Explore the vast range of titles available.

The paper focuses on two concepts developed by William Zartman, namely ”ripe moments” and “mutually hurting stalemates”. Basically, the concepts tackle the idea of certain proper moments for the beginning of peace talks when the parties to the conflict believe that they are trapped in a painful impasse which no longer brings them victory. Our paper aims to show that hurting stalemates are sometimes the adequate starting point for peace-building efforts as well, not only for starting negotiations, and to apply this on the case of Liberia. The paper is organized around the following research questions: Is the hurting stalemate a military deadlock? Is a similar painful deadlock a good starting point for building sustainable peace in post-conflict societies?

Cellular exhaustion in various immune cells develops in response to prolonged stimulation and overactivation during chronic infections and in cancer. Marked by an upregulation of inhibitory receptors and diminished effector functions, exhausted immune cells are unable to fully eradicate the antigen responsible for the overexposure. In cancer settings, this results in a relatively small but constant tumor burden known as a localized tumor-immune stalemate. In recent years, studies have elucidated key aspects of the development and progression of cellular exhaustion and have re-addressed previous misconceptions. Biological publications have also provided insight into the functional capabilities of exhausted cells. Complementing these findings, the model presented here serves as a mathematical framework for the establishment of cellular exhaustion and the development of the localized stalemate against a solid tumor. Analysis of this model indicates that this stalemate is stable and can handle small perturbations. Additionally, model analysis also provides insight into potential targets of future immunotherapy efforts.

Abstract This article studies the relation between Islam and economic development from a juridico-philosophical perspective. A fresh review of this issue is timely, because of the ongoing laggardness of Arab and Muslim economies due to decades of Pareto-inferior poverty traps. We disentangle the viewpoints on the Islamic-economic nexus and determine that the backwardness of Muslim countries' economies is primarily due to the retrograde outlook of the jurists (fuqahāʾ). Flawed jurisprudential reasoning is instrumental in the paucity of financial instruments, markets, and institutional development. We also scrutinise the jurists' co-option by the ruling elite, which legitimises the elite's autocracy. We conclude by recommending a salient strategy critical to fostering economic development and growth.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has opened a Pandora’s box with certain global consequences. From the beginning of the invasion, the first effects on government, research and economic activities also appeared. This conflict has radically changed the dynamics of security in the Arctic. The deterioration, unprecedented since the end of the Cold War, in relations between Russia and the West has meant that cooperation between the two blocs has also disappeared in the main and perhaps the only region of the globe still spared from political tensions.The outbreak of the conflict led to a breakdown in cooperation and an escalation of military tensions in the Arctic. How these disputes end will be decisive in determining the Arctic region’s future political and strategic balances.The seven remaining Arctic states denounced Russia’s operation in Ukraine from the start, thus suspending all activities related to the Arctic Council. This is an immediate consequence and it indicates rapid and challenging changes for Arctic governance.

What drives the politics of majority nationalism during crises, stalemates and peace mediations? In his innovative study of majority nationalism, Neophytos Loizides answers this important question by investigating how peacemakers succeed or fail in transforming the language of ethnic nationalism and war. The Politics of Majority Nationalism focuses on the contemporary politics of the 'post-Ottoman neighborhood' to explore conflict management in Greece and Turkey while extending its arguments to Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine. Drawing on systematic coding of parliamentary debates, new datasets and elite interviews, the book analyses and explains the under-emphasized linkages between institutions, symbols, and framing processes that enable or restrict the choice of peace. Emphasizing the constraints societies face when trapped in antagonistic frames, Loizides argues wisely mediated institutional arrangements can allow peacemaking to progress.

This article asks a new question: what are the processes that maintain rivalries? The authors argue that rivalries are maintained through the failure of realist strategies and conflict management ones. They focus on stalemate outcomes as both a signal that militarized strategies for dealing with conflict have not succeeded and as reasons for the countries to continue the rivalry. They explore the process of rivalry maintenance, largely from the perspective of the punctuated equilibrium model of rivalries, and examine 1,166 rivalries across the period from 1816 to 1992. They contrast their approach with that of the \"repeated conflicts\" literature, which only examines the impact of the previous dispute on recurring conflict. The authors find that the most recent conflict does matter, and the longer term history of the rivalry is more important. They also find that the impacts of various factors (e.g., democracy) change over the course of the rivalry.

The article deals with the persistence of the status quo concerning the conflict’s solution on the island of Cyprus. It draws attention to the phenomena that the long-term unsuccessful process of negotiations, talks, and plans’ creation brings. After analysing many resources and various strategies, the author compares different views and suggests the reasons for the persistence of unresolved conflict. The Cyprus conflict can be resolved in the form of several scenarios. The currently induced state’s persistence can be considered a plan that is only a forced state and only delays the required solution. However, this situation is likely to persist for a long time.

There is no evidence that different diagnostic criteria diagnose a different condition. 3 There has been a recent attempt to improve the \"vaguely worded\" Canadian criteria, 4 incorporating elements of more orthodox research criteria. 5 But these revised criteria still require assessment of too many symptoms of dubious validity. The one advantage of the Canadian criteria over alternative diagnostic criteria is that they require what many would regard as the characteristic feature of CFS, post-exertional malaise. 6 This is something that may need incorporating in future definitions to help differentiate CFS from more general fatigue.

The year 2013 in Taiwan was marked by a lackluster economy and stalemated politics. President Ma Ying-jeou’s approval rating hit an all-time low. Still, Taiwan’s relations with China were smooth, and Taiwan was able to make some gains in the international arena.