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This article examines the activities and controversies of the Policy Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG) within the context of the 1976 "B Team" competitive analysis exercise. While this policy-based red team exercise failed to help the intelligence community (IC) to avoid an intelligence failure in the months preceding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the external narratives focusing upon it served as a conceptual "red herring" for an accurate assessment of its activities and thus helped to distort intelligence reform efforts in the post-failure period. Ultimately, this case casts further doubt upon the utility of red teams within a policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isaiah Berlin once famously wrote that intellectuals can be split into two types: hedgehogs and foxes. He argues that Leo Tolstoy falls into both camps simultaneously, resulting in a profound tension that provides the fundamental epistemological dilemma ofWar and Peace. The problem with this oft-quoted argument is that it focuses on only one aspect of the novel—Tolstoy's depiction of the scientific method.   In so doing, Berlin overlooks a larger modern phenomenon that is fundamental to the major events of the novel: the deification of reason. In essence, Tolstoy argues that the deification of reason, a shift which adheres to the notion that there is a knowable Truth, and that reason is the sole means to know it, increases the likelihood and severity of violence in times of war as well as the intensification of domestic conflict in times of peace.  This article explores Tolstoy's depiction of how three different manifestations of this deified reason lead to heightened levels of conflict.  It concludes with an examination of the four forms of Romantic idealism that Tolstoy suggests are the preferred alternatives to it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents books about European-Asian studies. They include "Leading Russia: Putin in Perspective. Essays in Honour of Archie Brown," edited by Alex Prvada, "Open for Business. The Persistent Entrepreneurial Class in Poland," by Elizabeth Osborn, and "Republic of Labor: Russian Printeres and Soviet Socialism, 1918-1930," by Diane P. Koenker.

Abstract: This paper argues that there is a spurious correlation between social capital and economic development in the regions of post-communist Russia. This argument rejects Robert Putnam''s collectivist hypothesis that social capital is the ubiquitous cause of economic growth. Rather, the data presented in this paper indicates that individualistic behavior in the form of entrepreneurialism, has been the prerequisite for growth in post-communist Russia. While social capital may slow or accelerate economic growth, it will not cause it. Without entrepreneurialism, social capital cannot be harnessed for economic development. In essence, social capital does not create wealth, entrepreneurs do. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents information on a study which examined the relationship between Central Asia's self-image and the way that it feels toward other nations. Interstate affectivity in Central Asia; Forms of nationalism that exist in the region; Conclusion.

This study relates antioxidant status and blood pressure (BP) in 168 healthy residents of Augusta, GA, following usual diets. BP ranges were systolic (5) 84-1 52, mean 112 ± 1 mm Hg, and diastolic (D) 52-96, mean 72 ± 1 mm Hg. Plasma concentrations of ascorbic acid (AA) were significantly inversely related to SBP (r = -0.18, P < 0.05) and DBF (r -0.20, P < 0.0 1): with regression equations SBP vs AA = -0.083C + 1 16 and DBP -0.077C + 76. Highest and lowest quintiles of AA differed significantly in mean SBP (108 ± 2, 113 ± 2 mm Hg) and DBP (69 ± 1, 74 ± 2), P < 0.05. Plasma AA concentrations were significantly lower in the smokers. By deleting smokers, the inverse relations ofSBP and DBF with plasma AA and the slopes of the equation were enhanced. Plasma selenium, α-tocopherol. α-tocopherol:cholesterol ratio, retinol and taurine were not related to BP: whereas male gender, body mass index, body fat distribution, plasma cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that the correlation between the `democratization process' and the outcome of the `torturer problem' is a specious one in the East European context. Huntington's Eastern Europe; German Democratic Republic and its torturers; Czechoslovakia and its torturers; Bulgaria and its torturers.