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Published By University Of California Press

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2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 39-40
Author(s):  
Joshua Lustig

A new novel about the 2015 surge of migration to Europe raises questions about whether fiction that draws on ethnographic methods can bring a uniquely intimate perspective to the relations between asylum seekers and the volunteers who try to help them.


2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Chester A. Finn ◽  
Matthew S. Smith ◽  
Michael Ashley Stein

Paternalistic attitudes about what is in the interests of a person with an intellectual disability have long led to abuses, and are embedded in the guardianship laws still in place in most countries. Self-advocates, who identify as people with intellectual or other disabilities and are committed to demanding their rights and educating others about them, are calling for a new approach. They have found support for reforms in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the United Nations in 2006 and since acceded to by 182 countries. By supporting the fundamental right of those with disabilities to make decisions, it has enabled disability rights advocates to successfully challenge legal capacity restrictions and push for “supported decision-making.”


2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Fiona B. Adamson ◽  
Kelly M. Greenhill

The world today is profoundly interconnected, but also characterized by ongoing national competition and intra-state conflict. At the nexus of these dynamics is the question of cross-border mobility, which cuts through and connects myriad, disparate areas of “entangled” security—from pandemics to climate change, to conflict and military engagement, to challenges to democracies in the form of internal polarization and external threats. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a striking illustration of this “global security entanglement” in action. This essay presents the concept of security entanglement, illustrates how it operates, and explores some of its theoretical and practical implications.


2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Intermodal shipping containers, standardized and capable of being carried on trucks, trains, barges, or ships, have transformed the global economy since they were introduced in 1959. By allowing previously separated segments of regional and global transport systems to interact, they have vastly expanded global trade and facilitated supply chains that stretch around the world. But vulnerabilities in the system became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Problems at key bottlenecks in the system, compounded by an unexpected six-day shutdown of the vital Suez Canal, precipitated global disruptions leading to shortages of goods and soaring prices around the world. As the global shipping industry recovers, it will have an opportunity to transition toward a system that is more resilient.


2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Engin Isin

During the COVID-19 pandemic, three long-established forms of power—sovereign, disciplinary, and regulatory—have been conspicuously deployed around the world, as seen in lockdowns, quarantines, and behavioral rules. The pandemic has also revealed a fourth form of power: sensory power, which emerged with the rapid evolution of sensing and surveillance technologies. The data collected by tracking and tracing constitutes a planetary ecosystem for governing people. Whether this leads to digital dictatorships or digital democracies, the growth of sensory power will change the relationship between states and citizens in the twenty-first century.


2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 36-38
Author(s):  
Kavita Sivaramakrishnan

Many countries in the global South have rapidly aging populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on older adults in these countries, who mainly depend on kin for care. The pandemic has shown that a recommitment to public investment in their well-being is needed.


2022 ◽  
Vol 121 (831) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
Barry Eichengreen

The financial system is currently in a period of exceptionally rapid technological and organizational change, with the adoption of cloud computing to store and process financial data, artificial intelligence to analyze it, and blockchain to secure it. It is fashionable to assert that digital currencies will be part of that future. But cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are too volatile to possess the essential attributes of money. Stablecoins have fragile currency pegs that diminish their utility in transactions. And central bank digital currencies are a solution in search of a problem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (830) ◽  
pp. 366-371
Author(s):  
William F. S. Miles

The Druze, despite being a small minority faith group, have long survived in a challenging region, thanks in part to a doctrine of deference to whatever state they live in. In the past few years, however, the three largest Druze populations—in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria—have each faced some of their most difficult challenges yet, from a downgrading of their citizenship status to economic collapse and civil war. An increasingly active diaspora has emerged as an important advocate for Druze interests worldwide.


2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (830) ◽  
pp. 339-345
Author(s):  
Jeannie Sowers ◽  
Erika Weinthal

The effects of conflict on public health and ecosystem well-being are understudied and rarely figure in public debates about war-making. Protracted conflicts are particularly damaging to people and environments in ways that are inadequately documented. In recent wars in the Middle East and North Africa, parties to the conflicts have induced hunger and displacement and undermined public health through the use of violence and economic policies that deprive civilians of access to food, water, fuel, and livelihoods. Environmental pollution is widespread, particularly in cities that became war zones, while the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened conflict-induced poverty and food insecurity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (830) ◽  
pp. 360-365
Author(s):  
Amal Sachedina

During his five-decade reign, Sultan Qaboos bin Said relied on heritage as a key tool for nation-building. Old forts and objects central to Omani traditional culture like the coffee urn and the ceremonial dagger became symbols of a unifying national ethos. At the same time, their former political significance was downplayed. But some Omanis have held onto memories of a different conception of the past. And now, after the sultan’s death in 2020, heritage is becoming more of a privatized business sector.


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