Suchergebnisse

The free movement of goods is the most successful project in European Community. It is an important part of the internal market described in EC treaty as follows: the internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty. It is necessary to ensure the appropriate application of principles of free movement goods in European Community. Only this way it is possible to ensure fair competition among states companies and keep internal market competitive to the rest of the world. For the majority of products, EU countries have adopted the principle of mutual recognition of national rules. Any product legally manufactured and sold in one member state must be allowed to be placed on the market in all others. Articles 34 and 35 of the Treaty on Functioning of European Union deals with the prohibition of quantitative restrictions and measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions on imports and exports. Measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions mean laws, regulations, administrative provisions, administrative practices, and all instruments issuing from a public authority including recommendation which have similar effect to quantitative restrictions. These articles are a leading tool to deal with elimination of technical barriers which are the most dangerous to free movement of goods notion. Only on the grounds of Article 36 there is a possibility to restrain free movement of goods on public grounds, such as public morality, public policy or public security; the protection of health and life of humans, animals or plants, the protection of national treasures possessing artistic, historical or archaeological value. Apart from the exceptions in Article 36 the ECJ has also described the mandatory requirements for Member States they should impose on the free movement of goods such as the consumer protection, the environmental protection, etc. Road safety was named as one of the mandatory requirements by ECJ in several cases. The Court has also acknowledged that road safety constitutes an overriding reason in the public interest capable of justifying a hindrance to the free movement of goods. By prohibiting the registration of passenger cars whose steering wheel is mounted on the right-hand side and/or requiring prior to registration that a steering wheel mounted on the right-hand side of a new passenger car or of a passenger car previously registered in another Member State be transferred to the left-hand side, the Republic of Lithuania has failed to fulfill its obligations under Council Directive 70/311/EEC. Under legal measures of the Republic of Lithuania it is not permitted to register passenger cars with the steering equipment on the right-hand side, although such cars satisfy all the requirements laid down in EU Directive 2007/46/EC. On 29 April 2009 Directive 2007/46/EC repealed and amended by Directive 70/156/EEC. The Member States had to transpose the provisions of Directive 2007/46/EC into national law before 29 April 2009 but Lithuania failed to fulfill their obligations. Article 34 of TFEU, which prohibits quantitative restrictions on trade and all measures having equivalent effect, is applicable to such prohibitions. On the basis of settled case-law of the Court of Justice, legal measures of the Member States, which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, trade within the European Union, are to be considered measures having an effect equivalent to quantitative restrictions on trade. The refusal to register passenger cars with the steering wheel on the right-hand side in the Republic of Lithuania is not an appropriate means of ensuring road safety. In the Commission's view, a car with the steering wheel on the right-hand side does not give rise to road-safety problems, but the driver must get accustomed to driving a car with the steering equipment on the right-hand side on the right-hand side of the road so that the driving of such a car does not give rise to danger for other road users. Lithuanian authorities created prohibition to register a right-hand drive vehicles by stating that these vehicles will reduce traffic safety situation in state, but they cannot produce any kind of scientific prove for these arguments. The goal of state authorities to ensure traffic, human and public safety by applying this ban of vehicle registration, are only in theory, because in practice this kind of problem does not exist. There appears to be an assumption in Canada that in a predominantly left-hand-drive environment, a right-hand-drive vehicle is simply too dangerous to operate. Some say a lack of available claims data exists to disprove such an assumption. In fact, right-hand-drive vehicles have been safely operating on Canadian roads for more than 30 years, according to the Transport Safety Commission. From collector vehicles to Canada Post delivery trucks and garbage disposal trucks, tens of thousands of right-hand-drive vehicles are on Canadian roads on any given day. No significant claims statistics suggest these vehicles are any more dangerous to drive than LHD(left-hand drive) counterparts. By analyzing the situation of other countries on this matter, such as England or Canada, undoubted conclusion comes up: there is no greater risk to operate right-hand drive vehicle in a predominantly left-hand-drive environment, it just takes time and more skills to get used to it. Therefore, by this statement Lithuania's position to ban right-hand drive vehicles is absolutely unproportional against the goals they are trying to reach.

The free movement of goods is the most successful project in European Community. It is an important part of the internal market described in EC treaty as follows: the internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty. It is necessary to ensure the appropriate application of principles of free movement goods in European Community. Only this way it is possible to ensure fair competition among states companies and keep internal market competitive to the rest of the world. For the majority of products, EU countries have adopted the principle of mutual recognition of national rules. Any product legally manufactured and sold in one member state must be allowed to be placed on the market in all others. Articles 34 and 35 of the Treaty on Functioning of European Union deals with the prohibition of quantitative restrictions and measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions on imports and exports. Measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions mean laws, regulations, administrative provisions, administrative practices, and all instruments issuing from a public authority including recommendation which have similar effect to quantitative restrictions. These articles are a leading tool to deal with elimination of technical barriers which are the most dangerous to free movement of goods notion. Only on the grounds of Article 36 there is a possibility to restrain free movement of goods on public grounds, such as public morality, public policy or public security; the protection of health and life of humans, animals or plants, the protection of national treasures possessing artistic, historical or archaeological value. Apart from the exceptions in Article 36 the ECJ has also described the mandatory requirements for Member States they should impose on the free movement of goods such as the consumer protection, the environmental protection, etc. Road safety was named as one of the mandatory requirements by ECJ in several cases. The Court has also acknowledged that road safety constitutes an overriding reason in the public interest capable of justifying a hindrance to the free movement of goods. By prohibiting the registration of passenger cars whose steering wheel is mounted on the right-hand side and/or requiring prior to registration that a steering wheel mounted on the right-hand side of a new passenger car or of a passenger car previously registered in another Member State be transferred to the left-hand side, the Republic of Lithuania has failed to fulfill its obligations under Council Directive 70/311/EEC. Under legal measures of the Republic of Lithuania it is not permitted to register passenger cars with the steering equipment on the right-hand side, although such cars satisfy all the requirements laid down in EU Directive 2007/46/EC. On 29 April 2009 Directive 2007/46/EC repealed and amended by Directive 70/156/EEC. The Member States had to transpose the provisions of Directive 2007/46/EC into national law before 29 April 2009 but Lithuania failed to fulfill their obligations. Article 34 of TFEU, which prohibits quantitative restrictions on trade and all measures having equivalent effect, is applicable to such prohibitions. On the basis of settled case-law of the Court of Justice, legal measures of the Member States, which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, trade within the European Union, are to be considered measures having an effect equivalent to quantitative restrictions on trade. The refusal to register passenger cars with the steering wheel on the right-hand side in the Republic of Lithuania is not an appropriate means of ensuring road safety. In the Commission's view, a car with the steering wheel on the right-hand side does not give rise to road-safety problems, but the driver must get accustomed to driving a car with the steering equipment on the right-hand side on the right-hand side of the road so that the driving of such a car does not give rise to danger for other road users. Lithuanian authorities created prohibition to register a right-hand drive vehicles by stating that these vehicles will reduce traffic safety situation in state, but they cannot produce any kind of scientific prove for these arguments. The goal of state authorities to ensure traffic, human and public safety by applying this ban of vehicle registration, are only in theory, because in practice this kind of problem does not exist. There appears to be an assumption in Canada that in a predominantly left-hand-drive environment, a right-hand-drive vehicle is simply too dangerous to operate. Some say a lack of available claims data exists to disprove such an assumption. In fact, right-hand-drive vehicles have been safely operating on Canadian roads for more than 30 years, according to the Transport Safety Commission. From collector vehicles to Canada Post delivery trucks and garbage disposal trucks, tens of thousands of right-hand-drive vehicles are on Canadian roads on any given day. No significant claims statistics suggest these vehicles are any more dangerous to drive than LHD(left-hand drive) counterparts. By analyzing the situation of other countries on this matter, such as England or Canada, undoubted conclusion comes up: there is no greater risk to operate right-hand drive vehicle in a predominantly left-hand-drive environment, it just takes time and more skills to get used to it. Therefore, by this statement Lithuania's position to ban right-hand drive vehicles is absolutely unproportional against the goals they are trying to reach.

The free movement of goods is the most successful project in European Community. It is an important part of the internal market described in EC treaty as follows: the internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty. It is necessary to ensure the appropriate application of principles of free movement goods in European Community. Only this way it is possible to ensure fair competition among states companies and keep internal market competitive to the rest of the world. For the majority of products, EU countries have adopted the principle of mutual recognition of national rules. Any product legally manufactured and sold in one member state must be allowed to be placed on the market in all others. Articles 34 and 35 of the Treaty on Functioning of European Union deals with the prohibition of quantitative restrictions and measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions on imports and exports. Measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions mean laws, regulations, administrative provisions, administrative practices, and all instruments issuing from a public authority including recommendation which have similar effect to quantitative restrictions. These articles are a leading tool to deal with elimination of technical barriers which are the most dangerous to free movement of goods notion. Only on the grounds of Article 36 there is a possibility to restrain free movement of goods on public grounds, such as public morality, public policy or public security; the protection of health and life of humans, animals or plants, the protection of national treasures possessing artistic, historical or archaeological value. Apart from the exceptions in Article 36 the ECJ has also described the mandatory requirements for Member States they should impose on the free movement of goods such as the consumer protection, the environmental protection, etc. Road safety was named as one of the mandatory requirements by ECJ in several cases. The Court has also acknowledged that road safety constitutes an overriding reason in the public interest capable of justifying a hindrance to the free movement of goods. By prohibiting the registration of passenger cars whose steering wheel is mounted on the right-hand side and/or requiring prior to registration that a steering wheel mounted on the right-hand side of a new passenger car or of a passenger car previously registered in another Member State be transferred to the left-hand side, the Republic of Lithuania has failed to fulfill its obligations under Council Directive 70/311/EEC. Under legal measures of the Republic of Lithuania it is not permitted to register passenger cars with the steering equipment on the right-hand side, although such cars satisfy all the requirements laid down in EU Directive 2007/46/EC. On 29 April 2009 Directive 2007/46/EC repealed and amended by Directive 70/156/EEC. The Member States had to transpose the provisions of Directive 2007/46/EC into national law before 29 April 2009 but Lithuania failed to fulfill their obligations. Article 34 of TFEU, which prohibits quantitative restrictions on trade and all measures having equivalent effect, is applicable to such prohibitions. On the basis of settled case-law of the Court of Justice, legal measures of the Member States, which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, trade within the European Union, are to be considered measures having an effect equivalent to quantitative restrictions on trade. The refusal to register passenger cars with the steering wheel on the right-hand side in the Republic of Lithuania is not an appropriate means of ensuring road safety. In the Commission's view, a car with the steering wheel on the right-hand side does not give rise to road-safety problems, but the driver must get accustomed to driving a car with the steering equipment on the right-hand side on the right-hand side of the road so that the driving of such a car does not give rise to danger for other road users. Lithuanian authorities created prohibition to register a right-hand drive vehicles by stating that these vehicles will reduce traffic safety situation in state, but they cannot produce any kind of scientific prove for these arguments. The goal of state authorities to ensure traffic, human and public safety by applying this ban of vehicle registration, are only in theory, because in practice this kind of problem does not exist. There appears to be an assumption in Canada that in a predominantly left-hand-drive environment, a right-hand-drive vehicle is simply too dangerous to operate. Some say a lack of available claims data exists to disprove such an assumption. In fact, right-hand-drive vehicles have been safely operating on Canadian roads for more than 30 years, according to the Transport Safety Commission. From collector vehicles to Canada Post delivery trucks and garbage disposal trucks, tens of thousands of right-hand-drive vehicles are on Canadian roads on any given day. No significant claims statistics suggest these vehicles are any more dangerous to drive than LHD(left-hand drive) counterparts. By analyzing the situation of other countries on this matter, such as England or Canada, undoubted conclusion comes up: there is no greater risk to operate right-hand drive vehicle in a predominantly left-hand-drive environment, it just takes time and more skills to get used to it. Therefore, by this statement Lithuania's position to ban right-hand drive vehicles is absolutely unproportional against the goals they are trying to reach.

Раздел "Международные отношения" ; The Faculty of International Relations of the Belarusian State University united all the achievements of the Departments of International Relations (Faculty of History), International Law (Faculty of Law) and International Economic Relations (Faculty of Philosophy and Economics) when it was set up by the order of the Rector of the Belarusian State University on October 1, 1995. Yet, the history of the Faculty may be traced back to September 1992 when the Department of International Relations was created within the Faculty of History of BSU. The first 14 graduates from the Department of International Relations received their Graduation Certificates in June 1995. Ever since, the Faculty has been pursuing an active policy of creating new departments, of bringing together leading specialists in history, economics, foreign policy and diplomacy, law and of developing its technological and material resources. Following the rapid growth of the number of students and staff, the Faculty moved to a separate building at 25, Academicheskaya St. in autumn 1997. Since the start of its work the Faculty has become one of the most prestigious faculties of the Belarusian State University and, further, among the higher education establishments of Belarus. Currently 1it trains over 2000 students for Bachelor and Specialist Degrees and provides master's, post-graduate and doctorate courses for over 50 students. Together with Belarusian citizens about 130 foreign students from 20 countries are trained in the theory and practice of international relations. Highly qualified specialists are trained at the Departments of International Relations, International Public, Private and European Law, International Economics, International Tourism Management, Customs Affairs, Oriental Languages and Country Studies, Modern Foreign Languages and Cultural Studies. The educational process at the Faculty is provided by 16 departments with more than 240 lecturers; among them there are 10 professors, 70 associate professors, holding academic degrees and titles. Besides the faculty, 60 members of staff are involved in administration and in running the computer and multimedia centers of the Faculty. The faculty invites experts and visiting scholars from other faculties and universities, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Ministries and State departments, as well as famous politicians and public figures to hold classes and deliver lectures. The Faculty graduates have proved to be highly skilled specialists. They successfully put the knowledge and skills acquired at the University into practice at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and in other bodies dealing with foreign economic and political affairs. Many of them have defended their degree of Candidate of Science and continue their career at the Faculty. The curricula for all specializations of the Faculty envisage intensive studies of foreign languages. At present 6 departments provide training in 16 modern languages. The possibilities for language training trips and sandwich courses are constantly being expanded. Training the practical professional skills of the students during the whole period of study is crucial. The faculty students take their internships at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and other state bodies and organizations, as well as in banks and companies. The faculty is engaged in advanced academic research. During the period from 1998 to 2004 professors and lecturers of the Faculty published 53 monographs; 13 course books, approved and recommended for use by the Ministry of Education; 113 textbooks and manuals, 10 of which were approved and recommended for use by the Ministry of Education; 695 academic papers were also published. In the period from 1998 to 2004 40 Candidate of Science dissertations and 7 Doctor of Science dissertations were defended at the Faculty. The Faculty of International Relations takes part in the implementation of the State Programme on Fundamental Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The most significant output of the Faculty research is the publication of the seven-volume collection of documents and materials «The Foreign Policy of Belarus». The Journal of International Law and International Relations is published quarterly. The Faculty is involved in various international projects. Among the most important ones are the following: TEMPUS JEP «Integrating European Studies in International Relations Education» (Department of International Relations); «Strategy of Developing Ecological Tourism on the Territories of Specially Protected Natural Sites», funded by the UN Global Fund (Department of International Tourism). Every year the Faculty organises various academic and research events, such as: the Round-table «Belarusian-Russian Relations: Challenges and Prospects» (starting in 1998); the National conference «Belarus in the Modern World» (starting in 2002); students' conference «Diplomatic Readings» on the Faculty Foundation Day (starting in 2002); «Belarusian International UN Model» (starting in 2003). There are two Councils for the Defense of Doctor of Science and Candidate of Science academic degrees: in History of International Relations and Foreign Policy and in International Law, European Law. The Faculty is involved in a wide international academic network. Among the partner universities are Moscow State University, Kiev State University, Vilnius University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Wroclaw University, Free University of Berlin, Vienna Diplomatic Academy, Asser Institute of International Public and Private Law, Beijing University of Linguistics and Culture, Cairo State University and other educational and research institutions of the countries of the CIS, Europe, Asia and America. At present an Agreement on Cooperation with the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is being worked out. The Faculty representatives take an active part in various international projects and programs, research and teaching methodology training workshops. The Faculty of International Relations is developing successfully. Its faculty, students, and staff would not be content with the results achieved and every year they add new bright pages to its emerging history.

After two difficult weeks of bad press during which President Obama was accused of rashness (for his quick trip to Copenhagen in an unsuccessful bid on behalf of Chicago before the International Olympic Committee) and of dithering (for taking too long to decide on a new strategy for Afghanistan), on Friday October 9th Americans woke up to the news that their President had won the Nobel Peace Prize. With a mixture of surprise and exhilaration, he addressed the media and tried to be graceful in accepting it while at the same time pre-empting the inevitable criticism that would follow. He made it clear that he "did not view this as a recognition of his own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of the aspirations held by people in all nation. as a means to give momentum to a set of causes…as a call to action…for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century". The reactions in the United States were mixed, but in general, they were the reverse image of those in Europe, where Obama is still widely admired and idealized. Surprise, outrage and skepticism were the three main responses by the American public. On the Right there was outrage because the prize came so early into his presidency, and at a time when his lack of achievements is starting to haunt the administration and has become the object of comedy sketches, from Jon Stewart's Daily Show to Saturday Night Live. Moderates were pleasantly surprised, even if somewhat puzzled, and immediately fretted that the prize would have more negative than positive consequences in the domestic realm. Indeed, recognition by the rest of the world makes even his supporters a little uncomfortable, and it is used as ammunition against the President by those who accuse him of being too apologetic to foreign powers. Skeptics on the Left felt that it was a strange choice because the country under his leadership is still involved in two wars, and about to escalate one of them. To this there is the added perception by many in his own party that he is doing little on the human rights front, especially with respect to Iran, where several protesters are about to be executed while diplomatic talks on the nuclear issue continue. It would be ludicrous to think that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded only to those who succeed. In that case, it would only be awarded once every a hundred years. Instead, the prize is meant as a reward and an encouragement to leaders who fight for peace. When German Chancellor Willy Brandt was awarded the prize in 1971, he had just launched his "Ostpolitik" and he had made headlines when he visited Warsaw to sign the Warsaw Treaty and spontaneously knelt at the steps of the memorial to the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis. His acts did not per se bring an end to Cold War confrontation but it can be argued that Brandt started a process that culminated with détente and more concretely, with the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, which established a framework of cooperation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries and gradually became a manifesto for the dissident movement against Communism in the Eastern bloc. Later, and as part of the same process, the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to Lech Walesa in 1983 for his leadership in the union movement against the Polish Communist regime, and finally to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Their combined efforts finally led to the fall of Communism, and proved that peace, in the words of Nobel Peace prize awardee Oscar Arias, "has no finishing line, no deadline, no fixed definition of achievement…it is a never ending process, the work of many decisions by many people in many countries…" In only nine months of his presidency, Obama has changed the international climate of confrontation and preemptive aggression established by Bush, who alienated even our national allies. He has restored the principles of the New World Order envisioned by Bush's father: one based on international law and diplomacy, consensus-building and on progressive nuclear disarmament. It is this renewal of promises by the US to abide by international treaties, to use dialog instead of confrontation and to cooperate with the rest of the world through the United Nations that the Oslo Nobel Committee was rewarding. But as Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post has observed, if Obama were to find a cure for cancer, his critics would "blame him for putting some hard-working, red-blooded American oncologists out of work". In sum, his critics cannot have it both ways: they derided Obama for his unsuccessful trip to Copenhagen and made fun of his excessive self-confidence and his belief that by his actions alone he can improve American standing in the world. On the other hand, when Oslo honored him with the Nobel Prize, a sign that he is trusted and admired because of his approach to doing exactly that, they use this as proof that he cannot be trusted because foreigners like him too much!Almost a century ago, another US President found himself in a similar situation: admired by the rest of the world but shunned at home, Woodrow Wilson, who had led the way to peace at the end of World War I through the Versailles Treaty and the creation of the League of Nations (based on his famous Fourteen Points), received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize at the end of his Presidency but after public opinion had already turned against him. Afflicted by a stroke and embittered by his battles with Congress, he never had a chance to see his work come to fruition: the Republican Senate voted against the United States' membership in the League. The consequences of this mistake are well-known: the United States turned inward, became isolationist and protectionist, only to find itself mired in the Great Depression by 1930. A weakened League was unable to stop the rising fascist states, and another world war followed. Later in the conflict the United States had to come out of its isolationism to defend Europe and establish peace. Wilson had died in 1924, but in many ways his vision of multilateralism and war prevention survived in the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945, this time under the leadership of the United States. Peace is even more elusive today, in a global world of unstable states and violent non-state actors, of deep resentments and irreconcilable views and values. It would be ludicrous to think that the US can bring about peace by itself or for that matter, to solve any of the problems that confront it without the cooperation of others. From global warming to transnational crime to terrorism, the only relatively acceptable solutions can be found through diplomacy and multilateral action. It is in this light that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee's intention has to be interpreted. For the first time in eight years, the United States is led by a President who understands that the complexity of post-modern conflict and the depth of the challenges faced can only be managed (not solved) by states acting in concert.The intricacy of global politics today is further enhanced by the immense and unprecedented political awareness of the masses everywhere. This new reality of massive political awakening is especially destabilizing in the early stages of national consciousness, during which emotions and feelings related to identity, ethnicity and geography are greatly intensified and thus become destabilizing. It is this climate of resentment, fragmentation and political awakening that the West has to confront not only in the battlefield (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq) but also at home, where immigration has altered the national face of states and where the North-South conflict has to be confronted every day. This changing geopolitical context, together with economic realities, is affecting the US place in the world and is resulting in the relative weakening of the West in general and of America in particular. Increasingly, the West is going to need the cooperation of a China that is "rising peacefully" and a still-belligerent Russia to settle most problems in the Middle East and Central Asia. As the United States and the West come to terms with their loss of power, as Europe still struggles to speak in one voice, as their military resources are tied down for the long term in areas where the political awakening is particularly virulent, it is ludicrous to expect peace with capital letters. In the best case scenario, these will be challenges that will require serious negotiations and tough diplomacy in order to be managed, and those should include the rising powers and even some unsavory interlocutors like Iran (which can be a partner in Iraq and Afghanistan) and the Taliban (some elements of which can be brought into local agreements and peeled away from Al Qaeda). Obama should use the encouragement of the Nobel Peace Prize to move these negotiations forward, without ultimatums, without immediate deadlines, with the guiding purpose of accommodation and de-escalation, of managing conflict more than forever solving it.On the home front, Obama publicly refused to celebrate the passing of the Baucus health-care reform bill yesterday, although this is a major stride towards the final legislative product. By a vote of 14 to 9, with only one Republican voting in favor, the Senate Finance Committee cleared the way for a full vote on the Senate floor once it is merged with the version from another committee that was approved a month ago. Senator Olympia Snowe, the only Republican to vote for it, said she was responding to "the call of History, and that consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress" to act. Once it passes the Senate, it will be merged with the House bill and become law. This puts Obama in a very good position to succeed in health care reform before the end of the year, but he underplayed the achievement, saying it was just one more step and there still remained a long way to go. He did, however, thank Senator Snowe for her "political courage and seriousness of purpose."Finally, on November 3rd, all eyes will be on the state of Virginia. Virginians will be voting for governor in a close race in which Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate has been consistently ahead in the polls. Because Northern Virginia is so close to Washington, not only geographically but also culturally and politically, it is deemed the most important race for governor in the country. After eight years of excellent leadership under two Democratic governors, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, (there is no re-election for governor in the state of Virginia), the electorate seems ready for a change, even as political pundits are portraying the race as a poll on the President himself. That is why, at the end of this month Obama will be campaigning for Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia. It is another political gamble by the hyperkinetic president and one he should reconsider for at least two reasons. First, Virginians are a tough lot and usually prefer to balance the party ticket of state and federal government. Indeed, according to Larry Sabato of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, for the last eight consecutive elections, Virginians have voted for governor the nominee of the party opposite to the one that held the White House. That means they will vote for Republican candidate Mc Donnell and Obama's candidate will lose. Second, until this last election when Obama won the state, Virginians had voted Republican in nearly every presidential election since 1952. It was thanks to the youth vote that he won, and those voters are the least likely to come out and vote in the election for governor. The older crowds that vote religiously in every election are more likely to vote Republican this time. For Obama to campaign for Deeds is then a repeat of the Copenhagen Olympic bid effect.Passing the health care bill and achieving a Democratic win in at least some of the governor races would represent incredible boosts for the President that he will need as his support numbers dwindle, especially if he makes the unpopular decision of sending more troops to Afghanistan. By the time all those questions are settled, the Copenhagen Olympics and the Oslo Peace Prize will be distant memories. But then, he will have to go back and address Copenhagen II, namely, climate change. Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Geography Director, ODU Model United Nations Program Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia

Ukraine was dealt a blow this week upon news that one of the F-16 fighter planes it had waited so long for had crashed, killing the Ukrainian pilot inside. While reports do not indicate that the U.S.-made plane was shot down by Russian forces, it wasn't quite clear Thursday what had happened, as officials did confirm the plane crashed amid one of Russia's massive missile and drone attacks on Ukraine this week. According to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said the pilot, Oleksiy Mes, "was killed in combat while helping repel the missile attack on Monday":Mes, call sign "Moonfish," was one of Kyiv's first pilots to be trained on the F-16. He was one of the better known Ukrainian pilots, appearing frequently in the media and visiting Washington, DC, to lobby the U.S. to send Ukraine the fighter jets. With U.S. approval, NATO member countries promised to send 60 F-16s to Ukraine last August, with delivery expected from 2024 through 2028. The Lockheed Martin-made planes are listed at around $63 million each. Ukrainian Pilots were trained in the U.S. over the course of the last year, and just this week it was reported that the planes were being outfitted with the latest in electronic warfare capabilities. Ukraine finally received a "small number" in late July. And not too soon. Following Ukraine's incursion into the Kursk region of Russia in early August, Russia has been pounding targets all over Ukraine in massive barrages this week, and Ukraine has been meeting them with the new F-16 firepower. And yet, there is a growing sense that it will not be enough. Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky is asking for deliveries of more to be sped up as his military burns through its existing missile defense stockpile. "The attacks underscore a desperate problem for Ukraine: how to protect its territory with a limited number of air-defense systems and a diminishing stockpile of interceptor missiles," wrote Isabel Coles and Nikita Nikolaienko at the WSJ earlier in the week.But while the Ukrainians continue to push into Russian territory — the military was boasting as of Thursday it has control over 500 square miles and 600 Russian prisoners of war — we're starting to get some sense that Zelensky may be seeing this as a way to bolster bargaining chips in any future negotiations with Russia. Ukrainian officials seem to be talking more often about the prospects for ending the war, and this week Zelensky insisted that the incursion was part of a broader plan to end the war and that he would be sharing this plan with presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris this fall."The main point … is forcing Russia to end the war," Zelensky said. "We really want justice for Ukraine. And if this plan is accepted — and, second, if it is executed — we believe that the main goal will be reached," he said at a news conference of top officials on Tuesday.But experts warn that the window of opportunity for their gambit may be closing because Russians appear to be digging in and are now acting increasingly dismissive of Kyiv's references to potential talks and peace plans. "This is not the first time that we have heard such statements from representatives of the Kyiv regime," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the plan. "We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all of our goals."This follows Russian denials last week of reports that both sides were set to attend indirect talks over the conflict, but they were later scuttled because of the Ukrainian incursion. In other Ukraine War news:— According to a report in the Associated Press on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going to be pulling troops from the front lines in Donbass to deal with the incursion in Kursk, despite the need for more manpower in those border areas of Russia. "Putin's focus is on the collapse of the Ukrainian state, which he believes will automatically render any territorial control irrelevant," wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.— Russia claims that the Reuters consultant who was killed in a Russian missile strike in the eastern city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine on Aug. 24 was a British spy, a charge that has been vociferously denied by Reuters. Two other Reuters journalists were hurt in the incident. According to the Washington Post, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed without evidence that Ryan Evans, 38, was registered as a former employee of MI6, an arm of the British secret services. "But we are well aware that there are not former MI6 employees," she said.— A column by Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times suggests that Zelensky may be pushing the U.S. too far and crossing its "red lines" in its Ukrainian incursion. He even suggests Washington did not know about Ukraine's advance into Russian territory. He cites a new book by New York Times reporter David Sanger, who reportedly refers to Biden's shared concerns with White House aides "that Zelenskyy might be deliberately trying to draw America into a third world war."— Russia is warning that if Ukraine does not renew a key deal for Russian natural gas to traverse Ukraine, Europeans will be faced with high energy prices as they are forced to turn to alternative European and U.S. sources. According to Reuters, Ukraine has repeatedly said it has no plans to renew the gas transit deal amid the current conflict. It expires Dec. 31.— Russia said it banned 92 individuals from entering the country including journalists from major American newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said the list released Wednesday was in response to the Biden administration's "Russophobic course." According to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Moscow also banned what it described as individuals from security and intelligence agencies, "military-industrial companies," and financial institutions "that supply arms to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sponsor the Kyiv regime."

Tese no âmbito do Doutoramento em Relações Internacionais - Política Internacional e Resolução de Conflitos apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra ; The 2016 Final Peace Agreement signed between the government of Colombia and the guerilla group FARC-EP was a historical moment that put an end to a protracted conflict that lasted more than 50 years. Although the negotiations took place between the two parties during four years (2012-2016), in the picture of the signature of the agreement there were a dozen of indigenous and black representatives that managed to join the negotiations in the very last months. They were in the picture because they managed to negotiate that very same day the inclusion of an Ethnic Chapter that included the respect for all their ethnic-territorial rights historically acquired and secured, and whose implementation would be in line with their notion of autonomy and self-government, namely by consulting with them and also guaranteeing ethnic participation in peace policies and institutions. How did these ethnic identities come into play during the peace agreement and the implementation phase between the government of Colombia and the FARC? Drawing from decolonial and post-structural studies, this thesis looks into how peacemaking and peacebuilding can reproduce (or not) certain power structures that are already in place in post-colonial countries and societies, and in turn how these marginalized peoples' practices of resistance cope, defy, instrumentalize, and even overcome them. Based on the fieldwork conducted in Colombia during fifteen months, this dissertation explores first how these ethnic peoples worked their way into the negotiations by both mobilizing nationally and internationally and, second, to what extent the precepts of the Ethnic Chapter were taken into account during the first two years of the implementation phase. In particular, the thesis focuses on how the Development Programs with a (Ethnic) Territorial-Based Focus (PDET) were designed in the department of Chocó among government agents and ethnic-territorial organizations. This work argues that it was the agency of the ethnic peoples, their historical capacity to resist and mobilize, and their capacity to join forces between black and indigenous peoples what allowed them to pressure the government to invite them to the negotiations and include the Ethnic Chapter. However, that unprecedented moment of the negotiations represented a window of opportunity that was then closed during the implementation phase, as the colonial structures of power, that have historically relegated their identities, knowledges, and ways of being, flourished once again. Despite the fact that ethnic-territorial organizations gained some space within different institutions in charge of the implementation, they were not consulted for the majority of the agreement's subsequent legislation and the centralist logic of the government prevailed. In the design of the PDET in particular, although large segments of the population, including ethnic groups, participated in the assemblies, their worldviews did not transcend from their local realities to the central government of the country; instead, time constraints, technical procedures, and the government agency's know-how have so far dominated the whole process and limited an intercultural dialogue. ; O Acordo Final de Paz de 2016, assinado entre o governo da Colômbia e o grupo guerrilheiro FARC-EP, foi um momento histórico que pôs fim a um conflito prolongado que durou mais de 50 anos. Embora as negociações tenham ocorrido entre as duas partes durante quatro anos (2012-2016), na imagem da assinatura do acordo, havia uma dúzia de representantes indígenas e negros que se conseguiram juntar aos últimos meses das negociações. Aparecem na fotografia porque conseguiram negociar no mesmo dia da assinatura do acordo a inclusão de um capítulo étnico que incluísse o respeito por todos os seus direitos étnico-territoriais adquiridos historicamente e que garantisse que a implementação do acordo estivesse alinhada com o seu entendimento de autonomia e de governo autónomo, consultando-os e envolvendo também a participação étnica em várias políticas e instituições de paz. De que forma é que as identidades étnicas entraram em jogo durante o acordo de paz e a fase de implementação entre o governo da Colômbia e as FARC? Partindo de estudos decoloniais e pós-estruturalistas, a tese analisa como a construção da paz pode (ou não) reproduzir certas estruturas de poder que já existem nos países e sociedades pós-coloniais e, por sua vez, como as práticas de resistência desses povos marginalizados as podem desafiar, instrumentalizar e até superar. Com base no trabalho de campo realizado na Colômbia durante quinze meses, esta dissertação explora primeiro como estes povos étnicos entraram nas negociações, mobilizando-se nacional e internacionalmente e, segundo, até que ponto os preceitos do Capítulo Étnico foram levados em conta durante os primeiros dois anos da fase de implementação. Em particular, a tese explora como os Programas de Desenvolvimento com Foco Territorial (Étnico) foram projetados no departamento de Chocó, entre os agentes governamentais e as organizações étnico-territoriais. Este trabalho argumenta que foi a agência dos povos étnicos, a sua capacidade histórica de resistir e de se mobilizar, e a sua capacidade de unir forças entre povos negros e indígenas, que lhes permitiu pressionar o governo para os convidar para as negociações e incluir o Capítulo Étnico. No entanto, esse momento histórico das negociações representou uma janela de oportunidade que foi fechada durante a fase de implementação, uma vez que as estruturas coloniais de poder que tradicionalmente relegaram as suas identidades, conhecimentos e formas de ser, floresceram novamente. Apesar das organizações étnico-territoriais terem ganho espaço em diferentes instituições encarregadas da implementação, elas não foram consultadas relativamente à maioria da legislação relacionada com o acordo e a lógica centralista do governo prevaleceu. Na concepção do PDET, em particular, apesar de grandes segmentos da população, incluindo os grupos étnicos, participarem das assembleias, as suas cosmovisões não transcenderam das suas realidades locais para o governo central do país e para a sociedade em geral; em vez disso, as restrições de tempo, procedimentos técnicos e know-how da agência governamental dominaram, até agora, todo o processo e limitaram um diálogo intercultural.

This dissertation consists of five studies on dynamic micro founded macroeconomics. Micro founded macroeconomics is a flexible paradigm. It can be enriched by micro data, assess drivers of economic fluctuations, and is particularly suited for policy analysis. The studies contained in this dissertation contribute to all of these aspects. Chapter 1 outlines the contribution to contemporary scholarship and connects the five studies through their shared scientific paradigm. Chapter 2 provides a novel experimental design that allows to test preferences of people over the temporal resolution of consumption uncertainty. Our experimental design does not require any structural assumptions and measures these attitudes directly in a model-free way. Preferences regarding the temporal structure of uncertainty play a key role in recursive utility models. They constitute a central ingredient in macrofinancial studies and beyond. In a laboratory experiment, we find that, on average, subjects only weakly prefer an early resolution of uncertainty. Surprisingly, recursive utility has no predictive power in explaining preferences over the temporal resolution of consumption uncertainty. The remaining chapters apply dynamic micro founded models to macroeconomic research questions, which are at the center of contemporary discussions. Chapter 3 explores the effects of technological advances in automation technology on growth and inequality. For this purpose, the study builds a novel macroeconomic model with household (skill) heterogeneity, in which automation capital serves as a production input. The model suggests that automation amplifies aggregate growth but generates substantial inequality when skillshares are fixed. Endogenous education choice reduces rising inequality via general equilibrium effects. The chapter discusses potential policy responses in the form of taxes on machines, corporate income taxation, and education subsidies. Chapter 4 asks what drives protracted low inflation in the post-crisis euro area. The estimation of a non-linear dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model of the global economy finds that weak domestic demand, in combination with the zero lower bound, explains a large share of the inflation slowdown. Labor market developments have put additional downward pressure on prices. However, a DSGE model, which focuses on domestic shocks, cannot tell the whole story: External price developments, related to substantial swings in commodity prices and declining euro area (EA) import prices, play a significant role in the post-crisis inflation process. Chapter 5 estimates a multi-region DSGE model to study the fiscal policy implications of downward nominal wage rigidity (DNWR) for an individual country in a currency union. Non-linear methods explicitly account for an endogenous occasionally binding DNWR constraint and the state-dependence of policy. We show that a cut in social security contributions (SSC) paid by employers is particularly effective under DNWR: While the impact multiplier of government expenditure is larger, the SSC reduction entails more persistent growth effects. Moreover, the adjustment of the economy to an SSC reduction is more tax rich, which makes this policy attractive for countries during an economic crisis with limited fiscal space. The US macroeconomic experience of the last decade stressed the importance of jointly studying the growth and business cycle fluctuations behavior of the economy. To analyze this issue, Chapter 6 embeds a model of Schumpeterian growth into a medium-scale DSGE model. Results from a Bayesian estimation suggest that fluctuations in investment risk premia are key drivers of the slump following the Great Recession. Demand shocks are relevant to the evolution of technology, and endogenous growth amplifies financial crises. However, the model estimation challenges the common claim that the slump is a pure demand-side phenomenon. We identify adverse supply-side factors such as a decline of the innovative capacity and frontier technology well before the financial turmoil. ; Die vorliegende Dissertation besteht aus fünf Aufsätzen zu dynamischer mikrofundierter Makroökonomie. Mikrofundierte Makroökonomie ist ein flexibles wissenschaftliches Paradigma. Die Offenheit und Transparenz erlauben es, Mikrodaten sinnvoll zu integrieren, Ursachen von Konjunkturschwankungen zu untersuchen und machen mikrofundierte Makroökonomie besonders geeignet für wirtschaftspolitische Analyse. Diese Dissertation liefert Beiträge zu all diesen Aspekten. Das erste Kapitel legt die Beiträge der einzelnen Studien zur gegenwärtigen Forschung dar und verbindet sie anhand des gemeinsamen wissenschaftstheoretischen Paradigmas. Kapitel 2 entwickelt neue experimentelle Methoden, um Präferenzen hinsichtlich der zeitlichen Struktur von (Konsum-)Unsicherheit zu testen. Präferenzen hinsichtlich der zeitlichen Struktur von Unsicherheit sind ein zentrales Element rekursiver Nutzenmodelle und wichtiger Bestandteil in der makrofinanziellen Theoriebildung und darüber hinaus. Die vorgeschlagene experimentelle Methode hat den Vorteil, nicht an ein bestimmtes parametrisches Modell gebunden zu sein. Unsere Resultate zeigen, dass die meisten Teilnehmer nur schwach ausgeprägte Präferenzen hinsichtlich der zeitlichen Auflösung von Konsumunsicherheit haben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen außerdem, dass das rekursive Nutzenmodell keine Erklärungskraft bezüglich dieser Präferenzen hat. Die weiteren Kapitel wenden dynamische mikrofundierte Modelle zur Analyse von makroökonomischen Fragestellungen an. Kapitel 3 analysiert die Wachstums- und Verteilungseffekte von fortschreitender Automatisierung des Produktionsprozesses. Zu diesem Zweck entwickelt Kapitel 3 ein neues dynamisches Gleichgewichtsmodell mit Haushalts- und Ausbildungsheterogenität, in dem Automatisierungskapital ein Produktionsfaktor ist. In dem Modell generiert Automatisierung Wachstum. Durch die unterschiedliche Interaktion mit verschiedenen Formen von Arbeit (Routine- versus Nicht-Routine-Tätigkeiten) führt Automatisierung auch zu einem Anstieg von Einkommens- und Konsumungleichheit, insbesondere solange die Ausbildungsniveaus der Haushalte konstant bleiben. Endogene Bildungsentscheidungen verringern den Anstieg von Ungleichheit durch starke gesamtwirtschaftliche Rückkopplungseffekte. Das Kapitel betrachtet Steuern auf Automatisierungstechnologie, Besteuerung von Kapitaleinkommen und Bildungssubventionen als potentielle Politikmaßnahmen. In diesem Zusammenhang werden potentielle Wohlfahrtsgewinne und -verluste aus dynamischer Perspektive analysiert. Kapitel 4 untersucht Faktoren, die zur gegenwärtigen langen Niedriginflationsphase in der Eurozone geführt haben. Die Schätzung eines nicht-linearen dynamischen stochastischen allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodells (dynamic stochastic general equilibrium, DSGE) der globalen Wirtschaft zeigt, dass die Nullzinsuntergrenze in Kombination mit Nachfrageschocks einen Großteil des Inflationsrückgangs erklären kann. Laut der Schätzung haben angebotsseitige Entwicklungen im Arbeitsmarkt (Lohnzurückhaltung) zusätzlichen negativen Preisdruck verursacht. Preisentwicklungen außerhalb der Eurozone, insbesondere Rohstoffpreisschwankungen und ein Rückgang der Exportpreise im Rest der Welt, spielen eine wichtige Rolle. Kapitel 5 analysiert fiskalpolitische Implikationen von abwärtsgerichteten Nominallohnrigiditäten (ANLR) für Länder in einer Währungsunion. Nichtlineare Lösungsmethoden und Schätzverfahren berücksichtigen, dass Löhne stärker auf gute als auf schlechte gesamtwirtschaftliche Entwicklungen reagieren. Diese Asymmetrie führt zu Zustandsabhängigkeit von Fiskalpolitik, d.h. die makroökonomischen Effekte fiskalischer Maßnahmen unterscheiden sich je nach Konjunkturphase. Die Analyse zeigt, dass eine Senkung der Sozialversicherungsbeiträge (SVB) auf Arbeitgeberseite im Falle einer schweren Rezession und ANLR besonders effektiv ist. Diese Politikmaßnahme erzeugt langlebigere Wachstumseffekte als Staatsausgabenerhöhungen, auch wenn letztere einen größeren Multiplikatoreffekt in der kurzen Frist aufweisen. Darüber hinaus führt die Senkung der SVB zu einer Expansion der Steuerbasis und höheren Steuereinnahmen. Eine Senkung der SVB ist daher eine sinnvolle Maßnahme zur Stabilisierung des Konjunkturzyklus für Länder mit geringem fiskalischen Spielraum. Angesichts der langanhaltenden Niedrigwachstumsphase nach der Finanzkrise analysiert Kapitel 6 Perspektiven auf Wachstum und Konjunktur. Um die komplizierten Zusammenhänge abwägen zu können, konstruiert Kapitel 6 ein neues makroökonomisches Modell, das neben Finanzkrisen und Konjunkturzyklen auch die Entwicklung von Produktivität und Technologie abbildet. Zu diesem Zweck integriert die Studie ein schumpeterianisches Wachstumsmodell in ein neukeynesianisches Konjunkturzyklusmodell. Ergebnisse einer bayesianischen Schätzung zeigen, dass Risikoprämien für Investitionen eine wichtige Ursache der Wachstumsflaute sind. Die Nachfrageschwäche beeinflusst Forschungs- und Entwicklungsausgaben und damit den technischen Fortschritt. Zugleich verstärkt endogenes Wachstum die Effekte von Finanzkrisen. Nichtsdestotrotz bestreitet die Modellschätzung, dass die Niedrigwachstumsphase ein reines Nachfragephänomen ist. Angebotsseitige Entwicklungen wie abnehmende Innovationsdynamik und Rückgang des spitzentechnologischen Fortschritts traten bereits vor der Finanzkrise auf.

Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan mielenterveyspalvelujen reformien prosessia, joka alkoi Venäjällä 1990-luvun alussa Neuvostoliiton hajoamisen jälkeen. Reformien taustalla oli pyrkimys saattaa potilaiden oikeuksien turvaaminen kansainvälisten suositusten mukaiseksi palvelujärjestelmässä, jota oli aiemmin kritisoitu voimakkaasti tehottomuudesta ja psykiatrisen hoidon väärinkäyttämisestä poliittisiin tarkoituksiin. Tässä tutkimuksessa Venäjän mielenterveyspolitiikan kehitystä tarkastellaan sekä sosiaalisessa ja historiallisessa kontekstissaan että suhteessa Maailman terveysjärjestön (WHO) suosituksiin. Tutkielmassa luodaan katsaus neuvosto-psykiatrian historiaan, minkä pohjalta voidaan arvioida mielenterveyspalvelujen reformien tärkeyttä nyky-Venäjällä. Tutkimus keskittyy potilaiden oikeuksiin, laitoshoidon purkamiseen, palvelujen käyttäjien osallistamiseen sekä stigmatisoitumisen ehkäisyyn politiikan tavoitteina. Nämä kansainvälisesti tunnustetut periaatteet ovat toimineet mielenterveyspolitiikan kehittämisen perustana monissa maissa, ja ovat siten keskeisessä asemassa myös analysoitaessa reformeja Venäjällä. Metodologialtaan tutkimus perustuu tulkinnalliseen politiikka-analyysiin (interpretive policy analysis, jossa keskitytään siihen, millaisia merkityksiä politiikalla on erilaisille ryhmille. Tutkimuksen lähtökohtaisena oletuksena on, että erilaisten politiikkaa tulkitsevien yhteisöjen (interpretive communities) mielenterveyspolitiikkaan liittämillä merkityksillä on tärkeä sijansa politiikan kehittämisessä ja toimeenpanossa. Politiikan suunnittelijat ja päättäjät, media, mielenterveyspalvelujen henkilöstö sekä mielenterveysongelmista kärsivien läheiset nähdään tässä tutkimuksessa tärkeimpinä tulkintoja tuottavina yhteisöinä. Osatöissä (artikkelit) tutkitaan eri toimijoiden tapoja ymmärtää politiikan suuntaviivoja. Käsitteiden osalta tukeudutaan konstruktionistiseen teoriaan, jonka mukaan esimerkiksi mielenterveyspalvelujen reformeja koskevat diskurssit ovat sidoksissa yhteiskunnan kulttuuriseen, sosiaaliseen ja poliittiseen kontekstiin. Polkuriippuvuuden käsitettä käytetään analysoitaessa sitä, miten neuvostoajan perintö on vaikuttanut mielenterveyspalvelujen kehitykseen. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin menetelminä laadullista sisällön analyysiä ja teema-analyysiä. Aineisto koostui mielenterveyspolitiikkaa käsittelevästä asiakirja-aineistosta, sanomalehtiaineistosta sekä mielenterveysalan ammattilaisten ja omaishoitajien haastatteluista. Tutkimuksen mukaan mielenterveyspoliittisessa keskustelussa on edetty merkittävästi potilaiden oikeuksien ja mielenterveyspalveluiden uudelleenorganisoinnissa. Politiikkaa koskevissa asiakirjoissa ei sen sijaan ole kiinnitetty huomiota palveluiden käyttäjien kokemaan stigmaan tai heidän voimaannuttamiseensa. Median tapa käsitellä uutta politiikkaa oli suurelta osin ristiriitainen. Potilaiden oikeuksia puolustavan näkemyksen rinnalla tuotiin esiin pelko psykiatrisen hoidon vapautumisen aiheuttamasta vahingollisesta vaikutuksesta yleiselle turvallisuudelle. Analyysi paljasti, että laitoshoidon purkua koskevan toimenpideohjelman toteuttamista edelsi aiheen saama negatiivinen mediajulkisuus. Tästä seurasi epäsuotuisa mielipideilmapiiri, joka vaikeutti toimenpideohjelman toteuttamista. Tutkimuksessa kävi myös ilmi, että politiikan suunnittelu ja toteuttaminen eivät aina vastanneet toisiaan. Tavat, joilla hallinto esitteli politiikan tavoitteet, ja joilla media aiheesta uutisoi, oli omiaan lisäämään politiikan kohteina olevien ihmisten kokemaa epäluuloa reformeja kohtaan. Laitoshoidon purkaminen sai mielenterveysalan ammattilaisilta ja mielenterveyden häiriöistä kärsiviä omaisiaan hoitavilta ihmisiltä niukasti tukea. Ammattilaiset kritisoivat uusia ohjelmia, suhtautuivat epäluuloisesti reformeihin ja puolustivat olemassa olevan järjestelmän säilyttämistä. Psykiatriset hoitolaitokset edustivat heille keinoa sosiaalisen kontrollin säilyttämiseen sekä potilaiden ja heidän perheidensä suojeluun. Omaisiaan hoitavat olivat hyvin huolissaan mahdollisuudesta menettää nykyisistä palveluista saamansa tuki. Kaiken kaikkiaan tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että mielenterveyspoliittisten ideoiden siirtäminen kansallisten rajojen yli on monimutkainen prosessi. Tämän vuoksi on tärkeää sopeuttaa kansainväliset aloitteet vastaanottavan maan valmiuksiin ja halukkuuteen hyväksyä ehdotetut muutokset. ; This thesis provides insights into the process of mental healthcare reform in post-Soviet Russia. The reforms started in Russia in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were triggered by a desire to conform to international standards for patients' rights within a mental healthcare system that had previously been sharply criticized for ineffectiveness and political abuse. In this study, the development of Russia's mental health policy is considered in its social and historical context and with reference to the World Health Organization's guiding principles. The thesis provides a historical review of Soviet psychiatry in order to gain a greater sense of the significance of mental healthcare reforms in post-Soviet Russia. The thesis focuses on policy issues such as patients' rights, deinstitutionalization, service users' inclusion and participation, and the prevention of stigmatization. These internationally recognized principles have provided the basis for the development of mental health policy in many countries, and could be deemed central to the analysis of the reforms in Russia. Methodologically the study is based on interpretive policy analysis, which focuses on the meanings that policies have for a broad range of policy-relevant publics. This research started from the premise that the meanings that different interpretive communities attach to mental health policy are important for its development and implementation. In this thesis, policymakers, the media, mental healthcare staff, and the relatives of people with mental illness are considered key interpretive communities. Each article provides insights into how policy principles were interpreted by a particular interpretive community. For the conceptual basis, I drew on social constructionist theory, which claims that discourses such as those on mental healthcare reform are tied to the cultural, social and political contexts of the particular society. I also used the concept of path dependency to analyse whether and how the Soviet background has influenced mental healthcare development. The study methods were qualitative, consisting of qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. The research material included mental health policy documents, mass media texts from selected newspapers, and interviews with mental health professionals and family caregivers of people with mental disabilities. The results of the study revealed that the policy discussion on patients' rights and the reorganization of mental healthcare was a significant advance over the Soviet past. However, the policy documents paid little attention to the issues of stigmatization or users' participation. The media response to the new policies was largely ambivalent. Support for patients' rights was accompanied by fears about the detrimental effects of the liberalization of psychiatry on public safety. The research revealed that negative media responses to the reforms preceded the policy programme for deinstitutionalization, creating an unfavourable climate for its implementation. There were also gaps between policy planning and practice in Russia that contributed to a distrust of the reforms among citizens affected by the policy. Deinstitutionalization met with little support from professionals or family caregivers. The professionals criticized the new policies and were suspicious of reform, arguing for the preservation of the existing system. They perceived psychiatric institutions as a means for the social control and protection of people with mental illness and their families. Simultaneously, caregivers were strongly concerned about the high risk of losing the support they received from existing services. The results of this study demonstrate that transferring mental health policy ideas across national boundaries is a complex process. This underlines the importance of seeking balance between internationally driven initiatives and the readiness and willingness of the receiving country to accept the proposed changes.

TheRevista Scientific of theInstituto Internacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico Educativo (INDTEC, C.A.), presents its sixth editorial edition where fifteen works can be found in response to the search for interest in the investigation, analysis and interpretation of different topics.In this way, in a first section, the educational axes constituted in questions of questions respond to: the Teacher Training in Techniques applied to the Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Education; Reading Alternatives considered for the Strengthening of Educational Quality; Advertising Effectiveness for Road Safety; Ecuadorian Education in English and their language skills in rural students; Didactic Strategies to improve Reading and Writing; the Importance of the Planning of the Environmental Education in the University Scope considered from a Transdisciplinary Perspective; the Utility of Tics in the Training of University Teaching Advisors; the Complementary Didactic Material for the Learning of Rational Mechanical Curriculum Unit 10 and the Tutor Role in the context of virtual learning.In continuity, other articles stand out, such as the Environmental Actions for the Conservation of Hydrographic Basins; the application of the Educaplay Computer Technique as a strategy for the learning of biomolecules in high school students of the Andrés F. Córdova Educational Unit; Program for Parents in the Internet use of their children; Bamboo Cultivation considered a renewable natural resource for reforestation in Quebrada Echeverría and corporate social responsibility in the context of labor relations in SMEs.In a second section, five essays induce us to reflect on perspectives of analysis in response to: Technological Imbrications in Pedagogical Praxis; Advanced Management in the Process of University Scientific Research; the Training in Citizen Culture Space and its importance for the Social Responsibility of Business Organizations; the Formative Vision of the Quantitative Methodology in Education; Neurosciences versus Vitalogy Emerging Paradigms in Millennium Management.Each of these articles struggles in post questioning as reflections of the interest placed on research considered an activity, which from a premise that asks about a topic, leads to multiple causal relationships and searches for answers; Therefore, they should be instruments conducive to the permanent knowledge of the entire academic community, allowing to stimulate and induce new experiences.This leads us to think that, teachers in a firm race for improvement, we must not engage in reductionist and repetitive practices of research results previously made, but in an exploration for new answers in the production of knowledge.Aware of the limitations and the reality of the social and political context of each of the Latin American countries, our editorial and bibliographic contribution aims to lead us to reflect on the crucial task of teachers committed to their social function and research as a transverse link for educational production and propagation. It is from this weighting, that could be aroused alternatives that overcome thinking at the state level. ; La Revista SCIENTIFIC del Instituto Internacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico Educativo (INDTEC, C.A.), presenta su sexta edición editorial en donde pueden hallarse quince obras en respuesta a la búsqueda del interés puesta en la indagación, análisis e interpretación de diferentes temáticas. De esta forma, en una primera sección, los ejes educativos constituidos en temas de cuestionamientos responden a: la Formación Docente en Técnicas aplicadas a la Enseñanza de la Matemática en la Educación Segundaria; las Alternativas de la Lectura consideradas para el Fortalecimiento de la Calidad Educativa; la Eficacia publicitaria para la Seguridad Vial; la Educación Ecuatoriana en inglés y sus competencias lingüísticas en los estudiantes rurales; Estrategias Didácticas para mejorar la Lectura y Escritura; la Importancia de la Planificación de la Educación Ambiental en el Ámbito Universitario considerada desde una Perspectiva Transdisciplinaria; la Utilidad de las Tics en la Formación de Asesores Docentes Universitarios; el Material Didáctico Complementario para el Aprendizaje de Unidad Curricular Mecánica Racional 10 y el Rol del Tutor en el contexto del aprendizaje virtual. En continuidad, sobresalen otros artículos como las Acciones Ambientalistas para la Conservación de las Cuencas Hidrográficas; la aplicación de la Técnica Informática Educaplay como estrategia para el aprendizaje de las biomoléculas en estudiantes de bachillerato de la Unidad Educativa Andrés F. Córdova; Programa para Padres en el uso de Internet de sus hijos; el Cultivo de bambú considerado un recurso natural renovable para la reforestación en la Quebrada Echeverría y la responsabilidad social empresarial en el contexto de las relaciones laborales en las Pymes. En una segunda sección, cinco ensayos nos inducen a reflexionar sobre perspectivas de análisis en respuesta a: las Imbricaciones Tecnológicas en la Praxis Pedagógica; la Gerencia Avanzada en el Proceso de Investigación Científica Universitaria; la Formación en Cultura Ciudadana Espacio y su importancia para la Responsabilidad Social de las Organizaciones Empresariales; la Visión Formativa de la Metodología Cuantitativa en la Educación; las Neurociencias versus la Vitalogía Paradigmas Emergentes en la Gerencia del Milenio. Cada uno de estos artículos brega en post de cuestionamientos como reflejos del interés puesto en la investigación considerada una actividad, que a partir de una premisa cual pregunta sobre una temática, conlleva a múltiples relaciones causales y búsquedas de respuestas; por lo cual, debieran ser instrumentos conducentes al conocimiento permanente de toda la comunidad académica, permitiendo estimular e inducir a nuevas experiencias. Esto nos dirige a pensar que, los docentes en firme carrera por el perfeccionamiento, no debemos incurrir en prácticas reduccionistas y repetitivas de resultados de pesquisas previamente realizadas, sino en una exploración por nuevas respuestas en la producción del conocimiento. Conscientes de las limitaciones y de la realidad del contexto político social de cada uno de los países de América Latina, nuestro aporte editorial y bibliográfico pretende conducir a la reflexión sobre la crucial tarea del docente comprometido con su función social y la investigación como un eslabón trascedente para la producción y propagación educativa. Es a partir de esta ponderación, que se podrían suscitar alternativas superadoras de pensamiento a nivel estatal.

TheRevista Scientific of theInstituto Internacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico Educativo (INDTEC, C.A.), presents its sixth editorial edition where fifteen works can be found in response to the search for interest in the investigation, analysis and interpretation of different topics.In this way, in a first section, the educational axes constituted in questions of questions respond to: the Teacher Training in Techniques applied to the Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Education; Reading Alternatives considered for the Strengthening of Educational Quality; Advertising Effectiveness for Road Safety; Ecuadorian Education in English and their language skills in rural students; Didactic Strategies to improve Reading and Writing; the Importance of the Planning of the Environmental Education in the University Scope considered from a Transdisciplinary Perspective; the Utility of Tics in the Training of University Teaching Advisors; the Complementary Didactic Material for the Learning of Rational Mechanical Curriculum Unit 10 and the Tutor Role in the context of virtual learning.In continuity, other articles stand out, such as the Environmental Actions for the Conservation of Hydrographic Basins; the application of the Educaplay Computer Technique as a strategy for the learning of biomolecules in high school students of the Andrés F. Córdova Educational Unit; Program for Parents in the Internet use of their children; Bamboo Cultivation considered a renewable natural resource for reforestation in Quebrada Echeverría and corporate social responsibility in the context of labor relations in SMEs.In a second section, five essays induce us to reflect on perspectives of analysis in response to: Technological Imbrications in Pedagogical Praxis; Advanced Management in the Process of University Scientific Research; the Training in Citizen Culture Space and its importance for the Social Responsibility of Business Organizations; the Formative Vision of the Quantitative Methodology in Education; Neurosciences versus Vitalogy Emerging Paradigms in Millennium Management.Each of these articles struggles in post questioning as reflections of the interest placed on research considered an activity, which from a premise that asks about a topic, leads to multiple causal relationships and searches for answers; Therefore, they should be instruments conducive to the permanent knowledge of the entire academic community, allowing to stimulate and induce new experiences.This leads us to think that, teachers in a firm race for improvement, we must not engage in reductionist and repetitive practices of research results previously made, but in an exploration for new answers in the production of knowledge.Aware of the limitations and the reality of the social and political context of each of the Latin American countries, our editorial and bibliographic contribution aims to lead us to reflect on the crucial task of teachers committed to their social function and research as a transverse link for educational production and propagation. It is from this weighting, that could be aroused alternatives that overcome thinking at the state level. ; La Revista SCIENTIFIC del Instituto Internacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico Educativo (INDTEC, C.A.), presenta su sexta edición editorial en donde pueden hallarse quince obras en respuesta a la búsqueda del interés puesta en la indagación, análisis e interpretación de diferentes temáticas. De esta forma, en una primera sección, los ejes educativos constituidos en temas de cuestionamientos responden a: la Formación Docente en Técnicas aplicadas a la Enseñanza de la Matemática en la Educación Segundaria; las Alternativas de la Lectura consideradas para el Fortalecimiento de la Calidad Educativa; la Eficacia publicitaria para la Seguridad Vial; la Educación Ecuatoriana en inglés y sus competencias lingüísticas en los estudiantes rurales; Estrategias Didácticas para mejorar la Lectura y Escritura; la Importancia de la Planificación de la Educación Ambiental en el Ámbito Universitario considerada desde una Perspectiva Transdisciplinaria; la Utilidad de las Tics en la Formación de Asesores Docentes Universitarios; el Material Didáctico Complementario para el Aprendizaje de Unidad Curricular Mecánica Racional 10 y el Rol del Tutor en el contexto del aprendizaje virtual. En continuidad, sobresalen otros artículos como las Acciones Ambientalistas para la Conservación de las Cuencas Hidrográficas; la aplicación de la Técnica Informática Educaplay como estrategia para el aprendizaje de las biomoléculas en estudiantes de bachillerato de la Unidad Educativa Andrés F. Córdova; Programa para Padres en el uso de Internet de sus hijos; el Cultivo de bambú considerado un recurso natural renovable para la reforestación en la Quebrada Echeverría y la responsabilidad social empresarial en el contexto de las relaciones laborales en las Pymes. En una segunda sección, cinco ensayos nos inducen a reflexionar sobre perspectivas de análisis en respuesta a: las Imbricaciones Tecnológicas en la Praxis Pedagógica; la Gerencia Avanzada en el Proceso de Investigación Científica Universitaria; la Formación en Cultura Ciudadana Espacio y su importancia para la Responsabilidad Social de las Organizaciones Empresariales; la Visión Formativa de la Metodología Cuantitativa en la Educación; las Neurociencias versus la Vitalogía Paradigmas Emergentes en la Gerencia del Milenio. Cada uno de estos artículos brega en post de cuestionamientos como reflejos del interés puesto en la investigación considerada una actividad, que a partir de una premisa cual pregunta sobre una temática, conlleva a múltiples relaciones causales y búsquedas de respuestas; por lo cual, debieran ser instrumentos conducentes al conocimiento permanente de toda la comunidad académica, permitiendo estimular e inducir a nuevas experiencias. Esto nos dirige a pensar que, los docentes en firme carrera por el perfeccionamiento, no debemos incurrir en prácticas reduccionistas y repetitivas de resultados de pesquisas previamente realizadas, sino en una exploración por nuevas respuestas en la producción del conocimiento. Conscientes de las limitaciones y de la realidad del contexto político social de cada uno de los países de América Latina, nuestro aporte editorial y bibliográfico pretende conducir a la reflexión sobre la crucial tarea del docente comprometido con su función social y la investigación como un eslabón trascedente para la producción y propagación educativa. Es a partir de esta ponderación, que se podrían suscitar alternativas superadoras de pensamiento a nivel estatal.

This collection contains a diary, personal letters and photos of Edmond Arthur Littlefield principally from his service in the American Field Service during World War I. Other items include pre and post WWI letters and photos. ; Diary is 8 1/2 x 6 in. green covered composition book; letters are sheets of 6 x 9 in. paper; photographs are 2 x 3 in. ; Cunard Bulletin.R. M. S. " ANDANIA." TUESDAY, 2nd October, 1917. AMERICA'S OFFICIAL PEACE REPRESENTATIVE. PRELIMINARY MEASURES ONLY. Washington. Colonel Emhouse of Texas and New York,. one of President Wilson's closest friends, will head the Peace Mission of the United States when one is named to take up with other belligerent representatives the intricate questions to be settled before peace is finally secured. This was the official interpretation placed oil the naming of the Colonel, who has been instructed to gather political, commercial and geographical data to be utilized when a peace conference is held. This does not in any way indicate that hostilities may end soon officials state.There are no British or French official messages to hand from the Western front. FURTHER ITALIAN SUCCESS. Home, September 30th. The Italians, have gained further ground and repulsed the enemy. General Cardorna has rectified his lines by a surprise attack near Monte San Gabrielle.The War Office report reads: " Italian troops made an attack 011 the front above Gorizia yesterday and gained ground which was held in the face of repeated fierce counter attacks." OUST LA FOLLETTE MOTION Washington, September 29th. The move to oust Senator La Follette of Wisconsin, from the United States Senate opened today with the introduction by Senator Kellogg of. Minnesota, of resolutions adopted by the Public Safety Commission of Minnesota demanding Senator La Follett's expulsion. ALLIES TO TIGHTEN THE BLOCKADE OF GERMANY. London, September 30th. A still more vigorous blockade of Germany is to be enforced by the entente allies; as a result of the Conference between Lord Robert Cecil, the British Minister of Blockade with the French Minister of Blockade. Today King George signed a proclamation prohibiting the exportatation of certain articles to Sweden and Holland. His Majesty's approval was also given to other measures to make it more difficult for the enemy in the future to obtain supplies through the neutral countries. JAPAN AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE. New York, September 30th. In the far east the Monroe doctrine guards China says Viscount Ishiu. Speaking amid cheers at a New York banquet in his honour, he declared: " Neither Nippon aggression nor aggression against the territory or independence of China by any other power will be tolerated, and he pledged Japan not to attempt any aggression on her part. The head of the Japanese Mission blamed Germany for the distrust that was prevalent, and stated that he could see the whole world set free by the Allies. " RUSSIAN OFFICIAL.The Russian official communique states: " We pressed enemy's advanced posts back 1000 yards."CUNARD BULLETIN ANOTHER AIR RAID ON LONDON London, September 30th. London was again raided by aeroplanes on the night of September 29th. Three groups approached the city from different directions, but each group was broken up by the defences through which only two of at most three machines managed to penetrate. A fourth group which approached later was also driven off. Bombs were dropped at various places in Kent and Essex. The casualties reported number eleven killed and eighty-two injured. A heavy barrage by our anti aircraft guns was very effective against the enemy. AMERICAN WAR TAX BILL. The House and Senate conferees on the war tax bill reached a final agreement on the measure late yesterday, and the report will be presented to the House tomorrow. The conferees made no change in the approximate levies on excess war profits and incomes. They provided, however, a new system of calculating excess profits. Both Senate and House Committees say the compromise is better than the original draft. NEW YORK'S NEW COLLECTOR. Washington, September 29th The Senate today confirmed the appointment of Mr. Byron Newton, formerly Assistant Secretary of the Treasury as Collector of Customs of the port of New York. Mr. Newton succeeds Mr. Dudley Field M alone. AMERICAN ARMY NEWS. Washington, September 30th. Brigadier General John A. Le Jenn, for three years Senior Assistant to the Major General Commandant at Marine Corps Headquarters has been ordered to command the Marine Cantonment at Quantico, Virginia. NEW SEAMEN'S CLUB FOR NEW YORK. New York. October 1st.The new Clubhouse for the use of American Naval Seamen was opened today at West End Avenue and 93rd Street. The Clubhouse was donated by Professor Blander Matthews and will be directed by the National Special Aid Commission as part of its string of Soldier's and Sailor's Home Clubs. STORM SWEEPS MISSISSIPPI AND FLORIDA COASTS. New Orleans, September 30th. Rescue steamers were being made ready here to-day to go to the relief of Pensacola, Florida, which was cut off from the outside world by the hurricane which has. swept the vicinity. Every attempt is being made to reach the isolated city. Biloxi, Harrison Co., a gulf port, and other Southern Mississippi towns in the storm's path weathered the seventy five mile gale with a few unroofed houses and other slight damage. Subscription lists and other charitable schemes have been started for the relief of the homeless. WAR RELIEF FUND. The American Women's War Relief Fund has equipped and entirely financed a Clinical Hospital of 250 beds at Paignton, Devonshire, and has organized an Economical Relief Scheme, where many women thrown out of employment directly owing to the war, are given employment. Funds are urgently needed to carry on these objects. All donations will be gratefully received by the Hon. Treasurer, WALTER S. H. BURNS, 58, Grosvenor Gardens, LONDON. Offices: 31, Old Burlington Street, London, Eng. where all particulars will be gladly given.

According to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (Regulation EC n.141/2000), rare diseases are defined solely on the basis of low prevalence and affect not more than five individuals per 10.000 in the European population. RD are a large and diverse group of disorders; they include more than 6.000 conditions and involve all organs and tissues, often with several clinical subtypes within the same disease. Almost all RD may cause early mortality and/or long-term disability and accurate and timely diagnosis is often of great importance for prevention and treatment. Very often information on many RD are insufficient, concerning either diagnosis and/or prognosis. An integrated approach was set on a very rare and severe liver malignancy of childhood, hepatoblastoma. Although its annual incidence in western countries is 1.5 cases per million of individuals younger than 15 years, HB represents the most common liver cancer of childhood (Reynolds et al., 2004; McLaughlin et al., 2006; Roebuck and Perilongo, 2006). Its prognosis depends on numerous clinical and histological factors. Children with a poor prognosis are usually characterized by abnormal α-fetoprotein levels (1,000,000 ng/ml) and distant metastases (i.e. lung and lymph nodes), whereas patients with good prognosis appear to have, among others, a decline in circulating AFP levels during chemotherapy (Roebuck and Perilongo, 2006; De Ioris et al., 2007). Scientific evidence points out HB as a multi-factorial condition associated with: genetic conditions (i.e. Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome and Familial Adenomatous Polyposis) (Roebuck and Perilongo, 2006), non genetic and environmental factors such as the endocrine-metabolic status of the mother (young age, higher body mass index, use of infertility treatments, smoking) and (pre)eclampsia (McLaughlin et al., 2006). An association with occupational paternal exposure to metals, petroleum products and paints/pigments as well the possible involvement of ubiquitous environmental contaminants, such as phthalates, have been suggested (Buckley et al., 1989; Reynolds et al., 2004; McLaughlin et al., 2006). Moreover, epidemiological data indicate low birth weight and increased survival of LBW newborns as consistently associated with increased risk of HB (Reynolds et al., 2004). In the first part of the project, in vitro studies on 4 liver cancer cell lines and 9 matched biopsis collected from HB patients were performed in order to individuate new molecular markers of childhood liver cancers. Special attention was dedicated to the canonical and non canonical WNT pathways and to the IGF-II signalling, since they are involved in the pathogenesis of FAP and BWS, the genetic disorders that predispose to HB onset. FAP patients carry a germline mutation in APC gene, which codifies for a protein that is part, together with Axin and GSK-3β, of the complex that controls the cytoplasmic levels of β-catenin (Orford et al., 1998), the central effector molecule of the canonical WNT pathway (Rubinfeld et al., 1996). BWS patients show a loss of imprinting LOI in the region 11p15, where IGF-II gene is localized. The LOI causes the biallelic expression and therefore, an increase of IGF-II levels, that could lead, as suggested by Veronese and coworkers, to enhanced cellular proliferation, differentiation failure and tumour development (Veronese et al., 2010). An mRNA- and protein-array, performed on the liver cancer cell lines; showed different signatures in the expression levels of genes and proteins, compared to normal human hepatocytes. The mRNA array analyzed the expression of several genes (96) involved in canonical and non canonical WNT signallings and revealed, in liver cancer cell lines compared to normal human hepatocytes, the contemporary upregulation of antagonists genes of the canonical WNT pathway, such as NLK and SOX17, and the downregulation of its agonists genes, such as TCF7L2, TLE1, SLC9A3R1 and WNT10A. These evidences suggest an inactivation of the canonical WNT signalling; at the same time the overexpression of RHOU transcript indicate the activation of the non canonical WNT signalling. The very innovative protein array technology evaluated the epression levels of 224 proteins involved in biological pathways such as apoptosis, cell cycle, and signal transduction, and revealed that Grb-2 is over-expressed in the cell lines investigated, compared to normal human primary hepatocytes. Grb-2 is an ubiquitously expressed adapter induced by IGF (I and II) signallings, in normal conditions; through the interaction with Raf/MAPK, Grb-2 activation leads to the induction of cellular proliferation (Foulstone et al., 2005). In a second step, we approached the study of 3 snap-frozen and 6 paraffin-embedded matched tissues obtained from HB patients. In these rare samples we could evaluate the markers previously evidenced and validated in liver cancer cell lines (NLK, RHOU and WNT10A transcripts; Grb-2 protein). This study showed similar results in HB matched tissues when compared to liver cancer cell lines, suggesting that these markers are reliable also in HB tissue samples. MicroRNAs are small RNA sequences, 20-22 nucleotides long, that can bind to the 3'UTR of specific mRNAs, and regulate their expression by leading to translational repression, mRNA cleavage, and mRNA decay. Since microRNA expression profiles are altered in several tumours compared to their normal counterparts, these molecules are largely used also in the field of cancer classification (Calin and Croce, 2006). A microRNA-array, performed in the three snap-frozen HB tissues, revealed that 51 microRNAs could distinguish tumour from non-tumour samples. By comparing our results with previously published data (Varnholt et al., 2008), we selected 9 microRNAs to be analysed in our 9 matched samples. The comparison between these microRNAs expression in tumour and in non-tumour counterparts, highlighted four up-regulated microRNAs (miR-125a, -150, -199a and -214), and a down-regulated one (miR-148a). It has been demonstrated that miR-214 binds to the PTEN mRNA and downregulates its protein levels (Yang et al., 2008). PTEN is a negative regulator of the PI3K/Akt pathway which is activated by IGF signalling, in normal conditions (Foulstone et al., 2005). In our samples as well, the comparison of tumour and normal counterparts indicated a correlation between high miR-214 levels and low PTEN protein levels in the tumour samples. The study of liver cancer cell lines and HB biopsis revealed the inactivation of the canonical WNT pathway and the contemporary induction of the non canonical one. Furthermore the activation of IGF-signalling is also speculated on the basis of the deregulation of Grb-2 and PTEN protein levels. In the second part of the project the association between HB onset and the exposure to a particular phthalate, DEHP, was investigated. DEHP is the most abundant phthalate in the environment and liver represents one of its main targets. Studies performed on mice and humans demonstrated that DEHP alters the glucose metabolism (Latini et al., 2008). This process involve a family of proteins called PPARs that mediates the IGF-promoted signalling (Feige et al., 2007; Latini et al., 2008), responsible of glycogen storage (Lopez et al., 1999). In utero exposure to phthalates has been shown to be significantly associated with prematurity (Latini et al., 2008), that in turn has been strongly associated with HB (McLaughlin et al., 2006). HB can derive either from developmental disturbances during critical phases of organogenesis or from the interplay of risk factors (e.g. DEHP) during prenatal or early neonatal life (Salvatore et al., 2008). In order to investigate the post-natal effects of DEHP prenatal exposure on liver development, pregnant CD-1 mice were exposed to DEHP (25 and 100 mg/kg BW pro die) during the critical period of liver organogenesis and histogenesis (starting from the 11th day of gestation and till the 19th) (Duncan, 2003). Male and female F1 mice were sacrificed at post natal day 21 and 35, respesenting weaning and puberty, respectively. Histopathological, histochemical and gene expression studies performed on livers of PND35 treated mice did not show significant differences compared to controls, while at PND21 treated mice showed alterations in glucose and lipid metabolism that were absent in controls. The inactivation of GSK-3β was speculated since these mice were characterized by lack of glycogen storage and presence of cytoplasmic β-catenin. Glycogen storage is triggered by IGF-II in fetal life and ensures stable levels of glycaemia at birth when the newborn makes the adjustment to extra-uterine life (Lopez et al., 1999; Hui et al., 2006). The presence of cytoplasmic β-catenin indicates that the canonical WNT pathway is active, and that the transcription of genes involved in cell proliferation is promoted (Rubinfeld et al., 1996). PND21 mice exposed to DEHP showed hepatocytes vacuolization (hepatosteatosis), a feature of an ecess of fatty acid synthesis, as a consequence of glycogen synthesis inhibition (Shimano et al., 2007). AFP levels in mice progressively decrease after birth and are almost completely switched off in the third week of life, when liver accumulates energy as glycogen instead of AFP (Rusyn et al., 2006; Heudorf et al., 2007; Latini et al., 2009) On the basis of the association between AFP expression and embryonal status, this gene is also used as a marker of hepatocytes maturation (Qin and Tang, 2004). Our results showed high levels of AFP gene expression in treated mice compared to controls, suggestable of a role for DEHP exposure in determining both the alteration of post-natal AFP to glycogen switch off, and a delay of hepatocytes maturation. Furthermore the possible role of microRNAs in the DEHP-induced alterations was speculated. IGF-II gene, fundamental in the promotion of glycogen storage during fetal life (Lopez et al., 1999; Hui et al., 2006), harbours a microRNA, miR-483, within its second intron (Fu et al., 2005; www.ensembl.org). The analysis of miR-483 expression showed that this miR can be considered a fetal marker, since its levels progressively decrease after birth. High levels of miR-483 were detected in PND21 mice treated with DEHP 100 mg/kg bw pro die, in confirmation with a role of DEHP exposure in delaying the hepatocytes maturation. We also demonstrated that this miR is able to target and downregulate β-catenin, thus representing a limit in the proliferation stimulus induced by high levels of this protein within the cytoplasm (Rubinfeld et al., 1996). The multidisciplinary approach, performed by using in vivo and in vitro studies, enabled us to identify early and tardive markers of hepatoblastoma. Our studies indicated that the prenatal exposure to DEHP delays liver maturation by affecting carbohydrate and lipid pathways involved in fetal nutrition. The incapability to accumulate glycogen, due to the inactivation of GSK-3β function, is counterbalanced by an enhanced synthesis of lipid, as demonstrated by the presence of hepatocyte vacuolization. Furthermore the improper increased levels of AFP gene expression, suggested that DEHP alters the post-natal AFP-to-glycogen switch and may delay the post natal maturation of hepatocytes, as suggested also by high levels of miR-483, another fetal marker. A biological role for miR-483 in limiting the proliferation activation induced by β-catenin has been also proposed. The characterization of in vitro models (liver cancer cell lines and HB matched tissue samples) has identified new molecular tardive markers of chilhood liver cancers, at mRNA- (WNT10A, NLK and RHOU trascripts), protein- (Grb-2 and PTEN), and at microRNA- (miR-214) level. Gene expression analysis showed an inactivation of the canonical WNT signalling; and the contemporary activation of the non canonical one. At protein level, the upregulation of Grb-2 in tumour compared to non tumour samples, lets speculate the activation of the Raf/MAPK signalling pathway. The upregulation of miR-214 in tumour compared to non tumour samples seemed to affect PTEN protein levels, which resulted to be downregulated in the tumour counterpart. This evidence suggests that the activation of PI3K/Akt pathway could lead to the misregulation of the cellular functions that it controls, such as glucose metabolism, cell proliferation and survival (Foulstone et al., 2005). Even though in in vivo and in vitro models the patterns of deregulation of WNT and IGF-signalling pathways involve different mechanisms, the importance of these pathways and their crosstalks can be considered pivotal in the onset and in the characterization of hepatoblastoma.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) Summit in Washington on 9-11 July showcased the current geostrategic priorities of the Alliance. The Southern flank remains one of the key strategic directions of the Alliance but, in the last few years, NATO is increasingly looking elsewhere. Undoubtedly, NATO's pivotal focus is the support to Ukraine and the threats coming from Russia, described as the "most significant and direct threat to Allies' security".[1] If the Eastern flank is considered the immediate and primary challenge to the Alliance, from a longer-term perspective, the Indo-Pacific is looming. China is described as a systemic challenger to Euro-Atlantic interests, security and values, and as a strategic partner of Russia. Moreover, among the Allies, there are notable differences regarding the level of commitment to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
This is a complex situation for those countries whose foreign policy and national interests are bound to the MENA region. Therefore, Italy, and several other Allies, are pressing for enhanced attention from NATO towards the Southern flank and its challenges. Thanks to their efforts, in the last months, the NATO reflection on the so-called Southern Neighbourhood has accelerated. Following the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, the Alliance tasked the North Atlantic Council with launching a "comprehensive and deep reflection" on the threats, challenges and opportunities in the Southern Neighbourhood.[2] Subsequently, the Secretary-General appointed an independent group of experts, whose findings were collected in a report published last May.[3] Leveraging the report's findings, the NATO Deputy Permanent Representatives Committee drafted an action plan for a renewed and more effective approach towards the Southern Neighbourhood. Lately, the final communiqué of the Washington Summit contains few but important decisions agreed upon by the Allies concerning the Southern flank.Why the report is relevant for Italy
The May report set the agenda of the discussions on the Southern flank and laid the ground for the relevant paragraphs of the Washington Summit communiqué. The report's findings are also the starting point for the action plan for the Southern Neighbourhood.
In essence, the value of the report to Italy is double: it kept the Allies' attention on the Southern flank alive and produced more than one hundred actionable recommendations. The basic rationale of the latter is that NATO needs a renewed strategic approach. A first set of recommendations is focused on bolstering regional partnerships. On the one hand, the experts suggested energising existing cooperation frameworks, such as the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI)[4] and the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD).[5] These two partnership frameworks are described as still valid, but their full potential has yet to be leveraged: ICI should extend its memberships and the range of its activities, while the MD must overcome bilateral tensions and Allies' disagreements, which paralysed its effectiveness. On the other hand, it is necessary to widen the options for cooperation, enhancing partners' involvement and flexibility, and reaching out to new actors. These recommendations are valuable to Rome, which has a vested interest in the stability of the MENA region and well-established bilateral partnerships with countries of the so-called Enlarged Mediterranean.
A second set of recommendations outlines thematic areas for cooperation to be prioritised. Several of these recommendations are of peculiar interest to Italy. For example, those calling for strengthening good governance, counter-terrorism efforts or maritime security in the region, address challenges which are at the core of Italian foreign policy. Moreover, recommendations concerning climate change, public diplomacy and strategic communications indirectly support Italy's Mattei Plan for Africa,[6] improving the political environment for bilateral relations.
A third set of recommendations is devoted to the enhancement of the cooperation with international and regional organisations, such as the European and the African Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League. These might be extremely precious to Rome, since they could improve synergy among international efforts and enhance NATO involvement in the MENA – producing a positive environment also for the Italian bilateral cooperation.
A last set of recommendations concerns the improvements of NATO internal structures, coordination and other measures, such as the establishment of additional NATO liaison offices and training centres, aimed at raising awareness of NATO's activities in the region, as well as strengthening partnerships and engagement.The Washington Summit communiqué
Unquestionably, the main focus of the Washington Summit was on the Eastern flank, epitomised by the pledge of Long-Term Security Assistance for Ukraine. Concerning the Southern flank, in addition to a couple of boilerplate paragraphs, like the fourth mentioning the challenge posed by MENA instability or the 28th mentioning the anniversaries of the MD and the ICI, only one paragraph – the 32nd – is fully devoted to Southern Neighbourhood. This paragraph mentions the reflection process that ushered in the May report and stresses the importance of partnerships in the Middle East and Africa, in order to foster security and stability.[7]
From Rome's point of view, the Summit also produced a few practical opportunities, such as the establishment of a Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood and a revision of the mandate for the NATO Strategic Direction-South Hub in Naples. However, the first of the two opportunities has seemingly already been lost – following the decision of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, harshly criticised by Italy, to appoint Spanish diplomat Javier Colomina.
The second opportunity is the decision to review the mandate for the NATO Strategic Direction-South Hub in Naples. Not being a proper think thank nor an intelligence agency, its potential is currently underdeveloped, and the structure would sensibly benefit from a renewed mandate, encompassing training and capacity-building for partners.
In addition, the dialogue, outreach and visibility of the Alliance will be bolstered by strengthening instruments such as the Defence Capacity Building Initiative, the NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Regional Centre in Kuwait and the opening of a liaison office in Jordan. Finally, the communiqué also mentions the adoption of the already mentioned action plan "for a stronger, more strategic and result-oriented approach toward our Southern Neighbourhood, which will be regularly updated".[8]Looking ahead
Overall, the Southern flank appears not to be a priority for NATO, now and in the next future. Threats, challenges and opportunities coming from the Eastern flank will very likely monopolise the Alliance's focus in the next few years. Moreover, after the experiences in Afghanistan and Libya, there is very limited appetite for crisis prevention and management, and the priorities are restoring NATO's deterrence and defence capabilities and supporting Ukraine. Meanwhile, China's systemic challenges will become increasingly relevant. As a consequence, the political and military bandwidth of the Alliance towards the Southern flank risks being limited. Furthermore, following the incoming presidential election in the USA, there is the real possibility of a sudden change in US foreign politics and policy towards NATO – potentially further absorbing the Alliance's capacity, at the additional expense of the Southern flank.
Nonetheless, the Washington Summit communiqué provides several opportunities for Italy to play a leading role on the Southern flank, in parallel and potentially in synergy with the Mattei Plan. Surely, the appointment of a Spanish diplomat as Special Representative was a lost opportunity for Italy. However, on the one hand, regardless of their nationality, this new player might be extremely useful for enhancing and streamlining the Alliance's overall focus on the Southern flank. On the other hand, Italy has reportedly not given up on asking for the post, claiming that it is a decision taken by an almost expired Secretary-General that will have to be confirmed by his successor, Mark Rutte.
Another opportunity is the revision of Hub for the South's mandate, which could also provide support to the newly appointed Special Representative. More generally, the mandate should widen the range of the Hub's activities but also strengthen its connections with NATO decision-making centres. Notably, Rome will soon rely on a key enabler, since Italian Admiral Cavo Dragone will take over as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in January 2025.
In addition, against the backdrop of an increased relevance of defence and deterrence among NATO's core tasks, Italy should limit calls to crisis management initiatives, emphasising instead those related to cooperative security. This could be done in several ways: first, by supporting an energised and more flexible partnership framework. Moreover, Rome should try to exploit any opportunity offered by the establishment of NATO contact point embassies, training centres and liaison offices in the MENA region. Lastly, in order to call attention to the relevance of the Southern flank, Rome might stress its interlinkages with the Eastern flank, such as the Russian influence in the Sahel or Libya, or the destabilising role of Iran. The much-vaunted – but not so much implemented – principle of NATO's 360-degree approach might conceptually help. Finally and relatedly, the war in Gaza and the subsequent increase in tensions in the Middle East might force the Alliance to turn its attention once again to the region, where it still has a mission in a critical area such as Iraq.Giovanni Parigi, PhD, is an independent researcher. He was formerly a university professor in Milan and political advisor in Middle East.[1] NATO, Washington Summit Declaration, 10 July 2024, para. 3, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_227678.htm.[2] NATO, Vilnius Summit Communiqué, 11 July 2023, para. 22, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_217320.htm.[3] NATO, Group of Experts Publishes Report on NATO's Southern Neighbourhood, 7 May 2024, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_225245.htm.[4] Launched in 2004, the ICI is a partnership forum that aims to contribute to long-term global and regional security by offering non-NATO countries in the broader Middle East region the opportunity to cooperate with the Alliance. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates currently participate in the Initiative.[5] Launched in 1994, the MD is a partnership forum that aims to contribute to security and stability in the wider Mediterranean region, and promote good relations and understanding among participating countries and NATO Allies. Currently, the following non-NATO countries take part in the Dialogue: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.[6] Law No. 2 of 11 January 2024: Conversione in legge, con modificazioni, del decreto-legge 15 novembre 2023, n. 161, recante disposizioni urgenti per il «Piano Mattei» per lo sviluppo in Stati del Continente africano [Conversion into law, with amendments, of law-decree No. 161 of 15 November 2023, containing urgent provisions for the Mattei Plan for African states' development], https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:legge:2024;2.[7] NATO, Washington Summit Declaration, cit.[8] Ibid., para. 32.