United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations

This article surveys and analyzes twenty-four governmental and intergovernmental bodies that are currently active in peacebuilding in order to, first, identify critical differences in how they conceptualize and operationalize their mandate, and, second, map areas of potential concern. We begin by briefly outlining the various terms used by different actors to describe their peacebuilding activities and correlate these terms with differing core mandates, networks of interaction, and interests. We then identify the divisions regarding the specific approaches and areas of priority. Thus far most programs have focused on the immediate or underlying causes of conflict-to the relative neglect of state institutions. We conclude by raising concerns about how peacebuilding is institutionalized in various settings, including at the UN's Peacebuilding Commission.

Decarbonizing the economy must remain a critical priority

The process of disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating ex-soldiers at conflict’s end is as old as war itself. The results of these efforts are far from even. Even so, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) has assumed a central place in the imagination of the peace, security and development communities. It is frequently advanced as a key pillar of multilateral and bilateral stabilization and reconstruction efforts at war’s end. Yet, the contexts in which DDR is conducted are also changing. As the United Nations and others grapple with the new geographies of organized violence, it is hardly surprising that they are also adapting their approaches. Organizations operating in war zones (and also outside of them) are struggling to identify ways of ‘disengaging’ Al Shabaab in Somalia or northern Kenya, Jihadi fighters in Syria and Iraq, Taliban remnants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Boko Haram militia in Nigeria. There are increasingly complex legal and operational challenges for those involved in DDR about when, how and with whom to engage. In order to effectively engage with these dilemmas, this article considers the evolving form and character of DDR programs. In the process, it considers a host of opportunities and obstacles confronting scholars and practitioners in the twenty first century, offering insights on future trajectories.

The state-of-the-art interpretation of stem radius changes (DRTotal) for tree water relations is based on knowledge from mostly slow growing tree species. The ratio between diurnal size fluctuations of the rigid xylem (DRXylem) and the respective fluctuations of the elastic bark (DRBark) is known to be small (<0.4) and is of importance for the localisation of water storage dynamics in stems. In this study, fast growing Eucalyptus globulus Labill. in Tasmania were investigated by point dendrometers in order to investigate tree water relations. Unexpectedly, DRXylem was found to be the main driver of DRTotal with the bark acting as a passive layer on top of the fluctuating xylem under most conditions. Accordingly, the ratio between the diurnal fluctuations of the two tissues was found to be much higher (0.6-1.6) than everything reported before. Based on simulations using a hydraulic plant model, the high tissue-specific elasticity of the Eucalyptus xylem was found to explain this atypical response and not osmotically-driven processes or species-specific flow resistances. The wide zone of secondary thickening xylem in various stages of lignification is proposed to be an important component of the high wood elasticity. The tissue acts as additional water storage like the bark and may positively affect the water transport efficiency.

Abstract In confronting a proliferation of unpredictable post-cold war threats, UN peacekeeping attempts to maintain order by normalizing the international arena. Normality is identified with democracy; non-democratic regimes are considered as potential menaces. Pro-democracy peacekeeping is an instance of an international regime that aims at taming chaos through disciplinary and regulatory mechanisms directed at reforming the institutions of potentially disorderly states and at steering their behaviour through multiple mechanisms of surveillance and reward/punishment. However, international normalization encounters resistance. The article analyses the UN methods in Haiti and Croatia and recommends prudence in applying standardized instruments in diverse local situations. Acknowledgement The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. Notes 1. Jean-Marie Guehénno, ‘The Impact of Globalization on Strategy’, in Chester Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall (eds), Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict, Washington, DC: United States Institute for Peace, 2001, pp.83–95. 2. ‘Microphysics of threats’ is used here in a way analogous to the use that Foucault made of the notion of microphysics of power to describe the decentralization and proliferation of points of exertion of power/resistance in the modern world. See Michel Foucault, Microphisique du Pouvoir, Paris: L'Arc, 1972. 3. Linked in general terms to ‘idealistic’ interpretations of international relations, democratic peace theories found their first formulation in Kant's Perpetual Peace (1795). In their modern versions, democratic peace theories offer two types of explanation of the linkages between democracy and international peace. Monadic propositions maintain that democracies are less inclined to violent behaviour, regardless of the regime type of their potential opponents. Dyadic propositions maintain that democracies, while being as war prone as non-democracies, do not go to war with other democracies due to cultural similarities and/or economic linkages. For a discussion of democratization theories, see Miriam Fendius Elman (ed.), Paths to Peace: Is Democracy the Answer?, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997, pp.1–57. 4. See Øle Wæver, ‘Securitization and Desecuritization’, in Ronnie D. Lipschutz (ed.), On Security, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, p.6. 5. In the 1990s political conditions were increasingly attached to the allocation of international aid, particularly ‘good governance’. See World Bank, Governance and Development, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1992; Governance, The World Bank Experience, World Bank, 1994; UNDP, Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity: Report of International Conference, New York, 28–30 July 1997, New York: UN Publications, 1997. The subordination of international development aid to the need for developing countries to ‘take responsibility’ for their own development and promote good governance was restated in the UN Report of the International Conference on Financing Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18–22 March 2002, and re-emphasized during the 2005 World Summit by numerous speakers (www.un.org/summit2005). For a discussion of political conditionality in the 1990s, see Gordon Crawford, Foreign Aid and Political Reform: A Comparative Analysis of Democracy Assistance and Political Conditionality, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. 6. In 1993 the EU established the ‘Copenhagen Criteria’ as a benchmark to be achieved by Eastern European countries prior to admission, including democratic, minority and human rights guarantees and the existence of a functioning market economy (http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/intro/criteria.htm). 7. Michel Foucault, ‘Governmentality’, in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, with two lectures by and an interview with Michel Foucault, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, p.87. 8. For a discussion of Foucault's approach to power, sovereignty and universalization of state models, see Andrew W. Neal, ‘Cutting Off the King's Head: Foucault's Society Must Be Defended and the Problem of Sovereignty’, Alternatives, Global, Local, Political, Vol.29, No.4, 2004, pp.373–98. 9. Michel Foucault, ‘Society Must be Defended’: Lectures at the Collége de France, 1975–1976, New York: Picador, p.30, quoted in Neal (ibid.). Foucault also develops this notion of plural, infinitesimal mechanisms in Microphisique du Pouvoir (see n.2 above). 10. This builds on the understanding of government proposed by Mitchell Dean ‘as an inventive strategic, technical and artful set of “assemblages” fashioned from diverse elements, put together in novel and specific ways, and rationalized in relation to specific governmental objectives and goals’. See ‘Introduction: Government, Liberalism, Society’, in Mitchell Dean and Barry Hindess (eds), Governing Australia: Studies in Contemporary Rationalities of Government, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 11. Foucault's elaboration of the emigration of disciplinary mechanisms from total institutions into the social body has been discussed by Francois Ewald, ‘A Power Without an Exterior’, in T.J. Armstrong (ed.), Michel Foucault Philosopher, New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992. 12. Michel Foucault, ‘Lecture at the Collége de France of 29 January 1975’, in Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomoni (eds), Abnormal: Lectures at the Collége de France 1974-1975, London: Verso, 2003, pp.81–107, 94. 13. See Pasquale Pasquino, ‘Theatrum politicum: The Genealogy of Capital – Police and the State of Prosperity’, in Burchell, Gordon and Miller (see n.7 above), pp.105–18. 14. Security Council Resolution on the question concerning Haiti, S/RES/940 (1994) of 31 July 1994. 15. UN, Les Nations Unies et Haïti, 1990–1996. Avec une introduction de Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secrétaire Général de l'Organisation des Nations Unies, New York: Département de l'Information des Nations Unies, Série Livres Bleus des Nations Unies, Volume XI, 1996, p.3. 16. S/RES/940 (1994) (see n.14 above). The Security Council stressed ‘systematic violation of civil rights’ by the ‘illegal de facto regime’ and the tragic situation of Haitian refugees. It also reiterated the commitment of the international community to assist Haiti's economic, social and institutional development and underlined that the goal of the international community was to restore democracy and to assure the prompt return of the legitimately elected president within the Governors Island framework. 17. It must be noted that before the 1990s the few UN interventions with an institution-building or democratization component were conducted in the framework of ‘decolonization’ processes and not because of a connection between democracy and international security. 18. UN General Assembly, ‘The Situation of Democracy and Human Rights in Haiti’, Resolution, A/RES/47/20B of 20 April 1993. MICIVIH was deployed in conjunction with the Organization of American States. 19. Ibid. 20. Ibid. A/RES/50/86B of 12 April 1996, which extended MICIVIH's mandate until 31 Aug. 1996, and Resolution A/RES/50/86C of 29 Aug. 1996. The mandate of MICIVIH was subsequently repeatedly extended until 13 Dec. 1999, with no substantial changes. 21. S/RES/940 (1994) (see n.14 above). 22. Security Council Resolution S/RES/1063(1996) of 28 June 1996 established the UN Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH). 23. The Haitian administrative situation, the penal, judiciary and police system, and the UN plans for reform are discussed in: MICIVIH, Le Système Judiciaire en Haïti. Analyse des Aspects Pénaux et de Procédure Pénale, May 1996; Les Prisons en Haïti, Rapport, July 1997; The Haitian National Police and Human Rights, Report, July 1996 (all accessed at www.un.org/rights/micivih/renforen.htm); and in UN Development Programme, Premiers Eléments de la Mission de Justice PNUD. Préambule: La Justice en Haïti. Le système des Nations Unies- Analyse des Actions et Recommandations, unpublished draft, 1999. 24. MICIVIH, Le Système Judiciaire en Haïti (see n.23 above), p.13. 25. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, York: Vintage Books, 1995 (2nd edn), p.38. 26. See also UN General Assembly, Report of the Secretary General, A/55/618 of 9 Nov. 2000. 27. ‘Instead of treating the history of penal law and the history of human sciences as two separate series whose overlapping appears to have had on one or the other … a disturbing or useful effect … see whether there is not some common matrix or whether they do not both derive from a single process of “epistemologico-juridical” formation; in short, make the technology of power the very principle of both of the humanization of the penal system and of the knowledge of man’, Foucault, Discipline and Punish (see n.25 above), p.23. 28. For a discussion of modern modalities of government that supplanted medieval sovereignty, see Foucault (n.7 and n.25 above); and James Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. 29. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (see n.25 above), p.94. 30. Foucault (see n.25 above). 31. Alessandro Pizzorno, ‘Foucault and the Liberal View of the Individual’, in Armstrong (see n.11 above), pp.204–11, 210. 32. Foucault (see n.7 above). 33. Scott (see n.28 above). 34. For analyses of governmentality as a method of Western governments, see Mitchell Dean, Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society, London: Sage, 1999; Michael Moran, The British Regulatory State: High Modernism and Hyper-Innovation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; Nicholas Rose, Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 35. Rose (see n.34 above). 36. Security Council Resolution S/RES/1037(1996) of 15 Jan. 1996. 37. See Hans Correl, ‘Note to Mr Guehénno, Croatia: Status of “Erdut Agreement”’, UN internal document, 21 June 2001. This note, which was circulated by the UN Liaison Office in Croatia to the Zagreb-based international partners, reconfirmed the continuing validity of the provisions of the Erdut Agreement after the end of peacekeeping. 38. Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Eastern Sirmium, art. 10–11. 39. In July 2001 the Commission included the ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the European Union, the rotating EU Ambassador, the OSCE Head of Mission, the Head of the European Union Military Monitor Mission and the Head of the UNHCR. 40. Letter, 13 Jan. 1997, from the Government of Croatia addressed to the President of the Security Council, S/1997/27, annex, commonly referred to as ‘Letter of Intent’. 41. Ibid., para.4. 42. Ibid., para.7. 43. Declaration on Educational Certificates (11 March 1997); Agreement on the Distribution of Principal's Positions (4 Aug. 1997); Decision on Curriculum Content (4 Aug. 1997); Declaration on Minority Education Rights (6 Aug. 1997); Letter of Agreement of the Ministry of Education (7 Aug. 1997). 44. Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium. S/1997/953 of 4 Dec. 1997, Annex 1. 45. These are: Affidavit on the Rights of Public Employees (16–18 Dec. 1996); Annex to the Affidavit (14 Feb. 1997); Law on Convalidation (22 Sept. 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Croatian Highway Administration (21 March 1997); Letter of Agreement by Croatian State Radio and Television (2 April 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Croatian Post and Telecommunications Administration (9 May 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Croatian Water Administration (22 May 1997); Agreement by the Croatian Pension Fund on Pension Services (29 May 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Croatian Railways (6 June 1997); Agreement by the Ministry of Health on Regional Health Services (6 June 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Croatian Electricity Company (22 July 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Croatian Forestry Commission (26 June 1997); Declaration on Educational Certificates (11 March 1997); Agreement on the Distribution of Principals' Positions (4 Aug. 1997); Decision on Curriculum Content (4 Aug. 1997); Declaration on Minority Education Rights (6 Aug. 1997); Letter of Agreement by the Ministry of Education (7 Aug. 1997); Joint Statement on the Reintegration of the Tax Department (4 Sept. 1997); Joint Statement on Reintegration of the Employment System (11 Sept. 1997); Joint Statement on Reintegration of the Social Welfare System (11 Sept. 1997); Agreement on Recognition and Handover of Record Books (25 Sept. 1997); Memorandum of Understanding on Restructuring the Transitional Police Force (undated); Agreement on the Joint Working Group on Returns (23 April 1997); Organization of the Joint Council of Municipalities (23 May 1997); Declaration on Conditions for Judicial Reintegration (19 Sept. 1997). 46. Commission of the European Communities, ‘Croatia: The Stabilization and Association Process (SAP), First Annual Report’, Report from the Commission, Brussels, 4 April 2002, COM(2002)-163 final (executive summary). 47. Commission of the European Communities, ‘Croatia: Opinion on the Application of Croatia for Membership of the European Union’, Brussels, 20 April 2004, COM(2004)-257 final. 48. Ibid. 49. Ibid. 50. Croatia became a candidate for EU membership in October 2005, and in December Ante Gotovina was captured in Tenerife. These are unarguably positive developments. The street protests that followed Gotovina's capture, however, signal that this matter may contribute to reinforce political polarization instead of reconciliation. With regard to other pending issues, in its November 2005 report the OSCE estimates that, with the exception of a few cases still pending, the property repossession process should be completed in the first trimester of 2006. However, a housing solution still has to be found for the some 30,000 Croatian Serbs who lived in former socially owned apartments. According to the same source, progress with regard to minority discrimination has been slow. National minorities are still underrepresented in the police workforce, where only two per cent are from minority groups (as compared to 7.5 per cent in the population). See Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE Mission to Croatia. Status Report No. 17 on Croatia's progress in Meeting International Commitments Since July 2005, 10 November 2005. 51. UN General Assembly. Report of the Secretary-General. UN International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti, A/55/618 of 9 Nov. 2000. 52. Ibid. 53. I take issue here with ‘good governance’ approaches to development, which see the indiscriminate transplanting of Western institutional modalities into totally different contexts as the first step to development and the key to peaceful national societies and international relations. In the 1990s, the UNDP had started a reflection on good governance and its role in fostering development. Good governance emerged as the result of a critical revision of theories which considered economic factors as the main components of development. These include the ‘trickle down’ theories in the 1960s, the ‘basic need’ approaches of the 1970s and the ‘structuralist’ approaches of the 1980s. For the UNDP, the failure of all these approaches is due to the fact that they did not take into account the political dimension of development. Underdevelopment was now blamed on institutional malfunctioning, and the central concern of the UNDP in order to tackle the issue was the modernization of the institutions of the state. See UNDP (n.5 above). For a debate on democratic peace theories, see Miriam Fendius Elman (ed.), Paths to Peace: Is Democracy the Answer?, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997. 54. Colin Granderson, ‘Institutionalizing Peace: The Haiti Experience’, presentation at the Aspen Institute conference on ‘Honoring Human Rights: From Peace to Justice’, Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York, 12–14 Sept. 1997, p.28. 55. Ibid. 56. The government's interests and resistance have to a certain extent also played a role in making the UN task more difficult. But they were probably not the major factor in the face of the huge discrepancy between the institutions proposed by the UN and the local socio-economic situation. 57. Roland Paris argues that the reason for the failure of UN post-cold war peacekeeping was insufficient institutionalization. The case of Haiti, however, seems to show that too much institutionalization without sufficient supporting resources was the problem. See Roland Paris, At War's End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 58. For Gilles Deleuze each social apparatus ‘has its way of structuring light, the way in which it falls, blurs and disperses, distributing the visible and the invisible, giving birth to objects which are dependent on it for their existence, and causing them to disappear’. Regimes of enunciations ‘must be defined from the point of view of that which can be enunciated, with the drifting, transformations and mutations which this will imply’. Gilles Deleuze, ‘What is a dispositif?’, in Armstrong (n.11 above), p.160. 59. In this regard I dissent from François Debrix, who sees in the failure of the UN in Bosnia and Somalia the premises for a fading role of the organization in maintaining world order. See Debrix, Re-Envisioning Peacekeeping: The United Nations and the Mobilization of Ideology, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 60. I modify here a formulation by Francois Ewald, ‘A Power Without an Exterior’, in Armstrong (n.11), pp.169–75. 61. Ibid.

The article addresses the issue of being a ‘double’ insider when conducting interviews. Double insider means being an insider both in<br/> relation to one’s research matter in the authors’ case the making of geographical knowledge and in relation to one’s interviewees <br/> our colleagues. The article is a reflection paper in the sense that we reflect upon experiences drawn from a previous research project<br/> carried out in Danish academia. It is important that the project was situated in a Scandinavian workplace culture because this has<br/> bearings for the social, cultural, and economic situation in which knowledge was constructed. The authors show that being a double<br/> insider affects both the interview situation and how interviews are planned, located, and analysed. Being an insider in relation to one’s<br/> interviewees gives the advantage of having a shared history and a close knowledge of the context, and these benefits outnumber the<br/> disadvantages. Being an insider in relation to one’s research matter makes it difficult to contest hegemonic discourses and tacit values<br/> and ideas. Recommendations on how to handle the double insider situation are given. The article concludes that for analytical<br/> purposes, it is useful to separate the two roles, but in reality they coexist and are intertwined.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) offer a novel method for measuring important livestock phenotypes in commercial grazing environments. This information can then be used to inform genetic parameter estimation and improve precision livestock management. Arguably, these technologies are well suited for such tasks due to their small, non-intrusive form, which does not constrain the animals from expressing the genetic drivers for traits of interest. There are many technical challenges to be met in developing WSN technologies that can function on animals in commercial grazing environments. This paper discusses the challenges of the software development required for the collection of data from multiple types of sensors, the management and analyses of the very large volumes of data, determination of which sensing modalities are sufficient and/or necessary, and the management of the constrained power source. Assuming such challenges can be met however, validation of the sensor accuracy against benchmark data for specific traits must be performed before such a sensor can be confidently adopted. To achieve this, a pasture intake research platform is being established to provide detailed estimates of pasture intake by individual animals through chemical markers and biomass disappearance, augmented with highly annotated video recordings of animal behaviours. This provides a benchmark against which any novel sensor can be validated, with a high degree of flexibility to allow experiments to be designed and conducted under continually differing environmental conditions. This paper also discusses issues underlying the need for new and novel phenotyping methods and in the establishment of the WSN and pasture intake research platforms to enable prediction of feed intake and feed efficiency of individual grazing animals.

Offspring of 4 Poll Dorset rams differing in eye muscle depth estimated breeding values (EBVs) were studied to determine sire, sex, and nutritional influences on cellular characteristics in the longissimus lumborum muscle. At 12 weeks of age, 62 lambs were individually fed a concentrate diet with or without protected nutrients ad libitum for 120 days while 39 lambs were grazed on improved pasture. Sire influenced the percentages of type 2A and 2B/2X myofibres, but not myofibre number or size. Progeny of the highest eye muscle depth EBV ram had less type 2A and more 2B/2X myofibres than the lowest ranking sire. At equivalent carcass weight, amount of RNA and protein in the longissimus muscle was influenced by sire, consistent with differences in eye muscle depth EBVs. Sex had little effect on muscle cellular characteristics, whereas lambs fed pasture had less type 1 myofibres than those fed concentrates and had less muscle RNA and a higher ratio of protein to RNA. The findings demonstrate differences in m. longissimus lumborum cellular characteristics in offspring of sires differing in muscle EBVs. The extent to which these differences relate to the Carwell muscle hypertrophy gene remains to be determined.

Social cohesion has increasingly been touted as a tool of peacebuilding. Theoretically, the concept is linked with efforts to address inequality and build social capital. Practically, social cohesion is bandied about in settings such as the Central African Republic (CAR) as an important objective for building sustainable peace. We argue that peacebuilding scholars focus more on social cohesion as an end goal than they do on the policy-making and implementation aspects of the concept. After reviewing two key social cohesion initiatives in CAR, we find practitioners equally remiss in thinking about process. Also, both communities involved in the initiatives face challenges in grasping the complexity of the horizontal and vertical linkages that sustain conflict and which need to be restructured to build social cohesion. The paper documents these shortcomings and suggests tentative ways forward.

Abstract Geochemical studies of the ecosystems of 184 Siberian lakes in three largest zones of northern Asia (humid, arid, and semiarid) and in mountainous area were carried out. The contents of natural radionuclides, radiocesium, and rare-earth elements in conjugate components of the systems and the types of the main sources of the bottom sediment material have been determined. Dating of the bottom sediments was made by the activity of radioisotopes 137Cs and 210Pb, which permitted estimation of the sedimentation rates in lakes in different regions of Siberia: 0.35 cm/year in the south and 0.25–0.3 cm/year in the north. Six main ions have been determined in the waters of the studied lakes: Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, HCO3−, SO42−, and Cl−. The distribution of natural radionuclides in the stratified sections of bottom sediments of Siberian lakes evidences the stable sedimentation and characterizes their contents in the soils of water-catchment areas, which can be considered background contents there. Sediments enriched in organic matter have higher concentrations of U and lower ones of Th and K. The Th/K ratio in the studied bottom sediments is the same as in the soils. The Th/U ratios are somewhat lower than those in the soils because U is accumulated by chemogenic and organic components. The overall 137Cs pollution of bottom sediments of Siberian lakes is close to the global background (40 mCi/km2 in 2000), but in the Altai Territory and Buryatia and Altai Republics it is twice higher. The uneven areal and temporal distribution of residual radiocesium is observed not only in the lacustrine sediments but also in the lake water areas. The REE patterns of bottom sediments of different mineral types are similar to those of continental crust and clays of the Russian Platform, though organogenic and carbonate sediments have higher absolute REE contents than terrigenous ones. Pelitic fraction is the main REE concentrator in the bottom sediments.

ABSTRACT More than ten years after the end of the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia, this paper examines the process of return of the displaced to their homes, offering a comparison of factors affecting the process in the two countries. The first section sketches the nature and modality of obstruction to minority return in places of origin, describing some of the ways in which politicized obstruction has interacted with other conditions in return locations. The second section looks at the impact on the return process of conditions in places of refuge, examining how particular circumstances of their displacement have differently affected questions of mobilization and representation among displaced communities. In particular, some observations are made about the relationships between the displaced communities and the authorities in the various places of refuge, and about the effect that these relationships have had on the approach taken to the question of return by the different communities. In the final section a comparison is made of the nature of international intervention to support minority returns in the two countries, arguing that considerably more resources, attention, and diplomatic pressure were focused on the question of minority return to Bosnia than to Croatia. Some possible explanations for this include the burden on third countries of large numbers of Bosnian refugees, the perceived peace‐building imperative behind minority returns in Bosnia, and the attempt to redress the highly visible failures of the international community in preventing ethnic cleansing there. These factors are absent in the Croatian context, and it is argued that the corresponding lack of attention to minority return there demonstrates an inconsistency behind the moral claim made by international actors in upholding the right to return. The paper concludes by commenting on the effect of the combination of these factors on individual displaced persons and refugees, and on the parallels that can be drawn with other situations of forced migration, specifically Kosovo (Republic of Serbia). 3 Current opportunities to redress some of the inconsistencies in approach and outstanding obstacles to return are highlighted.

We measure the comprehensive carbon price from 2008 to 2019 resulting from climate policies imposed by 25 high-polluting countries that represent 82 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2019. Comprehensive carbon prices build upon previous notions—including explicit, effective, and implicit carbon prices—by incorporating a broad range of policies that reduce carbon emissions. We consider seven types of major market-based policies commonly used to create marginal incentives to reduce emissions: carbon taxes, emissions trading systems, fossil fuel taxes, fossil fuel subsidies, renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and low-carbon fuel standards. Comprehensive carbon prices represent the weighted average of marginal incentives imposed on polluters by country policy mixes. We measure country-level comprehensive carbon prices by summing across all seven policies the product of (1) the marginal incentive imposed by a policy (expressed in dollars per ton of CO2 emitted), and (2) a CO2-emissions-coverage weight for that policy (equal to the proportion of CO2 emissions regulated by the policy relative to that country’s total CO2 emissions). We measure the global comprehensive carbon price by summing across all 25 countries the product of (1) each country’s comprehensive carbon price, and (2) that country’s proportion of CO2 emissions relative to total CO2 emissions from our sample of 25 countries. The global comprehensive carbon price has risen upward from +8.68 USD in 2008 to +19.13 USD in 2019, with a dip to +6.94 USD per ton in 2012. These values are far too low to appropriately address climate change. The comprehensive carbon price varies widely between countries, ranging from −128.35 USD to +146.25 USD in 2019. This heterogeneity means that polluters face uneven marginal incentives to reduce CO2 emissions. Our focus is on measuring marginal incentives rather than policy outcomes, such as overall emissions abatement, which we identify as a promising area for future research. KEY POLICY INSIGHTSComprehensive carbon prices represent a useful metric for summarizing and tracking global and country-level efforts to mitigate carbon emissions through public policy.Comprehensive carbon prices report a dollar per ton of carbon dioxide emissions imposed by a wide range of climate policies including carbon taxes, emissions trading systems, fossil fuel subsidies and taxes, renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and low-carbon fuel standards.Country-level comprehensive carbon prices vary widely, from −128.35 to +146.25 USD in 2019, reflecting wide heterogeneity in the overall effort countries are putting into climate mitigation.The global comprehensive carbon price has approximately doubled over the last decade, reaching a value of +19.13 USD in 2019, and remains too low to seriously address climate change.

In the present study, the effects of restricted intake of the final finishing diet as a means of dietary adaptation compared with diets increasing in concentrate content (step-up) over periods of 14 and 21 days on growth performance, carcass characteristics, feeding behaviour and rumen morphometrics of Nellore cattle were evaluated. One hundred and twenty 20 months old Nellore bulls (initial BW = 372.2 kg, s.d. = 21.5 kg) were randomly allocated in 24 pens (n = 5 per pen) and fed for 84 days. The study had a completely randomised design with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement: adaptation using both 14-day and 21-day step-up and restriction protocols. Each treatment was replicated 6 times. One bull per pen was slaughtered (n = 24) at the end of adaptation period to evaluate rumen morphometrics. The remaining bulls (n = 96) were slaughtered at the end of experimental period. Interactions were observed (P &amp;lt; 0.05) for growth performance, feeding behaviour and rumen morphometrics variables. Overall, no protocol or adaptation length main effect (P &amp;gt; 0.05) was observed for any of the growth rate and carcass traits evaluated, except for hot carcass weight (P = 0.03) and dressing percentage (P = 0.04), where bulls adapted for 14 days had heavier carcasses and increased dressing percentage when compared with cattle adapted for 21 days. Cattle adapted for 21 days had a larger (P = 0.005) rumen wall absorptive surface area at the end of adaptation period than those adapted for 14 days; however, no differences were detected at the end of finishing period. Thus, Nellore yearling bulls could be adapted for 14 days regardless of the protocol.

Abstract Context Plantain has shown promise as a forage that can mitigate nitrogen (N) losses from farm systems, although adoption and regulation requires knowledge of the minimum amount of forage area or diet quantity to observe an effect. Aims A grazing study was conducted to evaluate the effect of offering increasing proportions of spatially adjacent plantain (PL) and perennial ryegrass–white clover (PRGWC) on milk production and N utilisation of dairy cows. Methods Forty-eight late lactating cows blocked into replicated (n = 3) groups of four cows were randomly allocated to one of the following four forage treatments based on percentage area of plantain: 0%, 15%, 30%, or 60%. Cows were allocated 25 kg DM/cow.day of forage above ground level daily on the basis of metabolisable energy requirements. Dry matter intake was estimated from the difference between pre- and post-grazing pasture mass, using a calibrated electronic rising-plate meter. Milk production was measured as yield and milk solids, while N use was estimated from total milk N excretion and spot subsamples of blood, urine and faeces. Key results Offering cows spatially adjacent strips of PL increased apparent dry matter intake compared with PRGWC pasture alone (16.4 vs 15.1 kg DM/cow.day, P = 0.027) and apparent metabolisable energy intake (203 vs 188 MJ/kg.cow.day, P &amp;lt; 0.001). Milk yield (16.1 kg/cow.day), milk solids production (1.6 kg/cow.day) and fat concentration (5.69%) were unaffected by the proportion of plantain in the diet. PL offered at 60% of the area increased milk protein concentration compared with PRGWC (4.65 vs 4.36%, P &amp;lt; 0.01). There was no treatment effect on total apparent N intake (563 g N/cow.day), N excretion in milk (113 g N/cow.day) and N-utilisation efficiency (20 g milk N/100 g N consumed). However, total milk urea, blood urea and urine urea N concentrations declined with increasing plantain in the diet, reflecting an influence on urea metabolism. Conclusions Offering plantain to grazing dairy cows did not improve milk yield or N-use efficiency, but influenced urea metabolism. Implications Sowing plantain in spatially separate strips within perennial ryegrass–white clover pastures is a useful option to achieve target levels of plantain in the diet and, in conjunction with other mitigation strategies, can be used to improve the sustainability of pastoral dairy farming.

Effects of sex, weaning 3 weeks before slaughter, continuous fasting and water deprivation for up to 72 h, and initial liveweight (LW) and body condition score (CS) on LW and carcass characteristics were studied in 231 goats of ~16 weeks of age with a LW of 13.6 ± 2.4 kg (mean ± s.d.). Overall, the animals lost 5.9% of initial LW during the first 12 h of fasting, 7.5% by 24 h, 10.8% by 48 h and 14.1% by 72 h. Weaned goats lost 2.6% more LW than non-weaned goats after 48 h fasting, and animals denied access to water lost 1.5% more LW than those with access to water. Fasting period, weaning status, water availability and CS influenced dressing out percentage determined as percentage initial LW or percentage preslaughter LW. All six factors investigated significantly influenced hot carcass weight (HCW), retail meat yield (kg) and L2 (lumbar eye muscle site) tissue depth. Sex, weaning, fasting period, and initial LW and CS influenced retail meat yield (as a percentage of HCW) and GR (12th rib) tissue depth. Muscle colour score was affected by initial LW, water availability and fasting period. There was also a fasting period × sex interaction for muscle colour. The results provide information for estimation of carcass characteristics of young goats marketed for meat and demonstrate that preslaughter management of young goats influences factors that affect economic returns. They reinforce the need to minimise time off feed and water before slaughter of young goat kids, from both a welfare and an economic perspective, and for further research on preslaughter management factors that may influence welfare of goats and goat meat quality.

Asexual reproduction, or cloning, of planktonic echinoderm larvae has been observed in the laboratory and in nature, but little is known about its ecology. Here we examine the effects of algal food density and of a change in food density on the incidence of cloning in larvae of the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus. Results indicate that a change in food concentration can induce cloning in plutei. Cultures transferred from a low to a high algal ration at the time when primary larvae were developing the third (posterodorsal) pair of larval arms showed decreased postoral arm length, unusual morphologies, and increased larval density in culture. These dense cultures of smaller plutei were produced within 48 h of the food pulse. The result is consistent with the occurrence of a burst of cloning, possibly through anterior autotomization. A second feeding experiment demonstrated that anterior autotomization does occur in 4- to 6-arm plutei. Rather than constituting a developmental rarity, cloning may happen early and often in D. excentricus cohorts when environmental conditions favor rapid growth.

The major economic costs to ruminant livestock producers of meat are associated with the breeding herd, which is an important target for improving productivity and efficiency at pasture. There is increasing interest in how to manage breeding females and their offspring to either minimise the consequences of adverse environmental effects or to enhance productivity and efficiency of offspring. This paper briefly reviews influences on fetal growth including the placenta, and reports results of our studies on factors including chronic, severe nutritional restriction during pregnancy and/or lactation within pasture-based systems on postnatal productivity of beef cattle. Cattle severely growth restricted early in life can have reduced weight for age to market weight, but with little or no alteration to normal allometric growth patterns of carcass tissues or beef quality, at least within pasture-based systems. The extent to which Bill McClymont’s vision of improving productivity and efficiency through improved understanding of the interactions between livestock, plants and soils can be realised is limited by our capacity to generate, in a timely manner, objective data on animal performance including intake and feed use efficiency within pastoral ecosystems. The capacity to improve productivity and efficiency, most notably for the breeding herd, within pastoral ecosystems will be enhanced by the development of wireless sensor networks and methods to manage and develop applications from ‘big data’. These applications of wireless sensor networks will include measurement of pasture intake, which is the input trait that underpins livestock production efficiency. Consistent with Bill McClymont’s vision, consumption of pasture by ruminants represents the point in the grazing ecosystem where livestock interface with plants and soils, and thus measurement of pasture intake should be a high priority for future research on productivity and efficiency.

This experiment aimed to investigate the associative effects among two low-quality forages (crown daisy, milk thistle) and three agro-industrial byproducts (apple pomace, citrus pulp, tomato peel), by means of an automated gas production (GP) system. All feeds were incubated alone or as 50 : 50 mixtures of each forage with each byproduct. Samples (0.500 ± 0.0010 g) of single feeds or mixtures were incubated for 96 h, in three replicates in individual bottles (310 mL), with 75 mL of buffered rumen fluid. Bottles were vented by an open-close valve when the internal pressure reached 3.4 kPa. The metabolisable energy content of single feeds and mixtures was computed from GP at 24 h and feed chemical composition. Feed substrates were ranked for GP in the following way: byproducts, mixtures, and forages. The two forages did not differ for GP and metabolisable energy content, although differences were observed among byproducts and among mixtures. Both forages interacted positively with apple pomace from 6 h (P &amp;lt; 0.001) to 24 h (P = 0.029) of incubation and with citrus pulp at 12 h (P = 0.005) and 24 h (P = 0.012), whereas no associative effects were detected when forages were incubated with tomato peels. Results suggest that in vitro fermentability of low-quality forages could be efficiently improved by combining these two forages with apple pomace or citrus pulp. These findings are relevant, because the use of low-quality forages and byproducts in ruminant feeding is considered important for improving the environmental and economic sustainability of forage systems in arid and semi-arid areas.

The experiment was designed to determine the effects of different doses of sodium monensin (MON) on feeding behaviour, dry matter intake (DMI) variation and selective consumption of feedlot Nellore cattle. The experiment was a randomised complete block design, replicated 12 times, in which 60 20-month-old yearling Nellore bulls (402.52 ± 33.0 kg) were fed the following different doses of MON (expressed in mg per kg, on a DM basis) in individual pens for 84 days: 0, 9, 18, 27 and 36. The adaptation program consisted of ad libitum feeding of two adaptation diets over a period of 14 days with concentrate level increasing from 68% to 84% of diet DM. Orthogonal contrasts were used to assess linear, quadratic, cubic and quartic relationships between doses of MON and the dependent variable. As the dose of MON increased, the time spent ruminating (P &amp;lt; 0.01), feeding efficiency of DM (P &amp;lt; 0.05) and feeding efficiency of neutral detergent fibre (NDF; P &amp;lt; 0.05) were affected linearly during the period of adaptation. For the finishing period, as the dose of MON increased, time spent eating and ruminating, and feeding efficiency of DM were affected quadratically (P &amp;lt; 0.05), in which animals fed 9 ppm of MON presented better feeding efficiency of DM. Thus, as animals fed 9 ppm of MON presented better feeding efficiency of DM and NDF during the adaptation and finishing periods, it should be the dose of choice for feedlot Nellore cattle.

To distinguish fire-stimulated growth from the underlying growth patterns imposed by season, we measured leaf production of Xanthorrhoea preissii Endl. (Xanthorrhoeaceae). We compared unburnt with spring- and autumn-burnt sites in forest and woodland habitats. Following fire, X. preissii responded with accelerated leaf production, regardless of season. Rapid leaf production during the initial flush of growth was partly at the expense of starch reserves in the stem, at least after autumn fire. Although this initial flush was relatively short-lived after fire in both seasons (12–32 weeks), the effect of fire on leaf production was sustained for up to 20 months, accompanied by a significant reduction in leaf longevity. Mean maximum leaf production rate was higher for spring-burnt grasstrees (up to 6.1 leaves day–1) than those burnt in autumn (up to 4.5 leaves day–1), associated with seasonally optimal growing conditions in late spring–early summer. Similarly, the timing of autumn burns in relation to declining temperature with the approach of winter appeared to dictate how rapidly grasstrees recovered. The consequences of fire season could have implications for the reproductive success of X. preissii.