scholarly journals Measuring voluntary and policy-induced social distancing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (16) ◽  
pp. e2008814118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youpei Yan ◽  
Amyn A. Malik ◽  
Jude Bayham ◽  
Eli P. Fenichel ◽  
Chandra Couzens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Initial Step ◽  
The United States ◽  
Relative Effect ◽  
Smart Device ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Voluntary Response ◽  
Voluntary Behavior ◽  
The One ◽  
At Home

Staying home and avoiding unnecessary contact is an important part of the effort to contain COVID-19 and limit deaths. Every state in the United States enacted policies to encourage distancing and some mandated staying home. Understanding how these policies interact with individuals’ voluntary responses to the COVID-19 epidemic is a critical initial step in understanding the role of these nonpharmaceutical interventions in transmission dynamics and assessing policy impacts. We use variation in policy responses along with smart device data that measures the amount of time Americans stayed home to disentangle the extent that observed shifts in staying home behavior are induced by policy. We find evidence that stay-at-home orders and voluntary response to locally reported COVID-19 cases and deaths led to behavioral change. For the median county, which implemented a stay-at-home order with about two cases, we find that the response to stay-at-home orders increased time at home as if the county had experienced 29 additional local cases. However, the relative effect of stay-at-home orders was much greater in select counties. On the one hand, the mandate can be viewed as displacing a voluntary response to this rise in cases. On the other hand, policy accelerated the response, which likely helped reduce spread in the early phase of the pandemic. It is important to be able to attribute the relative role of self-interested behavior or policy mandates to understand the limits and opportunities for relying on voluntary behavior as opposed to imposing stay-at-home orders.

scholarly journals Private Enterprise, International Development, and the Cold War

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-145
Author(s):  
Ethan B. Kapstein
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Development ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Private Enterprise ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

This article sheds light on the role of foreign direct investment as an instrument for economic development and, in turn, for the advancement of U.S. foreign policy goals during the Cold War. From the earliest days of the Cold War, and especially after the U.S.-Soviet competition for influence in the developing world began in the 1950s, the United States sought to promote private enterprise on behalf of U.S. goals. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, U.S. officials believed that foreign investment would suffice to fuel international development, obviating the need for official development assistance. These hopes, however, were largely disappointed. On the one hand, U.S.-based multinational companies preferred to invest in the industrial world; on the other hand, some Third World governments were uninterested in promoting private enterprise rather than state-led development. In part because foreign investment did not meet expectations, the U.S. government ended up elaborating an official foreign aid program instead.

“It's the Politics, Stupid.” Or is Reality more Complex?

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Weimer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Risk Regulation ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
The One

Reality is complex, and often does not lend itself to generalization or simplifying explanations. Yet at the same time, explaining reality often requires the shaping of notions and concepts of it through generalization and the reduction of complexity. This tension between complexity and particularity on the one hand and generalization and the search for abstracting explanatory patterns on the other is beautifully illustrated by two recently released publications on precaution and risk regulation in the United States and Europe, namely “The Politics of Precaution” by David Vogel1 and “The Reality of Precaution” edited by Jonathan Wiener, Michael Rogers, James Hammitt, and Peter Sand.Both books together can be seen as the latest significant contribution to the ongoing debate on the role of the precautionary principle in risk regulation in a comparative EU-US perspective. Both contributions are significant in that they consolidate the trend towards an empirically informed analysis of the actual practice of the application of precaution in risk regulation.

scholarly journals “Liberation” as a political horizon amidst the coronavirus pandemic in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-317
Author(s):  
Nicholas Jon Crane ◽  
Zoe Pearson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
The One ◽  
At Home

Participants in diverging US-based protest waves during the coronavirus pandemic are invoking “liberation” as a political horizon. Especially visible are superficially libertarian protests against government “stay-at-home” orders, on the one hand, and, on the other, racial and economic justice organizing around uneven exposure to the deadly effects of the pandemic. Beginning in May 2020, the latter articulation of liberation was amplified by widespread protest against racist police violence. The coronavirus pandemic is putting into sharp relief the contradictions of “liberation” promoted by individualists and underscoring the urgency of organizing for emancipatory social solidarity.

Removal of nitrogen in different wetland filter materials: use of stable nitrogen isotopes to determine factors controlling denitrification and DNRA

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (9) ◽  
pp. 63-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.T. Mørkved ◽  
A.K. Søvik ◽  
B. Kløve ◽  
L.R. Bakken
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Isotopes ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
15N Tracer ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Filter Materials ◽  
Tracer Techniques ◽  
Initial Oxygen ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
The One

Laboratory incubations with varying O2 and NO3 concentrations were performed with a range of filter materials used in constructed wetlands (CWs). The study included material sampled from functioning CWs as well as raw materials subjected to laboratory pre-incubation. 15N-tracer techniques were used to assess the rates of denitrification versus dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), and the relative role of nitrification versus denitrification in producing N2O. The N2O/(N2+N2O) product ratio was assessed for the different materials. Sand, shell sand, and peat sustained high rates of denitrification. Raw light-weight aggregates (LWA) had a very low rate, while in LWA sampled from a functioning CW, the rate was similar to the one found in the other materials. The N2O/(N2+N2O) ratio was very low for sand, shell sand and LWA from functioning CWs, but very high for raw LWA. The ratio was intermediate but variable for peat. The N2O produced by nitrification accounted for a significant percentage of the N2O accumulated during the incubation, but was dependent on the initial oxygen concentration. DNRA was significant only for shell sand taken from a functioning CW, suggesting that the establishment of active DNRA is a slower process than the establishment of a denitrifying flora.

scholarly journals Globalization of Ambitions. A Critical Analysis of Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy 2017

2017 ◽  
pp. 86-95
Author(s):  
N. P. Gribin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
At Home

Under the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Department Reorganization Act of 1986, the President of the United States must submit to Congress each year a report on the national security strategy. This report under the name of “National Security Strategy” is intended to be a comprehensive statement anticipating the worldwide interests, goals and objectives that are deemed crucial to the national security of the United States. The new “National Security Strategy” (December 2017) lays out the strategic vision of the Presidential Administration under Donald Trump about ways and means by which the US seeks to deal with internal and external threats. The authors of the Strategy set themselves the main task of proving that American security is based on the realization that American principles are: “a lasting force for good in the World.”  The authors of the Strategy prioritize the protection of the American way of life and American interests all over the world. In that aspect, they see the main danger from the hostile states and non-states actors who are “trying to acquire different types of weapons”. In addition, the administration is demonstrating concerns about the activity of international terrorist organizations (jihadist), transnational criminal organizations, drug cartels and cybercrime. Different from previous similar documents, Trump’s Strategy makes an evident accent on economic security as an important part of national security. The task in that area is “to rebuild economic strength at home and preserve a fair and reciprocal international system.” In a rather confronting manner, the Strategy assesses the role of China and Russia in the international affairs. It underlines that between the main sets of challengers – “the revisionist powers of China and Russia and the rogue states of Iran and North Korea”, the United States will seek areas of cooperation with competitors but will do so from a position of strength. The Strategy pays great attention to restoring military capability of the US. It is stressed that military strength remains a vital component of the competition for influence. In a certain sense, the authors of the Strategy demonstrate a new approach to the role of diplomacy, and especially in regards to the tools of economic diplomacy, intended to protect the US “from abuse by illicit actors”. Pillar four of the Strategy outlines considerations for expanding US influence on a global scale and for supporting friendly partners. As stated in the Strategy, American assistance to developing countries should help promote national interests and vice versa. The US will use all means, including sanctions, to “isolate states and leaders that pose a threat to the American interests.” The Strategy pays much attention to the regional aspect of national security, and, from these positions, the situation in various parts of the world (the Indo-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East, etc.) is assessed. The authors emphasize that changes in the balance of power at the world level can cause global consequences and threaten American interests and US security. On the contrary, “stability reduces the threats that Americans face at home.”

The Role of the Church in Migration and Settlement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prema A. Kurien
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Intergenerational Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Community ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Church ◽  
At Home

Chapter 2 provides information about the Mar Thoma church in contemporary India and its role in the lives of members. It then moves into a detailed discussion of how church networks facilitated the migration from Kerala to the United States, the settlement of the Mar Thoma members in various parts of the country, and their adaptation to their new contexts. Issues dealing with gender relations and intergenerational relations are analyzed, as well as the dilemmas and issues that developed as Mar Thoma parishes were set up around the country. This chapter examines how being part of the church community shaped the experiences of the second generation at home, in school and college, as well as around marriage. The challenges faced by pastors from India relating to American youth and how the church has tried to make changes in its functioning to respond to the needs of its American-born members are also described.

Putting Africa's House in Order to Deal with Developmental Challenges

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Government ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
White House ◽  
American Military ◽  
Rogue States ◽  
The One ◽  
Abundant Supply

However proud Africans must be to have a person of African descent in the White House, they should have no illusions as to how much President Barack Hussein Obama can do for Africa. Africans must put their own house in order for purposes of dealing successfully with the major challenges facing the continent, the most important of which is that of democratic and developmental governance. Obama's priorities are not necessarily those of Africans. They have to do with the role of the United States as a superpower in a global system in which the American military and business corporations play a hegemonic role. In this context, Africa is relevant to American and Obama's global priorities when its resources are needed to strengthen this role, on the one hand, or its humanitarian crises are likely to affect them in an adverse manner, on the other.What are these global priorities, and how are they likely to affect Africa during Obama's tenure? Following is a brief examination of four major priorities. The first is limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. Operating on the premise that nuclear weapons should be limited to the few countries now possessing them (U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan), the U.S. government has led an international campaign against the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by other countries, particularly those deemed hostile to Western interests, such as Iran and North Korea. Since South Africa destroyed the nuclear arsenal of the former apartheid state and Libya gave up its nuclear ambitions, the only relevant issue with respect to Africa's role in the spread of nuclear weapons is the question of who has access to Africa's abundant supply of uranium. Denying access to African uranium to “rogue states” and terrorist organizations is an important foreign policy objective of any American government, including the Obama administration.

“The Past Is Never Dead”

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Jasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
First Century ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Traditional System ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Strong Attachment ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This article presents a summary of analyses addressing the changing patterns of voting behavior in post-communist Poland as a context for examination of the issue of the relationship between regions defined by history (eighteenth-century partitions, border shifts after WWII) and contemporary forms of voting behavior. In the 1990s, the dominant cleavage in Polish politics was the one between the post-Solidarity and post-communist camps, and the best predictor of voting behavior was one’s religiosity. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, this cleavage has been replaced by another, between the liberal, pro-European orientation and the more Euro-skeptic, populist attitudes. The empirical evidence seems to suggest that one end of the populist—liberal continuum is relatively well defined and represents the traditional system of values, which defines Polish national identity in terms of ethnic nationalism, strong attachment to Catholic dogmas, and denunciation of communism as a virtual negation of those values. The other end of this continuum is defined more by rejection of this nationalistic-Catholic “imagined community” than by any positive features. This article examines the relative role of identity-related factors (e.g., religiosity or region) and determinants based on one’s socioeconomic (class) position in shaping voting patterns in the 2007 elections to the Polish Sejm and Senate. The empirical data come from a postelection survey, the Polish General Election Study 2007.

scholarly journals Racism in the Theory Canon: Hannah Arendt and ‘the One Great Crime in Which America Was Never Involved’

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Owens
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Racial Conflict ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
The One ◽  
Vexed Question

Hannah Arendt’s monumental study The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, is a founding text in postcolonial studies, locating the seeds of European fascism in the racism of imperial expansion. However, Arendt also harboured deep racial prejudices, especially when writing about people of African descent, which affected core themes in her political thought. The existing secondary literature has diagnosed but not adequately explained Arendt’s failures in this regard. This article shows that Arendt’s anti-black racism is rooted in her consistent refusal to analyse the colonial and imperial origins of racial conflict in the United States given the unique role of the American republic in her vision for a new post-totalitarian politics. In making this argument, the article also contributes to the vexed question of how international theorists should approach important ‘canonical’ thinkers whose writings have been exposed as racist, including methodological strategies for approaching such a body of work, and engages in a form of self-critique for marginalising this problem in earlier writing on Arendt.

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