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European strategic autonomy in the transatlantic security context: American perceptions of European security and defence integration 1998-2022
No full textEuropean strategic autonomy has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, but the discussion has largely been Euro-centric and overlooked the American perspective. This paper addresses this scholarly gap by reviewing European strategic autonomy from the US perspective. The paper focuses on two groups: political decision-makers (such as presidents, secretaries of state and defence) and foreign policy influencers (people working in think tanks and research institutes). By analysing their speeches, statements, and reports over nearly 25 years (1998–2022), the paper provides a review of the American debate on European strategic autonomy, its complexities, and its evolving nature. The paper concludes that the American debate on European strategic autonomy is more multivocal and complex than is often understood in Europe. The arguments for and against strategic autonomy coexist and are relatively permanent. Especially the debate among decision-makers has shown little fluctuation across the last five administrations, while policy influencers present a more varied discourse, revealing distinct perspectives. The paper demonstrates the nuanced nature of US attitudes towards European security and defence, which decision-makers in Europe should pay close attention to
Beyond WEIRD: can synthetic survey participants substitute for humans in global policy research?
No full textResearchers are testing the feasibility of using the artificial intelligence tools known as large language models to create synthetic research participants—artificial entities that respond to surveys as real humans would. Thus far, this research has largely not been designed to examine whether synthetic participants could mimic human answers to policy-relevant surveys or reflect the views of people from non-WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) nations. Addressing these gaps in one study, we have compared human and synthetic participants’ responses to policy-relevant survey questions in three domains: sustainability, financial literacy, and female participation in the labor force. Participants were drawn from the United States as well as two non-WEIRD nations that have not previously been included in studies of synthetic respondents: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. We found that for all three nations, the synthetic participants created by GPT-4, a form of large language model, on average produced responses reasonably similar to those of their human counterparts. Nevertheless, we observed some differences between the American and non-WEIRD participants: For the latter, the correlations between human and synthetic responses to the full set of survey questions tended to be weaker. In addition, although we found a common tendency in all three countries for synthetic participants to show more positive and less negative bias (that is, to be more progressive and financially literate relative to their human counterparts), this trend was less pronounced for the non-WEIRD participants. We discuss the main policy implications of our findings and offer practical recommendations for improving the use of synthetic participants in research
Wellbeing and policy: evidence for action
No full textAs wellbeing becomes an increasingly explicit policy goal in countries across the world, the demand for evidence upon which to base intervention is growing. Featuring 41 contributing authors from 18 countries, this book surveys and synthesizes recent developments in wellbeing science and policy to highlight key lessons learned and to offer actionable insights for policy-making. Opening with a foreword by Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, and an introductory chapter surveying the fundamentals of wellbeing policy, the book reviews the links between wellbeing and various domains, including income, work, health, family, altruism and empathy, ageing, gender, education, housing, environment, crime, democracy, migration, religion, digital technology, and art, culture, and creativity. The book also examines the state of the art on wellbeing policy frameworks in diverse contexts, including developed and developing countries, small and large states, across the world, documenting interventions by governmental, private, or non-governmental organizations. Case studies include Bhutan, New Zealand, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Malta. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in progressing towards a wellbeing economy including policy-makers, academics, and students in economics, public policy, public administration, and behavioural and political science
An international comparison of longitudinal health data collected on long COVID in nine high income countries: a qualitative data analysis
No full textBackground: Long coronavirus disease (COVID) presents a significant health challenge. Long-term monitoring is critical to support understanding of the condition, service planning and evaluation. We sought to identify and examine longitudinal health data collected on long COVID to inform potential decisions in England regarding the rationale for data collection, the data collected, the sources from which data were collected and the methods used for collection. Methods: We included datasets in high-income countries that experienced similar coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) waves to England pre-vaccine rollout. Relevant datasets were identified through literature searches, the authors’ networks and participants’ recommendations. We undertook semi-structured interviews with individuals involved in the development and running of the datasets. We held a focus group discussion with representatives of three long COVID patient organisations to capture the perspective of those with long COVID. Emergent findings were tested in a workshop with country interviewees. Results: We analysed 17 datasets from nine countries (Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Datasets sampled different populations, used different data collection tools and measured different outcomes, reflecting different priorities. Most data collection was research (rather than health care system)-funded and time-limited. For datasets linked to specialist services, there was uncertainty surrounding how long these would continue. Definitions of long COVID varied. Patient representatives’ favoured self-identification, given challenges in accessing care and receiving a diagnosis; New Zealand’s long COVID registry was the only example identified using this approach. Post-exertion malaise, identified by patients as a critical outcome, was absent from all datasets. The lack of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) was highlighted as a limitation of datasets reliant on routine health data, although some had developed mechanisms to extend data collection using patient surveys. Conclusions: Addressing research questions related to the management of long COVID requires diverse data sources that capture different populations with long COVID over the long-term. No country examined has developed a comprehensive long-term data system for long COVID, and, in many settings, data collection is ending leaving a gap. There is no obvious model for England or other countries to follow, assuming there remains sufficient policy interest in establishing a long-term long COVID patient registry
Energy transition in Brazil and South Africa: policy stability vs. politicization
No full textDoes decarbonization depend on policy stability that makes climate policies and institutional development irreversible, or does it depend on mastering a messy political conflict with uneven progress that might be inherent in large political economy transitions? This chapter draws on case studies of two large emerging powers, Brazil and South Africa, to argue that politicization of climate action seems inevitable in decarbonizing energy transitions. Fossil fuel coalitions are too powerful and the threat to them too existential to avoid politicization as they defend their interests. At the same time, Brazil shows that policy stability was a critical step in a large expansion of wind power there – not a full energy transition itself but providing an important alternative to fossil fuels. Both countries show that allies in the struggle against fossil fuels can be won and lost in non-climate political economies of energy transition. The potential for new industry and job creation, enhanced energy security, and impacts on communities that host infrastructure are all important to energy transition, with each following a political economy logic that may or may not focus on climate change
Solidarity challenges in EU refugee policymaking: a comparison of the Yugoslav, Syrian, and Ukrainian Crises
No full textRefugee protection in Europe is characterized by free-riding and a highly inequitable distribution of responsibilities across EU member states. Refugee protection as a public good suffers from collective action challenges that have contributed to the under-provision of refugee protection willingness. Protection inequities have persisted over the past 30 years and across the three largest refugee crises despite EU solidarity initiatives. The effectiveness of such initiatives has remained limited as the EU has struggled to develop policies that go beyond voluntary (and often symbolic) responsibility sharing initiatives
The rise of the anti-establishment right highlights the power of ideology over identity
No full textWhat is the political psychology behind the surge in support for figures like Donald Trump? Taking stock of the research, Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington argues that we need to go beyond crude identity politics to consider variation in ideological views among ethnic and racial minorities
When and why are motivational trade-offs evidence of sentience?
No full textMotivational trade-off behaviours, where an organism behaves as if flexibly weighing up an opportunity for reward against a risk of injury, are often regarded as evidence that the organism has valenced experiences like pain. This type of evidence has been influential in shifting opinion regarding crabs and insects. Critics note that (i) the precise links between trade-offs and consciousness are not fully known; (ii) simple trade-offs are evinced by the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, mediated by a mechanism plausibly too simple to support conscious experience; (iii) pain can sometimes interfere with rather than support making trade-offs rationally. However, rather than undermining trade-off evidence in general, such cases show that the nature of the trade-off, and its underlying neural substrate, matter. We investigate precisely how
Wujud: a political philosophy of justice and presence in the Arabian Peninsula
No full textThis article sets forth the Arabic vernacular of ‘wujud’ (presence, being, and existence) as a concept that articulates political and social struggles for citizenship, rights, and justice. Through an account that centres the subaltern life-worlds, rights politics, and political struggles of the once nomadic and pastoralist Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula who later became stateless Bidoon Jinsiyya (without citizenship) in Kuwait, I examine the conceptual, philosophical, and political work that ‘wujud’ does by tracing how it appears as an empirical finding in this specific location of statelessness and nomadic history. The article presents wujud as a crucial concept that places emphasis on the significance of questions of historical injustice, incessant violence, and moral harm in subaltern struggles. Drawing on an ethnographic and oral life history project concerned with the intimate documentation and storytelling of the Bidoon’s everyday lives under intergenerational and gendered conditions of statelessness, I investigate the political possibilities opened up by their conceptual vernacular of wujud through examining the specific ways in which it is invoked. In theorising the insistence on wujud as an insistence on presence, being, and existence in resistance and refusal of statist and colonial authority, I argue that studying wujud can bring into view alternative political imaginaries of citizenship, rights, and justice emerging in different sites of subaltern struggles against historical injustice, erasure, denial, and continuous violence. I posit that wujud is a concept that captures a political philosophy of justice and presence that moves beyond demands for inclusion into an existing citizenship regime, the universalised formulations of human rights, the limits of law, and the set terms of statist recognition. In its move towards telling stateless stories differently, the article further complicates the privileged Eurocentred political and critical theories often used in studies of statelessness, citizenship, and human rights
Systematic review, methodological appraisal, and recommendation mapping of clinical practice guidelines for managing patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis
No full textThe Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II Instrument (AGREE II) was developed to enhance the methodological rigor of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), aiming to generate trustworthy recommendations for various clinical scenarios. Despite its importance, there exists a gap in the quality of CPGs pertaining to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (SJS-TEN). The aim of the study was to evaluate SJS-TEN CPGs to shed light on areas for enhancing SJS-TEN guidelines' quality. A systematic review was conducted to identify SJS-TEN CPGs from January 2011 to December 2023 across bibliographic and guideline databases, as well as dermatology association websites. Four reviewers employed the AGREE II instrument to appraise the quality of eligible CPGs. Subsequently, AGREE II domain scores were calculated and their recommendations mapped. Seven eligible SJS-TEN CPGs reviewed, originating from Europe, North America, Asia, and an authorship Group. The highest AGREE II domain scores were observed in scope and purpose (mean: 63%, standard deviation [SD]: 23.195%) and clarity of presentation (mean: 70%, SD: 14.5%). Conversely, the lowest score was noted in the applicability domain (mean: 28%, SD: 17.44%). Only two guidelines by the British Association of Dermatologists (28.6%) met the 'recommend' level. Recommendations from all CPGs were compared in tabular form