113 research outputs found
All Personality is Performance
No full textAdapted for the stage for the first time, The Driver’s Seat is one of renowned novelist Muriel Spark’s most gripping and disturbing books.
At the centre of this taut, darkly comic thriller is Lise, an enigmatic young woman who is compelled to travel alone to an unnamed city.
Professor Willy Maley, English Literature, University of Glasgow considers the author and protagonist of The Driver’s Seat: a “study of self-destruction”
Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny: Departure in the absence of victory?
No full textOn this episode of Democracy Sausage, political correspondent Karen Middleton, diplomacy and Afghan politics expert William Maley, and gender equity advocate Virginia Haussegger join Mark Kenny to discuss Australia’s nearly two decades in Afghanistan. Two years into the war in Afghanistan, United States President George W Bush said it was “mission accomplished”. But nearly two decades after the September 11 attacks, the Taliban has negotiated a favourable agreement with the United States and Australia has closed its embassy, citing security concerns amidst the withdrawal of Australian and international forces. So what was it all for? And, crucially, what does this mean for the Afghan people? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, journalist and author of An unwinnable war: Australia in Afghanistan Karen Middleton, scholar of Afghan politics Emeritus Professor William Maley, and gender equity advocate Virginia Haussegger join Mark Kenny to look back on Australia’s time in Afghanistan and discuss what the future may hold for the country
Ten years of conflict management research 2007-2017
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this study is to map the intellectual structure of conflict management studies by investigating the key themes, concepts and their relationships for the period 2007-2017. The study updates the previous decade (1997-2006) investigation by Ma et al. (2008) to reflect the increased publication efforts in the field. Design/methodology/approach: Bibliometric analysis was used to trace the development path of the extant literature. The study included activity indicators such as distribution of articles and most-cited journals; relationship indicators such as co-author analysis and keyword analysis; and the mapping of the theoretical foundations. Findings: The analysis identified five key themes that help track the direction of conflict management research: negotiation, mediation, trust, conflict management styles and performance. Originality/value: These themes show a wider diversification of topics in the field than in the past, corroborating previous results about the reputation and maturity of conflict management as an independent scientific field of research. This study will help scholars to improve their understanding of the evolution of conflict management studies and the direction that conflict management research is taking, in particular, identifying available avenues for future research
Abstract 4964: Structure, in vitro biology and in vivo pharmacodynamic characterization of a novel clinical IDO1 inhibitor
No full textAbstract
The enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) catalyzes the degradation of tryptophan along the kynurenine pathway, and is frequently expressed in human malignancies. The activity of IDO1 induces an immunosuppressive microenvironment in tissues by inhibiting T-cell function through local depletion of tryptophan and through generation of kynurenine pathway metabolites. Inhibition of IDO1 is expected to diminish the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and improve cancer patient outcomes, particularly when used in combination with cancer immunotherapy agents such as nivolumab and ipilimumab. In this presentation, we will disclose the chemical structure, enzyme inhibitory mechanism, in vitro potency and in vivo pharmacodynamic (PD) activity of BMS’ IDO1 inhibitor currently in Phase I clinical trials. The compound is a potent and selective IDO1 inhibitor with no activity against another tryptophan degrading enzyme, tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO). It exhibited potent cellular activity, suppressing kynurenine production in HEK293 cells overexpressing human IDO1 (IC50 = 1.1 nM) and in HeLa cells stimulated with IFNγ (IC50 = 1.7 nM). The compound also potently restored T-cell proliferation in a co-culture of T cells and human cancer cells and in a mixed lymphocyte reaction where T cells were co-cultured with allogeneic IDO1-expressing dendritic cells (EC50 = 1.2 nM). In vivo, when given once a day orally, the compound exhibited significant PD activity in mouse tumors grown subcutaneously in syngeneic hosts and in human tumors grown as xenografts in nude mice.
Citation Format: John T. Hunt, Aaron Balog, Christine Huang, Tai-An Lin, Tai-An Lin, Derrick Maley, Johnni Gullo-Brown, Jesse Swanson, Jennifer Brown. Structure, in vitro biology and in vivo pharmacodynamic characterization of a novel clinical IDO1 inhibitor [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4964. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4964</jats:p
“Wade in the water”: Jim Crow scenes from Maysville, Kentucky
No full textThis research explores Jim Crow scholarship in real estate, entertainment, policing, and recreation. The thesis of this research is that outside forces came to bear on Jim Crow laws and customs. This research will show that without that outside pressure, a more equal society may not have evolved organically. In addition, this research highlights scenes from the small town of Maysville, Kentucky to more fully illustrate the power and tenacity of Jim Crow. This research is not meant to belittle the efforts of thousands of brave Americans, of all colors, who risked and sometimes lost their lives in the face of racial bigotry and oppression. It is rather to suggest that without the full power of the federal government behind them, their heroic struggle might not have happened and most certainly would have been more burdensome.
The methodology employed in this project was to locate primary and secondary sources related to the topic and apply those sources to the central argument of the thesis. These sources were used to gain an understanding of Jim Crow as a social and political phenomenon and demonstrate that Jim Crow was so engrained into the fabric of American life that it took a national effort spearheaded by all three branches of the federal government to wrench it away from the American experience. (Author abstract)Maley, G.S. (2019). “Wade in the water”: Jim Crow scenes from Maysville, Kentucky. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.eduMaster ArtsHistoryCollege of Online and Continuing Educatio
Tissue engineering of a tracheal substitute
No full textLectin histochemistry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to assess the growth and characterise the differentiation of human respiratory epithelial cells (REC) cultured on two biomaterial scaffolds. The first scaffold, based on a hyaluronic acid derivative, was observed to be non-adhesive for REC. This lack of adhesion was found to be unrelated to the presence of the hyaluronic acid binding domain on the surface of isolated REC. The other scaffold, consisting of equine collagen, was observed to encourage REC spreading and adhesion. Positive Ulex Europaeus agglutinin (UEA) lectin staining of this preparation indicated the presence of ciliated REC on the scaffold surface. However, the marked decrease in peanut agglutinin (PNA) positive staining, relative to that of control cultures and native tissue, indicates a dedifferentiation of the secretory cells in monolayer. SEM analysis of REC cultured on the collagen scaffold confirmed the presence of ciliated cells thereby validating the UEA positive staining. The presence of both established and developing cilia was also verified. This indicates that collagen biomaterials are appropriate for the tissue engineering of REC. Furthermore, that UEA and PNA staining is a useful tool in the characterisation of cells cultured on biomaterials, therefore helpful in identifying biomaterials that are suitable for specific tissue engineering purposes.
The culture of REC at an air liquid interface (ALI) was investigated. Both conventional ALI inserts and the Biofleece scaffold were used. The cells grown the on conventional inserts became multilayered and showed some degree of ciliation after the period of ten days. The cells grown on the Biofleece scaffold became necrotic and died due to nutrient deprivation. The use of ALI culture techniques on scaffold materials needs to be adjusted to allow for sufficient nutrient supply to the cells.
The Biofleece scaffold was found to be suitable for the tissue engineering of cartilage in vitro. Constructs with a cartilage-like morphology were generated with the scaffold after two weeks in culture. The tissue-engineered cartilage was found to contain a higher number of cells and less extracellular matrix (ECM) than the native tissue controls. Suction seeding techniques were used to improve the distribution of cells within the scaffold and thereby increase the overall efficiency of cartilage tissue engineering within the scaffold. Alcian blue (AB) and Papanicolau (PN) stains of the tissue engineered cartilage described two distinct regions within the constructs, namely the developed cartilage-like region and the developing region. The latter is thought to be areas in which the cartilage cells are yet to fully remodel the scaffold material and deposit their own “native” ECM. However, the Biofleece scaffold material was observed to loose 40-50% of its initial volume during the tissue engineering process over a period of two weeks. Thus the degradation of the Biofleece scaffold exceeds the rate of maturation of the cartilage tissue within the scaffold. This rapid biodegradation is most likely a result of matrixmetalloproteinase (MMP), in particular collagenase, production by the maturing chondrocytes. This reduction in size means that the Biofleece scaffold is not an appropriate material for the tissue engineering of a trachea. The optimal biomaterial for the tissue engineering of a trachea would degrade at a rate equal too, or slower than, the time taken for the cells within the scaffold to mature into functional tissue.
The co-culture of REC and chondrocytes was achieved through the use of matrigel as a basement membrane replacement (note that direct growth of REC on cartilage tissue has been observed to be difficult). The co-cultured constructs were not stable because the Biofleece scaffold degrades at a high rate in the presence of both cell types. The constructs were observed to shrink to approximately 35-30% of the original dimensions in a period of 3-7 days. The reason for this accelerated degradation is not known but is most likely the result of severe MMP production by the two cell types when in combination.
It was concluded that the characterisation procedures used in this study (histochemical staining, fluorescent staining and scanning electron microscopy) for both REC and chondrocyte tissue engineered constructs are appropriate for this and further studies. The chondrocyte seeding methodologies in particular are a useful tool for tissue engineering. This study succeeds in many ways to investigate the tissue engineering of a tracheal substitute by detailing how REC and chondrocytes can be cultured on biomaterials and assessed for tissue development. However, the study does not deliver such a viable substitute as an end product. The primary reason for this outcome is the rapid degradation of the Biofleece scaffold materialLectin Histochemie und Elektronenmikroskopie wurden benutzt, um das Wachstum von humanen respiratorischen Epithelzellen (RECs), welche auf zwei Biomaterialien kultiviert wurden, festzusetzen und ihren Differenzierungsgrad zu bestimmen. Das erste Trägermaterial, welches auf einem Hyaluronsäurederivat basiert, ließ keine Anheftung der RECs zu. Diese fehlende Anheftung ließ sich jedoch nicht zurückführen auf das Vorhandensein der Hyaluronsäure bindenden Domaine auf der Oberfläche isolierter RECs. Das andere Trägermaterial, aus Pferdekollagen hergestellt, zeigte dagegen eine verstärkte Teilungsaktivität und Anheftung der REC. Die positive Ulex Europaeus Agglutinin (UEA) Lectin Färbung dieser Proben ließ die Anwesenheit von mit Zilien versehenen RECs auf der Trägerstoffoberfläche vermuten. Darüber hinaus weist das im Vergleich zu Kontrollkulturen und nativem Gewebe deutliche Nachlassen der positiven Peanut Agglutinin–Färbereaktion auf eine Dedifferenzierung der sekretorischen Zellen in der Monolayer-Kultur hin. Die rasterelektronenmikroskopische Untersuchung der auf dem Kollagenbiomaterial kultivierten RECs bestätigte das Auftreten von Zellen mit Zilien und damit auch die Aussagekräftigkeit der positiven UEA–Färbung. Dies zeigt somit, dass Biomaterialien aus Kollagen für das Tissue Engineering von RECs geeignet sind und dass sowohl die UEA–als auch die PNA–Färbung geeignete Methoden zur Charakterisierung von Zellen darstellen, die auf Biomaterialien kultiviert wurden. Somit helfen sie bei der Identifizierung von Biomaterialien für bestimmte Einsatzgebiete im Tissue Engineering.
Des weiteren wurde die Kultivierung von RECs auf einem Air liquid interface (ALI) untersucht, wobei sowohl der konventionelle ALI–Einsatz als auch das Biovliesmaterial zum Einsatz kamen. Dabei wuchsen die Zellen auf dem konventionellen Einsatz in Multilayern und zeigten nach einem Zeitraum von 10 Tagen einen bestimmten Anteil an Ziliierung. Die Zellen auf dem Biovlies dagegen wurden nekrotisch und gingen schließlich an Nahrungsmangel ein. Deshalb muss der Einsatz von ALI–Kulturtechniken bei Trägermaterialien dementsprechend modifiziert werden, dass eine ausreichende Versorgung der Zellen mit Nährstoffen gewährleistet ist.
Für das in vitro–Tissue Engineering von Knorpel erwies sich das Biovlies jedoch als geeignet. Mit ihm konnten nach zwei Wochen Kulturzeit Konstrukte mit einer knorpelähnlichen Morphologie erzeugt werden. Dabei zeigte sich, dass der Tissue Engineering–Knorpel eine höhere Zellzahl bei reduzierter extrazellulärer Matrix (ECM) aufwies als vergleichbares natives Kontrollgewebe. Dabei wurden Saugtechniken benutzt, um die Verteilung der Zellen im Trägerstoff zu verbessern. Die Alzian – Blau – Färbung (AB) und Papanicolau – Färbung (PN) zeigten bei dem Tissue Engineering–Knorpel zwei unterschiedliche Regionen innerhalb des Konstrukts, nämlich eine knorpelähnliche bereits entwickelte Region und eine sich entwickelnde Region. Bei letzterer dürfte es sich wohl um Gebiete handeln, in denen Zellen noch im Begriff sind, den Trägerstoff vollends umzubauen und ihre eigene „native“ ECM abzulagern. Nichtsdestoweniger büßte das Biovlies während des Tissue Engineering Prozesses über einen Zeitraum von zwei Wochen annähernd 40-50 % seines anfänglichen Volumens ein. Somit übersteigt das Ausmaß der Degradation des Biovlieses das des Heranreifens von Knorpelgewebe in dem Trägermaterial. Diese schnelle Biodegradation ist am ehesten das Ergebnis der Aktivität von Matrixmetalloproteinasen (MMP), insbesondere der Kollagenase, welche von reifenden Chondrozyten produziert wird. Diese Schrumpfung bedeutet also, dass das Biovlies kein geeignetes Material für das Tissue Engineering der Trachea darstellt. Denn ein optimales Biomaterial für das Tissue Engineering der Trachea sollte sich innerhalb derselben Zeit bzw. über einen längeren Zeitraum hinweg abbauen, als innerhalb desjenigen, den die sich in dem Trägermaterial befindlichen Zellen benötigen, um zu funktionalem Gewebe heranzureifen.
Durch den Einsatz von Matrigel als Ersatz für die Basalmembran konnte eine Kokultur aus RECs und Chondrozyten etabliert werden (wobei anzumerken ist, dass sich direktes Wachstum von RECs auf Knorpelgewebe als problematisch erweist). Die Konstrukte aus Kokulturen waren nicht stabil, da das Biovlies in Anwesenheit beider Zelltypen hochgradig abgebaut wird. Innerhalb von 3–7 Tagen schrumpften die Konstrukte auf ca. 35–50 % ihrer Ausgangsgröße zusammen. Der Grund für diesen beschleunigten Abbau ist unbekannt, jedoch ist am ehesten eine ausgeprägte Produktion von MMP durch die beiden Zellarten anzunehmen, sobald diese in Kombination vorliegen.
Insgesamt lässt sich sagen, dass die Methoden zur Zell- und Gewebecharakterisierung, welche in dieser Studie benutzt wurden (histochemische Färbungen, Fluoreszenzfärbung und Elektronenmikroskopie) sowohl für mit RECs als auch mit Chondrozyten hergestellte Konstrukte für die vorliegende Arbeit als auch zukünftige Studien als geeignet anzusehen sind. Diese Studie hat in vielerlei Hinsicht erfolgreich das Tissue Engineering einer Luftröhre untersuchen können, indem sie im Detail aufzeigt, wie RECs und Chondrozyten auf Biomaterialien kultiviert und für das Tissue Engineering eingesetzt werden können. Trotzdem kann diese Arbeit kein einsetzbares Ersatzmaterial als Endprodukt liefern. Der Hauptgrund für dieses Ergebnis ist in erster Linie in dem schnellen Abbau des Biovlieses als Trägermaterial zu sehen
A deadly new front opens up
No full textWith the assassination of one of its best provincial governors, Afghanistan could be on the brink of a fresh disaster, writes William Maley
LAST week, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf struck a remarkable deal with religious extremists in the tribal areas of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, involving a truce in their stand-off with the army in exchange for their ending armed attacks in the country.
In Afghanistan, the reaction was less than enthusiastic, with the Governor of Paktia Province, Hakim Taniwal, warning that “if they are not being bothered, they will have more time to infiltrate here and do what they want”. On Sunday, only three days after these prescient remarks were published in the Washington Post, Taniwal was assassinated in a suicide bombing for which the Taliban promptly claimed responsibility.
The shock waves from Taniwal’s slaying are unlikely to settle down any time soon. Unlike some of his fellow governors, Taniwal was a man of substance. By training he was a sociologist, with a masters degree from the University of Munster in Germany. An Australian as well as an Afghan, he had returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after living in Dandenong, in Melbourne, for years. He had accomplished the near impossible by easing out an obnoxious militia leader and establishing an effective local administration in the face of serious resource shortages. When I last saw him, in 2003, he was obviously care-worn, but his commitment to aiding the reconstruction of his homeland was undiminished.
Since 2003, the situation in Iraq has been so grave that it has been all too easy to overlook the fragility of the situation in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was the obvious theatre in which to confront al-Qa’ida and its allies; obvious because world opinion strongly supported robust action and Afghan opinion yearned for an international intervention, too. Yet the momentum of transition was lost early - in March 2002, to be precise - when the expansion beyond Kabul of the UN-endorsed International Security Assistance Force was blocked by a Washington already mustering airlift assets for use against Saddam Hussein. This colossal blunder had a corrosive effect on the other elements of Afghanistan’s transition.
This is where the loss of Taniwal is so tragic. President Hamid Karzai, a thoroughly decent man with outstanding communications skills, has never been strong in the area of policy-making and he inherited from the 2001 Bonn conference a dysfunctional state structure in which ministries had been dealt out as prizes to various political leaders, who turned many of them into warring fiefdoms.
With the state not performing effectively and faced with international backing that was stronger at the rhetorical than the practical level, Karzai has increasingly resorted to a politics of bargaining and deal-making, seeking to secure local stability by pacifying potential spoilers. Thus, some of Taniwal’s fellow governors are at best pygmies, and several are profoundly unappetising, creating crises of bad local governance.
Add to this three other problems. The first is one of governmental legitimacy. Here, it is easy to misread the implications of Karzai’s comfortable victory in the October 2004 presidential election in which, with 55.4 per cent of the vote, he outdistanced his nearest rival by nearly 40 percentage points. Alas, in countries such as Afghanistan, electoral victory does not mean what it does in consolidated, institutionalised democracies such as Australia and the United states, where it confers legitimate authority until the next election is held.
In countries emerging from decades of disruption, an electoral victory confers a provisional mandate to attempt to rule, but a ruler who cannot meet popular expectations in the spheres of governance and security will likely see his authority disintegrate. There are alarming signs that this has begun to happen to Karzai.
The second problem is that of the ethnicisation of politics, which often occurs as weakening leaderships seek to shore up their support. The electoral system used in last year’s parliamentary elections worked directly against political parties, but with the result that those who wished to craft a bloc in the parliament to promote new legislation then resorted to ethnicity as a basis for mobilising support. This has left at least some ethnic groups feeling marginalised, an apprehension that formed part of the context for the riots that engulfed Kabul on 29 May.
Karzai is increasingly isolated as a result, and those whose fortunes have been rising, namely secular Afghan nationalists from the large Pushtun community, are the people who set Pakistani nerves jangling by reminding the Pakistan military of the “Pushtunistan” border dispute that poisoned relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan from the 1940s to the ’70s.
The third problem, and probably the most serious of all, has been Pakistan’s support for the Taliban’s renewed campaign to destabilise Afghanistan. President Musharraf has admitted that the Taliban have been crossing into Afghanistan from their bases in Pakistan but has denied any official involvement. This is belied, however, by the sophistication of the Taliban’s equipment and tactics, by Pakistan’s proven ability to turn the Taliban off like a tap (as it did under US pressure during the 2004 election) and by the sheer audacity of past Pakistani lying about its interference in Afghanistan.
Now, with the Taniwal assassination, we may be witnessing the opening of a new, deadly eastern front for the Karzai government to manage.
William Maley is director of the Asia-Pacific college of diplomacy at the Australian National University and author of Rescuing Afghanistan , published in APO’s Briefings series by UNSW Press. He recently visited Afghanistan and the subcontinent.
Photo: Arlene Gee/iStockphoto.co
Muriel Spark and the problems of biography
No full textThis Companion brings together an international 'Brodie set' of critics to trace the history, impact, reception and major themes of Spark's work, from her early poetry to her last novel. It encompasses the range of Spark's output, pursuing contextual lines of approach including biography, geography, gender, identity, nation and religion, and considering her legacy and continuing influence in the twenty-first century. Spark emerges here as a serious thinker on issues as diverse as the Welfare State, secularisation, decolonisation, and anti-psychiatry, and a writer whose work may be placed alongside Proust, Joyce, Nabokov, and Lessing. The critics collected here are mindful of how, although overwhelmingly known as a novelist, by the time of her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957, Spark already had a significant profile through poetry, biographical criticism, and literary journalism, as chair of the Poetry Society and editor of the Poetry Review, and as author or co-author of a number of scholarly studies of writers including Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, the Bröntes, Cardinal Newman, and John Masefield. Within a relatively modest space this Companion touches on the whole range of Spark's work and, in introducing the oeuvre thematically for those looking to explore this elegant and challenging author further, also sets the agenda for future Spark studies. Key Features * A collection of original, specially commissioned chapters by leading experts in the field * Covers the whole spectrum of Spark's work * Addresses the key issues and themes in Spark's work without losing sight of the questions of form and content * Provides original insights into the contexts of Spark's work as viewed through literary theor
Two different places
No full textDespite what the defence minister says, the most striking thing about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is how different they are, writes William Maley
BRENDAN NELSON has been having a rather rough time as Defence Minister. His is genuinely a portfolio in which loose lips sink ships, at least metaphorically. Last Thursday was quite a day for him. Not only did he create headlines with the statement that “there is no such thing as victory in Iraq,” he also attracted the ire of some veterans of the World War II campaign on the Kokoda Track with the assertion that “today we face something which is no less a risk to our culture, our values, our freedoms and way of life than was presented to us in 1942.”
This was, to put it mildly, a startling claim, not only because it reflected a profound misunderstanding of the existential threats Australia faced in 1942, but also because the Iraq conflict is a war of America’s and Australia’s choice in a way the Pacific war in 1942 certainly was not.
Partially buried by these dramatic utterances was another statement from Nelson on 22 February, this time in a doorstop interview, which attracted less attention but in a way deserved more. “The most important thing we’ve got to understand,” he claimed, “is that the same people that are causing all of the problems in Afghanistan are the same people that are causing problems in Iraq. We’re fighting the same people in two different places.”
Does Nelson truly believe this?
The most striking features of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are not their points of similarity, but their differences. A government that is blind to these differences risks badly botching its response to each country’s genuine but distinctive problems.
In both countries, the “enemy” forces defy simple description. Iraq is now enmeshed in a nasty civil war, a label that even the neo-conservative former US diplomat John Bolton is now prepared to use. However, its roots lie in a logic which should surprise no informed analyst.
Saddam Hussein’s regime saw a Sunni Muslim elite in a position of domination over a population which is about 60 per cent Shi’ite Muslims. The overthrow of Saddam held the promise of a permanent minority status for the Sunnis as a whole, and retribution against those Sunnis who had been Ba’ath Party members. The ill-considered de-Ba’athification decrees of the US-run Provisional Authority simply confirmed the fears of militant Sunnis, and drove them into classic patterns of “spoiler” behaviour. This was predictable.
It is cheaper and easier to be a wrecker than a builder, and the obvious targets for Sunni wreckers were members of the Shi’ite community. Leaders of the Shia of Iraq knowing that their numerical weight positioned them to benefit from electoral processes showed great patience in the face of both the Sunni spoiler tactics, and the inability of the coalition forces or the Iraqi Government to offer them protection. But eventually, their patience ran out, and Shi’ite militias lifted their own levels of activity, with some support from circles in the Shi’ite state of Iran. However, the impact of Iran’s support should not be exaggerated. A US National Intelligence Estimate in January 2007 concluded that “Iraq’s neighbours influence, and are influenced by, events within Iraq, but the involvement of these outside actors is not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq’s internal sectarian dynamics.”
The confluence of the Sunnis’ spoiler behaviour, and the disgust of Shi’ites at the failure of the US and its local allies to protect Shi’ite interests, has produced a very complex nationalist underpinning for political violence: large numbers of both Sunnis and Shi’ites would like to see the Coalition leave. In a survey conducted last September by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, 71 per cent of respondents stated that they would like the Iraqi Government to ask the US-led forces to withdraw within a year. Some 78 per cent believed that the US military in Iraq was provoking more conflict than it was preventing, and 61 per cent approved of attacks on US-led forces. It is this reality the loss of confidence on the part of a large slice of the Iraqi population that makes the Coalition’s position so dire, much more than any threat from “terrorism.” Some Sunni terrorists with attachments to al-Qaeda have indeed found their way to Iraq, and engaged in spectacular acts of barbarity, but to treat Iraq as the “front line” in a “war on terror” is to misread Iraq’s complexities very badly.
It is rather Afghanistan that faces the main threat from globalised terrorism, and it is there that resources should be concentrated to halt al-Qaeda’s recrudescence. It is simply mind-boggling that the US blundered off into Iraq before ensuring that al-Qaeda had been substantially obliterated in its hideouts on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Yet in contrast to what one finds in Iraq, the bulk of the Afghan population remains notably supportive of an international presence, and civil war has been avoided even though the population is also segmented on complex lines. The enemy here, while some use the expression “neo-Taliban,” is better seen as al-Qaeda in alliance with the old Taliban leadership, aided by a number of paid helpers doing its work in Afghanistan’s southern provinces, and by networks of supporters in Pakistan. Its core leaders sit nearby in Pakistan, and Pakistan provides a safe haven for its operations. Here is perhaps the key distinction between Afghanistan and Iraq. The Iraq conflict is largely generated by an internal dynamic. Afghanistan’s troubles are largely driven by an external terrorist force and by the foreign state from whose territory it is able to operate.
There is a role for Australia to play in Afghanistan, and an enhancement of Australia’s contribution there will enjoy bipartisan support. It is also time to put pressure on Pakistan, which is acting far more destructively in Afghanistan than Iran is in Iraq. But building wider support for a good cause like the Afghanistan commitment is not helped by linking it in any way to the Iraq fiasco. The people of Afghanistan deserve better. •
William Maley is director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the ANU and author of Rescuing Afghanistan, published in APO’s Briefings series by UNSW Press. This article first appeared in the Canberra Times.
Photo: View off the rear ramp of a Chinook helicopter flying over eastern Afghanistan. Thomas Brouns/iStockphoto.co
Basic elements of the methodology of commercial logistics as an independent science
No full textThe article deals with the commercial logistics as a result of the synthesis of such research areas as logistics and commercial mediation. The author gives methodological elements of the logistics business, focusing on the fact that commercial logistics is an independent science. Among the cited methodological elements the author identifies the purpose, objectives, functions, the object, principles and methods. In addition, in the article the author points out that the problem of the lack of literature is urgent, so the identification of the principles and techniques of commercial logistics as an independent science in this study is made by examining the methods and principles of logistics and commercial mediation
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