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Copyright of Journal of Political Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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.)

Israeli-Syrian relations have often been characterized by hostility and violence. Despite these periods of animosity, there were genuine opportunities for peace between them. However, these opportunities were not realized for various reasons. This article explores the failed attempts to engage in talks and potentially reach a peace agreement. The failures appear to stem from the personalities and decision-making styles of the leaders, as well as specific historical circumstances unique to each period. Key factors contributing to the failures include the significant gap between the two sides in terms of proposed solutions, a lack of leadership legitimacy, mutual distrust between leaders and societies, and a deep-seated sense of enmity that fostered animosity within each society, making it difficult for leaders to act contrary to prevailing negative perceptions. Keywords: Israel, Syria, war, peace, clandestine diplomacy, INTRODUCTION SINCE THE FOUNDING OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IN 1948, ISRAEL AND Syria have fought three bitter wars--1948, 1967, and 1973--as well as a war of attrition in 1974. [...]

Introduced in Australia in the late 1990s, the Mr Big investigative technique is a complex undercover police operation structured around a fictional criminal gang, which is created to build rapport with the suspect of a serious crime. The suspect is encouraged to confess to the crime to benefit from advantages and protection offered by the gang, including the possibility of influencing the outcome of any prosecution. Challenging Mr Big confessions in Australia has been unsuccessful. The lack of transparency and need for deception inherent in covert operations, however, exposes a potential for fabricated and coerced confessions and the risk of wrongful convictions. Scenario operations are not directly scrutinised by independent oversight bodies and an examination of reported cases suggests that Australian Mr Big operations do not involve covert police in unlawful activities that might been scrutinised under controlled operations regimes. This is a concern given a cultural predisposition within Australian law enforcement towards secrecy, rank-closing, and resistance to examination. We explore options for ensuring the safety of Mr Big convictions, including implementation of robust, independent oversight mechanisms, amendments to evidentiary rules about inducement-based confessions, and revised warning regimes to include direction on the need for caution in accepting scenario confessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the complex political dynamics between the United States, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and Tibetan leaders from 1950 to 1960. In contrast to the existing literature, this study assesses these trilateral relationships by focusing on attempted covert operations and consequences. While volumes of studies have been published about the United States Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) involvement in the Tibetan resistance movement, what remains understudied is the secret but unsuccessful attempts at cooperation between the Kuomintang and Tibetans and the role that the U.S. played in these activities. Findings demonstrate that the U.S. and Kuomintang's interest was driven by the desire to exploit the Tibetan resistance to advance their interests in combating Communist China. However, Tibetan resentment towards the Chinese and the lack of Kuomintang influences in Tibet compelled the U.S. to push back the Kuomintang in these trilateral relationships. This created a major barrier in U.S.-Taiwan relations and between Tibetans and the Kuomintang. In the race to exploit the Tibetan resistance, the U.S. became the winner. The Kuomintang, however, continued to explore the opportunity. Intricacies of nationalism, opportunism and pragmatism transiting through this period reveal realities of realpolitik. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contamination of large water bodies through crude oil production led the people of Nigeria's oil-bearing Niger Delta to seek new means of livelihood away from aquaculture. This led some of their youths to engage in distillation of crude oil using locally fabricated equipment in what is known as artisanal refineries. In order to supply their makeshift refineries with crude oil, they illegally tap into pipelines and other petroleum infrastructures which traverse the region. Both their refining activities and their method of obtaining crude oil are adjudged illegal and so were criminalized by the Nigerian state. To enforce their criminalization, the government resorted to the deployment of joint military taskforces and other kinetic measures. But rather than quell the practices, the government's responses appear to have aggravated the situation. This paper uses a variety of sources, including focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), and field observations to investigate how the criminalization of artisanal oil refining operations has contributed to worsening the security environment of petroleum production in Nigeria. Our findings show that artisanal oil refining, though instigated by the deplorable economic and environmental challenges in the oil-bearing communities, has attracted a complex web of actors whose capacity for clandestine activities is immense. As such we found the government's responses inadequate for dealing with the problem due to its failure to both unravel the web of interests and address the root causes of the problem. We then prescribe a dynamic problem-solving approach for resolving oil activism in Nigeria holistically., Author(s): Michael I. Ugwueze [sup.1], Samuel A. Asua [sup.3], Samuel A. Mbadah [sup.1], Paulinus E. Ezeme [sup.1] [sup.2], Peter L. Atime [sup.1], Josephine N. Obioji [sup.4], Elias C. Ngwu [sup.1] [...]