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While noting that the Arab-Israeli conflict has been a major international political issue for 60 years, the author focuses on what has happened in the Middle East since the Cold War ended, starting with the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. He views the tenor of this conference as essentially a "reincarnation" of the Soviet notion of achieving comprehensive & sustainable peace through collective effort; however, in part because of hegemonic US influence, he contends, peace in the Middle East continues to remain elusive. Good effort was put into an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, though neither the Arab states, nor Russia, nor even the Europeans were part of the negotiations, & the so-called "Clinton plan" failed. On the positive side, the groundwork was laid for cooperation on a number of issues, including economic interaction among a number of Middle Eastern nations; to a certain degree, regional security; & resolution of some problems of water resources. It is concluded that only the international community acting collectively would be able set a course for peace in the Middle East. Adapted from the source document.

Dominant theoretical approaches in political economy today, whether they posit convergence to neoliberal capitalism, binary divergence of capitalisms, or tripartite differentiation of financial governance, downplay the importance of state action. Their methodological approaches, rational choice and historical institutionalism, tend to reinforce their substantive theories either by disaggregating the state into its historical institutional components or by focusing on the strategic actions of its rational actors. This article argues that by not taking state action seriously, they are unable to explain the differences in degree and kind of countries' neoliberal reforms. For this, it is necessary to bring the state back in and to put the political back into political economy not just in terms of political economic institutions but also in terms of policies, polity, and politics. To explore the political in all its variety, however, the article demonstrates that at least one more methodological approach, discursive institutionalism, is also needed. This approach, by taking the role of ideas and discourse seriously, brings political actors as sentient beings back in. This in turn also enables the author to explain the dynamics of neoliberal reform in political economy.

The extent to which government should intervene in the market is much more than an academic question. By altering incentives, redistributing wealth, and providing safety nets, the government influences living standards and economic expectations of both businesses and individuals. In this interview, Amity Shlaes achieves this balance, and in so doing, helps us to understand the magnitude of what has happened. Noted author of The Forgotten Man, A New History of the Great Depression, Ms. Shlaes has also written numerous articles and regularly appears on noted programs. In this interview, she stresses that it is the private sector, and, more specifically, individual initiative that is ultimately responsible for producing the current high level of American living standards, and that to place emphasis and hope in the prospect that government can successfully extract the economy from this crisis is misguided. By bringing an intellect that is well-versed in the lessons of history but sharp enough to recognize its limitations in explaining the present and future, Amity Shlaes showcases a viewpoint in this interview that is as informative as it is thought-provoking. Adapted from the source document.

The article examines the discursive and practical convergence of politics and public health regarding post 9/11 security and sociological effects of threats such as SARS sudden acute respiratory syndrome. The author provides background information on the SARS outbreaks in North America, primarily focusing on Canada. As the disease spread from East Asia, quarantine levels rose dramatically, ethnicity was scrutinized, infrastructure disrupted, and health resources were massively overstrained, while it was apparent a second outbreak was on the horizon. The article then studies the new normal and infectious disease as security threats, as per their discursive dimensions, and other arguments through which Nicholas King, the CDC and WHO determined in the Emerging Diseases Worldview. Upon which the topic of neoliberalism enters into the picture, along with the frame of the new normal re the conditions and justified responses; preempting critiques, resonating from outside academic cycles. The article then analyzes the Canadian infrastructure, resources, and preparedness, which are related to infection control response, border management and the ascertaining of the patterns reflected therein. Adapted from the source document.

Sometimes Fiction can do more to change public opinion than nonfiction. It took Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, The Jungle, to awaken the public to the dangers of sausage and the meat-packing industry in general. Another example, if I can be so presumptuous, is my 1977 novel Coma, which opened readers' eyes tot eh dubious side of the medical profession after years of misleadingly warm and fuzzy treatment of doctors and hospitals in novels, movies, and TV series. Today, there is a crying need for new such socially conscious novel to shake up the complacent public about the high risk an imminent, serious pandemic. And I don't mean the much-publicized swine flu. While the world media has obsessed, and rightfully so, about this fast-spreading illness, I'm worried about the next crisis, something much deadlier and much more catastrophic, indeed the kind of crisis most people wrongly believe could not happen in this day and age. If I were the author, this urgently needed novel would have to be called Plague. Adapted from the source document.

In the annals of Supreme Court history, George Sutherland occupies a curious place. Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1921 to 1938, the Utah native has long been identified as one of the infamous "Four Horsemen," known largely for his role as a judicial conservative instrumental in the Court's invalidation of significant aspects of the New Deal. Yet Sutherland was also the author of several influential opinions involving matters as diverse as civil rights, freedom of expression, and others that recognized the broad authority of the federal government in the realm of foreign and military affairs. A proponent of limited government intervention into private economic activities, he also advocated the public interest in the exercise of reasonable controls of private land use. Moreover, Sutherland did not hesitate to support workers' compensation and other exercises of governmental authority intended to promote the public welfare. Accordingly, Justice Sutherland might appear to the modern observer as somewhat of a judicial enigma, who, except for an occasional progressive lapse, more often than not, imbued his analysis reference in print to Sutherland and his fellow bloc of dissenters on the Hughes Court.