Ideological differences among political parties result in consistently different understandings of the national interest, Brian C. Rathbun shows. These differences between parties are critical as ...major international events unfold. In the first comprehensive treatment of the effects of partisan politics in foreign affairs, Rathbun examines domestic party disagreements across the 1990s in Britain, France, and Germany regarding humanitarian interventions and the creation of a European Union security force. The different reactions of the left and the right in the Western European nations had, for example, profound implications for the resolution of conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo. Rathbun argues that leftist parties, compared to their rightist counterparts, believe less in the efficacy of force, are more willing to rely on multilateral cooperation to realize their goals, and have a broader conception of the national interest that includes the promotion of human rights abroad. Cultural factors, such as a nation's unique history with the use of force, do not constrain partisan debate but rather make particular issues controversial and help parties resolve value conflicts. Partisan Interventions is based on interviews with dozens of senior party and government officials. Rathbun draws on the experiences of former foreign and defense ministers, heads of the armed services, ambassadors to the United Nations and NATO, and party spokespersons on foreign and defense policy.
The term "aristolochic acid nephropathy" (AAN) is used to include any form of toxic interstitial nephropathy that is caused either by ingestion of plants containing aristolochic acids (AA) as part of ...traditional phytotherapies (formerly known as "Chinese herbs nephropathy"), or by the environmental contaminants in food (Balkan endemic nephropathy). It is frequently associated with urothelial malignancies. Although products containing AA have been banned in most of countries, AAN cases remain regularly reported all over the world. Moreover, AAN incidence is probably highly underestimated given the presence of AA in traditional herbal remedies worldwide and the weak awareness of the disease. During these two past decades, animal models for AAN have been developed to investigate underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in AAN pathogenesis. Indeed, a more-in-depth understanding of these processes is essential to develop therapeutic strategies aimed to reduce the global and underestimated burden of this disease. In this regard, our purpose was to build a broad overview of what is currently known about AAN. To achieve this goal, we aimed to summarize the latest data available about underlying pathophysiological mechanisms leading to AAN development with a particular emphasis on the imbalance between vasoactive factors as well as a focus on the vascular events often not considered in AAN.
Endemic (Balkan) nephropathy is a chronic tubulointerstitial disease frequently accompanied by urothelial cell carcinomas of the upper urinary tract. This disorder has recently been linked to ...exposure to aristolochic acid, a powerful nephrotoxin and human carcinogen. Following metabolic activation, aristolochic acid reacts with genomic DNA to form aristolactam-DNA adducts that generate a unique TP53 mutational spectrum in the urothelium. The aristolactam-DNA adducts are concentrated in the renal cortex, thus serving as biomarkers of internal exposure to aristolochic acid. Here, we present molecular epidemiologic evidence relating carcinomas of the upper urinary tract to dietary exposure to aristolochic acid. DNA was extracted from the renal cortex and urothelial tumor tissue of 67 patients that underwent nephroureterectomy for carcinomas of the upper urinary tract and resided in regions of known endemic nephropathy. Ten patients from nonendemic regions with carcinomas of the upper urinary tract served as controls. Aristolactam-DNA adducts were quantified by 32P-postlabeling, the adduct was confirmed by mass spectrometry, and TP53 mutations in tumor tissues were identified by chip sequencing. Adducts were present in 70% of the endemic cohort and in 94% of patients with specific A:T to T:A mutations in TP53. In contrast, neither aristolactam-DNA adducts nor specific mutations were detected in tissues of patients residing in nonendemic regions. Thus, in genetically susceptible individuals, dietary exposure to aristolochic acid is causally related to endemic nephropathy and carcinomas of the upper urinary tract.
This book analyzes the causes and long-term social and economic effects of overseas emigration from Southeastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author argues that such ...emigration has repeatedly attracted the attention of policymakers who exploit it for state development goals.
This book centers on the Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, published in Washington in the early summer of 1914 by the Carnegie ...Endowment for International Peace. The volume was born from the conviction that the full assessment of the significance of the Carnegie Report-one of the first international non-governmental fact-finding missions with the intention to promote peace-requires a deeper exploration of the context of its birth. The authors examine how the countries involved in the wars handled the inquires of the Carnegie Commission and the role of the report in the remembrance of the wars in the respective states. Although the report considered both the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan nation-states insufficiently civilized to wage wars within the limits of the codes of conduct of international law, this orientalist conclusion can in part be explained by the liberal internationalist strategy of the Carnegie Endowment, and of the commission members' professional, political, and ethnic background. Overshadowed by the outbreak of World War I, the Carnegie Report's direct impact on international arbitration or international criminal law was limited, yet-in the authors' opinion-it ultimately contributed to the further juridification of international relations
War and Nationalism presents thorough up-to-date scholarship on the often misunderstood and neglected Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913, which contributed to the outbreak of World War I. The essays contain ...critical inquiries into the diverse and interconnected processes of social, economic, and political exchange that escalated into conflict. The wars represented a pivotal moment that had a long-lasting impact on the regional state system and fundamentally transformed the beleaguered Ottoman Empire in the process.
This interdisciplinary volume stands as a critique of the standard discourse regarding the Balkan Wars and effectively questions many of the assumptions of prevailing modern nation-state histories, which have long privileged the ethno-religious dimensions present in the Balkans. The authors go to great lengths in demonstrating the fluidity of social, geographical, and cultural boundaries before 1912 and call into question the “nationalist watershed” notion that was artificially imposed by manipulative historiography and political machinations following the end of fighting in 1913.
War and Nationalism will be of interest to scholars looking to enrich their own understanding of an overshadowed historical event and will serve as a valuable contribution to courses on Ottoman and European history.
This book provides a comprehensive outlook of expected long-term economic changes in the Western Balkans, inspiration for involved decision-makers, and ways to leverage the opportunities of the ...COVID-19 pandemic. It considers how the organizational aspects of enterprises, changes in consumer behavior, the rise of informational technologies, and the expansion of the digital market can create economic growth based on lower carbon consumption and sustainable growth based on green and clean solutions. The length and depth of the current economic crisis will depend on a combination of effective policies, incentives and management systems that can balance between the protection of public health and economic well-being.
The tumultuous history of the Balkans has been subject to a plethora of conflicting interpretations, both local and external. In an attempt to help overcome the stereotypes that still pervade Balkan ...history, Battling over the Balkans concentrates on a set of five principal controversies from the precommunist period with which the region’s history and historiography must contend: (1) the pre-1914 Ottoman and Eastern Christian Orthodox legacies; (2) the post-1918 struggles for state-building; (3) the range of European economic and cultural influence across the interwar period, as opposed to diplomatic or political intervention; (4) the role of violence and paramilitary forces in challenging the interwar political regimes in the region; and (5) the fate of ethnic minorities into and after World War II, particularly Jews, Muslims and Roma. In an attempt to give a voice to eminent local authors, the chapters provide samples of new regional scholarship exploring these contested issues—most of them translated into English for the first time—and are prefaced with historiographical overviews addressing the state of the debate on these specific controversies. These translations help bridge the language barriers that often separate scholarly traditions within Southeast Europe, as well as scholars in Southeast Europe and English-speaking academia. It is hoped that the volume will enable readers to identify common patterns and influences that characterize the writing of history in the region, and will stimulate new transnational and comparative approaches to the history of the Balkans.
With a focus on the challenges arising from rapid changes to land use, biodiversity, tourism, nature risk and bio-productivity, this volume reflects both global and local climate change. The chapters ...collate research from all of the Balkan countries.
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