A Discussion of Findings and Their Possible Implications from a Workshop on Bioterrorism Threat Assessment and Risk Management

In November 2001, the Monterey Institute of International Studies convened a workshop on bioterrorism threat assessment and risk management. Risk assessment practitioners from various disciplines, but without specialized knowledge of terrorism, were brought together with security and intelligence threat analysts to stimulate an exchange that could be useful to both communities. This article, prepared by a subset of the participants, comments on the workshop's findings and their implications and makes three recommendations, two short term (use of threat assessment methodologies and vulnerability analysis) and one long term (application of quantitative risk assessment and modeling), regarding the practical application of risk assessment methods to bioterrorism issues.     

The effects of rent restructuring on social housing in English rural areas

This paper discusses the impact of central government's rent restructuring policy on social housing in rural areas in England. It examines the effect that restructuring will have on the rents set by social landlords in a set of case study areas then considers some of the likely impacts on affordability and on new investment in rural social housing. One of the primary aims of rent restructuring policy is to reduce unjustifiable differences between the rents of similar dwellings in the local authority and Registered Social Landlord sectors locally. This aim seems likely to be achieved. In doing so, it is likely that affordability will be reduced in the local authority sector but enhanced for tenants of some RSLs. However, the reduction in real RSL rents that improve affordability may further constrain RSLs’ ability to invest in new social housing in rural areas. The paper concludes that rent restructuring by itself will not materially improve the housing prospects of the less well off in rural areas.     

Confession of prior knowledge about experimental procedures as a function of evaluation apprehension and commitment

Subjects' evaluation apprehension (anxiety about being judged by the experimenter) and commitment to (involvement in) the experiment were manipulated in an experimental study of subjects' honesty in postexperimental interviews. Previous studies have shown that subjects are typically dishonest in postexperimental interviews by refusing to admit prior knowledge of the experiment imparted to them by a confederate. It was found that both high apprehension and low commitment lead to greater subject honesty. Other features of the experimental design were successful in inducing subjects to be generally more honest than their counterparts in previous confederate tip-off studies.     

Religion, Meaning, and Prejudice

Links between religion and prejudice have been interpreted to suggest that religion can both reduce and exacerbate prejudice. Here, the analysis of religion as a meaning system illuminates how religion can affect intergroup attitudes. Traditional psychological perspectives on religion and prejudice are summarized, followed by a discussion of religion and prejudice in cross-cultural and cross-religious contexts, involving varying target groups. Next, we explore possible explanatory mechanisms by proposing how four levels of meaning associated with religion—cognitive, motivational, societal, and intergroup—may both promote and attenuate prejudice. Finally, additional factors that might facilitate the paradoxical coexistence of religious egalitarian intentions with prejudiced attitudes are considered, and we speculate about the potential for religious groups to reduce prejudice within their adherents.     

Neoliberalism,Inequality and Politics: The Changing Face of Australia

Since the early 1980s Australian public policy has undergone the most major transformation since Federation. This transformation has been underwritten by two key principles: liberalism – the view that citizens are autonomous individual actors whose interests are best served when they are free from coercive government interventions into individual action; and marketisation – the belief that free markets are arenas which best enable individual autonomy and produce efficient economic outcomes. These principles define ‘neoliberalism’ or ‘hard liberalism‘. After summarising the major policy changes identified with neoliberalism in Australia, the paper introduces a new research project that examines its impact on socioeconomic inequality, gender inequality and politics and culture. Inspection of relevant data indicates that there are important trends in inequality, public opinion and political behaviour that warrant this investigation.