Cuba's social policy after the disintegration of the Soviet Union -- social development as legitimacy of regime and its economy effectiveness

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Cuba has experienced a severe economic crisis, and the country's social policy has played an important role in showing the people a raison-d'etre for the revolution. This role has become even stronger in recent years, as internal and external actors demand political reforms and economic liberalization. This article first examines the Cuban government's use of social development to counter the demands for changes. It then looks at the extent that government social policy contributes economically to improving the Cuban living standard. The article demonstrates empirically how the leadership emphasizes their social accomplishments whenever demands for change come, and then shows that after the suspension of Soviet aid, Cuban social policy has been able to provide services mainly by relying on human capital and reducing quality materially because of the shortage of foreign reserves. This has limited the economic effectiveness of the services.

From authoritarianism to upheaval : the political economy of the Syrian uprising and regime persistence

The ensuing bloodshed and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Syria, the failure of the United Nations Security Council to reach a consensus on what action to take, and the involvement of contending external actors partially reflect the complexity of the current impasse. Despite the importance of regional and international factors, however, this papers attempts to argue that the domestic dynamics of the Syrian crisis have been vitally important in determining the course of the popular uprising and the regime’s response. In this, Syria’s crisis belongs with the Arab Spring the trajectories and prospects of which have been shaped by dynamics within regimes. It will be seen that the formal and informal institutional structure of the Ba‘thist regime in Syria has been critical to its resilience and ability to stay united so far while attempting to crush a peaceful popular uprising that turned into insurgency in the face of the regime’s violent crackdown.

Regime survival strategies and the conduct of foreign policy in Egypt

エジプトではムバーラク大統領の国内政策と域内におけるエジプトの影響力低迷が引き金となって、2011年1月25日に抗議運動起こった。抗議運動はエジプト全土に拡がり、18日間の民衆的な反体制運動によってムバーラクは軍に見捨てられ、失脚に追い込まれた。この民衆蜂起によって警察は街頭から撤退し、シナイ半島の警察署は焼き放たれ、ムバーラクが率いていた国民民主党の建物や国内治安機関の本部は襲撃され、国家機関が数ヶ月にもわたって機能不全となり、ムバーラク体制の崩壊は国内的な混乱を招くこととなった。振り返れば、エジプトでの政治的大変動は社会的な革命へと展開することはできなかった。その理由は独裁体制からの移行を先導できる組織化された反体制勢力が存在しなかったためである。民衆による抗議運動は一時的に体制を転覆できても旧体制のエリートを分裂させることはできず、軍の影響下にある体制の復活を防ぐこともできなかった。2011年以降のエジプトは現在まで混乱状態に陥ったままであるが、1カ月に及ぶエジプト軍最高評議会(SCAF)の暫定統治、エジプト史上初の自由な大統領選挙によって選出された文民大統領のムルスィーによる一年余りの統治、そして2013年7月の軍事クーデターによって権力の座に就いたスィースィーの統治といった過程で、民衆蜂起がエジプトの外交関係に及ぼした影響はごく僅かであった。本稿は、現在のエジプトの外交政策が2011年の革命にほとんど影響を受けていないのはなぜか、またエジプトの統治者たちが政権の正統性、体制の強化および政治的な安定性を確保し、国内的な課題に対処するための戦略をいかに策定しているのかを説明することを試みる。本稿での主張は、ムバーラク以降のエジプトが体制の強化と保全のために外交政策を進めており、国内的な混乱によって地域内アクターへの依存度が高まっていることである。

Supersonic regime of the Hall-magnetohydrodynamics resistive tearing instability

An earlier analysis of the Hall-magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) tearing instability [E. Ahedo and J. J. Ramos, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 51, 055018 (2009)] is extended to cover the regime where the growth rate becomes comparable or exceeds the sound frequency. Like in the previous subsonic work, a resistive, two-fluid Hall-MHD model with massless electrons and zero-Larmor-radius ions is adopted and a linear stability analysis about a force-free equilibrium in slab geometry is carried out. A salient feature of this supersonic regime is that the mode eigenfunctions become intrinsically complex, but the growth rate remains purely real. Even more interestingly, the dispersion relation remains of the same form as in the subsonic regime for any value of the instability Mach number, provided only that the ion skin depth is sufficiently small for the mode ion inertial layer width to be smaller than the macroscopic lengths, a generous bound that scales like a positive power of the Lundquist number

Self-similar motion of laser half-space plasmas. I. Deflagration regime

The one-dimensional self-similar motion of an initially cold, half-space plasma of electron density 0,produced by the (anomalous) absorption of a laser pulse of irradiation = (j>0f/T(0< (< T) at the critical density nc(«c/«0=eoKe)213, where k, m, are Boltzmann's constant and the ion mass, and Ke X (electron temperature)5'2 = heat conductivity. If a >e- 4 ' 3 , a deflagration wave separates an isentropic compression with a shock bounding the undisturbed plasma, and an isentropic expansion flow to the vacuum. The structures of these three regions are completely determined; in particular, the Chapman-Jouguet condition is proved and the density behind the deflagration is found. The deflagration-compression thickness ratio is large (small) for a^e- 5 ' 3(a>e- 5 ' 3 ) . The compression to expansion ratio for both energy and thickness is 0(e"2). For Z,- large, a deflagration exists even if a~e~413. Condition a>e~4'3 may be applied to pulses that are not linear.

Non-uniform target illumination in deflagration regime : thermal smoothing

Thermal smoothing in the plasma ablated from a laser target under weakly nonuniform irradiation is analyzed, assuming absorption at nc and a deflagration regime (conduction restricted to a thin quasisteady layer next to the target). Magnetic generation effects are included and found to be weak. Differences from results available in the literature are explained; the importance of the character of the underdense flow at uniform irradiation is emphasized.

Non uniform target illumination in deflagration regime : refractive smoothing

Refractive smoothing of weak non-uniformities in the illumination of laser targets is analyzed, assuming absorption at the critical density and restricting conduction to a thin layer, and using results from thermal smoothing, which is uncoupled from the refraction. Magnetic effects are included. Non-uniformity wavelengths comparable to the thickness of the conduction layer are considered; efficient smoothing exists at both short and long wavelengths in this range. Thermal focusing could make the ablated plasma unstable.