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The paper explores the role of the European Union (EU) in the war in Ukraine, from the run-up of the war to its impact on the EU's future structure and functions, within Europe and globally. It begins with an account of the condition of the EU before the war, which it describes as overextended and stagnant with respect to the EU's proclaimed finalité, the "ever closer union of the peoples of Europe." Next, it recounts the use of the EU in early American attempts to include Ukraine in the East European enlargement of NATO, with EU membership as a reward for Ukrainian Westernization. To the EU leadership, this presented an opportunity to revive older, by then largely failed attempts at supranational unification and centralization, by offering to the United States to serve as its transatlantic base for its Ukrainian strategy. Following this, the paper explores the consequences for the EU and its stronger member states of the impending American withdrawal from the Ukrainian war theater, as the US turns to its conflict with China. The final section discusses the conditions under which Europe, the European states, and the EU can hope for some kind of strategic and political autonomy in the emerging new New World Order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terrorist threat in 2023 has been characterised by new levels of unpredictability. This is due to two main factors that have unfolded only recently with unparalleled intensity. The first is the bipolarity of the threat. On the one hand, structured and semi-structured radical groups are operating in complex scenarios, such as the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. On the other, in the West we have been witnessing a recrudescence of lone-actor attacks that, although characterised by low lethality, represent a cause for concern. There is a risk that this dichotomy could catch experts off guard. The second factor that makes the threat particularly unpredictable is the ideological fluidity that is pervading contemporary radical milieux and radicalisation trends: individuals with diverse ideological backgrounds borrow tropes, narratives and communication strategies from other ideologies and adapt them to match their worldviews through processes of reciprocal influencing and cross-pollination. This article aims to analyse the bipolarity between the focus on international crises amid a rise in lone-actor attacks and the ideological fluidity of radical environments to assess how these two factors have generated unprecedented levels of unpredictability when it comes to terrorism and radicalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literary realism has produced some of the most famous deaths in literary fiction. Psychological insight into the characters' experiences and the mental states that induced their deaths helps readers to engage the protagonists not as victims of society, martyrs of fate, or wicked characters but, rather, as pathological human beings. Their psychological dualities bring affirmations of identity as well as breakdowns of identity, hence transforming readers' judgments on their morality with new understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to shed light on British academia's response to the coup d'état in Chile in 1973 from a global history approach, arguing that the concern expressed from the academic world transcended the bipolarity of the global context to appeal to a cross‐cutting defence of human rights and university autonomy. To this end, the Judith Hart and the Chilean Solidarity Campaign collections were reviewed in the Labour History Archive in Manchester, in addition to documents from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the National Archives. The above bibliography was complemented by secondary source bibliography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the significance of handicapping or decreasing competitors' power for states to increase their own balance of power with context to cyberattacks as attempts to change the balance of power. Topics include the significance of certain information for handicapping to alter the balance of power, and the prospects for the U.S. to preserve its position in the balance of power against Russia's handicapping policy.

This article argues that although the US–China rivalry has not presented with some essential elements of the US–Soviet Cold War, the emerging bipolarity has led to misplaced ideological hostility and repeated failling attempts of building alliance systems. Delicate power balance between the two countries has further complicated the rivalry by giving each side the false conviction to prevail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Istraživanja: Journal of Historical Researches is the property of Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay discusses the history of UNESCO within the conceptual framework of soft power. In particular, it studies the soft power of the organization in its interaction with the soft power of member states. The essay also examines UNESCO's governance configuration, standard-setting instruments and policies, and analyses its relation with both individual countries and regional groups identified as elements which enhanced or curtailed UNESCO's soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia y Politica: Ideas, Procesos y Movimientos Sociales is the property of Departamento De Historia del Pensamiento y de los Moviemientos Sociales y Politicos (Madrid) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent decades, since the collapse of bipolarity, relations between Russia and the United States have been constantly moving back and forth between limited cooperation and limited conflict. The logic of this movement and its trajectory are determined by cultural–psychological, internal political, and international factors. All three levels of factors are examined, along with the conflictual nature of Russian–American relations and prospects for their further development. Apparently, competing messianic concepts, radically different internal political processes, a lack of firm economic ties, and rivalry at the international level are preventing both countries from changing the existing trajectory of relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World War II produced a major shift in global power relations and led to the emergence of bipolarism. The agreements reached by the Allies in Yalta in February 1945 sanctioned the USSR's rule over Eastern Europe. In this context, the takeover of political power and the changes imposed in the economy by the communists in Romania, with the direct help of the USSR was a logical consequence. All the events that took place in Romania between August 23, 1944 and December 31, 1947 were part of the logic of communizing the Romanian society and state on the Soviet model. The communization of Romania followed a path that provided for the invalidation of the liberal, democratic, bourgeois, capitalist model of society and the imposition of another communist, undemocratic, egalitarian, totalitarian model. In order to achieve this goal, measures had been brutally applied to restrict citizens' rights, both politically and in terms of expression or property. In this context, the change of the historical role of the Royal Palace from Cotroceni to the Palace of the Pioneers was part of the propagandistic activity of a totalitarian regime which, in the absence of popular legitimacy, by vote, had to "fabricate" a history to legitimize it in front of the Romanian people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of a second Kim-Trump summit this article reviews the posture of Russia and China and suggests that not only do they have an alliance but that it also includes to some degree North Korea. Moscow and Beijing have endorsed Pyongyang's negotiating posture and much evidence suggests a Russo--Chinese alliance, albeit an informal one. Such an alliance possesses immense implications for the ongoing efforts to find a negotiated path out of the Korean nuclearization crisis and for regional security in general. But in the meantime the advent of such an alliance imparts a quality of regional bipolarity to the Northeast Asian security agenda that could obstruct further progress towards peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Relations / Uluslararasi Iliskiler is the property of International Relations Council and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

American and Chinese interests seem to be at one time in agreement and at another at loggerheads over issues that involve armed services, diplomacy, economics, human rights, intelligence, trade and culture. Part of what may appear to be a growing déracinement, or mutual disenchantment, arising from diverse viewpoints over infrastructure development globally but especially in sensitive developing areas such as the stand-off in the South China Sea and elsewhere along the Pacific coastline of Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific Rim. China seems to be reconstructing its ancient feudal empire, actual or imaginary, in the territory to its South, the ASEAN bloc. This article will address some issues of compatibility and conflict that unite China but that sometimes divide it from the United States and the West, then assesses what alternative strategies should be adopted or abandoned in the interests of global and regional harmony coupled with security. It urges greater cooperation and collaboration, a development of a code of conduct for state behavior in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, together with a concerted East–West effort to maintain a stable economy for China and a sustainable trade relationship between China, Europe, and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The situation of Polish women and their rights including access to resources can have a satisfactory appearance. However, this is just a lonely, first impression. Women have to fight for status and opportunity improvement in the professional arena, which is definitely in need of strengthening and improvement. The study of women and their working area situation, based on examples from Poland assisting in the creation of the self-questioning, in a better understanding needs and lack of woman manifestation gaps. Which kind of implementation can balance the invisibility of women's work. Considerations on the stereotype of women's participation in professional areas, traditionally dominated by men, show transformations. In art and military service, men are dominant, but nonetheless there is a visible transgression of the presence of power and movement towards female professionals. Gender mainstreaming has started to exist in many areas of professional life previously unavailable for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks into the progress of the relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The author observers that both camps have realized that an occurrence of a war between them is very risky. To this end, they both decided to think of their future relations in terms of stable peace. Moreover, the Soviet government agreed to a test ban and to a no-war policy. He also comments on the emergence of a bipolar world wherein the U.S. and the Soviet Union are considered to be the two superpowers. For him, this set-up is not secured and he is worried about possible war between the superpowers.

The article discusses the bipolar international system involving the U.S. and China in terms of international relations, nature and effectiveness of global governance and economic interaction among the superpowers and smaller states. Topics include how U.S. and China bipolarity will differ from the U.S. and Soviet Union bipolarity, what U.S. and China bipolarity will mean for the U.S. and its key European and Asian allies, and the alliance security dilemma dynamics that the U.S. will have to face when it comes allies who face a security threat from China.

Italian politics have undergone momentous change in the 2007-2017 decade under the impact of the eurozone crisis, whose peak in 2011-2013 could be equated to the earlier watershed years of 1992-1994. The lasting impact of the upheaval in Italian politics in the early 1990s could still be felt in the decade of economic recession, but there were also new challenges prompted by a crisis that had its roots in international financial contagion and which unravelled under the shadow of both recession and austerity. The changes were of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy-oriented and political nature. If one central quintessentially political theme stands out by the end of this decade it is the apparent exhaustion of the quest for bipolarisation that was initiated in the early 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian 2013 election ended the period of bipolarism that characterized the so-called 'Second Republic', and paved the way for new parties such as the Five Star Movement. We investigate that election, which took place after the technocratic government led by Mario Monti, through the analytical lenses of the retrospective theory of economic voting applied at the provincial level. Local unemployment rates shape the electoral performances of those parties that were more supportive and sympathetic to the caretaker executive, thus confirming a distinction between incumbent and non-incumbent even in that critical and politically undecided election. We further contribute to the literature on retrospective voting by relaxing the locally untenable assumption of independence among the units. Making use of spatial regression models, we demonstrate the relevance of both the internal and contiguous economies, and their relative impact due to the different size of the provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'dream of the butterfly,' which seals the second chapter of the Zhuangzi, is often interpreted as undergirded by the bipolarity of dreaming and awakening or by the elusive interchange of identities between Zhuangzi and the butterfly, dreamer and dreamed. In this paper I argue that the underlying structure of the story may be better interpreted as exhibiting not two, but three stages of development, consistently echoing other tripartite parables in the Zhuangzi. In my reinterpretation I rely on the phenomenology of dreams proposed by the Spanish philosopher Maria Zambrano, which distinguishes among three states: the primal dream, characterized by atemporality and wholeness; wakefulness, characterized by temporality and analytic thinking; and the creative dream, in which reality discloses itself as a meaningful, holistic unity. I suggest that Zhuangzi's parable describes a similar self-transformative threefold process culminating in the joyous freedom of a shifting multifaceted subjectivity centered in the timeless pivot of the Dao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce the notion of a bi-cooperative game withBipolar Fuzzy Bi-coalitionsand discuss the related properties. In many decision-making situations, players show bipolar motives while cooperating among themselves. This is modelled in both crisp and fuzzy environments. Bi-cooperative games with fuzzy bi-coalitions have already been proposed under the product order of bi-coalitions where one had memberships in [0, 1]. In the present paper, we adopt the alternative ordering: ordering by monotonicity and account for players’ memberships in, a break from the previous formulation. This simplifies the model to a great extent. The corresponding Shapley axioms are proposed. An explicit form of the Shapley value to a particular class of such games is also obtained. Our study is supplemented with an illustrative example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While people of many nationalities live in Ukraine, Ukrainians and Russians constitute the majority of its population. Territorially, the Ukrainian language is spread unevenly, which results in pronounced bilingualism and language bipolarity. The influence of the Soviet policy of the Russian language dominance is still present in Ukraine. Ukrainian prevails in the sphere of public administration and education. Russian dominates in most mass media. Under such circumstances it is important to maintain conditions for the preservation of the language identity of other ethnic minorities, which would promote the development of linguistic diversity in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A zeroing design for both positive and negative power supply noise sensitivities of the VCO to alleviate the jitter caused by the supply noise for the PLL operating over a range of 1–4 GHz is proposed and demonstrated. The design uses a polarity check module to check the noise sensitivity polarity (positive or negative) of the supply noise. Then it uses a modified delay cell for which both its V DS and V GS can be adjusted to gain the bipolarity compensation. In addition, the calibration can be activated automatically when the PLL is locked or when the operating frequency is changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its launch in World War II, the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF) championed the use of American art as cultural diplomacy. Although the deterioration of US-Soviet relations would obscure the council's wartime success and precipitate its designation as a subversive organization, the NCASF continued to operate throughout the Cold War. Using unpublished archival sources from the US and Russia, this essay reveals how marginalized social realist artists rejected postwar developments in the US in favor of cultivating closer ties with the USSR, presenting an alternative history of Soviet-American artistic exchange that calls into question many of the popular narratives of the cultural Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, the power transition theory has witnessed a certain revival, becoming a popular perspective for scholars and officials alike, especially as far as the U.S.-China relationship is concerned. Firstly, as the power transition theory was originally developed as an alternative to the balance of power arguments, the present paper reviews the concept of power balance. Secondly, it presents the main features and tenets of the power transition theory. Thirdly, it comparatively assesses the key differences between the power transition and the balance of power theories. The paper suggests that, in order to adequately comprehend the power dynamics of the 21st century, one might selectively adopt aspects of the power transition theory, but not doing away with the notion of power balance, as, on one hand, the multipolar distribution of power would likely be the future configuration of it, and, on the other hand, the current and the likely short-term future behaviour of China towards the U.S. fits the notion of soft balancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planar cell polarity is an important property of epithelial tissue. The boundary propagation model was proposed as the mechanism of PCP induction, while it has been doubted whether it can induce PCP on wide tissue. Using simulation, a set of proteins can be shown to induce PCP, but it does not explain why and how the set can induce PCP. In this study, we made theoretical model and simulation model to explore when and how the boundary propagation induce PCP. We incorporated multipolar cell in our model. Intracellular interactions have been thought to amplify polarity of a cell, but we propose instead that they are to keep a cell-cell interface polarized, and bipolarity of cell is obtained as a result. We show that the boundary propagation can propagate polarity as long as average size of local cell group is constant and levels of PCP proteins are balanced in every cell. Therefore, this model provide an explanation for PCP induction on a tissue with multiple cell types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the crisis in Ukraine and over Ukraine that has brought the Russia-West relations to a breaking point for the first time since the end of the East-West confrontation,it comes as no surprise that people are now asking themselves if we are heading towards a new Cold War. The Ukrainian crisis is viewed as the first direct conflict between differing regional strategies of Russia and the EU - Brussels' Eastern partnership and Moscow's Eurasia Union concept. Ukraine has been central to both strategies,and "the either/or" choice presented to Kiev ultimately made a conflict inevitable. However,the reason for this confrontation goes much deeper than the clash of two opposing regional strategies and is rooted heavily in the 1990s. Therefore,the Ukrainian conflict should be viewed as the quintessence of the mutual disappointment of Russia and the West,resulted from their mistakes after the end of bipolarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Peace of Westphalia, few great powers have “died”, while the “death rate” and proliferation of small states has been dramatic at times. What causes these fluctuations? In this paper, I claim that the dominant reason for the extinction, emergence and proliferation of the small state over the last three and a half centuries is to be found at the system level. Ultimately, small state survival is determined by the particular set-up of the state system. I advance this argument from the perspective of international relations theory, integrating the relevant scholarship of the English School and realism, especially structural realism. The latter’s systemic perspective provides the basis for arguing that small states are structurally irrelevant. It is this feature of the small state, its irrelevance with regard to the power-based structure of the state system, which has caused the small state to “struggle for existence” in the past, and which has allowed small states to proliferate during the bipolar Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The miniaturization of energy storage microcapacitors to develop portable electronic devices has been of high recent interest. Here, microsupercapacitors microrobot is fabricated using membrane template-assisted electrodeposition of WS2 nanoparticles (WS2NPs)/polyaniline (PANI) and platinum (Pt) layers. The microrobot navigates in the microchannel and attaches itself as part of the electrical circuit. The attached WS2NPs-PANI/Pt microrobots enhance the capacitive behavior of the circuit significantly. The results presented in this work open the door for the development of smart and miniaturized functional micromotors that are able to self-assemble to on-demand circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual specificity phosphatase-3 (Dusp3/Vhr) regulates cell cycle progression by counteracting the effects of mitogen-activated protein kinases (Mapk) Erk1/2 and Jnk. Despite the known upregulation of Dusp3 at M phase in mammalian cells, its mitotic functions are poorly characterized. Here, we report that loss of Dusp3 by RNAi leads to the formation of multipolar spindles in human mitotic cancer cells in an Erk1/2-dependent manner. In the phosphatase-silenced cells, the normal bipolar spindle structure was restored by chemical inhibition of Erk1/2 and ectopic overexpression of Dusp3. We propose that at M phase Dusp3 keeps Erk1/2 activity in check to facilitate normal mitosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, the logical behaviour of negation in Wittgenstein's Tractatus (1918) is compared with Demos' account of denial (1917). Even if we hold negation as a pure syntactical device, at least in some context, it brings a handful of complex semantic information - potentially an infinite amount (e.g., in the ascription of degrees to empirical qualities or of colours to visual points). We advocate then the existence of at least two negations due to the existence of two different and non-reducible types of exclusion. The first negation is a Tractarian and classical one, based on the notion of contradiction, whereas the second is a non-classical negation, based on the notion of contrariety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the shifts in the international balance of power, that we attribute both to the weakening status of the US globally and to the rise of regional powers. The hypothesis of the study is that the world is currently experiencing a short stage of unimultipolarity, characterised by high instability, which is generated by the rise of new regional hegemons, the changes at the top of power hierarchies, the diminishing gap between the only superpower of the moment, the US, and the rising powers. We point to the tensions caused by a shift in power and status from the global hegemon to the regional hegemons, discussing its consequences in terms of: ideological allegiances, institutions and treaties evolution, development models legitimacy. The following decade will probably confirm the tendency for a return to a new type of bipolar order. Our analysis of the current stage of international relations reveals that we are now witnessing a double bipolarity: an American-Chinese economic bipolarity and an American-Russian military bipolarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consequences and implications of China's rise have been analyzed and discussed from a number of perspectives. There has been little analysis that specifically evaluates the implications for the Atlantic Alliance, however, and whether an international system defined by U.S.-China bi-polarity would lead to a strengthening or a weakening of the transatlantic relationship. This article argues that China's rise will create security dynamics that likely will lead to a weakening of the Atlantic Alliance. It is unlikely that China's rise will provide NATO with a renewed purpose or give a convincing rationale for alliance cohesion the way the Soviet Union once did. Instead, China's rise will reveal divergent strategic interests and priorities among the members of the Atlantic Alliance, with a real possibility that America's rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific could intensify perceptions on both sides of the Atlantic of NATO's declining geopolitical value and relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes three elements of power and balancing in the South China Sea (SCS): analytical perspectives on China's behaviour and intentions, the American rebalance to Asia and the dispositions of American allies and partners. Based on extensive interviews and theoretical analysis, it concludes that ‘soft balancing’ backed by American military power provides the optimum chance for resolving the growing dispute. Short to medium-term weakness of Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Japan, means the United States must provide much of the military power while working to build their forces. The most promising alternative is multilateral diplomacy through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Regional Forum, a vehicle for negotiating a Code of Conduct and implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. If China remains motivated mainly by defense of realist interests, the costs imposed against expansion will eventually cause recalculation of Beijing's strategy, and soft balancing by the United States and its partners has a chance of working. The constructivist perspective, stressing self-conceptualization of Chinese strategic culture, supports Chinese confidence that patience will eventually bring dominance. If China tries offensively to change the status quo, soft balancing is less likely to influence Beijing. President Xi Jin Ping appears to be offensively asserting power, seeking regional dominance before he is due to step down in 2023. This supports the finding of enhanced risks of unintended escalation in the SCS and the East China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary discussions of private law theory have sought to divine the deep structure and content of private law by reference to two key distinctions. First, the distinction between private and criminal law has been utilized to flesh out the distinctively bipolar structure of private law (and its various departments, namely, property, contract, torts, and unjust enrichment). Second, the distinction between formal and distributive equality has served to highlight the special terms of interaction established in private law. In these pages, I take up the former distinction, arguing that its theoretical significance is overdrawn. I argue that it does not succeed in identifying private law's precise nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thucydides’Historyremains the basis for numerous claims within International Relations Theory, contributing to defining concepts from the security dilemma to the dynamics of bi-polarity and hegemonic transition theory. But the historical record that underpins Thucydides’Historyprovides a more complex view of the rivalry between Athens and Sparta. This analysis argues that basing explanations for the Great Peloponnesian War on the premise of Spartan “fear” is incomplete. A bi-polar, hegemonic rivalry did not lock-in the two states; they existed in a complex multi-polar system. This multi-polarity allowed other actors—notably Corinth—to play a key role in the outbreak of war. It was consideration for alliances, empires, and political rivalries within the context of multi-polarity, rather than a prosaic Spartan “fear,” that were at the heart of the war. These unique characteristics combined with the misrepresentation of the historical record, make generalising from the Peloponnesian War dangerous. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Electronic Turkish Studies is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In May 2015, 19 million Italians were called to renew the legislative assemblies and presidencies of seven regions, thus concluding an electoral cycle begun in February 2013 that involved all the 15 ordinary statute regions. Beyond their immediate relevance – of the 15 incumbent presidents only three were confirmed in office – these elections represented a turning point for regional party systems, paralleling the earthquake of the 2013 general elections. The ‘fragmented bipolarism’ characterising elections in Italy at the two levels since the mid-1990s, has been replaced by a multipolar competition, as a consequence of the consolidating presence of the Movimento 5 Stelle and the internal divisions of the centre-right coalition. At the same time, fragmentation of regional councils has remained high. The evolution of regional party systems and patterns of competition are analysed in this paper, taking into account the electoral offer, turnout and results in the majoritarian and proportional arenas of the 15 ordinary statute regions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a discussion of the concept of U.S. power and influence in international affairs often referred to as "the American Century," adapted from the book "Is the American Century Over?" by Joseph S. Nye. It argues that while the American century had not concluded by the early 21st century, the role of the U.S. in international affairs was in significant transition. It discusses the concepts of the mythology of U.S. hegemony, global world order, and the appearance of U.S. preeminence in economic and military power resources during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Violence against women is a problem around the world. Addressing the issues of physical and sexual violence against women has been a complicated endeavor for criminologists. Much of the traditional criminological research on violence against women has frequently focused on rape as a crime of power between individuals. However, this framework has been expanded to incorporate the analysis of rape during times of war and rape as a state crime. In these cases, rape serves a broader purpose within the military and social structure. By focusing on the specific case of the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, the goal of this paper was to demonstrate and analyze the role of the state in many of these crimes. Mukhtar Mai’s case should not be understood in isolation, but as a way to illuminate the role of the state in these numerous crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article offers an in-depth analysis of the way in which the results of the 2013 national elections have changed the Italian political system, with a particular emphasis on the crisis and possible end of bipolarism, and its consequences. Following a long, first phase of the Italian Republic in which bipolarism was neither practiced nor possible, the second phase (1994–2013) exhibited a muscular competition between two slightly changing political coalitions. It was also characterized by full, though often confused, rotation in government after each and every election. In the wake of the inconclusive February 2013 elections, the significant electoral success of the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, Five-Star Movement), and the formation of two governments occupying the center of the political alignment, two oppositions have made their appearance. The declining Forza Italia (FI) seems unable to launch any challenge to the incumbent government, while the M5S has so far positioned itself as an anti-system actor. Bipolarism seems no longer feasible unless a new electoral law restructures the party system and revives a decent European-style bipolar competition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]