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This article analyses the evolution of the European Union’s development policy in relation to civil society. Based on a review of overall policy trends, strategies and practices in Central Asia, it demonstrates how the EU’s development policy has gradually moved from a focus on European NGOs towards civil society organisations, broadly defined and increasingly associated with the private sector and local authorities. While the EU’s policy recognises the intrinsic value of civil society in all its diversity and promotes partnership, its operational practices show a pragmatic preference for working with professionalised organisations in service delivery roles.

Neither has any other human-rights treaty received as much vitriolic bashing as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), 1981, nor has there been a dearth of negativity about the treaty as a human-rights instrument. Such is the spate of pessimism about the African Charter and its system that it has repeatedly been referred to as “a paper tiger”, among other undignified labels. Beyond the endless lampooning of the treaty and its system as mere platitudes, have there been no opportunities for the civil society to strengthen the promise of this treaty and its system. To what extent has the civil society exploited such opportunities? Can there be a reconceptualization of the roles and attitudes of civil society that will galvanize the African regional human-rights system towards a veritable mechanism for more effective human rights protection? This article examines the contributions of civil society to the evolutionary processes, successes, and perceived weaknesses of the African regional human-rights system since 1981. Extrapolating from some landmark institutional, normative and jurisprudential developments within the African regional arrangement, this article identifies civil society as an inevitable, integral bearer of credit for the successes, and blame for the shortcomings of the aforementioned system. The overarching objective here is to canvass for a repositioning of civil society towards more effective praxis, and, to identify the trajectories for such engagement.

This position paper recommends the stand that representatives from civil society from Africa should take on the fight against Illicit Financial Flows (IFF). It is envisaged that tackling IFF from Africa requires reform of international corporate taxation. This tax system has many loopholes, and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have exploited them. Profit shifting, and transfer pricing remain the primary drivers of corporate tax practices that facilitate IFF. Yet, these practices have not been adequately dealt with at both the international and regional fora. Estimates from the African Development Bank reveal that IFF have resulted in corporate tax losses in excess of a trillion dollars from Africa since 1980. The Tax Justice Network (TJN) and the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department estimate these losses at $500bn and $200bn respectively per annum. In 2015, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) published its High Level Panel Report on Illicit Financial Flows (HLP Report) in which it reported that Africa is losing more than $50 billion annually in IFFs. The Report asserted that this estimate may well fall short of reality because accurate data does not exist for all African countries, and these estimates often exclude some forms of IFFs that by nature are secret and cannot be properly estimated, such as proceeds of bribery and trafficking of drugs, people and firearms as well as corruption. In July 2018, at the High Level Policy Dialogue on Development Planning in Africa the Head of Development Planning and Statistics at the Economic Commission for Africa reported that $100 billion a year is illegally earned, transferred, or used due to mis-invoicing. These Tax losses resulting from IFF have become too serious to neglect anymore.

Communication of public authorities and society, in particular, public authorities and separate social groups, is an important component of the political and managerial practice of modern society. The world practice shows that effective communication between these actors provides citizens with free access to information, improves the efficiency of government and local self-government bodies, and creates a favourable environment for business development, which in turn serves as the basis for economic stability and the engine of the country’s social and economic development. In the conditions of the development of the information society, new models, mechanisms, platforms of relations and communication between the authorities and the public are emerging. The constructive interaction between power structures and civil society organizations, with a «feedback» component, will contribute to meeting the needs and interests of citizens and strengthening the credibility of both power structures and civil society institutions. Moreover, it will improve the status of Ukraine at the international level by ensuring compliance with the Association Agreement and creating the preconditions for Ukraine to achieve the 20 key priorities of the Eastern Partnership 2020. In the future, consideration should be given to this issue in order to deepen, broaden and improve the effectiveness of the communication component of the government bodies and civil society organizations in Ukraine. In the implementation of communication interaction, special attention should be paid to providing a feedback between communicators. After all, it is this component of the communications process that provides interaction and information about the society’s reaction to the results of the implemented decisions. Purpose of the research: to conduct a scientific, theoretical and practical analysis of functioning of the existing in Ukraine communication platforms of civil society organizations and authorities in the framework of the Association Agreement and the Eastern Partnership policy papers.

This article offers a discursive analysis of the Conservative green paper for international development, published as part of the closely fought election campaign of 2010 that culminated in a UK coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. The article examines the paper in comparison with the discursive shifts represented by the first Department for International Development (DfID) white paper, published by the outgoing Labour administration in 1997. In contrast with the optimistic and globalist developmentalism that characterised Labour's development discourse, the green paper sounds a more cautious note, using empire to focus on Britain's leadership role in poverty alleviation rather than on global progress, and brings back the full force of developmentalism only at the point where it seeks to legitimate spending on security concerns as a development concern. The article then moves on to examine the green paper's most explicit discursive move, the signalling of a ‘post-bureaucratic age’. This move towards increased information provision to promote transparency and accountability is likely to signal greater control by powerful donors in securitised times, albeit with a potential re-scaling of responsibility for poverty alleviation to the poorest local communities. Finally, the article looks briefly at information technologies in relation to the transnational spatiality of civil society, arguing that attention needs to be paid to the more embodied forms of transnational association encouraged by the green paper, and to the selection and impacts of information, which need to be seen in the discursive context of wider Conservative constructions of the ‘big society’.

The Commission' s White Paper examining options for reforming European governance was published on 25 July 2001.1 It is coincidental that the document emerged within a month of the Irish 'no' vote in their referendum on the Nice Treaty.2 This makes the document all the more pertinent. The Commission seizes upon the Irish decision as evidence that the White Paper raises issues that must be addressed to counteract the apathy and resistance of European citizens to the activities of the EU and to integration more generally. Whilst this may be true in part, the Irish 'no' was not exclusively a reaction to the White Paper's conclusions that political procedures are at fault and require reform. Rather, the Irish decision was more concerned with the actual direction and policy that the EU has adopted, particularly with regard to the enlargement process.3 The White Paper comes at a crucial stage of EU integration. Enlargement and political union are both key objectives for which the EU has set ambitious deadlines to complete. Perhaps rather belatedly, the White Paper has recognised that for these objectives to be successful, the Union must be more in tune with the expectations of its citizens. For example, concepts such as citizenship need to be given a more tangible meaning that enables EU citizens to feel as if they themselves have a stake in the direction that the EU is taking. The Commission President, Romano Prodi's ongoing programme of reforms to combat fraud and mismanagement are a welcome development and the White Paper is an integral part of that reform process. The emphasis on participation through engaging with civil society and a commitment to increased openness are both important inclusions, though there is room for further improvement in these areas. This White Paper is aimed not just at politicians, but at all who have a stake in the EU. Ultimately this includes all EU citizens whose lives are affected by European legislation, whether at their place of employment or if they are buying a package holiday. The question that remains to be answered is whether the White Paper will provide the necessary impetus for all levels of governance in the EU to engage with citizens with regard to what role the EU should play in their lives. The engagement with civil society is crucial but may not be enough. Apathy in the

The publication was issued within the project ‘Transfer of Know-How for Small and Mid-size Businesses in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine’ which aims to assist SMEs in those countries by providing support to stakeholders in their efforts to develop analytical and policy advocacy capabilities and by opening new channels of communication between SMEs and NGOs in the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and the rest of the European Union.The objective of the study is to deliver the complete findings and outcomes of the project aimed at Ukraine. This White Paper serves as an authoritative document with action plans, budgets, and a tangible way for the beneficiary country stakeholders to move forward with the agenda of small and medium-sized business development.It presents an overview of the collected background information and contains basic data on the countries, including some key macroeconomic comparisons as well as rankings in major competitiveness reports (e.g. Doing Business report by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), identifies the project stakeholders and provides an overview of the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine. It also includes the findings of two surveys implemented by the Slovak-Ukrainian team.Based on the findings, the “Discussion and Recommendations” section presents various perspectives on the problems of SMEs in Ukraine using the experience of the accession process of Slovakia, specific examples of key initiatives that led to the resolution of the problems, as well as case studies from various industries. It stresses the involvement of all parties including the EU, local governments, civil society, business associations, and the SMEs themselves.The key outcome of the paper is a road map – a very specific plan of actions including schedules, budgets, and other details within the scope of this project that will help the beneficiary country to cope with problems regarding the agenda of small and middle business development using the expertise and experience of institutions and stakeholders accumulated throughout the Slovak EU accession process. It includes a wide range of activities including a discussion of the project results with various Ukrainian stakeholders, workshops aimed at increasing knowledge about EU markets, legislation and standards, as well as strategic and institutional moves.

The World Bank and IMF have proposed the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) framework for all poor countries as a condition of receiving unconditional debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. The PRSPs will also be the key vehicle for the World Bank and IMF and other donors for various assistance packages, including loans. Like its predecessors, the PRSP framework promotes the ideas of ‘participation’ and ‘ownership’. This article argues that ownership of such a grand framework cannot possibly rest with the poor countries or their people if the whole idea is the product of World Bank and IMF think-tanks. It discusses participation in the development of Bangladesh's PRSP and argues that neither participation nor ownership was the target in preparing a national poverty-reduction strategy: they were merely necessary components of a document required for the continuation of debt and lending relationships with the World Bank and IMF.

In recent years, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have shifted their policy orientation away from a focus on economic growth alone towards a greater emphasis on country ownership and civil society participation. This found expression in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper approach introduced in the late 1990s. However, this new approach does not yet represent the fundamental change necessary to foster meaningful ownership reflective of country priorities and circumstances. In support of this argument, the inherent contradictions and constraints of the PRSP approach are examined, drawing on several developing country experiences with poverty reduction strategies.

The concept of ‘civil society’ has been rediscovered in contemporary discourses concerning the relationship between democracy and governance. This paper analyses this rediscovery in the more specific context of the European Commission’s 2001 White Paper on European Governance. However, processes of transnationalisation, governmentalisation and autonomisation may compromise much of the potential of ‘European civil society’ as an intermediating sphere of social action. By reinforcing these processes, the White Paper undermines the normative claims made for a civil society premised upon the voluntary nature of its associative forms and its distinctive open, communicative and deliberative rationality.

The Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) is a European umbrella organisation with special status, gathering 40 associations with European outreach and membership, active in the field of education, training and youth. LLLP is covering all sectors of formal, non-formal and informal learning. The Platform aims to voice citizen’s concerns about lifelong learning, promoting its holistic vision “from cradle to grave” and helping people in their life transitions.This vision is meant to ensure equity and social cohesion as well as active citizenship,advocating that education and training should be described beyond terms of employability and economic growth also as a framework for personal development and proposing solutions to make lifelong learning a reality for all.The Platform promotes a dialogue between civil society organisations and public authorities in order to modernise our educational systems and to support public sector innovation.

The Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation is a community of scholars at UNSW Sydney aiming to add breadth and depth to research on the interactions among law, legal practice and technological change in order to enrich scholarly and policy debates and enhance understanding and engagement among the legal profession, the judiciary, industry, government, civil society and the broader community. The views of those participating in this submission are our own, based on our research, and do not represent the official views of UNSW Sydney or Allens. We were grateful for the opportunity to present our views at a consultation on 30 July 2018; this document attempts to summarise these in writing, taking account of the subsequent discussion at that event and conferral with colleagues after the event.

The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) Occasional Papers is a series of ad hoc publications presenting, in edited form, papers or statements made at meetings, symposiums, seminars, workshops or lectures that deal with topical issues in the field of arms limitation, disarmament and international security. They are intended primarily for those concerned with these matters in Government, civil society and in the academic community. This paper provides historical background on the special sessions of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament (1978, 1982 and 1988) and discusses efforts to convene a fourth special session. The Assembly has used these sessions to enable Member States to participate in the process of developing or strengthening global norms in disarmament. Complementing work done elsewhere in the multilateral disarmament machinery, the sessions enable consideration of how the various parts of the disarmament puzzle fit together in a coherent whole.

ISTR Voluntas Best Paper Awards for 2012 and 2013 were awarded at the ISTR Conference in Munster, 23rd July 2014. The Best Paper Award Committee’s rationale and citation of the two prize winning articles are presented here. ISTR’s journal Voluntas is a highly productive journal, which has published an increasing number of articles in recent years, and which has also become indexed in the ISI Social Citation Index. Voluntas published 49 papers in 2012 and 53 in 2013. This included one special issue on civil society in Africa, and several thematic

Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State. By Megan Ming Francis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 197 pp., $27.99 paper.Megan Ming Francis' new book, Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State, tells the story of how the early anti-lynching crusade of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) shaped the modern civil rights movement. The book is crisply written, well-documented, and powerfully argued. It should be read by anyone interested in the history of civil rights in the United States as well as American Political Development (APD), institutional choice, and social movements. The book represents a key contribution to a growing trend that seeks to understand the micro-foundations of the evolution of the American state and federal policy, which offers a decentered account of institutional development in American politics and underscores the role of groups in creating opportunities for change from the bottom-up.At its core, Francis' book is a fascinating political history that seeks to fill a gap in our understanding of the civil rights movement in the United States. Whereas most accounts begin with the story of school desegregation, Francis starts with the founding of the NAACP and its fight against lynching. By pushing the time-line back, Francis brings to light the importance of the NAACP's victory in Moore v. Dempsey (1923), the historic Supreme Court decision that marked the first federal intervention into state crim-inal court proceedings. Francis shows how this initial victory influenced subsequent NAACP campaigns, including its securing of funding that led to the establishment of the Legal Defense Fund, which fueled the fight to desegregate schools. In the process, Francis ties the struggle over civil rights to campaigns against political violence and a profoundly unjust criminal justice system-issues that are still at the core of the ongoing fight for racial equality.It would be a mistake, however, to think of Francis' book as a gap-filling exercise. The heart of the analysis grapples with longstanding debates over the role of structure and agency in politics and social change. Francis argues that the existing literature tends to focus narrowly on the structural aspects of the story, describing the shifting opportunity structure of American politics in the shadow of Cold War imperatives. Francis directly challenges this view, arguing that "[t]he problem with these top-down accounts of political change is that they privilege institutions over citizen agency and thus understate the role of civil society and different forms of civic activity" (p. 15). The critical point is that, even if we accept the importance of institutions and the ever-shifting opportunity structure in American politics-and Francis is careful to acknowledge these factors-these opportunities are not self-executing, actors must seize these opportunities and decide how to exploit them. Francis takes us into that process, revealing its contingency and historical context. What emerges is a reclaiming of agency in the process of change, even in a case where the institutional opportunities for change were highly constrained.Stepping further back, Francis' work is part of a broader movement in APD literature that seeks to explore the grassroots foundations of the development of the state and federal policy. Other works along these lines include Charles Epp's Making Rights Real (2009), which details the creation of coalitions between activists and professionals that gave rise to new modes of governance at the local level, and Douglas Reed's The Building of the Federal Schoolhouse (2014), which identifies the ways in which local groups and urban politics has shaped (and been shaped by) decades of federal school policy. Anyone interested in APD must heed the call of these works to explore how group and individual level activity and local politics influence the state and federal policy development. …

It is not enough to have knowledge, one must also apply it. It is not enough to have wishes, one must also act.Johann Wolfgang von GoetheIntroductionGender mainstreaming* 1 of the security sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) twenty years ago was perceived as a "foreign" syntagma and proved very difficult to translate into the three official languages (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian). The challenge was not only translation but also the transposition of that concept into reality. The link between the concept of gender mainstreaming and security sector tasks and responsibilities was a new topic for BiH society as well as globally. As a post-conflict country, in the last twenty years Bosnia and Herzegovina has gone through reforms in different areas such as police, intelligence, justice, etc. Those reforms were intensified in the period from 2003 until 2008 in the framework of the BiH integration process into the European Union and NATO. At that time, neither the BiH political elite nor representatives of the international community were aware of the benefits of the integration of the gender con- cept in those nor in other reforms in the country. It was women's organizations that started familiarizing the BiH public with the importance of including and applying the concept of gender in security sector reforms, namely to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325).2 They first gained financial support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and other UN organizations in order to implement different programs and projects. Those efforts, commitments, and the influence of these women's organizations led to the government at all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina establishing in 2003 official gender mechanisms such as the Gender Center of Government of Federation, the Gender Center of Government of Republic Srpska and, in 2004, the Gender Equality Agency at the national level. Their establishment came at a crucial moment for the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming in all areas of public and private life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only a few years after those gender mechanisms were established they were applied in the drafting of two strategic documents, the Gender Action Plan (GAP)3 for the period 2006-2013 and an Action Plan for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (AP 1325)4 for a period of three years (20102013). Those two documents were not imposed or drafted externally, which was the case with many other documents in Bosnia and Herzegovina from that period. They were produced by the representatives of BiH institutions together with the representatives of NGOs according to local priorities and needs, an important precondition for local ownership and sustainability of the whole process. Because of this, many were hopeful that enacting these documents would have a real and positive effect on the lives of men, women, and children throughout the country.In this article I first give a brief overview of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina before those national policy documents were adopted and of the post-adoption period. Second, my intention is to analyze the reasons why the adoption of AP 1325 was perceived as a big success in the country as well as the region and at a global level. Third, because I was personally involved in the implementation of the first AP 1325 on behalf of the Ministry of Security and in the drafting of the second AP 1325, my focus will be on the achievements of the Ministry of Security in the implementation process of AP 1325 as well as my personal experience with gender mainstreaming of the security sector in BiH. Finally, in my conclusion I examine the main lessons learned, current challenges, and present my personal view of how the envisaged goals from the documents can bring meaningful and real change to the daily lives of all people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The Period Before AP 1325: The Role of Civil Society and International Community in Bosnia and HerzegovinaBetween 2005 and 2007, or almost five years before the implementation of UNSCR 1325, women's advocacy groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina relied on raising awareness through public and media presentations to demonstrate the importance of their implementation in the country. …

This paper argues that Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) can be understood as a technology of ‘social control’, which seeks to shape domestic political space. Despite widespread recognition that the World Bank and the IMF continue to impose orthodox policy conditions on debt relief and loans to African countries, many suggest the requirement in PRSPs for civil society ‘participation’ introduces a progressive element that could, in time, subvert the logic of coercion. In contrast, this paper suggests that it is precisely through participation that international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and bilateral donors are working with the IFIs** to secure ever more intimate supervision of African political communities. Thus, if the answer to Hanlon's (1991) rhetorical question ‘who calls the shots?’ under structural adjustment was ‘the IFIs’, the answer under PRSPs is ‘an uneasy coalition of NGOs, donors and the IFIs’. These groups share an agenda of securing consent to liberal systems of politica...

This article assesses the various accounts put forward to explain the disappointing outcomes thus far of ‘civil society participation’ in the design and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (prsps) in aid-receiving countries throughout the world. While donors' technical and depoliticised explanations prove particularly unhelpful, other more radical perspectives, though insightful, often lack sufficient subtlety in their analyses. The article goes on to consider and critique commentators' various visions and prescriptions for prsp participation. Finding within participation aid's classic paradox—where it can work it is not needed and where it might be needed it cannot work—the article predicts a bleak future for prsp participation and argues that the project's failure may exacerbate the crisis of legitimacy faced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, a crisis that led these organisations to launch the prsp initiative in the first place.

Management of pandemic influenza relies on complex coordination of many different dimensions of the health and social care systems, emergency services, levels of national and local government, civil society, communications and media, and cultural expectations. Law is one small but important component of those arrangements, which touch on fundamental ethical debates. This review demonstrates that the Asian region is actively engaging those issues in diverse ways in light of their varied socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, but scope remains for prioritising further research into these relationships.

What will the “data revolution” do? What will it be about? What will it count? What kinds of risks and harms might it bring? Whom and what will it serve? And who will get to decide? This brief discussion paper is intended to advance thinking and action around civil society engagement with the data revolution. It looks beyond the disclosure of existing information, towards more ambitious and substantive forms of democratic engagement with data infrastructures. It concludes with a series of questions for discussion about what practical steps institutions and civil society organisations might take to change what is measured and how, and how these measurements are put to work.

Authoritarian Rule of Law: Legislation, Discourse and Legitimacy in Singapore. By Jothie Rajah. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012. 352 pp. $29.99 paper.Despite its status as one of the most dynamic global economies that is buttressed by a sizeable educated middle class, Singapore has remained a one-party-dominant authoritarian state governed by the People's Action Party (PAP) since 1959. The city-state's authoritarian longevity stands in stark contrast to other comparable developmental states in East Asia, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, whose democratic trajectories have conformed to the modernization theory of political development. Not surprisingly, the city-state has become a popular destination for senior state functionaries from authoritarian regimes in China, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe eager to emulate the institutional and ideational components of the Singaporean political and economic model.Instructively, many critical scholarly works that have interrogated the Singapore governance model have been written and published beyond its borders. In this mold, Jothie Rajah's Authoritarian Rule of Law: Legislation, Discourse and Legitimacy in Singapore adds to the growing list of penetrating works on Singapore's authoritarian governance written by Singaporean scholars based overseas. In the preface, Rajah frankly acknowledges the intellectual benefit of writing about Singapore from distant shores: "I have found it invaluable to exit the ideological fortress that Singapore can sometimes be in order to peel off, layer by layer, some of the assumptions embedded in Singapore speak-assumptions that have, until recently, been invisible to me" (xv).The book focuses on the way the Singaporean state has manipulated the "rule of law" while dismantling the constitutional and civil rights of its citizens through "rule by law" processes. Rajah asserts that the law has been pivotal in legitimizing and consolidating the authoritarian state while subverting the dispersal of power that is inherent in plural democracies. In other words, the "rule of law" has served as a "crucial prop" for the authoritarian state (284). Legislative initiatives have undermined opposition parties (Chapter 3), dismantled the independent press (Chapter 4), and stunted the development of an autonomous civil society (Chapters 5, 6, and 7). These claims, in effect, challenge the veracity of ratings agencies and organizations such as the World Bank Report of Governance, IMD World Competitiveness Report, Transparency International Corruption Perception Index and the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report and expose their uncritical endorsement of the PAP government's "rule of law" claims. These "rule of law" claims are largely restricted to matters pertaining to foreign investment, trade, and the economy, supporting Singapore's reputation as a regional economic hub and commercial center. …

The unravelling of the human genetic code whose first draft was announced in June 2000 has rightly blood been hailed as a momentous achievement, opening thc book of life, certain to be the dominant technology of the 21st century, which will inform all about medicine and biology. and lead us to a total understanding of life. Simultaneously, concerns have been expressed about thc implications of this work. In the past, major new technologies have been used intensively for hostile purposes. What is thc challenge that biotechnology poses in this regard'? This review paper looks at the enormous changes in civil society that thc genomics revolution could bring. Against this background, thc growing concerns about its potential misuses have been reviewed. Thc strengths and weaknesses or the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) are then touched upon. The BTWC presently lacks an adequate verification mechanism. Although biotechnology has been used by human beings since prehistoric times (eg. making of bread. cheese. wines) its scientific understanding came only in the latter part of the 19th century. Thc decisive turning point in the field came in the 1970s with the advent of genetic engineering. In the military context classical agents like anthrax and toxin remain the threat today. Although thc current level or sophistication for many biological agents is low, there is enormous potential for making more sophisticated weapons. It might be possible to specifically target the genetic makeup of different ethnic groups. The limited varieties of staple crops and the limited strains of modern animals make agriculture particularly open to attack. Another serious possibility is the impact of genomics in neuroscience. With a better understanding of cellular receptor systems and bioregulators, it is not inconceivable that new means would be evolved for disturbing the functions of the nervous system. Thc genomics revolution can be used for peaceful purposes. However, a key requirement is the political will to bring into force a Protocol to strengthen thc BTWC.

This concise and accessible introduction to the subject of Islamist movements in Egypt will be useful for those seeking a point of entry. More experienced students of the subject, however, may not find much new empirical material in this book. They may also disagree with the authors' reliance on the civil-society interpretive paradigm to the exclusion of other approaches and their sometimes schematic treatment of Islamist groups.

Anne Marie Goetz and Shireen Hassim, eds. No Shortcuts to Power African Women in Politics and Policy Making. London: Zed Books, 2003. ix + 239 pp. Notes. References. Index. $31.95. Paper. Goetz and Hassim provide a significant contribution to theorizing about women and political parties in Africa, and they offer useful guidance to feminist activists by combining analytical analysis with clear case studies of what has worked and what has failed. They place their work within the current move in feminist scholarship from analyzing women's activism in democratic transitions to examining women's capacity to push a gender equity agenda once they are in office. They specifically reject the "antipolitical" focus of much policy research, which concentrates on bureaucratic gender machinery as the significant mechanism for advancing feminist goals. As they argue, gender machinery can easily become an underfunded dead end for activists, who find themselves far from the centers of party and parliamentary power. Goetz and Hassim, along with the other authors in this book, seek instead to look at the politics in parties and parliaments and local councils, hoping to promote more analysis of how women "can enter and make an impact in the key institutions of representative democracy" (12). The book focuses on Uganda and South Africa, current "trailblazers" in bringing greater numbers of women into formal politics, but it goes well beyond the specifics of those countries. Introductory chapters by the editors provide analytical overviews, and succeeding pairs of chapters on Uganda and South Africa provide case studies of attempts to advance gender equity in national and local government. The overview chapters succinctly synthesize current scholarship on women's activism in "new democracies," and provide a sophisticated and nuanced analytical frame for future comparative work on possibilities "for the entry of feminists into politics" (8; authors' emphasis). They distinguish "descriptive" representation (counting women) from "substantive" representation (a significant presence of active feminists), considering the former necessary but insufficient. They examine issues of access, influence, "voice," and accountability, and they evaluate the different mechanisms to guarantee women significant power and influence. On the basis of original empirical work and reference to existing scholarship, the authors identify four key variables for the success of gender equity agendas: formal party commitment to gender equity, strong left parties, the organization of women's structures within parties, and the continuing presence of a strong women's movement outside parties-which requires a political space for civil society organizations outside the control of a dominant party. …

Since the 1990s the literature on CSR has given extensive framework of theories and illustrated various implications of CSR practices. Both the government and business/market have participated in developing CSR products, including sustainability programs. However due to a variety of economic, social and political factors there are certain limitations which constraint business-society-government relationship. In the last decade social scientists have advocated a concept of social enterprise as a potentially viable alternative to the government and market failures. The notion of social enterprise as it developed in the recent times has demonstrated a significant scope for innovations in products, services and process. In this sense social enterprise as an alternative conception has highlighted the need for social innovations in the decentralized process of economic and social governance. This paper briefly provides an overview of the concepts, practices, together with illustrations of innovations in CSR by corporations as also innovations by civil society organizations. Towards the end in place of conclusion the paper reflects on future directions.