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Adoption processes in the United States, once based on the altruistic child welfare model, have morphed to reflect the desires of would-be parents. The author argues that the current adoption model in the United States resembles an unregulated marketplace in children. Whether lawmakers and citizens wish to recognize this marketplace, its existence is demonstrated by frequent financial transactions among adoptive parents, birth mothers, and adoption agencies that resemble payments. The author explores this marketplace and the way in which race, genetic traits, and class are implicated in adoption processes, resulting in higher fees associated with the adoption of children with desirable traits. The author proposes two mechanisms by which the government could regulate the adoption market—price caps and taxation. Ultimately, however, the author advocates greater transparency and information in the adoption process to protect the welfare of children who might otherwise be exploited in an unregulated adoption market.

This article is a search for the promises of public education and the place where they are broken by progressive critics feeding at the academic and professional trough. It is an indictment of the exploitation of proliferating education academic simulations of working-class solidarity, borrowing the image of emancipation while feeding off the social capital of postmodernist sign value. The author conducts this exploration as a fellow edu-racketeer, too often guilty himself of this phony lifestyle radicalism. The author uses a comic bit and surrealist techniques to pry open the lid of these researches. In homage to Lenny Bruce, the author charts the course of censorship and academic exclusion from the American Educational Studies Association, where a few radicals who write about transgression threw the author out of the conference and the conversation, because he actually, not virtually, transgressed.

SUMMARY:
This article presents research into the process of transformation from the Soviet Republic of Armenia into the newly independent Republic of Armenia. The author proposes a conception of transformation that explores the role played by the country's economic elite. The author terms such elite "comprador" based on its economic functions of linking international corporations and the local market. According to the author, much of the economic and political trouble of the Armenian state comes from the elite's vested interests. At the same time, the author argues that in the specific situation of Armenia, which involves the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh and war with Azerbaijan, the power of the groups connected with the military cannot be underestimated. Based on a range of sources, the article outlines major developments in Armenia since independence and suggests possible scenarios of further development.

The author models warfare as a random-walk stochastic process. Rather than model war as a single-shot lottery, as is common in the literature, nations fight a series of battles. Nations do not defeat their foe in a single battle; rather, victory results from aggregate success over a series of interactions. Only by gradually reducing an opponent's capacity to resist can a nation force victory. Yet, under many circumstances, nations preempt defeat by surrendering once the tide of war moves against them. The author characterizes the distribution of resources that results in conflict. Against this background, the author examines how the preferences of leaders affect the conditions under which war occurs. Because the preferences of leaders affect the pattern of conflict, citizens' electoral choices are made contingent on the international environment. Hence, the author provides a link between conflict behavior and domestic electoral processes.

The article concerns the problem of 'essential contestedness' of power as a political concept. The author explains the idea of essential contestability of political concepts and its basic arguments presented by S.Lukes and W.Connolly. Several contradictions and inconsistencies in their views arc revealed and criticised. The author concludes that different conceptions of power can be evaluated on rational grounds, and the advantages of one conception over the others can be stated. ; The article concerns the problem of 'essential contestedness' of power as a political concept. The author explains the idea of essential contestability of political concepts and its basic arguments presented by S.Lukes and W.Connolly. Several contradictions and inconsistencies in their views arc revealed and criticised. The author concludes that different conceptions of power can be evaluated on rational grounds, and the advantages of one conception over the others can be stated.

The author analysed numerical data characterizing international liquidity of the member States of the International Monetary Fund in the years 1956 -1983, attempting to define in what way the Fund could affect that liquidity. Instruments intended to secure the international liquidity used by the Fund were the object of the research. The Author also examined the role of the Fund instruments in financing of import and foreign trade deficit and creating currency reserves of the member States. The author positively assessed the role played by the Fund, indicating that it has realized its statutory tasks in shaping international liquidity. The author scepticaly estimated the use of a reserves/import ratio as yardstick for international reserve adequacy, recognizing the need of research in that scope. ; Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/2016

"This book is intended for course use. It explores the range of political and religious issues at work when ISIS wields their sledgehammers and bombs to destroy or damage important cultural sites in the Middle East--like statues in the Mosul Museum, temples at Palmyra. Focusing on a video ISIS released when they destroyed artifacts in Mosul, the author examines three key aspects of the event: the status and power of idols, the institution of museums, and the efficacy of videos in furthering an ideological agenda"--

This book discusses the themes of personhood and personal identity. It argues that while there is a metaphysical answer to the question of personal identity, there is no metaphysical answer to the question of what constitutes a person. The author argues against both body-mind dualism and physicalism and also against the idea that there is some metaphysically real category of persons distinct from the category of human beings or human organisms. Instead, the author presents neutral-monist, autopoietic-enactivist kind of metaphysics of the human being, and a relational, and completely human-dependent notion of a person. The tools used in these arguments include conceptual argumentation and empirical case studies. Using both personal experiences and studies of cultures all over the world, the author examines dualism between mind and body. The author discusses real people who seem to live a Cartesian life, as somehow disembodied minds as well as the concept of the person. The author uses the concluding chapters to present their own views arguing that questions about our identity should be separated from questions of our personhood as well as the concept of personhood. This volume is of interest to scholars of philosophy of mind.

Introduction -- There Should Be More Government Funded Social Welfare Support Programs / Lauren Amanda -- Government Policy Makes Homelessness Worse / Dr. Tracy C. Miller -- Welfare Programs Encourage People Not to Work and Abuse the System / Unknown Author -- Teen Homelessness is Disproportionately High in Minorities / Michael Gipson -- LGBTQ Teens have High Rates of Homelessness and Face Unique Challenges / Unknown Author -- Homeless Teens Face Drug, Alcohol, and Physical Abuse and These Impact Society / Unknown Author -- Mentally Ill Teens Need Special Care and Treatment / Sam P.K. Collins -- It is an Educator's Responsibility to Help Homeless Teens / Mark Keierleber -- Foster Care Systems Can Only Help Teens Until They Age Out / Colleen Doescher-Train -- Foster Caregivers Face Challenges with Teen Victims of Abuse and Exploitation / Unknown Author -- Communities Should Build More Homeless Shelters / Rachel Lippman --Homeless Shelters Encourage People to be Lazy, Increase Crime, and Lower Home Values / Erika Aguilar -- Free Housing Is Not the Answer, Homeless Teens and Families Need Help To Get Back on Their Own Feet / Unknown Author -- Working Poor Teens and Families Have Jobs But Can't Get Ahead / Kelly Kasulis -- Appendix -- What You Should Know About Teen Homelessness -- What You Should Do About Teen Homelessness -- Organizations to Contact

European integration began due to the influence of the Cold War. Due to the turbulent international situation in recent years, there have been disputes among the people of various European countries regarding European integration and its development after the Cold War. The development process of European integration and the economic and political organizations it formed have important reference values for analyzing the current situation in Europe. Therefore, the author chooses this research topic and adopts a literature research method to attempt to clarify the causal and logical relationship between the Cold War and European integration. Firstly, the author describes the impact and role of the economic and political factors of the Cold War in promoting European integration. Then, the author discusses the major strategic decisions made by Europe during the end of the Cold War, points out the advantages and disadvantages of contemporary European integration, and puts forward personal opinions. Finally, the author summarizes the first two parts and further elaborates on the importance of this topic based on the current situation in Europe. At the same time, the author points out the shortcomings of this research method and prospects for future research improvements.

The article is devoted to the development of approaches to the legal qualification of the consent to harm in German doctrine and case law. The author explores the problems of the transactional theory of consent, based on the provisions of the German Civil Code and dogmatically formulated in the work of E. Zitelmann. The article describes the early case law of the German high courts on the consent to harm. The author generalizes critique of the transactional theory of consent in the doctrine and describes a departure from it in the case law of the mid-20th century in Germany. The author dwells in detail on various non-transactional approaches to the qualification of consent presented in the works of K. Larentz, E. Schenke, O. Bucher and W. Münzberg. The article describes a modern approach to consent based on the teleological reduction of some rules on transactions. The author comes to the conclusion that the development of doctrinal views on consent to harm in Germany proceeded dialectically: from the transactional qualification of consent through non-transactional approaches to the limited application of certain rules on transactions. The author suggests to qualify consent to harm as a transaction with some reservations.

In this paper, the author reflects on the relationship between environmental aesthetics and land art. By considering their historical development, the author first addresses the terminology problem which prompted him to understand land art as a hypernym – i.e. a term that semantically encompasses other art practices (e.g. "Earth art", "Earthworks", "Site art", "Arte Povera", "Environment(al) art", and "Ecological art"). Moreover, by considering certain features of land art (e.g. integration, interruption, involvement, implementation, and imagining), the author proposes a thesis according to which land art represents not only a contemporary art movement but also a new form of the aesthetic experience of nature. In the further development of this thesis, the author focuses on two aesthetic principles of land art – participation and entropy – which in the history of aesthetic theory have been almost non-existent, pushed to the margins, or completely neglected. Finally, by finding solid theoretical foundations for this thesis in Ronald W. Hepburn's ground-breaking essay "Contemporary Aesthetics and the Neglect of Natural Beauty" (1984), as well as some land art projects (e.g. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970), the author emphasises the strong theoretical connection between environmental aesthetics and land art.

This article discusses the issue related to the analysis of the phenomenon of social tension in the conditions of changing the existing paradigm of trust and the transition to the paradigm of digital trust. The author considered the key aspects concerning the concept of social tension, analyzed the development of this phenomenon in the context of the accompanying socio-economic conditions. In addition, this paper analyzes the key points of changes in the level of social tension in Russia. An important place in this article is devoted to the study of the issue related to the emergence of the digital trust paradigm. The author considered the main components of the concepts of trust and digital trust, the importance of studying this phenomenon was substantiated. The author conducted a comparative analysis of the concepts of social tension and digital trust, during which the inverse linear relationship between the concepts that fell under the analysis procedure was revealed. In addition, the author described methods that can provide an increase in digital trust and a reduction in social tension in the future. In the final part of the article, the author made conclusions regarding the further development of the digital trust paradigm and its impact on existing indicators of the state of the existing social structure.

In this paper the author analyses the contemporary counter-terrorism especially in the context of relevant international and national regulatives. The author first considers counter-terrorism measures in investigation of crimes of terrorism. In the name of protecting states and citizens, "war on terrorism" in some countries legitimized many actions directed towards the suppression of any potential danger from terrorism. Some boundaries have been crossed when the treatment of suspicious individuals is concerned and in that sense the author discusses the use of torture in fight against terrorism. Another issue that is subject of disscusion in this paper is treatment of persons convicted for terrorism. There are two dimensions of that treatment. On the one side is penintentiary treatment ie. the process which take place in prisons and on the other side we can talk about post-penal treatment of convicts for terrorism. The author criticizes the way how dominant approach in contemporary penintentiary and postpenal treatment of terrorists – the program of deradicalization, is realizing. Finally, the author considers counter-terrorism activities of some countries during the Covid-19 pandemic and possible future situation when it comes to terrorism which will influences the application of counter-terrorism measures.