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An interview conducted on 12 June 2000 with Jackson discusses, among other things, Jackson's Heterosexuality in Question (1999), illustrating changes in the author's employment of vocabulary used for examining issues of sexuality & her increased focus on heterosexuality rather than sexuality. The fragmentation of the women's movement around the issue of identity formation & the effects of the subsequent injection of queer theory into the aforementioned debate are discussed. The popular assertion that sexuality precedes gender is strongly repudiated. Differences between French difference & materialist feminists are discussed in order to better understand how American feminism has currently become the predominant feminist discourse. The problems associated with deconstructing the category of gender are also addressed, eg, the creation of additional gender categories. The need to utilize a social structural perspective in answering the question "Why does gender exist?" is articulated. In addition, the need for North American & European feminists to communicate & for American feminists to read the works of feminists from all European nations is stressed. J. W. Parker

Part of a review forum on a book by Fred Halliday, Revolution and World Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Sixth Great Power (London: Macmillan, 1999). This book is described as substantial, profound, & richly analytical work that sees revolution as an international development since the international system is also transnational. Since the international system through its interstate competition moves toward homogeneity after the model of its most successful states, revolutionary efforts must try to shape all other states after their own image to counter isolation or absorption. Halliday studies Cuba as one of the most successful & sustained exporters of revolution, & while much of his observations are correct, he fails to recognize some underlying motivations & causes of the Cuban revolutionary experience, including its leadership by men who first rebelled against Batista's dictatorship & then radicalized the revolution & confronted the US. Halliday rightly observes that even decades after collapse, revolutions continue to bring substantial changes in their societies & to influence the international community. L. A. Hoffman

President George W. Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, & Secretary of State Colin Powell claim that their ideology is "the new realism," The authors note several problems with this. First, the ideology of realism itself is shown not to work. Realism is the idea that military power is the driving force in the world. Experience has shown that other factors -- such as economic globalization, political democratization, particular belief systems, & international law & institutions -- impact global politics. Therefore realism is a simplistic model. Bush's use of the realism title may be an attempt to give the administration an image of truth & honesty, in contrast to the previous administration. Another theory for the use of the title is that more military emphasis is actually needed in certain cases, such as the unwillingness of the US to mediate in the Middle East. The "new realism" title may continue, but what is needed more then a label is a sensible foreign policy. R. Larsen

This essay explores Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work pertaining to the communal-social nature of individuals & examines how Bonhoeffer's thinking relates to the existing racial climate in the US. A study of Bonhoeffer's relationship with the African American church is a particularly useful tool in examining existing sociopolitical challenges such as racism. The essay begins by describing Bonhoeffer's introduction to, & continued connection with, the African American church. Particular attention is given to Bonhoeffer's regard for this religious institution that served the masses rather than the elite. The essay moves to an analysis of Bonhoeffer's view that each person represents both "individual & humanity," a concept that holds important implications for correcting the existing social dynamics of racism. The argument is then presented that only through the church can true racial harmony & healing be achieved. It is concluded that, though its chances for success are marginal at best, an ecclesiastic movement against racism in America may be an appropriate solution. K. A. Larsen

Intragroup conflict research has shown that task conflict can improve group outcomes, but is has not addressed how groups ensure that the positive aspects of task conflict are realized. This study examines the influence of group conflict management on group effectiveness, as well as the moderating role of group conflict management on task conflict-group outcome relationships. Results of a field survey of 96 business school project groups indicated that the use of agreeable conflict management in response to task conflict was associated with greater group satisfaction. Results examining group conflict management as a moderator showed that the relationship between task conflict & group performance was positive when conflict was actively managed & negative when it was passively managed. Similarly, task conflict improved group satisfaction when managed with agreeable behavior, & harmed satisfaction when neutral or disagreeable behaviors were used. Results from this work provide an important first look at how group conflict management behaviors directly impact group outcomes & affect task conflict-group outcome relationships. 2 Tables, 3 Figures, 38 References. Adapted from the source document.

Reevaluates Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1973) & other products of the Frankfurt school in light of recent criticisms of an overemphasis on understanding German fascism. It is argued that these texts must be read in their historical context; labeling them "out-of-date" often conceals a hidden agenda. The critical analysis draws on the concept of mimesis as a psychological substance to show that the shift undertaken by Adorno & Horkheimer in Dialectic of Enlightenment does not represent progression "toward the aestheticization of critical social theory," because the behavioral & psychological implications are more important than the aesthetic. It is also argued that too much attention is often given to their dialectics, which tend to confuse the more productive elements of their theoretical analyses. An overview of the background that led to the development of Adorno & Horkheimer's project is followed by an examination of their goals, the conceptual problems they hoped to resolve, the influence of Nietzsche's philosophy on their work, & the progression of their idea of mimesis. J. Lindroth

In The Early 1970S, Dankwart Rustow Stressed The Centrality of national identity as a background condition for democratization. A recently emerging body of literature has raised this important issue again, opening it up for further discussion. Mark Thompson, Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, for example, have highlighted the centrality of the national identity question (they use the term 'stateness') in their recent work. Henry Bienen and Jeffrey Herbst see the emergence of a sense of national identity as a prerequisite for democratization in Africa, thus confirming Rustow's idea of sequence. Ilter Turan supports Rustow's view on the role of national identity in his analysis of the cases of Iraq and the Central Asian republics, while James Putzel uses the macro variable of the national identity question to explain why democratic politics is more difficult in Indonesia, which faces the risk of disintegration, and in the ethnically-divided Malaysia, with its weak national identity, than in the Philippines where disintegration is not an issue.

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "With the recent anthrax attacks on Congress and the media, the U.S. Postal Service faces a new and more immediate challenge of responding and developing a plan to safeguard the mail system from future attacks. GAO held a conference, on December 10, 2001, with representatives from Congress, the Postal Service, and many of the Service's key stakeholders to discuss possible options to enhance mail security and postal operations. The conference participants agreed that there is no single or simple solution for ensuring the safety of mail. Nevertheless, they agreed that the Service, the mailing industry, and other stakeholders should work closely together to assess current risks, develop a framework for responding to potential threats, and take immediate steps to secure the safety of the mail to restore public confidence.Participants also agreed that detection technology is essential for securing the mail and they emphasized the need for enhanced efficiency of postal operations."

Tactile sensors are basically arrays of force sensors that are intended to emulate the skin in applications such as assistive robotics. Local electronics are usually implemented to reduce errors and interference caused by long wires. Realizations based on standard microcontrollers, Programmable Systems on Chip (PSoCs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have been proposed by the authors for the case of piezoresistive tactile sensors. The solution employing FPGAs is especially relevant since their performance is closer to that of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) than that of the other devices. This paper presents an implementation of such an idea for a specific sensor. For the purpose of comparison, the circuitry based on the other devices is also made for the same sensor. This paper discusses the implementation issues, provides details regarding the design of the hardware based on the three devices and compares them. ; This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Government under contracts TEC2006-12376 and TEC2009-14446.

Most contracts, whether between voters and politicians or between house owners and contractors, are incomplete. "More law," it typically is assumed, increases the likelihood of contract performance by increasing the probability of enforcement and/or the cost of breach. We examine a contractual relationship in which the first mover has to decide whether she wants to enter a contract without knowing whether the second mover will perform. We analyze how contract enforceability affects individual performance for exogenous preferences. Then we apply a dynamic model of preference adaptation and find that economic incentives have a nonmonotonic effect on behavior. Individuals perform a contract when enforcement is strong or weak but not with medium enforcement probabilities: Trustworthiness is "crowded in" with weak and "crowded out" with medium enforcement. In a laboratory experiment we test our model's implications and find support for the crowding prediction. Our finding is in line with the recent work on the role of contract enforcement and trust in formerly Communist countries.

Cross-national data show no association between increases in human capital attributable to the rising educational attainment of the labor force and the rate of growth of output per worker. This implies that the association of educational capital growth with conventional measures of total factor production is large, strongly statistically significant, and negative. These are 'on average' results, derived from imposing a constant coefficient. However, the development impact of education varied widely across countries and has fallen short of expectations for three possible reasons. First, the institutional/governance environment could have been sufficiently perverse that the accumulation of educational capital lowered economic growth. Second, marginal returns to education could have fallen rapidly as the supply of educated labor expanded while demand remained stagnant. Third, educational quality could have been so low that years of schooling created no human capital. The extent and mix of these three phenomena vary from country to country in explaining the actual economic impact of education, or the lack thereof.

Noting the inequality in wealth distribution between the haves & have nots in the world today & recognizing the possibility that poverty may become a threat to world peace, Flemish foreign policies, promulgated within the Belgian federation, are outlined. It is noted that, although perceived by many as largely symbolic, the foreign policy actions carried out by the government of Flanders deliver tangible benefits in many regions of the globe & have a profound impact on the formulation & promulgation of foreign policy on the federal level. Several of such initiatives conducted in cooperation with the World Health Organization & UNESCO & targeting third world countries are listed. Recognizing the tragedy of September 11, it is argued that Europe should show solidarity & support to a country which supported the continent when it needed help. However, Europe should also work on preventing any overreaction by the American government in its retaliation. The recent foreign policy initiatives of the federal government, with Louis Michel as its foreign minister, are both appreciated & supported. Z. Dubiel