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This is a review of the book Harry Potter and the Other; Race, Justice and Difference in the Wizarding World edited by Sarah Park Dahlen and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. of MacDonald's more unorthodox beliefs and how they actually fit into traditional interpretations of Christianity rather than being outlandish or sui generis, as is sometimes said about MacDonald's ideas. Moreover, this work demonstrates how MacDonald was both a visionary and also a man of his times, a voice of hope in a world that had gone dark, a reassuring presence in a world that seemed destined for chaos. --James Hamby, Harry Potter and the Other; Race, Justice and Difference in the Wizarding World, edited by Sarah Park Dahlen and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and Open at the Close: Literary Essays on [...]

An emerging body of opinion cites the Daenerys subplot in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-) as a white savior narrative. This article argues against this. Martin presents his emblematic medievalist Occident as equally barbaric as his Orient, disabling the Manichean colonialist allegory some scholars perceive in his work. Although Daenerys certainly thinks like a colonialist savior, such discourse makes most sense as Bakhtinian image of a language, exhibited by Martin in concert with depictions of the intractable problems her actions cause, to mount a polemic authorial critique of colonialist literature. Support for this reading can be found elsewhere in Martin's work, in which he frequently critiques uncritical espousals of literary tropes, and in his careful moral variegation of the peoples Daenerys conquers., In Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, Shiloh Carroll takes issue with George R. R. Martin's portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen's adventures in Essos, the [...]

Why do foreign militaries attack some insurgencies and not others? Although foreign involvement in civil conflicts is on the rise, many insurgencies are not targeted militarily by external powers. Current research suggests organizations that are lethal or that attack democracies should be targeted more often. We argue that organizations that have vital markers of capabilities, such as alliances with other violent non-state actors (VNSAs) and territorial control, and the ability to attack members of a powerful country, in this case, U.S. citizens at home or abroad, are more likely to be targeted. Our empirical analysis supports this contention: we use a logistic regression model and, in post-estimation, predicted probabilities and a Classification and Regression Tree (CART) model to understand the effect of potential factors on international military interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MEDIEVALISM IN A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE AND GAME OF THRONES. By Shiloh Carroll. D.S. Brewer, 2018. 192 p. ISBN 978-1843844846. $33.67. $20.99 Kindle format. 'This book explores Martin's [...]

GAME OF THRONES VERSUS HISTORY: WRITTEN IN BLOOD. Brian Pavlac. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017. ISBN 978-1119249422. $18.95. Kindle $7.99. IN 2016 an exercise in career development placed me on the review panel [...]

Does foreign aid reduce violence during ongoing wars? In the policy community, there has been growing optimism about the prospect for aid to improve conflict-affected and fragile areas. We investigate whether foreign aid decreases, or even increases, violence during ongoing armed conflict. We advance a theoretical argument that concentrated foreign assistance allocated during ongoing armed conflicts increases military fatalities but decreases civilian fatalities. Using geographically coded data on all sub-Saharan African countries in conflict between 1989 and 2008, within a matching frontier design and supplemented by instrumental variable analysis, we find strong substantive and statistical support for our expectations about military conflict intensity though less support for the expectations about civilian fatalities. The paper provides novel insights about the effects of concentrated aid on military versus civilian conflict intensity, characterizes the effects at a sub-national level, and expands the spatial-temporal period of the analysis. We also probe the plausibility of the causal mechanism using interview evidence drawn from ex-commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army and generals of the Ugandan People's Defence Forces in northern Uganda. The paper offers both academic and policy insights, including that foreign aid allocated during ongoing wars may be more problematic than it is helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the annual incidence of hip fractures and hip fracture fixation rising, the need for conversion total hip arthroplasty has also risen. About half of the 280,000 hip fractures that occur annually in the United States are extracapsular. Commonly extracapsular hip fractures are treated with either cephalomedullary nails (CMNs) or sliding hip screws (SHS). More recently, there has been a shift toward increased CMN use due to increased training with this fixation method as well as perioperative and biomechanical benefits. Given this shift, orthopedic surgeons need to understand the factors that lead to CMN failure. Failed CMN treatment leaves both patients and surgeons with few management options including revision fixation with or without osteotomy, conversion total hip arthroplasty, and conversion hemiarthroplasty. Surgeons must consider the patient and injury characteristics before deciding the best treatment plan. Conversion total hip arthroplasty is indicated in younger patients without femoral head and/or acetabular articular injury, degenerative joint disease, or avascular necrosis. Conversion total arthroplasty is a technically demanding and resource-intensive surgery associated with lower success rates and outcomes than primary total hip arthroplasty. Orthopedic surgeons should have thorough understanding of preoperative workup needed prior to surgery, implant selection associated with best outcomes, most common surgical approaches used, intraoperative considerations, and complications associated with conversion total hip arthroplasty. A comprehensive understanding of these concepts gives patients the best chance of having a successful outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic countries have long dealt with the challenge of terrorism. I discuss the challenges associated with how democracies can manage terrorist violence. I outline what terrorism is and is not and why this matters in understanding how to manage and mitigate terrorism's impacts on democratic countries. Next, I discuss terrorism in democracies like the United States and France and show the reasons why citizens should be concerned and practical in the ways our countries respond to terrorism. Importantly, I discuss the perceived existential threat of terrorism for democracy and argue why this largely overblown. Briefly, I outline the major reasons why scholars think terrorism occurs and how this should link to our policy responses. In the conclusion, I argue that counterterrorism strategies should directly follow from the reasons why we think terrorism happens and why I think this should be a central concern for analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]