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SOCIAL SCIENCES

EXCLUSION-SUICIDE-HATE-DIVERSITY-EXTREMISM-SOCIOLOGY-PSYCHOLOGY-INCLUSION-EQUITY-CULTURE

Between Coca and Cocaine: A Century or More of U.S.-Peruvian Drug Paradoxes, 1860-1980

By Paul Gootenberg, with Commentary by Julio Cotler

Cocaine has a long and mostly forgotten history, which more often than not over the past century has revolved around relationships between the United States and the Andean Republic of Peru.2 This essay examines that U.S.-Peruvian axis, through three long historical arcs or processes that proceeded–and in some sense inform–the hemispheric “drug wars” of the past twenty years. For each stage, I will focus on the changing U.S. influences, signals or designs around Andean coca and cocaine, the global contexts and competing cocaine circuits which mediated those transnational forces and flows, and the notably dynamic Peruvian responses to North-American drug challenges. Each period left its legacies, and paradoxes, for cocaine’s progressive definition as a global, illicit and menacing drug.

Washington, DC: The Wilson Center, 2003. 62p.

The Historical Foundations of the Narcotic Drug Control Regime

By Julia Buxton

This paper outlines the institutional history of the international narcotic drug control regime. It details the evolution of the control system, from its foundations at the beginning of the twentieth century - a period of mass, unregulated narcotic drug use - to the current period. The paper argues that the contemporary control model is ill-positioned to address the dynamic and rapidly changing nature of the global narcotics trade. The persistence of anachronistic guiding first principles, specifically the utopian idea of prohibition, is identified as the key impediment to the adoption of a more humane and effective policy approach. But while there is growing pressure for a revision of founding ideas, this is not supported by a host of powerful actors that includes the United States.

Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2008. 32p.

Economic Analysis of E-waste Market Under Imperfect Information

By Prudence Dato

Despite international regulations that prohibit the trans-boundary movement of electronic and electric waste (e-waste), non-reusable e-waste is often illegally mixed with reusable e-waste and results in being sent to developing countries. As developing countries are not well prepared to properly manage e-waste, this illegal trade has important negative externalities, and creates ‘environmental injustice’. The two main information problems on the e-waste market are imperfect monitoring and imperfect information on the so-called ‘degree of purity’ of the e-waste. In this paper, we use a simple bilateral North-South trade model and show that there exists an alternative e-waste market that is better than the standard e-waste market for developing countries. This alternative e-waste market is a joint trade in reusable and non-reusable e-waste. In both cases, we consider demand and supply sides, plus the equilibrium of the e-waste market to show that the alternative market that we propose is better for developing countries.

IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie, 2015. 31p.

Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates

By Robert A. Fein; Bryan Vossekuil; William S. Pollack; Randy Borum; William Modzeleski; Marisa Reddy

This document, Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates, takes these findings one step further by setting forth a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may pose a threat of targeted violence in schools. This process–known as threat assessment–was first pioneered by the U.S. Secret Service as a mechanism for investigating threats against the president of the United States and other protected officials. The Secret Service threat assessment approach was developed based upon findings from an earlier Secret Service study on assassinations and attacks of public officials and public figures.

Washington, DC: United States Secret Service and United States Department of Education, 2004. 98p.

Right-Wing Extremism in the Military

ByTeun van Dongen, Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Eviane Leidig, Hanna Rigault Arkhis

This research paper seeks to examine the nature of the nexus between right-wing extremism and the military by surveying five potential consequences (i.e., problem areas) arising from the presence of right-wing extremists within the armed forces of twelve Western countries. The five problem areas identified are military personnel: 1) committing right-wing extremist violence; 2) facilitating right-wing extremist violence by organisations; 3) perpetuating ideologically motivated hate crimes or violation of procedures and rules of engagement while on deployment; 4) hampering military diversity and inclusion efforts with activities and behaviours; and 5) undermining civilian control over the military. Based on a systematic review of five years of news media articles and government reports from 2017-2021, we find that for most problem areas the worst conceivable manifestations have thus far not (yet) materialised. Further, activities of military personnel with right-wing extremist leanings were not more dangerous as a result of their military background. Overall, the nature of the nexus between right-wing extremism and the military was vastly different amongst the countries in our study, with Germany and the US appearing to be the most heavily affected. The mapping of this threat serves as a basis for informing policymakers of the various scenarios and appropriate responses to counter right-wing extremism within the military.

The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2022. 36p.

Militia Violent Extremists in the United States: Understanding the Evolution of the Threat

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Colin P. Clarke, Samuel Hodgson

Militia violent extremists (MVEs) pose a growing threat within the United States. MVEs were the most prominent and well-organised participants in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and have plotted numerous acts of lethal violence against law enforcement, government officials, and civilians in the past decade. MVEs are motivated by a belief that private citizens must use violence to resist government overreach, combat purported tyranny, or maintain law and order. While participants in the broader militia movement embrace similar beliefs, MVEs are distinguished by their willingness to carry out violence.

The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, , 2022. 290p.

Engaging Civil Society in Countering Violent Extremism

By Bibi van Ginkel

In this Research Paper Dr. Bibi van Ginkel takes an in depth look at how multi-lateral institutions, engage with civil society to counter violent extremism. Dr. van Ginkel argues that civil society can play a crucial role in preventing and countering violent extremism in numerous ways – by working on development programs, through their work in conflict transformation, in providing a platform to raise political grievances and to facilitate dialogue, or through their work in empowering victims and survivors of terrorism. The Paper finds that over the last decade there has been a more intensive coordination of activities between the UN and other multi-lateral organisations and civil society but the question remains whether the implementation as well as the drafting of these policies will live up to their potential effectiveness. This Paper gauges how effective these measures have been and what more there is to do. The final section concludes with a series of policy recommendations.

The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2012. 14p.

Violent and Non-Violent Extremism: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

By Alex P. Schmid

In this Research Paper, Research Fellow Dr. Alex P. Schmid seeks to clarify some conceptual issues that tend to obscure the debate about how best to counter violent extremism. The main focus of this Research Paper is on obtaining a clearer understanding of what “Islamist extremism” entails in the context of the ongoing debate on allegedly “acceptable” non-violent extremists and “unacceptable” violent extremists. The author discusses a number of conceptualisations of religious extremism in the context of liberal democracies and also distinguishes, inter alia, between merely “not (yet) violent” militancy and principled non-violent political activism in the Gandhian tradition. The author argues that the distinction between “non-violent extremism” and “violent extremism” is not a valid one. The paper provides a set of twenty indicators of extremism that can be used as an instrument for monitoring extremist statements and actions, with an eye to challenging and countering such non-democratic manifestations.

The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2014. 31p.

Marginalised Young People, Surveillance & Public Space: A Research Report

By Dean Wilson, Jen Rose and Emma Colvin

Young people’sright to access public space safely and without discrimination has been an ongoing focus of YACVic’s advocacy work over the years. Young people are still typically viewed with suspicion when ‘hanging-out’ in public spaces. Unfortunately, in spite of the introduction of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, policy and laws are still developed that seriously breach young people’s rights, particularly when it comes to the regulation of public space. It is for this reason that YACVic was very happy to partner with Monash University to explore in more detail the experiences of young people with surveillance in public. Young people who are experiencing homelessness or other forms of social disadvantage or marginalisation experience breaches of several of their human rights. Their right to housing, as described by Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is breached. Theymay well be denied their right to education as a consequence of the strain homelessness places on their lives. Their right to safety is regularly compromised by virtue of not having access to safe, private spaces. Further breaches of their right to safely access public spaces free from harassment and discrimination simply compounds their disadvantage and exacerbates their vulnerability. We have a responsibility to develop policy that does not serve to further marginalize young people who are already highly vulnerable.

Melbourne, AUS: Youth Affairs Council of Victoria and the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, 2010. 57p.

Islamophobia in Europe: How governments are enabling the far-right 'counter-jihad' movement

By Hilary Aked, Mel Jones and David Miller

The Christchurch terror attack put the global Islamophobia epidemic in sharp focus. But the organisations and ideologues responsible for normalising Islamophobia both in Europe and across the Atlantic are rarely scrutinised. The lobbying watchdog Spinwatch published a report in Parliament on 26 March 2019 that examines how the counter-extremism policies of governments in the UK, France and Germany have abetted the rise of an Islamophobic ‘counter-jihad’ movement that makes Islamophobia respectable. This movement has worked with governments to influence policies that are designed to foster suspicion and mistrust of Muslims.

Bristol, UK; University of Bristol, Public Interest Investigations, 2019. 78p.

Understanding Exploitation in Consensual Sex Work to Inform Occupational Health & Safety Regulation

Edited by Cecilia M. Benoit

The impetus behind this Special Issue emerged from a quest to move beyondbinary thinking in the contemporary period about people who sell sexual services,including recent disputes about “sex trafficking vs. prostitution” and“criminalization vs. decriminalization”, to encourage theoretical and empiricalscholarship by exploring how sex work actually operates under different regulatoryregimes. The volume includes contributions from scholars of different socialsciences backgrounds based in five countries– New Zealand, the United Kingdom,Brazil, the United States and Canada. The article topics range widely,and both quantitative and qualitative research methods are showcased. The empiricalevidence presented adds to our current understanding of the complexityof this phenomenon of sex commerce/prostitution, which is found to be largelya problem of social inequality within and across capitalist societies. The authors call for policies to address occupational and societal wide inequities faced by sexworkers across many countries.

Basel, SWIT: MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021. 180p.

Racial Profiling

Edited by Wa Baile, Mohamed; Dankwa, Serena O.; Naguib, Tarek; Purtschert, Patricia; Schilliger, Sarah

Racist police checks are part of everyday life in Europe. They make it dramatically visible who is not considered a fellow citizen. While much of the dominance society finds this racist practice normal, more and more people are no longer prepared to accept it without resistance. The volume brings together scientific, artistic and activist contributions to the social backgrounds and modes of action of racial profiling and the possibilities of intersectional anti-racist resistance. The focus is on Switzerland, supplemented by perspectives from authors who are familiar with the German context.

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2019. 337p.

Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance: Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877-1927

By Keith Smith

Canada is regularly presented as a country where liberalism has ensured freedom and equality for all. Yet with the expansion of settlers into the First Nations territories that became southern Alberta and BC, liberalism proved to be an exclusionary rather than inclusionary force. Between 1877 and 1927, government officials, police officers, church representatives, ordinary settlers, and many others operated to exclude and reform Indigenous people. Presenting Anglo-Canadian liberal capitalist values and structures and interests as normal, natural, and beyond reproach devalued virtually every aspect of Indigenous cultures. This book explores the means used to facilitate and justify colonization, their effects on Indigenous economic, political, social, and spiritual lives, and how they were resisted.

Edmonton: AB, Athabasca University Press, 2009. 337p.

Children’s Rights in Norway: An Implementation Paradox?

Edited by Karl Harald Søvig; Marit Skivenes; Malcolm Langford

Norway tops international indexes on children’s rights but continues to attract criticism for its level of compliance with the Convention of the Rights of Child. This book is the first scholarly attempt to address this implementation paradox. The authors ask: What is the current level of implementation? How can we explain any gap in perceived performance? Can we improve our measurement of children’s rights? With the use of quantitative and qualitative methods, the volume examines a wide range of areas relevant to children’s rights. These include child protection and sexual violence, detention and policing, poverty and custody proceedings, asylum and disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, and childcare and human rights education. In addition, the book offers a proposal for an alternative statistical approach to measuring Norway’s performance. The book’s editors conclude by pointing towards the complex set of factors that complicate full realisation and the need for the Government to engage in proper measurement of implementation.

Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 2019. 452p.

Targeted Violence Averted: College and University Case Studies

By Jeff Allison

This report documents representative case studies of incidents in which targeted violence was thwarted by the actions of college students, school administrators and faculty, campus police, and other stakeholders. The examination of these case studies and the lessons learned from them demonstrates progress toward increased safety at colleges and universities. In addition, a companion publication entitled School Resource Officers: Averted School Violence Special Report presents information on K–12 averted violence incidents and the role school resource officers (SRO) assume in supporting student safety.

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2020. 40p.

Life Under Gang Rule in El Salvador

By International Crisis Group

Nearly 20,000 Salvadorans were killed from 2014 to 2017. That’s more violent deaths than in several countries that were at war during those years, such as Libya, Somalia and Ukraine. The murder rate – an astonishing 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 – is still sky-high at 60 per 100,000 in 2017. The culprit in most of these murders is the maras, the country’s powerful, pervasive criminal gangs.

Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2018. 16p.

Review of Programs to Counter Narratives of Violent Extremism: What Works and What are the Implications for Government?

By Rachel Briggs and Sebastian Feve

This report is an effort to assess the state of knowledge about ‘counter-narrative’ efforts that aim to challenge the use of the Internet and social media by violent extremist groups. The review considers the use of online content to engage, proselytize, recruit and inspire acts of violence by movements ranging from Al-Qaeda and affiliated networks, to white supremacist communities. Emphasizing that government-led counter-narrative efforts were still quite new at the time of the review, the authors focus on examples primarily from the US and the UK, and provide lessons learned from both government and civil society efforts.

The review is organized around the three main categories of a ‘counter-messaging spectrum’. The first is Government Strategic Communications, which are actions to get the message out about what government is doing, as well as to support the building of relationships with key constituencies. The second, Alternative Narratives, involves actions that aim to undercut extremist narratives by focusing on what one stands ‘for’ rather than ‘against,’ such as principles of openness, freedom and democracy. The third category comprises Counter-Narratives, which are actions to directly challenge the content of extremist messaging, and include showing inconsistencies and contradictions of ideology or fact, or discrediting through ridicule. The authors note that there can be overlap between the three types of activities, and that there will be challenges for delivering messages to indented audiences.

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2013. 63p.

Hate in the Empire State: Extremism & Antisemitism in New York, 2020-2021

By Anti-Defamation League and the Community Security Initiative

This report examines extremist and antisemitic trends and incidents across New York state during the twoyear time period from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021, and provides recommendations for combatting these threats. The ADL Center on Extremism (COE) and the Community Security Initiative (CSI), a project of UJA-Federation of NY and JCRC-NY, jointly researched and authored the report. The last two years have seen a significant proliferation of hate incidents both nationwide and in New York State. These incidents have been rooted, in part, in widespread campaigns of disinformation and conspiracy theories, some of which have animated extremists and fueled antisemitism, resulting in unrest and violence, from the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, D.C. to white supremacist activism to a spike in hate crimes and rising antisemitism.

New York: ADL, 2022. 30p.

White Supremacy Groups in the United States

By The Counter Extremism Project (CEP)

Key Points: • Some modern white supremacist groups, such as The Base, Hammerskin Nation, National Socialist Order (formerly Atomwaffen Division), and Nationalist Social Club subscribe to a National Socialist (neo-Nazi) ideology. These groups generally make no effort to hide their overt racist belief that the white race is superior to others. • Other modern white supremacist groups, however, propagate their radical stances under the guise of white ethno-nationalism, which falsely seeks to highlight the distinctiveness– –rather than the outright superiority––of the white identity. Such groups, like the League of the South and Patriot Front, usually claim that white identity is under threat from minorities or immigrants that seek to replace its culture, and seek to promote white ethnonationalism as a legitimate ideology that belongs in mainstream political spheres. • Many modern white supremacist groups eschew violent tactics in favor of using demonstrations and propaganda to sway public opinion and portray their ideologies as legitimate. However, their racial elitist ideologies have nonetheless spurred affiliated individuals to become involved in violent altercations. • White supremacist groups often target youth for recruitment through propaganda campaigns on university campuses and social media platforms. White supremacists have long utilized Internet forums and websites to connect, organize, and propagate their extremist messages.

New York; London; Etc.: Counter-Terrorism Project, 2018. 101p.

Far-Right Extremism in America: A Geospatial Analysis of Incident Distribution

By Meredith LeAnn Lerma

There has been little empirical research on the spatial relationship of violent far-right extremism. Previous studies have only focused on portions of far-right violent incidents, such as homicides, or amalgamated all far-right extremist activity, including legal incidents. This study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a temporal frame of 2000 to 2018 to test the relationship of violent incidents against geographic and social factors. The goal is to explore the relationships between macro-level factors and violent far-right extremist incidents. The research determines that the presence of hate groups, higher immigrant populations, higher unemployment rates, higher education levels and higher urbanicity in counties all indicate an increased likelihood a violent extremist far-right incident will take place.

Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas, 2020. 54p.