Transition regimes and security sector reforms in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Why are some countries more successful at carrying out post-conflict reconstruction programmes than others? Why has Sierra Leone been more successful in the reform of its armed forces than Liberia has after the end of the Mano River Basin wars? This paper argues that the diverging outcomes are explained by the extent to which post-conflict regimes reflected the distribution of power on the ground in the two countries. Sierra Leone's transition regime reflected the distribution of power between forces on the ground and led to a consultative process that resulted in a moderate reform programme. But the earlier input of key local actors made implementation less difficult. In Liberia the transition regime was built on a repudiation of local power realities. This led to a non-consultative process that resulted in a very radical reform programme. But this lack of consultation has severely compromised the implementation of the reforms

Relationship between propagation direction of gravity waves in OH and OI airglow images and VHF radar echo occurrence during the SEEK-2 campaign

We report simultaneous observations of atmospheric gravity waves (AGW) in OI (557.7nm) and OH airglow images and VHF radar backscatter from field-aligned irregularities (FAI) in the <i>E</i>-region during the SEEK-2 (Sporadic-<i>E</i> Experiment over Kyushu 2) campaign period from 29 July to 9 August 2002. An all-sky imager was operated at Nishino-Omote (30.5 N, 130.1 E), Japan. On 14 nights, 17 AGW events were detected in OI and OH airglow images. AGW propagated mostly toward the northeast or southeast. From comparison with the <i>E</i>-region FAI occurrence, which is detected by a nearby VHF radar (31.57MHz), we found that AGW tended to propagate southeastward during FAI events. This result suggests that the interaction between AGW and <i>E</i>-region plasma plays an important role in generating FAI. Furthermore, polarization electric fields generated directly by AGW may contribute to the FAI generation.<br><br> <b>Keywords.</b> Atmospheric composition and structure (Airglow and aurora), Ionosphere (Ionospheric irregularities, Mid-latitude ionosphere

The first coordinated observations of mid-latitude <i>E</i>-region quasi-periodic radar echoes and lower thermospheric 557.7-nm airglow

International audienceWe present the first coordinated observations of quasi-periodic (QP) radar echoes from sporadic-E (Es) field-aligned irregularities (FAIs), OI 557.7-nm airglow, and neutral winds in a common volume over Shigaraki, Japan (34.9° N, 136.1° E) on the night of 5 August 2002 during the SEEK-2 campaign. QP echo altitudes of 90-110 km were lower than usual by 10 km, enabling us to make a detailed comparison among QP echoes, airglow intensity, and neutral wind at around 96 km altitude. Eastward movement of the QP echo regions is consistent with the motions of neutral winds, airglow structures, and FAIs, suggesting that the electrodynamics of Es-layers is fundamentally controlled by the neutral atmospheric dynamics. During the QP echo event, the echo altitudes clearly went up (down) in harmony with an airglow enhancement (subsidence) that also moved to the east. This fact suggests that the eastward-moving enhanced airglow region included an upward (downward) component of neutral winds to raise (lower) the altitude of the wind-shear node responsible for the Es formation. The airglow intensity, echo intensity, and Doppler velocity of FAIs at around 96 km altitude fluctuated with periods from 10 min to 1h, indicating that these parameters were modulated with short-period atmospheric disturbances. Some QP echo regions below 100km altitude contained small-scale QP structures in which very strong neutral winds exceeding 100 m/s existed. The results are compared with recent observations, theories, and simulations of QP echoes. Keywords. Ionosphere (Ionosphere-atmosphere interactions; Ionospheric irregularities; Mid-latitude ionosphere

Mutual Gains from Hostile Confrontations: Land Boards, Their Clients and ‘Self-allocation’ in Botswana

This article argues that hostile confrontations between state and societal actors pursuing divergent goals can sometimes end up empowering both. In Botswana, successful efforts by less powerful clients to reclaim the power to allocate land from land boards through various stratagems ended up also strengthening the land boards and also the state. By tricking land boards into legitimizing plots on which they had squatted, clients brought their land interests to the awareness of the land board and contributed to bettering land board records. The better records enable land boards to allocate land and resolve disputes in more informed ways. Better records also provide state officials with valuable information that various state agencies can use to tax, police, plan and implement various social projects better. In presenting this argument, the article contributes to the state-in-society discourse by showing that we need not limit the possibility of positive sum gains to situations where state and societal actors collaborate toachieve mutual goals

The Making of Dangerous Communities: The "Peul-Fouta" in Ebola-Weary Senegal

Epidemics of contagious diseases often motivate the social constitution of "dangerous communities." These communities are defined as having a high potential to further spread the diseases involved to a wider public. Migrant communities' links with sick people in places of origin that are badly affected by such diseases ostensibly justify the construction of these communities as epidemic dangers to their places of residence. But this depiction of certain groups as health threats is always grounded in other long-standing narratives about the populations targeted. Such narratives often portray those targeted as radically different from the wider body politic and stigmatise them in multiple ways. The situation of the Peul of Guinean origin in Senegal at the height of the Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Mano River Basin sheds light on these processes of sociogenesis and their implications for epidemic control and prevention.Um Epidemien einzudämmen, werden vielfach einzelne soziale Gruppen als "Risikogruppe" definiert. Ihnen wird ein hohes Gefährdungspotential zugeschrieben, zur weiteren Verbreitung der Infektion in der Bevölkerung beizutragen. Potentielle Kontakte von Migranten zu Erkrankten in ihrer Herkunftsregion, die von der Infektion stark betroffen ist, scheinen deren Bewertung als Infektionsrisiko für die Bevölkerung am Wohnort zu rechtfertigen. Doch der Definition sozialer Gruppen als Gesundheitsrisiko liegen immer andere, schon lange existierende Narrative über die betreffende Bevölkerungsgruppe zugrunde. In diesen Narrativen unterscheiden sich die Mitglieder der Gruppe erheblich von der Gesellschaft insgesamt und werden in vielfältiger Weise stigmatisiert. Die Lage der aus Guinea stammenden Peul im Senegal auf dem Höhepunkt des Ebola-Ausbruchs im Mano River Basin wirft ein Licht auf solche soziogenetischen Prozesse und ihre Implikationen für die Kontrolle und Prävention von Epidemien

Legal Censure of Unconventional Expressions of Love and Sexuality; Finding a Place in the Law for BDSM

The laws against assault and battery do not provide an exception for consensual BDSM. Consequently, a BDSM practitioner may be charged with criminally assaulting or battering a sexual partner despite having engaged in an activity that was completely consensual and not harmful in any meaningful way. Consent is the legal difference between sex and rape, and so consent should also be the difference between BDSM and criminal assault or battery. However, courts remain unwilling to even consider a defense of consent in assault and battery cases that include alleged BDSM activities. This note will explore the multiple ways in which the law has been used to enforce conventional morality and discourage untraditional or ‘taboo’ expressions of love and sexuality. It will then explore how courts have recently been applying a stricter standard when it comes to laws affecting sexual privacy rights, and show that the same rationale should be used to extend legal recognition to BDSM practitioners

The Grave Preferences of Mourides in Senegal: Migration, Belonging, and Rootedness

Burial in cemeteries created by and on the orders of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, the founder of the Mouride Sufi order in Senegal, is said to guarantee passage to paradise. While many Mourides, understandably, prefer to have their corpses transported for burial in these cemeteries, others opt to be interred elsewhere. Focusing on the commune of Joal-Fadiouth in Senegal, I argue that the choices of Mourides concerning place of burial are influenced by histories of migration in the commune and the processes through which people develop ties to the area. In explaining Mourides' divergent preferences, the paper sheds light on broader questions of identity and rootedness, evolving conceptions of "place of origin" - as well as illuminating interactions between the religious and non-religious spheres in the lives of many Africans. I draw mainly on ethnographic research in the Thies and Diourbel Regions of Senegal.Die Bestattung auf Friedhöfen, die von Cheikh Amadou Bamba, dem Gründer der Mouriden Sufi-Bruderschaft im Senegal, angelegt wurden, soll den Weg ins Paradies gewährleisten. Während viele Mouriden es daher vorziehen, ihre Leichen für die Bestattung auf diese Friedhöfe transportieren zu lassen, entscheiden sich andere für eine Beerdigung anderswo. Am Beispiel der Gemeinde Joal-Fadiouth im Senegal argumentiert der Artikel, dass die Entscheidungen der Mouriden hinsichtlich ihres Bestattungsortes von Migrationsgeschichten in der Gemeinde und den aufgebauten Beziehungen zu dem Gebiet beeinflusst werden. Um die unterschiedlichen Vorlieben der Mouriden zu erläutern, beleuchtet der Artikel weitergehende Fragen nach Identität und Verwurzelung sowie sich entwickelnden Vorstellungen des "Herkunftsorts" - und betrachtet die Wechselwirkungen zwischen den religiösen und nicht religiösen Bereichen im Leben vieler Afrikaner. Der Artikel beruht vor allem auf ethnographischer Forschung in den Regionen Thies und Diourbel im Senegal

Liberty and moral ambivalence: Postsocialist transitions, refugee hosting, and bodily comportment in the Republic of Guinea

Guinean hosts viewed Liberian refugees with the same ambivalence and fascination that many held for their own children, who were embracing the consumerist ethos of Guinea's postsocialist 1990s. Loma‐speaking farmers’ categories for evaluating historical change and refugee comportment grew out of metaphors of embodied agency and morality. These categories challenge some aspects of both Guinean elites’ and contemporary anthropologists’ understandings of the meaning of post–Cold War social change. [subaltern historiography, embodiment, Guinea, West Africa, fast capitalism, postsocialism]Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111138/1/amet12128.pd

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学位の種別:課程博士University of Tokyo(東京大学