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This paper argues that manifestations of the sacred in Hollywood biblical spectaculars, as well as in films from Bollywood (the Hollywood of Bombay), have been significantly contoured by a reticulate set of oral norms. That is, the films' depictions of hierophany are tied to a way of knowing that maintains roots in orality (as distinct from a way of knowing historically permitted and/or induced by a cultural investment in the written word). Such orally inflected norms as epical and exoteric abundance, melodrama, frontality, and a telescoping of the real into the mythic compel us to re-think the common critical assumption that religious spectaculars are not authentically manifesting the sacred or that they can only be operating as escapist metaphors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While almost a decade old, Ted Hopf’s observation that the democratic peace is an observation in search of a theory still holds validity. In particular, the mechanisms behind the democratic peace are poorly understood, making it difficult for scholars to provide a compelling explanation. Underappreciated in the existing work is the role of identity and the importance this has for driving the democratic peace. With a focus on developing a dyadic democratic peace mechanism and using a case study approach, this paper utilizes the Copenhagen School’s securitization framework to examine how identity plays out in the US response to the Indian and Iranian nuclear programs. It finds that in fact identity does play an important role in how security policy is constructed. In policy terms, if the democratic peace does rely on identity to trigger the constraining norms that limit the escalation of conflict to violence, it is unlikely the democratic peace can be spread by force and it is possible that states nominally democratic can be excluded from the community of democracies if their behavior or significant other aspects of their perceived identity are at variance with the accepted democratic identity standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the views of the United States Agency for International Development, India (USAID/India) on priorities for nutrition research in 2001-2005. Indices of nutrition status in India have been stagnant for 30 years. Although severe malnutrition has declined significantly, there has been little improvement since the 1970s in the percentage of children and/or mothers who are moderately undernourished. USAID views nutrition as a maternal and child survival intervention and focuses programmatic priorities on micronutrient nutrition (specifically vitamin A and iron/folate), integrated community nutrition (MinPak), and improved nutrition status through USAID's Title II program. Major areas of research interest for USAID include the prevalence and etiology of nutrition deficiencies, operations research to improve service delivery, the application of new tools and technologies to improve nutrition, and increasing the role of the private sector (including nongovernmental organizations) in nutrition service delivery. It is concluded that nutrition research must be prioritized to drive programmatic action; research must focus on the key questions; known tools must be widely applied; and elegance should be pursued in all research endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]