `town meetings' at which Congressman Harold O. Lovre speaks. The experience gained from 'town meetings' is (1) too much weight ought not to be placed on the ability to guess what people think at home, (2) congressional mail does not always reflect the thinking at home, (3) there is a great divergence of opinion within districts on most issues, though not always apparent, & (4) a member of Congress should look over his shoulder to see if his constituents are keeping up. Kriesberg in TOWARDS THE IMPROVEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL POLLS suggests various agencies and organizations which can aid Congressmen in securing help with the technical side of questionnaire construction, sampling and analysis. L. P. Chall.

A navigator's diary / Pero Lopes de Sousa -- On "Brazilian savages" / Jean de Léry -- Channeling the Carioca River / Municipal Chamber -- The Cachaça revolt / Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides and others -- French corsairs attack / René Duguay-Trouin and Jonas Finck -- Mapping the city's defenses / João Massé -- The wages of indigenous labor / Municipal Chamber -- The viceregal period, 1763-1808 -- The customary rights of market women / Quitandeiras of Rio de Janeiro and Carlos Júlio -- Valongo, a notorious slave market / Bráz Hermenegildo do Amaral and Jean-Baptiste Debret -- Fire and reconstruction of an asylum for women / João Francisco Muzzi -- Whaling in Guanabara Bay / Leandro Joaquim -- Lettered men under investigation / Conde de Resende and José Bernardo da Silveira Frade -- Cultivating cinnamon in late colonial Rio / Bernardino António Gomes -- The transfer of the Portuguese court (1808-1820s) -- Eagerly awaiting the royal family / Padre Perereca -- "Infectious disorders" of the port / W. Sidney Smith -- The Passeio Público / John Luccock -- The independence era, 1820s-1830s -- The Feast of the Holy Spirit / Henry Chamberlain and G. Hunt -- The emperor dissolves the Constitutional Assembly / Henry Chamberlain and Dom Pedro I -- Views of the palace square / Jean-Baptiste Debret -- The night of the bottle-whippings / O Republico -- Mapping the capital of imperial Brazil / E. de la Michellerie -- The slave dance called Candomblé / Eusébio de Queiroz -- A neutral municipality, 1834-1889 -- From the dungeon to the house of correction / Eusébio de Queiroz -- Photography arrives in Rio / Louis Compte and Jornal do Commercio -- Transient laborers of the fazenda Santa Cruz / Paulo Barboza da Silva -- Recollections of nineteenth-century women / Adèle Toussaint-Samson -- Workers, for sale or rent / Diário do Rio de Janeiro -- Maria Angola denounces illegal enslavement / Maria Angola and Miguel Paes Pimenta -- The capoeira gangs of Rio / João Jacintho de Mello -- French-language classifieds / Courrier du Brésil -- Public entertainment in imperial Rio / Joaquim Manoel de Macedo -- Sex trafficking in the imperial capital / 759 Citizens -- Visualizing "a carioca" / Pedro Américo de Figueiredo e Melo -- A city celebrates slave emancipation / A. Luiz Ferreira and Machado de Assis -- The Federal District, 1889-1930 -- Making the Federal District / Constituent Assembly -- The legendary festival of Our Lady of Penha / Alexandre José de Mello Moraes Filho -- The animal game / Francisco José Viveiros de Castro -- An allegation of infanticide / Margarida Rosa da Assumpção and others -- The Hotel Avenida / Brasil-Moderno -- Rio's kiosks / Augusto Malta -- The cult of nostalgia / João do Norte -- Anarchists under arrest / Corpo de Investigação e Segurança Pública do Distrito Federal -- Demolition of the Morro do Castelo / Carlos Sampaio -- Exhuming Estácio de Sá / Various notables -- The Federal District, 1930-1960 -- Gaúchos take the obelisk / Anonymous -- "Flying down to Rio" / Louis Brock -- Bertha Lutz Goes to Congress / Bertha Lutz -- The Fount of the Queen / Armando Magalhães Corrêa -- A writer's Brazilian diary / Stefan Zweig -- Rio and World War II / U.S. War Department and Walt Disney Studios -- A fond farewell to Praça Onze / Herivelto Martins -- Avenida Presidente Vargas / Hélio Alves de Brito -- Introducing the "Civilized Indian" / João José Macedo, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon -- Madame Sat? : a grifter in Lapa / João Francisco dos Santos and others -- A city's crushing defeat at the World Cup / Jornal do Brasil and Correio da Manh? -- Carmen Miranda shines in "Ca Room Pa Pa" / MGM Studios -- "Soldiers of fire" / Getúlio Vargas -- Censoring Rio / 40 Graus, Ralph Benedicto Zumbano -- The diplomacy of samba / Jornal do Brasil -- The city and state of Guanabara, 1960-1975 -- The ephemeral state of Guanabara / Federal Congress -- Recreation in the Parque do Flamengo / Ethel Bauzer de Medeiros and others -- This house is yours! / Carlos Lacerda -- An act of student protest / Correio da Manhã, staff photographer -- After the fusion, 1975-1980s -- Dancin' days / Nelson Motta with Ruban Sabino -- Burger wars of 1979 / Jornal do Brasil -- Barra da Tijuca, boomtown (but not for all) / Israel Klabin, Angela Coronel and Heloisa Perez -- State terror in the early 1980s / James J. Blystone and Joaquim de Lima Barreto -- The consumer spectacle of BarraShopping / Cora Rónai -- A weekend at Maracan? / João Baptista Figueiredo -- The Spider Woman kisses Rio / Tânia Brandão -- Rallying for direct elections / Ricardo Kotscho -- A summer up in smoke / Chacal -- Contemporary Rio, 1990s-2015 -- Female planet / Claudia Ferreira -- From favela to Bairro / Fernando Cavalieri -- Adeus 2-2-6! / Paulo Mussoi -- In praise of a modernist monument / Gilberto Gil -- Venerating Escrava Anastácia / Kelly E. Hayes -- Campaigning for a "Rio without homophobia" / Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Human Rights -- The last night at help / Flávia Lima -- (Re)Constructing Black consciousness / Benedito Sérgio and Ailton Benedito de Sousa -- A quilombo in Lagoa / Marcelo Fernandes -- An oral history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu / Ben Penglase and Rolker Gracie -- Whatever your fantasia, always use a condom / Ministry of Health -- "Pacification" / Adam Isacson and Observatório de Favelas -- An open lettter from a massacre survivor / Wagner dos Santos -- Reading and writing the suburbs / Biblioteca Parque de Manguinhos, Samuel M. Silva and Alex Araujo -- A century of change at the port / Halley Pacheco de Oliveira and unknown photographer(s)

On 16 September 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – all three states led by military regimes – decided to establish a new regional organisation, the Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des Etats du Sahel – AES). This move was prompted by the worsening of the crisis within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2023, a crisis that reached its peak to date with the announcement by the three AES members on 28 January 2024 of their withdrawal from ECOWAS, a regional organisation set up back in 1975. In a socio-political context in which the role and functions of the state, the extent of state powers and the way in which they are exercised are increasingly being called into question, new forms of political and social organisation are developing. These are also influenced by the current geopolitical developments in the changing world order. At the same time, states and societies and the ongoing regional integration processes are facing major new challenges. Within ECOWAS, conventional ideas of state and society, values and structures are coming up against growing tendencies towards a new understanding of statehood and sovereignty. In the West Africa/Sahel region, new processes of nation-building and state-building are under way, underpinned by efforts to renew social cohesion and to integrate the 'vital forces of the nation' – a concept cited increasingly frequently in these countries – as comprehensively as possible. These developments call for a realignment of German and European foreign and development policy. The political and social conditions and expectations of the partners in the West Africa/Sahel region are currently undergoing profound transformation. They need to be aligned with the content and interests of the value-based foreign policy advocated by Germany – in line with the principle of a 'partnership between equals'. Any appraisal of the future developments and integration of the dynamics that determine them must take account of the various integration processes, which are particularly diversified and run in parallel in this region. Adopting a comparative perspective, this paper provides an overview of the various regional organisations in the West Africa/Sahel region. It analyses the potential of each of them in terms of their development prospects and sustainability. In addition to the critical relationship between ECOWAS and the AES, it also examines the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the Integrated Develop-ment Authority of the Liptako-Gourma Region (Autorité de Liptako-Gourma – ALG) and the G5 Sahel, which is currently being dissolved. If the partnership between Germany and Europe on the one hand and the West African and Sahel states on the other is to be continued, it will be vital to adopt a pragmatic approach and maintain a political dialogue with all the partners. The states in this region are extremely important to Europe's future development. Moreover, it is only through communication based on mutual respect underpinning cooperation in the economic and development sectors that the growing influence of political powers such as Russia and Iran – whose ideas, interests and values are not in line with the Western Atlantic model of democracy governed by the rule of law – can be curbed effectively.